Dorothy Fuldheim, Papers, [1968]-1990; [bulk 1972-1980]

Inventory

Prepared by Barbara Bass, July 16, 2002; revised July 2004
3 record storage boxes, 1 document box, 1 film box, 1 oversize folder, 3.5 cubic feet

This material is housed in a climate-controlled environment off site and requires at least 24 hour notice for retrieval. Please call or email the department with requests for this material prior to your visit. Box 4-5 and the oversize folder remain in Special Collections and Archives

Biographical Note

Dorothy Fuldheim was born Dorothy Violet Snell, June 26, 1893, in Passaic, New Jersey. She grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and attended Milwaukee College where she became a teacher after completing her education.

She married Milton H. Fuldheim and lived in Cleveland in the 1920's. After her first husband died in 1952 she married William L. Ulmer. She had one daughter, Dorothy Fuldheim-Urman who was a Russian professor at Case Western Reserve University. She died in 1980.

Fuldheim worked giving lectures after moving to Cleveland and began her broadcasting career. She hosted a local historical biography series on WTAM radio station and gave a weekly editorial on ABC. She joined the staff of WEWS two months before it went on the air for the first time in 1947. She was the first woman in the United States to have her own show. It was a one of a kind show that blended news, commentary and interviews. She is famous for her interviews with Mussolini and Hitler during World War II. She was one of the most well-known women in journalism winning many awards one of which was the National Overseas Press Club Award after interviewing two American prisoners released from Communist China in Hong Kong in 1955 and named one of "America's Most Admired Women" through a Gallup Poll. She authored the autobiographical memoirs: I Laughed, I Cried, I Loved in 1966; A Thousand Friends in 1974; and The House I Live In; in 1981. She also wrote Where Were the Arabs, about the Israeli-Arab conflicts.

Dorothy Fuldheim suffered a stroke on the air on July 27, 1984 and died at the age of 96 on Nov. 3, 1989 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Scope and Content

Fuldheim's papers include many of the commentaries that she became famous for in her broadcasting career. Also included are correspondence and the manuscripts for her books A Thousand Friends and Three and a Half Husbands. The published books for these titles and also The House I Live In and I Laughed, I Cried, I Loved written by Dorothy Fuldheim can be found in Special Collections and Archives. Other books by and about Dorothy Fuldheim can be found in KentLINK, the library online catalog.

Description of Series:

Box 1

Series 1: Commentaries

Folder -- Contents
  1. Commentaries: Jan. 20-April 29, 1972
  2. Commentaries: May 1-Aug. 31, 1972
  3. Commentaries: Sept. 1-Dec. 29, 1972
  4. Commentaries: Jan. 1-Mar. 29, 1973
  5. Commentaries: Apr. 5-Aug. 31, 1973
  6. Commentaries: Sept. 3-Dec. 31, 1973
  7. Commentaries: Jan. 1-Apr. 30, 1974
  8. Commentaries: May 1-Aug. 30, 1974
  9. Commentaries: Sept. 2-Dec. 31, 1974