“Allan Sherman was the original. . . . Before Forbidden Broadway, before ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, there was Allan Sherman—brilliant wit, satirist beyond compare, and stand-up comic with a melody.”
—Jason Alexander, actor and Seinfeld star

For the 50th anniversary of Allan Sherman’s Grammy Award-winning summer of 1963 hit, “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh,” the NCRTV Museum will host a free talk, “Allan Sherman: The Life, Hits, and Lost Recordings,” and book signing by the author of the first biography of America’s greatest song parodist.

In Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman (Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life) author Mark Cohen presents Sherman, a television producer (I’ve Got a Secret) turned song parodist, as a manic, bacchanalian, and hugely creative artist whose explosively funny parodies of classic songs marked a turning point in American cultural history.

“Sherman led Jewish humor and sensibilities out of ethnic enclaves and into the American mainstream,” said Cohen. “When his three “My Son” albums sold three million copies in just twelve months, it proved that the age of assimilation was over. A new age of ethnic pride had begun.”

Sherman with John F. Kennedy

The book is receiving lots of attention.

Overweight Sensation is “a remarkably well-researched, passionately written story,” wrote The Nation columnist Eric Alterman. He continued, “Allan Sherman’s story will remain a crucial episode in the annals of satire, of assimilation, of celebrity seduction.”

“Sherman did as much as anyone to bring Jews out of the American pop-culture closet. One can hope that, thanks to Cohen, his legacy is now safe.” — Josh Lambert, Tabletmag.com

“An interesting and engaging biography of a complicated man.” Lorna, Koski, Women’s Wear Daily

The free event begins at 2 pm on June 2. Q&A and book signing to follow.

Please rsvp for this event.

Enjoy a memorable evening of baseball, fireworks, and camaraderie!

Box seat tickets for the Saturday evening, July 13 game between the Bowie Baysox and the Richmond Flying Squirrels are available through the Museum for only $14. (regularly $17 at the door). Children under 3 free.

Food vouchers available in advance, too. (Beer and wine are available at the stadium.)

Between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. on the 13th the Museum will screen a kinescope of a 1952 World Series game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees, with sportscasters Red Barber and Mel Allen giving the play-by-play.

Reservation form

Deputy Director Laurie Baty appeared on the Bowie Business Journal program on November 6. Host Cindy Freland had invited Baty and Debbie Langdon, Director of the Bowie Interfaith Food Pantry to talk about non-profits in Bowie. The half-house program may be watched on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et1PCLajntQ&feature=youtu.be

The Amateur Radio Club was on air Saturday, October 20, for the first time using the new vanity call K3RTM (note: the Museum’s call has now changed to K3RTV). Paul Courson wrote, “The station is now wired and fully functional on the 40 meter shortwave band, tuned to frequency 7290 Kilocycles. By happy circumstance, one of the first contacts was Marco, N5ACR, a member of our club ! He checked in from home at Laurel, Maryland.”

Paul made a short video of the first five contacts, which you can watch on YouTube.

The Museum is working hard to make its amateur radio station available on a regular basis. An Amateur Club has been established and has the call sign KB3ZAW.

Equipment:
The station has a 1951 Collins broadcast station AM transmitter (250 watts) that has been modified to operate on the 160-meter band. From time to time the Museum fires up the transmitter to operate under the special call W3R, such as during the “Heavy-Metal Rally” for vintage AM transmitters. A 160-meter vertical antenna is used with the Collins.

The Museum also has a restored Johnson Ranger transmitter that is used for AM or CW operating, with a 40-meter inverted-V dipole antenna.

A Hallicrafters SX-42 receiver has been restored and is available for use. Many other receivers from Hallicrafters, National, Hammarlund, RME, etc., may be restored to operating condition at a later date.

Operations:
In addition to using the special event call W3R, the Museum is in the process of applying for regular club station call letters that can be used at any time. The intent is that the station will ultimately be on the air on a regular schedule during hours that the museum is open, so that Museum visitors can experience an amateur station in operation using a 60-year old broadcast transmitter. In addition, special programs and classes will be developed to be used with the station.

Once the station is fully operational, licensed amateurs who are Museum members may operate the station on a first-come, first-served basis. As of right now, there will be no limit on the number of times a member may sign up. We believe that there are many amateur operators who would enjoy the opportunity to work with the Museum in presenting the amateur “story.”

Looking for a few good operators:
In addition, we are looking for volunteers willing to operate the station. Please contact the Museum if you would like to be involved in this activity. WEe also are looking for amateur members living away from the Museum who would be interested in being available during certain times to talk with Museum visitors.

Please contact Brian Belanger if you are interested in participating in this new Museum program.

The Museum continues to work with the Bowie branch, Prince Georges County Memorial Library System, to present free public programs.

Saturday, September 29
2:00 P.M.
79 Wistful Vista: Fibber McGee and Molly’s Years in Radio
5210 Annapolis Road, Bowie, MD 20715

Museum Curator Brian Belanger will reprise his popular talk on Fibber McGee and Molly.

Although we think of family comedies as current and “now,” American radio comedy came into its own by the late 1930s, especially the series Fibber McGee and Molly, which maintained its popularity over decades. Premiering on NBC (radio) in 1935 it continued until its demise in 1959, long after radio had ceased to be the dominant form of entertainment in American popular culture. Museum Director Brian Belanger will discuss the history of the program and characters that appeared on the show (e.g., Doc Gamble, Mayor La Trivia, The Old Timer, Teeny, Wallace Wimple), and will play a typical Fibber and Molly program.

Sept. 6. Brian Belanger, Executive Director, of the National Capital Radio & Television Museum has announced the fall screening schedule for television classics at the Museum.

These screenings will take place at 2:00 p.m. every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through the remainder of 2012.

September schedule:

September 7-9: All in the Family, “Archie and the Editorial.” All in the Family was the first TV comedy to tackle controversial and sensitive social issues such as racial prejudice, while at the same time, making its viewers laugh. The irascible Archie Bunker and his wife Edith were quirky but memorable characters.

September 14-16: Amos ‘n Andy – “Kingfish Buys a Chair.” Amos ‘n Andy began as a radio show in the 1920s and became one of the most popular programs in the history of radio. Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, two white men, initially played the all the roles of the African-American characters. The show has been widely criticized for presenting people of color in an unflattering negative stereotypical manner. Yet the radio show was immensely popular in its day, and when television came along, CBS began a TV version in 1951. Gosden and Correll produced the show but hired African-American actors and actresses. As in the original radio show, the characters on the program tended to be conniving and not very bright. Groups such as the NAACP urged broadcasters to portray African-Americans in a positive light, and tried to have the program withdrawn to no avail. Reruns continued after the original program was cancelled. As the civil rights movement grew, the nation began to be sensitized to the plight of minorities. By the mid-1960s, CBS had come to the conclusion that programs such as Amos ‘n Andy were inappropriate. Audiences of today may be shocked that a program that tended to foster racial prejudice could have been so popular during its time.

September 21-23: Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, “The Case of the Pennsylvania Gun.” Based on plots from A. Conan Doyle’s famous Sherlock Holmes mystery stories, the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series was produced by Granada Television in the U.K. from 1984 through 1994. Episodes were broadcast in the U.S. on PBS and later on a number of U.S. cable channels.

September 28-30: An Evening With Fred Astaire. This special show which won nine Emmy awards was aired live on NBC on October 17, 1958. It is one of the first color TV programs to have been recorded on videotape and preserved for posterity. Sponsored by Chrysler, the show showcased Chrysler’s new 1959 line of automobiles. Fred Astaire is considered to be one of the finest dancers ever to grace movie and TV screens.

May 10, 2012. With over 60 in attendance, The National Capital Radio & Television (NCRTV) Museum (formerly the Radio and Television Museum operated by the Radio History Society) celebrated its new name in a ceremony and unveiling of its new logo on Wednesday, May 9, 2012.

Chris Sterling, Chair of the Museum Board, stated, “We’ve been looking forward to this day and the opportunities that come with it to play an important role in greater Washington. We’re delighted to be in Bowie.”

City of Bowie Mayor John Robinson also spoke, commenting on the wonderful collection and how good it is that the Museum is in Bowie. He encouraged everyone in attendance to be sure to visit the exhibitions.

Co-sponsors of the event were the Greater Bowie Chamber of Commerce and Costco. Kelly Pierce, Executive Director of the Chamber, stated, “The National Capital Radio & Television Museum is one of the newest members of the Greater Bowie Chamber of Commerce and we enjoyed celebrating with them last night. The event was educational, interesting, and fun!”

For photographs of the event, please go to
Attendee photographs
Unveiling the sign
Museum tour

Our thanks to Photography by Perry for the photographs.

April 24, 2012. Chris Sterling was interviewed by Voice of Russia following his Titanic talk on Saturday, April 14. Listen to the interview.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the BBC’s Sean Coughlan narrates one of the most authentic versions of events in existence. Using voice synthesis to re-create the strange, twitter-like, mechanical brevity of the original Morse code, this program brings to life the tragedy through the ears of the wireless operators in the area that night.

On the night of the disaster, the network of young Marconi wireless operators on different ships and land stations frantically communicated with each other across the cold expanses of the North Atlantic in an effort to mount a rescue for the doomed vessel.

All these messages were recorded at the time in copper-plate handwriting, now scattered across the world in different collections, but together forming a unique archive.

Conceived and created by Susanne Weber.

Producer: Alex Mansfield

Listen to the full program

Read the accompanying article

Additional BBC coverage of Titanic

and finally,

1936 BBC program, Survivors of the Titanic