Help Wanted: A Publisher Who'll Pitch In

A classified ad sales rep at Truman Capote's Black and White Ball, which was thrown in her honor

Vexing union troubles in the 1970s had the unexpected side effect of giving publisher Katharine Graham a lot of experience in how the Washington Post worked.

“I learned to take classified ads and spent hours at it,” she recalled in her autobiography, Personal History. “We were stunned at what hard work it was, with no let-up. You took an ad and hung up, and the light was already on with a new caller. Electric typewriters were then used to fill in the complicated classified forms, but since my typing wasn’t up to speed, I took the ads by hand and gave them to someone else to type.

“I tried to avoid the callers who had long, complicated ads — used-car dealers calling in to advertise several cars, for example. But one day toward the end of the strike, I got a Mercedes dealer on the phone, and everyone else was busy, so I had no choice.

“I told him, ‘Look, I’m new around here, so please go easy.’ We struggled through his list of six cars for sale and then he said doubtfully, ‘I think you’d better read it back.’ ‘All right,’ I said, and reread the ad swiftly and accurately. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘You sound overqualified. You could be anyone. You could be Katharine Graham.’ I was startled for a moment before I replied, ‘As a matter of fact, I am.’”