An evening with Sen. Bob Graham

Senator Bob Graham drew a large crowd on Friday night for the signing of his new book, "Keys to the Kingdom," a 314-page political thriller. The scene was The Bookstore in the Grove.

Many friends were among the throng who listened intently as Sen. Graham talked about his new release. Graham is very well known around these parts, he served for 18 years in the U.S. Senate and before that was a two-term Governor of Florida.


I always think of him as Governor and the evening sort of came full circle for me. In the 1980s my job was to do the production work for newspapers and magazines, I literally put them together. One of the publications had a letter from Gov. Graham at the time and we published the letter in the newspaper. But when it was time to give back the letter to the publisher, I kept it. I figured in my head that Gov. Graham would be President of the U.S. one day and that I would have his signature.

Of course, that never happened, but he did leave the Senate with an 83% approval rating, so you can't beat that, I guess. I told him my story as he signed my book, he laughed. And now that I have the signed book, the whole signature thing has come full circle, I now have the two signatures, one from the 1980s and one in the new book.

Above right is Mrs. Adele Graham, the Senator's wife, who I spent a bit of time talking with, and Felice Dubin, co-owner of The Bookstore. Mrs. Graham is very easy to talk with. I enjoyed our conversation, we were taking about Coconut Grove. The Graham's always remind me of Arva Moore Parks, who they went to school with and it was Arva who persuaded Gov. Graham to save The Barnacle from destruction and becoming grounds for a condo, back in 1977.


The evening reminded me of that time when Arva signed her book about Coconut Grove in October of last year. It was a full house and so much history was talked about both evenings. When Arva was here, it was mostly Grovites, but Friday night, for Sen. Graham's book, there were more out-of-towners. Mrs. Graham told me that the Grove crowd had more intellectuals than most of the others in their book tour. She could tell by the questions that were being asked. It did get quite intense as there is so much information about the middle east and the 9/11 attacks in the book.

Above left are Felice Dubin, Harry Emilio Gottlieb and Sen. Graham; at right, yours truly with the Senator. Harry put the whole evening together and introduced the Senator at the beginning of the evening.


"Keys to the Kingdom," features a former Senator named John Billington, who is murdered near his Florida home. Ex-Special Forces operative Tony Ramos then enters the scene to solve the crime with Billington's daughter, Laura. The thriller revolves around the 9/11 attacks and revolves around Saudi Kingdom conspiracies including the likes of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. It was quite chilling at times to hear Sen. Graham speak on the subject since he is privy to so much information, he still works on committees with the CIA, even in his retirement.


It was a great evening, the goodies passed around were delicious, too. People were honored to meet Sen. Graham. He's very humble and easy to speak with. There was a long line to get the books signed and it seemed like forever for it to move because Sen. Graham actually took so much time out to speak with each person. He signed each book personally, for each person.


You can see mine here, he writes, "Tom, Thank you for preserving this evening at The Bookstore in the Grove. Best Wishes for the Holiday Season and New Year." And he signed and dated it. He knew I was covering the event for publication, so he mentioned "preserving it."

That reminds me of the time that Susie Essman was at The Bookstore signing books. She wrote in mine, "Tom, stay focused," and I wondered, "How did she know me that well? People always tell me that I am too hyper and all over the place, but I am focused, but maybe she sees me as being unfocused." When I asked her about it she said, "Aren't you a photographer? That's what I meant!" That was funny and a good night, too.

There are extra books signed by Sen. Graham and if you get to The Bookstore (3399 Virginia Street) now, you can probably get one, the book would make a great holiday gift.