(ENTERTAINMENT--RADIO.) Twice-signed business card of pioneering disc jockey Mary Dee. Printed business card, 2 x 3½ inches; cello tape remnants on left and right edges; signed on recto "Mary Dee" and on verso "May the spirit always be at the top, Mary Dee." [Pittsburgh, PA area], circa 1950
Mary Goode Dudley (1912-1964), known on the air as Mary Dee, is considered the first Black woman to serve as a radio disc jockey in America. Raised in Homestead, PA near Pittsburgh, she attended Howard University before launching a show on her hometown WHOD 860 in August 1948. She offered a mix of music and community affairs; the show gradually expanded to two hours circa 1950-1952, and then to four hours. Later moving on to Baltimore and Philadelphia, she remained a popular radio personality through her death in 1964.
This business card boasts that The Mary Dee Show was "the only 2-hour Negro broadcast in the tri-state area" (presumably meaning eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania).
