Novice at Work

Almost every news picture of the Shah of Iran last week showed him with an olive-skinned young man, note pad in hand, whom many mistook for a member of the Shah's entourage. Actually, he was a reporter, 23-year-old A. P. Correspondent Richard Ehrman, who has been an A. P. staffer for only six months but managed to put A. P. ahead of everybody else on news of the Shah.

Dark, Italian-born Dick Ehrman speaks five languages (Italian, French, German, English, Polish). Before he joined A. P. as a stringer in Florence, he worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army and a disk jockey for the Army's radio station in Leghorn. His colleagues say he has a "weird quality of seeming to be the same nationality as the person he is covering." This weird quality paid off last month, when Japanese Crown Prince Akihito visited Rome; Ehrman was mistaken for a member of the prince's party, admitted to the official reception.

At Lunch. When the Shah and Queen Soraya first arrived in Rome, Ehrman was the only newsman admitted to see them in the airport waiting room; the Italian police took him for an Iranian. Next day Ehrman reserved a lunch table close to the Shah's in the dining room of the Excelsior Hotel, arranged to get telephone bulletins from the A.P.'s office. When the news of Mossadegh's fall came in, Ehrman bounded past the waiters blocking his path, informed the Shah that he was still really in power, was rewarded by the Shah's telling him, before anybody else, of his plans to return to Iran. Ehrman brought a steady flow of A.P. bulletins to the Shah, including Ehrman's own stories quoting the Shah's reactions. "You're doing a good job," the Shah told him.

After lunch Ehrman dashed out, bought the first editions of the Italian papers and offered to translate them for the Shah. The Shah gratefully accepted, and Ehrman thoughtfully closed the door of the Shah's suite behind him. Later, when other newsmen got in for a press conference, they found Ehrman already there. After the conference, as they raced out to lobby telephones, Ehrman used the Shah's own phone, put in another call to the A.P. bureau with the Shah at his side, dictated his own interview ("His majesty has kindly consented to tell us . . .").

Dessert. When the Shah's twin sister Princess Ashraf flew in from Cannes, Ehrman was the only reporter to recognize her in the lobby, bolted over to introduce himself. By then he had been photographed so often with the Shah that the Princess said: "Oh, I recognize you from your pictures." Ehrman got her into a corner for another exclusive chat. Later, when the Shah decided to take 20 newsmen back to Teheran with him, he pointed to Ehrman saying: "The news of the new developments was brought to me by a newspaperman, and from then on, my hours were spent in studying the situation with the help of the free press of the world. I realize now more than ever how much the press can be of service . . ." In a strangely wonderful way, the Shah seemed to feel that those telling him about the events were making them happen. When KLM Airline refused to take reporters without visas, an aide to the Shah warned the airline: "Keep on like this and . . . you may find your airline into Teheran shut down." KLM quickly announced that "journalists can go on their own responsibility." "They go on my responsibility," snapped the Shah. "They are my guests."

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