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Emmet Dalton: Irish Revolutionary, Film Pioneer, New England Native

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On rare occasion, a jewel of an anecdote, quite by accident reveals itself.  Such is the story of an enlisted World War I soldier, Irish freedom-fighter and later first commanding general of the Irish Free State. This key figure played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Irish Home Rule. He should be of interest to anyone drawn to the history of Irish rebellion. Largely lost to history, however, is a side note that makes his story particularly compelling for American readers.  Emmet Dalton, a major protagonist in the founding of modern Ireland drew his first breaths along the salty shores of New England.

Emmet Dalton

Some background.  I recently read A World Undone, by G. J. Meyer, a fascinating, well-researched history of the First World War.  In it, Meyer vividly recounts the horrors of the Battle of the Somme, which piqued my interest in this particular engagement of the war.  I began researching further and happened to come upon a video of an interview with one Emmet Dalton, an Irish volunteer who joined the British Army in 1915. He initially signed on with the 7th battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (RDF) and was later attached to the 9th Battalion, RDF, 16th Irish Division.

Emmet Dalton in his British Army uniform

In the video, Dalton shares the harrowing details of the Battle of the Somme. He received the Military Cross for his conduct during the fight.

Dalton continued to fight as a British Army recruit for the duration of the war. He saw duty in Salonika and Palestine and rose to the rank of captain.

After the war, Dalton returned to Dublin and joined the Irish Republican Army, the clandestine organization that led the charge for Irish independence.  Rising quickly to IRA Director of Intelligence, Dalton became a very close confidante of Michael Collins. Many consider Collins the leading figure in the 20th-century struggle for Irish independence.

Michael Collins in 1919

Michael Collins

Dalton accompanied Collins as his principal attaché to the Anglo-Irish Treaty talks in London in 1921.  Leading the talks for the British Crown was Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty.  Dalton aligned himself with Collins in accepting the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922. In recognition of his military acumen, the Irish Free State’s Provisional Government gave him the rank of major general in the new National Army.

Many in the IRA opposed the treaty. As leader of the Free State Army, Dalton was at the center of key engagements in the ensuing civil war. He commanded troops assaulting the Four Courts in the Battle of Dublin. He also led the seaborne landing in Cork that wrested away the Anti-Treaty positions in the summer of 1922.

That would prove a particularly fateful summer.  On the 22nd of August, 1922, Dalton accompanied Michael Collins in a convoy as it toured rural west Cork.  In the ambush and gun battle that followed near Beal na Blath, Collins suffered a mortal gunshot wound to the head.  This we all know from the history books.  What many may not know is that, after being lifted into the armored car he had been traveling in, Collins died in Emmet Dalton’s arms.

Pallbearers carry the coffin of Michael Collins from the Pro Cathedral in Dublin

Emmet Dalton, Film Pioneer

In December 1922, Dalton resigned his command in the army, but his remarkable story does not end there. He would later go on to become a pioneer in the Irish movie industry, establishing Ardmore Studios, in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland.  His company attracted the leading actors of his day, including Peter Ustinov, James Cagney, Fred Astaire, Katharine Hepburn, Peter O’Toole, Ursula Andress and Richard Burton. He produced films such as The Blue Max, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and The Lion in Winter.  Directors who filmed out of Ardmore during this period included John Huston, Stanley Kubrick, Neil Jordan, Kevin Reynolds and Francis Ford Coppola.

Shortly before Dalton’s death at 80, in 1978, Cathal O’Shannon of Ireland’s National Public Service Media (RTE) made a fascinating two-part documentary about his life, titled Emmet Dalton Remembers.   In the making of the film, Dalton and O’Shannon visited the Somme in France, Kilworth Camp in Cork, and, most notably, Beal Na Blath.  The documentary includes a 20-minute clip that focuses on the ambush and death of Michael Collins at Beal Na Blath.  Unfortunately, Dalton died without having seen the finished film.  Dalton expressly requested that he be buried as close to Michael Collins as possible.  His grave can be found a few yards away from that of Collins, in Glasnevin Cemetery, in Dublin.

A New Englander

Why do I share this story?  Well, it turns out that, upon viewing the video in which Dalton describes his ordeal at the Somme, I happened to notice a wee hint of an American accent in his voice.  It intrigued me and, researching further, I found the reason for it.  James “Emmet” Dalton was born in Fall River, Mass., of second-generation Irish-American parents, on March 4, 1898.  Around 1900 his father, James F. Dalton, having never previously set foot in Ireland, uplifted his family from America and moved to Dublin. They settled in the village of Drumcondra.

Growing up, Emmet Dalton naturally acquired the local accent. However, his parents were American-born, moving to Ireland well into their twenties. Emmet invariably grew up in a household where his parents spoke with an American accent.  He never lost that wee hint of his American roots.

Ardmore Studios

It’s particularly fitting that portions of the 1996 award-winning movie, Michael Collins, starring Liam Neeson, were filmed at Ardmore Studios.  To this day, Ardmore Studios continues as a leading world film studio. It attracts such luminaries as Clive Owen (King Arthur), Pierce Brosnan (Evelyn), Meryl Streep (Dancing at Lughnasa) and Helen Mirren (The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone).  In the last decade, feature films have included Asterix, Byzantium, All Is By My Side (Jimi Hendrix biopic), Run and Jump and Frank, according to its website.

And it can all be traced back to Emmet Dalton, a son of Fall River who grew up to become a pivotal figure in Irish independence and a film pioneer in Ireland.  In 2014, the Irish author, Sean Boyne, published a biography of Dalton, Emmet Dalton:  Somme Soldier, Irish General, Film Pioneer. An excellent read, it is available on Amazon and Bookshop.   A recent review of Boyne’s book declared, “it is high time that Emmet Dalton resumes his rightful place in the Pantheon of Irish Rebellion.

Aug. 22, 2022 marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Michael Collins.  Commemorations took place throughout Ireland.  With this in mind, we would do well to recognize the pivotal role that this local boy played in establishing Irish Home Rule.  Ireland has reached a consensus that an acknowledgement of Dalton’s pivotal contribution is long overdue.  I would suggest the same for America.

To see a video, Emmet Dalton remembers: The Irish Civil War, Michael Collins, Beal na Blath, Ardmore Films, click here.

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Interested in Irish history? In food? Click here to order your copy. 

 

 

 

 

Kendall Brostuen is vice president of academic affairs at EF Education First College Study Abroad, Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He resides in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Images: Lion in Winter By The poster art can or could be obtained from Avco Embassy Pictures., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5047149. Michael Collins poster By May be found at: http://www.impawards.com/1996/michael_collins.htmlhttp://www.impawards.com/1996/michael_collins.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3512888. This story was updated in 2024.

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Who Killed William Dean and Threw Him Into Deep Water?

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For over 100 years, people have tried to figure out who killed Dr. William Dean at his farm in Jaffrey, N.H., and dumped his body in a cistern full of deep water.

There’s no shortage of possible answers to the question – and to another: Why was he killed?

The case led investigators through a tangle of suspects that included Dean’s elderly wife, a World War I-era German spy ring and a politically powerful friend who was a banker and a judge.

Dean with oxen at his hilltop farm

Kenneth M. Sheldon delves into the mystery and presents a possible solution in his new book, Deep Water: Murder, Scandal, and Intrigue in a New England Town. The book is based on extensive research into the Dean murder, including thousands of pages of FBI documents, Grand Jury testimonies, newspaper accounts, private correspondence, and the archives of the Jaffrey Historical Society.

Here is an edited excerpt from Deep Water.

Deep Water

By now, it was noon. The men found an ice hook in the barn and used it to pull the body out just enough to confirm that it was William Dean. He had been bound, his hands tied behind his back, a rope around the knees, and a rough burlap sack over his head.

They released the body back into the water and telephoned the county authorities. While they waited, William Coolidge became concerned about Mrs. Dean and decided she should have someone with her. He called the Monadnock National Bank to speak with Dean’s friend Charles Rich, manager of the bank, hoping that Rich’s wife could come to look after Mrs. Dean. Coolidge heard the phone ring, but before it was answered, a car pulled into the Deans’ yard. In it were Charles and Lana Rich, Georgiana Hodgkins, and William Leighton, the town undertaker. Their arrival struck Coolidge as odd. How could they have heard the news so quickly, given that Dean’s body had just been found?

Suspect Charles Rich (far left), manager of the Monadnock Bank in Jaffrey.

When the Riches arrived, Mrs. Dean was in the barn tending to the turkeys and other animals, which seemed odd to Charles Rich. “She was down there doing that instead of being overcome with grief,” he testified later. “I was a little surprised at that, knowing she was an invalid.”

Dead in the Deep Water

Mrs. Dean emerged from the barn, and Lana Rich and Miss Hodgkins took her aside to keep her from seeing what was going on at the cistern. Mr. Rich joined the other men by the cistern, at which point Martin Garfield noticed Rich had a severe black eye and cuts on his face and ear. Rich also made what seemed to Garfield a foolish comment. “Mr. Rich came to the well and looked in and said he thought Mr. Dean was nervous and intimated that he probably put himself out of the way,” Garfield said. “I told him I didn’t think Mr. Dean could commit suicide the way he was fixed up.”

“Mr. Dean was a pretty smart man,” Rich said.

“He must have been a mighty smart man to tie his legs together, his hands behind his back, pull a bag down over his head, put a stone around his body, jump into the cistern and pull the cover over it,” Garfield replied. He offered to have Dean’s body pulled up for Rich to see.

Newspaper clipping showing the wounds on Dean’s head

Rich turned white. “I don’t care to see him.”

At that, Rich left and rejoined the women. Mrs. Dean saw him approach and said, “Oh, Mr. Rich, Mr. Dean is dead in the deep water.”

“Yes, Mrs. Dean, he was in deep water,” Rich replied.

Georgiana Hodgkins found Mary Dean’s reaction to the news disturbing. “She didn’t seem to be impressed by the fact that her own idea had been confirmed, and just went on talking,” Hodgkins said.

William Dean, Murder Victim

It was not until 2 p.m. that the person responsible for investigating the murder, Cheshire County Solicitor Roy Pickard, arrived on the scene with the county medical examiner, Dr. Frank Dinsmore, and two county sheriffs. The officials stood by as Dean’s body was pulled from the cistern and laid on the grass. The ropes binding Dean’s knees and arms had been tied with square knots, and rather than untie them, the men cut the ropes to preserve the knots as evidence.

They removed the burlap sack from Dean’s head, revealing a blood-stained horse blanket that had been wrapped around it, along with a stone estimated to weigh about twenty-five pounds, apparently added to keep the body from floating to the top of the cistern.

The searchers unwrapped the blanket, revealing deep cuts on the left side of Dean’s forehead and bruises to his left eye. A horse halter had been looped around Dean’s throat and pulled so tightly that it left an indentation in his neck. If there had been any doubt before, there certainly was none now; William Dean had been brutally murdered.

The last known photo of William and Mary Dean prior to his death, previously unpublished.

No Deep Water Drowning

The body was placed in a basket and carried to the kitchen of the summer house, where Dr. Dinsmore conducted a preliminary examination. He determined that the lacerations on Dean’s head had been caused by one or more blows, perhaps strong enough to render him unconscious, but probably not to kill him. He also concluded Dean had not been drowned. “There was no water in the lungs,” he testified. However, the lungs did provide evidence for the actual cause of death. According to undertaker Leighton, who was present at the examination, “The lungs showed a dark color, proof of suffocation.” The conclusion seemed clear: William Dean had been stunned by a blow to his head, choked to death, and then bound and thrown into the cistern.

While the examination of the body proceeded, County Solicitor Pickard, the sheriffs, and volunteers searched the farm for clues. They found bloodstains on the barn door, the doorknob, the porch steps, and the floor of the barn. They concluded that Dean had been murdered in the barn and his body carried 150 feet to the cistern; the grass from the barn to the cistern did not appear flattened or compressed, indicating the body had been carried rather than dragged.

No Milk Pail

The searchers were unable to find anything that might have been used as a murder weapon. Nor could they find the milk pail that Mr. Dean had used on the night of his death.

Fish and game warden George Wellington arrived, milked the cow, and found that it gave no more than the ordinary amount, establishing that it had been milked the night before. But the milk pail had disappeared. It was suggested that perhaps the murderers had washed their bloody hands in the pail and disposed of it, wanting to hide the evidence. If so, where was the pail, and what had they done with the milk? Then, as if there weren’t already enough complications, New England’s weather—well-known for being fractious and changeable—dealt the search a sudden and disastrous blow.


The author of this story, Kenneth M. Sheldon, is a freelance author, editor, and playwright. His work has appeared in publications ranging from Acoustic Guitar to Yankee Magazine, where he was formerly a columnist. 

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7 Fun Facts About the Trapp Family, Before & After The Sound of Music

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There’s a lot more to the Trapp Family Singers than you’ll find in The Sound of Music, one of the most beloved (and lucrative) movies of all time.

In the film, an Austrian novitiate named Maria leaves the convent temporarily to work as a governess for the seven children of Georg von Trapp, a wealthy widower. She sings with the children and plays outdoors with them. The widower and the novitiate fall in love as Hitler rises to power. They win the Salzburg Festival and start singing professionally. Finally they decide to flee when Hitler annexes Austria. In the final scene, they carry their luggage to freedom over the Alps.

The broad outlines of the story are true. Baron Georg von Trapp was indeed a widower, and Maria a young novitiate. The von Trapp family did live in Salzburg and they did sing professionally, starting in 1934.

The rest of the real  story takes place elsewhere. They toured internationally, then arrived in the United States in late 1938 with little money. They continued performing to critical and popular acclaim. Within four years they could buy a 660-acre farm in Stowe, Vt., which they turned into a summer camp and later a ski lodge. Until 1956, the Trapp Family toured extensively. Then they followed separate careers, though they kept the ski lodge in Stowe.

The movie came about because Maria published her memoirs in 1949. She called it The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.

A West German film company, Gloria,  bought the rights to the book and made a musical comedy drama called Die Trapp Familie, released in 1956. A sequel, The Trapp Family in America, followed in 1958. Rodgers and Hammerstein turn it into a Broadway musical in the fall of 1959, and it ran for more than three years.

Then in 1965 came the big one: The Sound of Music, the film

But what really happened before – and what happened after — the film now viewed as a cultural treasure? Here are seven fun facts.

1. Georg von Trapp was a war hero.

The patriarch of the von Trapp Family, Baron Georg von Trapp, was a highly decorated naval hero for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He served as commander of two U-boats during World War I, sinking 13 Allied vessels.

Baron Georg von Trapp, when he was commander of U-5

He received the Military Order of Maria Theresa, Knight’s Cross, for sinking the French armored cruiser Leon Gambetta – the first underwater nighttime attack on a vessel in the Adriatic. While Georg had been born a hereditary knight due to honors bestowed on his father, his valor earned him a knighthood in his own right. Then he was later elevated to baronetcy.

But the collapse of the Austro-Hungary Empire after World War I left Austria landlocked and Georg without a naval post.

He didn’t need to work for a living, but he did.

Georg lectured and wrote on military history and strategy, published his memoir, To the Last Salute, and ran several international shipping companies.

He married Agathe Whitehead, the granddaughter of Robert Whitehead, who invented and manufactured the torpedo. Agathe inherited quite a bit of wealth, but died of scarlet fever in 1922. Georg then married Maria in 1927, when he was 47 and she was 22.

Georg von Trapp aboard his U-boat

2. Some of the Trapp Family Singers wanted out.

Not all the children wanted to spend their lives singing The Carol of the Drum on stage. By the time the group disbanded, most had reached their thirties and forties and were ready to focus on their own careers, families and interests. Both Rupert and Werner served in The Tenth Mountain Division during World War II and had already spent long stretches not performing during their service.

Only Maria’s iron will kept them together until 1956.

The real Maria was indeed a novitiate in an Austrian convent. However she bore little resemblance to the sweet, lovely character played by Julie Andrews. She could be difficult and demanding, with an explosive temper.

Maria herself told the Washington Post in 1978 that the characters “were too gentle — like girls out of Bryn Mawr.”

The Trapp Family Singers actually included Georg’s seven children by his first wife and three with Maria. Later non-family members joined the group as the children moved on to their own careers.

Rupert went to medical school and became a doctor. Agathe taught kindergarten in Maryland, and Werner went into farming, Hedwig taught music and Johanna married and eventually returned to live in Austria. Martina also married and died in childbirth; Rosmarie and Eleonore both settled in Vermont.

The Trapp Family Singers.

When the group broke up, Maria and three of the children went to Papua New Guinea as Catholic missionaries. Maria Franziska worked there as a missionary for 30 years. Johannes ran the Stowe lodge as a ski resort.

Years later, the von Trapp grandchildren and great-grandchildren continued the family tradition. Elisabeth von Trapp, Werner’s daughter, became a folk singer who toured, recorded albums and sang the Star Spangled Banner three times at Fenway Park. And four of Werner’s grandchildren formed a singing group, recording five albums over 15 years before disbanding in 2016.

Others record and perform in various groups, and some perform with professional symphony orchestras.

3. The Trapp family traveled in a bus for their first two years in the U.S.

The bus had “The Trapp Family Singers” painted on the side. They had arrived in the United States in 1938 with only $4.00, having left all their possessions behind. To support themselves, the von Trapp family traveled the country performing. Their first big U.S. concert happened at The Town Hall in New York on Dec. 10, 1938.

For 15 years their Town Hall performance was a Yuletide tradition in the city.

In December 1940 they performed at Jordan Hall in Boston. They also visited the Massachusetts Statehouse and signed Gov. Leverett Saltonstall’s guest book. Baron Von Trapp gave their address as 252 Merion Rd. in Merion Pa.., where a music lover had offered them refuge.

The von Trapps didn’t move to Stowe until 1943. They chose it as their home because it reminded them of the Austrian Tyrol.

4. They didn’t hate The Sound of Music. But they didn’t love it.

Some people find The Sound of Music too saccharine. Among those critics were Maria von Trapp and her youngest son, Johannes.

Johannes von Trapp said in a 1998 New York Times interview, “it’s not what my family was about. . . . [We were] about good taste, culture, all these wonderful upper-class standards that people make fun of in movies like ‘Titanic.’ We’re about environmental sensitivity, artistic sensitivity. ‘Sound of Music’ simplifies everything. I think perhaps reality is at the same time less glamorous but more interesting than the myth.”

The family especially didn’t like the film’s portrayal of Georg as a cold martinet. In reality, he was a warm, attentive father.

Maria, appearing on Julie Andrews’ TV show, told her she was “wonderful” in The Sound of Music.

Maria complained the film got geography all wrong. “Don’t they know geography in Hollywood? Salzburg does not border on Switzerland!” Had they crossed the Alps from their home in Salzburg, they would have reached Germany.

And in reality, they didn’t walk over the Alps. They just crossed the railroad tracks behind their house to the train station. And they went to Italy, not Switzerland.

However Maria, a devout Catholic, praised the film for its religious sensibility. She said it brought joy and hope to millions of people, according to her New York Times obituary in 1987.

“The great good the film and the play are doing to individual lives is far beyond money,” she said. “So many people write about how much the film has helped them in restoring their confidence in God.”

The von Trapp family only made very little money from the movie, which grossed $180 million.

5. Maria didn’t turn the family on to music.

The family, including Georg, already sang together when Maria arrived in 1926. They all had grown up with music in the household, and all played instruments. Maria did teach them to sing madrigals.

Maria von Trapp from her naturalization photo

In 1935, the von Trapps lost a large portion of their money in an Austrian bank collapse. Maria, who had married Georg eight years earlier, dismissed the servants and took in boarders to make ends meet.

A local priest, Father Franz Wasner, came to their home to perform a Mass. He was a musical genius who recognized their talent. He taught them Baroque and Renaissance music, ultimately becoming their musical director and helping to mold them into professionals.

According to Maria’s book, Trapp Family Book of Christmas Songs, their repertoire included a sixth-century Ambrosian chant, medieval lullabies, dance carols from France and Sweden, a somber Spanish song, a majestic Polish air, a bagpiper’s tune from Naples, gay and haunting German and Austrian music and American folksongs. At Christmas they sang Carol of the Drum, Shepherds Come A-Running, and Il est ne, le Divin Enfant.

6. When the Trapp Family Singers fled their home, they had already been to the U.S.

They had gotten their big break when a famous opera singer, Lotte Lehman heard them sing in their home. She suggested they compete at a folk song festival in Salzburg. Then they decided to go on stage.

Then known as the Trapp Family Choir, they performed in Austria and Germany in 1936. In 1937 that expanded into Italy, France, the U.K. and Scandinavia.

Georg didn’t like the idea of the family performing in public because he felt protective of his children and was uncomfortable with the attention. But Eleonore told the Washington Post in 1987 that he “accepted it as God’s will that they sing for others.”

From 1937 to 1938, they toured France, the U.K., the Netherlands, Italy and the United States. In 1939 they returned to Europe where they toured Scandinavia and the Netherlands.

Several developments led to the family’s decision to leave Austria. Rupert, who had just finished medical school, was offered a post at a hospital that had sudden vacancies left by known Jewish doctors who had gone missing. Then Hitler offered Georg a naval commission and invited the family to sing at his birthday party. The von Trapps realized they could either go with Hitler or go against him. So they left for the United States.

Heinrich Himmler, who engineered the Holocaust, later moved into the von Trapps’ Salzburg home, turning one of the children’s bedrooms into his office.

7. The family went to court over the Trapp Family Lodge.

Johannes von Trapp, Maria’s youngest son, was one of several family members who managed the lodge as president. Maria had run the lodge after Georg passed, then Johannes ran it. His nephew George took over for a time until Johannes returned.

He said he resented his older siblings because they couldn’t or wouldn’t run the business.

Johannes had earned a master’s degree in forestry at Yale while still an undergraduate at Dartmouth and designed the ski trail system. In the late 1960s he hired a Norwegian ski instructor to teach guests to cross country ski.

The Trapp Lodge at Christmas

The original lodge, a rustic chalet with 28 small rooms and shared bathrooms, expanded but in 1980 burned to the ground. The von Trapp family lost the contents of the lodge and some of their personal effects. They replaced the lodge with a 73-room, $7.5 million building, since expanded to 96 rooms.

When Maria died in 1987, 32 family members owned stock in the lodge. By 1994, they wanted to leave the business. The rest of the family sued, believing they didn’t get enough money for their share of the business. Five years later, they won the lawsuit.

He regretted it, according to a New York Times interview on Dec. 24, 2008. He said he really wanted to ranch in Montana, and would have preferred a tasteful, dignified hotel to the Trapp family tourist resort.

Johannes was horrified when he discovered the gift shop sold a stuffed goat that sings The Lonely Goatherd. The staff hid it from him, and when he found out about it he let it stay because it sold well.

 

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The Christmas holiday actually began in ancient Rome — and so did Italian cookies. The New England Historical Society’s book, 24 Historic Italian Christmas Cookie Recipes, tells you how to make those delicious treats. It also bring you the history of the Italian immigrants who brought them to New England. Click here to order your copy today!

 

 

 

Images: The Sound of Music poster By May be found at the following website: https://www.etsy.com/listing/125297296/the-sound-of-music-movie-musical-poster, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6639403. This story last updated in 2024.

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When Ernie Shore Overshadowed Babe Ruth

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Babe Ruth cast a very large shadow, but on June 23, 1917, Ernie Shore overshadowed the big guy. He even managed to do it after the Babe got kicked out of the game for punching an umpire.

Ernie Shore with Grover Cleveland Alexander

It happened at Fenway Park in a game against the Washington Senators. Ruth, the starting pitcher for the Red Sox, got thrown out of the game after one batter. Shore relieved him by getting the next 26 batters out.

Ernie Shore

Shore was a country boy from North Carolina, born March 24, 1891. He began his baseball career as a right-handed pitcher for the New York Giants in 1912. Then in 1914 he went to play for the Boston Red Sox.

He won three games and lost one in both Red Sox world championships in 1915 and 1916. Shore played for the Red Sox through the 1917 season. He missed the 1918 World Series because he served in the military during World War I.

Then Harry Frazee sold him to the New York Yankees. Frazee also sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees, bringing the Curse of the Bambino onto the team. He ended his career in 1920 with a 65-43 won-loss record and a lifetime earned run average of 2.47. Ruth’s was slightly better at 2.23.

The Incident

On that June day in 1917, Ruth took the mound for the Red Sox and walked Ray Morgan on four pitches. He believed Ball 2 and Ball 4 were actually strikes. So he charged the umpire, Clarence “Brick” Owens. Ruth yelled, “If you’d go to bed at night, you *expletive*, you could keep your eyes open long enough in the daytime to see when a ball goes over the plate!”

Owens told him to get back on the mound and pitch or he’d throw him out of the game. Ruth replied, “Throw me out and I’ll punch you right in the jaw!” So Owens threw him out. Ruth again charged the umpire and took a swing at him, just managing a glancing blow to Owens’ ear. Owens fell down and threw Ruth out of the game. Police then escorted him off the field.

Ernie Shore then took the mound and Morgan tried to steal second. He was thrown out, and Shore then retired the next 26 batters. )For those of you non-fans, that is a rare feat in baseball.) Not one reached first base. That created a conundrum for scorekeepers. Was it a perfect game, since Shore was on the mound for every out in the game? Or was it a combined no-hitter with Ruth? They eventually ruled it a combined no-hitter.

The Red Sox, by the way, won 4-0.

Babe Ruth, 1918

Aftermath

Shore retired from baseball after the 1920 season and for many years served as the sheriff of Forsyth County in North Carolina. He led the effort to build a minor league ballpark in Winston-Salem, N.C., now named after him. He died at the age of 89, the last surviving member of the 1915-16 Red Sox championship teams.

Babe Ruth received a $100 fine and a 10-game suspension. He also apologized publicly, and went on to create more mayhem and make baseball history.

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Seven Fun Facts About Joseph Kennedy, Father of a Dynasty

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One summer day in the early 1960s, Joseph Kennedy was sitting in his wheelchair in front of his Hyannis Port home,as a marine helicopter lifted up from the lawn. He had suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak.

Inside the helicopter were his son, President John F. Kennedy, and his son’s friend, Chuck Spalding. Kennedy looked down, pointed at his father and said, “He made the whole thing possible.”

Joseph Kennedy, center, at Jack’s birthday party in Hyannis Port, 1963.

Joseph Kennedy did indeed make his son’s presidency possible. He had made a fortune and served in high office himself, all while founding the Kennedy political dynasty. From 1946, when Jack began serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, to 2011, a child or grandchild of his served in public office.

The gods gave Joseph Kennedy much — money, fame, power. They also took much away. He outlived four of his nine children, and a fifth Rosemary, suffered a botched lobotomy that forced her institutionalization.

Joseph, Jr., died in action during World War II. Kathleen died in a plane crash. John, known as Jack, was assassinated in his third year as president, and Robert was killed on the verge of winning the Democratic nomination for president. Pat married move star Peter Lawford and Eunice founded the Special Olympics, Jean served as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, and Ted was one of the longest tenured and most effective members of the U.S. Senate.

Joe himself suffered a stroke in 1961 and died on Nov. 18, 1969.

Many stories have been told about the larger-than-life Joseph Kennedy, some true, some partly true, some complete nonsense. Here are seven true ones.

The Kennedy family at Hyannis Port, 1931

1. Joseph Kennedy, Pampered Son

Born Sept. 6, 1888, he grew up in comfort, but didn’t let anyone know. His grandfather, Patrick Kennedy, had immigrated from Ireland, worked in the East Boston shipyards and died at 35, like many Irish immigrant men. But his father, P.J., bought a saloon for a song and prospered with it. He opened more saloons, got lucrative, no-show patronage jobs and won election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. P.J. also won a seat in the state Senate but left after one term because he preferred being a ward boss.

Joseph Kennedy’s senior high school picture

Young Joe grew up on an elegant tree-lined street in a large waterfront house. His mother, who came from a lace-curtain Irish family in Brockton, spoiled him. “Joe did not come in on a raft,” said his niece. “His life was very comfortable.”

But he loved Horatio Alger books, and wanted people to think he alone was responsible for his success.

2. No Scholar

He got lousy grades in high school, Boston Latin, and had to repeat his senior year. But he excelled at sports, which mattered more to him. He was captain of the tennis team, played basketball and excelled at baseball. He batted an astonishing.667 as a senior, winning the Mayor’s Cup in the high school league. Mayor John Fitzgerald presided over the ceremonies in which he accepted his trophy.

He didn’t do well academically at Harvard, either, and didn’t quite dominate in sports the way he had in high school. But he managed to marry the mayor’s daughter, Rose Fitzgerald.

3. Joseph Kennedy, Draft Dodger

He dodged the draft in World War I. Though married with two children (Joe, Jr., and Jack) he didn’t qualify for a deferment based on marital status. Instead, he got a job as assistant manager of the Fore River Shipyard, and qualified for an Industrial deferment.

Kennedy had served as president of Columbia Trust Co., a small East Boston bank. He boasted of being the country’s youngest bank president, though he had a step up — his father had helped found the bank.

At Fore River, he wrote a long letter to the draft board describing his responsibilities. It worked. He didn’t get a deferment, but he didn’t get drafted, either.

Joseph P. Kennedy, President of the Columbia Trust Company around January 1914. Photograph in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

One of his tasks at Fore River was to manage the influenza pandemic at Fore River. Two thousand cases broke out among the shipyard workers. He turned dormitories into infirmaries to isolate the sick, and stayed away from home to protest his family from the flu.

4. Joseph Kennedy, Serial Philanderer

Even as a relative newlywed he didn’t always come home at night. He worked long hours, often through the weekends, and slept in his office. Or with someone else – secretaries, waitresses and actresses, including Gloria Swanson.

Rose left him when she was pregnant with Kathleen, their fourth child. She moved home to her father and mother in Dorchester. Her father told her she couldn’t get a divorce, so she turned to medication to deal with her husband’s infidelity.

Joseph Kennedy also took separate vacations from Rose beginning when Jack, their second son, was five years old. He wanted to relax and play golf in Palm Beach. She wanted to go to Europe and buy clothes.

5. Nurturing Dad

He, not Rose, cared for Jack during his many illnesses. In 1919, two-year-old Jack came down with scarlet fever, which often killed children. Rose had just given birth and was bedridden for three weeks. Joe got him into Boston City Hospital and spent every night and afternoon at his bedside.

“During the darkest days I felt that nothing else mattered except his recovery,” wrote Joe to Jack’s doctor. He vowed he would give half his money to the Catholic Church if Jack lived. When he did,  Joe wrote a check for $3,740 to the Guild of Saint Apollonia, which gave dental care to Boston children.

John F. Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy, 1919. Photo courtesy John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.

6. But Not a Bootlegger

Despite the rumors, biographers haven’t found much solid evidence that he made his fortune through bootlegging. Unethical stock deals, yes. Kennedy bought stock on inside information, then legal but frowned upon. He also engaged in stock pools, where a small group of investors would target an inactive stock and trade it back and forth among themselves to create an illusion that the stock was a good, rising investment.

He made his real money in Hollywood, reorganizing and refinancing several studios that became RKO.

Not until the end of Prohibition did he invest in the distribution rights to Scotch whiskey. He diversified his investments, buying (among other things) the Chicago Merchandise Mart, then the world’s biggest office building.

7. Bow-legged Joe

President Franklin Roosevelt found him annoying. In 1935, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau suggested Kennedy for the post of Allotment Board chairman, where he would oversee the government’s purchases of gold to stabilize the market. Roosevelt said no. “The trouble with Kennedy is you always have to hold his hand,” Roosevelt said. He regularly “calls up and says he is hurt because I have not seen him.”

Joseph Kennedy, Ambassador to Great Britain.

Roosevelt did appoint Joseph Kennedy as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and later as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. But before nominating him, Roosevelt called him into his office and asked him to drop his pants. Kennedy complied, and Roosevelt burst into laughter. Roosevelt said, “Someone who saw you in a bathing suit once told me something I now know to be true. Joe, just look at your legs. You are just about the most bow-legged man I have ever seen.”

It mattered, explained Roosevelt, because he’d have to wear knee breeches and silk stockings during his induction ceremony as ambassador. He’d be a laughingstock. Joe, however, won permission from the British to wear tails and striped pants.

Joseph Kennedy became ambassador to the United Kingdom.


With thanks to JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 Fredrik Logevall and THE PATRIARCH: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw. Morgenthau anecdote from Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded by Ronald Kessler. 

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Edith Wharton in Paris During World War I

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Life for Edith Wharton in Paris was lived in stimulating freedom and aristocratic luxury until World War I broke out. Shocked by the ravages of the fighting the famous American novelist set to work helping impoverished refugees and wounded French soldiers. She even established work rooms employing displaced women and destitute housewives to make fashionable undergarments.

Edith Wharton

Examining life through her autobiography, A Backward Glance, Edith Wharton wrote that her “years of Paris life were spent entirely in the rue de Varenne; and all those years rise up to meet me whenever I turn the corner of the street. Rich years, crowded and happy years; …I should have been hard to please had I not discovered many compensations in my life in Paris.”

Brought up in privilege on west 23rd street in New York, Wharton’s greatest enjoyments as a youth were reading and playing make-believe. She travelled widely throughout Europe with her parents and spent many a summer in the verdant countryside and the rolling hills of New England.

Married in 1885, Wharton and her husband built The Mount, a country manor in Lenox, Mass., in 1902. It inspired  many of her most poignant novels, such as Ethan Frome and Summer. They tell of life in the New England hill towns.

The Mount

Edith Wharton in Paris

With her husband fighting depression, a disorder hardly better understood today, they traveled to the south of France for the therapeutic relief offered by the warm Mediterranean air. By 1909 they took up their own flat in Paris, at 53 rue de Varenne. Sadly, her husband’s condition grew increasingly difficult, and their living situation became untenable. They divorced in 1913 after 28 years of marriage, and Wharton moved permanently into the Paris apartment.

edith-wharton-in-paris

Edith Wharton in Paris: Her longtime home at 53 rue de Varenne in the 7th arrondissement. Photo courtesy of John Happ.

With the experiences of previous visits and now permanently living in the City of Lights, the author moved among the most fashionable, wealthy and influential of society’s statesmen and journalists alike. In Paris she “”enjoyed a freedom…, not possible to the native born, who were enclosed in the old social pigeon-holes…” As an American of means she could gracefully straddle various social segments. Enthusiasm in France for her writing had been growing. Her latest work, The Custom of the Country had even recently been translated into French along with The House of Mirth. Wharton’s characterization of New England life, then completely unknown to the French, boosted her popularity and reputation.

The Poor Archduke

But old-world diplomatic alliances had created confusion and crisis in Europe. Long unresolved and pent-up hostilities were released. Germany declared war on France in August of 1914.

Of those months immediately preceding the outbreak of war, Wharton recalled, “How happy and safe the future seemed.”

So aloof to the unfolding hostilities were Wharton and her friends that when the trigger was pulled in Sarajevo, and the war was set in motion, “We gave little thought to the poor murdered Archduke…”

The Western Front

France rushed to reclaim the “lost” provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. The move put the two armies face-to-face along Germany’s western border – the so-called Western Front.

western-front

A French bayonet charge on the Western Front.

People were shocked to learn that the nature and methods of war had changed. Gone were the Victorian-era days of horse cavalry and bayonet combat. Both sides had new and bigger artillery guns, dreadful chemical gases, frightening flame throwers and far-reaching aerial bombs.

The German advance into France scared many people out of Paris. When they continued into Belgium in the fall of 1914, Belgian refugees flooded the city. War engulfed everyone: civilians, women and children alike. The city was swamped by the growing throngs and drowning for the lack of funds to deal with them. Casualties on the French side were legion.

sculpture

Near to Wharton’s Paris home the sculpture “Charity”,
Square Boucicault on Place le Courbusier, Paris, located on the Boulervard Raspail, Metro Sevres-Babylon. Photo courtesy of John Happ.

Refugees

French service organizations had not, on the one hand, prepared at all for this influx of refugees. On the other, the French army had drained the city of men from all walks of life, conscripted to fill the ranks. With their husbands gone, wives had no money. Nor did they have a way to make any since they were normally bound to their household chores.

Almost all hotels, restaurants, shops and work-rooms had closed with the drafting of the men. There remained large numbers of women and children without means or livelihood for whom immediate provisions had to be made.

A crowd of reservists mobilized at the Gare de l’Est. Photo courtesy of Bibliothèque nationale de France

In the growing domestic crisis, the French Red Cross asked the now-famous Edith Wharton for help. She hesitated. The war had even frozen her personal money transfers from America. But, once determined that she must help France, she undertook her duty with raw enthusiasm. She helped to set up an American Hostel for Refugees, which managed to provide shelter, meals and clothes. Eventually it offered employment agency services to help the needy find work.

In early 1915, Wharton organized the Children of Flanders Rescue Committee, which gave shelter to nearly 900 Belgian refugees.

Underwear Entrepreneur

In lieu of raising money as a traditional charity, she opened a cutting and sewing workroom to make undergarments. In this way she gave meaningful employment to war refugees, underprivileged women and the wives of factory men called to service.

They made lingerie, men’s undershorts and foundation garments. The business engaged some 90 women who received both food and wages.

Of these heady days, Wharton wrote, “There was an ardor in the air which made it seem easy to accomplish whatever one attempted.”

As Wharton’s workshop grew, wealthy friends with spare property to offer gave her space in Paris. She had several skilled workers among her first recruits. That led Wharton to the idea to use finer materials and make “high end” or fashion undergarments that could be sold in America. And with the volunteer support of international agents she received orders from American department stores.

Military Hospitals

hospital

Les Invalides military hospital, as seen from Rue de Varenne. Photo courtesy of John Happ.

Fundraising was a constant effort. In order to tap America for funds to aid their relief efforts, the French Red Cross again turned to Wharton. The agency asked her to report on the needs in military hospitals near the front. Journalists were restricted at the war front, but she managed to get the necessary passes and permits to travel there.

Witnessing haunting scenes of desperation as well as valor Wharton created a series of magazine articles for publication in the States. The physical destruction of men’s minds and bodies was unparalleled in history.

By May of 1917 Wharton found the morale of the French army at a low ebb. Men were being sent back to the front instead of to a rest area as they were promised. “More than half of the divisions in the army were in various stages of indiscipline and mutiny.”

Marshall Petain, general and commander of the French Army, empathized with the soldiers. He halted offensive actions and gave soldiers a break, stating, “We shall wait for the Americans and their tanks.”

Wharton’s stirring articles produced an outpouring of support from America. So-called “Edith Wharton” fund raising committees sprang up in New York, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia and elsewhere.  That made it financially possible for the Red Cross to continue its work.

Finally, Peace

Bloody fighting also continued. In July of 1918 the German offensive reached Château-Thierry, only 50 miles from Paris. Bombardments on the city thundered through the various arrondissements.  Works of art were evacuated from the Louvre and sandbags were placed around monuments. Blackouts shrouded the city from German night bombers.

Bombs exploding over low buildings, probably the bombing of Paris in 1918. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Museum.

Then, large numbers of American soldiers began arriving in France. Allied forces turned back the German offensive. By November 1918 one set of church bells after another all over Paris began to ring out peace! The war was over.

The war upended the world in which Wharton once thrived. The First World War brought the innocence of her youth to an end,  Years later she wrote, “the world I had grown up in and been formed by had been destroyed in 1914… ”

Edith Wharton in Paris, Remembered

plaque

Photo courtesy of John Happ.

For her heroism, the French posted the following at the door of 53 rue de Varenne:

(Translated as) In this building lived from 1910 to 1920 EDITH WHARTON American Novelist 1862 to 1937. She was the first writer from the United States to expatriate herself to France, for the love of this country and her literature.

Quoting Wharton in English it says,

My years of Paris life were spent entirely in the Rue de Varennes – rich years, crowded and happy years.

Finally it says again in French,

Close to Henry James, the work of Edith Wharton describes the high society from which she came, in ways both delicate and biting.

The Local Memories Association.

The End of the Story

Had she only been the great American novelist, it would have already been quite a lifetime. But the French honored her for the service she extended to the nation in their time of great need.

Edith Wharton died in 1937 and is buried in Versailles, France.

grave

Photo courtesy of John Happ.

John E. Happ, the author of this story about Edith Wharton in Paris, has been immersed in the contrasting narratives of foreign cultures since college in Spain and speaks five languages. His varied assignments in Germany, Switzerland, the Philippines and Japan contribute greatly to his research and perspectives. Happ is a contributing author at the Journal of the American Revolution, has written for the web site The 75th Artillery C.A.C During World War One and the adventure magazine, Atlantic Coastal Kayaker.

Images: The Mount By Margaret Helminska – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63730387. French bayonet charge By Underwood & Underwood. (US War Dept.) – http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/DVIC_View/Still_Details.cfm?SDAN=HDSN9902296&JPGPath=/Assets/Still/1999/DoD/HD-SN-99-02296.JPG., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2599594.

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