Birth and Cancer, Prog. No. 156.

This is the last program of "It's Your Life", an award-winning documentary show that thrilled Midwestern audiences for one year. In this episode, producer and narrator Ben Park states: "Birth and Cancer have a lot in common". His reporter, Don Herbert (who would later achieve great fame as television's "Mr. Wizard") presents interviews with the people involved in the story of a throat cancer patient who becomes the first man to undergo cancer therapy using a betatron, a particle accelerator (presumably in Chicago). Also included: the story of a diabetic woman who gives birth to a baby via a cesarean section; a harrowing snippet from a "juvenile delinquent" describing his mother's ways with corporal punishment; and a visit to the baby whose birth was the subject of the first "It's Your Life" program, a year earlier, and who is now on the brink of walking.

The program ends with a heartbreaking plea for letters of support from listeners to WMAQ in Chicago to keep the program on the air.

Sponsored by Johnson & Johnson and produced by Chicago Industrial Health Association.

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 91001
Municipal archives id: LT1973