HOLLYWOOD GOES TO WAR

The wireless. The box that spoke. Today, radio is perhaps the most overlooked medium of mass communication but in 1941 it was both cutting edge and ubiquitous. Most homes had radios and, even if your family did not have one, you would have known someone who did. Since 1933, President Roosevelt’s fireside chats had reassured an anxious nation suffering the effects of the Great Depression: after the attack on Pearl Harbor they would be one of Roosevelt’s main channels of communication to the American people about the course of the war.

So it was by listening to the radio that most Americans learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The first broadcast was made around 2.26pm Eastern Standard Time when live coverage of the game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants was interrupted by the tersest of bulletins. “We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this