Section 1:
Q: We are ready on all fronts. First of all,
could you just tell us a little bit
about...let's start with your newspaper days.
I know that you actually spent a little bit
of time in a newspaper. Do you want to talk
about that and then how you made the switch
from newspapers to the radio.
A: I will be glad to. As for the newspaper
aspect, that came in this manner. I was a
county 4-H leader. I was not able to go to
high school because of the fact that I was in
the depression-era time. My father needed a
hired man. He only had a boy, but he
considered me a hired man. So, I didn't get
to go to high school. But the 4-H Clubs gave
me a wonderful opportunity to meet people,
learn things, do things, including becoming a
county leader. And, as a county leader, I
wanted my boys to be recognized. So, I
submitted, in my crude way, information about
my boys, things that I thought might be
interesting, to the editor. He liked it. It
was pretty bad. It was really pretty bad
because my journalism has been limited to two
or three or four collegiate courses, but as a
non-collegiate student. So, you know they
weren't the big stuff. Well anyway, he called
me and he said, "Herb, I like what you are
doing. I like what you are writing. I would
like to have you be our farm editor." This
was the Davenport Democrat, which is now, of
course, a part of...become the Quad City
Times. Anyway, I was shocked. I didn't know
what to think. But, I discussed it with my
father who, of course, knew that he would
lose part of me as a hired man, a hired boy,
for doing chores. He thought I ought to try
that. I tried it with many misgivings to
begin with. It took me about three days at
the most to realize that, "This is for me.
This is what I want to do. This is what I can
do, apparently." Because he used my material
as I wrote it. It was really pretty bad, but
people liked it. That is how I got into the
newspaper game. I was with him for some time,
a couple of years.
You also asked me about the transition. If
you are ready for me to give you that answer,
I will tell you what the transition was. I
was in Scott County where I was serving as
4-H county leader, as I have done. I had also
been asked by the state people to become a
state leader even though I didn't have the
education that was necessary. I became an
extension agent, a club agent they called
them in those days, for Scott County. I loved
that. This was working with these boys and
forming clubs, getting them involved in their
projects, and they had many projects. I think
you probably know dairy cattle, beef cattle,
hogs, corn. Whatever there was. I even
started a pheasant raising club. Can you
imagine that? Raising pheasants. We didn't
have many pheasants in Iowa at that time. So,
somebody in the conservation department
thought maybe somebody ought to try to raise
pheasants and, I guess, we volunteered. This
was a lot of fun. I don't want to dwell on
it, but just to give you an idea of how wide
a range we had in our projects, I eventually
had over six hundred boys with me. It was
quite a project. I loved it, but this
newspaper thing was even better.
One day, a letter came to me at the Davenport
paper. I didn't even bother with it to begin
with. It was there and I didn't open it. I
loved my work. I just loved to be with the
people that I was working with. That's just
not boys. This is everybody, now. I am
dealing with everybody. And this letter was
from a man named H.R.Gross who was, at that
time, the news director at WHO. The letter
simply said, "You have been highly
recommended by Harry Lynn and some other
people to be our farm director at WHO. I will
be looking forward to your coming in and
checking with me tomorrow or this week." I
had a very sweet girlfriend at home at that
time, she was a farm girl from a fine family,
and I wasn't at all interested in leaving
Scott County. I really wasn't. Well, I talked
to her about it and she thought maybe I
should look into this. My father, I remember
I was carrying corn to the cattle, we were
feeding cattle, I was carrying corn - I had
it on my shoulder and he had his on his
shoulder - and he put the basket of corn down
on the post and he said, "Well, aren't you
going to take that job?" Well, I certainly
wasn't prepared to tell him right then that I
was going to take it. But, I said, "I will go
and look at it." The next day I took this
girlfriend of mine and we went to Des Moines.
On the way, I stopped at Cedar Rapids to talk
with Ray Anderson who was the farm editor for
the Cedar Rapids paper and he thought I
should look into this. Radio might have a
possibility. It might be something good. I
went to J. S. Russell in Des Moines. He said,
"yeah. That is quite a station. That is the
biggest station in Iowa. That is one of the
biggest stations in the country. If you can
get that job, take it." So I went and I went
to Mr. Gross. I don't think any of you knew
Mr. Gross because this is a long time ago,
but he was a gruff person. And when I came
in, "You are Herb Plambeck. Hello. We are
thinking about starting a farm department.
There isn't anything like that in the
country, but we are thinking about doing
that. And you are the man we think we want."
Well, I had to know a little bit about what
he had in mind. I could get along with that
fairly well. But finally, he never said
anything about compensation. So, finally, I
did ask the question. I said, "What can I
expect to be paid here?" I was, at that time,
doing a hundred and sixty a month for the
Davenport paper. That is pretty good pay.
"Oh," he said, "we have given that
considerable thought. We are prepared to pay
you a hundred and twenty dollars a month." I
said, "Mr. Gross, thank you, but I have to
make a telephone call." I went right
downstairs and asked for a phone, called the
Davenport editor, Mr. Seperle, and said,
"Sep, is my job still open?" "Yeah," he said,
"what is the matter?" "These clowns are
offering me a hundred and twenty a month and
I am home with Frances (my sweetheart) and I
am getting board and room at home. Here, I
can't begin to think of the..." "Wait a
minute," he said, "wait a minute. I have
always wanted a Des Moines correspondent. You
are just the man I want. I will pay you
fifteen dollars a week, sixty dollars a
month, if you will stay there and you will
send me one story, two stories a week, three
stories a week, and do your other work." I
went to my girlfriend and she said, "I think
you ought to take it. This may have
possibilities." Then I went back upstairs. I
said, "Mr. Gross, I guess I will consider
doing it. When do I have to report?"
"Tomorrow." Everything is just hitting me
like a ton of rocks. Tomorrow! I have got a
girl with me. He didn't know that. I have got
a girl with me and I have got to get her home
and I have got to put her up here tonight
because there is no train until tomorrow
morning. I was in trouble. Those were the
days when a guy like me didn't sleep in the
same bed with his girlfriend. Well, I managed
to get her into a room at the best hotel in
Des Moines, five dollars a night, and I got
another room, the Brown Hotel, three dollars
a night. OK. We did it. I got on the air - I
mis-spoke. He said, "I want you tomorrow and
I want you on the air the next morning,"
which meant that tomorrow I had to get stuff
in. I worked. I had been a Boone County
agent, so I went up there and got myself some
stories. I went to the State Fair and got
some stories. And that night, she stayed over
a night, she had the romantic experience of
listening to my first broadcast plans for the
next morning. That is how I got into radio.
And when I left that first day, I was sick
because it just was so different for me from
writing and being at home. I had this
obligation of taking care of...meeting
expenses. But, in about four days, I knew I
had what I needed. Because it was a great
station and letters and cards were coming in.
"We are so glad to hear you have got a farm
director." "We are glad to hear Herb. We know
who he is." And so forth and so on. Well, for
a person's ego, that is pretty good. Well, I
have taken twenty minutes to answer your
question which should have been answered in
two minutes.
Q: What year was that, Herb?
A: 1936. August 26. The State Fair was still
on. That is when it was. It was sixty-two
years ago and I am still trying to get it
right. I am still on the radio and I am still
trying to get it right. --
Section 2: Q: One of the things that you did during your
days in radio, and I want to come back and
talk more about some of the farm things, but
you were a correspondent during World War II.
Could you talk a little bit about that?
A: Yes. How many minutes will you give me?
Q: However many you want.
A: World War II is, without question,
certainly one of the two or three most
significant periods of my life for a number
of reasons. Number one - it was a very
important period in everyone's life. Nazism
had taken over and we all felt pretty much
the same way. On the other side, the Japs
were doing the same thing and it was
terrible. But, I had brother-in-laws and
close friends who were going into the Army,
one after the other. Of course, I was Farm
Director at WHO and poor Mr. Mayland was
losing one man after the other to the Army
and he still had me. He talked with me
sincerely about trying to get an arrangement
where I could stay because I was essential,
according to him. Not for me. I wanted to get
in the Army. Although this is nothing to brag
about, seven times I applied to get in the
Army, seven times I went to the registration
place, and seven times I was turned down.
Turned down because there is a little spot on
one of my lungs, it is probably no bigger
than a quarter, that had been put there by a
tuberculin cow we evidently had. And they
said, "Herb, if you should be torpedoed on
one of our liners up in the North Atlantic
and you get down there into the ocean, you
wouldn't last five minutes." I still
remember my answer. I said, "Neither would
anybody else." But that didn't make any
difference. Finally, I got my draft board
chairman to get me in the Army. He went out,
he actually went with me, actually went with
me, and he pleaded with them to accept me.
So, they accepted me that particular moment.
But the next day, they told me they couldn't
use me. So, I was in the Army one day.
I had to swallow my...it was tough. I really
believe it was the toughest time in my life
because I was a 4-F. I was a guy that wasn't
good enough for the Army. If I had gotten in
the Army, I would have probably spent most of
my time handing out uniforms because I was,
by that time, about twenty-six years old. I
wasn't too good gun fodder anyway.
Furthermore, I had had no background
whatsoever. So, I would have probably handed
out uniforms. I was sick. But along comes one
of my fraternity brothers from England. He
comes to Des Moines and calls and says,
"Herb, I would like to visit with you." Fine,
great. A guy over there. He can tell me
something about what is going on in the
London Blitz and stuff like that. So, we met
at a restaurant at a hotel. Before the salad
bar had been finished, in fact I am not even
sure that I had had a bite, I had to confess
to him that I had failed the Army. I remember
him yet. He backed his chair up. "You mean to
tell me you want to get into this goddam
war?" I said, "Yes, I do." Oh, boy, I think
it took at least thirty seconds. He finally
said, "I can't get you in the war. But I can
get you to where the war is at." I said,
"How and when?" "Well," he said, "you will
have to give me a week. I am going back
tomorrow. You will hear from me within a
week." Well, in the meantime, I had gone
into the Iowa Guard where, believe it or not,
we practiced with wooden guns. That was our
training for the big battle. Wooden guns. And
a lot of other things.
What happened, of course, was young fellows
who knew they would be drafted wanted to get
some training. Old men who were too old to
get in the Army wanted to get in. I was kind
of in between. But I talked to my boss and he
said, "Yeah. You go ahead." So, I was out
there on what we called, well, I won't say
what we called them, but I was out there and
here comes a cable from England from this
man. He said, "We would like to have you as
one of five correspondents to observe
agriculture while Britain is under the gun."
Holy smokes! I could get over where the war
was, even though I couldn't be there. I got
over and I could make a long story out of
that because our plane had trouble getting
over. But, got there, and then I got into
southern Ireland and I got thrown, nearly got
thrown down the steps, because the
agricultural man there had no use for
Americans. Because southern Ireland wasn't on
the right side. I got to London and the next
day I went to the headquarters, General
Eisenhower's headquarters, and I wanted to
see as much as I could, so they gave me a
guide. He took me around. We hadn't gone very
far and along comes a fellow in a uniform and
on his left arm, he has War Correspondent.
So, I said to my guide, "What is that?" "That
is a war correspondent." "What does he do?"
"He goes and talks with the troops." "How do
you get to be a war correspondent?" "I
suppose his boss sent him over here. I don't
know." "Where do you find out about war
correspondents?" "Back there." "I would like
to go back there." I went right back. I
hadn't seen very much, but I went right back.
London is a big place and when the Supreme
Headquarters is in London, there is a lot of
things to see. I never saw any of it. I went
right back. And the guy said, "Well, if you
can get your boss to approve it, we can
accredit you as a war correspondent and you
can get out with the troops." It was the
Eighth Air Force. "And do the other things
you want to do." Boy, did I get a cable off
to my boss. And he sent a cable right back.
It was over the weekend, but I got the cable
on Monday morning in which he said, "Approve
your application to be an accredited war
correspondent, but need you back in three
months." Three months. Boy, that was better
than nothing. And I became a war
correspondent with the Eighth Air Force. I
actually flew in B-17's. I actually, one day,
flew a B-17. I didn't realize my pilot had
left his seat. I looked over there and he
wasn't there and I had this thing in my hand
and there were eight guys on the plane. I
pretty nearly died. I just held that. I can
still feel that wheel. And then a voice
behind me, he said, "You are doing fine,
Herb. Take it to the left." [Moves hand to
the left.] "Great. Now straighten out." "OK."
"Now take it to the right." [Moves hand to
the right.] "Take it to the right." "Take it
up." I pulled it back a little bit and up she
went. Then he said, "Do you want to land it?"
I said, "No." That is my story. You asked a
question. You got a long answer.
And then, later on, of course, I did get
back. And when I got back, it is just utterly
unbelievable, the number of people that
wanted to hear a fellow who had been over
there during the Blitz. And I was there
during the bombing of Britain, believe me. I
know what I was talking about. I was there
when the farmers, or the farm women, were
trying to get production. I had been with the
Air Force. I had flown with them. When I got
back, you just can't believe the number of
appeals. I spoke morning, breakfasts, noon,
night, and I was still carrying on a
broadcast at the same time. It was a terrific
time. But it was a marvelous time. I think I
spoke two hundred and some times in a year
and then I became...then I was sent over as a
war correspondent, to the real thing. When I
say the real thing, that would take hours to
tell you what the real thing is. I was with
Patton, the most profane man that ever
existed. A good general, but a man who you
couldn't ever learn to like because of his
profanity and also his white trousers, you
know white trousers, and a vest with all the
medals here on it. And his cap with the four
stars. Two silver pistols here. Boy. "And you
better get your boots shined before you come
here to our press conference." That is what
he told us. That is what we were told. We had
to get our boots shined before we could come
to his press conference. After we had been
out with a tank, or on a tank, all day long.
Or with the troops out on the...artillery
people shooting the guns. Or the infantry.
All day. Dirty. Terribly messy. We didn't
want to shine our shoes, but we had to to get
to his press conference. And we had to be at
the press conference. --
Section 3: Q: Tell me about Dachau.
A: Well, you asked me about Dachau. That is,
without question, the most horrible thing I
have ever experienced, ever seen. It will be
my last memory when I say my last good-by
because we...this is toward the end of the
war. By that time, I had become very well
acquainted with the Associated Press, the
United Press, and the International News
Service correspondents. In fact, we traveled
together. We worked together. I had been
there about six months with the troops. We
had gone through a lot of things. Crossing
the Rhine and all of that sort of thing. And
one day, toward the end, the man from the
Associated Press came to me and asked the
United Press representative and me if we
would care to go to Dachau because he thought
it was going to be liberated that night or
the next day. Of course, I wanted to go. We
went. We got to the outskirts of the city of
Dachau, which was, as you know, the pioneer
concentration camp that Hitler and his crew
had established. Where they conducted all
kinds of terrible experiments and had some
thirty thousand, thirty-two thousand, people
enslaved and imprisoned. We got to the
outside of that area, this was in the
morning. We had started very early in the
morning. We got there from our press camp.
Outside was a railroad yards. There was a
train there that was thirty-nine open boxcars
on the track. As we got to the boxcars, we
saw a fellow go up, climb up, to look in the
boxcar and he came down. He was white. He was
stunned. Well, it must be something there. I
went up, I was the first of the three to go
up, and looked down on the boxcar. This one
boxcar. And in this boxcar lay approximately,
I don't know, but I would guess it was
somewhere between fifty and a hundred people,
most of them naked or half naked. Some of
them wearing their prison garb, parts of it.
All of them dead. Terrible, ghastly looking
figures.
This was true of every one of the thirty-nine
boxcars. Every single one. There was one
person living. They got him into a jeep, one
of our jeeps, and on the way to the hospital,
he was killed because the jeep had an
accident. We went in to Dachau, then, after
seeing this. We were somewhat prepared. The
next thing was probably even more brutal
because, as we managed to get into a door or
a gate, into Dachau itself, the first thing
we saw was the bodies of guards who had been
slaughtered by the prisoners who had just
been released. And in some cases, there were
no heads left. In other cases, they were so
totally bludgeoned that...it was pretty
rough. At least twenty-five of them. And some
of them had been thrown into a small stream
that was a part of the enclosure. There was a
big wall around the enclosure. It was a part
of the enclosure. And I can truthfully say I
have seen a stream run red with blood,
because it did.
We went from there and we hadn't gone very
far when some of the prisoners that had just
escaped saw...there were three of us
correspondents who were being escorted by a
group, I don't know if you know what a
V-wedge is, but a V-wedge is like this with
one soldier here with a gun and a bayonet and
then another one here and all the way down
the line and we were inside so we were
protected, we thought. But we weren't
protected because these prisoners came behind
the V-wedge and came in and I don't suppose I
have ever been closer to death than I was at
that time because they grabbed us. They just
choked us. It was rough before they got more
troops there to take them off. Next we went
to a building where there was a big, huge
wooden door. We wondered what was in this
building. I was the first one to get a hold
of that iron door closing, I was the first
one to get it open, and I opened it and from
that room came a stench that drove us back,
drove me back, about six feet. I guess the
others probably the same. In that room were
row upon row of the bodies ready to be put in
the gas furnaces. Up to ten high. Virtually
all of them emaciated. Terribly, terribly
thin. Some of them worse than that. But one
row after the other. All the way through the
entire building. You didn't stay there very
long because nobody could stand that very
long.
Then we went to the furnaces themselves.
There were eight furnaces. Sort of a circular
thing. They were still warm. We could feel
them. They weren't in use at the time. Of
course, our troops had stopped that. But we
went to the back where the ashes came out.
This is longer than this room. And there were
the little boxes, small boxes, into which
ashes were put to be sent back to relatives.
You can imagine what condition we were in by
that time. Then we went to the barracks where
some thirty thousand people had once been
imprisoned. They were virtually empty except
for those who could no longer navigate. And
there were quite a few of those. I speak
German. I saw a fellow laying there. He was
obviously shaking. I had a feeling that he
wanted a cigarette. I don't smoke but, in the
Army as a war correspondent, you are given
rations which include cigarettes. I got one
out and gave it to him. Lit it for him and
got it up to his mouth. He smoked it. The
smoke drew from it. I could see he was dying.
I spoke a few words in German to him. He
tried to answer and couldn't answer. This was
one. There were many others like that.
From there, we probably did some other
things. I can't even remember them. But, we
got back into the jeep and the three of us,
in the twenty or thirty mile trip back to
camp, to think about the story we were going
to write or speak, in my case it was speaking
because I was working with RCA and it was
always broadcasting, thinking what we would
say. We three did not speak one word to each
other the whole way. Couldn't. So this is the
memory I will keep until my last breath. You
asked for this.
Q: Herb, what lessons did you learn from that
about humanity?
A: Obviously, it was hard to believe that
such a thing could happen where some human
beings were doing this to other human beings.
And this was only one of twenty-some
concentration camps. They said that Auschwitz
and some other places were even worse. If
they were worse, I am glad I wasn't there. I
don't know whether I can answer your
question, but it certainly made me wonder
what in the word can people like Hitler and
Mussolini and Tojo, what must they be
thinking about to condone this kind of a
thing. And, believe me, they condoned it. Six
million in Europe alone died this way. I
don't know if I learned any lessons, but I
guess I learned pretty convincingly that this
thing had to be stopped. And, of course, in
time, our troops stopped it. --
Section 4: Q: We are going to go on now and talk about,
you got into television for a while. Tell me
about that transition. What was that like?
A: This was early on in the days of
television. It has been quite a while ago,
frankly. It was quite a transition. I was
still a radio farm broadcaster. I was
director of the station. I think I had four
or five assistants at the time. In the noon
period, at twelve o'clock, I would start the
radio broadcast at twelve o'clock and after a
while, after I had done a certain amount,
maybe the weather and something else
important, the main story, I would turn it
over to one of my assistants. In the
meantime, another assistant upstairs, one
floor higher, was introducing our television
program. Then, after four or five minutes, I
would get up there and I would be the star on
the television show, I am using that word
"star" loosely, and would do whatever I had
to do on television. Then I would duck out
about three minutes before the end of the
television show, these were fifteen minute
shows, and I would go down and close out my
radio show. Then, at 12:15, we had another
radio show and I would start that one. See, I
was down in the radio studio. Then I would go
back up and do another television and then
down and finish up the radio show. Our
television shows were an experiment, a new
thing. Our radio shows were very well
established by that time and quite popular,
it seemed. So, I was on both of these. Then,
of course, came the news downstairs. Then I
would get fifteen minutes of rest and then I
would do another radio show at 12:45 for
another fifteen minutes. These were different
radio shows. And you know today, the
different television shows by a long ways. We
only had a commercial in the center of the
show. And that was done by an announcer. Up
to a certain point it was done by an
announcer. So, there were little breather
times in there, but it was a quite a
difficult thing.
Now I think you probably really want to know
what it was like. Well, it was crude. We were
trying our best. We had cameras that would
take instant pictures, you know, and we would
get them and somebody else would arrange them
on the screen. We would talk about them.
Occasionally, we had a movie, of course. But,
something that had been done earlier
somewhere. It was so different and it was so
crude. And, also, you had to dress up, you
know. You had to try to be as presentable as
possible. I, frankly, did not like
television. I was in it three years and did
my best. Maybe I could have lasted if I would
have gotten full-blown into television. But I
liked radio. Maybe you don't agree. But I
liked radio because radio was reaching my
people. I was the farm director. Every single
family on a farm in the state of Iowa had a
radio set. They may not all be listening to
me, but they had a radio set. But, back in
those days, nowheres near everybody had a
television set. So, I really would reach a
lot more people by radio. In fact, in my
book, there is a page in there which tells
that on one single day I received 4255 cards
and letters, in one day, in response to an
offer that had been made on our show from
forty-four states. Well, television didn't
reach that far either. So, frankly, I am not
sorry that I stayed in radio and I am still
in it and still doing three broadcasts a week
most weeks.
Q: Who are you doing the broadcasts for now
and what types of stories do you do on these
broadcasts?
A: Well, of course, they are very different
than what I used to do. It used to be
whatever was the Number One news story.
Whatever was the Number One question or
problem in agriculture. That would be tops.
Today, that is no longer my problem. My wife
and I do a garden program every Saturday
morning on a station in Des Moines, KRNT,
which has an excellent audience and we get
wonderful response on that program. Because
both of us are gardeners. She had gardened
literally all her life. I have gardened for
over eighty years. Beginning when I was nine
years old. Gardening is a hobby. It's
recreation. It's something that I like, and a
lot of other people do, too. So, we talk
about gardening things. Then there is WMT at
Cedar Rapids has me on every Saturday on a
farm feature. It will certainly not be
whatever the main farm story was of the week.
It might be an interview. It might be a
feature. It might be an editorial on my part.
I did an editorial the other day about family
farms versus the factory farms. I have some
strong feelings on that. And the other
feature is on WHO where I have the
opportunity any time that I have something, I
will call them up and tell them, "If you want
something, I can be with you sometime next
week." And they have always accepted so far,
at least. Now, I don't push that. One or two
a month is all I want to do of that. --
Section 5: Q: I have a question about commercials. You
mentioned the commercial in television. I
know you have a little episode you wrote
about in your book. You know exactly what I
am going to ask you. It is about reading a
commercial on the air. Do you want to tell us
about that?
A: I think I know the one you are talking
about. There was a company down in Kansas
City that bought one of our radio shows. In
the meantime, a number of things had
happened. Among them, I had had to go to WHO
and tell the folks that I could no longer be
with them because they weren't paying me
enough. Then they came up with the idea,
"Well, we can't let you go. Maybe we can
sweeten this up a little for you someway or
another." I said, "I know how you can sweeten
it up. You let me do the commercials. They
will pay me to do the commercials." To make a
long story short, we went to one commercial
sponsor in Illinois and it took about two
minutes and he was willing to pay me three
hundred dollars a month, which was pretty
good at that time. So, I said to my wife,
"Let's go to Chicago and talk to another one.
International Harvester." That took about ten
minutes and we had another three hundred
dollars a month. When we came back, some
others found out I was doing it for
International Harvester and DeKalb
Agricultural Association and they wanted it,
too. Finally, it got to be quite a...I was
not very popular with the management at WHO
because they had not done any of this. None
of the news people or anyone else was doing
commercials. But, suddenly, to keep me, they
had to...and unwilling to pay me what I had
to have, they let the commercial man do it.
But when they did that, Jack [John D.]
Shelley and everybody else said, "Hey, how
about this?" So, it changed a lot of things.
But, for me, it worked. And I would only take
commercials that I believed in.
Then they came up with this dress company. I
had to talk about beautiful dresses. That
didn't last very long. I think a week or
less. Then there was another one that I had
to use a word I didn't like at all. And it
was in the commercial twelve times. I went to
the boss and I said, "If you expect me to do
that, you can forget about it. I am leaving
today." He said, "What?" That was before I
got into the commercial business itself. He
said, "Well, you weren't supposed to do that.
The announcer was the one." He didn't want to
use the word either.
Q: What was the word?
A: You would think I would know, wouldn't
you?
Q: Women's unmentionables?
A: No, it wasn't an unmentionable, but it was
pretty degrading for a man to talk about this
thing.
Q: Don't worry about it.
A: And, as I told him, I had a stroke in
December and since then, some things don't
come to me as fast as they did before. --
Section 6: Q: Let's talk about some of the farm projects
that you were involved in, and there have
been many over the years. Tell me about how
you got involved in some of them and why you
felt it was important.
A: Well, obviously, my main job was doing
broadcasts which were of interest to
agricultural people. That would include
weather, markets, and farm news and other
things, of course. Some general news. We
always had headlines and that sort of thing.
But there were other things that weren't
being mentioned and other things that I
thought should be considered. I am a great
project guy. I told you earlier this morning
about starting a pheasant raising project
when I was a 4-H leader. When I became a farm
broadcaster and was a voice on a fifty
thousand watt station that was being heard
all over the nation and in Canada and Mexico
and other places, I just really felt I had
some heavy responsibilities than just
reporting markets or the weather. I came up
with some projects. Some ideas. There were
many different ones. I don't know that I
could even recall them all. They are all in
my book, I am sure, or most of them. But, I
would do things like - what the women were
doing. I would come up with some sort of a
project of some kind.
The biggest project that I undertook was
starting plowing matches. Everybody, at that
time, at that time, was using plows. Some
people were using hand plows like I used to
use them and some people were using four or
five-bottom plows on tractors, but I knew
about plowing matches up in Cherokee and a
few other places. I said, "These are
interesting things." And they were
interesting to the people at that time. I
said, "Why couldn't we do this on a bigger
basis? Why couldn't we have a state plowing
match and get the Cherokee and the people
from Warren County and the people from other
places?" And it just took off like that. Of
course, this all went through the boss. And
the boss, sometimes I wondered why he put up
with me, but Mr. Mayland was, himself,
formerly a farm boy from Minnesota and he
really liked me. I would come in and I would
say, :Mr. Mayland, I have something to
suggest." "Oh, you do. Project number four
thousand, one hundred and nine?" He always
came up with something like that. I would
tell him about it. "Well, maybe we should try
that. What would it cost?" Stuff like that.
And we tried it. The plowing match is
probably the best example because we started
that on a pretty limited basis. We started it
at Mitchellville, Iowa, which is where our
transmitter was located. It was our land
right there. Eighty acres that we owned, so
we could use that without offending or
hurting anyone else. We started that in 1939.
And, lo and behold, people wanted to compete.
Six or seven thousand people wanted to see
them compete. Mr. Mayland thought that was a
pretty good idea. So, the next year, he or I
suggested we try it again. We went to Boone
County. That is where I had worked as a club
agent and knew everybody, or knew a lot of
people. A pretty good place to go. I don't
know, we had twelve or fourteen thousand
people come to that one. Again, it was quite
a success. The next year, the third year, was
the year before the war. We went Albia. They
wanted us real badly down there. We went down
there and we had over twenty thousand people
come. By now, we had called it the Cornbelt
Match. And a fellow from Missouri came up
there and he really was interested in it. He
said, "We can get you people from Missouri up
here." Well, then came the war. We will skip
these next five years. When the war ended, by
that time, we already had the living history
farm started and I was one of the founders of
it. Got involved in that. And we went to the
living history farms shortly after the war
ended, about a month, and we had another
match. We had some more people and honored
some soldiers and things like that. By now,
we realized we had a hot potato. So, the next
year, we decided to call it a national match
and invite other states. They responded and
we had, oh goodness, we got the man, the head
of the soil conservation work, because we
were stressing conservation as well as
straight-line plowing. We were including
conservation plowing and other conservation
things. We went down to Marion County and the
chief of the Soil Conservation Service came
out from Washington and made a wonderful
talk. And, told us what a good job we were
doing. By that time, we about forty or fifty
thousand people come.
Well, that led to even bigger things and to
other states. Then we came back to Iowa in
1948. Harry Truman, President Truman, was our
star that year. That is a funny story, too.
Do you want to know how that happened? I had
the idea that we might be able to get a
president of the United States to come
because it was obviously a good place for a
president to do a political speech to a
hundred thousand or so people. So, in 1948,
one of my assistants and two other people
went to Washington to have an interview with
the president. Well, they arranged an
interview. Ten minutes. Twelve minutes at the
most. We did get in to the president. Well,
he was an old farm boy and he had a couple of
suckers with him there. He started telling
about his experiences as a farm boy. Plowing
and things like that. He talked for twelve
minutes before we could ask one question. Our
time was up. But, he told the person in
charge of all of these interviews, all of
these appointments, he said, "What is your
question?" We told him. "Oh, no, no, no. I
couldn't come. You wouldn't want me. You
would have nothing but problems. Nothing but
headaches." Well, we assured him we were
prepared to do that. "No, there is no way."
So, we went home and left it open. We went
home and it was about three or four weeks
before our match, which, of course, was
scheduled and would go ahead anyway, comes
this telegram from the president. It said,
"The president has accepted your invitation."
Oh, boy, from that time on...we learned he
knew what he was talking about. Because, from
that time on, I became a prisoner of the
Secret Service. And remained a prisoner of
the Secret Service. Because I was in charge
of the plowing match, so I was the guy
that...but it was wonderful. Harry Truman was
everything that we could have hoped for. He
gave the Republicans hell, and I am a
Republican. And he just...some of us were
very worried, very worried, about what he had
said and how he had said it. But, after he
was through with his first speech, with his
scheduled speech, we had invited him to see
some of the conservation work. So, we went
out. I was on the left side of him and the
soil conservation leader was on the right
side of him. The three of us went to these
things and a whole lot of other people behind
us, of course, including the Secret Service.
And, we would point out what we were doing in
connection with this event that he had
attended.
At one point, a woman saw the president and
us two from about fifteen or twenty feet on
the other side. There were a whole lot of
people there and she was in the front. And
she had her camera. I could see, and so could
the president, that she had it backwards and
upside down. She was fumbling around, so
nervous. And Mr. Truman put his hands out to
the two of us and he said, "We will wait.
Give her a chance. She will get it right."
Then her husband said, "Turn that thing
around." She eventually turned it around and
got her picture, and we went on. That is the
kind of a guy he was. He didn't need to do
that. He didn't need to stop for a woman that
had turned her camera around to get his
picture. But, oh, he was impressed. He was
impressed. And when we came back, somebody, I
don't know who it was, somebody had decided
that, another twenty-five thousand people had
come who had not heard the speech, they ought
to see the president. So, he was approached.
He said, "Sure. Sure. Herb will do the
interview." Me, do an interview with the
president of the United States. No
preparation. In front of a hundred thousand
or some people. That was a bit of a
challenge. But, I got up there and I started
the interview and I found that it was going
to be great. I can't repeat all the things he
said, but he sure got that crowd laughing. He
was tremendous as far as that part is
concerned. Whether you liked him as a
president or not is neither here nor there.
