Session: 1234567891011121314151617         Page 501502503504505506507508509510511512513514515516517518519520521522523524525526527528529530531532533534535536537538539540541542543544545546547548549 of 755

small studios for radio.

In the meantime, radio had been downsized in terms of its needs, because we didn't do any big studio productions any more. It was all either recorded material or talk shows, and all you really needed was what we called an “announce booth” or a phone booth, if you will. And we could accommodate that in an office building. We didn't have to have high ceilings or anything else. So we cut that--in principle, we had come to the conclusion that we didn't need studios in this building. But we still couldn't get going.

Paley was in Europe, I think--may have been in Spain. I was getting antsy about getting on with the building, and I cabled him and said I thought we had to get on with the building and that I wanted to consider using Saarinen for the building and having Skidmore do the interiors. He just didn't like Saarinen, that's all there was to it.

Part of it might have been Saarinen's wife, who was quite an active woman. Very bright. She was a critic for The New York Times. Very good journalist. And she got under his skin somewhere along the line.

Are you talking about Ada Louise Huxtable?

Yes. So I had offered Paley the proposal of going with Saarinen, to get started on some drawings, and going with Skidmore to work with Saarinen. And why did I put those two guys together? Because the Beaumont Theater and the Library/Museum at one time were to have been two separate buildings at Lincoln Center. We really couldn't afford to