Hoosier History Live

She was the victim of one of the most lurid crimes in Indiana history, the brutal rape in March 1925 by  D.C. Stephenson , Grand Dragon of the  Ku Klux Klan , that led to her eventual death after a suicide attempt.  The deathbed testimony of  Madge Oberholtzer , a resident of the  Irvington  neighborhood of Indianapolis, resulted in the eventual conviction of Stephenson of second degree murder, a...

Both were pioneer aviators and heroic  World War I  fighter pilots from Indiana, and both were killed while flying aircraft overseas. And  Weir Cook  and  Paul Baer  once were the namesakes of the airports in the two largest cities in their home state. Today, although those airports are officially called  Indianapolis International Airport  and  Fort Wayne International Airport , the terminal buil...

As Hoosier History Live salutes  Women's History Month , we will explore a range of aspects associated with women who have served in the  Indiana General Assembly  and as state and federal officials from the Hoosier state. What questions have been asked of women candidates for public office that have not been posed to their male counterparts? What's been the percentage of female lawmakers at the ...

As Hoosier History Live salutes  Black History Month , our focus will be on a massive movement of an estimated 6 million people during a span of nearly 60 years. Beginning during the  World War I  era, African Americans migrated in unprecedented numbers from the South to cities in Northern states, including Indiana. According to  an article published in  Smithsonian  magazine , the waves of 20th c...

As Hoosier History Live salutes  Black History Month  - as well as the  Bicentennial era of Indianapolis  - we will explore the life of the first woman of color to move to the new Hoosier capital in 1821. Little had been known about  Chaney Lively  (1800-1858?), who came to the Indiana wilderness from Kentucky, until our guest researched her life for  a cover story in 2019 for Nuvo , the alternati...

For another show in our periodic series that offers listeners an opportunity to call with questions about Indiana's heritage, our host, author and historian  Nelson Price , will be joined by  Charlie Hyde , CEO of the  Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site . In between phone calls from listeners, Nelson and Charlie will interview each other about an array of topics, including how  Benjamin Harrison...

Since  our show in 2019 about the Indiana Medical History Museum , news has unfolded related to the museum, which is housed in a building that was part of the historic campus of the former  Central State Hospital , a psychiatric facility in Indianapolis that closed in 1994. Some of the developments concern the efforts of the  Indiana Medical History Museum  to identify the unmarked graves of patie...

Like a seasoned pop music act reuniting for another sold-out tour, host  Nelson Price  and his guest  David Lindquist  will join forces once again to explore tales from David's more than 22 years of writing about pop music and culture for  The Indianapolis Star . But don't expect a rehash of greatest hits from  their show last December . The two have plenty of fresh material to explore that they s...

Later this year, a historic marker is planned for the birthplace in  Brazil , Ind., of  Jimmy Hoffa , the controversial labor leader whose disappearance in 1975 remains one of the country's major missing persons cases. Hoffa, the powerful, long-time president of the  International Brotherhood of the Teamsters , met with  Rev. Martin Luther King Jr . in 1965 to make a donation to social justice wor...

In his new memoir, he describes himself as a "meek" boy who dealt with a severe stutter when he was growing up on the northside of Indianapolis. So  John Mutz , now 85, seemed unlikely to carve out a career as a political and civic leader. But even before his two terms as Indiana's lieutenant governor (1981-89), he was playing a key role in many facets of the modern history of his hometown, includ...

To mark the start of the new season for the  Indiana Pacers  , we will time travel more than 50 years back to explore the history that led up to their debut game against the Kentucky Colonels in the  Coliseum  at the  State Fairgrounds  in Indianapolis. The new team was part of an upstart professional league, the colorful  American Basketball Association  (ABA), and before any of the players had e...

As Hoosier History Live kicks off our 13th year on the air, our spotlight will turn to a historic milestone for Indiana's largest city. Many historians consider  Jan. 6, 1821  to be the official birthdate of  Indianapolis  (it's often called  Founders Day  for the city) because that's when the  Indiana General Assembly  approved the site selected for the new state capital. They also approved the n...

On the shores of  Lake Michigan  at the  Indiana Dunes , five distinctive houses - including the legendary  House of Tomorrow  - are the focus of nearly as much public interest as the famous sand dunes. They also are the focus of this encore show originally broadcast in 2018. Designed as showplace homes for the  1933 Chicago World's Fair , the houses were brought by barge to the resort town of  Be...

One of his final stories for   The Indianapolis Star  focused on a new website full of details about more than 55 years of concerts:  indianarockhistory.com For more than 22 of those years,  David Lindquist  has written about pop music and culture for  The Star , reviewing concerts through three name changes for the venue that opened as  Deer Creek Music Center  (it's now  Ruoff ), covering the tr...

Never mind that he died 25 years ago and that his low-budget TV show was filmed at a small public television station housed in a converted historic home. Bushy-haired art instructor  Bob Ross  and  The Joy of Painting  series that he hosted are in the spotlight again, with  CNN ,  The New York Times  and other national media doing recent reports from  Muncie .  That's because  Minnetrista , the cu...

Both in population and geographic size, it's the smallest county in Indiana. But it's considered among the most scenic. Ohio County,  located in the far-southeastern corner of the Hoosier state, along with its only incorporated city,  Rising Sun , have a colorful heritage that will be the focus of our show. One of the few harp factories in the world is housed in a historic building on  Main Street...

With percussion instruments that included a makeshift washboard and a stage routine punctuated by comic banter between their musical numbers, they were nationally known entertainers from the 1920s through the mid-1940s. The Hoosier Hot Shots  were regulars on  National Barn Dance , one of the most popular radio shows in the country, broadcast on  WLS-AM  in Chicago. They were featured as a novelty...

Small cities and towns in Indiana often seem tranquil, but they periodically have been the settings for murders that made national headlines. They have also been the birthplaces of suspected killers, including a notorious native of  Elwood  dubbed "Gun Girl" by the national press during the  Great Depression. For one of our periodic shows exploring true crimes, Hoosier History Live will delve into...

The  Wright Brothers  are so identified with Dayton, Ohio, where they lived for most of their adult lives, that even aviation buffs often are surprised to learn that one of the legendary siblings was a native Hoosier.   Not only was  Wilbur , the eldest brother, born in the small town of  Millville  in eastern Indiana in 1867, other Indiana connections occurred as the family moved several times in...

The cultural and theatrical life of the Hoosier capital suffered two huge losses during the third week of September 2020. Within the space of three days,  Indianapolis  learned of the death of two of its most creative, boundary-pushing directors:  Ron Spencer , founder and artistic director of  Theatre on the Square  (TOTS), and  Bryan Fonseca , who co-founded the  Phoenix Theatre . We hope to cov...

We Hoosiers are known to be self-effacing, so there hasn't been much inclination to toot our own horn about the state's heritage of musical instrument making. Consider this, though: the largest maker of drums and percussion equipment in the world during the early 1900s was located in  Indianapolis . And for most of the 20th century,  Elkhart  was known as the "musical instrument capital" of the co...

Halloween festivities in 1918 were canceled in  Indianapolis  and other Hoosier cities because of the devastating  influenza epidemic . That's been noted during previous Hoosier History Live shows about the infamous epidemic - which is more accurately called a  pandemic  because the often fatal strain of influenza in 1918 and 1919 spread around the world.  Also during our previous shows on the top...

The mysterious disappearance in 1913 of a 9-year-old girl in  New Castle  triggered a national search that continued for years. The possible abduction and murder of  Catherine Winters  - who vanished while walking on one of the town's busiest streets and never was found - became a haunting tale that continues to be told to this day. Another eerie story - also rooted in history - is set at the  Ind...

Nearly 200 years before the era of ubiquitous cell-phone "selfies" - and decades before the  Brownie camera  introduced snapshots to the mass consumer market - photographers were capturing images across Indiana. Clear back in the 1820s, a teenager in  New Harmony  was experimenting with "solar picture drawings." In the early 1840s, a professor at  Indiana University  became Indiana's earliest docu...

Typically, the  10 Most Endangered Places  list of  Indiana Landmarks  features single sites, such as a historic church, school, hotel or bridge with an imperiled fate. But in the case of a small city on the  Wabash River  in far-western Indiana, the entire downtown is on the endangered list. Attica, Ind ., flourished with the building of the  Wabash and Erie Canal  during the 1840s and, about 10...