My assumption was based on the "lit room" part, which hardly fits a dark room; however, if I were to make a bet, it would be that he did mean a conventional contact print, which would (nowadays) require a darkroom. When contact printing was more the norm, and enlarging less common, printing papers didn't need to be as sensitive; the light from an enlarger is cut down by the lens, after all. The contact printing papers then available didn't need a safelight. My first contact prints were made on a landing, using a low powered nightlight (basically a torch bulb) for a safelight, and processed in saucers. So, wind back the clock to the late 1950s, and I think you could get away without a safelight.