Photographs from the Mary Margaret McBride Collection
Catalog Record: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008647476
General International Standard for Archival Description
Recorded Sound Reference Center, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division Library of Congress Washington, D.C.
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Photographs from the Mary Margaret McBride Collection, 1934-1968, and undated
3 boxes, including approximately 620 photographic prints, 23 negatives, and 15 folders of textual material
McBride, Mary Margaret, 1899-1976
Biographical History for: Photographs from the Mary Margaret McBride Collection, 1934-1968, and undated
Biographical Note Mary Margaret McBride (1899-1976) was a journalist and the host of an immensely popular daily radio program from the mid 1930s into the 1950s. Her first program, Martha Deane, was broadcast on station WOR from 1934 until 1940. In 1937 CBS hired her to host a fifteen-minute talk show under her own name, but her most popular program, a forty-five-minute interview and talk show on NBC, ran from 1941 until 1950. McBride's daily program featured interviews with over twelve hundred leading public and political figures of her time, such as entertainers, other radio personalities, authors, educators, doctors, and adventurers, but she also talked with average people who had interesting stories to tell. Interviewees included Eleanor Roosevelt, Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bob Hope, Carl Sandburg, Margaret Bourke-White, Zora Neale Hurston, Tennessee Williams, Joe DiMaggio, a man leading a campaign to improve teenage driving skills, a female test pilot, the woman who invented crossword puzzles, and the American Mother of 1942. McBride's interviews provide a highly personal perspective on American life during the Great Depression through World War II, its aftermath, and the beginning of the Cold War. They constituted the first thirty minutes of her show and were followed by informal discussion of household matters and advertising. Commercials were targeted at McBride's primary audience -- women -- who eagerly purchased the products she promoted and made McBride a favorite with sponsors. Her popularity with listeners and sponsors alike allowed her to retain both editorial and commercial control of her program. McBride moved to ABC in 1950. She died on April 7, 1976, at age 76.
Scope and Content Note The photographs and accompanying paper documents form part of the much larger Mary Margaret McBride Collection, 1935-1950, in the Recorded Sound Section of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress. Representing McBride's long and influential career as a pioneering woman radio journalist, the McBride Collection includes over twelve hundred hours of interview programs and other radio broadcasts. The photographs include portrait, publicity, and family photographs of Mary Margaret McBride; pictures of McBride and her guests, such as Omar Bradley, Mike Wallace, Eleanore Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey, and Mary Martin; shots of her radio program's anniversary celebrations; images relating to her 1960 autobiography, Out of the Air and of various products and locations; and depictions of broadcasting both in and outside of the studio.
file
Mary Margaret McBride with Stella Karn (Estelle), undated
Biographical History for: Mary Margaret McBride with Stella Karn (Estelle), undated
Stella Karn was McBride's manager.
Paper documents accompanying the Mary Margaret McBride and Stella Karn photographs, undated
McBride publicity photographs, undated
Early McBride portrait photographs, undated
Paper documents accompanying the early McBride portrait photographs, undated
McBride portrait photographs, undated
McBride portrait photographs with microphone, undated
WEAF/NBC.
CBS.
WNBC/NBC.
ABC/WJZ.
Miscellaneous McBride portrait photographs, undated
McBride color portrait photograph, undated
McBride personal appearance photographs, 1934-1951
McBride personal appearance photographs, 1957-1968, undated
McBride with Eleanor Roosevelt, undated
McBride with Governor Thomas Dewey, undated
McBride with Omar Bradley, undated
Paper documents accompanying the McBride and Omar Bradley photographs, undated
McBride with political guests, undated
McBride with guests, undated
McBride with Mary Martin, undated
McBride with guest authors, undated
Paper documents accompanying the McBride and guest author photographs, undated
McBride with special guests, undated
McBride with unidentified guests, undated
McBride with groups, undated
Paper documents accompanying the McBride with groups photographs, undated
McBride receiving awards, undated
McBride cooking with Poppy Cannon, Paul and Grace Hartman, undated
McBride with Tex and Jinx, Bob Hope, undated
Paper documents accompanying the McBride, Tex and Jinx, Bob Hope photographs, undated
McBride with Mike Wallace, undated
McBride radio anniversaries: Martha Deane, undated
McBride radio anniversaries: Madison Square Garden, undated
McBride radio anniversaries: Yankee Stadium, undated
McBride radio anniversaries: unidentified, undated
McBride Out of the Air, undated
Paper documents accompanying the Out of the Air photographs, undated
McBride and Eve Curie, undated
McBride radio anniversaries: white dress, undated
McBride photographs relating to Florida citrus fruit, undated
McBride photographs relating to Florida, winter haven, undated
Paper documents accompanying the McBride Florida, winter haven photographs, undated
McBride with doll collection, undated
McBride Laffing Room Only photographs, [1944 or 1945]
McBride Maine photographs, undated
Paper documents accompanying the McBride Maine photographs, undated
McBride Mexico, Missouri parade, undated
McBride Mexico, Missouri photographs, undated
Paper documents accompanying the McBride Mexico, Missouri photographs, undated
McBride small Mexico, Missouri photographs, undated
McBride at William Woods College photographs, undated
McBride New Jersey photographs, 1938
Paper documents accompanying the McBride New Jersey photographs, 1938
McBride Seabrook Farms, New Jersey, photographs undated
McBride, The French Goat photographs, undated
McBride, Jackson & Perkins, MMM Rose, undated
McBride at the Dwight D. Eisenhower arrival parade, [1945?]
McBride military tour photographs, undated
McBride European visit photographs, undated
McBride bagpipes photographs, undated
McBride and animals, undated
McBride backyard broadcasting photographs, 1951
Paper documents accompanying the McBride backyard broadcasting photographs, 1951
McBride broadcasting in locations other than the studio, undated
McBride eating and cooking, undated
McBride and unidentified guests with microphones, WOR, CBS, WEAF, NBC, and ABC, undated
McBride's last broadcast, 1954
McBride on television, undated
McBride Conti Shampoo commercial, undated
McBride's retirement, undated
McBride personal and family photographs, undated
McBride at a dinner with Harry Truman and others, undated
Paper documents accompanying the photos of McBride at a dinner with Harry Truman and others, undated
McBride at home, undated
Unidentified McBride photographs, small, undated
Unidentified McBride photographs, undated
McBride in the studio with a group, undated
McBride at a dinner in Connecticut, undated
Paper documents accompanying the photographs of McBride at a dinner in Connecticut, undated
McBride at Bette Davis's birthday party, undated
McBride at the christening of the USS Matthews, 1944
Paper documents accompanying the photographs of McBride at the christening of the USS Matthews, 1944