The World Is Yours

May 1937 

According to the Smithsonian, their "The World is Yours" series was one of the most successful educational radio programs of of the 1930s. It's a bit self-serving but the have some evidence. Shows had supplementary print materials which could be requested for 10 cents. The Smithsonian fulfilled 800,000 requests. A monthly magazine tied to the program eventually reached a circulation of 150,000. If you're interested in more details the book Science on the Air by Marcel LaFollette discusses it's production history.

The show was initially aired on the NBC Blue network but in October 1936 moved to the NBC Red Network. It aired on Sunday afternoons throughout, but the Jay Hickerson book Ultimate Guide to Network Programming notes that it aired on Saturdays 12/7/1940 thru 09/13/1941.  Hickerson also claims it was initially broadcast under the name "Treasure House", which is harder to corroborate. The program was sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of the Interior; Office of Education. Why not the Department of Education? That wasn't founded until the Regan Administration in 1980. [It's hard to imagine today, but Republicans used to be pro-education.]

It may come as no surprise that the program was funded by the WPA (Works Progress Administration.) It ran for six years and ran for 302 Episodes in total. Some sources state 303. [Full List HERE.] That first episode was a dramatic recreation of the founding of the Smithsonian, including an appearance by Charles Greeley Abbot, then secretary of the Smithsonian. He served from 1928 to 1944, so that included the full run of the radio program. Abbot oversaw the Smithsonian's participation in this and other WPA projects, but it's unclear what hand he had in the program beyond funding. The idea for the program actually originated with William Daw Boutwell at the Office of Education. More here and here. 

August 1936

Despite that longevity, and that large number of episodes, there is little written about the program, other than by the Smithsonian itself. The Review Vol. 35 No. 34 from July 1941 includes the whole script from a single episode. [SOURCE] That one script, by Irve Tunick, refers the the opening music merely as "melodious theme." In fact it was a song titled "Knowledge and the Great Doors" and composed by Rudolf Schramm.

Irve Tunick was a prolific script writer in both television and radio. Born in 1912, his radio career started in the 1930s at WINS-AM with Cowboy Tom's Roundup and he continued writing into the 1970s. He started on The World Is Yours at the age of 26. He also wrote episodes for The Eternal Light,  Freedom's People, Towards a Better World, Gallant American Women. Studio One, Democracy in Action, Armstrong Circle Theatre, , The Bold Ones, Bonanza, Ironside, Witness, Cavalcade of America, and CBS Is There to name a few.  He wrote every episode of The World Is Yours. 

Irve Tunick

Each episode was structured a a set of vignettes, some historical, others more documentary in nature. The subject could be an individual like Zebulon Pike, a specific topic like Aluminum, or a whole field, like American Plants.The host of  the program was the "Oldtimer" which was played by Tom Hoier throughout the series. Hoier was born in Denmark in 1877, so he was 60 when the program began.  He was a very experienced Broadway actor [SOURCE] The only other recurring character was Mona Jackson who was played by Elizabeth Morgan. 

January 1937

The final episode of "The World is Yours" was presented on May 10, 1942. The Oldtimer introduced the episode by explaining that it was "strangely fitting" that the topic of the last episode was Russia and the Soviet Union. In WWII Russia fought on the side of the allies against the Nazis, so the statement seems strange now. But with government funding comes government input. The comment foreshadows the "cold war" that followed victory in 1945. More here.

Secretary Abbot formed the Smithsonian War Committee in early1942 to provide Smithsonian expertise to the war effort. The staff provided expertise, and also created a number of pamphlets. In May of 1942 The World Is Yours was suspended due to the demands of the war effort. It seems strange of course, that the radio staff be halted for military intelligence. There's not a lot of voice actors doing double duty. For the governments part, they had been converting the WPA to Defense-related tasks since 1940. They hit "full employment" in 1942, and the last head of the WPA, Howard O. Hunter, served as head of the WPA from September 1940 to May 1, 1942. Roosevelt formally ended the program in December 1942. 

March 1940

The Smithsonian Archives kept approximately 138 recordings in the form of 300 sixteen-inch transcription discs from the series and scripts for another 59. The collection also includes quarter inch tapes. In 2019 The Smithsonian began digitizing the collection. Because the program was funded by the federal government, the episodes are public domain.