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me back into my office, and with tremendous, badly-suppressed excitement
told me, "Jerry Bundsen has told me that Herb is tired of the Examiner
and wants to come back to the Chronicle!" (Jerry Bundsen was Herb's
longtime secretary and assistant. He lived down the Peninsula, and had
talked to Al as they both rode to work on the old Southern Pacific
commuter train to Third and Townsend.)

Well, this was colossally important news, because, since the
Chronicle was very hot on the heels of the Examiner, if Herb Caen
actually could be welcomed back into our fold, that would mean the
Examiner was really suffering its final convulsions. With Herb back
home, the Hearstian fortress would be dead, dead, dead. And this was not
just exciting, it was a very tricky business.

I never mentioned a word of it, it was such a big, big potential
victory. I didn't mention it to Ruth, or for that matter even to Charlie
Thieriot, because in the newspaper business people talk. And Charlie
Thieriot and Randy Hearst and Charlie Mayer, who was then publisher of
the Examiner, were all very good friends, socially. I was terrified that
if one word of Herb's possible changeover slipped out, the Hearst people
would ducksnap him with such a big, fat, juicy offer that he would not be
able to turn it down. Dolly knew about it because she had been in the
office when Al Hyman broke the news.

Oh yes, incidentally, I forgot to add that at some point, after
Herb had been at the Ex for six or seven years, Dolly had run across him
at some party or other and Herb had said, "Doll, I want to give you my
private telephone number. Scooter might want it some day . " (Herb had
always called me Scooter.) So when I got the word from Al Hyman via
Jerry Bundsen, I told Dolly to dial Herb's private phone number.
At this time Herb was living in a handsome house on the steep north
slope of Russian Hill, on Hyde street, where the cable cars drop down to
the pier and Aquatic Park . Herb was married to Sally Gilbert--! think
that was her name--a pretty blonde girl. She had been very visible
around town as a photographer's model , and had been queen of the Columbus
Day festival or something like that . I remember a scene when she was
rowed ashore in Queen Isabella's barge and landed on the beach at Aquatic
Park, to be greeted by North Beach Italian fishermen dressed up in
fifteenth century costumes.

Anyway, I called Sally myself and she invited me over to talk with
Herb. I still couldn't believe that Herb was actually ready to come back
to the Chronicle . But he seemed perfectly casual about the whole affair.
He told me that still , after almost eight years, he simply could not feel
at home at the Examiner. Obviously, he was homesick and lonely . At our
first meeting Herb seemed perfectly relaxed , but I recall I was still
very excited at the prospect, particularly when Herb suggested that we
should meet again and that he would bring along a copy of his Examiner
contract . When I warned him that we must be very clandestine about it,