I’ve never met Lissa Muscatine, but I’ve known her husband Bradley Graham for 30 years – although we hadn’t seen each other since 1985. Back in 1983 when we were both much younger, we met in Warsaw.
Bradley was the Washington Post’s man in Poland and Eastern Europe. I was the ABC News bureau chief in Warsaw running the only ABC operation between Bonn and Moscow. We were both new to Poland, and we met covering some part of the continuing decline of Communism and the eventual rupture of the Soviet Union and the East Bloc.
It might have been at one of the weekly news conferences run by Jerzy Urban, the government spokesman, that every journalist in Warsaw attended; at a time when most capitals of the Bloc offered few opportunities for the press to question government officials, the Urban conferences stood out.
No matter what the story, we western journalists could satisfy the requirement of our organizations for fairness by asking Urban questions to which he always provided an answer we could use.
Around this time, ABC pulled off a news coup thanks to Bradley. Somehow in London he had learned that Elton John was coming to Poland on a private visit to meet with Lech Walesa, the Solidarity leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
Walesa was a great man outside of Poland. In his own country, he was known only to leading members of Solidarity and seen only at mass or at some foreign embassies. The official news media ignored him. The authorities tried very hard to prove to us western journalists that Walesa didn’t matter. They didn’t publicize the Elton John visit.
Neither did Elton John’s manager who denied it when we contacted him. Based on what Bradley – who caught a ride from London to Warsaw on Elton’s private jet – told us and confirmed by Walesa, an ABC camera crew was set up in Walesa’s living room facing the front door when Elton John rang the bell. I was inside and saw his face as he walked into the frame of our camera.
A well-known figure like Elton John worries about controlling use of his image. He didn’t want his private visit to be filmed. But Lech needed the spotlight. A visit from a famous person gave him the visibility he needed to stay in the news at least outside his own country. For us at ABC News, Elton John was important only because of Lech Walesa.
Over the years I saw pieces by Bradley from different places and more recently from Washington DC, where he covered the Pentagon and defense issues. But I had no idea that around three years ago, his life changed entirely.
Politics and Prose, a well-known independent bookstore in the city, was for sale. Bradley and Lissa became interested in doing something entirely different. Lissa had gone from journalism at the Washington Post where she and Bradley met to writing speeches for Hillary Clinton at the State Department.
They put in a bid for the bookstore, fought off the competition, and ended up a year later as owners – for the first time in their lives – of a retail operation. Bradley said when I met him last month that as a journalist few people around town would recognize him. As the co-owner of an important Washington institution, he has become a star.
As such, he was the speaker at a fundraising dinner for Dupont Circle Village, an association of homeowners committed to remaining in thosehomes as they get older. To raise money, they host something called Celeb Salon in their homes. The Celeb (rity) is someone important who talks to the 20 people gathered about his or her career and then answers questions.
To keep Politics and Prose a developing business, Bradley has to stay in front of his customers and support the community. The outreach worked for me – the next morning I was at the store enjoying the huge selection and buying books even though neither Bradley nor Lissa was there; she was at home nursing an injured foot; he was at a nearby book fair, meeting people and gaining customers.
By Dr. Alma Kadragic
