ABSTRACT
Edwin Hubble wired the chairman of the California delegation, urging him to switch from John Dewey to Wendell Willkie, but it was rumored that Taft, the insider, would almost certainly prevail, the key being Pennsylvania. Hubble’s name was familiar to readers of the Eastern press, which had covered his address on the occasion of receiving the Franklin Medal from Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute. Hubble was accorded similar treatment after it was announced that he had been chosen to receive the Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal for 1940. Hubble’s unit became specialists in the design and operation of bombsights and was soon scouring the country for the few high-speed movie cameras in the existence. The treasury of Hubble’s dubious exploits as a young man was added to by a high-ranking officer with a bent for storytelling who found a credulous listener in Grace Burke.
