Marvel and/or Nero Wolfe fans may be interested in this. Or US history buffs.
Or if, like me, you just like to boggle over oddities of history.
Back story: I'm reading a book published in '64 called The FBI Nobody Knows, by Fred J Cook. (Yes. The book that set off the Wolfe novel The Doorbell Rang. It's real and oh, yeah, Hoover must have blown a gasket over it.) And on p. 239 it's discussing Hoover in the '40s and the changes in his personality from the '30s -- hard to do; the man had few close friends. And well, here's the quote.
"On those rare occasions when [Hoover] was seen in a bar, he might have one drink (the youthful teetotaler had weakened this much) but never more than one. His cronies were all bachelors with whom he attended baseball games and wrestling matches and went off on fishing trips. For an abstemious man and one who detested large parties and frenzied gaiety, Hoover at this period developed one idiosyncrasy: he became an habitue of the nightclubs, with the result that his name kept popping up in gossip columns."
Another year, I would have just thrown this up and said, "Discuss." But it goes on and I thought the Wolfe and Marvel fans would love this part.
"Alexander [author of the New Yorker profile this section is drawn from] pictures Hoover as a man so preoccupied with his work that he sometimes went about his nightclubbing in an almost grim fashion, as if determined to enjoy himself in spite of himself. His favorite stomping ground was New York's Stork Club, with whose proprietor, Sherman Billingsley, his relations certainly verged on friendship. During the 1940's, Billingsley, Hoover, and Paul Lockwood (at the time confidential secretary to [NY] Governor Dewey) posed for one buddy-buddy picture that later was enlarged and prominently displayed in the Stork."
And I just... I have this horrific image of Hoover trying to offer his condolences to Peggy when she shows up for her date... and Peggy spending the next 30 years stealing the best FBI agents Hoover's frustrated to make a point of his lack of perception.
Right, back to my book, but I thought y'all might be amused.
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Given the new LJ 'design' decisions, please comment on DW if you can.
Back story: I'm reading a book published in '64 called The FBI Nobody Knows, by Fred J Cook. (Yes. The book that set off the Wolfe novel The Doorbell Rang. It's real and oh, yeah, Hoover must have blown a gasket over it.) And on p. 239 it's discussing Hoover in the '40s and the changes in his personality from the '30s -- hard to do; the man had few close friends. And well, here's the quote.
"On those rare occasions when [Hoover] was seen in a bar, he might have one drink (the youthful teetotaler had weakened this much) but never more than one. His cronies were all bachelors with whom he attended baseball games and wrestling matches and went off on fishing trips. For an abstemious man and one who detested large parties and frenzied gaiety, Hoover at this period developed one idiosyncrasy: he became an habitue of the nightclubs, with the result that his name kept popping up in gossip columns."
Another year, I would have just thrown this up and said, "Discuss." But it goes on and I thought the Wolfe and Marvel fans would love this part.
"Alexander [author of the New Yorker profile this section is drawn from] pictures Hoover as a man so preoccupied with his work that he sometimes went about his nightclubbing in an almost grim fashion, as if determined to enjoy himself in spite of himself. His favorite stomping ground was New York's Stork Club, with whose proprietor, Sherman Billingsley, his relations certainly verged on friendship. During the 1940's, Billingsley, Hoover, and Paul Lockwood (at the time confidential secretary to [NY] Governor Dewey) posed for one buddy-buddy picture that later was enlarged and prominently displayed in the Stork."
And I just... I have this horrific image of Hoover trying to offer his condolences to Peggy when she shows up for her date... and Peggy spending the next 30 years stealing the best FBI agents Hoover's frustrated to make a point of his lack of perception.
Right, back to my book, but I thought y'all might be amused.
Original post on Dreamwidth | Leave a comment on DW | Read
comments on DW
Given the new LJ 'design' decisions, please comment on DW if you can.