It was a dizzying era to be a reporter for Time magazine. The brand and its history provided a young man from small-town Canada with access to prime ministers and princes, rogues and scalawags. Montreal in 1967 was no exception. The city was abuzz with excitement about the opening of Expo 67, the world’s fair. Time pooh‑bahs, to use one of the magazine’s favoured appellations, spared no expense in attempting to capture the glow for its advertisers and corporate friends: a flat in Moshe Safdie’s futuristic Habitat and an elegant apartment at the posh Port-Royal, on Sherbrooke Street in the Golden Square Mile, to host visitors.
One of the VIPs was Clare Boothe, the accomplished and dashing wife of Time’s co-founder Henry Luce — Harry to insiders. As Montreal bureau chief, I was dispatched to conduct a private tour for her and, because of her passion for scuba diving, arranged for a private demo at the Jacques Cousteau exhibit. For a lavish...
Robert Lewis spent eight years as a Time correspondent and twenty-five years at Maclean’s, the last seven as editor-in-chief. He is the author of Power, Prime Ministers and the Press: The Battle for Truth on Parliament Hill.
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