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            CAL PRICE AND “THIRTY.”   The headline said it all.  Editors across America wrote their final personal thoughts about one of West Virginia’s most loved and admired - “the old master of mountain journalism.” They put their papers to bed that June of 1957, knowing that the news would shake the hills.  Calvin Wells Price was dead.

            Or so they all thought.  The memory of Cal Price lives on in the pages of The Pocahontas Times, the county’s first and only remaining newspaper. The Times was America’s last handset newspaper and is one of the oldest existing weeklies in the country, and, it was one of the first to use computers to lay out the front page.      

            But...it was still “Cal’s Paper.”  The Price Family is still “at the press”, the workers are still women, obituaries are still on the front page, and, like always, readers around the world still expect their paper on time.

            “30”  A Film about Cal Price and The Pocahontas Times, is the second full-length documentary feature by Patchwork Films and will premiere at the West Virginia Filmmakers Festival in Sutton on October 11, 2002. Produced by B.J. Sharp-Gudmundsson and co-produced by Doug Chadwick and Paul Rose, the documentary will showcase the county’s newspaper and the man who became known across the country as the “typical country editor” on January 9, 1940:

9:30 PM...LIVE from Columbia Studios in New York ...”We, The People”

Gabriel Heatter:  “Gentlemen, the microphone is yours!”

“I only have 3,000 subscribers, but I know each and every one of them personally.  I bet you don’t know 100 of yours!”  Cal Price of the small, country weekly, The Pocahontas Times, nearly barked the challenge to Paul Shoenstein of the big city daily, The New York Journal American. 

            After hearing Price on the radio The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote: “The Times exerts a powerful influence and its editorials are quoted all over the country.”   Cal Price’s name appeared in newspapers near and far.  Letters came from every state, from friends and people of all ages.  And they came from people who had never heard of Cal Price. But they did hear one thing:  he knew who was reading his paper. Cal read them all, then humbly disclaimed being “typical” and said, “I calls it onusual.”

            Maybe he was unusual.  In today’s world, he certainly would be.  He had only a high school education. He attended prayer meetings regularly, sent his children to college, paid his debts, and kept the job he started with until he died.  He handset his paper, composing as he went, and he never learned to drive a car, because he wanted to look at everything that was around him.

              Cal Price loved the mountains, knew his people and shared their concerns.  And he wrote about them.  His observations of the world around him, his weekly “Field Notes,” and the news of occasional panther sightings were reprinted in the large daily newspapers.  His name was known across the country as a journalist and a conservationist, and his awards were many.  It was no surprise that when he died, the editor of The Marlinton Journal wrote:  “Until I can put into words my memories of this most loved man, I can only say that I have suffered a great personal loss.” 

This documentary project is sponsored by The Pocahontas County Free Libraries and funded by individual contributions. We invite readers to write or call with stories and memories of Cal Price and The Pocahontas Times.  For information:  call B.J. Sharp-Gudmundsson, Patchwork Films at 304-645-4998, or write to Allen Johnson, Director, Pocahontas County Free Libraries, 500 Eighth Street, Marlinton, WV 24954.                     

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