OBIT 'PEDDLER' MOVES AT A FAST CLIP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000101070001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 17, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 5, 1966
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/17: CIA-RDP73-00475R000101070001-8
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By Nona Cleland
WashInzton Post Staff Writer -
- A few hours after the
news was released of the
death in Vietnam of the son
of Merriman Smith, veteran
United Press International
White. House correspondent,
the phone rang . at Smith's
Alexandria home.
Smith's maid answered
the call and after hanging
up, informed Smith that a
man who identified himself
as a member of the press
would - like Smith to call
him at -bnce.
? Smith immediately re-
turned the call and found
himself talking to. Prescott
Dennett.
Dennett told Smith the
death of his son was tragic.
? But it was also historic,
Dennett said, and surely,
Smith would want to pre-
serve the public notices and
i acclaim, for later genera-
4. Cons: .
Dennett then proceeded to
? ? '
77 77
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? quote .prices to Smith of
$215 per thousand for clip-
pings about his son's death
from domestic news sources,
$325 per thousand from for-
eign sources and .$177.50 for.
a dozen typed transcripts of
anything said over radio
aed television, .
Runs Five Agencies
Dennett, who says hr man-
ages five Clipping services
in Washington, confirmed
the incident yesterday..
"As soon as Mrs. Donnell:
and I heard of the death of
Smith's son, I grabbed the
phone,"- said Dennett,
"We felt like we knew
him. I used to watch him.on
Jack :Parr. The wife and I
would pull up our chairs
and sit back and listen and
his stories about the White
House."
"Excuse me a moment,"
said Dennett to a reporter,
to whom he was talking on
the phone, "I have to make
a phone call. at 4 o'clock. I
do have to make a nickel,
you know."
A sh cl. when he returned
to the phOne how he chose
whom to call, Dennett said
that it depended on the per-
son's nrominenee hi the
news.
'Prospect's a Prospect'
'Just yesterday, he said, he
had put some clippings in
the mail to the widow of Al-
bert Thomas, a member Of
the House of -Representa-
tives who died recently. He
had offered his service to
Mrs. Thomas as soon as he
heard of her husband's
death.
r f .
"But, a prospect's a pros-,
pect with us," said Dennett.
"It could be a newspaper-
man, a plumber or the fellow
down the 'block." .
Julius Frandsen, chief of
the Washington bureau of
United Pl ss International,
told a reporter that he had
been approached on the
phone by Dennett both on
the death of :Merriman
Smith's son and on the death
of Hugh Baillie, former head
of the old United Press.
?Dennett, who is 58, says he
has been in the clipping
servide- business ,at least .25
years. He said he approaches
not only the family of a fa-
mous person who dies, but
anyone. who might have had
connection with him.
Sometimes ,people call a
few weeks later and all of,
the paPers have been thrown
out and then it's too late,"
he said.
Dennett, who is listed in'
the phone book as "corre;
spondent," lives and works'
at 1.866 Columbia rd. nw.
His wife, Ruth, is chief
reader for his Congressional'
Record Clipping Service.
The five clipping busi-
nesses he manages are list;
ed as Congressional Record
Clipping, Columbia News-
vertising, American Trade
Press
terigtiOliar'Press Clipping
Bureau Inc. (A Half. Cen-
tury' of Reputable Service),
and Radio TV Manuscripts.
Most of .the actual clip-
ping is done in New York.:
"I'm just a peddler," said
Denne
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/17: CIA-RDP73-00475R000101070001-8
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