A story in the Washington Post caught my eye. “People are Turning to Robots to Write Their ‘Handwritten’ Cards.”
After college I went to work for Adlai E. Stevenson. It was his 1956 campaign for President. Our headquarters were at 69 West Washington in a building torn down long ago. We were told that the atomic bomb secrets from the University of Chicago were stored there during WWII.
I wanted to believe that the secrets were actually kept in the small, windowless room where I worked with my colleague Mary Lou. Our job involved secrets of a much less earth shattering nature, but we still were warned to keep things to ourselves.
Since it’s been more than 50 years, I think it's okay to reveal our tedious work.
We had a robot hand machine that held an ink pen. It had been programmed to replicate Adlai E. Stevenson’s signature. The trick was that the ink could be smudged to make a note look individually signed. The notes went to various VIPs.
I believe what Stevenson wrote in those letters and what he said to the nation was his own. No robot stuff from Russia.
History has been kinder to Ike, but I loved the experience of being on Stevenson's team.
Thanks for this, Joan. Here is an anecdote left out of the history books. My friend Rich, who was 9 when Election Day 1956 came around, was walking past the polling place. A man was smoking outside. Rich peeked in to see what was going on inside. The man turned out to be a Democratic Precinct Captain. He said, "He kid, how'd you like to vote Democratic?" And that's how my 9-year-old friend voted in the 1956 election!
ReplyDeleteGreat story! Happy holidays. I was living in western Kansas in 1956 and remember being the only one for Adlai among my friends. Even then I was called whatever version of socialist the term was then
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