Peaches & Daddy: A Story of the Roaring 20s, the Birth of Tabloid Media, and the Courtship that Captured the Hearts and Imagination of the American Public by Michael M. Greenburg (2008)

Peaches & Daddy: A Story of the Roaring 20s, the Birth of Tabloid Media, and the Courtship that Captured the Hearts and Imagination of the American Public by Michael M. Greenburg (2008)

Finished: February 16, 2012

(Nonfiction – KF228.B775 G74; 344.7303566 – dc 22)

The only thing bigger than Edward West "Daddy" Browning’s wallet was his publicity-seeking ridiculousness. He made his money in Manhattan real estate in the early 1900s as the city was growing by leaps and bounds. By 1915, he was the city’s most eligible bachelor. That year he wed a file clerk named Adele, and they later adopted two daughters by placing advertisements in the newspapers. However, Adele ran off with her dentist to Paris in 1923. The older daughter, Marjorie, was sent to live with Adele’s parents while Dorothy, the younger daughter, stayed with Daddy, and Adele was nowhere to be found. Eventually she turned up, and the ensuing legal battles were widely publicized in both American and French tabloid papers. She claimed that Browning was interested in women much younger than her.

After the divorce, Browning and his daughter became lonely. He placed another ad to adopt a daughter as a playmate for Dorothy. His request was for a girl of about 14 years of age, but when he saw Mary Spas among the other prospects waiting in his office, he was smitten at once. She was older than he hoped at 16, but he had to have her. Almost immediately, reporters began to question the adoption and the girl’s age. Mary’s parents were interrogated and admitted that she was really 21. Browning took Mary to court to annul the adoption. Mind you, like everything else concerning Daddy Browning, all of this was highly reported and publicized in the papers. Indeed, the back and forth accusations between Daddy and Mary received much public attention. In fact, Dorothy’s first adoptive mother, upon learning of the Spas affair, made attempts to remove the girl from Browning’s care.

Daddy Browning met Frances Heenan at a dance in 1926 when she was 15. They began dating, and he nicknamed her Peaches. They were in the papers constantly from the start. Soon Vincent Pisarra of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children caught wind of the relationship and tried to end it by way of the courts. They were married later that year, just after Peaches’ sixteenth birthday, partly in an effort to fend off critics and the law. From the start of their relationship, they were in the limelight constantly. Whether on shopping trips or outings with an African Honking Gander, they were available for photographers.

Peaches began having fits from what she claimed to be distress. She and her mother Carolyn, who was also living with Peaches and Daddy, abandoned the home. Peaches claimed that Daddy desired unnatural acts. Thus began a farcical separation trial that the newspapers couldn’t get enough of. In the end, Peaches did not fare well. The judge was convinced that Peaches’ credibility was questionable at the least. Of course, the aftermath of the trial was widely reported. Peaches later sought a divorce and payment of legal fees while Daddy sought to rehabilitate his image.

There is much more to the story that I fail to mention but all of it includes dramatic happenings and a great reliance on the press. In addition to the Peaches and Daddy story, interspersed throughout are segments describing the history of tabloid journalism. The story of Peaches and Daddy Browning serve as an intimate and explicit illustration of how journalistic ethics were created and why ethics continue to play such a vital role in media. The sensationalism that followed Edward West Browning throughout his life was only a peephole through which we continue to view public figures. Browning’s taste for the limelight was encouragement in the burgeoning field of tabloid journalism, and he knew just what it took to game the media.

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King (2010)

Finished: January 25, 2012

(Fiction – PS3561.I483 F85; 813/.54 – dc 22)

Akin to Different Seasons but in format only, these four novellas are creepy. These are not stories of the supernatural or the paranormal (with the exception of “Fair Extension”). In fact, that all of the events could have happened only makes their telling more ominous and emotionally charged.

Set in Nebraska in the years leading up to the Great Depression, “1922” is a story of family strife. Husband against wife becomes son against mother becomes son against father. It explores the darkest areas of personality and the lengths that one will go to in pursuit of what one wants. Ultimately, the rat eats the rat.

In “Big Driver,” a woman is stranded on a lonely road. When a trucker comes by to give her aid, her relief turns to horror as she is repeatedly raped and then dumped in a culvert where she faces two women’s dead bodies. After her escape, she hides what occurred. Rather than go to the authorities, she procures her own retribution.

“Fair Extension” was my least favorite and first forgotten of the four novellas. Dave has cancer and meets a mysterious stranger who assures him that he can rid Dave of cancer. The catch is that Dave has to choose someone to “transfer the weight” onto, someone Dave hates. Dave chooses his best friend since grammar school, Tom Goodhugh, a man who has everything Dave always wanted. As the story progresses, Dave’s life gets better and better while Tom becomes a shell of his former self.

Lastly is “A Good Marriage.” This one was probably my favorite. A woman discovers that her husband is a notorious serial killer that has been torturing and murdering women for decades. She promises him that she will keep his secret for the sake of protecting their children and on the solemn promise that he never commit another crime. However, he doesn’t live very long after he is found out because she is not pressing her luck.

I always find pleasure and familiarity in reading Stephen King. He educes the sense of someone in the room telling a story. While I love literary pieces with their evocative settings and descriptions, sometimes the easy-going nature of a King story is right on the money.

Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski (1969)

Finished: January 6, 2012

(Fiction – PS3552.U4 N6; 811/.54)

Indeed, Charles Bukowski is a dirty old man. In this collection of essays/stories first published in the newspaper, Open City, Bukowski half rants and half relates. Although it is fiction, there is no mistaking that his writings have the indelible aura of actions and circumstances that could only be auto-biographical. There is a bare cohesion that strings the book together and even that cohesion is a chaos of bum road tours laced with a lot of wine. As he drifts along in alcoholic frenzies, he falls into bed with numerous women that are often crazier than he is. There are occasional actual stories interspersed, but to pin down a plot would be a stretch. I found his stream of consciousness refreshing, and I was repeatedly reminded of Henry Miller. For those drawn to writings of the bum life, addiction, and the general world of miscreants à la Burroughs, Kerouac, Selby, and Thompson, you will find a friend in Bukowski.

Freedom Is Not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America’s Struggle over Black Family Life—from LBJ to Obama by James T. Patterson (2010)

Finished: December 17, 2011

(Nonfiction – E185.86 .P33; 305.896/073 – dc 22)

Freedom, now as well as in the past, is not enough to secure equality and justice. When dealing with a nation with racism so embedded in the history and psyches of the people, giving the oppressed freedom, whether de facto or de jure, does not guarantee that they will actually be treated non-discriminately. It takes a generation or two to really pull people out of their mindsets of prejudice, not to mention the generation or two it takes for the despondent to gain some considerable social and political traction.

This is what Moynihan was pointing out in his report (in reality a leaked memo meant for government officials), actually titled The Negro Family: The Case for National Action. Substantial government support was needed, according to Moynihan, to stem the dysfunction within black communities, dysfunction caused by racist and economic pressures that drove crime, unemployment, and family splintering. For as meaningful and pressing his position, it was equally misunderstood and admonished.

Almost immediately after the memo was leaked, the backlash against Moynihan and his positions started. Here was a white man discussing black culture and family structure, stating how the current state of the Negro family was dysfunctional and needed to be changed, and that it was so off that the government needed to intervene did not sit well with many black leaders and civil rights activists. Sadly, the overriding sentiment of the report and the possible policy contributions that could be gleaned was lost in a wave of resentment and distrust.

That is not to say that the report did not have an effect on policy reform, however the reform did not pan out the way Moynihan had hoped or intended. When the report was written, women with children were able to procure monetary support from the government but not if they were married. This did nothing to remedy or alleviate the family situation or provide a system in which black men were able to secure employment. In many ways, the welfare system created that which it sought to destroy – broken homes and families dependent on government subsidies. As the years rolled on, subsequent presidential administrations did little to improve the situation.

Patterson’s analysis of the report’s impact on social science was the most striking. The report had the effect of closing off dialogue rather than opening it up. Based on the initial reactions to the report, many sociologists avoided the issue of black family structure because of the controversy it incites. Beginning in the 1980s things began to improve on this front with outspoken people like Ken Auletta, Benjamin Hooks, and Glenn Loury. Nevertheless, even to this day, regardless of the speaker’s race, discussion of black family dysfunction remains controversial and often verboten to discuss in a meaningful manner. Until we are able to discuss these issues openly and honestly, effective public policies will remain elusive.

Motor City Shakedown by D. E. Johnson (2011)

Finished: November 23, 2011

(Fiction - PS3610.O328 M68; 813/.6 – dc 22)

In this sequel to The Detroit Electric Scheme, Will Anderson is driven to avenge the murder of his friend, Wesley. It has been seven months since Vito Adamo terrorized Will and his love interest, Elizabeth, and murdered their friend, but Will’s determination for vengeance is still strong. No longer an alcoholic, Will is now addicted to morphine, a habit he acquired to ease the horrible pain due to the disfigurement of his right hand by sulphuric acid at the hands of Adamo’s men.

The novel begins with Will trailing an Adamo gang member with the motive of killing him. However, when Will goes to the man’s apartment, he finds that the gangster is already dead. Unfortunately for Will, he is spotted outside of the man’s apartment and is booked for the murder. When another man confesses to the crime, Will is let go by the police but promptly shaken down by a rival gang, the Gianollas. In return for getting Will out of jail by pressuring another man to confess to the crime, the Gianollas want Will to convince his father, the owner of Detroit Electric, to allow the Teamsters to represent the factory employees. Will is forced to work with Adamo to get the Gianollas off of his back. In a late story turn of events, we find out that both gangs have been played by yet another party who has it in for everyone.

Johnson bases much of his story around actual events that happened at the time his novels take place with historical settings that are thoughtful and keenly researched. He has a flair for suspense, drama, violence and double-crossings, resulting in intriguing, fast-paced stories.

One Nation Under Sex: How the Private Lives of Presidents, First Ladies and Their Lovers Changed the Course of American History by Larry Flynt and David Eisenbach (2011)

Finished: October 19, 2011

(Nonfiction - HQ18.U5 F54; 306.770973 – dc 22)

With this book, Larry Flynt has once again focused on sex, but this is no Hustler article. Written with Columbia University professor David Eisenbach, this book lays bare many rumors and scandals involving national-level politicians. The authors do not merely tell tales of sexual proclivities and affairs, however. With each private life revealed, they also display and discuss how the sexual activities surrounding the people in or near the White House have affected policy and altered history.

The authors begin with the founding fathers and then proceed through the following administrations chronologically with some actors appearing multiple times. The extramarital affairs, the homosexual relations, and the like are interesting, but the more cogent elements involve how these sexual situations mattered to the nation. The following are a mere fraction of the stories covered in the book. Ben Franklin’s romancing convinced France to aid us in the Revolution. Buchanan’s failure to adequately address secessionists was likely the result of the influence of his lover, William Rufus King. Eleanor Roosevelt’s relationship with lesbian women led to her own liberation and call for equality. J. Edgar Hoover’s skinny on seemingly everyone in Congress allowed him to strong-arm in his favored policies.

Whatever else you may say about Larry Flynt, one thing is true; he is a bastion of free speech. His aim with this book was to reveal how elections, economics, international relations, and war were affected by the sex lives of the nation’s leaders. In addition, the changes in social mores and journalistic codes of ethics are shown. In the book’s conclusion, the authors summarize with some plain facts: politicians have always, are currently, and will continue to have sexual scandals. They further point out that it is the role of the public to disallow these commonplace activities to divert our attentions from what really matters – a mature approach to politics that attempts to provide the greatest amount of income and civil rights equality for all.

The Great A & P and the Struggle for Small Business in America by Marc Levinson (2011)

Finished: September 28, 2011

(Nonfiction - HD9321.9.G7 L48; 381/.45641300973 – dc 22)

Besides my interest in social and economic history, I was attracted to this book because my grandmother worked for A & P for decades, retiring from the company in the late 1980s. While not a suburban icon in Washington state where I now reside, A & P was a common sight in the metro Detroit area. I can still recall when A & P changed all of their store names in southeastern Michigan in the late 1980s and early 1990s after they bought the Farmer Jack chain. The A & P brand was a staple in my childhood.

Little did I know when beginning this book that A & P was even more important to American history than it was to my own personal history. The company founder, George Gilman, was a leather trader and owned the company Gilman & Company. In around 1859, Gilman expanded his business to include tea and coffee trading. In 1863 Gilman changed the company name to the Great American Tea Company and began a mass advertising campaign, a rare occurrence in those days. Gilman was a talented promoter that used exaggeration and flair to attract customers. He also instated a novel buying club to encourage people to pool their purchases to receive discounts on bulk orders.

In 1869, the transcontinental railroad that linked the Pacific and Atlantic oceans was completed. True to his nature, Gilman launched a “new” business called the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. In actuality, however, the new company was just a front for the old company, and Gilman was using the new name to jeopardize the established business practices in the tea trade. Rather than deal in bulk like the rest of the tea companies, Gilman created a branded, pre-packaged tea called Thea-Nectar. At this point in history, there were few branded products available other than patent medicines. Most stores sold only in bulk with store clerks measuring portions for each customer. Creating a product like Thea-Nectar was a novel approach to food sales, and it would be another twenty years before the practice became common.

From the outset, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company was dogged by criticism and allegations of misconduct. Thea-Nectar, accused of being composed of damaged, low-quality tea leaves, was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to those opposing A & P. Most of the coming controversy was dealt with by the Hartfords. George H. Hartford had worked for George Gilman as a bookkeeper and manager since the early 1860s. In 1871, the two began expanding and built another store in Chicago. By 1875, there were stores in sixteen cities. George Hartford received full control of the tea company when Gilman retired 1878. Eventually he brought two of his sons, George L. and John A., into the business. Around this time, coffee and tea consumption exploded aided by expiring tariffs and duties to fund the Civil War. This caused the prices of these products to fall rapidly, and Hartford responded by expanding the product line and eventually got into the food manufacturing business to supply their stores.

By the time of George H. Hartford’s death in 1917, the company was doing swimmingly under George L.’s financial expertise and John A.’s trend-setting ideas. John was the mind behind the A & P brand, creating a tiered approach to branded merchandise based on the price of the product. He also started promotional offers such as a stamp program in which customers collected stamps by buying products that they could later redeem for other select merchandise. For all of A & P’s success, there was a big stick in the company’s craw however. Independent grocers were being stifled by the early years of the twentieth century, and they began to demand that Congress intervene on their behalf, thus beginning a decades-long battle to restrict chain stores.

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company began a new strategy in 1912 when it began opening economy stores and began using the A & P logo on storefronts. These stores were low-key enterprises that offered no credit, no premiums, and no promotional stamps. They opened economy stores at a rapid pace with more than 864 stores by 1915. Around this time, A & P and other chain stores were gaining more and more attention on the national political scene as groups attempted to thwart their growth. A & P was by far the most profitable and efficient of the chains due to their ground-breaking approach to food distribution and warehousing, placing it under particular scrutiny.

After years of political debate, extremely prohibitive taxes were imposed on chain stores by the 1920s and 1930s. In addition, numerous laws were enacted to prohibit wholesale price concessions and discounts. Although under constant pressure, the Hartfords chose to remain quiet until 1937 when they hired Carl Byoir to run a public relations campaign to counter attacks by independent grocers and politicos. A & P changed tactics again by closing hundreds of stores to avoid over-taxation, and they began opening supermarkets.

Many of these taxes were later repealed as anti-chain sentiments waned by 1940. Ironically the intervention of the federal government was under the guise of promoting competition but in actuality it did quite the opposite. Rather than try to lower prices to benefit the consumer, they instead wanted to keep prices high to support an inefficient distribution system that A & P and other chains had found ways to circumvent. By using more efficient distribution methods, A & P was able to keep their prices low and customers satisfied.

John A. died in 1951 and George L. died in 1957. Although they had a succession plan in place, their first choice, David T. Bofinger, died unexpectedly. Their second choice was Ralph W. Burger. When Burger took over, the company was thriving, but he proved to be a poor fill-in for the Hartfords by failing to innovate or watch trend lines. A & P faltered and rapidly declined in the 1960s and after. Despite all of the innovations in food marketing, improvements to grocery store services and buildings, and efforts to fight back and eventually win during the chain store wars, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company has been on a downward slope for decades since the deaths of the Hartfords.

Levinson tells this tragic story with expertise and nuanced research. This book was supremely enlightening when considering the current state of chain stores and large distribution channels in America today. It provided both historical and social perspective on the economies of scale that chains are able to accomplish and what these methods mean for the country as a whole.