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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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time of the hearing, they had Stevenson on the stand just ahead of me. And I was the first industry witness to be called. Stevenson came on and was very witty and very charming and read, I think, a telegram that he had received from some constituent in his campaign who criticized him for having pre-empted “I Love Lucy.” And I think there was something about “I love Lucy and you drop dead.” Anyway, it was a very funny thing. I knew I was going to be under severe attack because they had a copy of my statement. The rules in the Senate aren't very fair to witnesses. You have to submit your statement -- I've forgotten what the rules were at that time with that committee -- they make their own rules -- but I think I had to give it to them a week in advance. But maybe it was only twenty-four hours, I've forgotten now. But they had my statement, in which I had taken a very strong stand against this free time grab that I criticized. And I had a strong plea for lifting 315 and allowing debates. As I left -- I was sitting in the back of the room when the chairman of the committee called the next witness. Just as I got up out of my seat, I said to Leon Brooks who was my associate and head of the Law Department, I said, you know, I said something in effect, What the hell am I going to say now? Because I knew that they were loaded for me and it was going to be an awkward situation. Leon said, “You can ask for a temporary resolution to give you what you want.” I didn't know what a temporary resolution was. Leon in whom I had utmost confidence did know and so at some time in my testimony -- I had to stay with my prepared text, and I was being bombarded with questions from Pastore who was a peppery, bright, aggressive adversary. He was giving me a rough time -- and I say, “Well, the least you could do is give us a temporary resolution and try this.” And I think he said, although they edited this -- the senators always had the right to change what they've said, because the testimony is edited by them but not by the witnesses. I never found this in the printed text -- but I think what he said was, “This is something we can consider.” A perfectly friendly thing to say. And then immediately I moved in on the temporary resolution because it seemed to me





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