For decades alongside the columns of news in Indianapolis papers readers could find stories of human interest and opinion written by a variety of nationally syndicated columnists. In 1928, the Indianapolis Times introduced journalist Heywood Broun whose daily column “It Seems to Me” took readers “behind the scenes of every daily happening of world-wide interest.” A few years later the Times began featuring “Fair Enough,” a column by Westbrook Pegler who brought to readers “adventurous, fearless enthusiasm and keen, witty appraisal of events — just plain common sense served with the sauce of salty wit.” Among early Indianapolis Star syndicated journalists was sportswriter Grantland Rice whose column “Sportlight,” written in “elegant prose,” elevated a mere sporting event “to the level of ancient combat” and conveyed heroic players “to the status of demigods.” As America was preparing to enter World War II, the Star picked-up journalist Drew Pearson’s “Washington Merry-Go-Round” column, “a sprightly report of the inside life and political workings of our nation’s capital.”
When I began reading Indianapolis newspapers, the Indianapolis Star had a few local columnists. Lowell Nussbaum, whose daily column “The Things I Hear” first appeared in the Star in 1945, relied “on the good will of an immense circle of fans to keep him informed regarding various happenings that never find their way into the regular news columns.” The unusual experience, embarrassing moments, or humorous items that come into the lives of local citizens were subjects for his column. Nussbaum used “The Things I Hear” to promote establishment of the Indianapolis Zoo. When Nussbaum went on vacation in 1971, Tom Keating filled-in for him and later that year he began writing his own column for the Star when Nussbaum retired. For fourteen years, readers opened the morning paper to Keating’s column. In it they found, as Keating said, “a feature story…Some call it ‘human interest,’ whatever that is. I try to find something interesting, something that I myself don’t know about.”
The Indianapolis News had a bevy of in-house columnists. Myrtie Barker, wheelchair-bound since a childhood bout with polio, wrote “My Window” for over thirty years until her death in 1983. Writing about ordinary people and experiences “that were unnoticed, yet vitally important,” she invited the reader to “sit down — here in this old rocker” and “see many phases of life from my window.” “Ringside in Hoosierland,” by veteran journalist Wayne Guthrie, debuted in 1947 “designed to be interested primarily and vitally in things Hoosier — people, places and events in this most distinctive commonwealth of the Union” and dedicated to Richard Lieber, the father of the Indiana state park system. Another column, “Don’t Quote Me,” made its appearance in 1949 at the suggestion of Bill Wildhack who said it filled “the role of having an old friend drop by for a chat.” The column featured Abner Swen, a device Wildhack used from time to time to “satirize politicians and political developments.” Later, David Mannweiler wrote the “Don’t Quote Me” column before continuing one under his own name. A must-read weekly column for anyone following Indiana politics was written “in careful prose that could glisten on a page” by the News political editor Ed Ziegner, “dean of the State House press corp.”
Readers of the Indianapolis Times were introduced to legendary journalist Ernie Pyle through his daily column as aviation editor, logging over 100,000 miles throughout the United States from 1928 to 1932. Four years later he became a roving reporter, going “where he pleases, when he pleases, in search of odd stories about this and that” and describing his globe-trotting adventures in the column “Vagabond from Indiana.” In 1939 Pyle’s reporting theme continued when the column became “Hoosier Vagabond” and it was through these writings that, as a war correspondent, he kept the home front informed of the battlefront heroics of his beloved G. I.s from North Africa, to Sicily, Italy, France, and the Pacific. Indianapolis architect and historian Anton “Tony” Scherrer was a Times columnist of the ‘30s and ‘40s. In his column “Our Town,” Scherrer had a “friendly, intriguing, intimate way of saying things” as he provided a “close-up, personal glimpse of the people and the goings-on” in the city. His column “Christmas Eve: When I was a Boy” was reprinted several times. Times managing editor Irving “Leibo” Leibowitz, through his column “Hoosier Headlines,” wrote about City Hall and the Statehouse personalities, giving either “a pat on the back” or a “barb” when warranted. Public officials said, “We read Leibo’s column first and then turned to the front page.”
“Voice from the Gallery” was a long-running column in the Indianapolis Recorder by educator and civic leader Andrew Ramsey. “Through his pen, he reached the multitudes of those underprivileged and those discriminated against and got the city on the move in the right direction in the field of civil rights.” Later journalist Amos Brown was an equally passionate advocate in his column “Just Tellin’ It” on behalf of the Indianapolis black community sharing “ideas and information that cause you to think, discuss and sometimes take action.”
Long before I was able to read, among the first Indianapolis writers to be offered a column in a local newspaper was James Whitcomb Riley. In the fall of 1879, the Indianapolis Journal asked the Hoosier Poet to submit an occasional poem for publication and on December 2, 1879 his poem the “The Lost Kiss” appeared. For the next quarter century readers of the Journal were treated with a random Riley poem.
In 1904 Indianapolis News cartoonist and humorist Kin Hubbard introduced the Brown County philosopher Abe Martin to the reading public in a single panel cartoon on the back page of the paper. Seven years later, Abe Martin was given his own weekly column, “Short Furrows,” which appeared in the Saturday edition of the News over the following nineteen years. Abe entertained his audience with wit and humor about his Bloom Center neighbors and how they coped with everyday life and world events. He once said, “Th’ cost o’ livin’ may be a little steep these days, but, by ginger, we’re livin’,” which may best express his philosophy. Around the same time that “Short Furrows” appeared, suffragist Grace Julian Clarke began writing a column, “Woman’s Clubs,” in the Indianapolis Star. She also wrote a column on local history, particularly about her neighborhood of Irvington, under her byline and under the byline of “An Early Settler.”
Today, blogs and podcasts provide the venues for journalists and writers who once would have had their words forever imbedded in black ink on newsprint.
