Archives On The Air

Katharine Newlin Burt was an author of western novels, short stories, plays and poetry.

Although a native New Yorker, she was entranced with the West. She once said that "all her life she wanted to marry a man from the West."

Leona Wells came to Wyoming from Illinois in 1898 because she wanted the right to vote. Wyoming’s U.S. Senator Francis E. Warren hired her as a staffer. She became one of the very rare well-paid professional women on Capitol Hill.

Barbershop quartets are a form of a cappella music that started in the 1930s. In 1938 a nationwide group for Barbershop singers appeared. It was called the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America. Or if you prefer acronyms, SPEBSQSA.

Dee Linford grew up in Wyoming before he was drafted into the Marines in World War II. Linford was stationed in Japan.

Wilma Soss was a publisher, writer, and radio journalist in New York. In all of her work Soss advocated for women in industry and stockholding.

Jacques Kapralik was a caricature artist for Hollywood.

He brought his talents to LA in the mid-193os and began making movie posters.

Foreign correspondents were the first to raise the alarm about Hitler's Germany. They witnessed the violence first hand. One of these reporters was Gregor Ziemer. While in Germany he interviewed Hitler and probed the Hitler Youth program.

Cathrine Curtis was an early film producer. She started the Cathrine Curtis Corporation in 1919.

President Roosevelt was faced with labor strikes at home during World War II. The strikes delayed production for the war.

The Centlivre family lived in the Midwest. In 1913 their daughter's spirit began communicating with them. The daughter died at age four. They called her spirit "J".

Olive Borden was a silent film star. Her film career started in 1922 in comedy shorts. She starred in the 1927 film The Joy Girl.

Jim Beckwourth was born into slavery. He came West around 1820.

William Lava had no formal music training. He had a journalism degree. But the great depression kept him from breaking into the news.

In 1950 Coloradoan Betsy Cowles Partridge was part of an attempt to find a path to the summit of Mount Everest.

In the early 1930s, Tot Seymour was writing lyrics for Hollywood movies. She teamed up with composer Vee Lawnhurst. They founded a company called Famous Music. Seymour and Lawnhurst touted themselves as "the first successful team of girl song writers in popular music history".

2020 marks one hundred years since the nineteenth amendment allowed women to vote in the U.S. But Wyoming women have had the right to vote for 50 years longer than the rest of the country.

David Freedman was a Romanian-American comedy writer from the early days of radio. He was known as the king of the gag-writers. Freedman started in the Jewish Vaudeville scene and had shows on Broadway.

In the 1950s McCarthyism looked for communists in the US. Academics were among those under suspicion.

Filming classic Japanese monster movies like Godzilla was often a grueling experience for the actors in the monster suits.

Railroads have been a vital part of Wyoming's commerce and culture.

For example, in the late 1800s a new railroad was built between Newcastle and Sheridan. People thought it would only be profitable for moving cows. But towns along the railroad grew as access became easier.

Investigative journalist Toni Stabile began looking into the cosmetics industry in the 1950s. She researched and wrote about issues in the cosmetics industry throughout her career.

In 1961, fans of horror met Sardonicus in a short story in Playboy by Ray Russell. A movie version called Mr. Sardonicus came out soon after. Russell wrote the screenplay. It was directed by William Castle.

In the early 1900s, the west had many small mining towns. One of these towns was Gebo, Wyoming. Gebo was well documented by former resident Mileva Maravic.

Maravic grew up in Gebo. She collected photos and memories from the town.

In the 1940s and ‘50s the House Committee on Un-American Activities questioned 10 men from the film industry. They were accused of being communists. All 10 refused to testify and were jailed.

Dan Rowan was a fighter pilot during World War II. When the war ended he went to Hollywood.

Rowan was working at a car dealership when he met comedy writer Dick Martin. The two became the comedy team Rowan & Martin. They toured night clubs and late night talk shows.

From 1978 to 1980 Bolivia was in crisis. There was a series of military governments and coups. U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States Gale McGee was in the middle of one of these coups in 1979.

In 1937 Denis J. Mulligan was chief investigator of the U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce. Also in 1937, the German-built Hindenburg caught fire and crashed over Manhattan. 36 people were killed. Mulligan was the lead American investigator. 

Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil was one of the most notorious con men of the 20 th Century. He reportedly swindled 8 million dollars from his victims. 

In 1946, Dr. A. C. Ivy wrote a code of ethics on human experimentation as part of the Nuremburg trials.

But, Ivy went on to violate ethics rules in his own work with the alleged cancer treatment Krebiozen. 

Al Christie created one of the first permanent film studios in Hollywood in 1911. His partner wanted their studio in Florida, but Al won a coin toss and they went to Hollywood.