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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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but from all the stories Whittaker had told me, in the office I mean, I knew that she must be a remarkable woman. He had met her first at a silk strike in Paterson, New Jersey. She fought with him side by side. They got married. It was Judge Tom Murphy who told me that she was a wonderful woman but terribly shy.

She was hesitant to come to this great big party at my house because we had invited all these celebrities: Moss Hart, Bill Nichols of Newsweek, Mike Cowles and his wife...you know, prominent folk wanting to meet Whittaker Chambers and question him. Esther only consented to come when she learned that Tom Murphy was going to be present. She loved Tom Murphy. She felt that Tom Murphy had been very good to her husband...and indeed he had. I seated her between Moss Hart and myself at dinner because Moss could have charmed the pants off of Queen Victoria, and I told him that he had to help me.

Well, they came in...Whittaker and this shy little woman. Tom Murphy, that great big burly Irishman, got up and held his arms out and she walked right into them. Then Moss and I really turned on the charm. Moss was wonderful at that--I'm not too bad at it myself--and we made this woman feel at home. By the time that dinner was over, she had lost all of her nervousness and said that she hadn't laughed that much in ten years. She had had a pretty bad time.

Then we went upstairs and we put Whittaker Chambers in a big easy chair on the second floor and everybody sat around him in a semi-circle on the floor. They threw questions at him, and he answered every question without the slightest hesitation. This man--I'm convinced--was telling the truth. Several





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