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Old sound lives again. WNYC has been broadcasting since 1924, a lot has gone out over the airwaves since then. Each month on Past Present, the Leonard Lopate Show will unearth some gems from the WNYC archives that haven't been broadcast in years. Sometimes we'll use the audio as a springboard for a discussion; sometimes we'll play it just because it sounds great.
Special thanks for Andy Lanset and the WNYC Archives for helping to produce this segment.

Past Present: Tennessee Williams

The Leonard Lopate Show

October 02, 2006

On today's Past Present, hear an interview with Tennessee Williams. The playwright shares his thoughts on the role of poetry in modern theater, and why the US needs a national theater program. New York theater historian and critic George Freedley conducted the interview with Tennessee on October 3rd, 1945 as part of WNYC's program Theatre Time.

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Past Present: Thelonious Monk Quartet, 1948

The Leonard Lopate Show

August 25, 2006

Hear a gem from WNYC's archives. Today's Past Present segment is the Thelonious Monk Quartet, with Monk on piano, Idrees Sulieman on trumpet, Curly Russell on bass, and Art Blakey on drums. They're playing the standard "All the Things You Are." It originally aired on February 16, 1948, as part of the American Music Festival.

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Past Present: How to Be an Escape Artist

The Leonard Lopate Show

June 23, 2006

On today's Past Present, we'll try to learn some tricks of the trade from Theo Hardeen, Harry Houdini's brother and an accomplished magician and escape artist himself. Harry Houdini left his secrets with Theo, but Theo was instructed to have them burned after his own death. This interview originally aired on July 3, 1939 as part of WNYC's "Voice of the Theatre" program. The host is Ezra Macintosh.

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Past Present: Footloose in Greenwich Village - A Counter Culture Conversation

The Leonard Lopate Show

May 24, 2006

On today's Past Present, we'll hear excerpts from a 1960 radio documentary called "Footloose in Greenwich Village." It originally aired on WNYC. Also, Theodore Roszak comments on the counterculture that emerged in the Village and throughout the U.S. in the 1960s. Roszak is a professor emeritus at California State University East Bay, and the author of many books, including The Making of a Counter Culture.

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Past Present: Eamon de Valera

The Leonard Lopate Show

March 17, 2006

Each month on our Past Present feature, we take a few moments to listen to what's gone out over WNYC's airwaves in years past. Today, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, we have a clip from Irish leader Eamon de Valera. He was best known as a leader of Ireland's struggle for independence from Great Britain in the early 20th century. De Valera was actually born here in New York City in 1882, but he was raised in Ireland. On March 9, 1948, de Valera received honorary citizenship to New York City, and here's part of his acceptance speech.

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Times Square in the 1940's

The Leonard Lopate Show

January 27, 2006

Though she's now all but forgotten, Cornelia Otis Skinner was a well-known American actress and author in the mid-20th century. In today's Past Present feature, we'll hear her monologue Times Square at the Theatre Hour, originally performed on WNYC in the early 1940s. Ms. Skinner's sketches of an aggressive vendor, a gossipy young woman, and a Southern tourist suggest that the array of characters in Times Square might not have changed that much in the last 60 years.

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