Witness

By Russell W. Davenport

The real color of early TIME, I think, was to be found at the printer's, which was way-the-hell-and-gone across Manhattan on the West Side somewhere. We would go there on closing night to put the final touches on our creation. This was all very tempestuous. Everybody read proof--I was a proofreader. Brit and Harry also read proof, but they read it with considerable argument. This went on until 11 or 12, or maybe it was 1. Anyway, we would leave some girls reading proof and go out to get the early-morning editions of the newspapers and thus intercept the very last-minute news. I can remember Harry bursting through the night traffic on Broadway to seize several copies of the New York Times hot off the delivery wagon. We would gather as many papers as possible and retire to a quick-lunch counter to read them. Harry always gave me the Herald Tribune, with the remark, "Here, Russ, you read the Tribune. It's always a day late anyway." Whenever anything was discovered, either Harry or Brit would lunge for the telephone booth and dictate corrections to the proof room.

--Russell W. Davenport