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NY Times ‘Birthday Card’ Ad to Dad about Contributions to Cancer Research

2005; Wolters Kluwer; Volume: 27; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/01.cot.0000287934.09766.38

1548-4688

Eric T. Rosenthal,

Readers of the New York Times were greeted with “A Birthday Card…To My Dad,” when they turned to page E6 in the Arts section on Monday, March 7. At first glance, many of those readers were probably quite moved by the poignancy of the four-column full-page advertisement. After all, as described, it was written a year before by then-17-year-old Nick Brooks, now a senior at the Horace Mann School in Riverdale, NY, as a tribute to his father, composer and director Joe Brooks, who according to the copy had contributed $2 million to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in 1973 after reading a Time magazine cover story about immunologist Robert A. Good, MD, PhD, DSc, Chief of MSKCC's Research Center. But a closer investigation comparing what was written by Nick and what was recorded and remembered at Sloan-Kettering tells a less-substantiated story. End of 30 Years of Confidentiality The young author wrote that he wanted to acknowledge publicly his father's gift to cancer research after a 30-years-of-silence clause was imposed “so that no one would even remotely think there were ulterior motives for his generosity and forward thinking. “There is no building with his name on it, which he could have had,” the ad continued. “His name does not appear on any plaques that sit outside of laboratories or research centers, though he was offered that as well. Only the gratitude and thanks of a million or more people he helped—that is his legacy. And for him, that was always enough. Only a framed letter from Laurance Rockefeller, then-Chairman of the Board of Sloan-Kettering, acknowledging his own personal thanks, sits on an inconspicuous wall in my Dad's office.” Nick goes on to write that he was not able to place the ad for a year, until he located a generous benefactor who could finance the venture. That benefactor apparently prefers anonymity, but the Times confirmed that the cost of a full-page color ad appearing on a weekday was about $170,000. Nick also informs his readers that, at the time of the contribution, his dad was writing only jingles for commercials—although “he happened to be the best composer in the history of that industry, but it is hardly a profession where one accumulates a million dollars very easily, if ever, and there was no assurance his popularity would continue. “He risked everything in order to try and change the world for the better. It's easy to give millions when you have billions. It's quite another matter to give everything you have and never look back.” Fortunately, his father would soon leave the world of advertising for that of motion pictures, and in the next few years would go on to compose the music and lyrics for the Academy Award-winning The Garden of the Finzi-Continis; to write the title song for the Academy Award-winning motion picture Marjoe; to write the score for and help finance The Lords of Flatbush; and to write, produce, and direct You Light Up My Life, which became the most successful independent film of all time, and also boasted a title song that was the most successful song of the 1970s and would become the second most successful song ever written for a motion picture after White Christmas. Joe Brooks would also become the only person to win the Academy, Grammy, Golden Globe, People's Choice, and American Music Awards all in one year, according to the ad copy. Nick said that reading about Dr. Good in Time made his father think that a $2 million gift (of which his father contributed more than $1 million and raised the balance from associates and a trustee from a medical trust fund) would make it possible “to bring the greatest cancer researchers from all over the world to New York to work with Dr. Good, [so] their interaction could produce ideas that could change the world for victims of cancer.” ‘Fund for the Advanced Study of Cancer’ Thus was created the Fund for the Advanced Study of Cancer, the ad said, and “shortly thereafter the scientists began to arrive: Dr. Malcolm Moore from Melbourne, Australia; Dr. Bo Dupont from Copenhagen, Denmark; Dr. Richard O'Reilly from Children's Hospital in Boston; and Dr. Casper Jersild from Copenhagen. Their work resulted in many amazing discoveries, which led to improved treatment and an increased possibility of cure in millions of cancer patients.” Nick chronicles such cancer research contributions as the discovery of G-CSF and work in bone-marrow transplantation as resulting from the scientific interactions at MSKCC, and writes that when his father's birthday was approaching, he asked what Joe Brooks considered his greatest accomplishment. His dad told him how Dr. Good had once shown the composer MSKCC's “bubble,” which isolated bone marrow recipients from germs, and that when Dr. Good explained to a six-year old patient about Joe's contribution, the boy and donor made emotional contact through the glass bubble, causing Joe to weep and ask Dr. Good, “How can I ever thank you for this?” Nick explains that rather than wait to tell his father's story at a memorial service, he wanted to let the world know now about what his father had contributed, and through the ad, was able to.FigureRecords Lacking Unfortunately, some of what appears in the ad could not be confirmed by officials at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. Cancer Center spokesperson Chris Hickey said that the institution did not have any record of a $2 million contribution made in 1973, noting, however, that bookkeeping wasn't what it is today. Others at MSKCC doubted that the contribution had approached the magnitude claimed. Ms. Hickey noted that none of the scientists involved, except for Dr. Good, had any ongoing relationship with Mr. Brooks over the years. She said they remembered meeting Joe Brooks at a social gathering in the early 1970s but none had been told of the extent of his gift, other than that he was one of many donors. According to Ms. Hickey, the two individuals who might have known firsthand about the gift—Dr. Good and Laurance Rockefeller—both died recently (Mr. Rockefeller last summer, and Dr. Good the year before). Neither Nick nor Joe Brooks would agree to be interviewed for this article, and they designated their attorney to handle all inquiries. The attorney said during a phone interview that Mr. Brooks was too busy to answer any questions since, the day the ad was placed, he began rehearsals for a new musical he hopes to take to Broadway later in the year. She suggested sending questions via e-mail to her for review, but did not respond after receiving them. She also said a number of readers had been quite moved by Nick's birthday card, and had made inquiries about contributing to the Fund—which she stated, was not the intent of the ad, but was a nice side effect. Requests to speak with Nick through his school were also ignored, but when I finally got to speak with Dr. Barbara Tischler, who is acknowledged in the ad as Nick's student adviser and Head of the Upper School, and who, he said, “has encouraged my writing and has taught me to think outside the box,” Dr. Tischler said she had nothing at all to do with the writing of the ad and was quite surprised when it appeared and mentioned her. She said Nick had taken a government course with her last year, and, a few months ago, he had vaguely mentioned something about raising money for an ad in the New York Times, but she said she had no idea then what he was talking about. Letters Provided by Attorney The Brooks' attorney sent me copies of two letters—one from Laurance Rockefeller, dated Feb. 9, 1978, some five years after the alleged $2 million gift, thanking Mr. Brooks for a subsequent contribution made toward Dr. Good's research program in Nutrition, Immunity, and Cancer; and the second from Dr. Moore dated Feb. 22, 2005. Malcolm A.S. Moore, DPhil, is currently the Enid A. Haupt Professor of Cell Biology and Head of the James Ewing Laboratory of Developmental Hematopoiesis at MSKCC. Dr. Moore's letter addressed “To Whom It May Concern” states in the first paragraph: “I have read the proposed ‘Birthday Card’ advertisement and am pleased to confirm the contents. The medical information is correct and Mr. Brooks' involvement is also correct.” Dr. Moore also writes in his letter that Dr. Good said “he had found a young benefactor who was willing to support me and my staff for a year including our living costs and the costs of setting up our laboratory and invited me to join the staff at Sloan-Kettering. Dr. Good has been a supporter of my work and I was excited to have this highly unusual opportunity. “Upon our arrival, I met Joe Brooks at a ‘welcoming’ cocktail party reception he held at his Park Avenue apartment for myself, Dr. Dupont, Dr. O'Reilly, and Dr. Jersild.” The actual ad extracted only the last paragraph of the letter, which thanked Mr. Brooks for his invaluable contribution to cancer research and expressed Dr. Moore's pleasure that it “will finally be made public.…We owe a great debt of gratitude for this support, without which our discoveries may not have been made.” Malcolm Moore: “I should stress that neither I, nor the current MSKCC administration, were in a position to confirm the extent of this contribution in dollar terms.” A request to Dr. Moore to explain some of the discrepancies in his letter and statements made by Memorial Sloan-Kettering resulted in a comprehensive e-mail message from Dr. Moore. The second half, which addresses those issues, follows: “Last year (March 2004) Mr. Joe Brooks (and his son) met with me, and Mr. Brooks revealed that he had provided a large sum of money to MSKCC following our meeting at the Fund-raising reception in 1973, and that it was his belief that this money had been used to recruit me and provide start-up money for my program. I had no reason to disbelieve him. “Mr. Brooks informed me that he had signed a confidentiality statement indicating that he did not want his name to be publicized in the context of his donation. He also showed me a letter signed by Laurance Rockefeller (Chairman of the Board of MSKCC at the time), thanking him for his contribution to MSKCC (although dated some years later). “He told me that his son had written a ‘Birthday Letter’ describing his fathers' philanthropy and the subsequent research activities of scientists at MSKCC who had been recruited with the donation. His son wished to have this as a full page ‘advertisement’ in the New York Times. “In discussions with the administration at MSKCC there appeared to be no document showing this donation during the 1973/74 time period. “The ‘Birthday Letter’ was not published last year but Mr. Brooks and his son met with me again in February of this year, wishing to reactivate the project. Mr. Brooks requested a letter from me attesting to the validity of the statements made in the Birthday Letter as they pertained to me. Apparently the New York Times wanted verification from individuals mentioned in the letter. I prepared a letter for that purpose—although it was not made clear to me that it would be incorporated into the Birthday Letter, and I was under the impression that this was a private communication—in which I acknowledged that Mr. Brooks had made a substantial contribution to MSKCC and that it was my understanding that this had been used to recruit me to MSKCC. “I should stress that neither I, nor the current MSKCC administration, were in a position to confirm the extent of this contribution in dollar terms.” And so, this additional limited light on the subject of a son's birthday ad for his dad may help explain what may or may not have happened.