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One of America’s most admired women, pioneer television newscaster Dorothy Snell Fuldheim (1893-1989) began her career as a lecturer in the 1920s and entered broadcasting with a biographical series on WTAM radio in Cleveland. In 1947, Fuldheim joined Ohio’s first commercial television station, WEWS, becoming the first woman in the United States to anchor a news show. Her later work included the long-running “One O’clock Club” live interview show and regular news commentary. During her six-decade career in an often youth-dominated profession, Fuldheim conducted over 15,000 interviews-including Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, the Duke of Windsor, Albert Einstein, and Helen Keller-in a unique and erudite style. She retired in 1984 at the age of 91.
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Established as the Oxford Township Cemetery in 1880, this public graveyard replaced the original one at the corner of College Avenue and Spring Street. That earlier burial ground was abandoned when the railroad bisected it in the 1850s. New cemeteries were established including the privately incorporated Oxford Cemetery, the Catholic Mt. Olivet Cemetery, and this one, renamed Woodside Cemetery in 1931. Bodies transferred here from the original graveyard included those of early 19th-century settlers, who were reinterred in the “Pioneer Quad” at the south end. The cemetery includes veterans of the nation’s wars, including one from the 54th Massachusetts regiment of Civil War fame, and generations of African Americans, who comprised 20% of Oxford’s population in the late 19th century. Maintained by the township and then jointly by the township and city, Woodside became solely the city’s responsibility in 2002.
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When radio station WJW disc jockey Alan Freed (1921-1965) used the term “rock and roll” to describe the uptempo black rhythm and blues records he played beginning in 1951, he named a new genre of popular music that appealed to audiences on both sides of 1950s American racial boundaries–and dominated American culture for the rest of the 20th century. The popularity of Freed’s nightly “Moon Dog House Rock and Roll Party” radio show encouraged him to organize the Moondog Coronation Ball–the first rock concert. Held at the Cleveland Arena on March 21, 1952, the oversold show was beset by a riot during the first set. Freed, a charter inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, moved to WINS in New York City in 1954 and continued to promote rock music through radio, television, movies, and live performances.
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Ruth Lyons, born in Cincinnati’s East End, was a broadcaster and businesswoman known for her radio and television show, The 50-50 Club and her charity, The Ruth Lyons Children’s Fund. Lyons was considered a creator of talk television and she was one of the first to turn the camera on her audience, now a common practice on TV talk shows. Lyons is credited with influencing generations of broadcasters, such as Nick Clooney, Bob Braun, David Letterman, and Jane Pauley. In 1858, she was invited to join NBC’s Today Show for a week. Lyons was a resident of 332 Tusculum Avenue and 3614 Morris Place. Her first husband, John lived at 420 and 427 Tusculum Avenue and they were married at the Morris Place residence.
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“…on Sunday morning, especially in the African American community, you could go down the street and hear The Wings Over Jordan just coming from everybody’s house….” Glenn Brackens, 2017. Upholding the sanctity of traditional African American spirituals, believing in the power of radio to uplift listeners, and recognizing his choir’s rich talent, Rev. Glenn T. Settle (1894-1967), pastor of Gethsemane Baptist Church, originated the “Negro Hour” on Cleveland’s WGAR in 1937. The Sunday morning radio show featured the choir’s moving renditions of spirituals and was originally directed by James Tate (1918-1986). Williette Firmbanks Thompson (1910-1992) was assistant director and a soloist (Continued on other side)
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