The main objection to this project came from the people who owned the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building was owned by Harry Helmsley and Larry Wiener. Okay? And they, when they heard the announcement of our plan, which was in 1964, they formed a Committee for a Reasonable World Trade Center. So -- And they gave them a budget of $500,000 to prevent the construction of the World Trade Center. Now, there were things that were -- some, not so good. There were some stores on the site that we had to move. And we relocated people. We paid for them to move, etc.

But anyway, I went and met with Mr. Helmsley one day. I said, "Harry," (I knew him.) I said, "Harry, could you tell me what is a reasonable World Trade Center?" And he said, "Yes." I said, "What's that?" He said, "One hundred floors high." And I said, "Well, your Empire State Building's 102." And I said, "I'm sorry, but I think 110 is a better number."

It was Thanksgiving Day, 1966. My mother and father were at my house, and the phone rang. A New York Times reporter. And he had me on the phone for about a half hour. He said, "I hear from the Committee for a Reasonable World Trade Center that your towers will obstruct the television signal from the top of the world -- the Empire State Building." And I said, "Well, I don't think that's quite correct," because -- "How do you know that?" Well, I said, "During World War II, I was a radar expert, and I went to MIT under the Navy, and used it in the Pacific. So I can tell you that it might make a slight shadow but the waves curve around." And he kept insisting that they said no, it would be an obstruction, and blips would appear somewhere in Yonkers. Finally in sort of desperation he said, "Well, what would you do, Guy, if it's really true?" Well, I said, "I can't think of anything else, but I'd put an antenna on the top of this building and move the antennas from the -- back to our place. They would be higher, and it wouldn't be any problem."

So I went back to the table, dinner table. And remember, we were only a few weeks short of going to the city of New York for the right to close the streets. And I knew we were going to have some difficulties. So my mother, who loved television, she said, "Guy, who was that?" I said, "It's the New York Times," and I told her the story of what they said. And I said, "You know, Mom, I could really build [towers] if I had to, but it'd be terrible. We'd have to redesign the number one tower. And be very expensive." So -- and she had her head down. And finally she looked up, she said, "You know, you're my son and I love you very much, but I must tell you, if you're going to hurt television reception in this area, you better stop that project of yours right now." And I knew I had big problems.

In any case, we did. We actually negotiated a deal with the television people, and they moved down to our place. And it all worked out.