Wonderful Inventions: Motion Pictures, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound at the Library of Congress

This anthology provides a brief introduction to the vast archive of materials at the Library of Congress related to radio programs, films, television shows, and sound recordings.

The film section concentrates on directors, cameramen, actors, music, restoration, preservation, and some of the treasures in the Library's motion picture collections. It was written by participants, on-the-scene observers, and interviewers, as well as by researchers, historians, and scholars. The broadcasting and recorded sound sections are similarly broadly based and well researched. Reminiscences are juxtaposed with in-depth analyses and range in time from the silent era and the early days of the recording and television industries to the present age of highly sophisticated techniques such as those employed by the Disney Studios and the makers of Star Trek.

This varied collection of essays is enhanced by over four hundred stills, frame enlargements, and other illustrations (some in color), more than sixty musical examples, two twelve-inch records of film music, biographies of the authors, and an extensive index.