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was high and narrow and dark, with a brass bed and furniture of non-descript nature, but a good, big bathroom.

I was ready to start down for dinner a few minutes ahead of time and as I got into the elevator, the President himself was sitting there in a little wheelchair. I said, “I'm Mary Lasker,” and he said, “I know.”

We went into the Red Room where he made cocktails, and I asked him how he ever had time to write for magazines. I'm sure he didn't write much for magazines; probably his speech writers did the writing for him. Anna Rosenberg came in almost at once and she asked him what kind of a day he had. Remember, this was less than two months before Pearl Harbor. He said, “Oh, Cordell Hull just left. He's a very dreary fellow. He says the outlook is bad for both Japan and Russia.” He said this lightly really, as if he could stand no more bad news. Next, Mayor LaGuardia and Mrs. Roosevelt came in, and another man, and we went into the small dining room for dinner. Mayor La Guardia seemed like a small boy on his good behavior and didn't say much, but the President talked vivaciously of various people and things in a gay, almost gossipy way. He discussed Roy Howard as a celebrity hunter; Ray Moley was shrugged away; and the Marshall Field paper about to start in Chicago he was vaguely interested in. He said actually that he had spoken to Mayor Kelly to see that it didn't get any gangster treatment at the newsstands.

Mrs. Roosevelt said, “I had some success in getting the