viii Acknowledgments
Dennis and Art Molella in the Lemelson Center offered generous time and sup-
port, Elliot Sivowitch provided helpful guidance on collection materials, and
Kay Peterson helped secure needed illustrations. Chuck Howell, Tom Connors,
and especially Michael Henry provided helpful advice and suggestions on mate-
rials at the University of Maryland; Chris Hunter helped navigate materials at
Schenectady’s Museum of Innovation and Science and secured requested images;
and Greg Wilsbacher, Ben Singleton, Scott Allen, and Brittany Braddock at the
University of South Carolina provided invaluable assistance with the university’s
Moving Image Research Collections. At the Library of Congress, Karen Fishman,
Jan McKee, and especially Bryan Cornell helped with collections in the library’s
Recorded Sound Research Center, as did Alice Birney with collections from the
Manuscripts Division and Jennifer Harbster with materials from the Science
Library. Additional thanks to Susan Hamilton at Truman State University, Sherry
Byrne at the University of Chicago, and Jeanette Berard and Klaudia Englund at
Thousand Oaks Library for assistance with their collections, as well as to the many
hard-working reference specialists at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Columbia
University Oral History Research Office, and New York Public Library for the
Performing Arts who made my research experiences at these institutions successful
and rewarding. Special thanks, in addition, to David Gleason and Bob Paquette
for access to materials from their personal collections; to Ed Gable at the Antique
Wireless Association for assistance securing materials from his organization; to
the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers for use of their materials;
to Larry Steckler for use of images from Hugo Gernsback’s radio publications; to
Cynthia Powell Barnett for use of materials from the Hennessy Radio Publication
Corporation; and to Byron Clark for use of materials from the collection of his
late wife, Eleanor Vallée.
Throughout its long germination and execution, this project has benefited from
insights, encouragement, and research exchanges from numerous scholars, includ-
ing Mike Adams, Tim Anderson, Noah Arceneaux, Kyle Barnett, Michael Biel,
David Bordwell, Michael Brown, Frank Chorba, Cliff Doerksen, David Goodman,
Douglas Gomery, David Hesmondhalgh, Lea Jacobs, Dave Jenemann, Michael
Keith, Bill Kirkpatrick, Kate Lacey, Jason Loviglio, Anne MacLennan, Alex Magoun,
Monteith McCollum, Allison McCracken, Ross Melnick, Cynthia Meyers, John
Peters, Elena Razlogova, Eric Rothenbuhler, Paddy Scannell, Michael Schiffer,
Philip Sewell, Michael Stamm, Jennifer Stoever, David Suisman, Emily Thompson,
Tim Wall, Jennifer Wang, and David Weinstein. Particular thanks, as well, go to
Kathy Fuller-Seeley, Alex Russo, Josh Shepperd, Katherine Spring, Jonathan Sterne,
and Neil Verma, all of whom read early versions of various chapters and offered
helpful suggestions for shaping the larger book project. Portions of this work also