Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
G
1991
113 minutes
Overview
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of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.
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Top 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)
Guglielmo Marconi
Self - Visits Sarnoff at RCA (archive footage)
Marie Mosquini
Self - with Lee De Forest (archive footage)
Nelson Rockefeller
Self - Eulogizes Sarnoff (archive footage)
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Self - Makes Broadcast About Banking Reform (archive footage)
David Sarnoff
Self - with Marconi at RCA (archive footage)
Frank Sinatra
Self - Serenades Sarnoff (archive footage)
Arturo Toscanini
Self - Conducts NBC Symphony (archive footage)
Harry S. Truman
Self - Announces Bombing of Hiroshima (archive sound)
Bob Warren
Self - This is Your Life Announcer (archive footage)
Orson Welles
Self - Professor in War of the Worlds Broadcast (archive sound)