<VV> How GM learned of RN

[wrsssatty at aol.com]

<I'd be willing to bet that the folks at GM knew about Ralphie's book before it 
was published.>

No, they didn't.  Some of you with a long memory may recall that as a lawyer, several years ago, I began researching and writing on the Corvair lawsuits (See, Feb. 2002 communique page 10; June 2001 communique page 10; Dec. 2000 communique page 15).  In my research, I uncovered testimony from GM executives (don't recall off the top of my head who) saying that they first learned of Ralph Nader's writings on the Corvair by the publication of the Corvair chapter as an excerpt in a magazine called "The Nation" and, in, of all places, The Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette.  This was after the book had been published.  As a native of the Charleston, WV area, I recall the Gazette's publication of that excerpt.  I remember my father in his La-Z-Boy reading his paper and the shock in the room as my mother and father discussed the article.  We couldn't figure out why, after having a Corvair in the family at that time for about 3 years, we had never experienced any of the problems the article spelled out.  Several years later, on a visit home, I went to the Charleston library and looked up the article on microfilm.  It took up all of two whole pages of the paper.  I tried to contact the then editor but he was deceased.  His successor responded to my letter that, at that time, the Gazette was excerpting large sections of certain books that were being published.  The Gazette has the reputation of being the more liberal of the two papers that to this day are still published in Charleston, WV.  The editor put me in touch with the widow of the man who was editor in the '60s and she told me they had owned a Corvair and thought it was the worst car they had ever owned.  She cited quality and reliability problems and not handling problems.  I'm not sure how the little ole Charleston Gazette came to the attention of GM executives in Detroit but Charleston was home to a Chevrolet zone office.  It happens that an executive there in the '60s was a friend of my family so I tracked him down to Tennessee where he had moved to take over a dealership in the '70s.  He said he had no recollection of his office being aware of the Gazette's excerpt or of bringing it to the attention of higher-ups in GM in Detroit.  

"Unsafe" was published by Grossman Press in NYC which was a very small operation and virtually unheard of.  A couple of years ago, now living across the river from Manhattan, I went into the city for the premiere of a very biased documentary about Ralph Nader.  As I stood in line at the ticket window, an old man in front of me, saying his name was Grossman, argued with the clerk that there should be comp tickets set aside for him.  I didn't put two and two together at the time but later, in the movie, there he was on the screen being interviewed as the publisher of the book.  Sounds like it was a very small operation out of his home in Manhattan.  Ralph was at the premiere of this film for a question and answer session afterward.  "Unsafe" would have remained obscure, and with it, Ralph Nader, if GM hadn't been caught hiring private investigators to dig up dirt on RN.  

BTW, the '66 Corvairs weren't just on the assembly line at the time that "Unsafe" hit the bookstores, they were already in the showrooms and, even, some driveways.

~Bill Stanley