Friday, January 16, 2015

Frank Widner’s Indianapolis Times photos

widner01The late Frank Widner was an assistant managing editor at The Indianapolis Times, one of the three great daily newspapers in Indianapolis's modern history.

He left a personal archive of photos that included shots of his coworkers in the newsroom and in the composing room. They date from the early 1960s, shortly before The Times folded in October, 1965, and just a few years before I started my career at The Indianapolis News in early 1967.

Several refugees from The Times - reporters and printers - were hired by The News and I worked with several of the guys in his photos. Widner was hired by The Indianapolis Star five days after The Times went under and became that paper’s news editor and night assistant managing editor.

The photo I'm posting here includes Carl Henn, who went on to a career in public relations. Always a dapper dresser, Carl is the guy in glasses and a vest. Carl's daughter, Merry Henn, is a Facebook friend and a good Broad Ripple High School friend of my son Sean Flora.

Frank Widner's son Jim Widner has posted much of his dad's archive on his Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/phot…/mytownindy/…/72157634403304806/

It’s a wonderful look at how we used to do newspapers with typewriters, paste pots, Linotype machines and lots of brilliant, quirky people.

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