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That didn't help you any.

Not a bit. After that, I got dressed and went to a charming dinner given by John Steel and his wife at the City Tavern, for all the top brass of Time and Life. Then I went with Richard Adlerand Jimmy Fortas and some others to the Inaugural Ball at the Sheraton Park. You couldn't call it a ball; it was a swarming. There were 4,000 people, unable to dance. It was unbelievably crowded.

After the President and Mrs. Johnson arrived, and had danced, and we watched them from the balcony, we departed. It was utterly hopeless to dance, eat, drink, anything. So, as our party was only 500, and there was plenty of room, and people had a chance to sit down and eat and do anything they wanted to, our party was considered much better than any of the balls. Mr. Fortas was delighted with it.

Did you sister attend?

No. I thought it would be terrible, and that she wouldn't enjoy it, and I didn't insist that she attend. Looking back on it, I'm furious that I didn't ask her and everybody else I knew to come. I knew that my nephew wouldn't know any better, so he'd think it was all right.