Before there was Sidney Poitier and Harry Bellafonte, there was Canada Lee...who along with Paul Robeson was among the very few black actors to scratch out a dignified living in Hollywood movies during the 1930s and 40s. Lee was born in New York City on March 3rd, 1907. He studied music as a child, but at age 19 Lee became a professional boxer. Even though he was rich and successful, Lee quit boxing 1933 after losing sight in his right eye. Lee then formed a dance band, took up acting, and began performing in live theater productions. Canada Lee made his film debut in Keep Punching, a 1939 movie about boxing. In 1944 he appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Lifeboat. In 1947, he appeared as Ben Chaplin in the boxing film noir, Body and Soul starring John Garfield.

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The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was the first integrated all-women's band in the United States. The Sweethearts were formed at Piney Woods Country Life School in Mississippi in 1938, to help raise funds for the facility which served poor, orphaned, and African American children. By 1941, the band was so successful they hit the road, playing swing and jazz across the nation including New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Europe. In addition to black women, members of the band included Latina, Asian, Caucasian, Indian and Puerto Rican females, making touring the Jim Crow South very difficult. During the 1940s the band featured some of the best female musicians of the era. They made radio and movie appearances, but despite their success, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm disbanded in 1949, as members left to start their families, as big bands started to decline in popularity. You will hear two radio appearances by the Sweethearts on the show Jubilee in 1944, and 1945.

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The life and times of John Fitzgerald Kennedy have been the subject of many history books. The public got to see him up close and personal after Senator Kennedy announced his campaign for president in 1960. The Democrat appeared on Meet The Press, which aired on NBC radio and television. We have two of his appearances, the first on January 3rd, 1960, and on October 16th, 1960 just a few weeks before the general election, when he beat Republican rival Richard Nixon to win the White House. After taking office, President Kennedy appointed his brother Robert as U.S. Attorney General, who appeared on Meet the Press September 9th, 1961 to provide the administration's progress report. Both men would die from the bullets of assassins before the end of the decade.

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