The collection consists of selected records of the nation's oldest broadcasting network, which was founded in 1926 as a programming service and which continued to operate for many years as a subsidiary of RCA. Although incomplete at the highest levels, the collection offers representative coverage of day-to-day operations in advertising, public relations, research, sales, television, and news and public affairs broadcasting from the 1930s through the 1950s. Included are numerous internal memoranda, correspondence, reports, logs, scripts, promotional material and publications, scenic designs, photographs, and a few production files; legal and financial records are scarce. There are partial indexes to prominent correspondents, NBC employees, and program titles.
The collection includes a small group of Organizational Charts and Lists and then is arranged into three main parts: integrated central files, primarily 1926-1942 (100 feet); more recent, functionally-arranged office files (244 feet); and a library of scripts (99 feet) and recordings.
The CENTRAL FILES contain correspondence, primarily with individuals and organizations outside NBC; internal exchanges between departments, affiliates, and owned and operated stations; and files on the early development of television. Many subjects are treated including programming; relations with sponsors, advertising agencies, radio personalities, foreign broadcasters, and governmental agencies; governmental regulation; competition with CBS; and news, educational, and religious broadcasting.
The OFFICE FILES relate to the Advisory Council, which reviewed network policy and standards; several corporate-level executives; and the Public Relations, Corporate Relations, Operations, Public Affairs, Radio, Television, and the Owned-and-Operated and Spot Sales Divisions.
Corporate executives represented include John F. Royal, vice-president for programming, international relations, and television during the 1930s and 1940s, and Niles Trammell and Sylvester L. Weaver Jr., each of whom was both president and chairman of the board. Several other executives who rose to prominence are represented by papers filed with the departments with which they were affiliated.
Public Relations records (36 feet) include papers of William F. Brooks, vice-president in charge; Richard A.R. Pinkham, vice-president for advertising; and Sidney H. Eiges, vice-president for press and publicity, and records generated in the advertising, continuity acceptance, and press and publicity subdivisions of the department. Topics treated include audience, broadcast, and station promotion; newspaper and magazine advertising; censorship; and relations with advertising agencies and affiliates. Numerous advertising kits and samples of publicity materials are included. One box of continuity acceptance records may be used only with the permission of the director of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Corporate Relations files (12 1/2 feet) consist chiefly of information on various studies and reports on television audience characteristics and sales effectiveness which were prepared or commissioned by the research and planning section of the department and files of Easton Woolley, director of station relations during the 1940s.
Operations files (18 feet) consist of fragmentary records generated in the business and administration, engineering, facilities operations, and integrated services divisions. (Earlier related operations records are filed with the television records). Included are the papers of William S. Hedges, vice-president for integrated services. Among the miscellaneous documentation are engineering logs and monthly reports; floor plans, scenic designs, and proper lists for programs aired from the New York studios during the 1950s; reports of New York technical directors; operational files for Wide, Wide World; and copies of miscellaneous corporate publications and speeches by NBC executives collected by the network library.
The records of the Spot Sales and Owned-and-Operated Stations Division include material on sales and program arrangements and other day-to-day relations between the network and its owned and affiliated stations. Prominent are the papers of John M. Gaines and Carleton D. Smith, both of whom served as vice-presidents. Actual station files include logs of WMAQ, the company-owned station in Chicago, and office correspondence, logs, and news scripts of the WNBC/WNBC-TV, the network's flag station in New York City. Notable among the WNBC/WNBC-TV records are papers generated by Ted Cott and Hamilton Shea, two station managers, and production files for the Open Mind, a public affairs program.
Public Affairs records are extensive (50 feet) and include material on the news and special events, public service, and sports subdivisions, as well as papers generated by Davidson Taylor, vice-president in charge, and William F. Brooks, vice-president for news and special events. News and special events files include information on the writing and gathering of news stories and film, the coordination of domestic and foreign correspondents, and the development of mobile broadcasting. Also included are production files from producers Reuven Frank, Eliot Frankel, Irving Gitlin, Gerald Green, and Ted Mills for programs such as Background, Chet Huntley Reporting, Frank McGee Report, Nation's Future, and Outlook. Public service materials are useful for examination of religious and educational broadcasting. This section includes production files generated by Doris Ann, Wade Arnold, and Dorothy Culbertson for programs such as Catholic Hour, Continental Classroom, Frontiers of Faith, Living, and NBC University Theatre. The sports files are small, though there are some papers and scripts pertaining to the work of announcer-sports director Bill Stern.
Radio Network files (16 feet) divide into two smaller sections, programming and sales, and papers of network vice-presidents Ted Cott and William J. Fineshriber Jr. The sales records include a selection of contracts, presentations, and exchanges with advertisers and advertising agencies; the programming files contain miscellaneous routine material, with the production files created by Albert L. Capstaff for Monitor being perhaps the most notable. Also included are two boxes of correspondence from Sidney N. Strotz and Clarence N. Menser, two vice-presidents for programming during the early 1940s.
Television Network files (43 feet) also divide into program and sales sections (the second being somewhat more fully represented) and files of Noran Kersta and Carleton D. Smith, both directors for television operations during the late 1940s, and Edward Madden, a vice-president for television operation and sales during the early 1950s. These files provide extensive documentation on the early day-to-day development of television by the network. Programming material includes papers from such executives as Charles C. Barry and Michael H. Dann, who were responsible for the development and sale of new programming ideas during the 1950s, and Samuel Chotzinoff, supervisor of classical music broadcasting. Production files largely represent the work of Mort Abrahams on Producers' Showcase. Although the sales files are generally routine in character, they include papers of John K. Herbert and Walter D. Scott, two executives who later rose to prominence within the corporate structure.
The SCRIPT AND RECORDING LIBRARY is also incomplete, although many titles have partial representation. Best represented in the script section are Big Show, Don Ameche's Real Life Stories, Emphasis, Ford Theatre, From These Roots, Great Moments in History, Great Plays, Home Is What You Make It, Howdy Doody, Huntley-Brinkley Report, Jack Armstrong-All American Boy, News on the Hour, Pepper Young's Family, Today, True Story, and Your United Nations. Most complete among the recordings are America United, American Forum of the Air, Author Meets the Critics, Meet the Press, and Viewpoint. Numerous other titles are unprocessed.
