Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
For 50 years radio dominated the airwaves and the American consciousness as the first “mass medium.” In Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, Ken Burns examines the lives of three extraordinary men who shared the primary responsibility for this invention and its early success, and whose genius, friendship, rivalry and enmity interacted in tragic ways. This is the story of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.
Cast
Jason Robards
Narrator (voice)
Red Barber
Self - Radio Announcer
Erik Barnouw
Self - Historian
Ken Bilby
Self - Biographer of David Sarnoff
Norman Corwin
Self - Writer
Susan Douglas
Self - Historian
Frank Günther
Self - Engineer
Jeanne Hammond
Self - Niece of Edwin H. Armstrong
Loren Jones
Self - Engineer
Garrison Keillor
Self - Writer
Helen Kelley
Self - Radio Broadcaster
Robert Morris
Self - Engineer
Dana Raymond
Self - Friend of Edwin H. Armstrong
Gertrude Tyne
Self - Engineer
Fred Allen
Self - Predicts Demise of Radio (archive footage)
Gene Autry
Self - Sings (archive sound)
John Barrymore
Hamlet (archive sound)
Winston Churchill
Self - Finest Hour Speech (archive sound)
Charles J. Correll
Self - Prepares for Amos 'n' Andy Broadcast (archive footage)
Lee De Forest
Self - Objects to Quality of Radio Programming (archive footage)
Ralph Edwards
Self - Host of 'This Is Your Life' (archive footage)
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Self - Announces Landing in Normandy (archive footage)
Eugenia Farrar
Self (with Lee De Forest) (archive footage)
Freeman F. Gosden
Self - Prepares for Amos 'n' Andy Broadcast (archive footage)
Director
Images
Recommended
The Untold History Of The United States
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
Sidney
9/11: Inside the President's War Room
Titanic: 20 Years Later with James Cameron
I Am Heath Ledger
For the Love of Spock
Red Army
What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Naqoyqatsi
The Captains
Why We Fight: Prelude to War
The Wrecking Crew
Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap
Seduced and Abandoned
Marvel's Behind the Mask
More like this
Service public
Les Voix du Large
Jakob the Liar
CFNY: The Spirit of Radio
Moving Up in Amateur Radio
Glorious 39
Baseball, Dennis & The French
LLUVIA DE IDEAS
The Voice That Rocked America: The Dick Biondi Story
Ballad of an Unsung Hero
While You Wait
RADIOHEART: The Drive & Times of DJ Kevin Cole
Heritage Minutes: Marconi
Untitled KROQ Documentary
Behind Your Radio Dial
Století rádia
Movie & TV metadata from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.