Interview with Representative Jack Blanton, Democratic Texas State legislator from Carrollton, Texas. Blanton discusses his experiences in the second, third, and fourth special sessions of the 62nd Legislature, including funding state primaries, the election of house speaker Rayford Price, Governor Preston Smith's budget proposal, insurance rate making, the State Insurance Commission, and the Texas insurance industry.

Interview with C. L. Permenter, a Marine WWII veteran and POW from Dallas, Texas. Permenter discusses his pre-war service with the North China Marines at Tientsin (Tianjin) and Peking (Beijing), the situation in Japanese-occupied China, his capture, and his experiences in internment at Woosung, Kiangwang, and Fengtai.

Interview with Representative Fred Agnich, a Republican Texas state legislator from Minnesota. Agnich discusses his childhood and education; moving to Texas and becoming a statesman; lobbying and how to control its influence; staffing in government offices; reform of the legislating process; his thoughts on proposed ethics legislation; single-member and multi-member congressional districts; party dynamics in the legislature; the "Dirty Thirty" and the Sharpestown scandal; reform of the insurance industry; and voter registration.

Interview with Jack Blanton, a Democratic Texas state legislator from Carrollton, Texas. Blanton recounts his experiences during the first session of 62nd Texas State Legislature in 1971, including his response to Governor Smith's deficit funding plan, state finance, education reform, taxation, his role on the Appropriations Committee, manipulation of stocks and insurance, the so-called "Dirty Thirty," ethics legislation, and redistricting.

Interview with Onnie Clem, Jr., Marine WWII veteran and POW from Dallas, Texas. Clem discusses his time as a Marine in Northern China before the war; his transfer to Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines; the Japanese invasion; the Battle of Bataan; his capture and internment at Camp O'Donnell, Cabanatuan, and Davao; escaping from a sinking transport off the coast of Mindanao; and reuniting with American forces.

Interview with Herman W. Lay, executive committee chairman of Pepsi Co., Inc., from Greensville, South Carolina. Lay discusses his childhood and education, his earlier jobs, working in distribution during the Depression, buying the Barrett Food Company and founding H. W. Lay & Co., Inc., the company's growth and expansion, merger with the Frito Co. and gaining nationwide distribution, buying the Red Dot Co., merger with Pepsi, continued expansion, work with Eastern Bloc countries, establishment in the Arab world, the Japanese market, involvement in the Dallas economy, and words on successful entrepreneurship.

Interview with O.R. Sparkman, a Marine WWII veteran and POW from Dallas, Texas. Stationed in China before the war, Sparkman was captured in December 1941 by the Japanese in Beijing and interned at various camps in occupied China and Korea before finishing the war at Hakodate, Japan.

Interview with Frank A. Hoke, banker and attorney. The interview includes Hoke's personal experiences about being an employee of the Dallas regional office of the Home Owners Loan Corporation during the New Deal. Hoke talks about mortgage buying, loan amortization, insurance, home improvements, accounting procedures, politics and patronage, taxes and appraising, foreclosures, and loan servicing.

Interview with Harry Thompson, an Army WWII veteran and POW from Dallas, Texas. Thompson discusses being drafted before the war and training for field artillery at Fort Sill, his assignment to the 99th Infantry Division, training in England, the Siegfried Line, the Battle of the Bulge and his capture at Büllingen, Belgium, being interrogated and transported into Germany, and his experiences in internment at Limburg.

Interview with James L. Kent, a Marine WWII veteran and POW from Duncanville, Texas. Kent discusses joining the Marine Corps, being AWOL, his judicial punishment, his deployment to the Philippines at Cavite Navy Yard, the Japanese attack, his experiences in the Battles of Bataan and Corregidor, his capture, and his internment at Bilibid Prison, Cabanatuan #1 & 2, and Mitsushima.

Interview with Phillip Willis, an Army Air Corps WWII veteran from Peeltown, Texas. Willis discusses his experiences at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, including: his upbringing; joining the Army Air Corps; pilot training; assignment to Bellows Field on Oahu with an O-47 squadron and their activities there; perceptions of the Japanese and expectations about a potential conflict; the Japanese air attack on Bellows; and following preparations for an invasion.

Interview with Tom Blaylock, an Army Air Corps WWII veteran and POW from Dallas, Texas. Blaylock was stationed in the Philippines during the Japanese invasion of December 1941, was captured, forced to partake in the Bataan Death March, and was interned at several major POW camps in the Philippines before transferring to a coal mine camp at Omine-machi, Yamaguchi, Japan.

Interview with Senator Mike McKool, a Democratic Texas state legislator from Dallas, Texas. McKool discusses his education and career in law; voter registration legislation; legislative procedure in the congress; lobbyists; the House Speaker's powers and reform of the race for the office; ethics legislation; legislature staffing and committees; residence requirements for congressmen; taxation; appropriations; lobby registration; and the insurance industry.

Interview with Representative Fred J. Agnich, a Republican Texas state legislator from Dallas, Texas. Agnich discusses his experience in the regular session of the 63rd Legislature, including the large influx of new representatives in the session; the legislative process; coalitions and relations between congressmen; the Appropriations Committee; taxation; ethics reform and the Ethics Commission; reform of campaign financing; reform of the House Speaker race; environmental legislation; and reflections on the accomplishments of the session.

Interview with R. N. Isacksen, a United States Navy veteran from Des Moines, Iowa. Isacksen discusses his experiences aboard the seaplane tender the USS Tangier during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1978.

Audio interview with B. D. Fillmore, a veteran of World War II from Dallas, Texas, regarding his experiences as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese after being captured on the island of Java in 1942. Fillmore discusses his transfer to several different camps as a part of the "Lost Battalion."

Interview with Thomas S. Prentice, a United States Army veteran from Richardson, Texas, discussing his experience stationed at Fort Kamehameha during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor of December 7, 1941. Prentice provides details about his background, training, and impressions of the pre-attack period as well as of the attack itself.

Interview with J. B. Heinen, Jr., an independent oilman, concerning his experiences as an Army officer in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. Heinen worked at camps in Clarksville, Texas; San Simon, Arizona (Company 2881); Wilcox, Arizona; and Bowie, Arizona.

Interview with Judge L. A. Bedford, Jr. an associate judge and attorney from Dallas, Texas. Bedford discusses his experiences working on desegregation cases with the NAACP from 1955 to 1961, including: his education; his entry into civil law; his initial involvement with the NAACP; other notable attorneys; his thoughts on Thurgood Marshall; Bell v. Rippy; Borders v. Rippey; problems with the district courts and work with the 5th Circuit Court; threats against black attorneys and retaliation; "Negro Day" at the State Fair; and his thoughts on Lyndon Johnson.

Interview with Representative Earle Cabell, former mayor of Dallas, Texas, and later a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, from Dallas, Texas. Cabell offers a biography of himself and his family, including: his family origins in Virginia; his father's career; his upbringing and first jobs; his entry into the dairy business and subsequent experiences in producing milk-products; his interests in civil affairs and his decision to run for mayor of Dallas; his campaign; his agenda and activities as mayor; the assassination of John F. Kennedy; his campaign for Congress; and his time as a legislator.

Interview with Senator O. H. "Ike" Harris, a Republican Texas state legislator from Dallas, Texas. Harris discusses his experience in the 63rd Legislature, including: the legislatures overall political orientation; the effect of freshman legislators; Lt. Gov. William Pettus Hobby Jr's allies in the senate and his platform; the reform legislation package; the lobby; appropriations; the legislature's shortcomings; and his thoughts on the governor's office.

Interview with Representative Jim Stroud, a Democratic Texas state legislator from Dallas, Texas. Stroud discusses the second, third, and fourth special sessions of the 62nd Legislature, including: legislation considered in the second session; the election of a House Speaker, and Jim Nugent and DeWitt Hale's aspirations to the post; the "Dirty Thirty" and lobbyists; the election of Rayford Price; the state budget; the insurance industry and related legislation. Also included is a newspaper clipping of Stroud's obituary.

Interview with Dr. James F. White, minister at the Perkins School of Theology and leader of the Citizens Organization for a Sound Trinity (COST) group, which was in opposition to the Trinity Barge Canal construction project. White provides details about newspaper coverage of the issue, the group's involvement in politics, and his views of other political issues.

Interview with Senator O. H. "Ike" Harris, a Republican member of the Texas Senate from Dallas, concerning his experiences while attending the second special session of the 65th Texas Legislature. Senator Harris discusses tax relief, other legislators at the session, the Peveto Bill, and Governor Briscoe's influence.