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last year. My wife came up to me and I introduced her to both gentlemen. She whispered in my ear, ‘Which one is Cary Grant?'” At this point Governor Sawyer jumped up, grabbed the microphone and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, Bennet Cerf is the biggest liar I ever met in my life.” Well, that got us off to a great start. The audience was delighted.

It's always smart when you're talking to start with a laugh. If you can get your audience started laughing with you, you're in. The way to do it is with a local allusion if you can. This is the Bob Hope technique. Whenever he is in an Army camp for instance, he opens with a series of local jokes. He finds out in advance which general is a fool, who's hated, or whom they can kid. If you follow that technique, as I did in Reno, you're in.

You get the audience's attention right away.

You get their attention and, if you're clever enough, their affection. If you can make a few jokes about the people they're interested in and their problems, they feel that you're interested in them, it's a technique that never fails. Every successful politician uses it.

In February, 1963, we did our first book by John Toland called The Dillinger Days. One chapter was about Bonnie and Clyde, which was made the basis of what I think is one of the two most exciting new pictures of this year--