People, Oct. 3, 1960

In answer to a Philadelphia bureaucrat's demand for deletion of a line in The Best Man slurring the city's drinking water, Playwright Gore Vidal said, "I'm a fervent foe of water pollution whether it is our own Hudson River or Philadelphia's tap water," left the script intact. Just as bold on his own Hudson, where he is currently running for Congress in a Republican-dominated, midstate New York district. Democrat Vidal recently boasted, "I say 80% of what I thinkĀ—a hell of a lot more than any politician I know." Not that it was likely...

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