Archives West Finding Aid

The George Snell papers (1928-1984) document early radio in Salt Lake City, Utah, at station KDYL and the development of United Broadcasting Company in San Jose, California. A majority of the collection documents early radio programming through radio scripts that Snell wrote. The collection also covers the developmental phase, sale, and acquisition of radio stations. Although the collection centers on radio scripts, the preparation papers for the sale of radio stations are a useful insight into modern radio developments and concerns. Another large section includes correspondence from Vardis Fisher, Ellis Foote, Grant H. Redford, and other western writers.

The collection is divided into three sections: Personal Materials, Early Radio Days, 1927 1947, and United Broadcasting Company. The first section, Personal Materials, contains biographical materials that portray both the radio and literary sides of George Snell. One of the largest categories in this section is the Vardis Fisher material, box two. Fisher and Snell had extensive correspondence from 1934 until Fisher's death in 1968. The correspondence delineates Snell's reviewing ability, Snell's and Fisher's reactions to several world wide events, a wager over their literary disagreement about Steinbeck and Hemingway, Fisher's Testament of Man series, and other topics. In addition to the correspondence are reviews, interviews, biographical materials, and other miscellanea.

The personal materials section also contains correspondence from Ellis Foote, Grant H. Redford, Ira J. Kaar, and others. Snell's correspondence with Foote, a western poet, was colorful and, at times, demonstrably graphic. The Foote correspondence characterizes Foote as a troubled and struggling poet with a vengeance for expletives. The Kaar correspondence is a smaller file with several letters about the early Utah radio days at KDYL where Kaar built its first radio transmitter. The Redford correspondence deals with the administrative and selective matters of the Rocky Mountain Review, a literary publication controlled by Snell and Redford.

The second section, Early Radio Days, 1927 1947, documents the early portion of Snell's radio career at KDYL in Salt Lake City and at KPO NBC in San Francisco. The majority of material in this section is radio scripts written by Snell. At KDYL, Snell wrote scripts for advertising companies and products. These scripts are listed alphabetically by company name. Snell was affiliated with KDYL for almost twenty years and served in many capacities: announcer, program director, writer, and others. KDYL radio scripts are in box three. In 1945, Snell left Salt Lake to write for NBC in San Francisco. As part of his duties, Snell wrote and produced "The Standard Hour" and "The Standard School Broadcast" from 1945 until he left in 1947. KPO NBC scripts are located in boxes four and five. Snell characterized his radio days at NBC as some of the best in his career. For a brief period, he continued to write and produce "The Standard" scripts, even after he left NBC in 1947 to form station KEEN in San Jose, California, with Floyd Farr and George Mardikian.

The third section, United Broadcasting Company, documents the formation of KEEN in San Jose and the sale of KFIG, KVEG, KFOA, and KAHU. The United Broadcasting Company was formed by Snell, Floyd Farr, George Mardikian, owner of "Omar Kharryam," a popular restaurant with its own radio show, and several others. The company began with KEEN, and the initial formation is documented in box six. The sale of later acquired stations is documented in boxes six and seven. This section provides the most business related information of radio in the collection. It is a good source of material documenting in the sale and acquisition of radio stations.

Although the Snell collection leans heavily toward the script production of early radio in Salt Lake City and San Francisco, it also documents and portrays the early entrepreneurial spirit of post World War II radio geniuses. Snell, Farr, and George Mardikian, their philanthropist friend/business partner, developed some of the most popular music formats, including "beautiful music" and cowboy western, across the country. The collection, in addition to portraying early radio scripts, captures the aggressive beginnings of popular radio from the early 1920s to the present.