Parks Johnson collection on Vox Pop

ArchivalResource

Hull, Warren, 1903-1974. Vox pop collection.

Parks Johnson collection on Vox Pop

1932-1966 (majority 1932-1948)

http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/42534

Vox Pop was a radio program of interviews, quizzes, and human-interest features heard from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. (Vox Pop is a shortened form of the Latin phrase "vox populi," which means the "voice of the people.") The program, originally called Sidewalk Interviews, began on local radio in Houston in 1932. KTRH advertising salesmen Parks Johnson and Jerry Belcher went out onto the street with portable microphones and asked people their opinions on a variety of topics. The spontaneity of the show proved popular with listeners. In 1935, Vox Pop became a national program on the NBC network, broadcasting from different locations around New York City. In 1939, the show was broadcast from the New York World's Fair and was one of the first televised programs. Vox Pop participated extensively in the war effort, traveling up to 1,000 miles per week throughout the United States, visiting military bases, military schools, factories, and showcasing different communities on the home front. The show traveled to 45 states, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, France, and England. The format of the show changed over the years. From a sidewalk interview program, Vox Pop soon became a straight quiz show. The program later combined quiz questions with interviews featuring movie stars, celebrities, sports figures, politicians, and other people in the news. Eventually, the quiz show structure was dropped entirely, and the program centered around one human interest story with guests lined up in advance. Parks Johnson was one of the hosts throughout the life of the radio program. Jerry Belcher left the show in 1936 and was replaced by Wally Butterworth, a well-known radio announcer. Butterworth hosted the show with Parks from 1936 until 1942, then was replaced by Warren Hull, an actor and former emcee of radio's Your Hit Parade. This team stayed together until Vox Pop went off the air in 1948. Vox Pop broadcast a total of 1,014 regular programs and 500 special programs. The show moved from NBC to CBS in late 1939 and jumped networks again in 1947 to ABC. The last program aired on May 19, 1948. There was some discussion as late as 1964 to televise Vox Pop, but nothing was ever produced.

35.00 linear feet

eng, Latn

University of Maryland (College Park, Md.). Libraries