I listen to a lot of old time radio shows; Johnny Dollar, The Shadow, Superman… things like that. They’re often very good little dramas, and they don’t require my visual attention.
They were the mass media of the time. And unlike today, there weren’t thousands of choices for content, and there was little freedom concerning when you could listen in. Just a few choices played nightly or once a week. Listen or miss it.
They are also very interesting time capsules. Phrases we don’t use any more. Politically incorrect characterizations. Positive, hopeful national identity (a refreshing break from modern American recommended self-loathing). Even an occasional hat tip to that religion which the vast majority of Americans at least acknowledged as common and useful (which was Christianity, as it is now).
And sometimes there are just these odd little facts…
_Unto Death Do Us Part_, a “The Shadow” episode from March 6th, 1949, had an announcement in it for [CARE](http://www.care.org/), and something you don’t even see on [their history page](http://www.care.org/about/history.asp) was there. In soliciting support for a particular CARE initiative, the announcer said “CARE, the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, proposes to help meet that need…”
CARE is an acronym? Hmph. Never knew.
Though the organization has now a much broader scope, I just found it interesting where it started: a movement of Americans voluntarily helping European (and later Asian) survivors of WWII.