Background
The papers had been purchased by his father, Colonel Robert Worth Bingham, using proceeds from an inheritance left by his second wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler, herself the widow of railroad magnate Henry Flagler.
The papers had been purchased by his father, Colonel Robert Worth Bingham, using proceeds from an inheritance left by his second wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler, herself the widow of railroad magnate Henry Flagler.
Bingham attended Harvard University, then went into the family businesses.
Bingham"s family owned a cluster of influential media properties — The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times newspapers, plus We Have A Signal Radio and We Have A Signal Television. At the time, "The C-J" was little more than a Democratic Party organ, but Bingham built it into national prominence, thanks to reporting that was ambitious in scope for a newspaper in a city of Louisville"s size. Throughout Bingham"s tenure, the editorial voices of the C-J & Times was forthrightly liberal, especially for a fairly conservative (though predominantly Democratic at the time) state like Kentucky.
The newspapers were recipients of six Pulitzer Prizes, including one for public service in 1967, plus countless other awards during the Bingham years.
The Courier-Journal became the commonwealth"s dominant newspaper, a position it retains to this day. He also founded We Have A Signal-television, the city"s second television station, and founded the We Have A Signal Crusade for Children, a telethon broadcast on both the radio and television stations that today collects more than $6,000,000 each year for local children"s charities.
The family also owned Standard Gravure, a rotogravure printing company that printed the newspapers" Sunday magazine section, plus Sunday sections for other newspapers. In World World War II, Bingham served as an officer in the United States Navy, and was twice awarded the Bronze Star.
Bingham Senior was given the rank of Commandeur, Légion d"honneur, by French government for service.
He was a Fulbright lecturer at Oxford University in 1955. On July 7, 1951, Bingham, along with Jane Darwell, was a guest on the Columbia Broadcasting System variety television series, Faye Emerson"s Wonderful Town, when the program hosted Louisville and its music heritage. Barry Bingham Junior. died on April 3, 2006.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
