Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021         Page 809810811812813814815816817818819820821822823824825826827828829830831832833834835836837838839840841842843844845846847848849850851852853854855856857858859860861862863864865 of 1029

Oh, yes. The dinner I remember best was one hosted at River House by Alicia Guggenheim when he was running for President. Of course, Alicia was for him lock, stock, and barrel, but her husband, Harry, was an arch Republican. All of the Guggenheims were Republicans by birth, instinct, and everything else. So there was a great fight at Newsday as to whether they were going to support Stevenson or Eisenhower. They split down the middle. The only way that they could settle this was to have two columns a day...one under the leadership of Col. Guggenheim, which was for Eisenhower, and the other one which Alicia ran, which was touting Stevenson.

This was when Alicia decided that Adlai should meet some of the big people of the press who hated him and were totally against him. So she gave this dinner at the River Club on Fifty-second Street and the East River for about fifty people... such people as Harry Luce and Claire Boothe Luce and Mr. McCabe, the editor of the now defunct Mirror, and people from The News. Alicia should have inherited The News--she did get a big piece of it--but because she was a woman the board wouldn't make her editor. That's when she really began Newsday, because she was frozen out of The News. The News would have been a different paper if Alicia had run it, and a damned sight better paper, too.

Now for the dinner. All of the tables seated four. There would be three people and an empty chair at each table. Alicia marched Adlai around from one table to another so that he would sit a little while with each trio. They were scattered around...as I told you, the Luces, the Cowleses from Look,