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Wikipedia Review Assignment St. John's University Queens NY Jimmy Walker Discovering New York Section 585 Professor B. Turner Steven Lipsky September 26th 2013 (Revised October 15, 2013)

Review

The Wikipedia article on Jimmy Walker provided a short write up on his early life as a poor child on the Lower East side. There is however very little detail in Wikipedia on his early childhood. One can assume that was because he, as well as most poor children at the time, simply struggled to survive and not to make any strong impression on anyone.

To add, James Connolly’s American National Biography (Online) of “James J. Walker” states that Walker was the son of an Irish immigrant whose father was a carpenter and business owner. Walker's father was also active in local politics in the Tammany Hall Democratic organization. Not the best student, Walker dropped out of college but eventually went back and earned a degree at New York Law School in 1904. After law school, Walker decided not to enter politics but tried his hand at writing song lyrics. Ultimately, he decided to enter politics in 1909 and eventually passed his bar exam in 1912. This completes a further exploration of his early life.

The Wikipedia article does do a good job in outlining his life once he reaches the Assembly, then Senate and finally is elected as Mayor of NY. This is where Walker becomes famous and also where his life becomes more interesting. Wikipedia goes into some detail on his campaign against John F. Hylan and the help he received from the Governor, Alfred E. Smith. What is of more interest is explored in James Connolly’s American National Biography (Online) of “James J. Walker” where we see the formation of the relationship between Alfred Smith and Jimmy Walker. Alfred Smith was a staunch supporter of Jimmy Walker since Walker backed many social and cultural issues that were considered politically important. These included social welfare legislation and legalization of boxing and Sunday baseball, condemning the Ku Klux Klan, and especially the opposition of Prohibition.

Michael Lerner in his book, Dry Manhattan provides even further details on this relationship. Known as the “wet” Democrat, Al Smith supported the political rise of Jimmy Walker from the State Senate to the NYC Mayoral Office, since Walker showed open opposition for the Volstead Act which fit with the Prohibition era’s thinking. Once in office, Walker led his administration towards challenging the Eighteenth Amendment by replacing the police commissioner and pulling the police away from enforcing prohibition law in the city. Since Walker did not consider drinking a crime, there was no need to have police enforce the law unless there were multiple violations or a crime “hit the papers” where the public would respond negatively.

To add additional details from Lerner, unlike his predecessor, Walker was flashy and more of a celebrity who was always in the public eye. He dressed well and was often seen in the New York clubs with a mistress. He may have been a playboy but he was skillful as a politician. Like his mentor, Governor Smith, Walker showed contempt for Prohibition by drinking as he pleased, wherever he pleased. Even at his inauguration, on January 1, 1926, the so called “nightclub mayor” was cheered and toasted by his supporters celebrating the New Year.

Greg Young’s web site also provides a bit more information on the relationship between Alfred Smith and Jimmy Walker. It provides more details on the ways in which Smith influenced Jimmy Walker to first run against Hylan, who was then the Mayor, and then how Smith encouraged Walker to clean up his bad habits if he really wanted to be mayor. You get a sense of how Walker took Smith’s advice and acted in his own way. Instead of going out at night in public and drinking at the bars or speakeasies, Walker simply moved his bad behavior indoors to a private home where no one could see him. It also talked about how this home was paid for by Tammany Hall which gives more details into how Walker involved with that side of corruption in politics. The campaign between Hylan and Walker, even for the Democratic candidacy, was one that saw the influence of Tammany Hall. Greg Young’s article highlights the fight between these two opponents and how the corruption in New York was right in the middle of the election of 1925.

One other added detail from Greg Young’s article is the information on the public works projects that Walker sponsored. The Wikipedia article just talks about this in general and gives a single sentence as to those efforts. Greg Young’s article outlines all the various groups Walker helped form and lists many of the major departments and organizations that supported a city as large as New York. Included is the Department of Sanitation, various parks and recreational spots and the hospitals in the City of New York.

The Wikipedia article covers the final days in office for Jimmy Walker as Mayor of NYC. It provides a very short section on the pressure to leave the city which he got from Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Greg Young’s article provides more detail as to the relationship with this Governor as well. It outlines the fact that Walker’s behavior was getting in the way of Roosevelt’s nomination as President of the United States. It helps to give more details to the real reason behind Walker leaving the city and the mayor’s office and going off to Europe. It explains the real reason Roosevelt felt “pressure” to get rid of Jimmy Walker from New York politics. Walker was known to take excessive vacations and often missed work. He also decided to give himself a significant pay raise. Due to these actions, Roosevelt was concerned that NYC had become a national symbol of corruption and indecency. If he did not act on this and remove Walker from office he would be looked at as weak which could ultimately affect his chances for election.

Eventually, Jimmy Walker’s popularity as Mayor of New York City declined which is a key element to understanding his rise and fall. With the Great Depression, his lavish lifestyle and excessive spending made him less appealing to the common man. No longer could he defend his extended vacations and absence from office or other unpopular decisions and criticisms (for example: supporting a friend’s privately run casino in Central Park).With the severe economic crisis and allegations of government corruption and political favoring, Walker was now being scrutinized. His inability to provide an adequate response to the people’s needs further spotlighted the inadequacy of his abilities as the leader of the city.

More importantly to include though is that Walker was the target of the state legislature in 1931 which was looking at the inner workings of the city government and potential corruption allegations. Initial probes provided revelations regarding illegal activities within the police department and the municipal courts. This set off an inquiry into his city affairs. Judge Samuel Seabury headed the investigation with evidence that Walker accepted bribes and received money from potential businesses seeking city contracts. Although Walker denied any wrongdoing, he was very evasive, stating that the money he received were “beneficences”- not bribes.

One surprise witness in the Seabury investigation was Vivian Gordon. She informed the investigators that women were falsely arrested and accused of prostitution by the NYC police department a key section to include if one is to understand Walker’s corruption. From this evidence, the police officers were given more money in their paychecks. After her testimony, Vivian Gordon was suspiciously found strangled to death in a park in the Bronx. This event demonstrated to the New Yorkers that corruption could lead to terrible consequences and that Walker may be ultimately, in some way, be responsible for her death. To further avoid any other allegations, Walker resigned on September 1, 1932 before the Governor (Franklin Roosevelt) could remove him from office.

Wikipedia does a fair job in writing about the next career Jimmy Walker has when he returned to the United States. It briefly notes his work at Majestic Records. Greg Young provides more details as to the artists he worked with but also ties back to Walker’s love for the music continued into the 1940’s. As he did in his early years, music played an important part of his life and he came back to that influence in his later years.

Jimmy Walker’s life has influenced a number of movies, novels and plays beginning in 1957 with the film Beau James, starring Bob Hope. Wikipedia’s article provides its best detail in a separate section that talks about Jimmy Walker in popular culture. It gives an excellent summary of the many films, books and even a musical which were based on or influenced by the very colorful life that Jimmy Walker led. It gives a good sense of Jimmy Walker’s legacy and the way in which his very colorful life inspired Hollywood provided a lasting memory to a man who was both benevolent and underhanded.

Blue links

While re-writing the article on Jimmy Walker you have removed all blue links and "piped" links from the text. Please look up what they are useful for, and try to restore as many of them as necessary. Kraxler (talk) 23:20, 14 November 2013 (UTC)