The Name Was Familiar

The lobby gows in the late Sol Bloom's 20th district on Manhattan's West Side put on their derbies last week and paid angry calls on Tammany Chieftain Hugo Rogers. Sol Bloom's district was good Democratic territory, and they had several deserving Tammany candidates for old Sol's job. They had had the place to themselves until a good-looking young lawyer from Long Island announced for the seat. His name: Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.

One of the 20th's leaders, Robert Blaikie, had asked Franklin to run (under New York law a Congressman need not be a resident of the district he represents.) Young (34), husky (6 ft. 4 in., 200 Ibs.) Franklin quickly accepted, thereby becoming the first of the four Roosevelt boys to seek public office. His mother heard the news in Chicago, and confided to readers of "My Day": "I was a little appalled by this announcement." Besides his glamorous name, young Franklin had a good Navy record as a destroyer officer (Silver Star, Legion of Merit), and a brief career as spear-carrier in New Dealing ranks. Franklin also had some impressive supporters, all of them conveniently remote from the 20th's immediate concerns: Connecticut's Governor Chester Bowles, New York's former Governor Herbert Lehman, the ailing U.S. Senator Bob Wagner.

Mayor Bill O'Dwyer played it safe. He thought Franklin would make a "great Congressman," but then qualified it by saying he wouldn't dream of interfering in the 20th. After all, he was a Brooklyn Democrat himself, he observed carefully. Then he sent his secretary to "Irish Night" at the Peter J. Dooling (Tammany) Association to announce that the mayor also recognized the claim of Assemblyman Owen McGivern to the nomination. Tammany Boss Rogers hoped that Republican Governor Tom Dewey would mercifully spare him a special election, leave the seat open until November and give him time to work something out.

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