A Radio Pioneer Passes

Radio, among all the media I engage with, remains for me the inexhaustible medium. I never tire of its universe of possibility. That’s why I found this obit of radio pioneer Norman Corwin so interesting. He’s quoted in this NY Times obit: “’In radio there was never a term equivalent to boob tube or couch potato. . . . The eye is so literal, whereas the ear makes a participant of the listener. The listener becomes the set designer, the wardrobe mistress, the casting director. You can listen to ‘Carmen’ on radio. Carmen in person may weigh 350 pounds, but to the listener she’s a beautiful, steamy lady with a rose in her teeth.’” Reminds me of Mary Pickford who told film historian Kevin Brownlow, “It would have been more logical if silent pictures had grown out of the talkie instead of the other way round,” as cited in Walter Kerr’s fine book Silent Clowns. For Pickford, silents were the more sophisticated medium, as radio was for Corwin.