James Michael Curley
James Michael Curley (November 20, 1874-November 12, 1958) was an American politician who served in the United States House of Representatives, as the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, and as Governor of Massachusetts.
He served in various municipal offices and one term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1902-1903). He is noted for having been elected to the Board of Aldermen in 1904 while in prison, having been convicted of fraud. Curley and an associate, Thomas Curley (no relation) took the civil service exams for postmen for two men in their district to help them get the jobs with the federal government. Though the incident gave him a dark reputation in respectable circles, it aided his image in working class or poor circles because they saw him as a man willing to stick his neck out to help a poor man.
He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 12th district seat (1911-1914). He served three terms as Mayor of Boston (1914-1918, 1922-1926 and 1930-1934), served as Governor of Massachusetts (1935-1937), was returned to the U.S. House of Representatives (1943-1947), this time in the 11th district, and then served one more term as Mayor of Boston from 1945-1949.
In 1947, during his last mayoral term, he was convicted for a second time on federal charges of official misconduct, including mail fraud. He spent five months in jail during this term, but still retained a considerable degree of popularity with the working classes. President Harry Truman pardoned him, enabling his release.
The city manager, John Hynes, ran the city during his incarceration, and intentionally held many large items in limbo until Curley got released from prison so the mayor could handle them himself. Upon release Curley told the manager he was grateful for what he had done, but then told the media that he had accomplished more in his first day back as mayor than the manager had over the previous several months. Livid, Hynes felt betrayed, and this anger fueled Hynes' successful attempt for mayor in 1949.
A failed mayoral bid in 1951 marked the end of his serious political career, although he continued to support other candidates and remain active within the Democratic Party, and even ran for mayor one last time in 1955. That was his 10th time running for Boston's mayor.
Curley had an unusually tragic personal life. He outlived his first wife and seven of his nine children. Two twins died shortly after childbirth. One of his two daughters died while a teenager. His namesake, James Jr., who was groomed as Curley's political heir, died in his early adulthood. Another son who had a drinking problem died while Curley ran for mayor in 1945. Finally, his remaining daughter and another son both died of strokes on the same day in 1950. Both were in the same room of Curley's house talking on the same phone when they had their two strokes. Two other sons outlived Curley. One became a Jesuit.
Curley is honored with not one, but two statues at Faneuil Hall, across from Boston's new City Hall. One shows him seated on a park bench, the other shows him standing, as if giving a speech, a campaign button on his lapel. A few feet away is a bar named for one of his symbols, The Purple Shamrock.
His house, known in his time as "the house with the shamrock shutters," located at 350 The Jamaicaway, is now a city historical site.
Trivia
- Curley is considered the inspiration for the protagonist Frank Skeffington in the novel and film The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor.
- Curley was the inspiration for the song Rascal King on the album Let's Face It by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
References
- Beatty, Jack. The Rascal King: The Life and Times of James Michael Curley, 1874-1958. (1992). 571 pp.
- Connolly, Michael C. "The First Hurrah: James Michael Curley Versus the "Goo-goos" in the Boston Mayoralty Election of 1914." Historical Journal of Massachusetts 2002 30(1): 50-74. ISSN 0276-8313.
- Connolly, James J. "Reconstituting Ethnic Politics: Boston, 1909-1925." Social Science History (1995) 19(4): 479-509. ISSN 0145-5532.
- Curley, James Michael, I'd Do It Again autobiography.
- Dineen, Joseph F., The Purple Shamrock (1949), an authorized biography
- Kenneally, James. "Prelude to the Last Hurrah: the Massachusetts Senatorial Election of 1936." Mid-America 1980 62(1): 3-20. ISSN 0026-2927.
- Lapomarda, Vincent A. "Maurice Joseph Tobin: the Decline of Bossism in Boston." New England Quarterly (1970) 43(3): 355-381. ISSN 0028-4866.
- Lennon, Thomas, producer, Scandalous Mayor. Film. 58 min.; Thomas Lennon Productions, 1991. Distrib. by PBS Video, Alexandria
- Luthin, Reinhard H., American Demagogues: Twentieth Century (1954) ch. 2.
- Steinberg, Alfred. The Bosses: Frank Hague, James Curley, Ed Crump, Huey Long, Gene Talmadge, Tom Pendergast - The Story of the Ruthless Men who Forged the American Political Machines that Dominated the Twenties and Thirties Macmillan, 1972.
- Zolot, Herbert Marshall. "The Issue of Good Government and James Michael Curley: Curley and the Boston Scene from 1897-1918." Ph D Dissertation State U. of New York, Stony Brook 1975. 635 pp. Citation: DAI 1975 36(2): 1053-A.
External links
- Information on Mayor Curley at Political Graveyard
- James Michael Curley at Massachusetts Moments
- James Michael Curley at The Bostonian Society, section on Jamaica Plain historical place markers
- United States Congress. "James Michael Curley (id: C000996)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
