Two for "Cissy"

Seven years ago this week Eleanor ("Cissy") Patterson put her small and pretty feet under a Hearst desk as editor & publisher of the Washington Herald. Much-traveled Mrs. Patterson had always wanted to run a Washington paper. Much-propertied Mr. Hearst had long wondered what to do about the Herald, a consistent money-loser with a piddling circulation of 60,000. It was a happy solution for both, and the only long faces were those of Joseph Medill Patterson, who did not like the idea of his sister working for his archrival, and Alice Roosevelt Longworth. who was promptly made the butt of "Cissy" Patterson's front-page chatter.

Mrs. Patterson's agreement with Mr. Hearst was an elastic one which could be terminated by either party on 90 days notice. She made such a success of the Herald, boosting its circulation to over 112,000 that last January Eugene Meyer, publisher of its morning rival, the Post, offered Hearst $1,000.000 for it. Mrs. Patterson telephoned Mr. Hearst, who suggested that she consider taking over both his Washington newspapers (the other is the evening Times). She said she wanted time to think it over, and meanwhile in April arranged to lease the Herald. Last fortnight she heard that Mr. Meyer had increased his bid. Now thoroughly alarmed at the prospect of losing her pride & joy, she called San Simeon again. "Well, Cissy," said Mr. Hearst, "you tell me what you want to do and I'll have my folks do it."

Last week Cissy Patterson signed a contract leasing both the Herald and the Times for five years, with an option to purchase them at a predetermined price.

When she first went to Washington the Times was considered to "carry" the Herald, which was distinctly a backstairs paper. Now the positions have been reversed: the Herald's prestige and its acceptance in the swankiest Massachusetts Avenue homes sell advertisers in the Times. Mrs. Patterson intends to make the Times her own mouthpiece, dress it in new format, give it her best writers, many of them women, and her pet features. She is no political ax-grinder, either for or against the New Deal, though personally she leans more toward the liberalism of her brother, Joe, than toward the Hearst policies. She is an old friend of Harold Ickes, entertains Joseph Kennedy and Harry Hopkins, recently had Mrs. Roosevelt splashing around in her swimming pool all afternoon.

Cissy Patterson spends most of her party hours at "Dower House," her estate in Maryland, once owned by Lord Baltimore. She is driven to work every morning at eleven in one of her 16-cylinder Cadillacs. Sometimes she appears in riding-habit, accompanied by her French poodles, who have the run of the office and are dutifully patted by reporters. She lunches, though rarely at this season, at her town house. No. 15 DuPont Circle, formerly Daisy Harriman's, where the Calvin Coolidges stayed after their White House fire. Glowing, brocaded pajamas are her favorite party garb. Her voice is charming, but she knows all the words in any man's vocabulary. Once she got an interview with Al Capone by walking unannounced into his Miami Beach residence.

She is 52, has been married twice, first to Austrian-Polish Count Joseph Gizycki, by whom she has a daughter, then to the late Elmer Schlesinger, Shipping Board counsel. Her pet dislike is Eugene Meyer, and last week she was in a position to give him and other Washington publishers plenty to think about.-

-The Washington Star, richest paper in town, sedate property of Frank Brett Noyes & family, announced last week that Assistant Managing Editor Benjamin Mosby McKelway, 41, would succeed the late, longtime Managing Editor Oliver Owen Kuhn.

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