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At the same time, I learned that Jane Fonda was coming, and that Tom and Jane were going to be present at a fund raiser for Health PAC. Jane was coming to promote “China Syndrome.” I called Tom on the coast and said, “Tom, Jane has got to come into the gallery.” “Why?” I started to explain Bread and Roses, what we were doing. He said, “Okay, we're going to try.”
He was still pro-labor then.
Not many people knew what Bread and Roses was about -- it was beginning. But I shipped them articles that had already appeared. They said, “Okay,” and they set a date. We were to go to lunch, also, with a guy who was then on the editorial board of the Times, a Black man. He's now the dean of -- [Robert] Bob Curvin, who's an old friend of Tom.
The interesting thing was that when Jane was coming, I remember I spent a day with Maureen Hedgepeth moving her around for interviews. I took her down to meet with Jimmy Wechsler, who did a column on J.P. Stevens based upon an interview with her. In fact I mentioned in the subway that someone was coming tomorrow, and it was very important to us. She said, “Who?” I said, “Jane Fonda.” She said, “Oh no! Oh no -- not Jane Fonda. She'll kill me.” And she told me this story of when they were planning Norma Rae, and they had offered the role to Jane. “Jane came down to Roanoke Rapids to ask them if she should do the film and they said ‘No, because it's going to throw us in a bad light.’ Plus that, the woman is a loose woman. So now it's a big film and she's going to be very angry with me.” I told Jane when she came in what was going to happen, because they agreed to do a press thing -- we invited the media. Jane walked in to the gallery and she saw Maureen, and she enveloped her in her arms. There's a wonderful photograph by Earl Dotter of them together. [Telephone rings, tape stops and starts]
So she enveloped her.
And it was a very moving kind of thing.
Anyway, Jane went through the gallery followed by t.v. cameras and still photographers. But she said to Maureen, “Look, what are you worried about. I've got ‘China Syndrome,’ Sally [Field] has ‘Norma Rae,’ we've both got big hits. So it's okay.” At any rate, the cameramen followed her. Jane was very very impressed with Bread and Roses. She kept asking me, “Tell me more about what you're doing.” I kept talking to her about it while she was looking at the pictures. She was really floored by it. She did all the interviews, and
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