WGBH History Book

Featuring interviews with Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin, this program made headlines in spring 1963.

I love actors. I love how they are willing to give of themselves, to be vulnerable to critics, to wrap themselves in personas not their own, and how they love what they do.

Fred Barzyk: It is still amazing to me how many people of a certain age remember watching this TV movie. I mean it was 1979 when it aired!

In the fall of 1959, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt began her series of monthly discussion programs for National Educational Television. It was called “Prospects of Mankind,” and was a production of WGBH-TV

They came into the studio and taped a half-hour show with Rodgers at the keyboard and Elliot and Hammerstein standing behind the piano.

The Harvard Innovation Lab invited Henry Becton, President of WGBH Educational Foundation from 1984 until October 2007, to tour 125 Western Ave., the iLab’s new home.

From Fred Barzyk: I first heard Jean on the radio in Boston. It was 1961. I was babysitting my young son and, while idly scanning radio stations, I heard this person, this intense personal voice, talking to me.

The chance invitation to work here at WGBH placed me in an environment that was a perfect fit for my temperament and aspirations as a professional and as just a plain person. Once here, I recognized, gradually, why it felt so right as a place to work and associate.

From John Nadeau — 3/2007 When we did simulcasts on radio and TV, my station break announcement sounded like this: “This is the Lowell Institute Cooperative Broadcasting Council…WGBH-FM at 89.7 megacycles and WGBH-TV, channel 2, in Boston.” I joined the staff of WGBH-FM-TV in 1955. The two stations identified themselves as “noncommercial and educational” because…

From “The first 24 years: A somewhat random compendium of milestones along the way” 1836 John Lowell Jr., leaves a bequest creating free “public lectures for the benefit of the citizens of Boston.” 1946 The Lowell Institute forms a cooperative venture with six Boston colleges (spearheaded by Ralph Lowell) to broadcast educational programs on commercial…

“The Negro and The American Promise” (1963)

Fred Barzyk’s Snapshots: Scene 6 – The Waiting Room

The Making of “The Lathe of Heaven”

Paul Noble Remembers: Eleanor Roosevelt

Paul Noble Remembers: Elliot Norton and Rodgers and Hammerstein

Henry Becton tours 125 Western Avenue

Jean Shepherd tells his first WGBH story

We’re in the “understanding business”

In a World All Its Own (1955)

WGBH Timeline (1946-1978)