"My Dear Mr. President," 1939: Radio Broadcast of Interior Secretary Harold Ickes' Annual Report to the President (Part 1)

Return to Public Service Through the Spoken Word

Photo shows production of the U.S. Department of Interior's radio play "My Dear Mr. President," broadcast on January 8, 1939, the subject of which was the Interior Secretary's annual report to the President (Source: "Not So Free Air," Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 11, 1939)

The penthouse studio for radio broadcasts on the roof of the Interior Building consisted of reception room, office, script writers' room, small and large studios, and sound control room. These actors are members of the cast for My Dear Mr. President, a play based upon the President's budget message [i.e Interior Secretary's annual report] presented in January 1939 through the channels of the national hookups

Part of the Harris & Ewing Collection (Library of Congress)

Part 1- of the recording of the radio broadcast is presented in the attachment "Broadcast", which contains 14 of 16 segments of the broadcast. This represents pages 1-41 of the Script, which is also attached.

Source: The Library of Congress.

Note to Museum Visitor

The attached broadcast recording and the pre-air script are related to an article by Professor Mordecai Lee,“Public Reporting in Public Administration, circa 1939: The Annual Report as Fictional Radio Stories.” The article is forthcoming in Public Voices (2016) Volume XV Number 1.