The Divine Miss Marble by Robert Weintraub

Author:Robert Weintraub [Weintraub, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-07-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Pain & Gain

One of Franklin Roosevelt’s first initiatives after winning his third term as president in November 1940 was to announce to a national conference of doctors, educational leaders, and physical trainers that a program to “toughen” the country’s citizenry would be enacted as soon as possible. It would be under the guidance of John Kelly (like the future President Kennedy better known as Jack), who won fame winning gold medals in the sculls in the Olympics of 1920 and 1924.

The idea began with Kelly, who noted that FDR had mentioned in a speech that in comparison to disciplined European nations, the US “was too soft.”

“The wealth of the country,” Kelly said, “is in the strength of its men and women. The manpower of Europe is already toughened. We had better wake up, or they will force us to our knees if we ever come to grips.”

“Stamina, endurance and vigor” were the objectives, according to Kelly, who hastened to add that the government would not make anyone run who didn’t want to, lest the whiff of fascism (similar programs were heartily endorsed by the Nazis) repel Americans. Sports and individual fitness programs would be the initial focus of the program, in Kelly’s view, along with physical examinations that would “reveal deficiencies,” such as scoliosis or poor teeth, and steps to overcome them.

Kelly’s comments and announcement of a national fitness council “evoked a large response,” according to The New York Times. “An extraordinary interest was shown in letters by women,” Kelly noted.

Enter America’s Queen of the Courts.

On recommendation from his wife, Eleanor, FDR was calling to offer Alice the number-two position in Kelly’s fitness council, concentrating on women. It fell under the auspices of the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD), which was run by New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia.

Here was Alice’s chance to pitch in. She crossed the river to the “summer city hall” in Queens, where the mayor escaped the sweltering environs of city hall for the cooler breezes of the Long Island Sound. There, La Guardia swore her in as assistant director of civilian defense in charge of physical fitness for women. She made Mary Browne her number two. The job entailed a four-month tour of the country, giving talks on the importance of fitness.

It also entailed an FBI background check, which Alice recalled involved a pair of agents in “identical dark suits” firing off a multitude of questions. When she noticed the repetition of questions, she wrote in Courting Danger, she brought up what she called her photographic memory. Intrigued, the agents asked Alice to play spy at the various functions she would attend as part of her job and pass along anything suspicious. She said they gave her a Spanish-language typewriter and a PO box to mail her reports, which in the end, as Alice admitted, amounted to not a whole lot.

As it happens, Alice’s work for the feds was either so secret as to be highly classified to this day, or else it was such a nonentity it wasn’t worth writing up.

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