February 7 - May 15, 1960 (Sundays 2:30-3:00pm)
READING OUT LOUD was a filmed series comprised of 15 shows. Famous people read favorite literary selections aloud to a small group of children, often relatives of the reader.
Jackie Robinson recites the Gettysburg Address to his son David Robinson, daughter Sharon Robinson and wife Rachel Robinson.
NOTE: Letter dated Feb. 26, 2008, sent by Rachel Robinson, related to this TV Audio Air Check recorded off the air by Phil Gries on May 1, 1960.
THE JACKIE ROBINSON FOUNDATION
One Hudson Square
75 Varick Street
New York, NY 10013
February 26, 2008
Phil Gries
Archival Television Audio, Inc.
209 Sea Cliff Avenue
Sea Cliff, NY 11579
Dear Phil,
My apologies for the long delay in responding to your kindness in sending me the exciting television audio air check of "Reading Out Loud" the TV program where Jack read the Gettysburg Address. The Jackie Robinson Foundation has moved and we are still locating material sent to us as we reorganize the archives.
I listened to the tape with ABSOLUE AMAZEMENT and DELIGHT. Sharon and I remember vividly the family trip to Washington, and we have one photo taken on that occasion. Unfortunately, I do not have any memory of the recording session.
It is thrilling for us to hear Jackie's reading of this profound speech, and we shall cherish and preserve it in our archives. Most importantly, we will share it with our visitors to the Jackie Robinson Museum now being designed.
Phil, I am deeply grateful to you for this historic gift, and we will appropriately attribute it's preservation to you.
Sincerely,
Rachel Robinson
cc: Della Britton Baeza
Len Coleman
In 1960, Virginia Winslow Hopper Mathews created the children's TV series Reading Out Loud with Westinghouse Broadcasting executive Mike Santangelo. Produced by Westinghouse for syndication, the show featured notable figures reading aloud their favorite books to children. It debuted February 7, 1960 on the five TV stations owned by Westinghouse in Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. READING OUT LOUD also opened on WNTA-TV, prior it becoming a Public Television Station (WNET-TV) in New York City and 46 educational TV stations around the U.S. It ran as a half-hour show for 15 episodes.
The following is a list of READING OUT LOUD guest appearances detailing the 15 broadcasts aired, and the dates when they were broadcast.
-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (reading Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling to a group of children)-March 13, 1960.
-Actress Julie Harris (reading selections from Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in The Willows")-May 8, 1960.
-Actor José Ferrer (reading Huckleberry Finn)-March 20, 1960.
-Brooklyn Dodger baseball player (1947-1956) Jackie Robinson (reading excerpts from Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage" & Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" to his family)-May 1, 1960.
-Entertainer Garry Moore (reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow)-Feb. 28, 1960.
-Novelist Pearl S. Buck (reading Chinese fables)-April 17, 1960.
-Actor Cyril Ritchard (reading "Alice in Wonderland")-Feb. 14 or 21(?)1960.
-Singer/actor/activist Harry Belafonte (reading a collection of Jamaican folk tale about Anansi the Spider Man)-April 10, 1960.
-Senator John F. Kennedy (reading The Emergence of Lincoln)-March 27, 1960.
-Pulitzer Prize poet and author, Archibald MacLeish (reading poems of Walter de la Mare to his grandchildren)-Feb. 7, 1960
-Stage Actress Eva Le Gallienne (reading Hans Christian Anderson's "The Ugly Duckling.")-March 6, 1960.
-Vice President Richard M. Nixon (reading Carl Sandburg's "Abe Lincoln Grows Up" to his daughter Julie and her friends)-April 3, 1960.
-UCLA English Professor / TV Educator Dr. Frank Baxter (reading the poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.")-April 24, 1960.
-Industrialist Charles H. Percy (reading from James Daugherty's "Poor Richard" to his children)-May 15, 1960.
-Actor Richard Boone (reading Bret Harte's story "How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar.")-February 21, 1960.
