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The Industrial Musicals Hour

From: Jon Kalish
Length: 00:58:37

A fictional weekly music show celebrating Industrial Musicals on a fictional public radio network Read the full description.
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Piece Description

A celebration of one of the most astonishing yet obscure musical genres of the 20th Century. Industrial musicals were written for company sales meetings or annual conventions, with a golden age spanning the 1950s into the '80s. They were lavish productions that incorporated original music and lyrics, full orchestras and expensive staging, Most were never recorded, though sometimes a record was made and a few hundred copies were distributed as souvenirs. Steve Young, a writer for David Letterman, is the self-appointed archivist and obsessive collector of these recordings, and he's the host each week of a show that shares these recordings with an audience they were never intended for. This is a one-time special. It is not really a weekly show. The special includes an original comedy piece featuring the great Moe Moscowitz, a veteran of NPR's Morning Edition.

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Review of The Industrial Musicals Hour

I really enjoyed this piece. It really brought to life part of America's industrial and musical history.