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Show Brightman Letter Spikes Temperance Organization Fears The following letter has been sent by Samuel M. Brightman. publicity director of the 1961 inaugural committee to Erwin F. Bohmfalk, president of the National Na-tional Temperance League, in Washington, D.C. Dear Mr. Bohmfalk: I am sincerely sorry that you did not get in touch with me before you sent your open letter of protest about which I read on the news wire this morning. I am sorry that you did not get in touch with me because your protest pro-test is based on false premises. Here are the facts about sponsorships sponsor-ships of inaugural events. There will be no sponsorship of swearing-in ceremony and the networks net-works have made no request for sponsor coverage of the event. The networks have asked us if we would permit sponsorship of the parade and of the ball. We have said that we would permit per-mit sponsorship of products we deem appropriate and have also stipulated that he would have to review the proposed commercial commer-cial announcements for good taste before we made any decision. deci-sion. While formal approval has not been given for any sponsors several are under favorable consideration. con-sideration. None of these products are beer or any other form of alcoholic alco-holic beverage. The policy of the inaugural committee is that we are not going to waste our time deciding hypothetical questions about the sponsors. When actual requests are made they will be reviewed and our decisions will be made public. Let me repeat again, the question ques-tion of a beer sponsor has not' been before the inaugural committee com-mittee and has not been discussed dis-cussed by the inaugural committee. commit-tee. I am particularly distressed that your open letter and statements state-ments by other groups have circulated cir-culated the untrue statement that the swearing-in ceremonies were going to be sponsored by a beer company. As I said earlier there is no sponsorship of this ceremony cere-mony and there has never been any effort by the networks to obtain permission for such sponsorship. spon-sorship. I hope you will take steps to apprise the members of your organization of the facts I am hereby transmitting to you." |