Previous | Next
Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324 Page 465466467468469470471472473474475476477478479480481482483484485486487488489490 of 592
on ‘Like It Is’.” So I called Gil Noble and I said, “Gil, you know there's an election coming up.” He says, “Yes.” I says, “How would you like to do an interview with Georgiana?” I say, “I know you can't do just her, you have to do Doris Turner. You can do it the same way you did it with David White. Separate interviews -- remember, separate interviews, not together.” Together I thought that Doris would kill her. Doris is a real street fighter. You know, she's got twenty years of experience in this kind of stuff. He says, “Okay, it's a good idea.”
Calls me up, he says, “Moe, I hear there's a third candidate.” I said, “Okay, interview the third candidate.” He said, “No Moe, I'm going to do this all together.” I said, “No, you can't do it all together. You promised me.” He says, “No, I can't have the time. All together.” I said, “Look, if you're going to have it all together, Georgiana Johnson is not going to participate.” He says, “Okay, she doesn't participate, that's your problem” And I can see an empty chair. This takes place right before the anniversary of the founding of the ASU. That week, in California, I'm having that business going on. Everybody's getting a heart attack. I said, “My God, we can't. What are we going to do? You know, Georgiana cannot go in with her.” So I said, “Okay, we're going to just keep the pressure on, keep the pressure on. If worse comes to worse, she's going to have to get in on it.” So we decided that we gotta start preparing her.
Now what had happened -- that Saturday, there was the last conference before the election at Earl Hall in Columbia [University]. In preparation for that, three weeks beforehand they had called me up and said, “Look, could we get Ossie Davis to be at that conference.” I said, “Look, okay, now is the time to surface Ossie.” So I called Ossie, I said, “Ossie, I know it's a difficult thing to do, but I'm telling you we're going to win, and we need you. This is what we want. I want you on Saturday, anytime between 11:00 and 2:00. Come, and identify with the campaign.” He says, “Moe, okay, I'll do it.” So we announced. Alright.
That weekend I leave on Thursday for California. Every morning and every night I'm on the phone with Dennis, “What's happening.” He's telling me about how we're going to get Georgiana ready for Thursday, the Thursday night thing. “Don't worry, we're going to get it done. Don't worry, it's going to get done.” I call Dennis Saturday night -- you know, New York is later. “How about the conference?” He says, “Moe, Moe, Moe.” He says, “Ossie!” He says, “People walked out, they were crying! That Ossie!” I said, “What'd he do?” He says, “He read a telegram from Al Heaps saying that he should not get involved in this. He then delivered a speech about why he's involved in this campaign.”
© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help