Session: 1234567891011121314151617         Page 375376377378379380381382383384385386387388389390391392393394395396397398399400401402403404405406407408409410411412413414415416417418419420421422423424425426427428429430431 of 824

Not really.

I mean, it's been mentioned.

Yes. Well, we had a company policy that was pretty wise, namely: we were not going to be involved in making our own paper, or printing our own magazines--unlike the Curtis Publishing Company, which did do that and suffered immensely as a result when things turned sour. They were left with all this capacity--excess paper, excess printing capacity. But when LIFE suddenly took off, the--

In the 1940s, you mean.

Yes, even in the 1930s--even in the late 1930s, when it took off--we were chewing up all the coated paper of this kind that was available anywhere, and we could see LIFE going on up and up--all the estimates for 6, 7 million circulations--and that meant an enormous tonnage of paper. And we weren't at all sure where we could get it. The then Treasurer, Charlie Stillman, had--I don't know how he happened to get--I think it was through Champion that he learned about an oil company that owned lots of land in Texas, and that the trees in Texas and Louisiana grow a lot faster than they do in the West coast, and are very good for pulpwood, out of which paper is made. And foresighted--and God knows, Charlie was always foresighted--he began buying stock in the Houston Oil Company, which owned that land in the 1930s, at something like 2 dollars a share.