Session: 1234567891011121314151617         Page 375376377378379380381382383384385386387388389390391392393394395396397398399400401402403404405406407408409410411412413414415416417418419420421422423424425426427428429430431 of 824

should be doing this or that?” And then there was the Linen problem. And quite clearly, he was out of control, or getting out of control. And we were trying to cope with that. So--yes, it was a bad time; yes, the Board recognized that it was a bad time; on the other hand, faute de mieux, there isn't really very much that a Board can do. Because other than firing the head man, they don't know how to run the company. They'd be terrified if they were left having to worry about how to run Time magazine! So, they could only grumble rather mildly if they had no capacity to do it themselves.

Okay. Why won't we talk about The Star now.

As I was saying, the first time that The Star loomed in our horizon was in the--must have been in the 1950s. And Harry Luce was very interested. And we sent an emissary down--it might have been Otto Fuerbinger, I'm not sure, but I think probably was. And then we sent a couple of--then somebody else, maybe Charlie Stillman even was involved. And there were discussions with the Kauffmans' and the Noyes'. The paper was still profitable; I believe that the Washington Post hadn't yet absorbed the--what was that women's paper--the Herald, or whatever the other paper was in Washington; and there seemed to be some inclination on the part of the two families to sell. As we examined the books and the conditions, it became clear that an awful lot of personalities were involved in this, because there were so many Kauffmans' and so many Noyes' on the payroll of the paper--most of them as far as we could tell without very much justification. But clearly, if that was the case, trying