University Preserves Legacy of Late Senator Wallop

Posted on September 19, 2011 by ahcadmin

The following press release was created by UW Public Relations in the wake of former U.S. Senator Malcolm Wallop’s death on September 14, 2011.

Wyoming Senators, Malcom Wallop and Alan Simpson, present a belt to President Ronald Reagan, August 3, 1981, from the Alan K. Simpson Papers

Wyoming Senators, Malcom Wallop and Alan Simpson, present a belt to President Ronald Reagan, August 3, 1981, from the Alan K. Simpson Papers

September 16, 2011 — The University of Wyoming is preserving the legacy of the late Malcolm Wallop, who died Wednesday at the age of 78, in two significant ways.

First, a UW initiative launched last year — the Malcolm Wallop Fund for Conversations on Democracy — honors him by providing opportunities to add to the body of knowledge about democracy through symposia, keynote speakers, student projects and workshops. Two successful events have already taken place.

Second, the university’s American Heritage Center (AHC) houses a large collection of the longtime politician’s personal papers.

“Senator Wallop served this state with distinction for many years, and we’re proud to honor his legacy at UW,” President Tom Buchanan said. “Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.”

Founded by former Wallop staffers, the Malcolm Wallop Fund for Conversations on Democracy provides both American and international perspectives on democracy. The fund works collaboratively with the AHC, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Political Science.

In April, the fund hosted a campus student panel event, “Emerging Democracies and Their Struggle Against Authoritarian Rule,” in which students from emerging democracies including Egypt, Libya and Iraq talked about the dramatic changes in their countries.

The panel followed the fund’s inaugural event in November 2010 in Sheridan, “Riding Fence: Wyoming Governors on Wyoming and National Issues,” featuring then-governor-elect Matt Mead, then-outgoing governor Dave Freudenthal and former governors Jim Geringer and Mike Sullivan. Another event is in the works for spring 2012.

The 289 boxes of Wallop’s personal papers held at the AHC include bill files, memos, committee files, legislation, numerous speech files and audio tapes of radio appearances and news conferences during his time in the U.S. Senate (1977-1995). Also included is VIP correspondence between the senator and heads of state and various dignitaries.

“Senator Wallop’s papers are an important collection for documenting a time when the Wyoming delegation was a powerful part of steering our nation’s direction, especially in the areas of national defense and tax reform,” says Leslie Waggener, archivist for the AHC’s Alan K. Simpson Institute for Western Politics and Leadership. The Simpson Institute is a program that focuses on the acquisition, preservation and research use of the papers of prominent individuals, businesses and organizations that have provided leadership for Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West.

The Wallop collection’s overview is available via the online finding aid here.

Posted in Political history, Politics, resources, western politics and leadership, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

W. B. D. and Annette Gray Photographs Digitized

Posted on September 13, 2011 by ahcadmin
Cowboy Sunday School

Cowboy Sunday School

The American Heritage Center has completed a project to digitize the photographs of W. B. D. and Annette Gray, who were congregational ministers in Wyoming from 1900 to 1918.

In 1900, William Bradford Dodge (W. B. D.) Gray was appointed superintendent of the Home Missionary and Sunday School Society in Wyoming. In 1902, he married Annette who later traveled extensively through the state as a missionary, often acting as temporary pastor in communities which lacked a permanent minister.

The couple’s missionary work was supported by benefactors from the Eastern United States. For this purpose they took many photographs of small communities and rural areas of the state, which were exhibited during winter fundraising visits to Boston and other eastern cities. The photographs tend to emphasize the under-settled and rural aspects of the state, and often capture the many small communities in early Wyoming from which few photographs have survived, as well as the beginnings of larger towns.

Missionary Tour of Fremont County, 1907

Missionary Tour of Fremont County, 1907

Links to digitized photographs can be found in the online inventory for the collection. To browse and search the collection in full, please access the digital collection at: http://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu/luna/servlet/uwydbuwy~70~70.

The digitization of this collection was partially funded by the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, which in 2010 awarded the AHC $10,000 to digitize over 7,000 images from six of its premier photographic collections.

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Documenting Heart Mountain: AHC Collections on Japanese American Incarceration

Posted on August 19, 2011 by ahcadmin
Heart Mountain Relocation Center (circa 1942-1944), from Bill Manbo Papers

Heart Mountain Relocation Center (circa 1942-1944), from Bill Manbo Papers

August 20, 2011, marked the grand opening of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, built on the site of the World War II era Heart Mountain Relocation Center. The internment camp was one of ten mandated by the War Department in 1942 to detain Americans of Japanese ancestry. Located between Cody and Powell, Wyoming, it housed nearly 14,000 internees, the first of which arrived in August 1942. The camp closed in November 1945.

The American Heritage Center has several collections that document the history of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, with much of the material from these collections accessible for viewing online.

Drawing of women walking between huts in the Winter, from Estelle Ishigo Photographs

Drawing of women walking between huts in the Winter, from Estelle Ishigo Photographs

Heart Mountain Relocation Center (Wyo.) records: The collection contains the Heart Mountain charter, community minutes, notes on resettlement plans, transcripts of a trial, and documents in Japanese. Editions of the “Heart Mountain Sentinel” and “Heart Mountain Sentinel Bulletin” are also included.

Susan McKay papers: Collection contains research materials, audio tapes and transcripts of interviews, and other materials from McKay’s research on the Heart Mountain Relocation Center near Cody, Wyoming during World War II and the resulting publication, The Courage Our Stories Tell: The Daily Lives and Maternal Child Health Care of Japanese American women at Heart Mountain, published in 2002.

Grace Thorson Brown papers: Grace Thorson Brown was a teacher at the Japanese Relocation Camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming from September 1942 to June 1943. Her collection consists of photographs, newspaper clippings, school newspapers, and War Relocation Authority documents.

Drawing of audience braving the snow at Heart Mountain to attend a theatrical performace, from Estelle Ishigo Photographs

Drawing of audience braving the snow at Heart Mountain to attend a theatrical performace, from Estelle Ishigo Photographs

Estelle Ishigo photographs: Estelle Ishigo was interned at Heart Mountain with her husband, Arthur Shigeharu Ishigo, from 1942-1945. The photographs in this collection were gathered for use in her book Lone Heart Mountain. The original drawings and sketches were created by Estelle Ishigo while she was interned with her Japanese-American husband at the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp between Cody and Powell, Wyoming.

Bill Manbo papers: Bill Manbo was an internee at Heart Mountain Relocation Center. The collection contains 30 color slides of scenes from the internment camp, dated 1942-1944.

Photograph of children at Heart Mountain (circa 1942-1944), from Bill Manbo Papers

Photograph of children at Heart Mountain (circa 1942-1944), from Bill Manbo Papers

John A. Nelson papers: John A. Nelson was administrative officer and later assistant project director of Heart Mountain Relocation Center near Cody, Wyoming. The collection includes typed transcriptions plus a few handwritten pages of the diary John A. Nelson kept while at Heart Mountain, speeches about the War Relocation Authority and Japanese internment, records of arrivals of internees at Heart Mountain from August-September 1942; a chronology of evacuation and relocation, an August 7, 1942 plan for receiving and processing the first internees at Heart Mountain, several documents from the War Relocation Authority, pamphlets related to Japanese Americans and their internment, and three poems by internees.

Milward L. Simpson law office files: Records from Milward L. Simpson’s law office contain three folders of documentation (Box 146) related to Heart Mountain Relocation Center.

Lester C. Hunt Papers: Hunt served as Governor of Wyoming (1943-1946) during the latter years of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center. The collection contains Hunt’s subject files as Governor of Wyoming (1936-1948) and includes one folder of material on Heart Mountain. Digitized material available here.

Nels H. Smith papers: Smith served as Governor of Wyoming from 1939 to 1943. His papers include primarily correspondence, photographs, notes, and case files, all from Governor Smith’s political career, and includes two folders of material concerning Heart Mountain. Digitized material available here.

T. Blake Kennedy papers: T. Blake Kennedy served as the U.S. District Court Judge of Wyoming from 1922-1955, and ruled on the case of Japanese-American war resisters in the early 1940s. The collection contains a small amount of correspondence related to the case, and Judge Kennedy’s personal recollections.

These extensive collections offer multiple perspectives on the Heart Mountain experience—from official records to personal testimonies, photographs to legal documents. For a cohesive exploration of how these various sources come together to tell the story of Wyoming’s Japanese internment camp, visit the American Heritage Center’s online exhibit “Heart Mountain Relocation Center: Wyoming’s Japanese Internment Camp.”

Posted in Heart Mountain, Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Japanese American history, Japanese internment, World War II, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Found in the Archives: Hindenburg Survivors!

Posted on August 12, 2011 by ahcadmin

Denis J. Mulligan Papers

Well, not exactly. However, after the recent processing of the Denis J. Mulligan papers, the AHC was thrilled to find documents that survived the crash of the Hindenburg. Mulligan had these documents in his possession after chairing the investigation of the airship’s crash near the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey on May 6, 1937. Hindenburg (Deutsches Luftschiff Zeppelin #129) was a large German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class.  The dirigible flew from March 1936 until destroyed by fire 14 months later on May 6, 1937, at the end of the first North American transatlantic journey of its second season of service. Thirty-six people died in the accident.

Mulligan Papers

Mulligan was a major figure in the spheres of military and civilian aviation of the time. He held several positions in the Bureau of Air Commerce of the U.S. Department of Commerce, serving as Chief of the Enforcement Section, Investigator and Legal Advisor and its final Director in 1939. After, he served as a consultant in international matters for the Civil Aeronautics Board while practicing law until he was called in as a reservist for active duty in the Air Force during World War II and the Korean War. He was appointed legal advisor to the President’s Air Policy Commission in 1947. Post-Korean War Mulligan served as an industrial consultant until his retirement in 1973.

The Hindenburg disaster was ultimately classified as an accident in the Bureau of Air Commerce’s report, citing the ignition of a mixture of free hydrogen and air from a leak that produced a combustible mixture at the upper stern. However, theories about the calamity continue to be debated in documentaries, books, television shows, and online fora. Some insist a conspiracy was afoot; while others speculate that a static spark, lightning, engine failure, a fuel leak, or incendiary paint caused the explosion. Whatever the cause, after the crash of the Hindenburg, travel by Zeppelins and airships diminished until airplanes and similar aircraft became the standard for air travel.

Posted in aviation history, Disasters, found in the archive, newly processed collections, resources | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

It’s About Dam Time!

Posted on July 26, 2011 by ahcadmin

J.L. Savage Papers

Have you ever passed a dam and paused to think of how it came to be? In the early and mid 20th century, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation industriously set to altering much of the hydrological landscape of the American West to provide irrigation, power, and flood relief to residents. The AHC has collected the papers of many of the most important engineers and employees of the Bureau who strove to accomplish hitherto seemingly impossible feats of engineering. Six new finding aids have been created this year for those associated with the widespread activities of the Bureau.

1945 concept drawing of a Yangtze River dam, China, J.L. Savage Papers

Perhaps the most illustrious achievement of the Bureau’s engineers was the Hoover Dam, previously referred to as Boulder Dam. Prior to its construction, a dam of its size and makeup had not been built. John Lucian Savage was the supervising engineer for the Hoover Dam, and was the Bureau’s first designing engineer. Savage worked on other projects for the Bureau, including the Grand Coulee, Parker and Shasta Dams, and Washington State’s Columbia Basin Project. He also served as a consultant for international engineering projects in Mexico, Australia, and China, as well as many other countries.

One of Savage’s colleagues was Sinclair O. Harper, who spent nearly forty years with the Bureau. Harper served as general superintendent of construction and later chief engineer in 1940. Additionally, Harper served as the chairman and U.S. representative for the Rio Grande Compact Commission, a treaty signed in 1938 between the states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas that fairly apportions the water of the Rio Grande Basin. After retiring from the Bureau in 1945, Harper became a consultant with Kaiser Engineers and worked on projects for the Army Corps of Engineers and abroad in countries such as Egypt, India, and Afghanistan.

Harry W. Bashore also worked with Savage and Harper, serving as Commissioner for the Bureau from 1943 until retirement in 1945. Preceding his appointment to Commissioner, Bashore served as Assistant Commissioner and was responsible for all irrigation projects in the West. After retiring, Bashore consulted on irrigation projects in Israel and worked to produce a treaty between Pakistan and India over use of the Indus River.

T. W. Mermel worked for the Bureau from 1933-1973 on major water projects and eventually served as Assistant to the Commissioner for Scientific Affairs. Mermel was very active professionally and internationally, serving as Chairman of the Committee on the World Register on Dams and Dam Terminology for the International Committee on Large Dams (ICOLD), as well as holding positions in several other organizations. Fred A. Houck worked for the Bureau from 1931-1958 as a civil engineer, assisting in the building of the Kortes Dam and Power Plant, the Hoover Dam, and the Glen Canyon Dam. He also joined Engineering Consultants, Inc. of Denver and worked on several overseas projects. Henry J. Tebow also worked for the Bureau, but in a different capacity than the other engineers. Tebow specialized in the use of high speed computers for engineering and other data processing activities. He wrote a book about his experiences titled My Love Affair with the Bureau of Reclamation.

The work of arranging and describing these six collections, so significant to the history of water resources in the West, was made possible by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), a unit of the National Archives and Records Administration.  In sum, the NHPRC grant is supporting the processing of more than 2000 cubic feet of material related to the Great Depression.

Posted in Dam Construction, environmental history, grants, Infrastructure, Natural resources, newly processed collections, water resources | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Exploring a Legal Legacy – Thurman Arnold’s Digitized Papers

Posted on July 19, 2011 by ahcadmin
Thurman Arnold photograph

Thurman Arnold photograph

The AHC has digitized over 7,000 items from the collection of Thurman Wesley Arnold. Arnold, the son of lawyer C.P. Arnold, was born in Laramie, Wyoming, and educated at the University of Wyoming, Princeton, and Harvard, where he earned a law degree in 1914. He practiced law briefly in Chicago before serving with the U.S. Army in France during World War I. Arnold returned to Laramie, where he practiced law from 1919 to 1927, served as mayor from 1923 to 1924, served one term in the Wyoming House of Representatives (1921) and lectured in the University of Wyoming law school. He was dean of the University of West Virginia College of Law from 1927 to 1930 and taught at Yale from 1930 to 1938.

Arnold was named assistant attorney general of the U.S. in charge of the antitrust division in 1938 and was a Department of Justice representative on the Temporary National Economic Committee from 1938 to 1941. He was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1943 and left the bench in 1945 to resume private practice with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Arnold, Fortas & Porter, where he remained active until his death in 1969.

His collection contains 38 boxes of professional and personal correspondence as well as an extensive index to the correspondence (1910-1970); case files of legal documents, correspondence, memorandums, press releases, reports, and notes related to his work with the Antitrust Division (1923-1943); files of notes, galley proofs of opinions, and printed opinions of cases decided by Judge Arnold (1943-1945); drafts, manuscripts, publisher’s correspondence, and reviews of three books; manuscripts of numerous articles and book reviews by Arnold and others; personal financial, legal, and general files (1919-1965); photographs (1895-1950s); professional files (1929-1967); speeches; a scrapbook; biographical information on Arnold and family members; and miscellaneous awards and certificates.

The digitized material from this collection can be accessed through the online inventory. Digitized items are also browsable and searchable from our Digital Collections website at: https://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu/luna/servlet/uwydbuwy~64~64.

Posted in Legal History, newly digitized collections, western politics and leadership, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Secret Agent Man: The Papers of Frank Wilson

Posted on June 3, 2011 by ahcadmin
Frank J. Wilson's Secret Service badge

Frank J. Wilson’s Secret Service badge

Another Depression-era collection has been processed and made available online thanks to an NHPRC grant! Two important news events during the Great Depression were the Charles Lindbergh baby kidnapping case and the conviction of Al Capone. Frank Wilson, Chief of the U.S. Secret Service from 1937-1946, played an instrumental role in both of these investigations.

Wilson, born in 1887, worked for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Justice Fair Price Commission before becoming an agent with the U.S. Treasury Department Internal Revenue Bureau Intelligence Unit in 1920. It was here that Wilson played an instrumental role in the arrest of both Al Capone and Bruno Hauptmann, the Lindbergh baby kidnapper.

Trial report for Al Capone

Trial report for Al Capone

As a Treasury Department agent, Wilson was put in charge of the Al Capone investigation. While it was known that Al Capone was bringing in unreported revenue from criminal activities, no proof could be found.  Wilson went undercover in Chicago to investigate the case. At one point, Capone ordered a $25,000 hit on Wilson.  Wilson finally discovered an envelope shoved in the back of an evidence filing cabinet that had been confiscated in a raid 6 years prior. The envelope had been mislabeled, but inside was a ledger with the proof needed to arrest Capone on tax evasion charges.

Wilson was also one of the lead agents in the Charles Lindbergh baby kidnapping case. It was Wilson’s idea to record the serial numbers on the ransom money which later led to Bruno Hauptmann who was ultimately charged with the kidnapping. This method of recording serial numbers would become common practice in kidnapping cases.

While he was Chief of the U.S. Secret Service, Wilson was devoted to curbing counterfeiting. The amount of counterfeit currency rose to an all-time high during the Great Depression. To curb counterfeiting, Wilson launched a “Know Your Money” campaign. As part of this campaign, a booklet and video was produced and distributed to students, bankers, and storekeepers that demonstrated how to identify counterfeit currency. By 1943, annual losses from counterfeits had dropped 97% from the 1936 level. Wilson also changed many of the protocols for Presidential Protection, many of which are still in place today.

A large portion of the collection consists of articles, radio scripts, and other manuscripts written by Wilson relating to his career as a Secret Service agent, and based on many of his and his colleagues’ cases. The collection also contains files relating directly to his civil service career (both as an agent with the U.S. Treasury Department and the Secret Service), including case files, correspondence, reports, and photographs. Much of the correspondence and case files pertain to his anti-counterfeiting campaign and his protection of the President and other dignitaries. There are also files on the Lindbergh kidnapping case and Al Capone.

View the Inventory of the Frank Wilson Papers to learn more.

Posted in American history, grants, newly processed collections, resources, U.S. Secret Service | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Tracing the Trails of Wyoming’s Cattle Industry through the AHC Archives

Posted on May 27, 2011 by ahcadmin

Roundup, 1925, Wyoming Stock Growers Association Records

The records of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association held at the AHC form the nucleus of a large body of material documenting animal husbandry in the West.

The Association’s stated mission is to advocate for issues related to the cattle industry, to disseminate information to its members, and to promote resource stewardship, animal care, and the production of high-quality, nutritious beef.  However, the organization was created in 1872 to combat cattle rustling.  The Association was instrumental in the evolution of Wyoming rangeland and livestock laws, and it continues to be influential in Wyoming culture and politics.

The Association’s records document the organization comprehensively, covering its early history as well as more recent developments.  Large portions of the collection have been digitized and are available online.  You can search for digitized material by perusing the inventory for the collection or by viewing the digital collection directly.

Those interested in the Wyoming Stock Growers Association may also find the records of the National Cattlemen’s Association intriguing.  The American Heritage Center is an important resource for the study of livestock management.

For additional context on the Association, see our companion Virmuze exhibit “A Look Back at the Wyoming Stock Grower’s Association after 150 years,” which provides an overview of the organization’s history from its 1872 founding through its modern role in Wyoming’s cattle industry.

Posted in Agriculture, Cattle industry, Livestock industry, Ranch history, resources, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Discovering Buffalo Bill – A showcase of AHC collections

Posted on May 27, 2011 by ahcadmin

The American Heritage Center houses several collections documenting the life and work of William F. Cody. “Buffalo Bill” Cody participated in the westward expansion of the United States and helped shape the world’s romantic image of the American frontier. The AHC has digitized widely from these collections, making the vast majority of its Buffalo Bill material available online.

Born February 26, 1846 in LeClair, Iowa, he moved with his family to Kansas and later rode for the Pony Express (1860-1861). He served briefly in the American Civil War and was given the nickname “Buffalo Bill” when he supplied buffalo meat for workers on the Kansas Pacific Railroad in 1867-1868. As chief of scouts for the Fifth U.S. Cavalry he participated in several Indian fights between 1868 and 1872. In 1869 his career took a new turn when he became the subject of a dime novel; he subsequently appeared in theatrical melodramas, touring successfully for 11 years. In 1883 he organized a Wild West show that staged Indian fights, roundups, stage robberies, and buffalo hunts and introduced such stars as Buck Taylor and Annie Oakley to the public. His Wild West Show toured Europe and the United States until 1913, after which Cody retired to the West until his death on Jan. 10, 1917.

Page 1 of Letter from Buffalo Bill to George T. Beck, April 27, 1896.

Page 1 of Letter from Buffalo Bill to George T. Beck, April 27, 1896.

The Buffalo Bill Letters to George T. Beck consist of personal correspondence to George Washington Thornton Beck from William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody concerning the operation of the Shoshone Irrigation Company and its water project. The letters range from 1895, when the company was first established, to 1910 with the majority being written in 1896. The majority of the letters concern the canal being built during this period, however, there are several instances of personal observations and descriptions by Cody of his Wild West Show and the places it was visiting.

The Buffalo Bill Dam Construction photographs contain images of the construction of the Shoshone  Dam in Park County, Wyoming, during 1908. The dam was renamed after Buffalo Bill in 1946, who founded the nearby town of Cody and owned much of the surrounding land. At the time of its construction, the Buffalo Bill Dam was the tallest arch-gravity dam in the world.

Buffalo Bill Dam Construction Photograph

Buffalo Bill Dam Construction Photograph

The Beck Family papers contain the correspondence and business records of George T. Beck and his daughters, and document the founding of Cody, Wyoming, and the construction of the Cody Canal. Beck partnered with Buffalo Bill Cody to form the Shoshone Irrigation Company, which undertook the canal.

The Buffalo Bill Collection focuses primarily on the operations of “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show” from 1884 to 1916. It contains correspondence, legal documents, ticket receipts, train schedules, playbills and photographs related to the various aspects of daily operation and promotion of the Wild West Show both in the United States and abroad. Additionally there is printed material advertising both William Cody and his show, as well as booklets written after his death in 1917 which examine his life and the impact he had on the American West.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, 1914.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, 1914.

In all, the AHC has digitized nearly 1500 items related to Buffalo Bill, much of which will ultimately be contributed to the Papers of William F. Cody: An Archive of the Life and Times of an American Icon, a repository of digitized archival material being developed by the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and its partners.

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Harmonic Echoes – Exploring Larry Adler’s Musical Impact

Posted on May 18, 2011 by ahcadmin

Lawrence Cecil “Larry” Adler was born in Baltimore on February 10, 1914 to parents Louis and Sadie.

A self-taught harmonica player, he gained worldwide recognition as the musician who brought the instrument to the ‘serious music’ stage.

He began playing early and won the Maryland Harmonica Championship at the age of 13. After attending Baltimore City College (1926-1928), his musical career began in 1928 in New York when he was given a job by Rudy Vallee to play at the Heigh-Ho Club.

He became the harmonica player at Paramount Theater in 1928, then at the Streamline Revue Palace Theater, London, in 1934. In 1939 he joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as a soloist. During World War II, from 1943-45, he went on USO tours with the dancer Paul Draper; the pair joined together again after the war to tour worldwide. He performed in Germany in 1947 and 1949, in Korea in 1951, and in Israel in 1967 and 1973. He appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, Scotland, in 1963 and 1965. In 1989 he played at the London Promenade Concert at the Albert Hall with the Wren Orchestra and John Ogdon. During his career he also played with the Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony and the BBC Symphony, and has had music composed for him by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold and Darius Milhaud.

On April 11, 1938 Larry Adler married Eileen Walser with whom he had three children: Carole, Peter and Wendy, before they divorced in 1959. He was married again in 1967 to Sally Cline and had a daughter, Katelyn, a marriage that lasted 9 years until a divorce in 1976.

In 1949 Larry Adler was blacklisted in the U.S. for having alleged procommunist leanings and later emigrated to Great Britain. During the investigations by the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities into communism in the entertainment industry, he and Paul Draper were accused by Hester McCullough of being communist sympathizers.  In 1950, Larry Adler and Paul Draper brought a libel suit against Mrs. Hester McCullough for $200,000. The case concluded when the jury could not reach a verdict. Adler and Draper claimed the jury’s inability to support Mrs. McCullough’s accusations was a sign of support. However, the effect of the accusation was long-standing and both Larry Adler and Paul Draper lost concert bookings which seriously threatened their careers in America. Adler has since claimed that his career has never regained its momentum in the U.S.

During his career he wrote several film scores: The Singing Marine (1937), The Big Broadcast of 1937, Sidewalks of London (1938), Genevieve (1953) (for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Film Score), The Great Chase (1962), King and Country (1963),  High Wind in Jamaica (1964), and My Life (1993), as well as appearing in Many Happy Returns (1934), Music for Millions (1944), and Three Daring Daughters (1948). His television credits include The Midnight Men (1964) The Monte Carlo Show in the 1980s.

He has published sound recordings Larry Adler Live at the Ballroom on Newport Classic and Larry Adler Plays Works for Harmonica and Orchestra on the RCA label. 

He has also released several written publications: How I Play (1937), Larry Adler’s Own Arrangements (1960), Jokes and How to Tell Them (1963), and his autobiography It Ain’t Necessarily So (1985). He wrote as a food critic for Harper’s Queen and Portrait and Boardroom and also published several columns in Punch, Spectator, New Statesman, New Society, Sunday Times, Observer, and Mail on Sunday.

Adler’s fascinating career and the impact of his blacklisting are documented in detail through his personal papers. For a focused look at how the Red Scare accusations changed his career, see our Virmuze exhibit “Blacklisted: Larry Adler,” which highlights key documents from this turbulent period in his life.

Posted in Arts & Culture, Entertainment history, music, popular culture, radio history | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments