Interview with Barry Bingham Sr.

Partial Transcript: First question is, in '36 your father in his correspondence considered resigning in late 1936, do you remember those circumstances?

Segment Synopsis: Bingham discusses his father's ill health in his final days and their communication on deciding whether or not to resign the UK ambassadorship.

Keywords: ambassador; illness

Subjects: Frankiln D. Roosevelt Hodgkin's disease

Partial Transcript: I just noticed last night a letter to, from your father to Roosevelt, that returned, and your father's great support with Roosevelt on his court battles, so-called court packing, did your father have any critical things to say about Roosevelt?

Segment Synopsis: Bingham talks about his fathers great support of FDR, but notes his quiet opposition to Roosevelt's targeting of conservative Democrats in Congress as well as his frustration with the Hughes Court.

Keywords: democrats; judges; justices; reform

Subjects: Democratic Party New Deal Supreme Court

Partial Transcript: How about your father's opinion of Hearst, the newspaper?

Segment Synopsis: Bingham discusses his father's derision of Hearst Newspapers and explains the Hearst's various attempts to discredit Bingham on the growing conflict in Europe as ambassador.

Keywords: anglophobia; journalism; politics; publisher; WWII

Subjects: Hearst Papers William R. Hearst World War II

Partial Transcript: Did your father keep, I just noticed this thing about the diary, that the wording of the diary, in the diaries that I looked at in the Library of Congress, indicates that they were written days or even weeks afterwards, do you remember how those diaries were written?

Segment Synopsis: Bingham explains his father's rather spotty record-keeping and expresses his regret that his father did not take more care in preserving his memory. Bingham later details the process of donating his fathers papers to the Library of Congress.

Keywords: appointment; recollection; record; secretary

Subjects: Robert W. Bingham

Partial Transcript: What was the origin of Mark Ethridge coming to the Courier?

Segment Synopsis: Bingham details two figures who helped the Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times expand into a nationally recognized paper and the influence each writer had on standardizing the journalistic practices at the Courier. Bingham additionally gives insight to his own philosophy on managing the paper while talking about the prohibition issue.

Keywords: community; conservationism; editorials; foreign policy; liberal; policy; president; progressive; prohibition; readability; statesman

Subjects: Franklin D. Roosevelt Harrison Robertson Inter-American Press Association

Partial Transcript: I've read across before the situation where he initiated a story about Pat Callahan, and the liquor going to Pat Callahan's house, which in a letter from you to your father you were apologizing to your father for what had happened as your father was quite upset about having heard Pat Callahan...

Segment Synopsis: Bingham briefly mentions another Louisville progressive giant, Colonel Patrick Callahan and his family's struggle with alcohol.

Keywords: probihition

Subjects: Patrick Callahan

Partial Transcript: Another situation that I noticed some letters and some notations in the diaries about some stories in the Courier that your father thought were bad for the administration, not only, one was about a labor editorial, there was a letter from you to your father about an editorial comparison with racket-riddled Seattle that your father was quite upset about...

Segment Synopsis: Bingham discusses a few of the disagreements between Judge Bingham and senior editor Harrison Robertson, where Bingham shares his fathers views on critical issues at the time, such as unions, child labor, and the creation of a living wage.

Keywords: capitalism; employment; industry; newsboys; paper boys; wage

Subjects: Franklin D. Roosevelt Harrison Robertson New Deal

Partial Transcript: Why didn't your brother come in?

Segment Synopsis: Bingham talks about his older brother and his turbulent lifestyle.

Keywords: alcoholism

Subjects: Standard Review

Partial Transcript: How prepared were you to move into the newspaper business?

Segment Synopsis: Bingham shares the process in which he eventually came to inherit his fathers media empire, detailing his early career in journalism before being called to the office to learn administrative skills.

Keywords: college; experiance; police report; training

Subjects: Harvard University Henrietta Bingham Louisville Times

Partial Transcript: I want to ask you about James B. Brown and your father...

Segment Synopsis: Bingham explains the varying relationships of his father with notable Kentucky politicians and businessman, detailing the sometimes friendly and other times fraught partnerships that helped grow the Courier-Journal.

Keywords: network; politics; powerbroker

Subjects: A.B. "Happy" Chandler Bank of Kentucky J.C.W. Beckam Louisville Herald-Post

Partial Transcript: When the Herald-Post was in its, I guess we can say death throes, in 1930, I found some interesting letters between you and your father, in which you speak of even buying up the presses, and the word you use is "insurance," to eliminate those papers. Do you remember those situations?

Segment Synopsis: Bingham discusses the near monopoly his family had on Kentucky news and the weak competition posed by James B. Brown. He later talks about family profit and the opportunity to buy other regional newspapers.

Keywords: competition; earnings; newspaper; profit; regional; stockholders; wages

Subjects: The Baker County News

Partial Transcript: A letter from Grover Page to your father mentions a 10% pay cut early in the depression, was that across the board?

Segment Synopsis: Bingham discusses the measures taken by the Courier-Journal to keep steady employment during the Great Depression, and outlines pressing issues the paper faced during the crisis.

Keywords: advertisment; economy; price

Subjects: Great Depression Herald-Post

Partial Transcript: What other, tell me about Grover Page?

Segment Synopsis: Bingham discusses the career of Courier cartoonist Grover Page.

Keywords: cartoonist; cartoons; woodcuts

Subjects: Kentucky art

Partial Transcript: What about Manny Levi?

Segment Synopsis: Bingham shares his experience with his fathers right hand man, Emmanuel Levi, whom Bingham had numerous problems with. He discusses some of the conflicts he and Levi got into, the beginning of a Bingham-financed insurance company, and Levi's eventual departure from the company.

Keywords: advertisement; insurance; lawyer; newspaper; stockholder

Subjects:

Partial Transcript: This goes back to the previous topic, when Mark Ethridge came to the paper, how did you entice him to come to the Courier?

Segment Synopsis: Bingham explains how Mark Ethridge eventually came to work at the Courier-Journal and further details why he decided to lead the Courier-Journal.

Keywords: conservative; progressives

Subjects: Richmond, KY

Partial Transcript: I want to get your reaction to William Lesy's book, "Real Life: Louisville in the Twenties," I guess you've read the book, you read the rather unfavorable things he said about your father, and it's not so much, it's the way it's written...

Segment Synopsis: Bingham responds to a book that chronicles life in Louisville during his fathers influence.

Keywords:

Subjects: Michael Lesy Wisconsin Death Trip