Working Magic on the Airwaves in UN Radio’s Heyday

By Thomas Honsa

July 7 – March 26, 1950, marked an important day in Americans’ relations with the United Nations. No treaty or agreement was signed, no leader named, no commission formed, just a radio broadcast. That night NBC carried Norman Corwin’s “Document A/777,” a dramatization of the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although forgotten today, “Document A/777” was a landmark broadcast, a high point in the career of a great American radio personality, and it exemplifies the vigorous UN presence on contemporary American airwaves and the enthusiastic hope and confidence citizens placed in the UN following World War II.

Norman Corwin

Corwin, who turned 100 on May 3 in Los Angeles, was a great name in 1940s American radio, often called the medium’s poet laureate. Radio historians still hail his patriotic tribute to the United States Constitution, “We Hold These Truths,” and his celebratory victory programs, “On a Note of Triumph” and “Fourteen August,” as among the best ever produced. R. LeRoy Bannerman, the author of “Norman Corwin and Radio: The Golden Years,” says that after the war, however, Corwin perceived growing commercialism at CBS and joined the newly formed UN Radio to produce the type of public service programming he loved.

Signing Corwin was a logical step for UN Radio. It started in 1946 with a makeshift studio in Lake Success on Long Island (where the UN had its temporary headquarters), but the radio group had big dreams. Benjamin Cohen, a UN assistant secretary-general in the Department of Public Information, wrote in Public Opinion Quarterly that the UN’s goal was to own a network of stations “for originating United Nations Programming.” American broadcasting pioneer David Sarnoff even urged government aid for such a project. By 1947, The New York Times reported that UN Radio had grown to three sound studios, a recording workshop and a fireproof vault for its archives.

UN Radio had considerable influence on US airwaves. Hundreds of stations carried its 20-second public-service announcements, meant to “implant quickly and vividly in the listener’s mind an awareness of the United Nations.” Audiences also heard several series produced by the UN. In 1947, 100 American stations carried the Peabody award-winning “The United Nations Today.” Two years later, more than 275 stations carried the “UN Story,” and CBS broadcast “Memo From Lake Success.” Even network dramas highlighted the UN. Superman defended the euphemistically named World Peace Organization from his nemesis in the series “The Man Without a Face.”

Corwin helped enhance UN Radio’s air presence right away. In 1949 he wrote his first script in two years, the documentary “Citizen of the World,” narrated by Lee J. Cobb. Jack Gould, a broadcast critic, praised the program, noting that it had something worth saying and “in the main said it with vigor and integrity.” The show’s success helped lead to new documentaries; with “Document A/777,” the most striking.

The show begins with a mysterious quest for “a man-made force thousands of times greater than the hydrogen bomb.” A private eye discovers this to be the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and begins reading the preamble, “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. …” His voice trails off as the narrator, the actor Van Heflin, establishes the central dramatic structure of the program, which is the roll-call vote approving the document. Corwin exposes the sordid episodes of the past as each country announces its decision. France is held accountable for the 1894 Dreyfus case; India is criticized for its treatment of women; and Paraguay is reminded of its brutal 19th-century dictatorship of Francisco Solano López. Even the US is reproached for reckless partisan extremism and slavery.

Billboard Magazine called the show “outstanding,” while Variety noted its “almost epic” quality. The Times said the hour of “glowing words and music … give meaning and encouragement of man’s pursuit of personal dignity.” The paper praised Corwin and his all-star cast for returning the radio documentary form to its place of honor by not only entertaining listeners, but also by making them think. In an interview, Corwin said he remembered a “positive” response to the show from both UN officials and the public.

“Document A/777” can still work magic. The show reflects a time when Americans interacted regularly with the UN. Corwin’s work, daily network radio programs, public-service announcements and even children’s adventure programming, help explain why in 1954 54 percent of Americans said the UN did a good job trying to solve the world’s problems, while in 2008 only 31 percent agreed. Perhaps Americans’ current doubts about the UN stem not from their lack of faith but from their lack of awareness. Corwin and the founders of UN Radio knew that Americans could not afford to take the UN for granted. Corwin is still writing for radio, and is a writer in residence at the University of Southern California School for Communication and Journalism, which celebrated his recent birthday with a big party. He said in a school publication that his “faculties” are not what they used to be, but that he continues to put them to “good use.” I have one eye and one ear now and that serves me quite well,” he said. “And I dedicate that one eye and one ear that serve me quite well to the 37 years I served at this university.”

As for UN Radio, it still has its faculties, distributing its programs and UN news sound bites through the Internet in Arabic, English, Chinese, French, Russian and Portuguese and offering programs to broadcast partners around the world. At least one program is carried on the World Radio Network site, and a collection of its classics is maintained in an online audio library of material from the radio archives.

Thomas Honsa is an adjunct professor of history at the State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota and Eckerd College who specializes in broadcast history. He has recently finished a research project on American radio’s enthusiasm for the UN in the late 1940s.

Keywords: UN Radio, Norman Corwin, Document A/777