good evening.

and welcome to the truman library. i'm kelly anders deputy director. and it's my great pleasure to introduce tonight's speaker matthew algeo mathews latest book. when harry met pablo truman, picasso and the cold war politics of modern art will be released tonight here at the truman library.

matthew is an associate producer for national public radio, and he has reported from four continents from four npr news and other outlets. he is the of six other books, including one of my favorites, harry truman's adventure the true story, a great american road trip, which was named one of the best books of 2009 by the washington post. in addition to reporting and writing, matthew has held jobs as a convenience store clerk. gas station attendant, halloween costume salesman and a hot dog vendor in a traveling circus. even he's a vegetarian. he holds a degree folklore from the university of pennsylvania. in his bio, he modestly says, i'm an award winning journalist and author, but so is practically every other journalist and author author.

please join me in welcoming matthew algeo. thank you. kelly. so all good bits were there. took most my shtick. make. i'm actually going to take this out for a little bit. i really need to thank kelly azalea. kurt at the truman library. not just for tonight, but for all the help they've given me in writing this book and in writing the earlier book, harry truman's excellent adventure. it's it's a joy to work in space here and with these people here. so i just want to say i can't i can't them enough in the book actually the last book i did was called all this marvelous

potential about robert kennedy's 1968 tour of appalachia. and that book was released in march 2020, and then a global pandemic occurred. so fingers crossed, two weeks we will not have another bubble. i don't i don't think. it was my fault. exactly i, i learned about the straight been very fortunate. my my my wife has a real job. and so i'm very fortunate to be able to write these books a lot of the time. my wife is a foreign service officer and, so we were overseas a lot. and so it's difficult sometimes. but the people at the library here have always very helpful in emailing files, making things available. me and i really appreciate that. so most of this was written while we were in sarajevo.

so the capital of bosnia and we just found out our next assignment we will be going to botswana. does anybody know the capital of botswana. gaborone. yes. give him a free book, not mine. somebody else's. you know. all right what i. i am very happy about that. so i'm not going to ask any more geography questions tonight. think we've got that covered. thank you. yeah. yeah, we're doing all the bees. yeah. william rock hill nelson. okay, but you guys know who? william rock hill. nelson is, right? well, he opened the first art gallery in kansas city. and what happened was nelson went on a trip to the to europe

do one of these grand tours in the 1890s and he bought lot of reproductions of works of the old masters to bring back to kansas city and open a gallery. well, harry truman, you know, when he was growing in kansas city, there really was no art gallery here to speak of. and so this was nelson's attempt to to bring some kind of art museum to kansas city. well, here, i'll show you these the kinds of pictures that that he brought back. now, this is a reproduction of don't me say his name, bartholomaeus van der hulst. but these are the kinds of pictures that william rock bill nelson b back for the nelson gallery, which was a two rooms on the second floor of the public library. and this, i believe, was harry

first exposure to art was pictures like this. they're very realistic, right? i mean, you can really i mean, you can almost feel the breath when you're up close to them. and this is ginormous. it's like 12 feet across. so the nelson gallery was the first for ray that kansas city had into art and, really. i think the first experience harry truman with art. you know, harry hated modern art. he it. but i think of the reason was he just never really had any exposure to it because this was the prevailing the prevailing art at the time. it really was this way everywhere in the united states at the time. museums displayed old masters that was realistic that adhere to the long principles of perspective everything was exactly lifelike almost a

photographic reproduction of a of what life is like now america in the early 20th century was finally awakening to some of the trends that were occurring in europe. and in 1905 alfred stieglitz he was a photographer in new york, and he opened a famous gallery there called 291, and he a friend, marios tiresias, now a stieglitz, that photographers should be exposed to trends in modern art. he saw photography a kind of art in itself. now there's, a kind of ironic twist here, because while you'll see visual art, painting getting less realistic and more abstract art photography going the other way, it's becoming more lifelike. it's taking pictures of imposed pictures of people in real life but in seem in way they're kind of traveling the same the same road. mario's desire was stieglitz's

friends, he said. he said the autumn salon is occurring in france in 1910. you should go find some pictures that we can show here at the gallery new york. so zayas goes to goes to paris. and he sees the work of a spanish word. he forgets his name, but he writes a letter back to stieglitz and says, there's a spaniard here who has some interesting. and stieglitz well, you should go meet him. and mario's desire and picasso both spoke spanish. and so they started up a friendship and a desire convinced picasso to lend some of his for an exhibit at the 291 gallery. and here, i'll show you one. this. onof the pictures that caused the most consternation when this when this exhibition opened at

291, standing female nude is a early example of picasso's cubism. i just need to read of what here's what the art critic of the new york globe's any sane critic. i don't know why use that voice and. he's saying criticism is entirely out of the question. any serious would be in vain. the results suggest the most violent words an asylum. so he was not digging it at all. of course, controversy like that, you know, it's one of the one of the times where bad reviews led to good attendance. right. there's no such thing as bad publicity. so the crowds for these these shows that he had the show, he had it to one were enormous. but at the end of the day, the drawings were price as low as $12, by the way.

you get a picasso for $12. but two were sold and stieglitz himself, he bought standing nude for $65 and then hung it over his fireplace. so it took a little while for for modern art to catch on. in fact, it was another years before the first major the exhibit of modern art occurred in the u.s. this was in february, march 1913 at the 69th infantry armory, new york. it's known as the armory show. it gathered 1200 works by leading european artist duchamp, but his picasso, as well as a few americans. and this show became very famous because i will show you another nude. don't have to cover your eyes. i think he kind of stole that from picso. but duchamp named nude

descending a staircase number two. now, everybody everybody was trying to figure out where is the nude in that. and i have some of the guesses really good. that tender to sorry i did everything. yes i like this. the new york times described it as an explosion, a shingle mill. others described it as undress to lumber, a pack, cards in a cyclone, a riot in a lumber yard, an omaha. after a big wind, a pile of disused golf clubs, an assortment of half made leather, an elevated railway in ruins after, an earthquake and a dynamited of japanese armor. so everybody wanted to know where is the nude in that. and again this this controversy really interest in modern art,

in the united. what i found was interesting was there was actually a review of the armory show in the kansas city star. they had freelancer in york who wrote a review. and it was not very it was not very positive. he said you've heard of the cubists. they're the frenchmen who draw a hexagon and say, isn't it a beautiful circle? and he said, new york laughing at them. nobody takes them seriously. and really, this was kind of writing that i think in harry's opinion of art, and it was really the prevailing attitude, the time. you know, these these these funny pictures and even a five year old kid could draw them. i'll show you the next slide just to show this was i off on it? that really shows you how it you before we had the word. so the reviews the armory show

were were great and i there's a lot that happens in the twenties and thirties course but moving ahead that the museum of modern art is founded in 1929 and then of course the depression and world war two intervened and really had negative effect on the production of art for obvious reasons. and it's really after the second world war. and of course, harry's president, now that cultural diplomacy became, a catch phrase that america was seen as a country that you know was more concerned with money than art, you know, more concerned with pennies than poems, that sort of thing. and so there was a diplomat at the state department, leroy davidson, and he decided going to put together the most modern works that we can, and we're going to take them abroad and

we're going to show people what freedom of expression means. and this would be in stark contrast to the prevailing art in the soviet union at the time, which course was soviet realism, you know, the heroic depictions of the workers sort of thing. so davidson he he bought 117 oils and watercolors by american artists. there were two things that were unusual and ultimately controversial about the show. he called the show advancing american art and the state department bought the pictures. now, this is unusual usually the pictures would be loaned, but he he argued that it would be much easier to stage a longer exhibition and, have the government assume the costs of insurance and, shipping and everything to just buy the pictures. the other unusual thing is there was jury. davidson himself picked the pictures. he was afraid if there was a jury that they would default to the safest works and did not want this to be a safe show.

the the show cost $50,000 for the for the pictures which was a pretty good amount of money at the time. i'll show you there. iss the this is one of the pictures from the show, which is really came to symbolize the show. yasukuni yoshi circus girl, wresting, resting. well, there were other things going on in the world politically at the time. one was that republicans were taking control of congress back and they were looking to cut funding for the state department. and this this really became a political football look magazine published an article titled your money these paintings and published of the paintings, including circus resting here. there is a congressman carl said no wonder foreigners think are crazy. he was the chair of the house subcommittee that funded the state department the way so his opinion mattered.

he said he had received a lot of mail from constitu ions indignant about the exhibit, he quoted one correspondent who said the circus girl looked like a chicago bears tackle, taking it easy during a time out. stephan said his constituents objected to, quote, any inference that the typical american girl is better equipped to move a piano than to play one. so this actually reached up to the upper levels of the state department. secretary marshall and even harry truman was forced to comment on it. and harry, at a press conference, somebody showed him, the look magazine articles, and he pointed to this picture and said, this is what i mean by ham and eggs. art said, i've been to a million circus and i've never a performer who looked like her. so this became a political problem for for harry. so the show opened to very positive views in prague. it forced the soviet union to put on its competing show.

it was very well well-received, but ultimately the political implications were too much. and secretary marshall, the show had the pictures shipped back to the united states. he told congress, as far future circus ladies go, that is a closed shop. so the pictures came back to the u.s. they were sold as government surplus and financial institute are not financial institutions educational institutions. colleges and universities under the under the rules of the auction were entitled a 90% discount on the winning. so circus girl went to auburn university. for $100. georgia o'keeffe was sold for $50. so all of these pictures were sold for a fraction of of what they were actually worth, which is which is a shame.

i just want to tell i'm going to go to the next slide. i wanted to show the artist here, yasuo kuniyoshi, who who painted? the picture circus girl resting. and a little sidebar in the book is his story which i found really interesting so he was born in japan in 1889, when he was six years old, he moved to the united states. he wanted to learn english and, then go back to japan and be translator. but he ended up in los angeles. he attended a public. his teacher saw him drawing, said, you're really good. you should, you know, take some classes. he took art classes in los angeles and then moved to new york and began his career as an artist. and he was very successful artist. he was one of the four american chosen to one four artists chosen to represent the united states at the 1952 venice biennale. and he he was one of the first

artists to have a have a show at moma. he was included in the first show of american artists at moma during world war two. he was declared an enemy alien. so the the, the way citizenship laws worked at the time, only a free white, free white people and people of african descent were eligible to become citizens. so japanese people, people born in japan, not eligible to become united states citizens. so he he volunteered for the war department during world war two. helped, right japanese propaganda radio, broadcast posters, etc. in 1952, the immigration act of 1952 finally lifted race based restrictions. it went into effect in late 1952. the immediate immediately applied for citizenship.

but he died three months later, before his application could be approved. so he died stateless. i should also his wife, when he was married. in 1932, i believe his wife lost her american citizenship because a woman who married a man who was not eligible for american lost her citizenship. so his wife was stateless as well. i i really think it would be co icongress would give kuniyoshi a posthumous citizenship, and it would also, you know, symbolically represent, all the people who were born in japan were not allowed to become american citizens, not to go too far down that rabbit hole, but it's really fascinating reading the the cases. there was a japanese born man who went to stanford and then

applied for american citizenship and went to the judge. you know, when the application he appealed the denial the application and went to the judge and said, look, my skin's whiter, yours. the judge said, wait, that's not how we do it. that's not how we do it. and so it went to the supreme court and the supreme court decided unanimously that no, it's not based on the color of your skin, based on the race that is as it is generally. and the guy who wrote the majority or the unanimous was a naturalized. he was born in the morning. anyway, it's a really interesting sort of sidebar to the story. and one of the things i love about doing these books is you find these fascinating stories that kind of get lost to history. and also one of the neat things about doing these little slice of life stories, you know, i mean really we're talking about a day harry truman spent with pablo picasso that in and of

itself is not that fascinating to him. but the back story, i think, is fascinating and, you know, the reasons that came about why happened, those sorts of things. i'm going to go to the next slide and show you this is harry's kind of art at the time. the whole advancing american ar controversy going on. truman ahead and spent. i think there was like $10,000 to buy this painting. the white house and, that is is a charlie ross yeah his press secretary pointing it out. it's called the peacemakers by george alexander healey. and it shows sherman, grant, lincoln and david porter. and this, i thought was interesting that in the midst of the controversy, a circus girl resting. truman bought this picture for the white house. so it's definitely of where he was coming. now, i have to say, harry,

despite his dislike, modern art. he was not in favor of censoring modern art or, you know, cutting funding to museums. there was a movement in the united states, especially in the house of representatives in the 1950s, led by a congressman, michigan george, don darrow, who for some reason had a bitter opposition to modern art. and a lot of people on the right at the time associated modern art with communal some a lot of the people who were modern artists, you know, had funny sounding names. so they were immediately suspect and really, i think they saw or they said they saw modern art as a way to sort of, you know, a trojan horse for the communal to infiltrate american culture in american society. and so there was this really throughout the fifties, kind of a backlash against modern art?

truman didn't like modern art, but he saw modern art had value. and i think he also appreciated the propaganda value of modern art abroad, but i don't think he fought for it in advancing american art because he just it was, boy, this had a lot on its table, right. you know 1946 1947. marshall plan rebuilding in europe. this was not a fight that harry wanted fight. but i really think he believed that there was a value in modern art. and it's interesting note that the cia in 1950 started a program they had a front the congress congress of cultural freedom was it they did this front organization put on modern art shows all over europe and it was all funded, of course, by taxpayers through the cia. and that began during truman second term. so i was never able to establish whether truman about this cia

modern art program. but i thought it was interesting that that it occurred during his during his second term. okay let's get to 1958. so harry and are out of the out of the white house now four or five years and harry still doesn't have a pension still doesn't have social security. the secret service. i don't think he got social security either. did he did he? did he okay. oh, that's right. yes. and he got the army pension, too. so it's a couple of hundred dollars a month, i think. but he decided in 1958 that he was going to go on a cruise, a met a mediterranean cruise, and the woman who owned the cruise company was the widow of a former his former ambassador to norway. they got comped the tickets didn't have to pay for the tickets, but they decided to go on a cruise with their friends, sam and dorothy rosenman.

this is another one of those interesting stories. sam rosenman was fdr as white house counsel, and then he was, truman's white house counsel, and then he kind of stayed on as truman's post-presidential advisor, really. he was his lawyer. and he had advised him on the negotiating, the book deals and everything like that. so to two retired couples are going to go on this cruise and they decide they are going to do a mediterranean cruise. so they'll go to italy and france. well, when alfred barr, who was founding director of the mus of modern, found out that harry truman was going to be in southern france, so he thought, well, now i will convince him of the wonders of modern art. alfred barr another incredible, amazing figure in american art history. in american history, really.

1929 was the founding director of, the museum of modern art in new york. and he had long, especially when this controversy about, advancing american art and circus girl wresting came up. he had sent truman book about modern art, trying to convince him that there was value in it. and truman sent him a very nice note back saying, i appreciate you trying convert me to the modern viewpoint, but you won't. but alfred barr never gave trying to convince harry truman about the merits of modern art. and when he heard that truman would be in the south of france, he decided why don't we have pablo picasso convince him about the merits of modern art. and so barr learned through a chain of a sort of a game of telephone. sam rosenman was a law partner with ralph coughlin, who was on the board at moma and that's how

alfred barr heard that the truman's were going to france. and so he decided to set up this meeting between truman and picasso. so and i think it's really one of the one of the best diplomacy, acts of diplomacy that you could ever imagine convincing these two people with very different personalities and political viewpoints and philosophies to get together. how he did it was, pretty simple. he convinced picasso that truman really wanted to meet him, and he convinced truman. picasso really wanted to meet him. and show you here, this is the this is kind of cool this is the letter of introduction that i found actually, i believe it's in the in the papers here. but the letter of introduction that alfred barr wrote for truman to give to picasso, very

rarely do i agree to give letters of introduction to you, because i know how distracting visitors can be, yet i believe that you would be very pleased indeed to receive the two gentlemen to have given this letter. and so this is the letter that barr gave truman and. he sent up a copy of it. i had picasso, and then he gave truman's instructions for for how to get to picasso's. it gave him his phone number and was really as simple as that so on. on may 26, which is actually the day that this this letter was the truman set sail on the so the ss independence is the ship that they sailed to, to europe. they were went to naples and then genoa just did a night to naples, i think. and then a night in genoa. and the second half of the book is sort of a little bit like harry truman's excellent adventure part two.

it's like harry truman's european adventure. and so he, you know, he's always getting into these crazy, you know, crazy scenarios. everything. one of them i love when they went to when they went to genoa, they accidentally crashed a wedding and they went to observation deck of the tallest building, tallest building in genoa. and there was a wedding reception going on. and harry already had his picture taken with. the bride i would have i would have love about a when i read it was marissa mahaffey and tulio vivaldi were the couple and that is marissa there in the genoa paper the next day said when truman entered, there was a wedding celebration and the former of the united states, after having taken part in the celebration some time, wanted to pose for photographers with the bride and groom. will does have a completely memory of their wedding wedding,

and they sent these pictures to harry and bess and independent after after got back. and i looked everywhere. i mean, i tried to find this couple and i was not i just wasn't able to find so if you have any idea where marissa and tulio these days, i'd love to find out what happened, what happened to them. and interesting, too, that they're getting married at a italy's economy is just exploding. i mean, it was a great time to, you know, be in italy and to grow there, to be married there and start a family there. there was another interesting incident after harry went to a con. they stayed at the chateau san martin, which is in vance, a small where the matisse chapel is today. and it's a it's a pretty high end. it's still there high end resort

hotel. so my wife and i stayed there for a couple of days, tax deductible didn't have to be so a research costs research and and and then from there they would go out the hotel supply to drive and would drive sightseeing and stuff but they were in monaco they're having coffee in monaco and again, the archivists, i don't even remember who it was when they found out i was doing this research in this particular trip came, oh, here's a letter somebody wrote about who saw him on this trip. and it was a letter robert carlo nay was his name, and he was an air force captain. and he told this story about his father, came to visit him. he was stationed in spain at the time. his father italian, and had never been back home. so he flew to spain to see son

and the son's family and then they would drive from to italy to see his see his family for the first time since he had left home like 40 or 50 years earlier. but by the time when they got to the father wasn't feeling well. and so he laid down to take a nap in the hotel. and when robert went to wake father up, the father had passed away. so saturday there monaco and he alerts authorities and they say, well, the the undertaker is out of until monday. you can you can just him there in the room and the hotel is not conditioned either and so robert carlo eh explained in this letter he had sent to the library that he decided walk now, walk to the american consulate and see if he could get any help.

and as he was walking across the city, he walked past a cafe and, happened to notice his former commander, chief and his wife having coffee just there in monaco. and so he stopped and himself and explained the situation. to two former president truman. and harry said, you have a notebook or pen, a paper or something. and so carlo knew gave him a paper pad. and this is the note that truman wrote. honorable harold mosley. he was the us consul. this will captain robert de carlo, his father just passed away. he needs some doors opened. please help him. harry truman to 40th. yes, that's pretty cool. i mean, it's a terrible, tragic life event, but a robert was in in his thanks for the expressing his gratitude to because he said

if he walked you know to the consulate and handed this note and everything everything got fixed they found they they they found a a funeral home that was able to take care of things. so it was just one of those interesting slices of life, you know and death i guess that happened on the trip so harry and and bess and sam and dorothy we're on the morning that they were to meet picasso, were having breakfast at the hotel and. then harry got up to go inside for a minute and the other started quickly having a conversation and saying, should we really go to see picasso? because harry doesn't like modern art. and harry, they came when harry came back to the table, they they him, you know. are you sure you want to do this? and he said, i'll behave. he said he's the most famous artist in the world. i want meet him. and so they went to picasso's

home in in the hills above kahn and had lunch. and most of these come from dorothy rosenman wrote her recollections of the of the events. and after lunch. and i don't want to give away too much you got it by the book mean there's a lot of really really good stories in the book. but there is a point there was a point during when picasso's showing showing truman around picasso was kind of a dude. and the house is a mess. and he had a he had a pet goat named esmeralda. and he liked to do of the goat. he had a lot of very funky paintings of the goat. and esmeralda was allowed in the house. you can go anywhere she wanted and at one point, harry, harry said to picasso, esmeralda was out on the lawn and said, and there was picture of her, like an abstract picture of her on the wall. and harry said, you mean to tell you took that beautiful animal and turned it into now, harry

said, just turned and, walked away. but i don't think picasso did that. i think picasso confronted him a little bit. picasso would love to tell the story how gis after the war would come to his studio in paris and show them around and you know he some of them got it some of them didn't and you know, he would show a picture maybe of esmeralda and the guy you know, the guy would say, well, it doesn't really like a goat. but then picasso would ask to see a picture of the guy, his wife or his girlfriend, and he would pull a tiny little picture out of his wallet and picasso would go, oh, but she's so small, liked it. no, this is just a picture. she's not really that small. i see. like, oh, okay. so that's one way that picasso picasso made his point. so after they went after they had lunch, this is the famous of

harry and pablo shaking handsn front of his studio. they just they were only meant to have lunch. picasso apparently enjoyed the company much that heffed to take the trumans on a little tour of the south of france. taking taking them to some of his favorite spots, which were all about him. so i went to his studio went to the museum and grimaldi where a lot of his works were kept. and this this fortunately, i believe sam rosenman took this picture sam had a had us at a camera at nate's slides and so he took a lot pictures on the trip actually wanted to find out like, okay, if we could, if i can find sam and dorothy rosen mint children or his grandchildren, you know, maybe they have some information about trip. so i did some research and i

found. that one of his his granddaughter is actually lynne garland, who is the wife of merrick, who is the united states attorney general. so like, okay, well, i think i could find her. i think i can find her. and i did get in contact with her and she put me in contact with her cousin, has all the slides that that they and he was very generous to let use a few of the slides, his photographs, the book. so they're really pictures that have never never been published of of picasso truman together. so it was really kind of a interesting part of the fun is you know doing the research and and finding these finding these connections and this is another picture that was taken in this is actually at the museum in it's the chateau grimaldi and that's jacqueline roque. now jacqueline was picasso's

only what would you what would you say about that that was not his wife? definitely not his wife. jacqueline was the woman he was living with at the time. and they were married. apparently, bess was too happy about that whole situation. but the funny thing is, when they went to the ceramics studio in valerie and and picasso told bess and dorothy rosenman, they, they had limited edition plate plates that they pottery. and he told dorothy and each of you take take a plate to take one home and apparently, bess picked like the most like psychedelic. one. and dorothy later said, bess, why did you take that one?

that's really one of the strangest ones. and the best said, well, if i'm going have a picasso, i'm going have a picasso. so she kept the plate and clifton it, now clifton has it and and the rose and ben's plate is still in the rosenman family now. so maybe they'll put them on. i put them on ebay someday. just another photo i'm going to wrap up. this is the trip home and i just love this photo graph. one of the cool things was the t truman papers. they saved all their menus, programs, everything from the trip. there's like three thick files for the 1958 europe trip. and in there they had the passenger manifests, both the independence and the constitution, which was the ship they home and in there listed the names of the children and

the ages of the children. so what i did is tried to track down some of the kids who were on the boat that remembered meeting harry and this is this is one of the families that i was able to track down. it's the who's family heloc and the the picture, i guess, is available. this was their copy of it. so it's linda and frank who's junior with harry duri a lifeboat drill on the constitution and in the background on right are the children's parents harriet who's holding tom and frank senior. so harriet, who had walk the baby on the boat every morning and harry would often join her. so the mother and truman had struck up a friendship the boat, because harry, of course, loved his morning walks and he maintained that even when he was on the on the ship at sea, i

want to show one more just showing off a little bit. here we go go. okay. i'm wearing same shirt. that's my one good shirt. my one good shirt. so i wasble to go down to auburn last last fall and i kind of have a crush on she was in storage but they brought her they brought her out so so i could see her so she's still in good shape she actually stolen kids well presumably kids stole it stole the painting in i think 65 or 66 and basically police chief said, first of all, it's like one of the most famous paintings in. you know, just it's been ten years since it was in the papers. and the police chief just leave it at the football stadium. if took it, maybe. but the next day and there it

was. so i guess they their lesson so she's back safe now back safe in auburn i believe she's i believe she's on display back in back in the gallery which is good to see too. and that's oh know those are some blurbs i got for the for book i think i think weave just a couple of minutes for questions i want longer than i thought if anybody has any questions as you can do. sure i did expected we think of the social history of what did harry and pablo think of socialist realism art. i don't know but i'm going to go out on a limb and say i think they both hated it. it's really interesting. and i go into book again, i can't tell you how interesting this book is really, but i into the whole the soviet was really

like a melting pot for modern artists in the early like the first to decades of the 20th century. a lot of like amazing came out of the soviet union but then stalin came in, he thought, you know, any picture, every picture had to have a person, preferably me. with stalin's attitude. so, you know, i guess they would show stalin a picture. he'd say, where am i? so they started doing a lot of pictures of stalin. so it's a really interesting it's really interesting period of of history, of art history. i don't think they'd like it. yes. how did how meeting or meeting able to change each other so? how did the meeting go? were they able to change other. right. well, again, i, i defer to the book, but i know will say this when when harry said that he met

with picasso, he told reporters on the boat home about the meeting and reporters asked him, said, are you are you going to invite picasso to the united? and harry said, we do not invite communists to the united states. there was also a there's also a good story in there. there was a guy who was a professor at roosevelt in chicago, and he truman was going to meet with picasso, and he wanted picasso to paint a mural at roosevelt in chicago. and he asked harry if he would ask pablo if he could come to chicago. and paint a mural here, and afterwards, truman sent him a letter and, said, i don't know why a university he would named after president roosevelt would want to hire a what do you call him, a a communal caricaturist instead of one of our great american artists. so harry harry's opinion of of

modern art did not change. but harry enjoyed picasso. he said he had a good time. he said it was a lot of fun. he said short bald guy, a lot of fun. it not that much shorter than this, by the way, was in front of the his ceramics studio, which has been abandoned and, is behind fences and barbed wire. they're tryg get the money trestore it. so hopefully will happen. yes and the book you wrote about the road. yes. yes. that was in mexico city. yes. so the road trip that harry and best book that i wrote about so well. he same same way. what i'm sorry to think people would write. right. right. yeah. so the question is harry took this road trip in 53 and didn't think people would recognize, i

think by 58, he he was a little more prepared for that. and in fact, he had worked with the state department. the president travels on a diplomatic passport. so protocol that you always advise the consulate or embassy in the city you're going to. so there was advance notice of this. it wasn't like he was trying to train to go in cog like he said on the first trip in fact its interesting. another cool thing they did for me here, they brought out his passport that he used for this trip. and one of the interesting things about it is bass's on it best didn't get her own passport. she's on the amendments page and i have a pictures. pictures of the passport in the book, but generally at the time, husband's wives would have a single passport passport. yes.

one more. you know there was no the question is whether, you know, you didn't see any secret service and there was no secret service on trip that didn't come in until after kennedy assassination in 63. so they had no security to speak of although it was a little bit like harry excellent adventure when the mayor of these towns would hear that harry truman there they would send somebody just to keep an eye on him. i don't let him die here. yes. one more debates change. yes. hubble, did they did they exchange gifts? that is a question i was not able to answer. and i'm you know, i know that pablo gave them plates, bess and dorothy. but whether trumans took anything to give picasso don't know. i'd love to know. i guess. you know, if i. if i see harry in the.

i'm going to ask him that and he's going to say, why the hell do you want to know that. why were you writing these books about one day this crazy? well, i want to thank everybody for coming. it's really it's wonderful to be here. thank you so much. i think i'm signing i think i'm signing books out right out here. if you want a way, don't go anywhere. nobody move. hold on. i got to get a picture for my. all right, hang on. hang on hang on. okay, clap again. clap like you were clapping. all right right. let's did everybody stay out now. not at all. i'