We celebrate the holidays this week on From the Vault with a 1983 documentary on the traditions of Christmas – host Steve Allen (on the piano) weaves together short stories about the adventures of December.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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This week on From the Vault, we conclude our Shakespeare tribute with part three of a three-part series on probably one of the most ambitious works in the Pacifica Radio Archives. In 1964, on the 400th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare, KPFK- Los Angeles producers Ruth Hirschman and Lee Whiting, in collaboration with John Monteverdi, presented a comprehensive program exploring the personal life, work and legacy of William Shakespeare called William Shakespeare, This Was A Man. This program was awarded the 1965 Ohio State Award for Broadcast Journalism — and thanks to a Preservation and Access Project grant award from the GRAMMY Foundation, we now can listen again to one of the earliest documentaries ever produced for public radio. We also like to remember that this program was edited on reel to reel tape using razor blades and splicing tape; the complex edits you can hear are truly a tribute to the craft of early radio production!

Actor and Shakespeare instructor Marc Singer introduces us to Part 3, which contains the final two segments of the Shakespeare: This was a Man. The first segment examines Shakespeare’s private life as revealed in his sonnets, his return to Stratford-on-Avon, and his success as a man of property. The second segment studies Shakespeare’s later years and offers a brief appreciation of his work.

View the original 1964 KPFK Folio celebrating the 400th birthday of William Shakespeare.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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This week on From the Vault we delve into the visual arts and present two painters in two very different ways.

Part one of this program features Roy Lichtenstein, known for his ‘comic strip’ style, interviewed by Jeanne Siegel in late 1967 or early 1968 – quite early in the artist’s career.

Part two is a dramatic presentation of the personal correspondence of Vincent Van Gogh adapted from the Complete Letters of Vincent Van Gogh, published by the New York Graphic Society in 1958. Produced by David Rapkin and adapted for the radio by Bonnie Bellow and Terry Shtog with musical direction by James Irsay, this recording is a wonderful example of radio as an artistic medium. Mr. John Lithgow plays Vincent Van Gogh.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download