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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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Session:         Page of 1029

In Moscow we had a very good guide that took us around. Of course, for Mina this was wonderful. She was seeing Moscow. And we went to the Red Square. At that time the embalmed Lenin was alone in the tomb--Stalin, of course, was still alive and kicking!

Our Moscow visit was one long series of ludicrous mishaps. When we said we were going to Finland, they said we'd have to have some extra passport pictures we didn't have with us that Finland demanded. So we posed for these little passport pictures. We had to go to a place where the fellow had a great big camera with a green cloth he put over his head. You know! “Look at the birdie.” Mina was with us. The next morning when we came down to breakfast, I thought that the girl seemed singularly dispirited. By this time we understood the Russians pretty well. I said, “What's happened? What's wrong?”

"Oh, everything is fine.”

I said, “Come on. What have you got to tell us?”

The pictures hadn't turned out! We had to go back again.

Then the next place she took us was to a great big hospital, a brand-new hospital where everything was fine, and she was boasting that everybody got free prescriptions. Again, I said, “What's the catch? You're not as enthusiastic as you should be.” And after prodding, she admitted, “Well, we give them the prescriptions, but we haven't got any of the medicines.”

Now, I had eight letters. Eugene O'Neill had given me a couple of letters to people there. The Lunt and Fontanne





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