Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021         Page 395396397398399400401402403404405406407408409410411412413414415416417418419420421422423 of 1029

Elliot came in about an hour later, and, in the course of the conversation with both of these other fellows there, I said, “Say, Elliot, you've never told me the story about the day you pulled that clever line about robbing Paul to pay Peter.” Elliot blandly said, “Oh, didn't I tell you that story? Oh, yes, that was very funny,” and he chuckled happily and told us how the thought had come to him. He accepted it immediately and told it as his story.

Elliot was a wizard at getting free publicity. One day he suddenly proposed that every college should have a course in drinking. He said the young men of America didn't know how to drink. The young people of France and Europe in general knew how to drink but Americans were just slobs when they drank. He therefore proposed that every college, all the good ones at least, give a course in drinking. He generously offered to become the professor of drinking at one of the big three--Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. Well, he got himself a tremendous amount of publicity with this nonsense. One college actually made him an offer, I think!

Well, now, let's get to Helen Thompson. I didn't mean to delay it, but we've gotten a lot that was interesting. I knew there was more!

Well, Helen came along at about the same time. Helen Thompson was a simply beautiful young girl, the daughter of a man named Fred Thompson, a San Francisco socialite of a