The Spirit of the Spirit: A WGBH remembrance
There has always been something magical about the ‘GBH cachet, growing I believe from the station’s spoken, unspoken, and lived, philosophy, and from those who have striven to express it.
Read More“Yes Is For a Very Young Man”
From Don Hallock: Dan Beach just rediscovered this image from a play by Gertrude Stein, “Yes Is For a Very Young Man.” It was shot at 125 Western Ave. (and maybe directed by Fred Barzyk)
Read MoreThe 1961 WGBH Fire
From Don Hallock In the early morning hours of October 14, 1961, a raging fire at the 84 Massachusetts Avenue studios of WGBH completely destroyed the facility. WGBH FM and TV were located in the second and third floors of a three story roller former skating rink. The fire, which began in the studio-A area,…
Read MoreThe foundations of WGBH: 84 Mass. Ave.
From Don Hallock: Many extraordinarily-gifted figures and luminaries of the day — in the arts, science, politics and education — found their ways into the halls and studios of the original WGBH-TV/FM studios at 84 Massachusetts Avenue.
Read MorePress and People
From Don Hallock: WGBH produced Press and People in 1959 or ’60. Host Louis M. Lyons talked with important print and photo-journalists of the time, including Edward R. Murrow, about their work and philosophies.
Read MoreCrew Training Tape – Transcript (1962)
From Don Hallock This tape was shot in the temporary studio at the Boston Museum of Science. It was intended as an in-house training tool, primarily for new BU student interns. It puroprted to be a catalog of many of the most frequently perpetrated production errors portrayed in comic relief. Response at the April reunion…
Read MoreLiving Places of the Not-so-rich and Occasionally Infamous (1957-63)
From Don Hallock Just around the corner from the former Zebra Lounge, (the present-day Crossroads Tavern, shown in this photo to the right of center) was a pair of apartments at 27 1/2 Massachussetts Avenue, over a greasy spoon eating place which shared a kitchen with the Zebra. The second floor was occupied by Bill…
Read MoreThen and Now (1955-2000)
From Don Hallock The Buildings Then: The station in 1958, occupying a rather dusty second and third floor roller-skating rink in an old brick building located opposite MIT at 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. (Photo by Brooks Leffler.) In 2000, WGBH sprawled over extensive real estate near Harvard. This is the main studio building at 125…
Read MoreQuo vadis WGBH (1946-2000)
From Don Hallock: It may surprise you to know how many places the station has called home. WGBH’s origins were in a converted skating rink on the second floor of 84 Mass. Ave. and the office spaces on the third, were the first home of WGBH from 1955 to 1961.
Read MoreThe original dream factory — Mass Ave. Studio A (1950s)
For years, the original Studio A at 84 Massachusetts Avenue was a truly magical place. So many careers were launched, or at least nurtured, its environment. It’s magic blossomed from the drive to produce programming that one could feel pride in, with the ongoing and exhilarating drive to overcome obstacles, with the almost mythic experience of being forced by necessity to achieve the impossible through sheer persistence and ingenuity.
Read MoreGifts and Reminiscences
From Don Hallock “There you stood, on the edge of your feather, …. expecting to fly.” —Neil Young Well, we’ve shared in one hell of an affair! And if the events of the year 2000 are any indication, the romance is very far from over. For many of us, the feather’s edge came early in…
Read MoreRelics from the Fire
Text by Don Hallock A small collection of memorabilia which survived the 1961 fire. This brass plaque adorned the entrance to the 84 Massachusetts Avenue studios. We who worked there walked past it almost every day of the year, where it was affixed to the column just left of the front door (circled in the…
Read More