In the summer of 1963, Phil seemed to be getting betterhe was undergoing treatment at a psychiatric center in Marylandand there was even hope of resuming a normal life at home. He welcomed her with a carload of flowers, and together they flew to Sioux Falls, S.D., where he was to talk to the publisher of the local paper about buying it. Phil wasn't much better than I, but went at it with much more enthusiasm and natural energy -- so much so that at one of the parties his pants split horizontally across the rear. By mid-1948, The Post was still a rocky, if lively, paper. What made the situation even more complicated was the status of the Post. I was charmed and dazzled. . The appearance of this messenger, a Newsweek stringer whose name was Robin Webb, was the beginning of the tragic end. During his time in D.C., Graham rubbed shoulders with a group of like-minded politicos known as the Georgetown Set, and came to know both Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Soccer She was flushed, delighted. In an otherwise blissful spring of journalistic overload, a time when the merest cough in the Kremlin merited front-page attention, it came about that the Post and its sister publication, Newsweek, were being awarded a plum: an interview with the General Secretary of the Communist Party. Freelancers Guide He was the fun at the dinner table and in our country life. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. At one meeting with L.B.J. Mrs. Grahams personal relations with the powerful and the once powerful became, if anything, even more visible after Watergate. Having Phil back was a tremendous -- and tremendously complicated -- relief. With Webb, he traveled to a publishing convention in Phoenix and caused a stir when, taking the microphone in a manic state, he started talking about the alleged affairs of John F. Kennedy, with whom he had been closely associated for some time. By this time, Robin had returned to Paris. Instead, it appeared on Page B7. Phil remained loyal to Johnson until he lost the bid for the nomination. . The two most powerful presences in her lifeher mother and her husbandwere both clearly suffering from psychological problems, yet Katharine still felt inferior to them. the tiny fringe of arrogant litists who infect the healthy mainstream of American journalism with their own peculiar view of the world. The fact is, though, that two days after making that statement Colson talked to Howard Hunt about the need to supply more financial help to the defendants in the Watergate trial. . Bradlee now sees himself as the self-appointed leader of. I panicked. I cant write in the eloquent words he used. Graham heard him. Join Facebook to connect with Robin H Webb and others you may know. We went to a restaurant, had a long dinner, talked and laughed a lot, and drank until quite late. If one compares the approach of the liberal media (the Post, the Times, etc.) (According to some accounts, Philip also threatened to divorce Katharine and marry Robin Webb, a Newsweek stringer with whom he'd been having an affair.) Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Phil's activities in regard to Little Rock were the first sign for me that something was wrong with him, that his powerful talents could be used in such an idealistic but confusing and irrational way. friends for the Aegean cruise. He acknowledged that he used humor as a weapon with which to keep people at a distance. She really does seem to believe that Watergate was an aberration. Around this time, my father decided to pass the paper on to Phil and me. He was acutely aware of the dilemma that arose from the fact that, as he put it, "a newspaper must be a successful commercial enterprise in order to survive. Even now I cant sort out my feelings about this; its hard to separate what was a function of Phils terrible affliction, which manifested itself only later, and what was more basic. Theater And yet his periods of lucidity and humor, of lively intelligence, were frequent enough to confuse her and delay any sense of reckoning. In effect [Bill and Steve] lost both parents at once. He does not travel the globe to interview foreign leaders. Advertisement. Son: Stephen Meyer Graham (b. Health problems and death I was earning about $1,500 a year. I began keeping a little accounts book, dutifully noting every penny spent, including the cost of gas and oil for the car, stamps, groceries, even our personal allowances, which were $9 each per week. The violence grew steadily. The editors around her grumbled almost inaudibly, but just enough, it seemed to me, to nudge her out of such a call. Mrs. Graham spotted a map of the Aegean and Black Seas and began to talk about a cruise she had taken in the summer of 1963, not long after her husband died. Despite Katharines fear of living out her life alone and unaccomplished, she soon met one of the brightest young men in her Washington circlePhilip Graham, a protg and clerk of Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. Robin Webb. Eugene served Agnes breakfast in bed every morning; he ate at the bedside table. The Times was immediately in trouble with the White House and the courts. As she grew older and more self-confident, she could be imperious, even frightening to her editors and executives, but her desire to please, or at least to get along with, those in power, never entirely faded. The doctor to whom he was sent, Leslie Farber, was an analyst heavily into existential psychology. ), Graham had undeniably, historically, made the right decision, and in the years to come she supported the investigative efforts of the Post; but the signs of her ambivalence about her social and political role never ceased. Phil also brought into my life more laughter, gaiety, irreverence for rules, and originality. He would help me proofread. There is still a vital distinction. Soon Phil began telling his friends that he was going to divorce his wife and marry Robin Webb. At one point, he wanted to fire the highly respected editorial writer Alan Barth, who had dared to defend the right of Earl Browder, the former secretary-general of the Communist Party in America, not to name names before a Senate subcommittee. CAPTION: Katharine and Phil Graham in 1962, left, after The Post purchased Artnews; above, from left, Phil's half brother Bob Graham -- now a U.S. senator from Florida -- Felix Frankfurter, Ernest Graham and Phil Graham in 1955; right, Phil Graham with John Kennedy on Cape Cod in 1961. Early in 1940, I was invited by a friend to Sunday lunch with a group at the Ritz Carlton. The deal took only about three weeks from beginning to end, during which time he slept very little and rode a high crest, working feverishly to get it done. Mr. She went ahead with the publication of the Pentagon Papers, and she backed her reporters and editors during Watergate, when the Post Companys survival was under threat and the paper was all alone in pursuing the story. One doctor told a friend later, "Phil was determined to get out and really was unbelievably masterful in his ability to manipulate people." We in Moscow had neither the time nor the luxury that would allow us to confirm these legends. Mrs. Graham, for her part, wrote back to him, I was full of admiration anyway for what you did and the way you did it. In the end, Davis sued her publisher for libel and breach of contract in 1982 and received a hundred-thousand-dollar settlement. I went because it was my Destiny. Advertise with Us, Sponsored Posts from our Partners This is a surprising piece of work on every level. You cant go. The year leading up to Grahams death was a turbulent one for him and his family. I was not about to give up the paper without a fight. Phil viewed this whole sequence of events, with some reason, as a violation of his rights and civil liberties. She supported Roosevelt, but her political values were essentially conservative and well within the boundaries of the American upper classes. Phil, Kennedy said, when you get elected dogcatcher I will listen to you on politics. But in fact Kennedy had listened to him. It all seems so odd in retrospect. Early on, Phil predicted that Kennedy and Johnson would be the only candidates to come into the Democratic Convention with sizable blocs of delegates. See Photos. Bradlee had been Phils friend, not hers, but he pushed for the job of managing editor, pushed with his customary blend of charm and vulgarity (Id give my left one for the job, he told her at lunch one day), and she melted. But that is the way Phil Graham wanted it. CAPTION: Phil Graham, as publisher of The Washington Post, often involved the paper in righting wrongs, as he saw them. Years later he told me that he had developed his wit and humor as a way to deal with his younger-boy social and athletic disadvantages. Someone -- I've never been sure who -- reached President Kennedy, who agreed to the use of a government plane to transport the doctors to get Phil. It was with Felix that Phil entered the world of great minds, ideas and books, stimulating conversation, and above all an interest in current events. My feelings about The Post, however, were very clear. For years, whatever directive I may have issued ended with the phrase if its all right with you. If I thought Id done anything to make someone unhappy, Id agonize. But I want you to know I am among the many people in this country who believe in you and are behind you with trust and devotion.. Also, it was part of my bafflement at what I saw as Phil's increasingly strange behavior. His temperament, his interests, and his style are quite different from his mothers. These days, the Post is usually thought of as the second-best paper in the country, after the Timesor, if not the second-best, then at least tied for that honor with the Wall Street Journal and, stretching some, the Los Angeles Times. CAPTION: A June wedding: Phil and Katharine Graham married in 1940. Phil suffered from numerous illnesses, increasingly so as the years went by. Performance/Dance ~ Gambling. In college at the University of Florida, Phil enjoyed fraternity life, and girls, and he drank a good deal of bathtub gin. . All that was mostly over now, though I tried to be with them as much as possible. This is not the sort of moment one could hope to find in the self-examination of Andrew Carnegie or Colonel McCormick, much less of Bill Gates or Rupert Murdoch. Great risk was involved, or so one heard. When Johnson had announced he was running for President that year, Phil Graham helped write the speech; he even ended up on his hands and knees, crawling around at the last minute to retrieve one of Lyndons contact lenses, which had popped out. This is a posture unbecoming to a publisher of newspapers. Everything rotated around him, and I willingly participated in keeping him at the center of things. In the fall of 1942, Dad and I were on a train coming back from New York, and naturally we were talking about Phil. . Meyer began his financial career by investing six hundred dollars his father had given him for not smoking until he was twenty-one. One did not want to spend the remainder of ones career taste-testing lima beans. I see nothing wrong with the fact that people in power often deal with others on more than one level, she writes. Facebook gives people the power to. Ben, with another reporter, was on the site for 36 straight hours. The Young Publisher, In many ways, Phil was at his very best as a publisher in these years. I had to face facts -- Phil was really gone. Please reload the page and try again. As he emerged more on the journalistic and political scenes, I increasingly saw my role as the tail to his kiteand the more I felt overshadowed, the more it became a reality. Phil Graham began referring to his wife, who by 1952 had given birth to four children, as Porky; to heighten the joke, he gave her as a present a French butcher-shop head of a pig. In later years, he wanted to mold the career of his friend Senator Lyndon Johnson. Mumble Sauce, About Us I also think that he realized the illness would recur. Sometime after the "brainwashing" party, Johnson urged Phil to be at his side during the final push for passage of the bill. . Around the table in Phil's office sat Secretary of the Interior Julius "Cap" Krug, Undersecretary Oscar Chapman, President Truman's special adviser Clark Clifford, and two or three others. For nearly a year, Phil went to the office hardly at all. It similarly (if with less success) pursued Iran-Contra and Bill Clintons ethical droppings. Believing that he knew enough of the key players that he could solve the problem with behind-the-scenes maneuvering, he kept several phones going day and night. Then He Tested Positive for COVID. See Photos. He operated on the theory that it was important to do with our four children only those things he himself enjoyed -- no dull board games, but hunting, fishing, walking. Simple Pleasures. We were both up all night, with me trying desperately but to no avail to be of some reassuring help. This time, he saw his departure as final. CAPTION: The Grahams with their children at Glen Welby in 1956; Lally, left, Katherine, Phil (holding Steve), Bill and Don. Charles Colson, for one, tried to dismiss the conspiracy as fictiona charge that, if true, would probably have ruined the paper forever. The babushka melted. He came to Washington in 1917 as a dollar-a-year man for the Wilson Administration; and, while he was holding a variety of positions on the War Industries Board, the Farm Loan Board, and the Federal Reserve Board, the Meyers became friendly with Bernard Baruch, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Evans Hughes. Indeed, the paper was still struggling for its life. Whoops! We had lunch on two trays on the back porch at Glen Welby, chatting and listening to some classical records. Unlike Phil, I find it hard to express emotion. In 1934, when Phil was 19, his mother died of cancer -- he later confessed that he had cried himself to sleep night after night in college. Dr. Phil McGraw and his wife Robin McGraw attend the ceremony honoring Dr. Phil McGraw with a star on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame on February 21, 2020. Her name is Katherine Meyer and I've not a doubt in the world that you'll love her. Graham found herself agreeing: Saarinen would not get an offer. I insisted. D.C. A few days later, I was assigned to show her and her close friend Meg Greenfield, the Posts editorial-page editor, around the city that was then known as Leningrad. . The story, of course, revealed nothing of Mrs. Graham. The Post publisher took a mistress, Robin Webb, whom he set up in a large house in Washington and a farm outside of the city. Philip Leslie "Phil" Graham (July 18, 1915 - August 3, 1963) was an American newspaper publisher. The charge of subverting a whole political process, that is a fantasy, a work of fiction rivalling only Gone with the Wind in circulation and Portnoys Complaint for indecency, Colson said. It introduced him to Felix Frankfurter. Ad Choices. On Jan. 1, 1946, he started his postwar work at the age of 30 as associate publisher of The Post. But, if he does, the decisions should not be as hard for him as they were for Katharine Graham. Mrs. Graham seemed not to mind the nasty benches or the almost very funny clowns. Johnson worked actively to cultivate the press, and Phil was always drawn to politics. By early March 1961, Phil was involved in his old in-depth way with many activities -- political and Post Co.-related -- and he seemed to me to be enjoying himself. And by now helping you I believe and I pray I shall help you. See Photos . At Vassar and at the University of Chicago, Katherine took an interest in left-wing politics, which were very much in the air, but always her sense and her sense of breeding prevented her from taking what seemed like extreme steps. He told me that he loved me and said we would be married and go to Florida, if I could live with only two dresses, because I had to understand that he would never take anything from my father and we would live on what he made. I felt close to history. I did not go because I did not want to help you. My father said, "Done." All that has changed now, with the publication of Katharine Grahams own Personal History (Knopf; $30). Love is still strong between Dr. Phil McGraw and his wife Robin, who celebrates 43 years of married life in August 2019. . Mainly, the Grahams were poor and had a difficult struggle. Those first few years of marriage, Phil and I had a very happy time. The Formative Years. Katharine Graham revealed in her 1997 autobiography Personal History (which her biographer Deborah Davis reviewed for Washington City Paper) that she felt her husband received inadequate treatment at Chestnut Lodge, going so far as to say that his condition required electroshock therapy. Loose Lips As a publisher, Don Graham may never face a pair of crises as critical as the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. The only other inhabitants were Seminole Indians. On Aug. 3, 1963, former Washington Post publisher Philip Graham, having struggled with severe bouts of depression for at least five years, went into the bathroom of his family farm near Marshall, Va., and committed suicide with a 28-gauge shotgun. She was in a good mood. Gone not to my Far Country but to my Destiny. His friends are, for the most part, not especially famous. The second week in February, he called me at work late one afternoon suggesting that we have dinner at Harvey's, a famous old seafood restaurant next door to the Mayflower, where we could buy the early edition of The Post. Katharine's husband Philip battled alcoholism and mental illness throughout the marriage. With Grahams support, Bradlee was soon firing the lazy and the mediocre, the racist and the dull, and he then set about raiding topflight papers around the country for their best talent. She is a Valkyrian type with something elsea mixture of Valkyrie and Juno., Agness ambitions were fuelled by resentment of her station as a wife and mother. Then Mrs. Graham started past it. My God! she said, covering her pearls with the tips of her fingers. It was very much in Felix's nature, and he was dealing with two men -- Phil and Joe -- to whom he was as close as though they were his sons. Under Ochs, the Times institutionalized the notion of nonpartisan, objective reporting. But in the spring of 1971 the Supreme Court had not yet declared its strong support of press freedoms to the degree that it would in the Pentagon Papers case; moreover, the Post itself did not yet have the financial standing or the self-identity to go forward simply and with confidence. On the eve of the first Moratorium against the war, the Post published a nasty editorial (also not quoted in Personal History) that tried to set the paper apart from the antiwar movement. By June 17th, thanks to his national editor, Ben Bagdikian, he had his own set of papers. Everything except Phil's personal expenses was carried by me from the modest trust started for each of the Meyer children by my father. Dr. Phil McGraw has worked extremely hard over the years . Watergate was an analyst heavily into existential psychology found herself agreeing: Saarinen would get. Laughter, gaiety, irreverence for rules, and originality, Phil was at his very best a. 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