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Dewey was a capable enough performer that in 1924 he was booked for a solo performance in the cultural heart of America. In the audience was the noted music critic Deems Taylor. Taylor commented upon what he perceived as Dewey's contrived emotional stage effects, but this flaw was dwarfed by a more essential one: suffering from laryngitis, Dewey's voice totally shut down halfway through the program. A thoroughly mortified Dewey was forced to take stock of his career, and as a second choice he decided to pursue a law degree. Columbia University of the 1920's enjoyed a plethora of great legal minds, and even the frustrated singer came to develop a passion for law and the potential theatrics of the courtroom.
Dewey's rapid ascent through the law profession was abetted by two factors: his labors on behalf of New York City's struggling Republican party, and the patronage of George Z. Medalie, who would become Dewey's legal and political rabbi. Medalie, a major character in this treatment, enjoyed a thriving private law practice, but he was drafted for one of the city's frequent, and usually unsuccessful, forays against organized crime, which literally held New York in a stranglehold in the 1920's and 1930's. Medalie, who had once consulted for Dewey's firm, brought this "prodigy" into his investigations of the seamy criminal underbelly of New York including, as it turned out, the disappearance of Judge Crater.
Not even Medalie could have imagined what kind of courtroom tiger he had unleashed. It was to Dewey's advantage that few intrepid souls wanted to tackle the dangers of addressing organized crime, particularly when corruption pervaded the police department and the courts. Dewey became New York City's district attorney in 1935, prosecuting famous gangsters, politicians, and public figures with a take no prisoners approach. Smith describes several of the most famous investigations in considerable detail, but it is Dewey's style that is most intriguing: a workaholic perfectionist whose "when in Rome" style and prosecutorial armtwisting were not for the prudish. Dewey's face became one of the most recognizable in America-through newspapers, newsreels, and a series of Hollywood B-movies in which Dewey lookalike actors reenacted the more famous of his investigations.
After the substantive defeats of Hoover in 1932 and Landon in 1936 many Republican voters in the 1940 primaries turned to the fresh aggressive look of Dewey. By May 1 Dewey stood at the head of the pack, but May 1940 proved to be his undoing. Smith observes that it was not a Republican challenger who derailed Dewey's victory train, but Hitler himself. After the disaster of Dunkirk, Dewey became "the first American casualty of the Second World War," as one wag put it at the time. As the war came visibly closer to American life, Dewey's youth and limited international experience became glaring obstacles to his White House hopes. Defeated for the nomination by Wendell Wilkie, Dewey captured the New York state house in 1942. A genuinely compassionate man, Dewey's lengthy tenure as governor was marked by fiscal conservatism and social reform. His vision was remarkable: he predicted the postwar housing shortage and developed a state surplus for postwar needs. He saw the fiscal possibilities of a better highway system and sowed the seeds for what would become the interstate highway system by his advocacy of the New York State Thruway, which now bears his name.
Had Dewey's ambition been quenched in Albany, he would probably be remembered as one of the most effective state leaders of the century. Regrettably for his posterity, it is his unsuccessful runs for the presidency in 1944 and particularly 1948, when he "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory," that most Americans associate with Dewey. Smith does not psychoanalyze the 1948 event, as many historians do, nor does he demonize Truman, whom he credits with conducting a masterful if brutal campaign. Smith concedes that Dewey's 1948 campaign was too ethereal, but in the final analysis Dewey was a victim of himself. Like Nixon, he was not a natural gladhander, and his perfectionism in crafting his speeches not only resulted in a wooden product but devoured time better spent in personal appearances.
Smith describes Dewey's personal life as that of, well, a rich suburban Republican. Early in his career Dewey made the acquaintance of journalist Lowell Thomas, who gradually drew him into the social circle of Quaker Hill, an exclusive mountain community near Pawling, New York, north of the city. Dewey remained a presence in Republican circles until his sudden death by heart attack in 1971. He labored to keep his party moderate, campaigning vigorously for Eisenhower and against the Taft wing. Smith brings to light several interesting anecdotes of Dewey's later years. In 1970 a coterie of leading congressional Republicans, deeply concerned about the style and direction of the Nixon White House [read Haldeman and Ehrlichman], nominated their former party leader to speak privately with the president. Dewey apparently agreed to approach Nixon, but his sudden death intervened. Smith also records that the widowed Dewey courted Kitty Carlisle Hart [then a panelist on the popular TV program "To Tell The Truth"] and asked her to marry him. [The question was still under negotiation at the time of his death.] On the last day of his life, in Miami, he played golf with Carl Yastrzemski. His final regrets, it appears, had less to do with presidential campaigns and more to do with his belief that he had worked too hard and played too little.
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The book is a collection of 10 articles written for New Mexico Magazine. Titles include "Turquoise and the Native American", "Buyer Beware: Hidden Facets of Turquoise", Young Native Jewelers Signal Change of Guard" and "The Plight of Old Pawn". High quality photographs of famous mines, artisans and jewelry, both historic and current, will whet the appetite of would-be collectors but also leave an impression of love and respect for the land and its native inhabitants.
Read this book under a strong light to catch the full depth of color!
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Birth of the Luftwaffe Fighter Force
Spanish Civil War
Blitzkrieg and Sitzkrieg
Attack in the West.
This series is a detailed study of the colours, camouflage and markings of the Luftwaffe's fighter force that many serious modellers will find extremely useful. Although the narrative is somewhat brief, the series follows the birth, development, tactics and wartime committment of the Jagdwaffe. The amount of research that must have been conducted and accumulated is impressive and is reflected in the many photographs and colour profiles of the machines used or experimented by the the Jagdwaffe. Included are some first-hand accounts by various pilots who flew the famous fighter aircraft of the Luftwaffe. This along with the many illustrations and photographs brings to life the Luftwaffe's fighter arm. This is a wonderful pictorial history and series of the Jagdwaffe.