Conversation 659-010

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Say, are the Conways invited tonight?

Yes.

I wonder if they're coming.

They are.

Well, he's sick today, I think.

The flu.

Is that what it is?

And Mr. Weyerhaeuser.

Mrs. Connolly, if she calls and says they can't come, tell her to come, that others are coming.

I know you like W&U Tech, you can photograph it.

Yes.

It's apparently an epidemic state in parts of the country.

Do you have time to think a little bit about your case tonight?

Would you like to think about it?

I'm sorry, the wall at the Threshing's home suggested that my drunk fellow might be at the table with Mrs. Wallace.

No?

Mrs. Wallace, she's with me.

Oh, fine.

You can have my drunk fellow.

He's fine.

So if she likes him, how do you know?

Well, they're invited because they suggested it.

I guess they work together on those things.

But don't get me wrong.

The Lindberghs,

The host.

Would you like Bob Wolf at your table?

It passed.

Well?

It passed.

Wait a minute.

He is such a celebrity, or was he going to be at another table or something?

Lucy was thinking of, and I agree with her, putting him in that center table with Mrs. Connelly as the host of that table and have Bob close to that table.

Right.

For me, I just don't know where I correspond.

You want Mrs. Waller here?

Yeah.

She should be at my table.

Well, put someone there who also dominates us.

We won't put her right next to you, though.

Oh, no.

Yes.

Let's put Mrs. Waller on your right and her on your left.

Sure.

That's going to be a very entertaining evening, isn't it?

We have a teenager in your scene, and she'll take more of the load off when you grow up, actually.

Fine.

It's sort of funny this, because, you know, at the last minute, there's quite a few.

We don't even have one senator or congressman now, and we've had quite a few.

Um...

And we're going to put, you know, Billy Graham has to be the table of his own and peel, I think, don't you?

I don't think they should be.

Because they're big enough to keep the table going.

What about Lionel Henson?

I don't suppose you want him or even yours at Pat's table?

He's young and he could do that.

Pat's table.

And do you think Steve Royce is apparently a very good friend of DeWitt Wallace?

Steve Royce is a...

He used to be out at the Huntington.

Fine.

I'm sure he's fine.

Okay.

And I don't know, maybe she might like, well, either Jenna Lindbergh or maybe Chris, maybe she'd like Crescent Myers or two.

Or he's big enough to be at a table by himself, too.

No, he's not very good at talking.

He is, but he's smart and he won't talk.

I don't know if there are any other women here, but you need to quiet them down.

Well, if you have Alice and DeWitt, you don't need any talky ones.

Well, you don't have DeWitt.

You've got a lot of Mrs. Lawson.

Mrs. and Alice, you see.

Well, how about putting maybe Mrs. Rawlins there?

Or Mrs. Lockheed.

Go for it.

We've got Harold Kellner, Keith Bunsen, Tom Patterson, Alan Wallace.

You've got to have him.

No, not Wallace.

It might be a really good name for men.

Well, you've got just yourself.

Oh, you could put Bunsen.

Bunsen's all right.

You know, you've just got yourself a lot of trouble.

What about George Tenney?

He's just a little sick.

He's always going to be hitting me.

I know.

Always.

don't mean a hell of a lot.

And either of mine or Pat's one of the two.

You know, he's likely to be better than Pat's, so that he doesn't do... Or anything, anything.

I just don't want to... Well, he may not think that there are a lot of other people much more important than all those other people.

And, uh, but in my people, the function's fine.

I'm just, I'm trying to, you know, he's kind of an older corporation now, so...

Martin Hayden, you wouldn't want him on your table.

Yes, he'd be fine.

Because it's hard to pick out one man.

Yes, it's fine.

Of course, maybe you were making a mistake.

I don't think so.

I'm sure I'm talking all right.

Sure.

He's hurt.

They haven't been here before.

he could be i don't mind but he doesn't need to be he can be he's a great father yeah put him in the table now that's enough that you got him

Well, you could, yourself and Mrs. Lawler, and Lyons are from Mrs. Lawler.

Mark and Hayden would be five, and then we'll take...

There's six of each, so twelve?

Eight, I guess.

Eight.

Give me these people.

You want four men?

We need three men besides me.

Well, why don't the others want... And Hayden and the Mary and Ethel are seven.

That's good.

And you know, now, the way people have understood it, there's even, there's going to be an uneven number, and I'd be an extra woman.

So I don't really think I ought to go.

I'll come in later for the entertainment.

Oh, you know, what's the difference between the two?

Well, extra women at least, and there's a change in the next.

You know, they, it's down to 91 now.

And you just can't invite outside people, you know, like we couldn't.

We got these calls yesterday and today.

Do you know who we were when Mrs. Mila Ting was, T-Y-A-G?

She's Henry Luce's first wife.

She's the mother of Hank Lewis and was a good friend of Ben.

She's coming.

I'll write that out on a note.

I just now found out who else she was.

I asked Hope.

That's fine.

Okay, well, Lucy just wanted to have your table be thorough.

It would be wonderful.

Sure.

Fine.

Well, there are two inches of snow in Kent this morning.

Oh, really?

I bet it was.

Was it quite cold up there?

It was cold last night, but I, of course, I missed my house.

It was nice.

It was a good break.

Good break.

Just to be... Well, just to get away, I guess we're not even... Out of here.

Really get there and spend here.

Well, yeah, it's just good sometimes to be able to look out across the country.

God, this is a wonderful place.

You know, I have no complaints about it.

Yeah.

It was nice.

That building was very pretty.

They restored it, you know, to the old high ceilings and stuff.

They read a nice letter from you.

Chief Justice was there.

It was very, very, very nice.

And I saw John and Ollie Volpe at an earlier thing.

I told him you were at home.

And he said, this is the third time the son's been in the hospital.

And he had changed his mind.

And I told him that you had mentioned calling, but we thought maybe later we'd see how it's going along.

He said, oh, that's right.

And I said, if you get to this point, you know, if you make a call with helping me, that's the point.

So you let me know because the president wanted to call him.

And we thought we should wait and talk with you first.

Good, you've done it right.

Incidentally, when you're thinking of dinner lists sometimes, a burger's always a good one to have on, so why don't you see it?

Just a very good sign.

Well, this list, I take no blame for, because I didn't do it, but this is done by Hall and Schultz, and it doesn't have as much liquid in my hand.

Because we're too many of the same people.

How many have been here six, seven, eight times?

And like, we've got so darn many people who have done more than friendly quarreling to a hater, and they're back again.

They weren't the ones who requested the walls.

They were put on by tax drivers.

There are a couple things that I think you might not be aware of.

Sam's written a very nice letter.

And here's a memo back from Erlandson on that.

He will write the memo.

But I think you ought to read it.

He said that he wanted to push it with John Rachel.

Yeah, John, yes.

You don't want to see this.

Grant sent a copy of the letter he wrote to John Connolly on it.

I don't think so.

Unacquainted, that's better.

Unacquainted.

The tattoo of John Connery, unacquainted, was initiated by his recent visit to the Buckeye Commission.

So that's John Rumsdorff, is that right?

Rumsdorff, exactly, yeah.

Is that alright by this?

Yeah.

I think what he's usually in California.

Well, in our text, he's written... My idea is that Laurie would probably have a cop-out to him out there.

You know, he'd probably want to give him the cash.

He might.

But he needs personal basis.

We were out in California.

He's done all the things, but...

I already said I didn't think you could do it, but Kenny Ball wrote the letter, and Clint Harris wrote about it to me.

What did he write?

Well, he had to put your name on a fundraising campaign to raise $10,000.

And I said, oh, you can't get a president's name on something like that.

So I just...

Yes, I had to put my name on any blogger.

And if you're reading over the weekend...

I've heard from him for years.

She's known in New York.

And an interesting one from Irv Davidson.

Oh, very good.

The lobbyists are in the meeting.

Yeah, but the letter's about a talk he had with George Meany, his wife, on an airplane.

I mean, the memo.

And so I think you ought to read it if you have the chance at all.

Put it in my little...

In my little thing?

Yes, sir.

And then there's a letter to you from Franklin about European community, et cetera, and, you know, a lot of things.

I think maybe you might hear that.

Hear that?

For their response, I think I know what it is.

Yeah, I would like to have it filed.

I'll read it and see what it is.

Yeah, I've got another.

Yeah, like when you put those red folders, I'd like to take them.

Then I get them in a helicopter or something.

It's just the best thing to do.

And then I don't, I feel that I'm not going to use the time very well, and it's good relaxation.

And then I read them all, and it's very helpful to have them do it.

It gives me a little feel of the man, which I need to get.

Yeah, unless you run into these people or anything.

Oh, my gosh.

They like to know these things.

Now, I don't know if you want to answer that dinner this late and invite any of the others.

I don't think we can do that very well now.

I wonder if one of the circumstances that Wallace, the Wallaces and us, really wouldn't be better off tonight as Idlewants than our talk to these people particularly now.

Should we more move out?

I don't know, I don't think so.

I think they've set it up not to.

They've set it up, I think, to bring those people in.

They're getting treated royally.

They're going to duplicate the dinner over there or do something.

They'll be brought in and be put, seated in the east row for the entertainment.

I don't think you need to take care of those people.

I thought you were going to say entertainment would be better if you and Pat and the Wallacians were at one table.

What do you think?

I thought...

I don't know.

I don't know what you said.

I wondered, I think it isn't that way, that we just shouldn't be in sort of like a head table.

It isn't too late that you put just a... No, I mean, leave it around.

Leave it around the table.

Around the table, but...

I think it might be kind of nice for the wall.

Yeah, it's nice for them.

They're being honored.

He gets a chance to hear me talk, which he wants.

Otherwise, I'm not going to have, she's not going to have this.

I won't have breakfast with her.

I'll be up and going.

Let's all sit at the same table for a change.

Well, I'll call Lucy now and tell her that.

I think it would be good.

No, that's what I hear about.

Just leave the people at the table.

I still think I'd have Mr. Longworth.

You wouldn't?

I wouldn't, but maybe you would.

I think she's trying to take over a little too much of all of us.

Well, all right.

Maybe.

Maybe Pat would like her, too.

Would you still put Martin Hayden?

You wouldn't put Martin Hayden there, then, would you?

Well, I don't know what other... You just gotta remove one man, so which one do you remove?

Leave Lawrence Rockefeller, who else?

He's a little bit boring, but... Is he?

Oh, yes.

Don't put him by himself.

He likes him.

Right, fine.

And maybe we shouldn't do it.

Oh, yes, fine, fine.

But we've got to let Rockefeller regret it.

He isn't gonna be... That's fine, fine.

governor maybe then i don't know who's our other person the mayor of indiana steve royce lionel hansen general lindbergh

I don't think I'm sure, but it looked like he was there before they caught him.

He was gonna be across the line or something like that.

He's coming along.

Got them all paid.

These are all compacts.

I really wrote as much as I love them.

I've seen them all so many times I haven't got a hell of a lot to talk to you about right now, you know.

You can overdo that.

I couldn't agree more.

It's about power and business and, you know, being in love.

Well, don't worry about too much, uh...

I don't think we should put the comments there.

I don't know whether Lindbergh may have thought of Alice.

I don't know, maybe Alice.

You know, I think you may be right.

Alice was on the conversation very much.

I don't want to hear more from me.

Well, that's very nice.

She had the way of trying to take over.

I put her at another table where she can sort of be the grand dame.

Where is it?

And, uh, so then you have Wallace's and ourself, there's four.

How many do you need?

Four more?

He hasn't gone to eat two other couples, right?

Right.

And we won't make them any man-like.

Yeah, that's right.

Well, our drug caller's okay, and we've got to get him.

All right, hey.

He's done.

Her doctor, who saved your life, is going to be here.

Are they very fond of that Dr. Howard Rask?

She's very fond of Dr. Peter Manning, president of Juilliard School.

Well, I have, uh...

I know, but I shouldn't ask you, except I hate him.

Are you bored to death?

No, I'm not bothered.

I can think about it.

Or I'll just put anybody in there.

I don't really care.

But, uh...

I hate Lindbergh, so okay.

Of course, of course, he's a hell of a celebrity.

He's all right here for you.

He doesn't carry a table.

I think he'll talk about himself about carrying a table.

He can't carry a table with somebody else there with him.

But I would say that the, I certainly think he could put, I think Howard Rust is okay.

That's all right.

Well... No, I don't give a damn about the women.

We could put... We could put Mrs. Rawlinson, Mrs. Mulcahy, if you want, or somebody else.

They're fine.

That kind of person is fine.

Yeah, we could put...

Sometimes we could put Mrs. Bob Post there.

She's great.

Put her at the table.

Laura's home.

But that's coming a long way.

Right, right.

That's fine.

And maybe, uh, I don't know, that Mrs. Dan Seymour, J. Moses Thompson?

No.

Duh.

Except by her, it's something more than that.

No.

What's Jane Sutbridge's wife like?

Um, you asked me to labor, they won't want to labor.

Oh, but they're against labor.

Oh, what about Mrs. King, Mrs. Liz Harrington-Lewis's first wife?

Sure, got her.

They were supposed to be, you know, very, very good friends, so...

I really think, though, that something like that was not done with that one.

Hell no, I go...

Maybe Julie's right.

The letter to me that I've already written.

I know it's a very nice letter, but I don't know what to do with this damn thing.

I don't know either.

What do you think?

Do you care about him?

Yes.

He's in a private meeting in the bathroom.

It's about 3 o'clock.