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And now for a payment-for-access story from another era of journalism: Let Ralph Morse, then a photographer for Life, tell the story of how he gained access to Einstein’s office on the day of his death in 1955:
“I grabbed my cameras and drove the ninety miles to Princeton,” Morse recalls. “Einstein died at the Princeton Hospital, so I headed there first. But it was chaos — so many journalists, photographers, onlookers milling around outside what, back then, was a really small hospital. ‘Forget this,’ I said, and headed over to the building where Einstein’s office was. On the way there, I stopped and bought a case of scotch. I knew people might be reluctant to talk to me, and I knew that most people were happy to accept a bottle of scotch instead of money if you offered it in exchange for their help. So, I get to the building and nobody’s there. I find the superintendent, give him a fifth of scotch, and he opens up Einstein’s office so I can take some photos.”
Morse is now 92, and LIFE.com is running eight never before published images he made that day, and hadn’t seen since.
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