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BEFORE THE STORM 50I
our motion picture enterprise was reaching out into many fields of national life and personally touching many people.
I notice a letter of inquiry from the biographer of Arthur Brisbane, with whom I had much to do in the earlier days. Charles Evans Hughes thanked me in connection with a newsreel early in 1940. There is a sheaf of correspondence with two notable Texans, Amon Carter and Jesse Jones. Artur Rodzinski wrote me both on an immigration matter and about a newsreel. There was a letter from Winnie Sheehan about his buying a ranch, and not long afterward he became a ranch neighbor of ours in Hidden Valley, north of Los Angeles; letters from Doris Kenyon, a star of early talkies, about her son, Kenyon Sills, my godchild; and correspondence with Catholic bishops about the continuing work of the Legion of Decency, one of our staunchest allies in maintaining moral standards.
Among others with whom I had close contacts were Henry L. Stoddard, Republican stalwart and author; Edward Arnold, always a popular actor; Senator James J. Davis; Roy Howard of the Scripps-Howard newspapers; Booth Tarkington, for whom we Hoosiers planned a big testimonial dinner in 1937; Frank C. Walker, whom I congratulated on becoming Postmaster General. Senator Styles Bridges and Governor Raymond E. Baldwin, both of whom visited Hollywood in 1939; General Robert E. Wood, who invited me to join the America First Committee; Patrick J. Hurley; Senators Vandenberg and Taft, the latter of whom called on L. B. Mayer in Hollywood. One of the pleasant contacts I was able to make between Hollywood and Indiana was in helping to arrange for Jeanette MacDonald to visit Muncie, for which my old friend George A. Ball was very grateful.
It was during this period, of course, that my Hoosier neighbor, the late Wendell Willkie, was nominated for President, and I took a great deal of pleasure in that occasion and in congratulating Senator Homer Capehart on the arrangements for the notification meeting at Elwood— the hot weather notwithstanding.
Other friends whose names light up the events of these years include Jasper Crane of the du Pont Company, who gave a dinner for me at the University of New York; Charles G. Dawes, who sent me his book, Journal as Ambassador to Great Britain; and Dwight H. Green, an Indiana boy whom I congratulated on his election to the governorship of Illinois. With James A. Farley I had a considerable correspondence, for we were able to be of service to each other on a number of occasions.
It was during this period that Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., and his family visited Hollywood and gave me the pleasure of showing them the studio sights. He also sent me a set of economic studies of great interest. Not long after, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Mellon also looked in on us in Hollywood. About the same time I had the pleasure of con