(1898–1971)
Book publisher, raconteur, TV panelist, humorist
I worked at Random House during the 1960s. The founding publisher, along with Donald Klopfer, was Bennett Cerf. He was a pretty famous guy, having been a panelist on the well-known national TV show, What’s My Line?
At that time I was involved in the production of the unabridged edition of the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, and because of the large investment cost of that book I would occasionally have to meet with Cerf and others of the RH management team.
I was looking for printers who could handle the large size and quantity of books and not have a problem printing on the light weight papers that are found in dictionaries. A possible printer was located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The management of that printing company had a great idea. Why didn’t I come to Harrisburg during April? On whatever the date was, that evening, Bennett Cerf was to address the Harrisburg Chamber of Commerce.
We could tour the plant during the day, have dinner, and then all go to see Bennett. (Wonderful for me, yes? Wow! A busman’s holiday!) As it turns out, Cerf gave an excellent performance and had me laughing during much of the time.
With a co-worker, I had booked the last plane out of Harrisburg that was headed back to New York (9:30!). The person I was with had never met Bennett and was eager to do so. Since it was the only plane on which Bennett, too, could get back to New York, we found his seat and I performed the introduction.
“So, what are you doing here?” he asked. I explained our presence in Harrisburg.
Without the slightest pause he got to the important stuff: “So how was I? Do you think they liked me? The applause was pretty good, don’t you think? I wasn’t sure about the line about [some political stance], but that went over okay, yes?”
Off he went for a full five minutes. This is the same man who discovered and published William Faulkner, John O’Hara, Eugene O’Neill, James Michener, Truman Capote, Ted Geisel (Dr. Suess) and a lot of et ceteras. Still, he felt the strong need for confirmation of whether or not he had that day hit the heights in Harrisburg!
Otto Barz March, 2019