Meryl Streep received her record 21st Oscar nomination for her role as this woman in The Secret Dossier. Actually, the tape itself is presented in the Best Film nomination, which, of course, is not surprising. Steven Spielberg's new work has everything that could touch the thinnest chords in the soul of any American citizen: long disputes about freedom of speech and the press, the victory of democracy over presidential autocracy and a strong "female" theme, which under the Trump administration and the growing Time's movement Up cannot but attract. But almost no one reads the cherished statuettes for Meryl and the film itself: the competitors are too strong and, as they say, “little action”. However, this does not make the tape worse, and Meryl Streep's game - even more so.
Critics laugh that in this film Spielberg chose roles that were completely unusual for his actors. Tom Hanks, accustomed to playing insecure simpletons, got the role of the ambitious and arrogant editor-in-chief of The Washington Post, Ben Bradley, while Meryl Streep, famous for her roles of bitchy careerists, fell out to play the shy owner of the family business. Moreover, quite unexpectedly, Meryl will not show any transformation from a notorious woman into a publishing shark (although in fact there was such a transformation). Not scripted.
So, here's what we learned about the "first lady of American journalism" and the most famous publisher in the world from Spielberg's film and beyond.
She was always self-conscious
The woman behind Streep's heroine was indeed very timid. The episode from her life, which is described in the "Secret Dossier" - this is only the first step on her way to self-confidence. After some time, she will become the storm of the White House and at the same time his best friend, a business woman with a billion dollar fortune and a Pulitzer Prize winner - in a word, someone she never imagined herself to be.
Her name was Catherine Graham. She was born into a wealthy and well-known Mayer family - capitalists from New York who made their fortune on Wall Street. His father, Eugene, was always headlong into working on new capital raising projects. Mother, Agness, disappeared at social parties, having a very unflattering opinion about her own daughter, who, by her standards, lacked a natural spark. Actually, it was the mother's indifference that predetermined and aggravated the girl's quiet character and her low self-esteem - something that Kay could never completely get rid of.
“Even after sixty, when she becomes an icon of her time, she will not lose this inner fear,” says Meryl Streep, “I don’t think she ever stopped doubting herself.”
Katie had absolutely no weight in her family. When she was 16, her father auctioned the bankrupt Washington Post, the fifth most popular newspaper in the capital. However, none of the parents considered it necessary to tell their daughter about this, who already then showed a genuine interest in journalism: she participated in the publication of a university newspaper, tried herself in writing articles. Neither dad nor mom came to her graduation at the university. The family also did not allow the girl to get a job in the newspaper owned by her father - Catherine had to work for about a year in San Francisco before Eugene reluctantly took her to the lowest position in The Washington Post, while saying: “If she does not do it, we will immediately get rid of from her".
One among the men
And yet, by parental standards, Katherine had one major achievement - she had a successful marriage. Quiet and shy, Kay couldn't believe her luck when Philip Graham, a brilliant lawyer and eligible Florida fiancé, proposed to her. Was this a hunt for money? Not at all: immediately after the wedding, the newly-made Graham couple went to Florida to live on what Philip earns.
However, this did not last long. In the end, Katherine's husband accepted her father's offer to join the Post. Eugene had a much higher opinion of Philippe, unlike his daughter: by the age of 31, Catherine's husband had achieved the position of a newspaper publisher. The father arranged so that Philip received a larger stake for himself than Kay, clearly explaining to her that "no man, even formally, can be subordinate to his wife." Catherine did not argue. As she later wrote in her memoirs, "in those days, only a man could be the only heir."
Spielberg's film very well describes the state of Mrs. Graham as a woman trapped in male territory. He and Philip were entering many noble houses of the capital, including those that belonged to the political elite. They were friends with all the key ministers, had good contact with the Rockefellers and Kennedy, but Catherine always remained just a good mother and wife of a successful man, who, by the way, could well cheat on her.
“I always felt like a thread from a kite,” Kay recalled many years later, “and the more he overshadowed me, the more it became a familiar reality for me.”
And, perhaps, her life would have passed like this, if not for her husband's illness - manic depression, as a result of which he, in the end, committed suicide. At 46, Catherine Graham became a widow and automatically took over her family's company. Crushed by the death of her husband, of course, she no longer perceived her new post as a way to realize in herself what had been suppressed in her for many years. Her main task was to keep the company for her sons (she did not take into account her eldest daughter, as she once did herself).
Catherine was loved in the company - above all, for her calm and gentle disposition and impeccable business obedience. She unquestioningly did everything that her partners and lawyers advised her, threw parties for them and just tried not to quarrel with anyone. It is not surprising that the shadow of her husband still hovered within the walls of the company. However, she did not want anything else either.
But that all changed in June 1971.
Calling Nixon, or "Let's Print"
Graham's company was still buoyed by White House reporting and government news, but it was not legendary. Catherine, as a wealthy heiress from a respected family, had very close ties with representatives of the political elite - they trusted her, gave her small news and the right to exclusive materials, and she and her reporters in exchange did not try to find out more than the government wanted. It was an unspoken agreement that had existed in the Catherine family for decades. And Kay, I must say, was fine with everything.
But, alas, friendship with politicians did not bode well for the newspaper itself and its ambitious editor-in-chief Ben Bradley, who suffered from the fact that his publication was on the outskirts of real journalism - one that was engaged in high-profile investigations, defended freedom of speech and the interests of the people. Such journalism in those days was mainly engaged in the New York rival of The Washington Post - The New York Times, which was never afraid to annoy politicians. For this she was loved - and therefore she flourished, which every time literally brought Ben to white heat.
Ben dreamed that his reporters were looking for the same sensations as the NY Times. These, of course, were his personal ambitions: like any talented journalist, he wanted fame.
And Mr. Bradley had such an opportunity. In June 1971, The New York Times caused a sensation by publishing classified government documents on the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. The Pentagon Papers, as they dubbed them in the press, shed light on how the Lyndon Johnson administration lied to the people and Congress year after year about the real extent of US involvement in the conflict. It was a tremendous piece of material: a few hours after publication, people took to the streets to protest against the war and, of course, against the current president, because Richard Nixon quite logically followed the course of his predecessors. A few days later, the government sued the newspaper for disclosing state secrets, and a federal court banned the newspaper from further publishing the documents pending the end of the proceedings.
This was the first ban on printing in the United States since its inception. Real censorship, behind which, what is most terrible, the president stood.
Ben dreamed of getting a copy of these documents for himself. This was the only chance to glorify The Washington Post throughout the country: to continue the noble cause of colleagues and challenge the government. Ben's reporters got him these documents. One thing remained: the consent of the publisher, Catherine Graham.
It is not surprising that it was this event that Steven Spielberg took as the basis of his film. Everything was at stake for Catherine: reputation, connections, money, after all. The members of the government were her good friends, for whom her consent to publication would be a real betrayal. The climax of the picture, when Kay is talking on the phone with lawyers on the one hand and journalists on the other, really took place. And the legendary phrase of the woman “Do it. Let's print”- too.
Why did such a modest and quiet woman agree to challenge the president? Meryl Streep expressed confidence in an interview that she and Ben were just doing their job. “They had no idea how this decision would change history. They were just trying to publish the finished newspaper with the material on time,”says the actress.
However, it is possible that for the first time in her life Katherine simply decided to take up the challenge. It is said that the rise of the women's movement in the 70s had a strong influence on her personally. Catherine was not at his forefront, but formally she was his unique ambassador. It was under her that the number of women in the company increased significantly, but she did not perceive this as a war for domination. She just felt the spirit of the times.
Catherine's decision was historic. The newspaper not only supported The New York Times and freedom of speech, but also significantly increased sales. This was the very case when the act of conscience paid off in all respects. "One of our hidden goals was to bring The Post on a par with The New York Times," recalled Ben Bradley, "and after the publication of the Pentagon Papers, it happened."
Of course, Nixon was furious - especially after the Supreme Court eventually sided with the journalists. Since then, reporters for the Catherine newspaper have been persona non grata in the White House.
But this did not last long, because just a few years later something happened in America that went down in history as the Watergate scandal. This time Mrs. Graham was much more decisive: her journalists Bob Woodward and Karl Bernstein found evidence that Republicans were wiretapping at the Democratic headquarters before the elections. Of course, Catherine received threats, including outright blackmail, like the one that once came from Attorney General John Mitchell: if Catherine continues to publish articles against the president, then her breasts are at risk of "getting stuck in the spinning machine." Later, when Nixon retired, Bob Woodward gave Mrs. Graham an old wooden washing machine, which the woman solemnly left in her office as a memento of that resounding victory.
First Lady of American Journalism
This is how, in just a few years, Mrs. Graham has gone from the silent shadow of her husband to the storm of politicians. Her publishing house grew richer every year, and, in the end, Catherine became the first woman to enter the prestigious list of the 500 most successful US CEOs. After the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, she was no longer afraid to use her new power, and subsequent presidents prudently preferred not to put a spoke in her wheel. For example, she was especially admired by President Bush Jr., who very accurately called her "a true leader and a true lady - iron and timid, powerful and humble, unshakable and at the same time always grateful and generous to others."
Catherine never married again, and in 1991 transferred the company to her son. At that time, its value was already estimated at $ 2 billion - not bad for the company, which her father acquired for only 825 thousand. In 2001, she died, and the Washington Post is still listed in the top of the most influential throughout the country and around the world.
And yet, until now, no one knows for sure: would she have been like this today, if one day, in June 1971, one very brave woman had not said: “Let's print”?
Photo: Getty Images
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