Time’s 40th Anniversary Party: Only in This Country

“Nowhere else in the world could a group of people like this come together under such auspices,” said Paul Tillich, famed head of the University of Chicago’s School of Divinity. “In Europe, it would be a group which only royalty could command. The presence of all these people and the fact that it could take place under private auspices says something very good and very important about this country.” In a mood of reminiscence and evaluation. Theologian Tillich was summing up TIME’S 40th anniversary party, held last week in New York City. “All these people.” as Tillich described them, were 284 subjects of cover stories in every field of human endeavor, who had gathered at the Waldorf-Astoria to help celebrate the birthday. The party provided a unique opportunity for businessman to meet musician, for architect to meet politician, for entertainer to meet scientist, for general to meet churchman, for physician to meet sportsman. “The point of this party.” said Editor in Chief Henry R. Luce, “is the people who are here, that they should enjoy meeting each other face to face, as we hope they have enjoyed meeting each other in the pages of TIME.” Light Hearts & Great Issues. The people who were there got the point. In serious vein or in high spirits, they found time for deep conversation, for light-hearted cocktail chat, for thoughtful listening to the presentation of great issues, for seeing and being seen, for meeting and getting met. Many of the guests found the way to the Waldorf paved by a pair of preliminary, ice-breaking get-togethers in the days preceding the key event. For out-of-town visitors who arrived early, TIME Publisher and Mrs. Bernhard Auer held a small, informal cocktail reception at Manhattan’s Regency Hotel. The following day, under acres of bright-colored tents, Time Inc. President and Mrs. James A. Linen gave a garden party and buffet dinner at their home in Greenwich, Conn., for more than 100 cover subjects and their TIME escorts and special guests. On the big evening at the Waldorf, Francis Cardinal Spellman began the program with an invocation that made staff members stand straight. “Come into the midst of us, Holy Spirit of Truth, as on this joyous occasion we celebrate the 40th anniversary of TIME Magazine. May its distinguished name remind us of the greatest of our gifts, the gift of time itself . . . Seizing all life’s fleeting opportunities for dedicated service to Thee and our fellow men, for those whose days and nights are busy in the creation of this distinguished weekly, we ask Thy special blessing, continued vision, strength and wisdom to fulfill their great responsibility as informers and formers of the public mind. Grant that in all the hectic pressures of their calling they may preserve its ideals of truth, integrity and fairness. We offer Thee our heartfelt thanks, O Lord, as we count the blessings of TIME’S 40 fruitful years.” The cardinal then read a telegram from the Vatican: “Holy Father Pope John XXIII requests Your Eminence to convey his greetings to the assembly, expressing prayerful hope that the meeting may further the cause of peace and brotherhood of mankind.” Himself Is Here. As toastmaster, Editor in Chief Luce introduced the guests with him on the dais. When he finished, there was a bustle at the rostrum as news of a late arrival was whispered into his ear. Then came the remark: “Himself is here, let’s have him. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please rise. The Vice President of the United States.” Lyndon Johnson made his entrance to a round of applause and, in his later brief remarks, combined a touch of humor and a ring of patriotism. “As I have looked around the room tonight,” said Johnson, “I have realized that many of us owe Harry Luce a very great debt for being the first publisher to select magazine cover models on a basis other than beauty.” And, “We have here in the room tonight the conglomeration of viewpoints that could only be assembled in a free land. A good many of us would have been shot or sent to remote exile if we lived in other parts of the globe, so it seems to me that those who have been brought together here tonight owe a great debt of gratitude to our nation and its determination to preserve freedom for us all. So I should like to ask you to join me in a toast to our host and to our country.” There was rapt silence as Principal Speaker Tillich delivered a probing commentary on “‘The Human Condition.” and a warm response to Secretary of State Dean Rusk’s off-the-cuff discussion of the 40 years that have passed since TIME was founded. Instructed & Infuriated. Then Time Inc. President Linen stepped forward to read a message of greeting from President Kennedy: “Every great magazine is the lengthened shadow of its editor, and this is particularly the case with TIME. The conception of a magazine which would render weekly reports on every aspect of human action and thought was revolutionary; and, in having the wit to imagine this conception and the capacity to bring it to successful realization, Henry R. Luce has shown himself one of the creative editors of our age. TIME, in its effort to embrace the totality of human experience, has instructed, entertained, confused, and infuriated its readers for nearly half a century. Like most Americans. I do not always agree with TIME, but I nearly always read it. And, though I am bound to think that TIME sometimes seems to do its best to contract the political horizons of its audience, I am especially glad that it has worked so steadfastly to enlarge their intellectual and cultural horizons. This has contributed materially, I think, to the raising of standards in our nation in recent years. I hope I am not wrong in occasionally detecting these days in TIME those more mature qualities appropriate to an institution entering its 40s—a certain mellowing of tone, a greater tolerance of human frailty, and most astonishing of all. an occasional hint of fallibility. For TIME—congratulations!” Commenting on Kennedy’s message, Toastmaster Luce hoped that TIME’S “No. 1 subscriber will always be the President of the U.S., especially one who reads us with such very fine-toned, judicious, judicial sensibility. About one of the greatest personal privileges of the editor in chief of TIME is to have at least some degree of dialogue with the President. Tonight I thank him for his affable telegram, and I assure him, as far as I am concerned, the dialogue will continue to be as interesting as possible for us both.” As for Kennedy’s reference to maturity at 40, Luce read an excerpt from “one of the great editors of America, Roy Roberts of the Kansas City Star. ‘Just a word of caution,’ says Roy Roberts, ‘on this historic anniversary, from one who has been in the business even longer. Don’t get too mellow.’ ” Kennedys in Bloom. Throughout the evening, as four additional masters of ceremonies (LIFE Publisher C. D. Jackson, Helen Hayes, Henry Cabot Lodge, Bob Hope) took turns introducing cover guests, plea followed plea to hold back time-consuming applause until the end of each turn. It was all in vain. The crowd greeted each name with a round of approval, especially heavy for such favorites as Douglas MacArthur, Cuban Exile Leader José Miró Cardona, Jonas Salk, Green Bay Packer Coach Vince Lombardi, General Omar Bradley, Judge Harold Medina and Casey Stengel. By the time Hope took over, midnight was near and introductions had to be com pressed to a simple announcement of each cover subject’s name. But characteristically, Hope could not resist bringing the party back to a laughing mood. “I know it is one of these speed things,” he said, “and I am thrilled to get on, because my shirt went out of style 20 minutes ago. I want to tell you that I have attended a few affairs in my life, but never anything like this. When you think that Charles Edison is sitting here, and his father made this spotlight possible—thank you. But Mr. Luce does everything on a grand scale, and on the 25th anniversary of LIFE he did a 90-minute TV show with me as the star, and now he has invited me here. Mr. Luce obviously has vision, intelligence —and amnesia … I get a personal kick just seeing all these wonderful public servants up here from Washington. I think it is just marvelous, I really do, because it is a kind of tough time to leave Washington, when all the cherry trees and all the Kennedys are in bloom.” The introductions that followed were dotted with Hope-isms: “Mr. James C. Hagerty (I remember when he was a caddie at the White House); the Waldorf’s Conrad Hilton (a man who is really mixing business with pleasure tonight); Mortimer Caplin (the man who can answer the all-important question, is this dinner deductible?).” After laughter, and Hope, the Rev. Henry Pitney Van Dusen, president of the Union Theological Seminary, closed the program on the note that had begun it: “As we give thanks to those of every age, and especially our own who have merited and won the esteem and plaudits of their fellow men, infect us afresh with some measure of true greatness, vision and wisdom, fortitude and devotion for the enlargement of learning, for the vindication of right, for the betterment of society and the healing of the nation, that even in our day a fairer ordering of mankind’s life may come.”