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