Helen Hayes took Joe Papp’s side in his battle with Robert Moses over Shakespeare in the Park. 😍😍
Kevin Daly
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Theatre Aficionado/Writer/Raconteur. Researcher for the 2022-2025 Tony Awards telecasts. Tea Enthusiast. Alleged short king. Soprano Connoisseur. Raised on TCM. He/Him.
![On his knee during the ensuing discussion.) La Guardia's ploy worked.
At the end of a shouting match between Moses and Ridder— They really went at it for a while," Mrs. Sulzberger would recall-the Mayor ruled against Moses, and for once there was no Times editorial disagreeing with the decision the next day. But such a ploy could obviously not be repeated in every dispute. And in most disputes Moses could count on the Times's support.
Dramatic proof of how popular the press had made Moses was, more-over, available to the Mayor every time he spoke in public. Just as audiences reacted with Pavlovian predictability to every mention of Brooklyn with laughs-so they reacted with Pavlovian predictability to every mention of Robert Moses—with cheers. At the end of a playground opening, there was almost invariably a "Two, four, six, eight—Who do we ap-preciate?" for Moses. "La Guardia wanted to fire him often, but he didn't dare," says mayoral law secretary Kern. "The press—The New York Times in particular-had babied him like a spoiled child. He couldn't do anything wrong in their eyes. They made him a myth. And a man who had to go to the electorate couldn't fire a myth. He [Moses] was too big to fire." Occasionally Windels would try to brace the Mayor to stand up to Moses.
But on those occasions, the Little Flower would wail, "What'll the Times say?" If from a personal viewpoint it is not too much to say that La Guardia liked Moses, from a political viewpoint it is not too much to say that he feared him.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:iivjxwl4jecuzk3vfpqwvegu/bafkreihcrqumklwmzx4qf444oxmydsexyxku44wnsfx4jd3zilk5u2v33a)
