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that you tell the news through people,” that people are interested in people, essentially. It's very simple and basic, and you couldn't patent it. But the only thing I did say was, “We're not going to start this magazine unless we use the name “People,” because there's no other name that will do the trick.” And having been trained at Time, Inc., I'm very conscious of the importance of the name and the title that has to be simple and to the point: Time, Fortune, LIFE, People, Money. Sports Illustrated is the only exception. And that was to get away from just “Sports”--the sort of smelly aspect of sports.

When the decision was finally made to fold LIFE in 1972--just the last moment of the decision--was it you and Hedley Donovan, or was it you, or it was just so--everybody knew? Who took the final decision, if that's the way it happened?

You don't make a decision in that instance. You resign yourself to the situation.

You finally give in to it?

Yes. You know--Ralph gave in. I don't think there was anybody who said, “Oh, you're chicken. You should be able to keep going, and so on and so on. If you had any guts--”

Did you think of Henry Luce at that time?