Another Fred Fox tale

Reading about Fred Fox ’39 and the Ghost Army (cover story, March 21) gave me perspective about the time I met Fred in 1976 in his capacity as Keeper of Princetoniana. My roommate, Mark Schaeffer ’78, had founded the Princeton Mime Company, and I was publicizing its first show. I arranged to meet Fred, and asked him if there was any history of students performing mime on campus.  

He thought for a minute and said, “How about this. Let’s say that Jimmy Stewart had laryngitis one night and had to perform his part in the Triangle Show in mime.” Taken aback, I asked, “Did that really happen?” Fred replied, “No, but if you tell people that I said it happened, they will believe you.”

Our youthful idealism kept us from using Fred’s fabrication, but reading about how he duped Hitler makes me understand why he had no qualms about a little white lie to help a fledgling student theater company.