Movie Description
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
(1991)Overview
For 50 years radio dominated the airwaves and the American consciousness as the first “mass medium.” In Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, Ken Burns examines the lives of three extraordinary men who shared the primary responsibility for this invention and its early success, and whose genius, friendship, rivalry and enmity interacted in tragic ways. This is the story of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.
Featured Crew
- Director : Ken Burns
- Producer : Tom Lewis,Morgan Wesson,Ken Burns
- Writer : Geoffrey C. Ward
- Editor : Paul Barnes
- Cast : Jason Robards,Red Barber,Erik Barnouw,Ken Bilby,Norman Corwin,Susan Douglas,Frank Günther,Jeanne Hammond,Loren Jones,Garrison Keillor,Helen Kelley,Robert Morris,Dana Raymond,Gertrude Tyne,Fred Allen,Gene Autry,John Barrymore,Winston Churchill,Charles J. Correll,Lee De Forest,Ralph Edwards,Dwight D. Eisenhower,Eugenia Farrar,Freeman F. Gosden,Guglielmo Marconi,Marie Mosquini,Nelson Rockefeller,Franklin D. Roosevelt,David Sarnoff,Frank Sinatra,Arturo Toscanini,Harry S. Truman,Bob Warren,Orson Welles
Cast
Narrator (voice)
Self - Radio Announcer
Self - Historian
Self - Biographer of David Sarnoff
Self - Writer
Self - Historian
Self - Engineer
Self - Niece of Edwin H. Armstrong
Self - Engineer
Self - Writer
Self - Radio Broadcaster
Self - Engineer
Self - Friend of Edwin H. Armstrong
Self - Engineer
Self - Predicts Demise of Radio (archive footage)
Self - Sings (archive sound)
Hamlet (archive sound)
Self - Finest Hour Speech (archive sound)
Self - Prepares for Amos 'n' Andy Broadcast (archive footage)
Self - Objects to Quality of Radio Programming (archive footage)
Self - Host of 'This Is Your Life' (archive footage)
Self - Announces Landing in Normandy (archive footage)
Self (with Lee De Forest) (archive footage)
Self - Prepares for Amos 'n' Andy Broadcast (archive footage)
Self - Visits Sarnoff at RCA (archive footage)
Self - with Lee De Forest (archive footage)
Self - Eulogizes Sarnoff (archive footage)
Self - Makes Broadcast About Banking Reform (archive footage)
Self - with Marconi at RCA (archive footage)
Self - Serenades Sarnoff (archive footage)
Self - Conducts NBC Symphony (archive footage)
Self - Announces Bombing of Hiroshima (archive sound)
Self - This is Your Life Announcer (archive footage)
Self - Professor in War of the Worlds Broadcast (archive sound)
Posters
Recommendations
Q
5.798
Q
7
Insane Fight Club
6.767
GCW Fight Club
7.7
Q
5.978
123 Hugs
6.3
River of No Return
6.665
Return of the Seven
6.19
Squeak-squeak
6.804
A Return to Salem's Lot
5.961
Girls Fight Club
7.538
Marching Band
7.433
Facts
Original TitleEmpire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
Status Released
Release Information
-
1991-10-01
Original LanguageEnglish
Runtime 01h 53m
Homepagehttp://www.pbs.org/kenburns/empire/
Production CompaniesFlorentine Films
Genres
- Documentary
- History
