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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Part:         Session:         Page of 1143

There was such a mixture of people -- people who were part of the government, or legislators, or artists, or writers, or people who were just social, that everyone was very surprised at who they saw. The surprise element gave people pleasure, and it really was an extraordinary cross-section of the population.

Q:

You must have spent hours and hours in preparation for this party.

Lasker:

I did spend time on it. Jimmy Fortas came to the inauguratio festivities with me, but he spent a great deal of time with Warry Lee Smith, the friend of Linda Bird Johnson, and he brought her to this concert and to this party.

The party, really, was supposed to be in honor of Isaac Stern and Mr. Van Cliburn and the other artists, but nobody seemed to be aware of anything except that they were going around in a pleasant daze of champagne, seeing people they'd never seen before. Especially the President of the United States and his wife, very casually wandering around.

Q:

This must have been a headache to the Secret Service.

Lasker:

There were -- the feeding of the Secret Service and the musicians cost $187. I figure there had to be 235





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