Years before we had a TV (probly before anybody had one) my lawyer dad introduced me to Perry Mason. He was a huge fan and belonged to a book club. Had I'm guessing most if not all of the early ones. What I wouldn't give to have them now. I remember him telling me Gardner would dictate the novels into a tape recorder while driving to work, then have his secretary transcribe them.
A friend, Bill Tangney, was reporting for the Princeton College paper when Einstein died. Einstein had an office at Princeton, so Bill rushed up to the office, soon as he heard the news, braced a chair against the door in case any other news hounds had the same idea, and began looking for something that would give him a "scoop." He started looking thru a bookcase, pulled out some serious tomes and found Einstein had stashed a couple of Perry Mason paperbacks behind them. Scoop de doop!
A friend, Bill Tangney, was reporting for the Princeton College paper when Einstein died. Einstein had an office at Princeton, so Bill rushed up to the office, soon as he heard the news, braced a chair against the door in case any other news hounds had the same idea, and began looking for something that would give him a "scoop." He started looking thru a bookcase, pulled out some serious tomes and found Einstein had stashed a couple of Perry Mason paperbacks behind them. Scoop de doop!
After I posted that comment yesterday, I did a Google search for Einstein and Princeton and Tangney, hoping to find Bill's story in the Princeton paper. Didn't have any luck, but did find at least two other similar comments I posted here on Ed's blog and on Open Salon, where I regularly blog. I also posted on OS about Bill's midterm (or summer) adventure with two other Princeton classmates going to Cuba to find Hemingway, which they did and ended up having a poolside drink with him after gaining access by presenting a letter from their professor, Carlos Baker, vouching for them. Their visit ended up as an anecdote in Baker's biography of Hemingway, which I believe he called "Papa Hemingway."
ReplyDeleteBill's retired now as founding editor of The York Town Crier, a weekly newspaper in Yorktown, Virginia, and lives in Florida.
I did another Google search this morning, looking for the Hemingway story. Found this book, Conversations..., edited by one of the four Princeton sophomores who made the trip to Cuba. Didn't know this book existed, but I'm ordering it now. I like Bill's version of the visit better than this, altho this one has more detail. One thing Bill told me - and I don't know if it's in this book - is that during their visit, Hemingway's mother called to congratulate him on winning the Nobel. He came back to the pool and told his guests about the call, adding that she qualified her kudos by saying, "It's a shame you never went to college." Bill said that made him and his companions a tad uncomfortable, considering they were Princeton students.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, here's the URL to the Amazon listing:86 oceducky
http://www.amazon.com/Conversations-Ernest-Hemingway-Literary/dp/0878052739/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348224385&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=conversations+with+ernest+hemingway++brucolli#reader_0878052739