Writing Life

The Good Old Days

By Norman Lobsenz

I'm told that doing the research for a query or an article is a much quicker and easier task these days, thanks to Google and the Internet. And I can well believe it, remembering all those hours in the library, putting in call slips for back copies of newspapers, specialty journals and similar sources. But in the good old days -- when editors didn't expect to get tapes of your interviews or copies of your notes -- a little luck, or ingenuity, or even chutzpah, could do the trick.

For example, the late Mort Weisinger, one of ASJA's founding members and its president in the 1970s, loved to tell the following story. (By the way, almost everybody who is likely to be mentioned in this column will be "the late.")

Mort was a big man with a big voice and a forceful approach to his work. For the particular article he was writing, he badly needed a comment from a congressman. Unfortunately, for Mort, the congressman apparently wanted no part of being quoted. Weisinger had several times called the man's office, written him letters, pestsered his press officer -- all to no avail. But Mort had one more trick up his sleeve -- not for nothing had he been the editor of Superman magazine.

Equipped with several rolls of quarters, Mort entered a public telephone booth somewhere in mid-Manhattan. (Remember when they had doors you could close for privacy and to drown out street noise?) Mort dialed the operator and said he wanted to make a person-to-person call to Congressman So-and-So. After a few rings and clicks, someone answered. Mort heard the operator say, "I have a person-to-person call for Mr. X."

"He's busy. I'll take it."

"I'm sorry -- it's a person-to-person only."

"Well … just a minute."

"This is Congressman X," said an irritated voice a moment later. "Who's this?"

Before Mort could answer, the operator cut in: "Please deposit five dollars and 75 cents."

Mort, rolls of quarters at the ready, started dropping them into the slot. Each coin gave a resounding "bong!" Twenty-three quarters later, the bongs must have echoed in the congressman's ear.

"Of course, he spoke to me," Mort told us later. "Remember, that was a lot of money in the 1950s. He just couldn't turn anyone down who spent that much on a phone call."

If ingenuity is invaluable, luck can be even more so. In 1956, I queried Parade about an article on an unusual open-air memorial to America's war dead in a small New Hampshire town. I knew the basic facts about this Cathedral of the Pines -- for instance, every structure there contained a stone from historic or spiritual sites from around the world. And I knew there was a resolution pending in Congress to designate the place as a national shrine. What I didn't know were the intangibles -- what the cathedral looked like, the atmosphere, how visitors responded to it.

First things first: How was the congressional resolution faring? I send a telegram to the senator from New Hampshire. I called Western Union and was dictating my message, but when I mentioned "Cathedral of the Pines," the operator interrupted me.

"Oh!" she said. "Have you been there?"

"No, have you?"

"My husband and I were there last weekend. It's so beautiful, we go there a lot."

"Tell me all about it," I said. And for the next 20 minutes, she did.

What are the odds of finding the only Western Union operator on the eastern seaboard who knew all about this place? And who was thrilled to talk about it? To top it off, this woman gave me the perfect tag ending for my article: "My husband and I aren't religious," she said, "but the Cathedral is as close to heaven as we'll ever get in this life." Thank you, lady luck!

So, here's to the good old days, when your editors were your friends, contracts were straightforward, payment was prompt and freelancing was almost always fun.

NORMAN LOBSENZ is an award-winning writer with a dozen books to his credit and many national magazine publication credits. He was a former adjunct professor at NYU, USC and UCLA. He is a founding member of ASJA, then called the Society of Magazine Writers.