Election Day Returns 1939: [O'Dwyer for District Attorney, Parimutuel betting approved]

The NYPR Archive Collections | Jan 1, 2000

This episode is from the WNYC archives. It may contain language which is no longer politically or socially appropriate.

This is an off-year election. Station Director Seymour N. Siegel leads off the "elaborate" coverage from election headquarters the Municipal Building and WNYC's Studio B. Dick Dawe and Alan Ray are at Times Square "crossroads of the world" with Dick Pack. Mel Elliott is at police headquarters where all the election results are gathered giving WNYC first dibs on the information. Alan Ray interviews out of work actor John Taylor from Lynn, Massachusetts. Dick Pack gets lost and then found at the Times Square information booth. Killing some time because there's no news on the Times Building zipper, Pack talks about his conversation with the cops about the kinds of questions asked at the info booth and it varies by season. They switch back to Siegel at the Muni Building. Some switching back and forth to police headquarters. Numbers from Staten Island for Sherriff are reported. David Lazare, election analyst, is with Siegel in the Municipal Building to go over the numbers. The Amsterdam String Ensemble is standing by for musical interludes. There's an interview from the Times Square crew with an Army private from Tennessee on his way to Hawaii. They ask him some silly questions. Siegel reads news reports from the war in Europe.
_______________________

The complete coverage continues for more than 3 hours before concluding world news read by George Ward. Siegel returns briefly with a statement from the William O'Dwyer campaign on his reelection to the office of District Attorney. This is followed by George Ward with a dispatch, credits and a station sign-off with the Star Spangled Banner. Ward closes by describing WNYC as "America's foremost non-commercial radio station".

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 69819
Municipal archives id: LT901

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