For 50 years radio dominated the airwaves and the American consciousness as the first “mass medium.” In Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, Ken Burns examines the lives of three extraordinary men who shared the primary responsibility for this invention and its early success, and whose genius, friendship, rivalry and enmity interacted in tragic ways. This is the story of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.
Made in US
7.6/10
1991
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Cast
Jason Robards
As Narrator (voice)
Red Barber
As Self - Radio Announcer
Erik Barnouw
As Self - Historian
Ken Bilby
As Self - Biographer of David Sarnoff
Norman Corwin
As Self - Writer
Susan Douglas
As Self - Historian
Frank Günther
As Self - Engineer
Jeanne Hammond
As Self - Niece of Edwin H. Armstrong
Loren Jones
As Self - Engineer
Garrison Keillor
As Self - Writer
Helen Kelley
As Self - Radio Broadcaster
Robert Morris
As Self - Engineer
Dana Raymond
As Self - Friend of Edwin H. Armstrong
Gertrude Tyne
As Self - Engineer
Fred Allen
As Self - Predicts Demise of Radio (archive footage)
Gene Autry
As Self - Sings (archive sound)
John Barrymore
As Hamlet (archive sound)
Winston Churchill
As Self - Finest Hour Speech (archive sound)
Charles J. Correll
As Self - Prepares for Amos 'n' Andy Broadcast (archive footage)
Lee De Forest
As Self - Objects to Quality of Radio Programming (archive footage)
Ralph Edwards
As Self - Host of 'This Is Your Life' (archive footage)
Dwight D. Eisenhower
As Self - Announces Landing in Normandy (archive footage)
Eugenia Farrar
As Self (with Lee De Forest) (archive footage)
Freeman F. Gosden
As Self - Prepares for Amos 'n' Andy Broadcast (archive footage)
Guglielmo Marconi
As Self - Visits Sarnoff at RCA (archive footage)
Marie Mosquini
As Self - with Lee De Forest (archive footage)
Nelson Rockefeller
As Self - Eulogizes Sarnoff (archive footage)
Franklin D. Roosevelt
As Self - Makes Broadcast About Banking Reform (archive footage)
David Sarnoff
As Self - with Marconi at RCA (archive footage)
Frank Sinatra
As Self - Serenades Sarnoff (archive footage)
Arturo Toscanini
As Self - Conducts NBC Symphony (archive footage)
Harry S. Truman
As Self - Announces Bombing of Hiroshima (archive sound)
Bob Warren
As Self - This is Your Life Announcer (archive footage)
Orson Welles
As Self - Professor in War of the Worlds Broadcast (archive sound)
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