Personal History

Watergate made heroes of Woodward and Bernstein--and attracted the attention of Hollywood. Actor Robert Redford bought their book, ""All the President's Men,'' to make into a movie. Mrs. Graham at first joined in the newsroom joshing and teasing, telling a group of circulation managers that she had been assured that ""my role will be played by Raquel Welch--assuming our measurements jibe.'' But in fact, she was worried about putting the reputation and image of the newspaper in the hands of a movie company. ""In many ways,'' she writes, ""the idea of a movie scared me witless'':

TO HELP CALM MY NERVES AND PROVIDE SOME ASSUR- ances that the producers had every good intention, Bob and Carl brought the Redfords to breakfast at my house in May of 1974, just as plans for the movie were getting under way. I should have been pleased and interested to meet Redford, but we didn't get along, thanks partially, I'm sure, to my own defensive crouch--the result of my concerns, however real or imagined. He knew how much I wanted to keep a low profile both for me and for the paper. On the other hand, Alan Pakula, the director, and I became great friends and have remained so.

Redford later gave an interview describing our meeting at breakfast:

It was brittle, that's the best way I can describe it.

She was gracious but tense. There was a definite tight-jawed, blueblood quality to Graham that cannot be covered by any amount of association with Ben Bradlee or other street types . . . She said she did not want her own name or that of the Post used. I told her that was impossible.

She was a public figure and in its own way so was the Post. I respected her for not wanting her privacy invaded . . . but we weren't interested in her personal life.