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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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Session:         Page of 755

disagreed--didn't want Salant back in.

Q:

Why was that?

Stanton:

Why? Oh, I don't think I can do anything more than give you a surmise on my part. Salant was very much a hair-shirt. He spoke his mind. He was intolerant of fuzzy thinking. He didn't like to equivocate. He felt that you had to get the facts and reach a decision. He was a helluva hair-shirt. I think I used that expression when I spoke at this memorial.

And Paley didn't want to make decisions. That was one of my problems I had with him. A tough decision he wanted to put off. I'm ducking around you, not because I don't want to look at you, but because that sun is right in my eyes.

And this was a tough one. He liked the flamboyance. He liked the quality of Friendly's, but I think he was just as put off by Friendly's behavior--not in this instance, but other instances--as I was. But Paley didn't want Salant back, didn't have the courage or the guts to say you can't do it, and when Jack came back to me and said “There's only one person I think can run the division and that's Dick Salant,” I said “Blessings on you.”

And Dick was back as my assistant at that time.

Q:

Yes, I realize that.

Stanton:

So I was tickled that Schneider had made that judgment and knew, beyond any





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