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here, with a glass of scotch at the end of the day, I told her almost everything that happened, every day; strong policy issues having to do with the question of freedom of speech and the management of people--and there were plenty of management problems in a company--in broadcasting. She knew the people, even though she had never met them, and would talk about them and give me her reactions. So she was very important to me there, more as a listener, an interested listener, and she would pick me up on things I hadn't considered. She was very helpful in reading documents that had a bearing on the coverage of the news, and she'd say, you know, “What are you doing about some of the things that are going on in Germany, vis a vis the Russians?” and would focus me a little bit, even in those days, not to a point of view but as to an area that needed exploration.

Her feelings about entertainment were--On the dramatic side she had very strong interests, attitudes, and positions. For example, “Playhouse 90” was a series I started, a concept I had that came out of Ruth more than it did out of me. “Studio One,” which was another, important, early dramatic series--She had opinions about the way things were presented that I'm sure came out of my mouth when I was in a program meeting, because I respected her judgment. Then there was a period when Godfrey was, not the patron saint, but Godfrey was all over the schedule. He had a half hour on Monday night, a full hour on Wednesday night, and he had five hours in the daytime. He was a problem child of tremendous dimensions. In the daytime I couldn't, obviously, follow what he was doing although he was always getting us into trouble. When he was off the air in the morning, frequently she would call me and say, “You're going to get a call from this person or that person about something he said that has offended him.” Sometimes it was a political figure, sometimes it was a business figure, etc. At least I was alerted to things, so she understood corporate policy on taste and editorializing, things that today have been pretty much neglected but in those days were