My first meeting with Ed

Subject: Re: My first meeting with Ed

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: My first meeting with Ed took place in 1964, shortly after I’d appeared before HUAC for the second time – and there was a lot of hoopla in the newspapers about that. But for years before that I was continually being blasted in the local newspapers because of my politics and the strikes and other union battles I was involved in. All this apparently whetted Ed’s curiosity about me. : Shortly after the 1964 HUAC hearings here in Buffalo I was asked by a conservative theatre friend Gary Tunmore tio enter my play THE DEAD HAND in a play contest sponsored by the Junior Chamber of Commerce. When I protested it would be a waste of time because of my political background Gary assured me that the Duke University’s Theatre Dept was judging the contest, not the Jaycees, etc. : Ed must have read in the papers that the FBI objected when my play was declared the winner in the Jaycee play contest and that FBI requested that the award which included production of the play be rescinded – and that the Jaycee Exec Bd met and issued a brief statement: “We held a contest and Mr Fried won.” : Ed came to the opening night production of the play in a room off the lobby of the Ford Hotel which by then may have been re-named the Richford Hotel – located next to the Jackson building on Delaware Avenue. The hotel became a subsidized housing apartment house and was recently imploded. : Back then Ed was very “straight arrow” in dress and general appearance -– and I recall my reservations when he came up to me after the final curtain and introduced himself. I thought he might be an FBI agent – and my play THE DEAD HAND deliberately revealed some lousy things FBI agents were doing, trying to intimidate the union organizer in the play because of his leftist views. : I don’t remember the details of that conversation other than that I agreed to meet with him to discuss the ideas presented in my play. When we did meet Ed of course went to work trying to pick my brain and I warily responded while trying to dig out exactly where he was coming from. : It was during that early time in the 60’s while we were becoming very close friends, developing a trust and concern for one another that has existed ever since then,, that Ed abandoned the “corporate suit” and adopted the significant dashiki he wore from then on. : During the many years that followed we were comfortably at home in each other’s house and -- while we didn’t always agree as to how it should be done -- we always believed in each other’s honest intentions to act in such a way as to make life better for working people. : And we were there for each other during some of the most difficult and sad moments in our lives. And during the happy ones too. : He’ll never be forgotten, not by me -- nor, I believe, by the many many others whose lives he significantly touched. : : Manny Fried

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