Dear Ed: I have your letter1 about Mr. Kornitzer,2 also one from him. This man started working on my staff in 1949 in an effort to get an exclusive interview with me. The staff would not permit this because, as you know, exclusive interviews are something that are just not possible for a man in public life. At that moment I was President of Columbia, but just then there were all sorts of renewed pressures to get me into politics and so I clung to the old policy and refused to see him.
That same fall this man wrote a story on Truman, and in that case was also denied an exclusive interview. He got most of his information from Mr. Truman's brother or cousin. Now, of course, if in this case he is genuinely interested in our Dad and is not merely using another excuse to get at me because I happen to be a public figure, then he not only has my entire sympathy but his purpose touches me deeply. Consequently, I would arrange for him to see a number of people around me and possibly even consent to the answering of some kind of questionnaire, to be done through a third party.
By no means do I want to appear to you to be cautious or suspicious to the point of stuffiness. I would, however, like to repeat to you an extract from a letter that a staff officer of mine wrote to Arthur on October 19, 1949, sending a copy to all the brothers.
Text of letter to Arthur Eisenhower, dated October 19, 1949:
"Mr. Bela Kornitzer, in our estimation, is commercializing by stretching the truth a bit. He has for some time been endeavoring to see your brother on the strength of a book, FATHERS AND SONS, but, if you will note, there is little about fathers and sons. Most of the photographs are of `Mr. Bela Kornitzer and subject.' We would be in a h--- of a mess if we would sanction such an interview. This was explained to him last year patiently and thoroughly by various members of the General's staff here at Columbia, in addition to Mr. McCann and myself--and he just will not take `No' for an answer. In fact, he is very unhappy.
"I make this rather lengthy explanation in the event he tries to approach you again with some weird tale and for that reason I am sending a copy of this communication to the other brothers in the event that he tries to pressure them into some exploitation stunt."
I shall have my press people look up the whole case at once and give Mr. Kornitzer a reply that is in keeping with our general policy. If he wants to pursue the matter on this basis, we will certainly be as helpful as we can.3
The other day Bill Robinson came to see me and said that he was going to make one more effort to get you to come down to Augusta. I explained in detail your embarrassment about Mr. Cheatham, but he thought this could be easily surmounted.4 In any event, this is just to repeat that if you would find it possible to come down there between April 13th and 20th, I would hope that you would find me busily hacking around the course. As ever
