Mural Detail, The World of Radio

This segmented circle emphasizes sports and spectacles of the early twentieth century. In the center, Graham McNamee is at the microphone. McNamee was the first sports announcer to do play-by-play reporting for Major League Baseball.
Above, a referee is flanked by boxers. On April 11, 1921, KDKA aired the first ever sports broadcast, reporting the Johnny Ray–Johnny Dundee fight live from ringside. On July 2, 1921, WJY broadcast “the Battle of the Century”—a World Heavyweight Championship bout pitting American Jack Dempsey, the champion, against France’s Georges Carpentier.
At left is a manned stratostat balloon mission. In 1932, Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard and his student Max Cosyns flew a hot-air balloon into the stratosphere, reaching an altitude of 53,153 feet, a new record. In 1933, Piccard brought his stratostat cabin to Chicago’s Century of Progress exhibition, to the awe of American audiences.
The bottom segment depicts the America’s Cup yacht races of September 1899. Guglielmo Marconi astounded the world by transmitting the results of the race from a ship in New York Harbor to a land-based Marconi wireless station located at the offices of the New York Herald.

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The World of Radio.