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| Actor Harvey Hays (aka "the Pioneer, aka "the Old Timer") |
Since this is a blog, and not a “web site” (although that
may be in my future as well – we’ll see), let’s get started with a discussion
of the Empire Builders radio series.
Where to begin? Somewhere in the general vicinity of the
beginning, I suppose.
Rather than jumping into a complete historical report on the
Empire Builders, I’d like to know
what brings you to this blog. What are the circumstances that drew you here?
What is your interest in Empire Builders?
Do you think of yourself primarily as a railroad enthusiast? A fan of Old Time
Radio (OTR)? A history junkie? Fascination with radio/Hollywood stars?
Following up on some genealogy leads? Something else?
For me, this topic represents an ongoing area of interest
that I expect to continue researching and learning about for some time. While I
have developed a very solid factual foundation, there are many unique
aspects of this story that I have yet to understand. I am hopeful that this
blog will be, among other things, a means for me to get in touch with others
who have knowledge of this topic that I can learn about.
Soon – possibly in March, 2014 – I expect to have a 40-page
article published about the
Empire
Builders radio series. This will be part of the quarterly publication of
the Great Northern Railway Historical Society (GNRHS). When the publication is
assured, I will confirm it on this blog and provide information on how anyone
not a member of GNRHS can obtain a copy.
I was drawn to this story for several reasons. I’ve been
generally interested in railroads since I was a little kid. By my teens I began
to develop an interest in history, nostalgia, and antiques/collectibles. I soon
learned even a kid with only his lawn mowing money as a source of income could
find and afford to buy some interesting pieces of railroading history. Thus
began a hobby of collecting railroad antiques and artifacts that has persisted
for nearly forty years. But merely collecting such things is not quite enough.
Surrounded by all these pieces of history one becomes intrigued by how they
were created and distributed. Beyond the merely utilitarian value of ephemeral
objects, how did they impact people’s lives? How did they help create a
framework for our cultural foundations? Who were the talented people who created
the advertising material?
Although I consider myself a collector, I am careful to
avoid being an accumulator (or worse, a hoarder). There is a purpose to my
collecting. I have some specific goals in mind when I decide what to pursue. In
many cases, I look for topics represented by my collections that inspire me to
try to learn more. So in addition to being a collector, I am also an amateur
historian. I conduct research as a hobby. No kidding. I really enjoy what I see
as a treasure hunt to discover information about obscure topics.
I learned many years ago that the GN had been behind the
Empire Builders radio show, but knew
very little about it. Prior to the explosion of information-sharing available
to us via the internet, there was very little information about the
Empire Builders available in any one
place. Almost nothing has ever been written about this radio series, and even
now, much of what you
can find on the internet or in books is woefully
incomplete and in some cases, rife with inaccuracies.
One thing I hope to accomplish is set the record straight on
a few issues that are not presently described accurately through other sources.
I have compiled a complete program log of all 104 broadcast episodes. In many
cases, I have confirmed the correct title of the program, as designated by the
Great Northern Railway, original story author, or both. There are currently 9
or 10 broadcasts circulating on the internet that apparently originated from
sound check discs made at the time of the live broadcasts. It seems that
whoever first began wide dissemination of those recordings came up with their
own titles for those episodes. Some are accurate, perhaps gained by consulting
newspaper previews of the day, but many are clearly made up by whoever put the
recordings out there for broad consumption. I will provide the correct titles
where available to try to return some accuracy to those few existing samples of
the series.
With regard to
Empire
Builders, it strikes me that there are multiple overlapping themes here
that may provide a varied audience for the information I’m learning about.
Among these themes are:
- Early commercial radio history in the United States
- Early efforts to make radio broadcasting pay (how do you make money in broadcasting?)
- Ground-breaking innovations in early radio
- Telling a story solely through sound
- Effectively interweaving music throughout a radio broadcast
- Developing effective sound effects to convey atmosphere and carry a story along
- The aggressive use of radio broadcasting to
advertise a transportation company – specifically a railroad
- How
a business assesses the effectiveness of their advertising investment,
especially when the thing they are selling is a service
- How
to measure the value to a business of goodwill advertising
- The
impact of early radio series on pop culture in America
- The
development of theatrical or dramatic talent adapted to radio
- The
development of dramatic script writing for radio
- The
way railroad companies learned to utilize the marvels of radio for a range of
purposes:
- Operational use, such as
allowing dispatchers to communicate with train crews, and freight conductors
riding in a caboose to communicate with the locomotive crew
- Providing
on-train entertainment for passengers (and how to do this in a way that would
allow people to either elect to listen to broadcasts or choose not to)
- Using
commercial radio to convey messages representing the interests of the company,
and to engage in advertising meant to stimulate “brand loyalty” and increased
business (for both freight and passenger traffic, as well as for facilities
such as the hotels and concessions of Glacier National Park – served
exclusively via rail by the Great Northern Railway)
I plan to use this blog to share some of what I’ve learned
about the topics above, and hopefully to engage my blog visitors in discussing
the unique aspects of this innovative radio series. I also hope to connect with
people who are descendants of those who helped bring Empire Builders to the airwaves.
