The Snowball_ Warren Buffett and the Business of Life - Alice Schroeder [227]
“And at that moment, I mean, I loved it. She was just frozen. She was paralyzed. Howard was enjoying it. So I jumped in and explained what amortization of intangibles was to Howard. And when I got through with this description, Kay said, ‘Exactly!’”
Buffett loved outthinking Simons, short-circuiting the game, and coming—indirectly and subtly—to Graham’s defense. Graham’s tight little smile began to ease. “From that point forward, we were the best of friends. I was Sir Lancelot. That was one of the greatest moments of my life. Turning defeat into triumph for her.”27
After lunch, Buffett met with Graham for about an hour, then he reassured her in writing. “I said, ‘Kay, George Gillespie’s arranged for the A shares to give you control. But,’ I said, ‘I also know that it is so important to you in this world that you’re going to worry about it no matter what you’ve got. It’s your whole life.’ And so I said, ‘I’m telling you that even though these teeth look like Little Red Riding Hood’s wolf fangs to you, they really are baby teeth. But we’ll just take them out. Just have the orders come up this afternoon, and we’ll white out*28 some things, and I’ll never buy another share of stock unless you’re okay with it.’ I knew that was the only way that she would ever be comfortable.” That afternoon, Buffett—who had spent $10,627,605 to buy twelve percent of the company—signed an agreement with Graham not to buy any more of the Post stock without her permission.
In the evening, the Buffetts were due at Graham’s for one of her famous dinners, this one for forty guests honoring Warren and Susie. Despite Graham’s personal insecurity, she was considered Washington’s greatest hostess, above all because she knew how to help people relax and enjoy themselves. This evening, despite her exhaustion and the temptation to cancel, “She had a little party for me. That was her way of reciprocating. And when she had a party, she could get anybody she wanted. Anybody—the President of the United States, anybody.”
“She traveled widely in the world, so found occasions to give dinners,” says Don Graham. “If she had gone to Malaysia, when the prime minister came to town, she’d give a dinner for him. The ambassador would look up what they did last time, and there was always a meal at Mrs. Graham’s house, so there would be another one. Someone would publish a book, someone would have a birthday, and she’d give a dinner because she loved to give a dinner.” Graham used the dinners as a way of making new friends and as a way of getting people to know one another. “She would sort of adopt people in different administrations,” says Don.28 This particular administration, however, was Richard Nixon’s. Graham had made few friends there, other than Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and he had to defend socializing with her.
“So all of a sudden I’m at the Madison Hotel with Susie, and about five o’clock somebody slips something under the door and it describes the party, which I had been invited to weeks before. At the bottom it says ‘black tie.’ Well, I didn’t have that, needless to say. So here’s this pathetic guy from Nebraska, and he shows up with a business suit. He’s going to a black-tie dinner in his honor and he’s going to be the only one without black tie. So I called her secretary, panicked.
“Her secretary is a very nice gal. She says, well, let’s put on our thinking cap. While I’m trying to cross the street to find a store that was open to rent me something, and nothing was open,” Graham’s assistant, Liz Hylton, called another local store, however, and found something suitable.29
The Buffetts left the Madison Hotel and were driven past mansion after mansion on Embassy Row. The taxi turned onto Q Street, past the historic Oak Hill Cemetery where Phil Graham was buried. Around