DAVE MOORE:

David Dalrymple Moore was born June 4, 1924 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father, Morris E. "Ned" Moore, Jr., was in business with E. J. Scriver in Moore & Scriver Company, a furniture store that was for many years located in downtown Minneapolis that was founded by Dave's grandfather around 1900.

Dave Moore graduated from Washburn High School, Minneapolis, in 1942, and entered the University of Minnesota. He left the University in May 1943 to enter military service, and served three years as an infantryman in Europe. Moore returned to the University of Minnesota in 1946, and completed his bachelor's degree in liberal arts in 1949. During his years at the University he acted in a number of plays.

After graduating Moore took a job as an announcer and sportscaster at WBCK radio in Battle Creek, Michigan. He was hired by WCCO television (then known as WTCN) in July 1950, where he began a series of jobs as an announcer and emcee. He began anchoring the station's 10 p.m. newscast in 1957, and in 1964 the 6 p.m. newscast as well. He also hosted the news and public affairs programs Moore Report and Moore on Sunday. Moore anchored the 10:00 news until 1985, and the 6:00 news until 1991. He died on January 28, 1998 after a series of illnesses that developed following heart bypass surgery.

Moore was actively involved in the local theater community all his life. He was also a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He recorded Talking Books for the Blind, and taught drama classes. Moore also had a lifelong interest in baseball.

Dave Moore and his wife Shirley, a social worker, had six children and made their home in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina.

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Most of the material is concerned with Moore's years as a television newscaster at WCCO-TV. There is relatively little information about Moore's family or his personal life. His theatrical activities are somewhat better documented. A few photographs, certificates, his high school diploma, and other personal items date from prior to 1950.

There is a considerable amount of correspondence with viewers, much of which consists of letters of complaint and Moore's responses to them. Some of the best of this correspondence was later included in Moore's book, A Member of the Family: Letters and Reflections by Dave Moore. There is a considerable run of scripts from Moore's Saturday evening Bedtime News program. There is also press coverage of Moore's retirement from the 10:00 and 6:00 newscasts, and there are newspaper and other tributes on the occasion of his death.

The collection includes Moore's comments about journalism and changes in the journalism profession, especially in the field of TV news. There are also Moore's observations about what he regarded as the general deterioration of downtown Minneapolis as it became filled with large office buildings, upscale retail, and sterile streetscapes, as skyways siphoned foot traffic off the sidewalks, and as the downtown of his youth disappeared. There is information about Moore's interest in baseball, especially his beloved Minnesota Twins baseball club, including his comments about the loss of Metropolitan Stadium in suburban Bloomington, Minnesota, and his criticisms of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome indoor ballpark that replaced it.

A small amount of material documents Moore's acting in theatrical productions while a student at the University of Minnesota, and later in life. There are also some photos taken during his World War II service.

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Access Restrictions:

The audio and video recordings in copyright in this collection are not available online, but can be accessed upon request for use in the Gale Family Library reading room. Please consult reference staff for more information.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Dave Moore Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,733; 16,610

Location of Master Files:

Digital masters of the audiovisual material are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

The original audio reels, audiocassettes, and videocassettes were disposed after the material was digitally reformatted into mov and wav files.

Processing Information:

Processed by: David B. Peterson, October 2004; Shelby Edwards, October 2011

Digitization and encoding by April Rodriguez, August 21, 2023.

Digital audiovisual transferred from the master film, audio reels, audiocassettes, and videocassettes by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes (August 2023).

Digitization was made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Boxes 123.E.13.8F, 123.E.13.9B, and 142.G.1B-1 were vacated after media material was disposed.

Catalog ID number: 990029545560104294

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Moore's book, A Member of the Family: Letters and Reflections by Dave Moore, is in the Minnesota Historical Society book collection.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Baseball.

Broadcast journalism -- Minnesota.

Journalism -- Minnesota.

Retirement.

Theater -- Minnesota.

Television broadcasting of the news -- Minnesota.

Places:

Minneapolis (Minn.).

Persons:

Moore, Peter, 1956-

Moore, Shirley.

Organizations:

University of Minnesota -- Alumni and alumnae.

Washburn High School (Minneapolis, Minn.) -- Alumni and alumnae.

WCCO-TV (Television station : Minneapolis, Minn.).

Types of Documents:

Diplomas.

Photographs.

Scores.

Sound recordings.

Television scripts.

Video recordings (physical artifacts).

Occupations:

Actors -- Minnesota.

Journalists -- Minnesota.

Television journalists -- Minnesota.

Television news anchors -- Minnesota.

Titles:

Bedtime news (Television program).

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