NRR Project: 'We Hold These Truths' (Dec. 15, 1941)

 

NRR Project: ‘We Hold These Truths’

Written and produced by Norman Corwin

Broadcast Dec. 15, 1941

1 hour

Though only a cultural footnote now, Norman Corwin (1910-2011) was American radio’s most eloquent writer. Born in Boston, he skipped college and went straight into reportage. Swiftly, his talent moved him up through the ranks and into the radio business. Soon he was writing dramatic scripts for CBS, and garnering accolades and popularity. Adept at verse as well as prose, he created such stellar programs as “The Plot Against Christmas” and “They Fly Through the Air with the Greatest of Ease.” In 1941 CBS gave him 26 weeks of the Columbia Radio Workshop to produce 26 by Corwin, a full exploration of his talents as writer, producer, and director of radio drama.

The government thought to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights with a special broadcast slated for Dec. 15, 1941. Corwin, radio’s premier writer/producer, was tapped to write the hour-long celebration. Corwin leapt in with his usual energy and enthusiasm, and worked frantically to create a suitable script. When the Japanese attacked on Dec. 7, Corwin thought perhaps the show would be cancelled. No less a personage than Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that such a show was more needed than ever.

So important was the program that it was arranged, for the first and only time, to carry it on all four major radio networks at once, live. Composer Bernard Herrmann write the score, and Corwin put together an all-star cast – Lionel Barrymore, Jimmy Stewart, Walter Huston, Edward G. Robinson, Orson Welles, and others. The result was an epic broadcast that shouted to the rooftops the uniqueness and benefits of those 10 vital amendments to the Constitution.

Stewart served as the narrator, taking us through a contemplation of the document today to the days of the creation of the Bill, emphasizing the role of the common people in mandating the addition of the Bill to the Constitution – the outlining of fundamental rights that preserve liberty and free thought in our country even today. (Orson Welles, who handles some narration, was never more bombastic.)

The illustration of the history of the Bill, its influence and key points, is performed with zip and wit. The broadcast, decades later, still holds up. The program closed with remarks from President Roosevelt and the playing of the National Anthem of Leopold Stokowski and the NBC Radio Orchestra.

Freedom of speech, of religion; of due process and respect for the law; the protection of the average citizen from the whims of a tyrannical government – still precious, still under attack all these centuries later. For a nation that had just launched itself into a world war, “We Hold These Truths” was a stirring reminder of what we were fighting for.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Roosevelt and Churchill address the nation, Christmas Eve, 1941.