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was, was a mistake that we made. It sounded like a good idea to be able to say, “Look, we're passing along our economies to you advertisers.” The very strange thing about the advertising world and that is the perception is much more important than the reality. Instead of this being greeted as, Oh boy! That's the right way to act, it was greeted with suspicion that this was a sign of weakness rather than a sign of strength. That's very characteristic of the advertising world.

Was Life considered a problem for the corporation in that postwar period, a financial burden?

No. I can't remember it as being considered a financial burden other than it never quite seemed to make as much as it should've in view of its size. But, because it was growing so fast, everybody tended to assume that the profitability was being limited by the growth rather than by anything else. It was a problem in that it had suddenly become so big, that it sort of overshadowed, in business terms, the balance of the corporation, because there was only Time and Fortune really; Arch Forum was minute. It was like suddenly having a giant in a family of people all 5 foot 4 inches and here was this 7 foot, 300 pound character rolling around.

Do you remember a Larson initiated program, again this is from the Time, Inc. histories, postwar for men coming back from the services?