VHS : Empire of the Air - The Men Who Made Radio
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In association with Amazon.com
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starring: Jason Robards, Red Barber, Erik Barnouw, Ken Bilby, Norman Corwindirected by: Ken Burns
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304048689
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
ISBN: 6304048688
Label: PBS Home Video
Manufacturer: PBS Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: PBS Home Video
Release Date: February 18, 1997
Running Time: 100 minutes
Sales Rank: 7656
Studio: PBS Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1992
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Like a juicy page-turner, Ken Burns's two-hour documentary on the history of radio is packed with tantalizing ingredients: power, greed, broken friendships, narcissistic heroes, and tragic players. Adapted from Tom Lewis's absorbing book, Empire follows three Americans who crafted Guglielmo Marconi's discovery of radio waves into a powerful component of the 20th century: foppish inventor Lee de Forest; Edwin Howard Armstrong, the engineer's engineer; and Russian immigrant David Sarnoff, who became head of RCA. This project came between Burns's mammoth Civil War and Baseball documentaries, and he departs from him usual structure. Instead of having actors read the letters of the participants, Burns relies on narrator Jason Robards. Because the subject matter is relatively new, there's abundant information on the three men, including on-air interviews with those who knew them. Burns's ability to marry image and sound (often old broadcasts) is a wonder, making this film as poetic as it is deft. --Doug Thomas
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - without tesla, there is no radio
I was deeply saddened by the total ommission of Nikola
Tesla from this show about the radio. It is inconceivable that not once is the guy who actually invented wireless mentioned. Very shoddy research.
Tesla was awarded all of the patents that Marconi
had tried to steal from Tesla, and as everyone knows,
Lee Deforest was a hack and who basically
stole most of his ideas from Armstrong.
Thank God Burns didn't do a show about Edison being a genius or I would have ... Read More
Rating:  - Pop-sociology fluff.
There is little or nothing on this disc relating to the inventive process, technological or commercial developments, intellectual property issues, or business efforts, in the history of the radio industry.
The disc consists entirely of pop-sociology fluff. There are interviews with elderly people recollecting the first time they heard a radio program. There is footage from old radio programs, that is, from the work done by actors in studios. There are images of glowing radio tubes, ... Read More
Rating: - Before Books There Was Oral History
Before Ken Burns, we had books.
In our continuing devolution, our history is being digitized. And history can be distorted, too. Career historians often sense that they are fighting a continuing battle against those who would put faith into the old saying that history belongs to the victors.
But, there's another issue today: history belongs to Ken Burns. At least American history does.
And if he decides to ignore Nikola Tesla, then Tesla will be ignored.
Read More
Rating:  - Lukewarm air
A précis: De Forrest - Bad; Armstrong - Good; Sarnoff - Wicked.
This documentary tells the story of radio through the interlinked biographies of Lee de Forrest, inventor and self-promoter; Howard Armstrong, the engineer's engineer; and David Sarnoff, the immigrant boy who made good. It culminates in the story of Armstrong's suicide, and the ascendancy of television.
The film takes a parochial view of its subject: the lives and times of three Americans. Its agenda, beyond telling ... Read More
Rating:  - Brilliant Documentary
I've had mixed feelings about what I've seen from Ken Burns before; in both "Baseball" and "Jazz" he spends too much time cutting from the story to a shot of a person staring off into the distance with a glint in their eye and talking in the most maddeningly vague and meaningless terms about "Gee, how wonderful and thoroughly *American* baseball is," and "Man, jazz is just something you have to *feel.*" I have no problem with reflection and emotion in a documentary, but Burns has a fatal weakness for it that ... Read More
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