Indiana Broadcast History Archive

Oral Biography of Howard Caldwell

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Oral Biography of Howard Caldwell and his wife Lynn Caldwell

(Notes by Ally Melnik, J450 History of Journalism, Fall 2021 )

00:00-:05 title screen 

00:09 video starts with old couple (howard and wife lynn) 

00:33 starts talking about growing up during the Great Depression in Irvington 

01:33 starts talking about his parents, family conditions during GD 

03:32 talks about his parents being a mentor to him growing up 

04:30 talks about his grandmother and seeing movies 

*05:46 talks about father again — newspaper and ad industry 

07:19 talks about if he was a good son/kid or not — were just happy 

08:46 talks about joining the navy at 18 

09:15 most trouble he got in as a kid 

12:26 starts telling story about bob forte (spelling?) relating back to something he did as a kid 

13:40 starts talking about high school (started in 1940) 

15:10 starts talking about how he was shy 

16:48 getting drafted in high school 

17:10 repeating first grade due to illness 

18:20 high school again — more about grades, clubs, friends — graduated in 1944, planning for 50-year reunion  

21:54 cut to black 

21:59 video starts again — talking about communicating and going to lynn with problems 

23:10 starts talking about getting drafted into the navy 

24:00 passes navy color test, goes into radio technician school, becomes radio operator and minesweeper — there for 2.5 years 

28:48 starts talking about what motivated him through the navy (father was in navy in ww1) 

29:54 comes back from navy, then stays in the inactive naval reserve for five years (1946-51ish) then called back for 16 more months 

*31:16 job changed from radio operator to journalist in the navy 

*32:05 working in Hagerstown on a local newspaper — first job after graduating from butler 

*34:02 starts talking about time at butler — first went to iu out of war service, majoring in print journalism, operating on gi bill, went to northwestern for summer of 1947 (only time he took broadcast courses, thought he didn’t want to be in broadcasting), went back to iu till middle of sophomore year, then transferred to butler 

*35:44 talks more about broadcasting classes at northwestern, broadcast-related people in the navy 

*36:15 goes to Waukegan, ill. to a radio station and auditions — turned down a job bc he was going into service in 4 weeks, visited other broadcast gms 

*39:31 starts talking about how he ended up in terre haute (fall of 1952) — radio news job WTHI AM, got $75/week 

42:20 cut to black 

42:23 video starts again 

42:30 lynn starts talking about how when howard was in high school she was in grade school 

43:13 starts talking about how the two met in terre haute (spring 1954) — married 9 months after first date 

48:54 says love at first sight <3  50:14 living together in first apartment  51:06 being money conscious — lynn got an allowance  *52:54 mentioned that being money conscious won’t change when he retires so this was filmed when he was still working  53:27 what kind of commitment they made to each other when they got married, working and having kids  55:20 starts telling story about how howard proposed  56:41 starts talking about their kids (3 daughters), living with all women  01:02:40 what it was like for their kids to grow up with a local celebrity  01:03:42 cut to black  01:03:45 video starts again  *01:04:00 what did their daughters think of howard being on tv  01:05:35 playing tennis with daughters and their families  01:07:24 where they lived  01:08:33 having grandkids  01:09:11 favorite room in the house  01:09:51 conversations they’d have when howard got home from work  01:11:23 difficult times in the family — losing their parents, siblings  01:14:26 sister died from lung cancer, howard smoked in military  01:15:26 howard’s sister, lynn’s mother dying young  01:17:09 sister impacting howard  01:18:29 howard’s career, navy seeping into home life  01:19:41 talking about losing keys all the time  01:20:29 things that bothered howard at home  01:21:24 howard’s daily routine outside of work — walking, reading the paper  01:22:58 what he wants to do when he retires  01:25:15 skips ahead  01:25:27 lynn talking about the kind of husband, father, grandfather howard is — married for little over 39 years when this was recorded  01:28:25 what it’s like having the family over  *01:30:18 howard’s personal accomplishments outside of work — book about tony hinkle (spelling?), pictorial book about the city (Indy?) from iu press, planning on writing more books at time of recording  01:32:10 howard’s green notebook of ideas, notes  01:34:48 skips ahead  01:34:56 talking about religion, favorite church  01:37:28 interviewer says pretty much done here  01:37:37 says howard is a popular grandfather  01:38:38 talking about howard’s den, his grandkids going in  01:39:57 getting a computer, green notebook not going into it, grandkids in the den some more  01:41:24 what they listened to on the radio before tv (jack benny)  01:41:35 has howard ever blown up  01:42:23 ends abruptly