$825,000 Post

When the World Series is being played, when wars are waged, when steamships sink, thick crowds jam the sidewalks of Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue at E Street to read the bulletins in the Washington Post's windows. A straw-hatted crowd jammed the sidewalk one day last week, surged up the front stairs of the grey stone pile, but not to read bulletins. The crowd was there to see the 56-year-old newspaper auctioned (TIME, May 29).

On the third floor of the building sat Mrs. Evalyn Walsh McLean, estranged wife of the Post's ousted Publisher Edward Beal ("Ned") McLean. She wanted the paper for herself and her sons. Nervously she fingered the "unlucky" Hope diamond at her throat, as the bidding began outside on the front steps.

A Texas newsman, Bascom N. Timmons, said to represent either Publisher Amon Giles Carter of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram or Eugene Lorton of the Tulsa World, opened the bidding at $250,000, the minimum set by the court. At $300,000 Mrs. McLean's lawyer, Nelson Hartson, chimed in. Then Lawyer Geoffrey Konta, for William Randolph Hearst. Up, up the bidding soared to $600,000, mounted again when Lawyer Hartson went inside to consult Mrs. McLean. Sadly she told him to withdraw. "I think $600,000 is all it's worth," she said. Presently the auction narrowed to a struggle between Hearst's Lawyer Konta and George E. Hamilton Jr., lawyer for an unnamed principal. Hearst's lively Editrix Eleanor ("Cissy") Patterson of the Washington Herald, with which the Post would be merged if Hearst bought it, stood at Lawyer Konta's elbow, egging him on. Lawyer Konta bid $800,000.

"Let's have another bid." boomed the perspiring auctioneer. "You don't often get an opportunity to buy the Post. What do I hear, gentlemen? . . . Well then, $800,000 once; $800,000 twice. . . ."

Lawyer Hamilton: "$825,000!"

Editrix Patterson (aside to Lawyer Konta): "Make 'em pay more for it."

Lawyer Konta (sotto voce): "That's all it's worth."

Auctioneer: "Are you through, gentlemen? Are you all through? SOLD to the gentleman. . . ."

To whom was the Post sold? There were guesses galore: Publisher Julius David Stern of the Philadelphia Record. Publisher Frank Noyes of the Washington Star. Governor General Robert Gore of Puerto Rico, who publishes three Florida newspapers. James Middleton Cox or Representative Chester Bolton of Ohio. John J. Raskob. Rarely had the principal in a major transaction effected such complete anonymity. Revelation was promised after the District Court should confirm the sale. Meanwhile some shrewd guessers eyed Eugene Meyer, onetime governor of the Federal Reserve Bank. Supposed motive: promotion of a Republican comeback in 1936.

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