Great American Broadcast: A Celebration of Radio's Golden Age

Rating:
Summary: sappy and full of holes
Review: An entertaining, albeit fatuous, peon to American radio. The research is superficial and many of the facts wrong or incomplete.

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book about old time radio, lots of stories from the old days. The other reviews on this page echo my views (or mine theirs), so I will just say I recommend Maltin's book highly!

Rating:
Summary: old-time radio
Review: i was surprised that Leonard Maltin was so "nice" in this book. i'm used to him complaining about some obscure fact or something the typical fan wouldn't notice or care to notice. a critic's best friend is theirself. only they and they alone hold the answers as to why they like or hate something. they aren't gods...a critic shouldn't make a person like or hate something. it's just an opinion of a movie or CD, it's up to the consumer to agree or disagree with the critic. that being said, i agree with what's said in this book. for once, Leonard lets OTHER people tell the story...he doesn't appear as a "critic" to me in this book and that's good. the book is divided into segments like "announcers"; "sound effects"; "sponsors"; "radio acting"; etc. Maltin relies on plenty of anecdotes, which elevates this above his run of the mill "critic" books and by doing this it makes the book focus on it's subject matter and not the author's reputation as a tough critic.

Rating:
Summary: old-time radio
Review: i was surprised that Leonard Maltin was so "nice" in this book. i'm used to him complaining about some obscure fact or something the typical fan wouldn't notice or care to notice. a critic's best friend is theirself. only they and they alone hold the answers as to why they like or hate something. they aren't gods...a critic shouldn't make a person like or hate something. it's just an opinion of a movie or CD, it's up to the consumer to agree or disagree with the critic. that being said, i agree with what's said in this book. for once, Leonard lets OTHER people tell the story...he doesn't appear as a "critic" to me in this book and that's good. the book is divided into segments like "announcers"; "sound effects"; "sponsors"; "radio acting"; etc. Maltin relies on plenty of anecdotes, which elevates this above his run of the mill "critic" books and by doing this it makes the book focus on it's subject matter and not the author's reputation as a tough critic.

Rating:
Summary: Great intro to old time radio
Review: If you're an old time radio fan, you'll love this book. Not a 'hard hitter' (McCarthyism destroyed quite a few radio careers, for example, this isn't even mentioned) but an affection tribute.

Rating:
Summary: Another Maltin triumph
Review: When Leonard Maltin writes on a subject, it betrays his love for that subject, and it is well researched. There have been a number of books on the history of radio, but this one is derived from interviews that Maltin did himself, sometimes before it was too late. My only problem with this book is the lack of a bibliography; since Maltin does draw from books written during radio's heyday, it would have been nice to have information on them. Regardless, if you have any interest in radio, this is a book you will thoroughly enjoy.