Interview with Orion Samuelson AIS-V-L-2009-002 February 2, 2009 and February 3, 2009 Interviewer: Mark DePue COPYRIGHT The following material can be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes without the written permission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. “Fair use” criteria of Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 must be followed. These materials are not to be deposited in other repositories, nor used for resale or commercial purposes without the authorization from the Audio-Visual Curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, 112 N. 6th Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701. Telephone (217) 785-7955 DePue: Today is Monday, February 2, 2009. My name is Mark DePue; I’m a volunteer with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, and we’re here today with Orion Samuelson. Good morning, Orion. Samuelson: Good morning. DePue: This is quite an honor for me. This is part of our Oral History of Illinois Agriculture Project that we are partnering with the Illinois State Museum, and from the beginning, from the inception of our plan, we’ve been looking forward to talk to the voice of agriculture in the Midwest, and probably—I would venture to say, Orion, that you’re the most recognizable voice of agriculture in the United States. Samuelson: Well, I’ve been doing it so long. You know, I’ve been at this business for fifty-six years, so I guess over that time period, a lot of people dialing the dial come across me. DePue: And we are coming up to your fiftieth anniversary with WGN radio here in Chicago. Samuelson: Well, God willing and the boss willing, I will make fifty years in September of 2010. My wife has given me permission to shoot for that half-century mark, because there has never been anyone else on this station that’s been on the air for fifty years. DePue: Well, and that’s some good company to be keeping—the names that have been on this station over the many years. Samuelson: Oh, the people that I’ve had the pleasure of working with, from Wally Phillips to Franklin McCormick to Harry Carey and Jack Brickhouse and to Uncle Bobby and Spike O’Dell, and just—it’s a history library of broadcasters, as far as I’m concerned. And when I write the book—which I’m going to do—I have told all of my friends that in all of my years of working here, there are just two people I did not enjoy working with, but you’ll have to read the book to find out who they are. (laughter) Orion Samuelson AIS-V-L-2009-002 DePue: Well, maybe these interviews will help you write that book, to a certain extent. Samuelson: I’m hoping so, because I have been talking about doing it for the last ten years, if nothing else, just for my two grandchildren, so they’ll have some sense of what their grandfather did. But because of what I’ve witnessed, I think I could probably share some highlights and some lowlights that our farmers and ranchers and ranchers have faced over the years and so—I have the title. I’m going to call it The Manure Tour: Life with an Agricultural Broadcaster . But sitting down to do it—because I’m not a writer; I do all my writing with my mouth. So that’s what you’re doing here; you’re letting me use my mouth, and maybe the audio can be used by a writer to put it together. DePue: Well, you’ll have the added benefit of actually having transcripts of what we’ve talked about here, as well. Samuelson: I appreciate that. It’s an honor for me, incidentally, to do this. Thank you. DePue: Well, thank you very much. I think I also should mention where we’re at, because we’re obviously in the WGN studios. This is in your office in those studios, but we’re in the Tribune Tower, which brings a lot of history just in itself, does it not? Samuelson: A tremendous amount of history. Landmark—historical landmark— history, the lobby of this Tribune Tower—and I think the cornerstone was laid in 1925—and the lobby is one of those National Historic Landmarks that cannot be altered; regardless of what we do to the rest of the building, it must remain the same. And Colonel McCormick, who was the ultra- conservative publisher of the Chicago Tribune has had carved into the walls the various press sayings that go back to Voltaire (laughs) and to deep history. Plus the fact, it’s fun to watch tourists who come to Chicago, because they stand outside the tower, and they look at the rocks or the stones that have come from the White House and from Buckingham Palace and from the pyramids, that the Colonel said, “We ought to have those here in the walls of the building,” and they are here. DePue: Well, he was quite a character himself. Samuelson: I had the opportunity not of meeting him, but when I was working at a radio station in Appleton, Wisconsin, back in 1954, we were a Mutual station. And WGN at that time was part of the Mutual radio network and originated programs like Tom Mix , the Monday through Friday Western serial, and Saturday night did the Saturday Night Theater of the Air , which was performed in the building adjacent to the tower with a live audience, a live orchestra, and they would do operettas on Saturday night. And working at the station in Appleton, Wisconsin, I would hear this because I was on duty on Saturday nights. And then at the end of the program, at about 9:55, the Colonel would come on and deliver his weekly sermon (laughter) according to Colonel McCormick. And so I sat listening to 2 Orion Samuelson AIS-V-L-2009-002 those sermons, never thinking that I’d someday be working (laughs) in the same studios that the Colonel was in. DePue: I must tell you that I’ve got a military background. My buddies in the military can never understand why in the world the First Infantry Division Museum is in Chicago—actually, west, in the suburbs of Chicago—and it’s because McCormick, Colonel McCormick, was in the First Division— was in the Big Red One—during the First World War, and by God, he had a love for that as well, didn’t he? Samuelson: He really did, and the museum is—again, I love history, and it is extremely well done, at Cantigny [Can-TEE-nee]—if you want to call it Can-TIG-nee or Can-TEE-nee—but it is worth a visit. It’s open to the public. And people who work very hard to preserve the memory of the military people in World War I, I just have a high admiration for, and he certainly did his part to do that. DePue: Well, enough of Robert McCormick; let’s move on to Orion Samuelson. Tell us when and where you were born, Orion. Samuelson: Born March thirty-first on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, near La Crosse. DePue: What year? Samuelson: Nineteen thirty-four. Raging blizzard March thirty-first, so much so that the doctor could not get out to the farm to deliver me, and so a great-aunt was there, and she was sort of a midwife, and so she did the delivery and did it well, because I survived, and here I am. But I was born in the bedroom of the farm home where I ultimately grew up. DePue: Orion—that’s an unusual name, at least it is for me. Samuelson: Well, it is. I think I’ve met maybe three other Orions. There are a lot of Orrins, and I get called Orrin probably 70 percent of the time by people who address me. My parents wanted a name that started with O and a name that started with C for my two grandfathers, Olie and Carl. They were Norwegians who came to this country from Norway and settled in the hills of Western Wisconsin, and so when they decided to name me after Olie, they thought, Orrin is too common, so we’ll call him Orion. Subsequently, of course, people say, “Well, they knew you were going to be a star, so that’s the constellation.” (laughter) I don’t think they had any idea that was going to happen. (laughs) DePue: Now you mention your two grandfathers. Both immigrated to the United States? Samuelson: Both into this country back in the 1860s and 1880s. As a matter of fact, I take a group of people who sign up for the tour back to Norway every other year. In 2009, we’ll do our fifth tour to Norway. And so I have stood in what is left of the foundation of the home where my grandmother Jenny was born in 1864. That was far more emotional than I thought it would be. And in 1872, when she was eight years old, she and an older brother and 3 Orion Samuelson AIS-V-L-2009-002 an adult uncle were sent to America because times were so tough, not only in Norway, but all of Northern Europe at that time, and America was the land of opportunity, and so the parents sent their children away, knowing they would never see them again, and sent them off to give them a better life. And talking to a genealogist from Norway who I’ve come to know during our trips, with tears in his eyes, he tells me he has read the letters from the homesick children in America to their parents, and he has read the letters that parents wrote to their children, and he always concludes those stories by saying, “I hope all of you in America appreciate what your forefathers did to give you the opportunity to grow up where you’ve grown up.” DePue: Why Wisconsin? Samuelson: As I visited Norway the first time, I saw that the hills were quite similar— not quite as high as in Norway—but hills and the streams and—as I say in Norway, the hills are steep to the point where they carve out a shelf and put up the barn and the house and then farm down the hill.