Radio Drama Background Notes The Start of Radio Until the twentieth century all plays ever written had one thing in common the actors performed before live audiences The Start of Radio Technological advances in the late 1800s and the early 1900s led to new ways of transmitting sound and of r ID: 143066
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Slide1
Sorry, Wrong Number
Radio Drama Background NotesSlide2
The Start of Radio
Until the twentieth century, all plays ever written had one thing in common: the actors performed before live audiences.Slide3
The Start of Radio
Technological advances in the late 1800s and the early 1900s led to new ways of transmitting sound and of recording pictures.
Radio could
transmit
sounds across
thousands
of miles to listeners at home.Slide4
Radio as Entertainment
Every night, families would gather around the radio and listen to plays, comedy programs and music.
Radio offered free entertainment to everyone.
A radio play is unlike any other kind of drama. Every element of the play is communicated through sound. Slide5
The Golden Age of Radio
The years from about 1925-1950 have been called the Golden Age of Radio.
During the Golden Age of Radio, people talked about radio in the same way that people now talk about television.Slide6
The Golden Age of Radio
Radio also had its critics, who claimed that it kept young people from reading. Those critics warned that radio would create a generation of illiterates.Slide7
Sorry, Wrong Number
The radio play Sorry, Wrong Number
was written in 1948 by Lucille Fletcher at the height of radio’s popularity (during the Golden Age of Radio).Slide8
Sorry, Wrong Number
Sorry, Wrong Number
is considered to be one of the best radio plays ever written.
Since radio relies on sound, Fletcher used special techniques to stimulate her listeners’ imaginations so they could visualize the actions taking place in the play.Slide9
Telephone
Numbers
Even after the assignment of numbers, operators still connected most calls into the early 20
th
century.
Hello. Operator, get me Underwood 342
.Slide10
Telephone Numbers
Connecting through operators or “Central” was usual until mechanical dialing of numbers became more common.Slide11
Telephone Numbers
Phone numbers were not strictly
numeric until the 1950s. From the 1920s-50s, most areas had exchanges of letters or names followed by numbers
.
Murray Hill 4-0098