oral history project

Eva Bell Smith Oral History Project
Interview with Eva Bell Smith
Date of Interview: March 13, 2007; 1361 North Jordan Avenue, Provo Utah 84604
Interviewer: Jamie Huish Stum
Transcriber: Jamie Huish Stum
Begin Tape 1, Side 1

Stum: This is the Eva Bell Smith Oral History Project, interview with Grandma Smith on
March 13, 2007. We are sitting in Eva Bell and Carl Smith’s home, 1361 North Jordan Avenue, Provo, Utah. The interviewer is Jamie Huish Stum, Eva Bell’s grandson Nathan’s wife.

Stum: What are some of your early memories involving media?

Smith: Well, we never went to the movies when I was little; I imagine the first thing was
because we were poor and then because we kind of made our own entertainment. When Carl and I started dating at fourteen, fifteen years old down in Provo they had a movie house. It only showed one picture and they didn’t have all afternoon and night movies, just a few times. Movies cost five or ten cents, gasoline was ten or twelve cents a gallon but when you figure it, you’re only making a dollar a day too, so it wasn’t that different than nowadays for what you have to pay. I remember watching the newsreels before movies but I don’t remember what any of them said.

Stum: What about when you had children?

Smith: We took the kids to the movies but not too often. We’d usually go for a ride and get
an ice cream cone. We never thought about movies much, there probably were good movies but we just did more family oriented things first. I can’t even remember the last time we went to a movie. Of course, we have movies here to watch and they have so many movies on TV anymore, I don’t know how those movie theaters stay in business when so many people rent and watch the show at home.

Stum: What do you remember about television when you were growing up?

Smith: We didn’t even have a TV until after we were married. We listened to the radio
sometimes though. No TV growing up, can you believe that?

Stum: When did you get your first TV?

Smith: Our first TV was black and white, I can’t remember when we got our first one but it
was a little portable type one. After we were married I know. We were married three or four years or longer than that before we had a TV, just that little black and white thing and we didn’t spend a lot of time watching it either. We were too busy working hard. And I don’t remember if we had the newspaper.

Stum: Getting your first TV must have been exciting.

Smith: Well it was wonderful. It was just a little black and white TV, it had a little antenna.
Couldn’t get a whole lot on, you know, we didn’t have much of an antenna, just a little one that sticks up. We couldn’t get a good picture really but we were thrilled just to have something. I don’t really remember any favorite things. Thirty years ago I would have remembered? You should have asked me then! It didn’t seem like we really watched it in those days, it seemed like we always had something to do. Only at night sometimes. Like I said, the pictures wasn’t very good in the first place, kind of fuzzy and so we didn’t really watch all that much at first.

Stum: What about when color TV came out?

Smith: Let’s see color TV, it was probably 1975, way down the road. We didn’t have one for
a long time.

Stum: What were some of the differences in TV then from when you first started watching?

Smith: There was a much clearer picture and a lot more things on that you were interested in.
I don’t remember a lot of soap operas but there was a lot of music like Lawrence Welch.

Stum: Who’s that?

Smith: Oh you don’t know Lawrence Welch?! He had a program on that was just singers and
my mom and dad and Carl’s mother loved to watch that. He came on once a week. You know, famous singers, but he had the same ones every week, his regulars, one that tap danced, on that played the accordian, perfect for his kind of show. They weren’t famous anywhere else but his show.

Stum: What other shows do you remember?

Smith: Well, Bob Hope, he was funny. I watched him once and awhile. He was funny, he
was a comedian. He and Jack Benny always did things together. He had a lot of pretty good jokes, pretty clean jokes. I didn’t really have any favorites, just like now, except “American Idol.” One show that I did get interested in, it was a series, was “Dallas,” it came on once a week and it’s a drama about families. The main character had a cattle ranch and the show always has the problems and stuff in the family. It was drama, I’d say.

Stum: Did you watch more TV when you had kids in the house?

Smith: We had TV all the time the kids were growing up but it doesn’t seem like we watched
it much then either. It seemed like when the kids were going to school and there was work to do outside we didn’t have much time. The kids didn’t watch TV much, they played outside a lot. There wasn’t any favorites on either that I remember, you know, like “American Idol.” I never thought, ‘oh, I have to hurry and get home to watch it.’ The kids liked wrestling because Carl did, they liked that on TV. I do remember when we got our TV and everybody was so excited. Blaine {Eva Bell’s oldest son} was almost ten years old and he’s sixty-one now. We got it at Sears. But they didn’t come out with color TV for quite a while and to this day I like to watch some of those old movies that are black and white. It reminds you of the good times sitting and watching something on TV and they don’t have those anymore.

Stum: What do you think about TV shows that are on today?

Smith: I don’t like reality shows very well. There’s one show I like called ‘House.” I like that
because it’s kind of educational, if you listen closely enough.

Stum: What’s it about?

Smith: It’s about this doctor and he’s always solving problems, he works in a hospital. I like “Dancing with the Stars.”

Stum: So did you listen to the radio? What shows do you remember?

Smith: I’m trying to think of some of the favorite shows. Intersanctum was one, it’s a murder
mystery type thing. Bull Dog Drummond was one. Now, if you’d asked me fifty years ago, I’d know all of them! They were half hour, kinda like a movie only just little half hour segments and you just listened. Most came on at night, I can’t remember what we listened to during the daytime except those little programs. I don’t know what you’d call them, they were like a movie, just short story things, that was the main thing.

Stum: How often did you listen to the radio growing up?

Smith: We didn’t listen very much. We were too busy. Not like we do now; now I get up in
the morning and turn the radio on, I mean, I never used to do that. I don’t remember listening to much music during the day but we must have I’m sure.

Stum: How did you get your news?

Smith: We sometimes had the paper, I guess what we did was go on day to day and didn’t
worry too much about the news. Somebody would find out and tell somebody else and things just got passed along that way.

Stum: Do you remember watching or listening to any historical events?

Smith: I tell you, I’m a poor one to remember these things.

Stum: How old were you during World War II?


Smith: Well, lets see, World War II was 1945, 1945 we were working down at the laundry
when the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor. We just heard about it by word of mouth that day, I mean, everybody came and told us and I guess they heard it on the news, we were already married by then. Well, I was born in 1926 so I was about 19 years old.

Stum: What did they show on the news?

Smith: Well, they showed all the planes coming in and bombing and people running
everywhere and the soldiers running for cover. People then were really nervous because here we were in a war already.

Stum: Do you remember the day John F. Kennedy died?

Smith: I remember the day JFK died, yeah, on the TV, we saw that on the news. We must
have had a TV by then, what year was that? I remember everybody was just horrified, you know, the same feeling came over you as when Pearl Harbor was attacked, just nervous and thinking the world was falling apart.

Stum: It must have been scary.

Smith: I remember they showed it a lot on the news. We were living here in Provo by then,
we built this house around 1946. They showed the motorcade when they were going down the street and [JFK] slumped over in his seat. He was riding in a convertible car and when he was shot he just slumped down. They didn’t have a lot of protection in those days like they do now. Can you imagine the president riding in an open air car? He was just exposed and they don’t do that anymore. I remember that, the motorcade speeded up to get him to the hospital.

Stum: What were people feeling when that happened?

Smith: We were shocked. He was a good president; most people liked him. Everybody was
shocked, just like when World War II started. It was like, ‘oh my heck, what is the world coming to.’ Kinda like now except those things never used to happen. We get desensitized I think with the news today because bad things happen all the time and that’s all you see on the news.

Stum: Do you remember when President Nixon was impeached?

Smith: I don’t remember that as much. It seemed like everybody was kinda shocked but not
too much. It seemed like things happened in government all the time that people were shocked about. It was kinda different. I don’t remember being upset about him being impeached, but it really wasn’t ordinary then. I don’t think any president had been impeached by then but I don’t know.

Stum: What about other types of media like newspapers?

Smith: We get it and we then stop it and then we get it again. There’s not really a whole lot in
it. We listen to news on the radio and you can mostly get whatever you want from a quick radio story just like that. I don’t know when we first go it but we probably had the paper on and off for fifteen years. The main reason we take it now is because Carl likes the obituaries and I look at the front page. And that’s size of the paper for us! And then of course the ads, we like the ads. But we get the ads if we take the paper or not, the ads will come in the mail once a week. Some people rely on the ads to save money and you probably can but you can get those without getting the paper.

Stum: What are some of the differences you notice between media now and when you were
growing up and first married?

Smith: They have a lot more things on now, a lot more newscasters and so many different
stations that you can usually find what you want to watch. Especially if you have cable or some kind of satellite or dish. We don’t even have that and we can usually find what we want just using the antenna. Just like then, sometimes there’s nothing on that’s worth watching. Channel 11 or Channel 7, they have usually quite interesting things so we like those and then the history channel. That’s what Carl watches most of the time.

Stum: Have you subscribed to any magazines regularly?

Smith: We’ve always gotten the Ensign and I read Prevention magazine now. We’ve gotten
Readers Digest off and on some. I’ve ordered a newsletter from a doctor in Arizona. I’m reading them for health, they tell you the medications and the things they’ve researched, then he’d go into this deep breathing thing that I liked and I got his tapes on that. The problem is, I like to read books rather than look at magazines now. I read a lot more these days than I ever used to. I like to get a novel and read it, something that’s interesting to me maybe.

Stum: How much do you interact with computers? Do you ever use them to get news?

Smith: I haven’t had anything to do with computers. I never learned how. We’ve never even
had one. Carl keeps telling me if I want one, I should get one but I keep thinking, ‘oh I don’t know if I want one.’ See, I’m in the dark ages as far as computers now because you can do so many things on them now. I know you guys get all your news from them. I guess what you don’t know can’t hurt you. If you’ve never had it, you don’t miss it. It’s like the cell phone, once you get hooked on the cell phone, if you don’t have it you’d miss it and that’d probably be the same as computers.

Stum: You listened to a lot of news on the radio you said.

Smith: Yes, lots of news that way over the years. We still do. I like KSL, we listen that an
awful lot. I like Sean Hannity and the Doug Wright show. Sean Hannity, most of the time I think he tells the truth about what’s going on, I don’t think he’s too partial, I mean, he’s definitely a Republican but he says a lot of things about the Republicans too sometimes. I’m sure he must study up on things before he says anything or else he must get in big trouble. I used to listen to Miles Crenshaw on the radio, he’s kinda like Sean Hannity. Paul Harvey, I always liked him on the radio. Who’s that other guy, the one that’s taking drugs? I always liked him. He’s back on, I’ve heard him recently.

Stum: Rush Limbaugh?

Smith: Yes, him. To me, he’s like Sean Hannity, he doesn’t care whose toes he steps on, he
doesn’t feel like he owes anybody any favors. But TV has changed too, what I watch. I watch “American Idol” and Carl watches all those judge shows that drive me crazy. But I like “Dr. Phil,” I really like him, and I like “Oprah.” Those two are the best things that have come out of TV since the beginning, I think. I like the History Channel, always watched it. They take you on these tours and show you different countries. It almost makes you feel like you’re there, like you’ve visited. It’s travel from home and it’s great because I don’t like to travel. Carl does but I don’t.