@robin.webb.100. My mother seemed to undermine so much of what I did, subtly belittling my choices and my activities in light of her greater, more important ones, she writes. {But a fight was unnecessary. . My feelings about The Post, however, were very clear. Advertise with Us, Sponsored Posts from our Partners You are stuck with me as a mascot repeat mascot. . Tenants in Rent-Controlled Units Could See as Much as 8.9 Percent Increases, The Cranky Redskins Fans Guide to Dan Snyder. Toward the end of her life, I was a success in her eyes, and perhaps that is what she loved. Profile. On an early trip, he requested a secretary, and the bureau chief dispatched Robin Webb, a young Australian trying to make it as a journalist. As I began to lead the way down the steps, a bus-size babushkathe usherfixed me with a hard look and said, Nelzya. Impossible. He had all the symptoms of severe depression -- overwhelming doubt about himself and his abilities, a desire to seclude himself from the world, indecision even about what pair of shoes to wear, guilt, and occasional talk of suicide. After the honeymoon, we settled into our little house, which we rented for $80 a month in a pleasant neighborhood called Burleith. He had left me for good, and it was almost more than I could bear. I didn't hear the term "manic-depression" until some years later. In the midst of the crisis, she wrote to Ehrlichman, saying, What appears in the Post is not a reflection of my personal feelings. ~ Gambling. But then Mrs. Graham was laughing. His widow was left to confront all the myths and all the insulations that her marriage, her class, and her sex had imposed on her. At some point, however, not quite three weeks after Christmas Eve, the phones started to work again between Phil and Robin. friends for the Aegean cruise. Graham was gambling every sort of inheritance that was important to her: the paper, her fortune, and, perhaps most important, the judgment of the ghosts who crowded around her. But even this was hard to understand. . Despite his early apprehensions about my father's wealth, politics, and possible impulse to control, Phil gradually grew very close to him. They were both from the South. In 1966, Truman Capote, her neighbor at the U.N. Plaza, where she kept a New York apartment, threw his famous Black-and-White costume ball for her. The Post Company had gone public just two days before getting the papers, and publication could easily have affected its stock prices for the worse. 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. He told me that he wanted to preserve our marriage and our family; he said that he loved Robin but would tell her the affair was over, and that he would stay with his family. He and his girlfriend flew to Phoenix to attend a meeting of The Associated Press. One doctor told a friend later, "Phil was determined to get out and really was unbelievably masterful in his ability to manipulate people." He was the publisher (from 1946 until his death) and co-owner (from 1948) of The Washington Post. Inside the TV Star's Beverly Hills Home. Freelancers Guide Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Work Here It was featured, with a photograph, in the next days edition of Pravda. Perhaps if the turmoil had ended there he might have been able to rest and get his strength back. 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. Young & Hungry Otis Chandler and his wife, Missy, met Phil and Robin at the airport. Phil's mother had discussed her desire that he go to law school. Phil felt such urgency about co-opting Stanton that he decided to send a personal messenger to ensure that the letters reached Frank in New York. . Phil was born in 1915 in . Which is precisely the wrong way to conduct business as the publisher of a newspaper. My feeling that something fundamental had been destroyed was a result of my total commitment and my belief that these feelings went both ways. Then, in June 1946, President Truman called and asked my father to become the first president of the World Bank. As is true of any royal visit, there were many logistical problems to be worked out. (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.) Phil very much wanted to go to Glen Welby for a break from the hospital, and had started to work on the doctors to obtain their permission. . Phil Graham, he said, was too hot for me, too involved in politics, felt too deeply about people, even his own people on the paper.. Name variations: Kay Graham; Mrs. Phil Graham; Katharine Meyer. This was not entirely to the good. Join Facebook to connect with Robin Graham and others you may know. 318 Robin Webb Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images CREATIVE Collections Project #ShowUs Creative Insights EDITORIAL VIDEO BBC Motion Gallery NBC News Archives MUSIC BLOG BROWSE PRICING ENTERPRISE VisualGPS INSIGHTS BOARDS CART SIGN IN Images Images Creative Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO If there was one journalist she admired more than any other, it was her friend James Reston, and it was Reston who, despite his many virtues, had famously said, I will not have the New York Times muckraking the President of the United States. But in the end she made her decision. Katharine Grahams establishment position on the war did not go unnoticed. He was the publisher (from 1946 until his death) and co-owner (from 1948) of The Washington Post. Meyer began his financial career by investing six hundred dollars his father had given him for not smoking until he was twenty-one. Soccer Also, it was part of my bafflement at what I saw as Phil's increasingly strange behavior. Terms & Conditions Facebook. Eugene Meyer had bought the Washington Post at auction for eight hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars in 1933, and in 1946 he made Phil its publisher. He was one month shy of his 31st birthday, the youngest publisher of a major newspaper in America. Yet, the publisher must realize that he has obligations which transcend any commercial interest.". But there was also a certain Africa-based correspondent who carved his own career coffin by arranging for a balloon safari over the Masai Mara at dawn; just as the sun was glinting off the savanna and the balloon was rising above a herd of grazing giraffes, Mrs. Graham is said to have turned to the correspondent and announced, with a profane burr, You know, I didnt travel all the way here to be a fucking tourist. It is said that the correspondent ended up as a recipe checker in the food section. Robin . The book has been republished twice by small presses. The area was still a wilderness. Phil, Kennedy said, when you get elected dogcatcher I will listen to you on politics. But in fact Kennedy had listened to him. James Reston, who was then a friend of the Grahams and was the most eminent figure at the Times, repeatedly declined offers to go to the Post. Robin Webb (Songbird) See Photos. . 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. In middle age and in a state of grief, she suddenly found herself in charge of a newspaper that had yet to show any signs of greatness, and of a group of men who regarded her with, at best, considerable suspicion. Not only did Phil own the majority of the stock but he also believed that his efforts as publisher entitled him to ownership. 12 Phil Graham pictures. So, on June 18, 1946, The Post announced that my father was withdrawing from active direction of the paper. The legends of correspondents and their varying abilities to cope with a royal visit were countless. He was quite a success. He does not live in Georgetown. I found him captivating. ), 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. Facebook. You've probably heard of her father, Eugene Meyer, who is now publisher of the Washington Post, and has been in the past such things as head of the Federal Reserve. He began actively recruiting young people with potential, as well as more established reporters and editors. City Lights: Your weekly guide to artsy goings-on, hitting your inbox Thursdays and Sundays. Openings Not long after Phil left her, Katharine sent him a desperate telegram: Mascots are for loving helping and listening. In the process of blowing his stack, as only he could do, Ben felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to find Phil, who said, "Okay, buster, come with me," and led the way to his office. She was flushed, delighted. Eugene served Agnes breakfast in bed every morning; he ate at the bedside table. At last, we could begin to believe that The Post was here to stay. Pei was talking, and Katharine said, I didnt know that., Whats surprising about that? Agnes said. There is still a vital distinction. 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. Courtesy photo Editor's Note: This story originally appeared in the summer 2019 edition of. Music . Latest news and commentary on Robin Webb including photos, videos, quotations, and a biography. Naturally, they voted that he be allowed to go. By June 17th, thanks to his national editor, Ben Bagdikian, he had his own set of papers. They met earlier that year. He would help me proofread. After much talk, consultation, and soul-searching, Phil finally decided to accept. Gradually, I ceased talking much at all when we were out together. She felt like Trilby to his Svengali; she felt as if he had created her, that she was totally dependent. For the first time I had found a man who was that right mix of intellectual, physical, and social charm, and warm and funny on top of that. On the first great story of her era as publisherthe war in Vietnamthe Posts performance was nearly an embarrassment. (One area that, surprisingly, started to shift under my feet was the Posts editorial quality. However, on Feb. 4, he traveled to New York and went straight to Idlewild, where he met Robin once more. There are plenty of lousy biographies in this world, and they languish on musty shelves, ignoredbut whole. From Sioux Falls, Phil and Robin flew to Phoenix, where many of the nation's most prominent publishers were gathered for a meeting of the Associated Press. During this time, Robin's father Joseph studied physiotherapy so that he could administer it to his son. Indeed, the paper was still struggling for its life. CAPTION: A June wedding: Phil and Katharine Graham married in 1940. Katharine knew that her husband and her old way of life were lost to her, but, fearful though she was of confrontation and of Williams, she was determined to fight for the paper. 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. The story would run on the front page of The Post unless the people with the power to do something about it integrated the pools. I passed the box without incident. Phils greatest successes were in business: buying and absorbing the Times-Herald in 1954, purchasing Newsweek (for a song) in 1961, and making inroads against the dominant paper in town, the Evening Star (which folded in 1981). See Photos. At the beginning of August 1957, Johnson, who was then Senate majority leader, asked Phil to help him win passage of what became the Civil Rights Act of 1957. When she suggested to the Newsweek editors that it might be a good idea to hire Aline Saarinen, of the Times, to edit the back of the book, they brushed the suggestion off, saying that the closings were too late, that the physical demands of the job would be too much. . At the beginning of 1954, an event occurred that led up to what I still think of as the defining moment for the company: the unexpected acquisition of the Times-Herald {the other morning paper in Washington}. Phil was born in 1915 in Terry, S.D., and moved as a boy to the Everglades, where his father, Ernest Graham, was manager of a sugar cane plantation. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. But hurry, she said. Katharine Graham, the general secretary of the Washington Post Company, and a planeload of senior editors would soon arrive in town to conduct it. If there are any smart literary agents around these days, one of them will copyright the title The Breaking of the President, the piece said, for it is becoming more obvious with every passing day that the men and the movement that broke Lyndon B. Johnsons authority in 1968 are out to break Richard M. Nixon in 1969.. Liz at Large And then nothing more. By mid-1948, The Post was still a rocky, if lively, paper. Until now, Katharine Graham, considering her influence, has been almost invisible. Phil went to school in Miami. Graham was from a Florida family whose financial prospects, while far from dire, were a matter of occasional drama. Even before Adolph Ochs bought the paper, in 1896, the Times had earned its record for rigor when it went after Boss Tweed. 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. Robin Webb (Robin Elaine Riddle) See Photos. Phil's invitations often came in the form of commands, and this was one. Phil received the larger share of the stock because, as Dad explained to me, no man should be in the position of working for his wife. Early in 1940, I was invited by a friend to Sunday lunch with a group at the Ritz Carlton. that he wrote speeches for him and advised him on civil rights and key appointments; he even had power of attorney for Johnson and went out and found him a house to buy. 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. See Photos. Gear Prudence Philip planned to divorce Katharine for Webb and started the process of dividing up the couple's assets. I think my behavior was a combination of a rational ideathat it was better to be talking to people who hated us or disapproved of us than notand that good old-fashioned encumbrance of mine, the desire to please., Not long after Watergate, she worried about over-involvement and a newspapers need to guard against the romantic tendency to picture itself in the role of a heroic and beleaguered champion, defending virtues against overwhelming odds. Watergate, she writes, had been an aberration, and I felt we couldnt look everywhere for conspiracies and cover-ups.. This was a typical example of the way Phil used power to accomplish something good. Katharine, born in New York in 1917, was baptized when she was ten to satisfy the Lutheran side of the family; to satisfy the demands of class, the Meyers had their own pew at St. Johns Episcopal Church, on Lafayette Squarethe presidents church (Katharine did not seem to realize she was part Jewish until she was at Vassar.) Phil began to look for a chairman for COMSAT and turned to our friend Gen. Lauris Norstad, who was soon to retire as supreme allied commander in Europe. It was not long before he began looking around town to buy a newspaper. Perhaps it was true. Robin Harrison Webb. Kennedy went back to his headquarters and, according to Arthur Schlesinger in "Robert Kennedy and His Times," told Bobby, "You just won't believe it. Sometime after the "brainwashing" party, Johnson urged Phil to be at his side during the final push for passage of the bill. On Oct. 28, in the middle of the night, he broke. Robin Lee Graham is seen on his boat "Dove" during his solo trip around the world in the late 1960s. . Mann was once asked if Agnes was German. . Love is still strong between Dr. Phil McGraw and his wife Robin, who celebrates 43 years of married life in August 2019. 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. Certainly he saw his whole endeavor as useless unless he could project a future for The Post in the family. Charles Colson, for one, tried to dismiss the conspiracy as fictiona charge that, if true, would probably have ruined the paper forever. For her part, Katharine would go on to helm the Post, becoming its de facto publisher during the famed Watergate era and, in 1979, becoming the first woman to hold the title officially. During the 1988 visit to Moscow, I remember, Mrs. Graham said that perhaps she ought to telephone Nancy and tell her about the lengths that the Kremlin was going to in preparing for an imminent summit. There was, of course, no way to press the point. When she spoke to her daughter, it was often in the barbed rhythm of insult. In his first, brief tenure at The Post, Ben Bradlee was deeply distressed by the side of Phil that used the paper to achieve his political purposes, however worthy. Nonetheless, Phil was the fizz in our lives. The babushka melted. 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. The pressures were enormous and her preparations for them slight. He acknowledged that he used humor as a weapon with which to keep people at a distance. . Signing On to The Post. The violence grew steadily. In 1949, riots were taking place, as members of the Progressive Party led black children to swim in Washington's previously all-white public swimming pools. Graham was one of four children. Dr. Phil McGraw and Robin McGraw during TNT's "Christmas in Washington 2004" - Show and Audience at National Building Museum in Washington, DC, D.C.,. Renewed Activity. Advertisement. It wasn't until years later that I looked at the downside of all this and realized that, perversely, I had seemed to enjoy the role of doormat wife. He needed Joe's help because Joe had a solid relationship with the black leadership in the country, especially Roy Wilkins, then executive secretary of the NAACP. Some of my deepest friendships began with an administration person whom I got to know because of my association with the paper.. He remained seriously depressed but seemed to me to be quite noticeably better, even after only a week or so at Chestnut Lodge. Phil firmly stated his intention to divorce me and marry Robin. Its hard to remake decisions and even harder to rethink nondecisions. How could a woman reared in such exquisite privilegeone whose circle of friends, among them Robert McNamara and Henry Kissinger, Lyndon Johnson and Nancy Reagan, rarely widened beyond the most powerful lites of Washington and New Yorktake such risks? How Dangerous Is Getting Shot in the Shoulder? Insofar as she was capable of love, I think she loved my father and us, but she was highly complex, and at times deeply unhappy. 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