Oral history interview : New York, N.Y., 1968 May 1.

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Oral history interview : New York, N.Y., 1968 May 1.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/753963172

The interview was conducted by Ruthanna Hindes of the Manuscripts & Archives Department of the then Eleutherian Mills Historical Libary at the Lambs club in New York for the specific purpose of eleucidating Dowling's relationships with John J. Raskob and Pierre S. du Pont, whose papers are among the library's earliest holdings. It was Dowling who introduced Raskob to Al Smith, and thus involved Raskob, formerly a Republican, in national Democratic Party politics. The bonds were formed through their common Catholicism and opposition to Prohibition. With Roosevelt's election and subsequent Repeal, Dowling went with the New Deal, while Smith split with FDR, and Raskob, after trying to find a business-friendly Democratic replacement for Roosevelt through the American Liberty League, eventually returned to the Republicans. Dowling paints a vivid picture of New York City high life in the Roaring Twenties, when Tammany politicians, contractors and other political donors, Broadway celebrities and showgirls all mingled in places like Bill Kenny's Tiger Room, a private nightclub/speakeasy. His narrative also brings out the solidarity of (mostly Irish American) Catholics, the importance of the Church in networking, their defensiveness, and their pride in Smith's 1928 presidential bid, as well as the ease with which millionaires like Raskob could deploy their resources. Dowling describes the candidates and the 1928 presidential campaign, and particularly the 1932 Democratic convention in Chicago, where he orchestrated the entertainment to keep the delegates distracted while deal-makers were lining up votes for FDR. He tells how he pushed through the use of "Happy Days Are Here Again," as Roosevelt's campaign song, over the objections of FDR himself, and of the developing split between himself and FDR on the one hand and Smith and Raskob on the other.

50 leaves.

Hagley Museum & Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8128905

Hagley Museum & Library

Related Entities

There are 12 Entities related to this resource.

Tammany Hall.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b38m5p (corporateBody)

Smith, Alfred Emanuel, 1873-1944

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6427mg4 (person)

Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928. Smith was the foremost urban leader of the Efficiency Movement in the United States and was noted for achieving a wide range of reforms as governor in the 1920s. The son of an Irish-American mother and a Civil War veteran father, he was raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan near the Brooklyn Bri...

Raskob, John J. (John Jakob), 1879-1950

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zp47cr (person)

John Raskob was born in Lockport, N.Y. on March 19, 1879. He was educated in the area's public schools and after holding a number of positions as a stenographer and secretary went to work for The Johnson Company of Lorain, Ohio, in August 1900. The Johnson Company had been recently purchased by Pierre S. du Pont. Two years later he became Pierre S. du Pont's private secretary, and when du Pont became treasurer of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. on March 4, 1904, Raskob became his ...

Hindes, Ruthanna, 1917-2001

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6t80f80 (person)

Democratic National Convention (1968 : Chicago, Ill.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63z1wn2 (corporateBody)

Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61s7dgz (person)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York. He was the son of James (lawyer, financier) and Sara (Delano) Roosevelt. He married Anna Eleanor Roosevelt on March 17, 1905, and had six children: Anna, James, Franklin, Elliott, Franklin Jr., John. He received his B.A. from Harvard in 1904 and later attended Columbia University Law School. Roosevelt was admitted to the Bar in 1907 and worked for the Carter, Ledyard, and Milburn firm in New York City from 1907 to 19...

American Liberty League

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xm2c4h (corporateBody)

The American Liberty League was launched on August 22, 1934. The League's board of directors included Irénée du Pont, Pierre du Pont, John Raskob, and Jouett Shouse. The aim of the Liberty League was to build opposition to Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, which during 1933 and early 1934 had enacted a program to regulate American business. The Liberty League was also opposed to the Wagner Act, which set up the National Labor Relations Board, as well as to government sponsored public works pro...

Tiger Room (New York, N.Y.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g78wxg (corporateBody)

Democratic National Committee (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fn4z83 (corporateBody)

Raskob, Bill, 1908-1928

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cw2dwk (person)

Dowling, Eddie

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nw7fs1 (person)

Eddie Dowling, a self-described "song and dance man" and Democratic Party activist, was born Joseph N. Goucher on Dec. 12, 1889, in Woonsocket, R.I. to parents of French Canadian and Irish descent, the fourteenth of seventeen children. He began performing as an early age, taking the name of his mother's family as a stage name. Dowling achieved success, first in Boston, and then in New York, where he became a Broadway fixture as composer, songwriter, playwright, actor, director and producer. His ...

Du Pont, Pierre S. (Pierre Samuel), 1870-1954

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67082mx (person)

P. S. du Pont was president of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. from 1915 to 1919 and chairman of the board from 1919 to 1940. He was also president of General Motors (1920-1923) and chairman (1920-1929), as well as a member of many other major corporate boards. He was also an avid collector of documents on the early history of the Du Pont family and company. From the description of The P. S. du Pont Office Collection, 1749-1939. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 16...