Poetic Obituaries: Once upon a time, 60 million Americans

tuned in to one broadcast--not television, radio. Sixty million out of a population of 140 million at that time. The time was December, 1941, and the program was "We Hold These Truths," marking the 150th birthday of our Bill of Rights.

Planned for a year, the program was most poignant coming eight days after Pearl Harbor. In the cast: Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Walter Huston, Corp. James Stewart, and at the end, President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The program was written and produced by Norman Corwin, CBS's top producer of dramas, comedies and whatever for several years in the late 1930s.

from The Lexington Herald-Leader: Kentucky voices: When radio gave us poetry, Corwin was its maestro

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