Martin Andersen

Four part interview with Mr. Martin Andersen and his wife Gracie Barr Anderson.

Martin Andersen, publisher of the Orlando Sentinel, and his wife Gracia Barr Andersen discuss their lives in Orlando.

PART 1: Coming to Orlando – first impressions; early newspaper career; colorful citizens; acquiring the newspaper; selling it to the Chicago Tribune; having 5 dailies in 1931; Marcia’s birth; the Depression; SCRIP; highways

PART 2:  politics (L.B.J.); roads; controversy; Walt Disney World; honors; disappointments (not moving the state capitol to Orlando – Gertrude Street); Orlando personalities; bank failures; Yowell Drew Burglary (Ashley Gang)

PART 3:  Ma Barker; Alligator Club; Radio Nick’s Zoo; burglary of the First National Bank; early auto travel; Florida on Parade 1934; Ella Raines (actress); Sis Hopkins Madden; Champ Williams; Blanche Parshall; Saturday night in Orlando; Sam Warren

PART 4:  first golf tournament; Flamingo Club; Siemans Store; Bronson; Old Time Scenes; quotes 9 vignettes old timers; Orlando “today”

This interview was conducted in the Andersen home on April 9, 1975 for the Friends of the Orlando Public Library’s Oral History Committee by Jean Yothers.  We are grateful for the Orange County Regional History Center‘s making this recording available for Orlando Memory.

Peruse a collage of images of various periods in Mr Andersen’s adult life comes from an article printed in the Orlando Sentinel on May 5, 1986 titled: “Orlando leader Martin Andersen dies.” This article and more with other images may be found at the Orlando Public Library in the biography vertical files.

Listen to interviews with more Orlando pioneers.