Photo credit: Janet Donovan
Carol Sudol worked as a nurse in the Health Center for The Washington Post for ten years at its current location – 1150 15th Street, Washington, DC. “I left when the clinic closed,” she told Hollywood on the Potomac, “otherwise I’d still be working here. I loved the job, I loved the people and was sorry to retire. We had plenty of emergencies in this building. When I first came here, the printing presses were running and there were accidents all the time. It was awful: Asbestos, ink, you had to change your shoes, cover your hair – that’s how much ink there was in the air. Six months into my job they closed down and reopened with the presses over in Springfield, Virginia.”
Carol Sudol
“Ben Bradlee was delightful,” Sudol was happy to report. “He chopped wood a lot and would have aches and pains, nothing serious. I would take his blood pressure from time to time. You would never know the man was Ben Bradlee. He was delightful. Don Graham came in. I did not know him. I don’t think that Katherine Graham ever came in. My favorite was Herblock …. oh God love him. He was a wonderful man. Oh, I will start to cry. He called up once and said: ‘Sweetie, I cut the tip of my finger with a razor blade.’ That was traumatic. He asked: ‘Can you stop the bleeding?’ and I said I would try my damnedest.” Apart from Herblock, Sudol didn’t really have any favorite reporters. She thought the whole paper was good. “Nobody pops up except Herblock. I just loved Herblock.” Bradlee was the executive editor of The Washington Post that broke The Watergate story. Herbert Lawrence Block, commonly known as Herblock, was an American editorial cartoonist and author best known for his commentaries on national domestic and foreign policy.
This year was the last ever alumni event at TWP building before it is torn down and replaced with a new building by its new owner. It was a trip down “TWP Memory Lane” in the building where so many memories were made over the years, with old “Postie” friends. Katherine Graham and Ben Bradlee are no longer with us and famous faces of that era that include Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were not present, but lots of other famous “Posties” were……and they had their share of tales from the crypt.
Mary Hadar, former Sports editor George Solomon and Myra MacPherson
Take Myra MacPherson and Mary Hadar: Their stories are legendary and they weren’t shy about sharing them. MacPherson was hired by Ben Bradlee to write for the new Style section of which Hadar was the editor. “There was always the sweet smell of marijuana in the back elevator in the good old days,” Myra laughed with Hadar nodding in agreement. “I remember going in the first time and this real swoof of it came over me and I thought, ‘Oh those kids are having fun.’ “I tell you it wasn’t the copy editors smoking in the elevator shaft,” Hadar added. “This was in the 70’s. We always assumed it was the copy editors.” “In any case,” added MacPherson, “I thought it would be a fun place to work.” “Myra was a star,” said Hadar. “We had stars, but she was the star.” Hollywood on the Potomac didn’t ask either if they partook in the aforementioned.
Myra MacPherson (L) with Donald Graham
“It feels great to be here today as you know,” said former publisher Donald Graham. “Yeah, it feels great to be here.” Donald Graham is the son of the late Katherine Graham and until recently the CEO and Chairman of Graham Holdings Company, now in the hands of Jeff Bezos who purchased The Washington Post in 2013.
“I never had the fortune of working with you, but I remember you used to do almost like a Bradlee thumbs up if you had read something of mine,” said Myra referring to former Executive Editor Len Downie. “And it always made me feel so good. I mean like oh……. he really is reading our work and cares about us. It was such a sexist era. People would come in and they would look at me–sitting between two male reporters and automatically think, ‘Oh, it’s miss secretary.’ Then they would come up to me and say, ‘Where are the desks?’ with this absolute reverence referring to Carl and Bob’s seats. I would say: ‘I’m on deadline so leave me alone.’ There was just so much sexism at the time.” “Myra is a terrific and gifted reported,” responded Downie on this night of mutual admiration, “and always pushing the envelope which was good. That’s what Style was all about.”
Myra MacPherson and Len Downie
“I was here from ’69 to ’72,” explained James Mann, best-known for his book Rise of the Vulcans: A History of Bush’s War Cabinet, a New York Times best-seller. “I literally arrived at age 22 to 25. I am remembered in the Halberstam books as the guy who got The Post to hire Woodward. I actually did a bunch of reporting, I was a metro reporter then. I never had so much fun in my life. Myra was in Style…Style was another whole, wonderful cult ….. Ben’s kids. It was a cult he loved. He really enjoyed young reporters. Unfortunately, I never got into that network.” “At that time it was tough political pieces,” added Myra, “more like National.”
Jim Mann
“People ask if I miss newspapers and obviously I don’t; it’s more fun writing books. But I do miss, you know, I miss the newsrooms. Newsrooms are, as someone once said, like a 30 or 40 year soap opera. You come in, you watch people develop, you watch people go through their lives, and then they go.” Kinda of like The Washington Post building……
Noted TWP political columnist and writer of “The Fix” as well as TV commentator–Chris Cillizza talked about the upcoming political elections, and what we should be looking for from the candidates.
