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4/1
3/18
31 Thursday - March 1977
90th day - 275 days to come

Called Felicia. Told her of my letter from Bill Dohrmann. She had one from Laurie Curran with the same info.
Told her of the news on WIRETAP, THE RIGHT WORD, WIN IT YOUR WAY (she likes the name, and would like to try it). I suggested WIRETAP for Mego, and she thought it might be good for Parker. Laurie says that they are looking thru May.
Made date to bring WIRETAP to her next Tues. [Tuesday] in the P.M. Since she is strapped for money I said I'd bring her her $75 for TILE RUMMY, even if I don't get the money from Crisloid by then.
She hears (from someone who she has caught in a lie) that the people in the game companies take payoffs for accepting games. I said that I doubted it very very much.
She said that all of the things she has on the fire, she is most hopeful about those with S&R [Selchow & Righter]. Altho she hates the co. [company] Angelo Longo is very easy to work with. The most promising is ODDS & EVENS and some children's games.
Bill Riva would love to try and place some of my 3M games in Europe, but as long as there is even one still in a store, A.H. [Avalon Hill] can stop us. This also holds true for BALI.
I asked if she had an answer from Tom Shaw concerning hers on BAZAAR. No.

Call from Roger MacKean. A.H. [Avalon Hill] admitted that the model of his THE GAMES OF INVESTMENTS was lost. Eric Dott told him that they had no intention of paying for the prototype. He told Roger to prepare another, less elaborate, prototype and A.H. [Avalon Hill] would "lean over backward" to try and publish it. Roger wasn't happy with this and I agreed. I suggested that Roger insist on payment for the prototype and agree to have that payment come out of royalties if the game is published; he liked this idea.
He wanted me to send him a letter saying that the game was very original and very marketable. I said that noone knew what was marketable - that I would send him a repro [reproduction] of my diary entry on the game, in which I said that it was innovative. He asked about a lawyer and I suggested the one Gini Scott wrote me about - Michael Padway - or even better Carl Person. Gave him their addresses and telephone numbers. Asked him please not to mention my name.
Call from Carl Person (actually after Vincent Murtha got here). he was contacted by Roger and will handle his case. I said that I had specifically asked Roger not to mention me. Person said that he understood my reluctance at being involved and would never mention me without my consent. Thanked him, and said that in any case I have never found game companies to be dishonest. He said that he felt that if a theme were presented by an independent, a company might give that theme to a Marvin Glass to develop. He asked if I knew of anyone who would qualify as an "expert" and would be willing to testify. I suggested Gini Scott as a possibility, and told him that he could contact her thru Michael Padway. He was very pleasant and said that if I ever needed any legal questions answered, just give him a call and he'd answer me on the phone.

Visit from Vincent Murtha. Didn't get exactly what he had in mind - something about merchandising me as an apostle of a new trend in games - cooperative rather than competitive. Tried to tell him that it
(cont. on 4/1)

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