WNYC host
Ted Cott invited contralto
Marian Anderson to sing on his program anytime she wanted to. The offer came as what he described as a "one-man protest against certain actions that occurred several days ago." That action was the D.A.R.'s (Daughters of the American Revolution) banning of the African-American singer's performance at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. scheduled for Easter Sunday.
Although no stranger to WNYC, Anderson did not appear on Cott's music quiz program,
Symphonic Varieties. Cott, however, played three recorded selections by Anderson:
I've Heard of a City Called Heaven,
All God's Chillun Got Wings, and
Lord, I Can't Stay Away. According to a newspaper account, Cott said, "You have just heard the voice of Marian Anderson, great contralto, singer extraordinary, citizeness of the United States, of which Washington, D.C. is the capitol." And in a jab at the D.A.R., Cott made a slight addition to the station ID:
"This is Station WNYC, the Municipal Broadcasting Station, coming to you from New York City where more than 7 million live and enjoy the benefits of democracy. It is not enough to enjoy the benefits, one must deserve them." * WNYC reportedly received several hundred calls in support of Cott's offer, while the D.A.R. complained.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt intervened and on March 30th, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes announced that the Lincoln Memorial would be made available for Anderson's performance. The acclaimed open-air concert was attended by more than 75,000 people and had a radio audience in the millions.
Symphonic Varieties was WNYC's classical music quiz show. It first aired on July 4, 1938 and ran until CBS lured Cott and the show over to the network barely a year later, where it became the popular
So You Think You Know Music.
*Source: Poston, Ted, "Die-Hards in D.A.R. Protest WNYC Bid to Miss Anderson,"
New York Evening Post, March 1, 1939, pg.1.
