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Andrew HeiskellAndrew Heiskell
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Session:         Page of 824

Q:

Was that under you?

Heiskell:

Yes. I was involved in the story, yes. That was in 19--what? -38, I believe? '37? '38? '38, yes. I know I was involved because I wrote the captions. I didn't originate the story, but I remember writing the captions.

Q:

Sometimes it's very easy to focus on beginnings. Let's freeze 1937 LIFE magazine in time. Bring it to life, as it were: describe what it would look like and who would be there; just talk about LIFE when you got there--the feel of the place.

Heiskell:

When I got there the staff was still very small. It centered around John Billings, who was an extraordinarily capable, even-tempered, non-voluble type, and Dan Longwell who was exactly the contrary--whose mind darted off in all directions, whose moods went up and down, who chewed his fingernails. And his counterpart, the Picture Editor, Wilson Hicks, who was much more the old city editor type as you would think of a city editor of a newspaper. The great discovery to me were the photographers, who were a breed apart and a marvelous, marvelous bunch of guys, and one or two women. Very, very keen on what they were doing; very determined to get their story; very determined to have you carry their bags whenever you went off with them; very frustrated because once they'd taken their pictures and developed them--and there was a lab there--they went to the department editor, and then the department editor would show them to the managing editor, but without the photographers ever being there,





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