Radio Programs
The Life and Times of Frank Hague
Narrated by Malachy McCourt, written and produced by David Steven Cohen and Marty Goldensohn.
He was the mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, for thirty years, 1917 to 1947. A working-class hero, a Progressive reformer, a dictator-American style, in high collar and spats, he was the ultimate Irish political boss. He could put a turkey on your Thanksgiving table, your brother-in-law on the police force, and your vote in FDRs column. He could also put his hand in your pocket.
It is a tale of an America that no longer exits, a time of rough and tumbles politics, the days before media packaged candidates, when a street kid could rise from the slums to walk the halls of power. 2001.
A co-production of the New Jersey Historical Commission and NJN Public Radio 60-minute.CD, $6.00 ppd.
Coming From India
Narrated by Chitra Ragavan, written and produced by David Steven Cohen and Marty Goldensohn.
This documentary takes us into the East Indian community in New Jersey, which ranks third in Asian-Indian population after California and New York. We visit a Punjabi history and language class at a Sikh Sunday school; an ethnic jewelry store in an Indian-American business district; a Muslim-Indian quawalli concert in the finished basement of a spacious, suburban home; and a religious service in a warehouse converted into an ornately decorated Hindu temple.
The program closes in a fast-food restaurant, where four high school students discuss the generation gap between Indian-American teenagers and their parents. A coproduction of the New Jersey Historical Commission and NJN Radio.
1998. C-60 audiocassette. Libraries, $2.50 ppd; all other, $4.00 ppd.
Seabrook at War
Written and produced by David Steven Cohen and Marty Goldensohn.
Narrated by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., this program recounts the World War II history of the gigantic Cumberland County agricultural enterprise that employed thousands of German prisoners of war, people of Japanese descent from American detention camps, and war refugees recruited from European displaced-persons camps.
The story is told though interviews with many of those workers as well as members of the Seabrook family that owned the company. It was a coproduction of the New Jersey Historical Commission and public radio station WWFM.
1995. C-60 audiocassette. Libraries, $2.50 ppd.; all others, $4.00 ppd.
America, The Dream of My Life
written by Marty Goldensohn, directed by Charles Potter, and narrated by Eli Wallach.
Three half-hour radio documentaries about the immigrant experience, coproduced by WBGO and the New Jersey Historical Commission during the hundredth-anniversary year of the opening of Ellis Island.
The programs feature professional actors, who bring to life some of the stories that were collected from immigrants during the 1930s by fieldworkers of the Federal Writers’ Project. 1992. Set of 2 C-60 audio cassettes: $2.50 for libraries and media centers; $6.50 for individuals.
To order any of the above programs, contact the New Jersey Historical Commission, PO Box 305 Trenton, NJ 08625-0305 att: Sarah Snow, or call 609-292-6062.
Passaic on Strike!, Featuring Philip Bosco and Alison Fraser,
written and produced by David Steven Cohen and Marty Goldensohn
In 1926, 16 thousand woolworkers in Passaic, New Jersey, walked out after their meager wages were cut 10%. It was a long strike – nearly a year – and it caught the attention of intellectuals and activists nationwide. Over the harsh winter of 1926, Passaic became a battleground, not just between workers and bosses, but between the traditional trade unions and a renegade organizer in the American Communist Party, who envisioned a militant, industrial union for all workers.
The program has ten parts — Part I: The Battleground; Part II: Vera and Albert; Part III: Strike! Strike!; Part IV: The Strike Bulletin; Part V: Workers’ Relief; Part VI: The Silent Movie; Part VII: Strike Strategy; Part VIII: The Riot Act; Part IX: Enter the AFL; Part X: The Final Chapter. 2004. A co-production of the New Jersey Historical Commission and NJN Public Radio.
THIS PROGRAM IS ONLY AVAILABLE ONLINE. To listen to any of the above programs free online, click here:Talking History.
