Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

MacLEISH SERIES ON NBC Life and Literature of the Americas Recalled in "The American Story", New Inter-American University of the Air Presentation. TRACING the history, develop- ment, and fulfillment of the lit- erature of the Americas is a job that has been entrusted on the new National Broadcasting Company series, "American Story," (7:00 p.m., EWT Saturdays) to Archi- bald MacLeish, Pulitzer Prize win- ning poet and Librarian of Con- gress. As the third permanent presentation of the NBC Inter- American University of the Air, the series represents the first time, not only in radio but also in the history of literature, that a con- temporary literary figure ha.s been commissioned to produce a cycle of inter-related literary works. MacLeish, who quietly asserts that Americans do not understand their common background, has as his immense canvas the life and literature of the Western Hemi- sphere for the last four and a half centuries. And into the study of these aspects of American develop- ment, the poet has poured an im- mense amount of painstaking re- search, including authenticating ob- scure facts, reverting to original source material for his quotations, re-checking sound effects,—in fine, re-creating to the utmost the at- mosphere and conditions that actu- ally existed in the days of which he writes. The distinguished poet sets the framework for each broadcast in his sound effects. His exploitatimi of sound as a means of setting the scene is unusual. Even the sound directions are written in the same poetic style that marks the dialogue. Witness this direction in the initial broad- cast, telling of the journey of Co- lumbus to the new world: "The roll of a ship in a slow swell . . . the slapping of canvas . . . the eatery of a gull." Or later, this effect, de- signed to simulate the caravels on their way at sea: "Sound of the sea, of the wind in a ship's rigging, of the great sails flattening and fill- ing, of men in the handling of a ship, the words inaudible, this sound washes over the Admiral's words or falls beneath them. It is a continuing sound of the caravels in the great sea. It is always heard under or over what follows." All the sound devices at radio's command are employed by Mac- Leish to set the stage for the nar- ration. Uses Poetic Narration In addition to the laborious re- search and authentication, the poet includes the most important fillip— his own brilliant style of the prose lioem, a style which has won for liim the accolades of the literary world. Each line read on the bi-oad- cast is a part of this poetic narra- tive style, giving each program a dramatic sweep so necessary in pro- ducing the effect desired. MacLeish says, candidly, that he is employing his artistic talents to create new forms of radio expres- sion. His is no conventional radio drama. The broadcasts present a phase of American development, as I'epresented in the logs and the jiiurnals of the men who discovered the lands, in the original chroni- cles of life in the New World, and in the tales that returned to the Old World from the new, tales that prompted the vast flow- of peo- ples to these lands. They tell a story, to be sure, but the conven- tional form of radio drama is not utilized in the presentation. Mac- Leish's technique varies with each broadcast, for as he says, this is an experiment. The dramatic form, narration, straight reading from sections of great literature, a com- bination of the three, and even several new variants such as reli- ance on sound itself to tell part of the story—-all these techniques have Ijeen tried and tested until they meet with the poet's satisfaction. To date, the broadcasts have sketched the discovery of the new hinds as culled from the logs and journals of the discoverers, the journeys of the discoverers on the coasts of the New Land, the Indian reactions to the advent of the white man on their soil, the wars against the Indians on both continents, a humorous di.scussion of Amerigo Vespucci's "discovery" that led to the naming of the new lands, and accounts from the Americas as re- ported by people living here. Be- fore the series is finished, Mac- Leish expects also to demonstrate how much alike was the birth of freedom on both the western hemi- sphere continents, and just how this freedom was extended by the peoples of the land. "I think one reason the Ameri- cans find it so difficult to get along AT LEFT, ARCHIBALD MAC LEISH, NOTED AMERICAN POET, WHO DIRECTS NBC'S "THE AMERICAN story" SERIES. BELOW, HE WATCHES FRANK POPP, PRODUCER, DEMONSTRATE THE SOUND OF A SAIL BLOWING, AND (AT RIGHT) HE NOTES SHIP'S RIGGING SOUND EFFECTS.