This week on From the Vault, we present Part Two of The War and Peace Broadcast: 35 Years Later, a 2005 documentary which features excerpts from the 1970 historic radio broadcast and explores select re-readings by some of 2005’s contemporary artists.

At 7:15 p.m. on December 2, 1970, as the Vietnam War raged, WBAI in New York kicked off a broadcast unique in radio history: Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace read in its entirety by a star-studded cast, in celebration of the book’s 100-year publishing anniversary. This unprecedented marathon reading continued for the next four and one half days, stopping only for music breaks and nightly reports on the war.

1970 readers include Dustin Hoffman, Ann Bancroft, Mel Brooks, Julius Lester, Abbie Hoffman, William F. Buckley, Buck Henry, Carolyn Goodman and some 175 others from all walks of life. 2005 readers include Helen Thomas, Cindy Sheehan, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Arianna Huffington, Robert Fisk, Mike Farrell, Ed Asner, Shirley Knight, Count Nikolai Tolstoy (senior living member of Tolstoy family), and many others.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of 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

At 7:15 p.m. on December 2, 1970, as the Vietnam War raged, WBAI in New York kicked off a broadcast unique in radio history: Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace read in its entirety by a star-studded cast, in celebration of the book’s 100-year publishing anniversary. This unprecedented marathon reading continued for the next four and one half days, stopping only for music breaks and nightly reports on the war. This week on From the Vault, we present Part One of The War and Peace Broadcast: 35 Years Later, a 2005 documentary which features excerpts from the 1970 historic radio broadcast and explores select re-readings by some of 2005’s contemporary artists.

1970 readers include Dustin Hoffman, Ann Bancroft, Mel Brooks, Julius Lester, Abbie Hoffman, William F. Buckley, Buck Henry, Carolyn Goodman and some 175 others from all walks of life. 2005 readers include Helen Thomas, Cindy Sheehan, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Arianna Huffington, Robert Fisk, Mike Farrell, Ed Asner, Shirley Knight, Count Nikolai Tolstoy (senior living member of Tolstoy family), and many others.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of 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

This week on From The Vault we present Part Three of a recently restored series from 1959 and 1960 called The American Woman. This comprehensive 14-part series is a masterpiece of scholarly research that profiles women in America from the colonial era in the 1600’s, through the Abolition and Suffrage Movements in the 1800’s, including the ongoing struggle of women for social justice.

Special guest commentator, Cultural Herstorian Amy Simon, guides us through Part Three of The American Woman, which profiles Margaret Fuller, author of Woman in the Nineteenth Century, considered the first major Feminist work in American when it was published in 1845.

The American Woman was preserved thanks to a grant from the American Archive Pilot Program.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of 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

This episode of From the Vault wraps up a month-long series honoring Women’s History Month by featuring novelist and diarist Anaïs Nin in a historic interview from Pacifica Radio Archives. This audio was selected by special guest poet and Anaïs Nin scholar Steven Reigns. Recorded in 1966 just before the release of Nin’s iconic, feminist work The Diary of Anaïs Nin, interviewer Francis Roberts speaks on intimate terms with Nin about her differing writing styles, the origins of her diary, and her relationships with notable figures such as Henry Miller, June Miller, Antonin Artaud, Otto Rank, and her father, Joaquin Nin. This sliver of sound nearly forty five years old introduces us to Nin’s life, and helps to explain her motivation to publish her highly personal diary of many thousands of pages; indeed, this recording cuts through the long-standing perception of a wild woman with a life highly erotic and relationships exaggerated, guiding us to remember instead that she was a magnificent and prolific writer and reader.

Please visit these sites for more information:

AnaisNin.com
SkyBluePress.com
StevenReigns.com

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of 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

This week on From The Vault we are excited to present a recently restored series from 1959 and 1960 called The American Woman. This comprehensive 14-part series is a masterpiece of scholarly research that profiles women in America from the colonial era in the 1600’s, through the Abolition and Suffrage Movements in the 1800’s, including the ongoing struggle of women for social justice.

Special guest commentator, Cultural Herstorian Amy Simon, guides us through Part Two of The American Woman, in which KPFA producer Virginia Maynard profiles Abolitionist Movement advocate Lucretia Mott. We also hear a dramatization of the landmark Women’s Rights Conference in Seneca Falls New York in 1948, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton read the “Declaration of Independence for Women,” and a dramatization of Sojourner Truth presenting her famous “Ain’t I A Woman” speech at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1857.

The American Woman was preserved thanks to a grant from the American Archive Pilot Program.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of 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

This week on From The Vault we are excited to present a recently restored series from 1959 and 1960 called The American Woman. This comprehensive 14-part series is a masterpiece of scholarly research that profiles women in America from the colonial era in the 1600’s, through the Abolition and Suffrage Movements in the 1800’s, including the ongoing struggle of women for social justice. Special guest commentator, Cultural Herstorian Amy Simon, leads us through Part One of The American Woman, which focuses on pioneer settler Anne Hutchinson.

The American Woman was preserved thanks to a grant from the American Archive Pilot Program.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of 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

In this episode of From the Vault, we begin our month-long celebration of Women’s History Month with a program that paints an audio portrait of the American playwright Lorraine Hansberry, author of the classic A Raisin in the Sun.

In 1967, two years after Hansberry passed away at the age of 34, the theatrical world came together to pay tribute to her by bringing her words and works to life for Pacifica Radio listeners. Along with an all-star cast is the voice of Hansberry herself reciting Hamlet’s soliloquy.

This program was adopted for preservation by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner. We extend our thanks to them for making this broadcast possible.

And now we are proud to present Anne Bancroft, Melvin Douglas, Geraldine Page, Roscoe Lee Brown, Julie Harris, Rod Steiger, Cicely Tyson, E.G. Marshall, Rosemary Harris, Colleen Dewhurst and Howard De Silva in the 1967 Pacifica program, Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words, narrated by Ossie Davis.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

LISTEN to this episode.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of 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.

This week on From the Vault, we split the hour into two parts, both celebrating our recent preservation efforts; archival footage includes the voices of Ossie Davis, Langston Hughes, and Rosa Parks among others.

First we feature a special edition of KPFK’s Uprising with Sonali Kolhatkar, who reviews the our special Civil Rights Collection restored thanks to a grant from the American Archives Pilot Program. Then we’ll hear from Pacifica Radio Archives Director Brian DeShazor in conversation with composer/multi-media artist Allee Willis, as they recap highlights from this year’s “Sound of Soul” Party. On February 22, 2010, the Archives and Grammy and Tony Award-winning Willis co-hosted the “Sound of Soul” party and fundraiser for Pacifica Radio Archives at her Los Angeles home. Allee and her friends sponsored over forty schools with the exclusive new Allee Willis Sound of Soul Collection, which features 68 historic recordings preserved specifically in honor of Black History Month!

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

LISTEN to this episode.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of 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.

This week on From the Vault we conclude our celebration of Black History month by paying tribute to American jazz icon Billie Holiday and presenting the final installment of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. We’ll start with Lady Day, a program produced for Pacifica Radio in 1967 about Holiday, a blues and jazz legend. Produced by Gene and Fabs Dealessi, it features commentary from Dizzy Gillespie, Lena Horne, Studs Terkel, and others. Actor LeVar Burton then helps us finish our series of celebrity readings of Ellison’s Invisible Man, produced in 1995 by Roy Hurst and Gloria Mashunga.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of 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

This week on From the Vault we continue our celebration of Black History month by presenting the third part of our newest acquisition, a celebrity reading of Ralph Ellison’s landmark novel Invisible Man, produced for radio in 1995 by Roy Hurst and Gloria Mashunga Roberts. This radio reading breathes new life into the first and only novel published during the life of Ralph Ellison, not only blending celebrity readers such as Lawrence Fishburne, Alfree Woodard, Roscoe Lee Browne, Levar Burton, and Wynton Marsallis, but also utilizing the voice of the average ‘invisible’ man. This week’s focus, presented by Alfre Woodard, is women’s voices, starting with a tribute to American Black Lesbian Poet Audre Lorde.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

Click here to purchase a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of 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