Interview with Frederick W. "Rick" Bell, March 21, 2019

Partial Transcript: All right. The following is an unrehearsed interview with Mr. Frederick W. Bell, who prefers to be called Rick, and we know him as Rick, who was a staff photographer for the University of Kentucky's student newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel, uh, beginning in 1965.

Segment Synopsis: Frederick Wayne “Rick” Bell, former photographer for the University of Kentucky’s Kentucky Kernel, was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1946. The unrehearsed, phone interview is conducted by oral historian, Jeffrey Suchanek.

Keywords: Interviews; Kentucky Kernel; Nunn Center; Phone interviews; Student newspapers; The Kernel; Turbulent Years; U.K.; UK; Unrehearsed interviews

Subjects: Interviews.; Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History; Louisville (Ky.); Newspapers.; Photographers; Photography.; Student newspapers and periodicals.; University of Kentucky

Partial Transcript: Uh, what were your, uh, parents' names and what did your dad do for a living?

Segment Synopsis: Bell lists family members' names, occupations, and places of origin. He also discusses his interest in photography and how he received his internship at the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Keywords: Billy Davis; Brothers; Cousins; Fathers; Grandfathers; Grandmothers; Internships; Louisville Courier-Journal; Louisville Times; Marriages; Married; Mothers; Parents; Siblings; The Courier; The Times; Wife

Subjects: Courier-journal (Louisville, Ky.); Families.; Family; Family history; Louisville (Ky.); Marriage.; Portland (Louisville, Ky.)

Partial Transcript: When you were, r--uh, gr--uh, growing up, where did you live? What was your address?

Segment Synopsis: Bell recalls his childhood, suburbanization, and physical housing in the Portland and Shively neighborhoods in Louisville. Bell also describes life in a lower middle class family during his childhood and teenage years.

Keywords: Blue collar; Concrete streets; Draft status; Economic classes; G.I. Bill; G.I. housing; Lower middle class; Neighborhoods; Shively (Louisville, Ky.); Social status; Socioeconomic status; South Louisville (Ky.); Struggles; Suburbanization; Wealth

Subjects: Draft.; Housing development.; Housing.; Louisville (Ky.); Neighborhoods.; Portland (Louisville, Ky.); Shively (Louisville, Ky.); Social classes.; Socioeconomic status; Streets.; Suburbs.; Urban development.; Urbanization.; Working class.

Partial Transcript: Did people tend to have big families with lots of kids during the period of the late forties and early fifties?

Segment Synopsis: Bell describes what families looked like in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Bell discusses public school accommodations for the sharp increase of children born in those years.

Subjects: Families.; Family size; Jefferson County Public Schools; Post-war generation; Public schools.; Shively (Ky.)

Partial Transcript: You know when I was growing up, the neighborhood boys always had a pick-up baseball or football game going on in the summer and fall. What did you and your friends do?

Segment Synopsis: Bell describes his childhood activities and recreation time with friends and family. Bell describes his and his family's impression of his neighborhood growing up.

Keywords: Ambiverts; Books; Briargate; Briargate Presbyterian Church (Louisville, Ky.); Children; Downtown library; Extroverts; Family dinners; Family dynamics; Free time; Holidays; Introverts; Main library; Play time; Reading; Swimming pools; Valley High School (Louisville, Ky.); Westend Theatre (Louisville, Ky.)

Subjects: Basketball.; Buses; Childhood.; Christian family.; Church.; Families.; Libraries.; Presbyterian Church.; Public Safety.; Recreation.; Religion.; University of Kentucky

Partial Transcript: So, you went to the county schools, is that correct?

Segment Synopsis: Bell describes his academic and extracurricular involvement at Rockford Lane Elementary School, Butler Junior High School, and Western High School. Bell also discusses the founding of Western High School and his experience as part of its first graduating class.

Keywords: Butler High School (Ky.); County schools; Double sessions; Grade schools; Junior high; Junior high schools; Pleasure Ridge (Ky.); Pleasure Ridge High School (Ky.); Pleasure Ridge Park (Ky.); Senior class vice president; Western High School (Ky.)

Subjects: Elementary schools.; High schools.; Louisville (Ky.); Shively (Ky.); Student government.; Student publications.; Yearbook

Partial Transcript: Do you recall a student by the name of Sue Wren, who graduated from rest--Western the same year you did, in sixty-five?

Segment Synopsis: Bell talks about the expectations pertaining to college and life after high school for young adults in his generation. Bell also discusses his relationship to former Western High School classmate, Sue Wren.

Keywords: Careers; College expectations; Colleges; Young adults

Subjects: College attendance.; Education, culture, and values; University of Kentucky; Western Kentucky University; Working class.

Partial Transcript: You know, back when you and I went to school, corporal punishment was still allowed. Did you ever get paddled?

Segment Synopsis: Bell talks about his behavior and reputation as a high school student.

Keywords: Detentions; Habits; Paddling; School detentions; Students; Young adults

Subjects: Behavior.; Corporal punishment.; High school; Personality.; Reputation.

Partial Transcript: What was the level of your parents' education? Your mom and dad?

Segment Synopsis: Bell discusses his father's army draft recruitment and navy training during World War Two. He also talks about how his father utilized the G.I. Bill.

Keywords: G.I. Bill; G.I. housing; Landing craft operators; Military dads; Military fathers; Military parents; Military training; WW2; WWII; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: Draft.; Korean War, 1950-1953.; United States. Navy.; World War, 1939-1945

Partial Transcript: Did your parents stress the value of getting a good ja--education to you?

Segment Synopsis: Bell discusses his parents' expectations for his education and their participation in his academic life. He also discusses how he was parented growing up.

Keywords: Allowance; Childhood discipline

Subjects: Chores.; Families.; Parenting.; Parents.

Partial Transcript: Was there a favorite hangout you all frequented when you were in high school? Was there a local burger joint or a pizza place or--

Segment Synopsis: Bell discusses popular hangouts, his first car, working, shooting photography with his father and with the Kentucky Kernel, dating, drinking, and smoking in high school and college.

Subjects: Beer.; Black-and-white photography.; Chevrolet automobile.; Cigarettes.; College campuses.; College environment; College students--Attitudes.; College students--Conduct of life.; College students--Social conditions; Dixie Highway; High school; Marijuana.; Photographers; Photography.; Popularity.; Smoking.; Teenagers.; Universities and colleges.; University of Kentucky; Wedding photography.; Young adults.

Partial Transcript: So you didn't play little league baseball, correct?

Segment Synopsis: Bell talks about the athletic facilities at Western High School. He talks about the technology used in his high school classrooms. He also discusses his involvement in extracurricular activities.

Keywords: Extracurricular activities; High school athletics; High school basketball; High school football; High school sports; School resources; School technology; School televisions

Subjects: Athletics.; Basketball.; Football.; High school; High school facilities; High school student activities.; Sports teams.; Sports.; Student government.; Yearbook

Partial Transcript: You know, in big cities and small towns back in the forties and fifties were a lot of mom-and-pop gro--corner grocery stores, pharmacies, clothing stores, but by the mid-sixties, plazas became very popular out in the suburbs, uh, a--and, plazas pre-dated the mall concept.

Segment Synopsis: Bell discusses where his family shopped for clothes and groceries. Bell talks about going to the movies and movie entertainment growing up.

Keywords: Downtown; Downtown Louisville (Ky.); Films; Guggenheim; Guggenheim Art Museum; Guggenheim Museum; Kentucky Theatre (Lexington, Ky.); Movies; New York; The Guggenheim; World Fair

Subjects: Family vacations.; Groceries.; Plazas.; Recreation; Shopping centers.; Shopping.; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Partial Transcript: I don't remember ever going to the movie with my dad. We would work together, I'd help him work on the cars, I'd hold the light--

Segment Synopsis: Bell talks about his relationship with his father and mother, their individual personalities, and his family's general atmosphere. Bell also talks about his sports interests and pets.

Keywords: City folks; Dads; Family relationships; Feminist; Gender roles; Maternal roles; Moms; Parental relationships; Paternal roles; School rivalries; U.K.; UK; UofL

Subjects: Athletics.; City life.; Dogs.; Domestic animals.; Families.; Fathers.; Feminism.; Mothers.; Parakeets.; Parents.; Pets.; Sports rivalries.; Sports.; University of Kentucky; University of Louisville

Partial Transcript: What kind of car did your dad own when he finally bought one?

Segment Synopsis: Bell talks about types of cars and bicycles he has used.

Keywords: Bikes; Cars; Chevy; Ford

Subjects: Automobiles.; Bicycles.; Chevrolet automobile.; Ford automobile.; Transportation.; Vehicles

Partial Transcript: Where did your family get its medical care?

Segment Synopsis: Bell talks about the transition from doctor house calls to healthcare in a children's hospital setting. He also talks about old methods of vaccination.

Subjects: Medicine.; Physicians; Rheumatic fever.; Vaccines.

Partial Transcript: Did your family get the Courier-Journal or the Louisville Times?

Segment Synopsis: Bell talks about access to, consumption of, and the development of newspapers, magazines, television, and music growing up. He also discusses his childhood awareness of global events.

Subjects: ABC News; Big Band; CBS Broadcasting Inc.; CBS News.; Color television.; Courier-journal (Louisville, Ky.); Look magazine; NBC News.; National geographic magazine.; National geographic.; Newspapers.; Portland (Louisville, Ky.); Radio.; Television Set; Television.

Partial Transcript: You know, the period beginning in the mid-fifties and continuing through the decade of the nineteen-sixties was a very interesting time socially, culturally, politically, and economically.

Segment Synopsis: Bell describes growing up in Louisville during the Cold War. He recalls witnessing major historical events, like President Kennedy's assassination and the Civil Rights Movement, throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Keywords: Assassinations; Bay of Pigs; Bomb drills; Bomb shelters; Cuban Missile Crisis; Disaster drills; Integration; Invasions; JFK; John F. Kennedy; Khrushchev; Kitchen Debate; Lee Bollinger; Lee Carroll Bollinger; Nikita Khrushchev; Nuclear bombs; President Kennedy; President Nixon; Presidential assassinations; Richard Nixon; Student protests; WW 2; WW II; WW2; WWII; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuba, 1961; Bollinger, Lee C., 1946-; Civil rights movement.; Cold War.; Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962.; Hungary.; Kennedy, John F.; Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich, 1894-1971.; Louisville (Ky.); Military-industrial complex.; Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994.; Nuclear warfare.; Nuclear weapons.; Prague (Czech Republic); Propaganda.; Russia.; Soviet Union.; War propaganda.; World War, 1939-1945

Partial Transcript: When you were, uh, first, uh--g--volunteering at, um, at the Courier-Journal before you actually had an internship for thr--those three summers, um, was it kind of, uh--were you kind of odd at first working there?

Segment Synopsis: Bell discusses fitting in as a volunteer at the Courier-Journal before his time as an intern and his growth as a photographer at the newspaper. He also talks about daily operations at the Courier-Journal.

Keywords: Daily newspapers; Internships; Louisville Courier-Journal; Student volunteers; The Courier; Volunteering; Women reporters

Subjects: Courier-journal (Louisville, Ky.); Newspapers.; Women journalists.