Today -100: August 29, 1926: Of military interventions, collective madnesses, overnight uncrowned dictators, shrines, and flag exercises

Texas Attorney General Dan Moody defeats Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson in the Democratic run-off primary with 64% of the vote. Moody is 33 and, as the NYT feels obligated to say over and over, red-headed. (Michigan’s first governor, in the 19th century, was 23, by the way. Couldn’t tell you how many ginger governors there’ve been). Moody will have an even larger majority against the Republican candidate in November. 

The US lands troops in Nicaragua to protect Americans and their property, supposedly invited by the governor of Bluefields.

Some other woman swims the English Channel, but we’re bored now.

The Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano weighs in on the scenes at Rudolph Valentino’s funeral home: “It is a collective madness, incarnating the tragic comedy of a new fetishism, the last logical consequence of a materialist civilization which has given man dominion over everything but himself.” They make it sound like a bad thing.

A Sunday NYT Magazine article explains how Stalin “has become almost overnight the uncrowned dictator of Russia.”

Japan’s Shrine Bureau, a branch of the Home Dept., decrees the destruction of shrines to animals and monsters; only gods need apply.

The ACLU comes to the aid of 9-year-old Russell Tremain of Bellingham, Washington, who authorities removed from his home last year because he would not salute the flag in school for religious reasons (his parents are in the Elijah Voice Society, a splinter of the Jehovah’s Witnesses). His parents removed him from school when it refused to exempt him from “flag exercises,” so his father was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. A judge ordered Russell sent to the detention center for incorrigible children, be permanently removed from his home and put up for adoption so he could be raised by a “patriotic, Christian family.” The Tremains are not doing themselves any favors by refusing to show up in court – they do not recognize earthly courts – or authorize anyone to represent them. Russell will be returned to his family in late 1927, a year and a half after he was taken. More information on the case here. The US Supreme Court ruled in 1940 that schools could coerce students to recite the pledge of allegiance but reversed itself 3 years later.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 28, 1926: Of tips, warships, and greetings

Coolidge issues rules for traveling government employees. They must limit tipping to 60¢ a day (with maximums for bellboys, porters, etc). They may not pay more than 50¢ a day for a hotel bath or $1.40 a week for laundry.

Nicaraguan complains to the League of Nations that Mexico is trying to overthrow its government, sending a warship carrying troops to aid rebels. It’s not asking the League to do anything in particular, just, you know, checking in.

Huge crowds (including a bunch of pickpockets) greet Gertrude Ederle in New York on her return from swimming the English Channel. How much of an overlap do you think there is with the crowds who jostled each other for a glimpse of Rudolph Valentino’s corpse?

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 27, 1926: Fun with alliteration

At Texas’s primary run-off elections tomorrow Gov. Ma Ferguson is expected to be crushed. Pa Ferguson calls Attorney Gen. Dan Moody a “Klene Kut Ku Klux Klansman” (actually, as a prosecutor Moody put a lot of kluxers in jail). I’d forgotten that 2 years ago Ms Ferguson’s slogan was “Me for Ma.” Anyway, Moody’s is “Dan’s the Man,” which is somewhat... problematic.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 26, 1926: Of corpses, governors, and women’s votes

Campbell Funeral Parlors stops its public viewings of Rudolph Valentino’s corpse after the circus-like atmosphere (depending on what sort of circuses you go to, I guess).

New York Republicans are still having a hard time finding a candidate for governor. NY Supreme Court Justice Arthur S. Tompkins declines to run, pointing out that he has 8 years of his 14-year term on the Court left to run. He suggests Justice James Cropsey, but Cropsey would push for an unpopular state Prohibition enforcement act.

Mussolini giveth, Mussolini taketh away. In this case, women’s suffrage. Women (some women, not a lot of women) were recently granted the vote in municipal elections but now, before they’ve had a chance to exercise that vote, municipal elections are being abolished. Henceforth, muni officers will be appointed by the central government.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 25, 1926: It’s what he would have wanted

30,000 people show up at the funeral home to see Rudolph Valentino’s corpse for two seconds at a time, getting a tad unruly at times. “They were merely curious, and looked it. Hardly one looked even sorrowful much less reverent.” 10 black-shirt-wearing Fascists set themselves up to guard the coffin, on the orders of Mussolini himself. Except they will turn out actually to be a bunch of actors hired by the funeral home. Mounted police charge the crowd, as was the custom.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 24, 1926: The last of The Sheik

Rudolph Valentino dies at 31. In the 90 minutes before he went into a coma, “At intervals he cried out in Italian which no one at his bedside understood.” Pola Negri, who claimed to be engaged to him, is performatively prostrated.

Manuel Quezon warns the Philippines Senate that if the Republicans win the 1928 US presidential election, they will annex the Philippines, like Hawaii.

Uruguay is the first  South American country to recognize the Soviet Union.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 23, 1926: Πραξικόπημα!

A coup in Greece removes dictator Theodoros Pangalos from power. Gen. Georgios Kondylis leads the bloodless coup. Pangalos is arrested and put on a destroyer. However, the captain of the destroyer turns out to be a supporter of Pangalos and tries to help him escape; the ship is pursued by another destroyer which will exchange fire with the first (or just fired warning shots?) and recapture Pangalos. 

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 22, 1926: Of churches and valentinos and high fashion

Mexican Pres. Plutarco Elías Calles meets Archibishop Leopoldo Ruiz of Michoacan and tells him that churches, which are now property of the state, may stay open and services held in them while the Church pursues amending the Constitution. The Church refuses because they don’t want to recognize the state-ownership thing.

Rudolph Valentino has pleurisy.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 21, 1926: Of exaggerated consumption, wets, lawyers, and lyricists

France orders restaurants to serve only two meats per meal – ONLY TWO MEATS PER MEAL! – “to put an end to exaggerated consumption, particularly in luxury establishments especially frequented by foreigners.” Also, only stale bread will be sold, to decrease consumption of flour.

Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler refuses to run for NY governor. He faced opposition from up-state Republicans over his strong opposition to Prohibition. They want a candidate who’s Wet, but not that wet. Sen. James Wadsworth says the Republicans will evade the Prohibition issue entirely by saying their gubernatorial candidate will abide by whatever the upcoming referendum says.

Stalin continues the purge of his opponents in particular and Old Communists in general, removing Lev Kamenev from his post as Trade Commissar. Kamenev can now devote his time to writing a biography of Lenin.

Lawyers who are members of the Italian Fascist Party will no longer be allowed to represent anti-Fascists.

Paul Schindler, theatre director and composer of such musicals as “The Geezer of Geck” and “The Wizard of Oz,” commits suicide. I can’t find a trace of this alleged version of Wizard of Oz, but it provides an excuse for me to mention that the lyricist for all the songs in the 1939 movie version, “Yip” Harburg, also wrote “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime” (1932), “Lydia the Tattooed Lady,” “Finian’s Rainbow,” and  a musical about Amelia Bloomer. He was blacklisted in the '50s.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 20, 1926: Calles says no

Mexican Pres. Plutarco Elías Calles rejects yesterday’s appeal from the Catholic Episcopate for a deal, which would consist of the government suspending the clauses in the Constitution relating to religion and the laws enforcing them, and the Church in return doing, um, nothing. He suggests they try to appeal to Congress and the court rather than him.

42 are indicted for using the mails in Florida land frauds, including Merle C. Tebbetts, which is a very Florida-land-fraudster name. The state of Florida is pretty much wall-to-wall land fraud at this point.

Someone takes up Lady Astor’s offer to pay for the passage of anyone wants to go to Russia, provided they stay for two years. A J. Morton of Liverpool, with his wife and 2 children have set sail. The Soviet gov. has promised to find him work.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 19, 1926: Of conferences, chrysopoeia, and duels

Philippines Sen. Sergio Osmeña says that when he visited Washington, Coolidge told him that the US intends to free the Philippines, you know, eventually, after building up its economy. Osmeña seems to trust him absolutely. Osmeña proposes a small conference – in Washington – of a handful of men from each side. “I am sure the Filipinos would accept the decision of such a conference.” He expects such a conference to decide to hold off independence and obviously Filipinos would just say, “Well, if a conference of some randos thinks we’re not ready to rule ourselves, then we must not be.” Osmeña will be the Philippines’ vice president from 1935, succeeding to the presidency on Manuel Quezon’s death in 1944, during the Japanese occupation.

The Philippines Senate votes unanimously to override Gov. Leonard Wood’s veto of the bill for an independence referendum, without even waiting on the decision of Osmeña’s conference.

Gen. Erich Ludendorff, who just keeps showing up in the news, whether it’s his divorce or his tax-dodging, is tricked by a locksmith’s apprentice into buying a process to turn any metal into gold.

German student Erwin Behr is killed in a friendly sabre duel (mensur), which is a thing which is still going on.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 18, 1926: Of reserves

Rep. Ogden Livingston Mills is the NY Republican Party’s “reserve candidate” for governor if Columbia Pres. Nicholas Murray Butler continues to refuse to accept the nomination. Mills meets the requirements the R’s think are essential for success: he’s from New York City and is a Wet. Like Alfred Smith, Mills would be a reluctant candidate, preferring to run for re-election to Congress and then for Senate in ‘28.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.