Sam Goddard Interview -- Relations with Eugene Pulliam

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PS = Pam Stevenson - Agave Productions

SG = Sam Goddard

PS (Interviewer): What was going on, you know, back here in Arizona, uh, you were governor in '64 to '66, uh, and a lot of that was happening; what was happening with the newspapers here? What was their position on all this?

SG (S. Goddard): Well, Gene Pulliam who ran the newspapers here and in Indiana in, Indianapolis I think, uh, a very strong personality and uh, in my first run, which was against Fannin, uh, uh, we didn't have a very happy time with the newspapers and with Mr. Pulliam. But then I decided to heck with that , I'll go into the fortress and beard the man himself. So I did. And we (laughs) became pretty good friends.

Uh, he was a very old, fashioned, uh, strong newspaper guy. And he would not hesitate to contradict one of his own editorial writers in teh back end of the paper -- an editorial on one side and Pulliam on the front page saying it's all wrong. He did that. It's hard to believe, but he did. And apparently his newspaperswere so strong that they could withstand that kind of -- as a matter of fact I think the readers enjoyed it. Uh, they were much stronger, uh, in, in their opinions in those days than they are now.

And, uh, Gene Pulliam, was a very, I, I, I went up to talk to him and, uh, I said, 'Mr. Pulliam, I'm, I'm, uh, afraid that I have been, uh, recalcitrant about coming to see you.' And he said, 'You damned right you were.' He said, 'you should have come up to me the first day you started running.' And, uh, or words to that effect. And, uh, from then on, uh, we got along pretty well, although we differed on a lot of things. But, uh, that didn't bother him. What bothered him was that, uh, there was a politician, a young politician in the state and, uh, was not, you know, coming to see him and advertising, uh, whatever it was they wanted at that point. But we got along very well after that.