Milo S. Ryan was born on February 1, 1907 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He graduated from the University of Michigan and taught at Wayne State University beginning in 1935, where he was instrumental in establishing curriculum for journalism in the English department. He later became a professor of radio and television at the University of Washington in the School of Communications. Ryan served as curator of the Milo Ryan Phonoarchive and was the first program manager of KCTS-TV which began at the UW School of Communications on December 7, 1954.
Arranged in 2 series.
The University of Washington began offering courses in journalism in the 1908/09 academic year. Classes were held in Lewis Hall, a stucco building later nicknamed "The Shack" which was originally built for the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
Lewis Hall housed the School of Journalism and produced the University of Washington Daily, the University's daily newspaper. Most of the buildings constructed specifically for the AYP Exposition were not built to last and they were routinely demolished and replaced by new structures. In 1946, faculty advisor George Astel wrote this about "The Shack" in the Tyee, the University Yearbook: "The Shack is an untidy, poorly lighted, confused, crowded, noisy room filled with battered desks, scratched chairs, and ancient typewriters. The neatest trick of the week always has been to type four lines of clean copy on one of these relics. Every machine has a personal quirk. They lose ribbons, jam keys, balk, skip and jump, all on the slightest provocation of some harrassed junior journalist trying to make a five o'clock deadline."
By the 1950s, due to the growth and expansion in the field of journalism and the current leaky, grossly inadequate quarters on campus, it was clear that a new building was needed. In April 1956, the School of Journalism became the School of Communications and a new 4-story School of Communications building was dedicated on campus.
The Department of Speech began in 1925 and became the Department of Speech Communication in the mid-1970's. The Department was housed in Raitt Hall.
The collection contains news items, commercials and literary programs
for use in classes for Milo Ryan's courses as well as student films for
classroom projects at the University of Washington School of Communications.
Items include CBS Newsreels from the 1952 Presidential Convention, a speech by
Henry Ford, a news conference for President John F. Kennedy, television
commercials, and music and literary programs. Student films include a parody
the popular 1950s television show
These films may have been broadcast on KCTS public television, which started out at the University of Washington School of Communications in 1954. At the time, KCTS supplied mainly classroom instructional programs.
The original films are not accessible due to preservation concerns. Arrangements can be made to view the film by contacting the Visual Materials Curator.
Most film reels have not been processed and are not accessible due to
preservation concerns. Viewing copies are only available for
All other film copies were viewed and inspected in 2004, with the
exception of
Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact the Special Collections division of the University of Washington Libraries for details.
Processed by Ashby Lee Collinson, 2006; Alden Lee, 2012.
Most film reels have not been processed and are not accessible due to
preservation concerns. Viewing copies are only available for
All other film copies were viewed and inspected in 2004, with the
exception of
Newsreels on GOP and Democratic Conventions of 1952, television commercials, a literary study, a speech from Henry Ford, political interview from the Skagit Project, and a news conference from President Kennedy in 1961.
KOMO News highlights.
Produced by CBS.
Two original duplicate reels.
NBC News Service: Democratic Convention Special. From day three of the convention.
NBC News Service: Democratic Convention Special. Skagit Project interviews with project's Resident Engineer and others.
NBC News Service: GOP Convention Special. Events leading up to Ike's nomination.
NBC News Service: GOP Convention Special.
NBC News Service Convention Special. "The final showdown on the delegate issues underlies Wednesday night's session of the Republican National Convention...Ike wins the Georgia delegation by a wide margin, and Taft forces concede the Texas issue...Clearing the decks for the nominations with Eisenhower now leading."
NBC News Service: GOP Convention Special. Delegates argue over rules that take place at Convention. General MacArthur appears in keynote address and criticizes the Truman Administration.
Republican Convention in Chicago featuring Harold E. Stassen, Senator Taft, California Governor Earl Warren. General MacArthur gives keynote address.
From the series
Produced by KRMA-TV Denver Colorado.
Presented by KCTS.
Classroom projects created by students from Professor Milo Ryan's Communications course. Included is a Russian propaganda film and appearance by Professor Vernon McKenzie.
Milo Ryan was a Professor emeritus at the University of Washington School of Communications in the 1950s. As a pioneer in local public television, he was KCTS public television's first program director. He is also well known in developing the "Milo Ryan Phonoarchive" which included radio news, documentaries and public affairs programs he discovered at the KIRO radio station in Seattle. At the time, KIRO recorded many CBS programs for time-delayed rebroadcasting. These electronic transcriptions are among the only recordings made of World War II-era news coverage at CBS.
The only known existing film record of Professor Vernon McKenzie, a specialist in Propaganda and Psychological Warfare in the Department of Communications at the University of Washington. Contains an example of Russian propaganda, in the form of a film "Die Sovjetonia ist Militarische Vorbild" (The Soviet Union is a Military Idea), smuggled out of East Germany in 1953 by Prof. McKenzie. Overdubbed in English, Kinescope. Translated by German exchange student and performed by Radio and Television students. Film shows up to Stalin's death but ends at the point he fell out of favor.
Professor Vernon MacKenzie was a professor of journalism at the University of Washington School of Communications. He was an Associated Press war correspondent in Europe during the height of World War II. He was known to be the last man alive to have interviewed both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. A large Nazi flag he commandeered in Germany hung above his office sofa. It once flew over the Schutzstaffel (SS) headquarters in Berlin. MacKenzie taught a very popular course in Propaganda and presented a program called "Channels of Propaganda" over Seattle's educational television station [KCTS] with Professor Milo Ryan.
A class project in the style of an educational program about the different parts of a sailboat. Includes an Army recruitment ad.
Spoof on the popular television show
Possibly broadcast on KCTS Educational Television.
Actors: Bob Diamond, Bill Spencer, Bill Vandever, Silvia Falconer, John Faucett; Producer, "Robert Smith Robert Production."
Spoof of travel shows. The introduction shows a sign of cut-out letters spelling "Rendezvous" held in front of dented, hand-spun globe. Woman with thick Italian accent sits in a café in Italy. She reads aloud a travel manual with "Dos and Don't's." She is appalled at the stereotypes and misinformation, and wishes to meet the American travel agent who wrote it. A dream sequence of spinning paper with wiggly line brings her to America. She talks with a man standing in front of a small cherry tree in front of painted backdrop of the wilderness. She laments that Americans care for the big, and not beautiful. Images of an Italian canal, cathedral and stone village are edited in while she describes their qualities. They discuss different discrepancies in stereotypes between Americans and Italians. A young boy brings her a guitar, and she sings Italian songs. She finds out that he is the American travel agent that wrote the travel manual. Same dream sequence, and she is back in the café in Italy.
Possibly broadcast on KCTS Educational Television.
Class projects from a Milo Ryan Communications course.
Three class projects, including an extended advertisement for
Pope and Shaw Chocolates;
Class projects from a Milo Ryan Communications course.
A classroom project about Mark Twain.
Communications 461 class final projects.
Communications 461 final project.
A class project in the style of a newscast.
Communications 461 Class Finals, Monday group.
Views of car races. Two men looking at a race car and discussing an engine.
Two sailors talking in a bar. Underwater footage, diving scenes, fight with octopus. A scene with a girl holding goggles in front of her face. Two men in a bar stab each other.
Communications 461 class final projects.
A class project about Edgar Allan Poe.
Filmed at the University Playhouse.
United University Scholarship Drive. Series of scenes acted out.
Actors: David Hauenstein, Annaly McPherson, Roseann Sheridan.
Class projects from a Milo Ryan Communications course.
A class final project. A person plays guitar and sings political folk songs about MacArthur, Kennedy, the World's Fair and the Space Needle. A satirical commercial for Jiffy Instant Cake Mix with a man standing in front of a picture of the Grand Coulee Dam, sticking his finger over the spillway while holding a bowl of cake mix.
Milo Ryan's class production about the American West and Frederic Remington.
A videoscope redub.
A classroom project about The Old Testament, from Genesis through Exodus.
Classroom Production/McMacking Productions.