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Andrew HeiskellAndrew Heiskell
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Session:         Page of 824

was Harry or somebody else. But as I remember, a Fortune writer by the name of Charles J. V. Murphy, an imposing man--imposing to others and imposing to himself--got the assignment. Actually, it was rather strange because his great expertise was in military affairs. But he was a very good writer, and, in the long run, good writing triumphs over knowledge. He got together with the Duke, and prepared and did a series--and it was very slow, painful going because, if you think my memory is bad, you should have known about the Duke of Windsor's memory.

Then, subsequently, we got involved with the Duke in terms of his having made a decision to go ahead and do a full biography. And Charlie Murphy really had to move practically his office to wherever the Duke was willing to work, when he was willing to work, much of the time on the Riviera or in Paris or wherever. The great problem was not only that the Duke did not have very much memory, but he didn't like to work. And Charlie spent more time getting the Duke to work then he actually spent working with the Duke. Then, of course, there was the Duchess, and the Duchess ruled the roost. If she said, “Come on, Dear, we're leaving,” “Dear” left, whether it was in the middle of a sentence, or whatever.

So what should have been a six-month stint, or something like that, turned into a two to three year stint, and gradually Charlie Murphy became the Duke of Windsor. He sort of adopted his voice, and his tone, and his manner. And all of us had a great time ribbing Charlie Murphy and his change of mood. He'd always been somewhat on the pompous side, but now he became British pompous rather than American pompous. He also nearly went crazy, because there really





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