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And Ward came up to New York one day to have lunch with me, and during the lunch said was it possible to consider Campbell's soup sponsoring Ed Murrow on the news. And Ward Wheelock represented -- his main client was Campbell's soup. And I said, “There's only one way to find out. Let's get Ed up.” I called Ed, he came up to my office, and Ward Wheelock and I sat there and I said, “Ward has the notion that he'd like to consider having Campbell's soup sponsor you on the air. And this would mean giving up your management role and coming back as a broadcaster.”
Ed came -- didn't jump out of his chair, but he was very eager to do it. Whether there had been any prior contact between Wheelock and Murrow, I don't know. I suspect there had been. I think perhaps Ward had talked with Ed to see whether he would be interested and Ed probably said, “Well, it's not my decision. It's up to the management of the company.” And that could have been the reason why Wheelock came up to have lunch. But at any rate, that's the end of his management period.
If Wheelock hadn't come with that idea, would management have taken Ed Murrow out of that spot and put him back into broadcasting?
Hard to answer what might have been. I don't know. There had been no discussions between Paley and me on that point. There was no clamor on the part of any of the program people to get Ed back on the air. He wasn't looked upon as a regular fifteen- minute or ten-minute news reporter. He was looked upon as a voice coming from London or from the war zone. And while he was on many of the “World News Roundups,” he never sustained a program in his own name until this particular series began.
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