Oscar Brand Family Collection

Biographical Sketch: 

Oscar Brand (1920–2016) was a radio and television host, musician, and writer best known for his radio show Folksong Festival, which broke a Guinness world record in 2005 for the longest running weekly radio show with the same host. Brand was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada on February 7, 1920, youngest brother to sister Edith and brother Harry. His father was an interpreter at Hudson’s Bay Company as well as the owner of a theatre supply store and a pawnshop. At age 7, Brand’s family moved to the United States seeking treatment for Brand, who had contracted polio. He lost a calf muscle due to the virus. In 1942, after graduating from Brooklyn College with a degree in psychology, Brand joined the army where he worked as both editor for a newspaper for psychiatric patients and as a psychologist. Brand’s radio career, which spanned more than 70 years, began in 1945. His radio show, Folksong Festival, featured numerous folk singers, including Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Phil Ochs, and the Weavers, and remained a home for blacklisted musicians during the McCarthy era.  

In addition to his long running radio show, Oscar Brand wrote several hit songs such as “A Guy is a Guy” and “Something to Sing About.” Brand wrote music for two Broadway musicals, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N*K*A*P*L*A*N and A Joyful Noise. In addition, Brand worked on two off-Broadway shows, It’s a Jungle out There and How to Steal an Election that covered the difficult topics of blacklisting and election fraud. Brand also penned several books about folk music, hosted a Canadian television show called Let’s Sing Out in the 1960s, and served as an advisor for the acclaimed children’s series Sesame Street. Brand recorded nearly 100 studio albums on a broad range of subjects, including holiday songs, children’s songs, and military songs. He won a Peabody award for his impact on radio broadcasting in 1995. In his personal life, Brand married Karen Grossman in 1970 and, along with his three children Jeannie, Eric, and James from a previous marriage, the two had one child together, Jordan. Brand died on September 30, 2016, at age 96 in Great Neck, New York. 

Scope and Contents: 

The Oscar Brand Family Collection includes personal papers, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, sound recordings, moving images, news clippings, items related to television appearances, books, theatrical scripts, materials documenting performances, songbooks, textiles, awards, artifacts, and musical instruments. Photographs, sound recordings, and items documenting Brand’s numerous performances comprise the bulk of the collection. Brand performed with fellow folk musician Jean Ritchie on a number of occasions. The collection includes concert flyers, sound recordings, and videotapes documenting some of their performances together. Brand also collaborated on several musicals, and the collection includes posters, playbills, flyers, and drafts of scripts from these productions.  

A 2023 addition to the collection includes photographs, awards and certificates, and items related to Brand’s United States Army service during World War II. Brand’s Guinness Book of World Records certificate for the longest running radio show with a single host, a Peabody award, and a Southern Poverty Law Center certificate in recognition of his “contribution to the ongoing fight against hatred and intolerance in America” are also included in the addition.