The Prince of Political Pulp Victor Lasky: The Man, the Myth and the Marksman

By Paul Hendrickson has swirled up and embraced the writer. "1 wanted to call you this week," she pants, "but I knew your phone would be ringing t is opening night of the International off the hook." "Goldberg had it bugged, Horse Show and the D.C. Armory is sweetheart," he returns, his pan as dead as Ifairly gagged with Washington soci- something in the sink the next morning. ety. Upstairs, in the Presidential box, Mr. She recoils in exaggerated horror and he and Mrs. Ford are watching the Argentine says in a Groucho aside: "I can never re- Ambassador trying to get his mount over a three-foot fence. (The animal canters Paul Hendrickson is a free lance writer. smoothly to the gate, but balks each time.) Downstairs, in a makeshift bar called the Trophy Club, amid plastic plants and G7 Victor Lasky ar work in his Watergate BOAC travel posters, the author of Arthur apartment. J. Goldberg: The Old and the New is an instant celebrity. And he is bluffing all the member this broad's name." Then he spies way. Nancy Lammerding, White House social "Yeah," says pudgy, 56-year-old Victor secretary, across the room. "Oh, Naaaa- Lasky in what sounds like borrowed ancy," he calls out sweetly. She doesn't Brooklynese, "when the news broke that look up. the Rockefellers backed the book, my im- "Where was I? Oh yeah: the book. Well, mediate reaction was "Who needs the now I'm starting to enjoy the notoriety. publicity?' Here I am sitting in McCormick Funny thing is, I never read it when it Place in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, lis- came out back in '70. I looked at my man- tening to Bob Abplanalp give a banquet uscript a few times before I handed it in, speech to some packaging guys, when my that's all. Christ, I wrote it in three weeks. wife Patty rushes in and says there's eight You want to call me a hack? Okay, so I'm a or nine reporters outside.,I leaned over to hack So we're all hacks.in this business. Rebozo—who was feeling pretty good by So I didn't interview the man. A lot of peo- the way—and said, 'Bebe, I think I'm in ple who wrote psychoanalyses of Mr. some hot water.' He looked at me and said, Nixon never talked to him. Sure I made a. 'Lasky, you don't know what hot water fast ten. I took the money and ran like a is.'" thief." A plump matron dripping with jewelry A man in tails and a white tie, who looks at the very least like the minister from Pak istan, heaves into view. "Hey, Henry, they got ya sprayin the horses tonight?" That is all. In the next mo- Then under his breath: "I think he's in in- ment, he is back to the one- surance." liners, the catcalling, the "Look, I got principles, okay? This busi- mildly dirty jokes, the slash- ness that I'm for hire is crap. Could the and-mash style that keeps any- not one from getting too close. Fi- Democrats get me? And listen, I will nally, he is left alone in the write about Teddy Kennedy, even though room with a reporter and an I've been offered good bread. I mean, old black man picking glasses enough is enough. I get the willies every time I think of how his two brothers died after my books came out. I figure I drop- ped a minimum of half a mill on JFK: The Man and the Myth. I canceled all my speak- ing engagements and talk show appear- ances and demanded the publishers stop the presses for a couple of weeks. I was glad to do it." Peter Malatesta, once an aide to Spiro Agnew, has come over to chat. "Looked for you at Sinatra's show in the Garden," says Lasky offhandedly, pulling a Don Di- ego cigar from his vest pocket, then light- off the tables. "Come by the ish immigrants. His father, ing it with a matchbook advertising the apartment," he says. ',Tatty Key Biscayne HoteL They hobnob for ten who had come to Atherica and I'll. show you our fan from the Russian provinces, minutes or so, and after Malatesta goes maiL " At that, Victor Lasky soon moved his family from back upstairs, the writer, suddenly sober, exits, laughing, sweetheart, the Catskills down to Manhat- laughing. says; Continued on page 50 tan, just above Hell's 19 Kitchen. There, the elder La- sky 'worked as a salesman, af- ust what makes Vic- terward - the owner of a tor run still has his string of five-and-dimes. odd lot of liberal and (Both parents are still alive, Lasky;from page 19 conservative friends a touch retired to Queens.) "Life is damn funny. You mystified. He was born . He grew up with the tough, cake Peter there. Agnew Abram Victor' Lasky to Jew- . West Side- Irish—swinaaing should have been President by now and he'd have been at the very top. Coming in here tonight I saw the presidential limousine parked out front. You know, I've been in that car twice in my life, both times as . the guest of Mr. Nixon. It's quite a ride. But chat's over now and I'll never get another chance. That's the way it works, I guess. just a roll of the dice . . ." And then, almost softly: "Look, I don't cake myself very seriously. I'm not in this horsey set—I only know what they smell like. These people you see here are the steadies. Guys like me glide in and out of their world all the time. What I am, when you get down to it, is an old rewrite man off an afternoon newspa- • Pholograph by Meath... twat.' in the Hudson, hopping wrap a few packages of pam- guy going from pants presser freights, getting run over by a phlets. I don't remember him to millionaire." (Supposedly, truck at 11. At Brooklyn Col- at.too many meetings." Sam Goldwyn was so irked at lege, he read Jack London ad- Murray Kempton, the long- being called a "former pants venture stories and studied time New York Post colum- presser" by Lasky that be politics. He also went to the nist, met Lasky in 1938 when complained to the American movies and saw "Front the two were students and ambassador, who- in turn Page." That hooked him, and shared similar ideologies. called up Ike. ) before long he was a $12-a- "There was always something But Lisagor and others also week copy boy at the old Jour- of the outsider in him," he re- remember that he could turn nal American. (Later, on the calls. "He reminded me of a in brilliant pieces. One, on desk of the World-Telegram taxi driver forever trying to Bernard Baruch, imitated in in New York, he would get get, his license. Still, you print the peculiar way that the reputation as one of the couldn't help liking Vic." baron of business talked. An- quickest studies in the busi- A lot of people say that. Pat other, entitled "Yes, Mr. ness. When Mahatma Gandhi Buchanan, who has known Coward, Brooklyn Boys Do died, he pulled all the clip- Lasky since 1966 when Rich- pings and wrote a 15-page ard Nixon got them together, obit in two hours.) says he counts the writer But by then, he was inter- among his closest friends. ested in something else, too: "He's the one guy I can call up Cry," was a moving reply to anti-Communist socialism. any time We like to go down Noel Coward's ridicule of the The New York intellectual to the Guards on M Street for GI; they say he wrote it from ferment of the '30s made his dinner with our_wives. I'll tell . his gut in 20 minutes. • head- swim, friends remem- you this: he's loyal to a fault to "We were all kind of sur ber. Norman Thomas became those he cares about." prised when Vic got on the his hero; publications late the Even people on the other treason beat after the war," New Leader, his Bible. "I side of the ideological fence says Lisagor. "All I remember don't know that he ever really have regard for the personal, is that he was ambitious. He .felt a part of the movement, if not professional; Lasky. was no more a reactionary though," says Harry Frank Manldewicz, who goes . back then than I was." Fleischman, a onetime na- back with the writer to the One theory for Lasky's sud- tional secretary of the Socialist early '50s, seems a trifle em- den switch after the war from -Party and now an officer of barrassed about his friendship democratic socialism to right- the American Jewish Com- with him now. "Hes always wing Republicanism is that he mittee. "He'd Come up to our been fun to be around," he felt a sense of rejection from offices, sit around, maybe Continued on page 59 the New York liberal, intel- lectual community. (Irvin Taubkin, for years an execu- tive at the New York. Times and another dose friend, ter- - "-Lasky, from page 50 tifies that Lasky has always says. "I remember I saw him felt a bit uncomfortable once at the White House in . around eggheads.) Another '70 and-said, 'Hey Vic, what's theory' is that Republicanism up?' When be *Old me he was was where the action lay for writing a book about Nixon, I anti-Communism in the early said, 'Does he know?' He got '50s. But a far more fatly ex-- the joke." planation is that on August 3, Wheri World War II broke 1948, in an elevator in one of out, Lasky went on leave from the House office buildings, his newspaper job in Chicago ;-Victor Lasky met Richard IL to join up with Scars and Nixon. "And as Kempton and Stripes, the U.S. Army daily, others have said, he must in London.. Peter Lisagor, have smelled the power even • now Washington bureau chief then. for the Chicago Daily News, Later, when the California was his editor; also his house- congressman was making na- mate in a place behind Buck- ingham Palace. "He was a good time and a facile writer," . says Lisagor, "even if all his feature stories began with the tional headlines in the Alger luncheon.remarks). a secretary to pick up his dis- Hiss-Whittaker Chambers spy Not to mention a half- cirded underwear. The. Little case, the two would get to- dozen books. Norman Mailer, Brother allegedly had Lasky's gether out at the house in Ar- reviewing JFK: The Man and phone tapped after the JFK lington -for Pat's.. fried the Myth, wrote that Lasky book and had him investi- chicken. (Lasky figures he's "could have left us with a clas- gated by the Immigration since been with Nixon on 100 sic in political biography," Department; the anger still ' occasions.) Seeds of Treason, but that the book failed in the showed in Lasky's writings Lasky's account of the sensa- end because it contained "no five years later. (It is interest- tional trial, which be co-au- intimation of the - curious ing to note, in light of current thored with Ralph de Tole depths in the President's na- events, that Nelson Rockefel- .then of Newsweek, shortly ture." But the quick job (he ler publicly took up for Lasky followed and was a success. wrote it in less than nine at a speech in French - He had found his schtick. The months) was a runaway best- Lick, Indiana, when he heard $110-a-week reporter was on seller of 1963 and earned La- about the author's alleged in- his way to becoming the sky nearly $400,000. Relying vasion of privacy.) In the prince of political pulp. heavily dips (at the end, Bobby book, as in some of his For 25 years, he has been there areare 37 fine-print pages others, Lasky didn't interview working the same side of the of . acknowledgments), the his subject, although he in- street. There have been film- book often succeeds in show- sists the younger Kennedy writing stints in Hollywood ing Kennedy on both sides of was scheduled to see him (one of his anti-Communist major 'issues through the twice, and both times didn't documentaries, "The Hoax- years. There are more than a show; Mankiewicz denies it. sters," was nominated for an few ..petty jabs, however— Lasky has also written ex- Academy Award); speeches with as hi-1-w Kennedy dim- Senator George Murphy's life for candidate Nixon (he went - bed over seats at his Inaugural story. "We made a nice piece out to California in 1962 for Ball and, as a Congressman, of change," he says. "Patty the governor's race and, used to hit people at restau- did most of the interviewing among other things, came rants for the check. Still,, it is and I did most of the writ- back with the poodle that had a thoroughgoing work. Ros- ing " served as the campaign's coe Drunimond wrote that it Today, at least, Lasky claims he never wanted to do mascot); jokes for Martha was just what the doctor or- Mitchell Ueb Magruder re- dered for the '64 campaign. the now-famous Goldberg vealed during the Watergate In 1968, Lasky wrote 'Rob- book. A New York lawyer hearings that the Committee ert F. Kennedy: The Myth and named John-Wells, who was for the Re-Rlection of the • the Mm This one is replete both a friend of the writer and President had paid Lasky with little mudballs---like the an old hand of Rocky, came $20,000 for gags and a few •time Bobby supposedly asked . Continued on page 62

New Yorker, then set to Lasky, from page 59 work. The result was 200 by urging him to "set the rec- pages of vintage Lasky-- ord straight" on the Demo- weaving in whatever criticism cratic candidate for governor. was available with his own Lasky. said Goldberg was too caustic comment. He takes dull for him to bother. Wells, delight, for instance, in call- replied that there was $10,000 ing his subject "Mr. Justice" in it Lasky shrugged and said and "the man from Chicago" he guessed a fellow could (implying, pomposity in the write a book about anything, first and carpetbagger), in the even artichokes. second ). He says Goldberg got He went to the Republican rich dUring the Depression by National Committee and got foreclosing ocher people's the file on Goldberg, read Robert Shaplen's series in'the property, and that he rose in phis law firm in the name of the labor movement because 1970 to Washington to begin sayi he just dries;' he adds; Literary Productions, Inc, an work on an "approved" biog- he was a Red Baiter. At one however, that were it nor for instant Delaware corporation raphy of Richard Nixon. The point, he gossips about how chartered solely for that the royalties on the JFK. book,- the man pouted in his room minuscript, some 300,000 he'd have been' in. trouble a purpose.) But he has also said words, has been rejected by when Columbia University it probably wouldn't have long time ago.) But also these didn't send around a limou- Lasky's publisher; Lasky is days VictoryLasky must be sit- ' made any difference. The can- vague on the reason, but says sine for his lecture series. celed check, he claims; has ei ting in his den, amid enough Though Goldberg himself has he will resubmit it after files and dippirigi to crowd a ther been lost or pronounced it all "pornogra- is buried revision; in the meantime,. warehouse, and wondering among his things in New he's coughed up his advance. phy," in fairness, the book York. how he can get rid of his rep seems little different from Today, he writes a syndi- as the fastest hired gim in town. (On October 15, 1974, La- cated column for the North most other campaign quick- For whether sky testified at the Rockefeller American Newspaper Alli- he publicly ies, certainly no worse than wants to admit it or not, it has confirmation hearings. Book ance. Called "Say it Straight," those that sprang up about come down to that. Under all in one band, cigar in the the 750-word weekly com- Barry Goldwater during the those mountains of words, af- other, he promptly set about mentary (to 100 newspapers) 1964 presidential election. ter all that huffing and defending his much-maligned advocates such things as an puff- More than 116,000 copies ing, ViCtor Laiky's career now nianuscript. When asked immediate threat by Mr. Ford were ultimately printed, but seems something of. a carica- about the vice presidential to resign unless Mr. Rockefel- today the book is next to im- ture, a cartoon of the Great nominee's own characterise- ler were confirmed (Oct. 25, possible to obtain. Lasky has American Effort. And that is don of the book as an over 1974). For such political in- maintained throughout the rated, misrepresented, grimly-ironic. Frank Manic- current controversy that, imto- sight, Lasky daims he makes - iewicz feels that back there a mous.political dud, Lasky, only $30 per week He also though he knew the 'assign- long time ago, when two looking as if he'd been shot hustles a little radio commen- ment came from the Rockefel- roads diverged in a yellow through with an arrow, tary on WAVA in Washing- ler camp, he had no idea the wood, Lasky might just as eas- replied: "f don't him those ton. (The money for this one money did. (The book's fi- ily have gone the other words.") is also ridiculous, he says. way. nancing, reportedly, was Right-wing ideology was After polishing off that lit- When you ask, laundered through a Philadel- - therefore, never so much the issue as op- tle plum, the writer moved in 'how he gets by, he shrugs and portunity. Now he is stuck

- He chose his Path and as Frost est type of snake and lower the next guy.. But that's okay: so succinctly put it, that has than the lowest. type of prosti- I found out a long time ago made all the difference . . tute. " She kisses her husband about the hurt instinct among on the cheek and goes out the journalists." . He is at home now, with door. . In fact, Lasky sayshis life is his wife and poodle, in the "Patty tries not to let on," he pretty good these days He Watergate. It is a spotless, says in flat, even tones, "but walks Charlie Brown, down two-bedroom apartment with this kind of stuff really upsets by the river. He bumps into period furniture and tasteful her."' He is in Gucci loafers Senator Symington , in the pictures on the wall. Mrs. La - and a sport shirt; Charlie halls. He worki out at the sky, a sokipoken blond Bap- Brown the poodle dozes in his Watergate's health dub (he tist from Ohio (they met at lap. "But you have to be able says he's got to lose 15 pounds Toots Shor's in New York to rake the hear. After the fast). The other. Sunday, Bob When he was in newspapers, Goldberg flap, we had 48 calls - Abplanalp gave the Laskys a she in advertising), is getting in one day, everything from ride clOwn from New York in set to do her. afternoon mar- cranks to the LA. MKS to his private plane. "It's not him keting. Before she leaves, she somebody wanting me to I'm under siege, you know. places on the coffee table a write a batik for him on New rve got plenty of friends. postcard and an opened let, . Jersey corruption. You know, They don't think rm .a mon- ter. One begins, "You are a I never received one letter ster. It's inconceivable to any dirty, common, foul-mouthed about the Goldberg book of us that this little book gents' room journalist and when' it came out. But now I could bring down a vice presi- when the time for your pass- get these stories in the paper dent." ing arrives, the world will be ' . of some hateful ogre who goes Late that evening, the that much better off." The around destroying people. writer is the featured guest on other reads, "You were al- Sure that botheis me. I don't "Empathy" at WWDC Radio ways a creepy, timothy son-of- hate anybody, not Arthur in Salver Spring. There . is a-bitch, but you have prog- Goldberg, not the Kennedys. something ressed comparably to the low- s surreal about the I'm just making a living like night. Bulletins on Richard Nixon's lapse into shock in on a used-car lot. In that mo- California and Multatnntad ment, you can't help picturing 'Ah's impossible victory ins At- Willy Leman in a pair of dou- - rica are coming over the wire ble-knits. every an 'minutes. Behind Afterward, being driven paneled glass, ht a kind of hcane through the blackness drab-green phosphorescent of Rock Creek Park, he sits in glow, Fred Fake, the show's the hunt seat of a Subaru with host, is suggesting to Lasky. his hands clasped on his stein- that there is immorality in ac- ach and hill glasses sliding cepting S10,000 from mysteri- down his nose. "We almost ' cue sources..The two shout st lost our man out there in Odi- one another on the point, forais tonight," he says. "I then chit-chat We old golf don't believe this crap that buddies during the break CI he's lost his will to live. He's just came to bake it up and gonna make it--and so am I, pump up the guy's ratings," even though FR be working Lasky says lawn When the all die. Ten yaws ago, I was audience begins to phone in pretty well off. Right now, comments, he is alternately things are tight. That's why abrasive .• and charming— Fvegocsocapiaizeonall this smirking ,Ince a schoolboy, publicity. Here I am sitting on glowering him John Mitchell, a goddsm goldmine and I got never quite letting on to the nothing to sell. Les inaedi- world out there that it is all bk." 'Then,- Ate same great just it pose, a charade, and exhausted babe, Victor Lasky that if he weren't, dohs this, drops his head against the 1"fby, heniighebei' nding alF darkened ghats and eases into day under flappingl pennants , drawn.