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Early radio mimicked the forms of live entertainment, particularly concerts, theatre, and vaudeville. By the late 1930s, these forms evolved into distinctively broadcast forms. Classical music concerts gave way to popular music, especially dance bands. Theatre became radio drama. And vaudeville comedy developed into humor about domestic life, becoming the situation comedy.

These forms became the template for broadcast entertainment on radio, and later television, for the rest of the twentieth century.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Advertising agencies as we know them today emerged around the turn of the twentieth century. At first, they placed ads in newspapers and magazines, and were reluctant to move into the new medium of radio.

But in the United States, the attitude toward advertising on radio went from hostile to cautious to enthusiastic in about ten years. By the late 1930s, advertisers all but controlled American radio.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Radio commercials for Pepsodent, Bromo-Seltzer, and Signal Oil included in this episode are believed to be in the public domain, or in the alternative, that their inclusion here constitutes fair use. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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One of the great historical ironies of the twentieth century is that, at the moment when German scientists were demonstrating limits on human knowledge, the German political leadership was claiming a “monstrous certainty.”

As German research was demonstrating the feasibility of atomic bombs, expatriate scientists in the United States were sounding the alarm.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

eDream

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Just weeks after the Munich Agreement apparently averted war, Germany erupted in a wave of violence against Jewish people.

The world recoiled in shock. Germany had left the community of civilized nations.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Overture to Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman)
Composed in 1840 by Richard Wagner. Public domain.
Performed by the University of Chicago Orchestra, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Even before the Anschluss was completed, Adolf Hitler was already laying plans to invade and annex Czechoslovakia.

But at the last minute, Neville Chamberlain intervened, much to Hitler’s annoyance, and brokered the Munich Agreement, which ceded the Sudetenland to Germany, but preserved an independent Czechoslovakia.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Má vlast
Composed in 1882 by Bedřich Smetana. Public domain.
Performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Some old-school conservatives in the German government and military feared confrontation with the Allies and resisted Hitler’s ambitious plans.

But by 1938, they were gone, and Hitler had his sights set on Austria.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Overture to Tannhäuser
Composed in 1845 by Richard Wagner. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Hitler had ambitious plans for expanding Germany to the east, and he hoped that Britain and Italy would align with Germany in that effort.

An alliance with Britain proved out of reach, but by 1936, Germany and Italy were drawing closer together, while Mussolini began to speak of the “axis” between Berlin and Rome.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Prelude to Act III from Lohengrin
Composed in 1848 by Richard Wagner. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Fairy tales date back at least to medieval Germanic cultures, and probably date back much farther.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, fairy tales had been relegated to the realm of children’s entertainment, but the century would see them used in wholly new ways.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Les carnaval des animaux
Composed in 1886 by Camille Saint-Saëns.
Performed by the Seattle Youth Symphony and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Following the formation of the Second United Front, Communist units were integrated into the Nationalist Army. Some of these Communist units deliberately sought to provoke war between China and Japan.

An incident at the Marco Polo Bridge on 7 July 1937 triggered a confrontation between Japan and China. Chiang Kai-shek was no longer of a mind to back down, and so the incident led to a bloody eight-year war between China and Japan.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

陽關三疊 (Three Refrains on the Yang Pass Theme)
Composed in 1867 by 琴學入門 (Qinxue Rumen)
Performed by Charles R. Tsua and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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In China, frustrated military commanders actually kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek to force him to make peace with the Communists and unite against the Japanese invaders. In Japan, radical right-wing Army officers assassinated their enemies and attempted a coup.

The end results in China were a Second United Front and a new determination to resist the Japanese. In Japan, they were a strengthened determination to dominate East Asia. War is coming.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Hogaku
Composed and performed by Marco Randria and licensed from Pond5.com.

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.