{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/h98z89403z/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Bob Jones interview, circa 1990"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/053/original/cropped-marmia-logo-copy1.png?1586173104","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["https://marmia.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/25720"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["circa 1990 (Creation)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["Be advised that this video may contain sensitive, triggering, and offensive language and content. (Content warning)","Digitized with funding provided by the Council on Library and Information Resources' \"Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices\" grant program. (Funding note)","Bob Jones talks about being a spokesperson for the show, Focal Point, and a broadcaster at WBAL and WJZ. (Scope and Content Note)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["1 Betacam"]}},{"label":{"en":["Identifier"]},"value":{"en":["WJZ-FLDTP-006-023 (Identifier)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Series Title"]},"value":{"en":["Field Tapes"]}}],"summary":{"en":["Be advised that this video may contain sensitive, triggering, and offensive language and content.","Digitized with funding provided by the Council on Library and Information Resources' \"Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices\" grant program.","Bob Jones talks about being a spokesperson for the show, Focal Point, and a broadcaster at WBAL and WJZ."]},"provider":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["MARMIA"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["MARMIA"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/053/original/cropped-marmia-logo-copy1.png?1586173104","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/253/885/small/thumbnail_253885_1728349827.jpg?1728349834","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - open-uri20250109-552-bx0uxp.mp4"]},"duration":1263.624,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/253/885/small/thumbnail_253885_1728349827.jpg?1728349834","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-marmia.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/253/885/original/open-uri20250109-552-bx0uxp.mp4?1736438608","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":1263.624,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["AUTO_TRINT_WJZ-FLDTP-006-023.mp4 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I can try to have one made. Yes, you sure can. Well, I can. It's, you know, again. I know. I just wanted to leave it for my grandchildren to let them know that. I'm sure you would want to. That I was only. Look, just look right here. I. All right. Just say. Now, just give me a quick sound level. Mary had a little lamb. Mary had a little lamb. Okay. Please, just let us know. There was a parody on O kick. Now do you go by Bob? Bob? Bob Jones? Well, yeah, except when I'm doing scholarly books about poets. And then it's. Then it was Robert J. Robert J. Jones. I found an old film, Focal Point film, and it was about the master plan. It was about the building of Baltimore. And you were in it? Well, if I was in and it's old, you were you joined you joined the staff at Channel 13. When do you recall? Yes, in April of 1961, I was recruited by the then general manager, John Maclay, because the Focal point series was about was a brewing and they needed a spokesman. And that's what he hired me for. So you had an opportunity then to to appear and also to narrate several of those focal point pieces. We did one of months. Well, actually, they weren't all on film or tape. We did a couple of of town meeting type things live in the studio. But yes, I was they wanted a focal point person. So. So in a sense, IRA, I was a focal point or the focal point because I was well known in town. And the people had a tendency to believe what I said. Credibility. Yeah. You had a show. You had been on the bill for years.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885#t=0.3,127.01"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I had been a bill for ten years before I went over. I jumped ship and went over to AJC. You mean they were jumping ship even back then? Not much. Keith McBee jumped ship and went over and started a news department at J.C. in like 1958 or 59. And he had been with Bill for ten years himself. And so. So since you had shown up there, you know, it wasn't too bad for you just to walk up the hill, I guess. Well, we all knew each other in the business. Then I went when I went over there, Jack Wells was was on the morning show, but he Dean was doing the dance show. Clair Beach was doing the weather. Royal Parker was there. I knew all these people. So. And I was just up the street, really. You know, you throw those names out very casually. But now we understand that you and those people you mentioned were were are the pioneers. That's a little scary. There are some people who were a little ahead of us that we look upon as pioneers. Jim McKay, for one, who started out with May, are and did a whole afternoon show, and Bailey Goss and Nick Camper, Frieda the only three to come immediately to mind. Gross You had you had Nelson Baker. You mentioned Nick Carter for free, had Tommy do cart. Yeah. And Tommy was was in public relations with WJC when I went there. Also, the great zoo keeper, author Watson. That's right. That's right. They all truly you honestly are were pioneers or are pioneers in the TV business. And most of us came out of radio and in many ways in the very early, early days, even a few years before, when most of the stations in Baltimore came on, around 1947 or 48, the stations that were owned around the country, the radio stations who started TV such as W Bell, the they they used a lot of their younger people because the older announcers felt that TV wasn't really going to be much.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885#t=128.15,259.76"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And they felt that if they were kicked over stairs, it was somewhat like Siberia. So it became a very young man's business. Most of us just out of the war really, and we became pioneers without without realizing it. It was a catch as catch can, really. You came. You came to Baltimore from Cincinnati. Right. Why did you leave Cincinnati? I had an opportunity. I, I was with WKYC Television in Cincinnati as a staff announcer. And I had a feeling that I wasn't going to make it as a, quote, star. And I wanted to direct. So I got the opportunity in an interview with the management of WB Al. I don't quite know how that came about really, because I had sent letters out to different stations and they just did get in touch with me and I had an opportunity to direct. They said, But you have to come on as a staff announcer doing station breaks. And we went on the air at noon. And those days it was it was early. Realize how early it was. There were three other staff announcers Al Herndon, Jay Grayson and Keith McBee. And there was a Shall I continue with this? Shall I roll it? There was a there was a late movie program that had just started a few months before I got there in July of 51. And they were using staff men to be on the air to introduce the commercials, introduce the film, introduce the commercials. And because the films were terrible and the or at least they were B films, Hollywood had not released anything good to television because it was scared to tell them, well, they were competing with. That's exactly right. So you were you were what, the host? Well, yeah, they were alternating.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885#t=260.209,361.71"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Or these three fellows who were there ahead of me would take a night. And they hated it. They didn't want to be on at night. And when I came, they managed to put the new boy stick it to the new boy. Well, I decided to make a shtick out of it. I knocked the movies. I said, We don't have a very good movie tonight, but we have some very interesting commercials, that sort of thing, you know, Arthur Godfrey approach. And it caught on. And I became, if not famous, infamous as the host of Picture Playhouse. Is that when the cup of coffee came in? Right. And the cigaret the smoke rings I used to blow. We that was certainly p c we did. As a matter of fact, I think we did a terrible disservice to America. Maybe the world as the movies had done, because smoking was glamorous. We smoked on camera all the time. I'm embarrassed now. I have a tape of a day book program that I did in the last four years. I was with WB. Al and I used to blow a smoke ring across the coffee cup, which was kind of cute, but always the cigaret although I kept it in the ashtray during the thing and I, I feel I feel bad about that now because I haven't smoked for years. Well but you did quit smoking. Yes, I did know that you so you now you have an opportunity to for another message. You're not going to blow the smoke and just tell the folks, stop smoking. Go ahead. I think it'd be you would be wise. It's advisable that you stop smoking or else you're going to die a lot sooner. And the middle? Look, I've lasted now that I stopped.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885#t=362.47,461.49"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Okay, You got that? The and that. And actually, that smoking stuff is on a tape there. Yes. Now, what else is on a tape that perhaps we could talk about? Just a couple of pieces that I did on on on daybook and the rest of the stuff is KRC in Cincinnati the All right. Going back to the to the focal point the you were hired because of your credibility. I think so And you did a pretty good job. I mean I would certainly I you seem to be a person that was involved in the city. You knew what you were talking about. Were you involved in the city at that point? No, nothing. Nothing. Not pardon me, not other than being on the air. I, I have been always able to play myself on camera, which is not an easy thing to do, which you probably know because you you play yourself. But when you're probably the first time you went on the air, you were stiff as a board or many of us were. If you weren't, I apologize. But one of the things about being natural on television, you have to go all the way around Robin Hood's barn. You have to you have to artistically learn how to be yourself. And consequently, I played one part, Bob Jones, which was believable because I was very good at Bob Jones, still am, and do a little Bob Jones for me, but I've been doing it for the last five minutes. I always feel like in order to really do Bob Jones, you got to take a sip of coffee. Well, that's true. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I tell you, the night we have a we have a movie starring Johnny Downes and Dixie Dunbar.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885#t=462.54,568.56"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"That's how you did it? Yes. Well, I did it. I hope I did it better than that. Was Dixie Dunbar a real star or is that a name? Dixie Dunbar was a was a blond singer, dancer, so called actress. And they did a lot of they did a lot of college pictures. You did do a really good Bob Jones. You know, I remember seeing you on TV and not as a youngster. I wasn't a youngster. I was a, you know, an adult myself. But I really those days, those days mean so much to me. And they obviously people who have been watching Channel 13 or Baltimore television since its started, people my age, give or take 10 or 15 years, certainly remember you and all the other people from back in that era of television. And I'm sure they're going to be delighted to know that you're still up still around. Still doing things. So what are you doing? I've been a freelance writer since I left Cincinnati. I had gone from Baltimore in 1963 to do a radio program in my hometown, Cincinnati. I felt that live television was diminishing in Baltimore, which at that time it was because we did a lot of live quiz shows and that sort of thing, and it didn't look as if it was very promising. So I had a nice offer from Cincinnati and I thought, Well, I'll see what happens. In other words, I was a new boy in my old hometown and stayed there for 23 years, went into television from my radio show into being news anchor man at ABC station there, and eventually some more radio until radio finally folded up on me because everything turned to rock music more or less. And I was by that time approaching my 60s.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885#t=569.13,676.53"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And you don't have many 60 rock jocks around. So I have always written for myself, wrote three plays that were presented at WB. Al and I had the notion, particularly in retirement. My wife is from Baltimore and she was kind enough to go for a quarter of a century with me to Cincinnati. She was music librarian, the WB, Al Radio and television. That's how we met. And we came back here and I followed up on something that I had wanted to do, and that was to do a critical edition of the poetry of Lizette Woodworth Reese, a famous Baltimore poet of the turn of the century, and up into the into the well, up into the 30s. She died in 1935, was Macon's favorite poet, by the way. And I had done that. And I did. It took me about four years to put it together, and I contributed a few articles to the Baltimore Sun telling under the degree of the glory days of television were not that golden. They were many. They were fun. But we did some terribly terrible stuff. Terrible perhaps, compared to to the way they do things now. Terrible. But back then you had nothing to really compare it to. So it was great wasting nobody studied radio and television in our day. We came we came from all different kinds of of, of activities or right out of school. I majored in English literature. So did Al Herndon. The the people who who were in television were there almost accidentally Gary Morgan into radio just happened to drop in off the street one day a vial years ago. So that I kind of feel sorry for the kids these days because they're turning out graduates from the broadcast majors and what do they call it, mass comm in the universities that there there just aren't that many jobs.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885#t=677.07,796.65"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Yeah. And there's so many people interested in TV or getting in TV and but there's just not that many jobs. And when they say that we're going to robotics now, for the most part, many, many of the jobs now have been replaced by robots. Sure, sure. All right. What I wanted to ask you was, though, what are you doing? What is your next assignment? Let me put it this way. Is there a possibility that there some more TV in your life? No, no, you just don't. At my age, which I hit 70 on October 1st, you don't start out anew. And a lot of people can stay in broadcasting, television, radio, mostly television. Now, if they don't move, a Walter Cronkite, for instance, stayed on until he was up in his upper 60s. If he'd have been out of work, but he wouldn't have been hired by anybody, probably. Well, he maybe maybe Walter would have. But the thing is, you don't hire older people. I'm. I'm saying that you folks who are on television, you get past 45, don't lose your job because you probably won't find another one. I, I have two daughters, and people have wondered whether they had any inclination to go into the business. And I recalled something that Gino Marchetti one time said when they were asking the Colts and and some of the Orioles whether they would like to see their sons could follow them into business. And Gino said, when my kid gets to be of a certain age, about 12 years old, I want to hold a football out to him and a baseball bat. And if he chooses a football, I'm going to hit him over the head with a baseball bat. And that's the way I felt about my kids in broadcasting.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885#t=797.25,896.61"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Well, what's not? Although it's an honorable and enjoyable and and profitable and beneficial profession, I wouldn't have traded my life for anything. But it's tough sometimes, most times. So that part of it for right now is time. Yes. As far as you're concerned. Yeah. Course, you never know what's around the corner. God, no. I mean, I course you did, Bob Jones pretty good. And you could do that again. Nobody does it better. So you're writing you're working on a book now about baseball? Yeah, I'm I'm working on two. I am president of a of the Emery Grove Association, which is an ancient camp meeting grounds where we have cottages here in Glendale. And I've been president for the last year and a half. And for the last 4 or 5 years, I've been piecing together a history of this organization, which is 120 627 years old now. Now and then of your own. Yeah, basically. And I am working on and as told to biography of the man who was the architect of the Big Red machine, the baseball team in Cincinnati in the 1970s. I don't want to say too much about it because I remember something John Steinbeck once said about talking about works in progress. He says, It's a jinx. If you tell people what you're writing and how you get along with it, it'll blow up on you. So even though you are in your seventh, your 70th year, I guess I'm in my 71st, I don't know. When I. Yes, I'm 17. So there's there's no retirement around the corner, apparently. I've been retired for eight years thanks to rock and roll music. I'm a firm in rock music. It's not rock and roll anymore. But you're continue doing. Yes, I write and I read and I do things such as the organization.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885#t=898.2,1019.72"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And I said I was president of and I visit with my grandchildren and that sort of thing. You were you were in Baltimore City when it was part of its decline before the Renaissance, The great Renaissance. For the most part, yes. You've been down there recently. What do you think of the new Baltimore? Well, I love the new Baltimore. I remember the harbor when it was really a crummy place. And the only place the harbor looked good from was at night from Federal Hill Park. All you can see were lights in the city. I think that sort of progress is great. I regret the fact that I don't think I would be comfortable going anywhere. I wanted to at any time of day or night, as I did years ago. We used to go out after we got off the air at 1:00 and go to Nate's, and Leon's on North Avenue and and go down to Little Italy and cruise around town. And we were young and we could still go to Little Italy now and. Yeah. I don't I'm not saying that it's the continual danger. But I tell you, when you when you sit out here roughly in the country, although Glen and Reisterstown can hardly be considered country now, but you read The Baltimore Sun, which is is locally is is like a police blotter. You tend to magnify the problems in Baltimore City and. All right. I'm sorry about that. It's a place you want to stay away from when you live out here. I can surely understand. But the the the physical picture of it, I mean, I like that you remember. You remember the way it used to look. And you remember the terrible conditions you reported on it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885#t=1020.41,1117.1"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Right. And the people, the Greater Baltimore Committee and the city fathers, the movers and shakers, they did the job. I think they did the job very well. I'm I'm still depressed about certain aspects of the city, such as they tried to do a job on Howard Street, but it didn't seem to work out very well. And and the exodus to the to the suburbs or even the country more than the suburbs as far as the stores are concerned, that was happening, incidentally. And the picture that you presented to us back then, all the stores were going out of it. But give me something positive about again, you were you were associated with Baltimore in decline is a matter of fact. You even said, why bother? Why bother to fix it up? Well, now that it's fixed up. Well, somebody wrote that for me. Norm, quick. But you said it. Yes, I did. And you said it right. So now that it is fixed up and. And someone did bother, What do you think? I mean, how's it look to you? It looks good. I tell you, it looks great. I love I came back here and saw the Inner Harbor and that was very hard to believe. I think that I think that Baltimore has done as well as most cities. My hometown, Cincinnati, has done a better job of the downtown area, mostly because it's a smaller city and they have a series of skywalks that is a network throughout the whole eight square block shopping area. And downtown is is more vibrant as far as commercially, I think that is the stores in Cincinnati than it is here. Okay. But I still I don't have a sense you know, let me let me ask you again.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885#t=1117.28,1218.32"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"You recall the way it used to be yesterday when you were. On 423, almost a quarter of a century. When you came back here and you saw them downtown. What went through your mind? Well, it wasn't sudden because we came back here. Most every summer I knew the way it was going. I think that I was impressed. I was impressed favorably in the fact that the city had done as much for itself as it did. You can hardly avoid that. Unfortunately, unfortunately, in every city in the country, the the crime situation is overlapped.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885#t=1219.82,1261.35"}]},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["English [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136873/file/253885/transcript/71670/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"subtitling","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/file_transcripts/associated_files/000/071/670/original/trint_WJZ-FLDTP-006-023_transcript.vtt?1728353240","format":"text/vtt","language":"en"},"target":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/file_transcripts/associated_files/000/071/670/original/trint_WJZ-FLDTP-006-023_transcript.vtt?1728353240"}]}]}]}