Title: Stanley I. Nastal Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1922, 1934-1954

Creator:

• Nastal, Stanley I. (Stanislaus I.), 1899-1947

Call Number: Milwaukee Mss 69; Tape 1011A

Quantity: 1.0 c.f. (3 archives boxes) and 11 tape recordings

Repository:

Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries’ Archives Department / Milwaukee Area Research Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of Nastal, a pioneer Milwaukee Polish-language radio broadcaster, and of his son, Stanley H., who succeeded him in 1947. The collection documents ethnic programming from the 1930s through the 1950s, and includes biographical information, a copy of Nastal's reminiscences of service with Polish Volunteer Forces of the Canadian Army during World War I, advertising contracts, program logs, and scripts. The logs, in English, are from Our Polish Hour, dating 1947-1954; the scripts, in Polish, are from Theater of the Air and daily serialized sketches. The collection also contains eleven tape recordings of broadcasts, primarily Our Polish Hour, circa 1942-1947.

Language: Polish, English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mil00069

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Stanley (Stanislaus) I. Nastal was born in 1899 in Starawies, Poland, located in the farming country of the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. As an after-school job, young Nastal worked with an English company drilling for oil near his home. Eventually, the foreman of the company successfully persuaded Nastal to leave Poland and travel to North America. In 1913, Nastal made the trip to New York with financial assistance from the foreman. Intending to settle in Canada, Nastal instead held a series of jobs that took him from New York to Pennsylvania to Kentucky. During World War I he served with the Polish Volunteer Forces of the Canadian Army, eventually earning the commission of captain. After the Armistice, the Polish Volunteers, also known as Haller's Blue Army after their commander, General Joseph Haller, were sent to the eastern part of Poland to fight the Bolsheviks.

Nastal returned to the United States in 1922, and became involved in the organization of a veterans' organization for the Polish volunteers. The following year he settled in Milwaukee, where he married Helen Leonarski. From 1925 to 1929 Nastal worked as a journalist for the Detroit Polish Daily Record and the Milwaukee Nowiny Polskie. In 1929 Nastal was chosen as the “voice” of the Polish radio program sponsored by the Nowiny Polskie on radio station WRJN, Racine. The Depression soon cut short Nastal's budding radio career, and he next spent several years importing motion pictures from Poland and scheduling screenings in Polish communities throughout the Midwest and Northeast. In 1932 Nastal was again on the air, broadcasting with Frank Zolynski over WCBD, Waukegan, Illinois. Three years later Nastal joined the newly-organized Milwaukee radio station WEMP, where he became program director and business manager. Until 1946 Nastal hosted Our Polish Hour (Nasza Polska Godzina) every morning and afternoon, and specialty programs such as Theater of the Air and the Original Polish Amateur Hour. In 1946 WEMP curtailed its foreign language broadcasting, and as a result, Nastal and a group of investors formed a new radio station devoted to ethnic programming, WFOX. The first program on WFOX was broadcast August 15, 1946.

Stanley I. Nastal did not live to see his new project mature, as he died from heart disease on September 6, 1947. His position at WFOX was subsequently filled by his son, Stanley H. Nastal, with assistance from his widow, Helen. The son continued his father's Polish-language programming until 1955, when a combination of declining revenues and changes in programming concepts and listeners' requests forced many ethnic media to eliminate the use of foreign languages.

The collection documents Milwaukee Polish-language radio broadcasting through the 1930s to its virtual demise in the mid-1950s, focusing on the careers of Stanley I. Nastal and his son. There is a folder of biographical information and photos of Nastal, including an obituary, military photographs, and a short biography written by his son. Also included is a photocopy of the 1922 military memoir written by Nastal, Sr., “Niebieska Dewizja.”

Records of Polish-language programming include program logs, in English, of Our Polish Hour, dating from 1947 to 1954, fragmentary accounting statements listing monthly advertising receipts, and a scattering of advertising contracts, 1940-1949. A folder of correspondence, 1934-1951, deals with radio station and programming matters, station contests, personal and family items, and letters written to representatives in Congress. Also with the correspondence is a 1946 letter discussing station WEMP's curtailment of foreign-language broadcasting. A major portion of the collection consists of scripts, all in Polish, written as advertising copy for the Sunday night Theater of the Air broadcasts and for the daily serialized sketches. Many of the scripts were written by Natal, Sr., who also acted in the dramas presented. Other members of the Nastal family participated in the presentations, as did local and national Polish actors, among them Jozef Kosciuk.

The scripts for skits (Box 3) were written for the continuing series Chwalek i Malek, in which regular characters met to discuss events in a neighborhood tavern. Nastal, Sr. took the role of Chwalek, Kosciuk was Frank, Nastal, Jr. was Antos, and Casey Wisniewski portrayed Bruno. After Nastal, Sr.'s death in 1947, the series continued as Malvina and Friends, with Malvina (Helen Nastal) as the tavern keeper. Many of the scripts in the collection have been annotated. Notes in pencil in a European-style of handwriting are Nastal, Sr.'s production notes, while notes in pen (in English) contain Stanley, Jr.'s notes about production dates and characters.

Other material in the collection consists of a Polish song book, printed about 1949, and a few items of information concerning WFOX radio station.

According to the donor, only about ten percent of his father's papers were preserved; some papers the donor retained. In addition, there are partially identified recordings of Polish-language radio programs housed in Madison only pending better identification.

Acquisition Information

Presented and loaned for copying by Stanley H. Nastal, Milwaukee, Wis., 1981. Accession Number: M81-177, M81-356, M81-357

Processing Information

Processed by Menzi Behrnd-Klodt, January 1982.

Milwaukee Mss 69 Box   1 Folder   1	Biographical Information and Photographs
Box   1 Folder   2	Accounts - Statements, 1936-1937
Box   1 Folder   3	Advertising Contracts, 1940-1949
Box   1 Folder   4	Correspondence, 1934-1951
Box   1 Folder   5	Niebieska Dywizja, Monograph by Nastal, 1922
	Program Logs
Box   1 Folder   6-10	June, December 1947-December 1950
Box   2 Folder   1-3	1951-1954
Box   2 Folder   4	Scripts for Advertisements, 1935-1950
	Scripts - Radio Dramas
Box   2 Folder   5	Amerykanski Pojedynek
Box   2 Folder   5	Awantura u Dentysty
Box   2 Folder   5	Bez Tytulu
Box   2 Folder   5	Bilecik Milosny, 1938
Box   2 Folder   5	Burza w Ciemnosci
Box   2 Folder   5	Cacusia
Box   2 Folder   5	Cien Przeszjosci
Box   2 Folder   5	Co Zwycieza
Box   2 Folder   5	Dwie Matki (2 versions)
Box   2 Folder   5	Dwoch Jakalow
Box   2 Folder   6	Jak Postepowac z Zona
Box   2 Folder   6	Kandydat na Meza, 1939
Box   2 Folder   6	Milosc Wszystko Zwycieza
Box   2 Folder   6	Na Goracym Uczynku, 1936 (2 scripts)
Box   2 Folder   6	Na Wieczor Sylwestrowy
Box   2 Folder   6	Najwyzsza Nagroda
Box   2 Folder   6	Natura Sie Msci, 1937
Box   2 Folder   6	Nic Sie Nie Zmienilo
Box   2 Folder   6	Nie Now Hop az Przeskoczysz
Box   2 Folder   6	Nie z Wlasnej Winy
Box   2 Folder   6	Niedobrana Para
Box   2 Folder   6	Nowy Rok w Polsce
Box   2 Folder   7	Nasza Mlodziez (Several episodes), presented December 1939-February 1940
Box   2 Folder   8	Postawila na Swojem
Box   2 Folder   8	Proba Meza
Box   2 Folder   8	Promienie Sloneczne
Box   2 Folder   8	Samson i Dahlia
Box   2 Folder   8	Slowo Wstepne (2 versions)
Box   2 Folder   8	Stryjek Madrzejszy, 1939
Box   2 Folder   8	Trzasniecie Dzrwiami
Box   2 Folder   8	W Rekach Cyganow
Box   2 Folder   8	Wigilia Polakow, 1939
Box   2 Folder   8	Wystawila go na Dudka
Box   2 Folder   8	Z Takim Sie, Zdajesz, Takim Sie Stajesz
Box   2 Folder   8	Zasluzona Kara
Box   2 Folder   8	Zbrodnia Nie Poplaca
Box   3 Folder   1-4	Scripts for Skits, December 1946-September 1950
Box   3 Folder   5	Song Book, circa 1949
Box   3 Folder   6	WFOX Radio
Tape 1011A No.   1-11	Tape recordings (copied from discs), primarily of Our Polish Hour, circa 1942-1947