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Following the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939, Adolf Hitler immediately set his sights on Poland, intending to use the same tactics he had used against Czechoslovakia: the “tried and true” method, as he put it.

In Moscow, the Soviet government sought an alliance with France and Britain aimed at containing Germany, but the three nations could not overcome their mutual distrust. So Stalin chose instead to cut a deal with the Germans.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Sabre Dance
Composed in 1942 by Aram Khachaturian. Public domain.
Performed by Markus Staab, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 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, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Electronic amplification allowed singers to sing more softly, by simply getting closer to the microphone, producing a more intimate sound. This style, known as “crooning” soon dominated popular music.

Hollywood musicals of the 1930s, and especially Fred Astaire, popularized dancing and dance bands, which led to the creation of “big bands” and swing, a new style of jazz music.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“My Blue Heaven”
Composed in 1927 by Walter Donaldson and George A. Whiting. Public domain.

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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By the beginning of 1938, it was clear that the Spanish Nationalists were likely to win the civil war. Only the USSR came to the Republic’s aid, but the Soviet aid favored pro-Soviet Communists at the expense of anti-Soviet elements in the Republic.

The Republicans continued to hold out hope that Britain and France would come to their aid, but those countries were more interested in maintaining peaceful relations with the Nationalists’ allies, Germany and France.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Rapsodie Espagnole
Composed in 1908 by Maurice Ravel. Public domain.
Performed by the University of Chicago Orchestra, directed by Barbara Schubert, 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, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Two weeks after his second inaugural, Franklin Roosevelt announced a plan to restructure the Federal courts. The plan was received without enthusiasm, even by fellow Democrats in Congress.

It would be the first of several missteps that would end Franklin Roosevelt’s remarkable series of political victories.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Those Crazy Cats

Closing Theme

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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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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Closing Theme

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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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Playlist:

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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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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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.