A Tale from the Mythic Days of Magazine Expense Accounts

Reminds me of this summary from Marc Cooper, about the 57 days he spent in 1973 at the Hotel Geneve in Mexico City, waiting with eminent journalist Marshall Frady for an interview with Fidel Castro, all on Playboy magazine's expense account.

http://www.thenation.com/article/remembering-marshall-frady/

Teaser:

"Without my knowing it, Marshall had rented us two IBM Selectric typewriters. The plan, he also announced, was for him to write a proposal for his next book – a bio of Billy Graham. My task, he told me, was to write a proposal for a book about my experiences in Chile as translator to President Salvador Allende.

"I had no idea how to proceed. But Marshall had his own special discipline. The afternoon the typewriters arrived he went to the pharmacy next door to the hotel and bought – as you could back then – a roll of amphetamine tablets. Then he bought a fifth of J&B and, at sunset, locked himself in his room."