by Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa and Eric Colleary
Mel Gussow was the lead cultural critic for the New York Times for more than 40 years. Throughout his career, he recorded interviews with stars and unknowns of the American and British theatre. [Read more…] about Theatre critic Mel Gussow’s legendary interviews available online
The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has awarded the Ransom Center a “Recordings at Risk” grant for $24,600, supporting the project “Preserving the Interview Recordings of Mel Gussow, American and British Theater Critic.” The Ransom Center holds the Gussow (1933-2005) papers. [Read more…] about Mel Gussow’s interviews with actors, playwrights, writers, and directors to be digitized
We left off in part one wondering how to evaluate the Ransom Center’s unique non-commercial sound recordings, particularly when we aren’t able to access their audio content prior to preservation. Verifying written descriptions helps, but there are other considerations to keep in mind, such as a recording’s physical format—different types of material become increasingly unstable with age, but at different rates, and in different ways. [Read more…] about Deadline: 2028—Countdown to preserve audio materials
