Talk:Bill Downs

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Journalism

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References to "We Went Back" in the section "Operation Crossroads and the Berlin Blockade" are, at best, muddled.

"We Went Back" was a standalone radio documentary, a one-hour show on the CBS radio network that aired at 10:00 pm on Thursday, Aug. 14, 1947. Narrated by the actor Robert Montgomery, it was a groundbreaking piece of radio, arguably the first modern radio documentary. The basic idea: three of the network's wartime reporters would return to places where they reported and, two years after the end of the war, they would tell their American listeners how life has changed in Europe (Bill Downs), Japan (Bill Costello), and the Pacific (James Hurlbut). The script was by Allan Sloane; Guy della Cioppa was the director, and the entire enterprise was produced by Robert Heller, chief of the famed CBS Documentary Unit. (In 2019, after I first heard the show, I obtained a copy of the "as broadcast" script.)

It is sometimes described as the first radio tape-recorded (American) radio documentary. That's not quite correct. Downs and his engineer recorded on the established, high-quality media of the day, disc. The other reporters used wire recorders, and the quality is notably inferior. The final product, however, seems to have been produced on tape. As a career radio journalist, my ears tell me the extensive use of actualities, the editing, and the ambient sound could likely have been put together only on tape.

Acclaimed photographer David Seymour ("Chim") may have documented part of the CBS crew's work, but I haven't seen any evidence — though truthfully I haven't really looked — that suggests he was a part of the radio effort in any way. It's a terrific photo of Bill Downs in the ruins of Berlin (?), but I suspect it was staged, or so it looks to me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MrArtC (talk • contribs) 20:56, 28 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]