The President's Mystery Plot

[drpaladin]

 

It's a little known fact today, but President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote a plot for a mystery. Roosevelt enjoyed reading mystery and detective stories. Some of them he found disappointing because they relied on familiar formulas. He came up with an idea about a wealthy man who was tired of his life and wanted to cash in his estate and disappear without a trace. Roosevelt told his story to Fulton Oursler, editor of Liberty Magazine. He lamented that he could never come to a satisfactory ending for his plot. Oursler thought the idea was wonderful and suggested presenting it to popular writers to see what they could come up with. Roosevelt gave his blessing and five writers went to work on it.  None of the five knew that the plot had originated with Roosevelt. The story ended up being somewhat erratic with five different writing styles and the characters were weak. It did end up as a movie so Roosevelt has a screenwriting credit on IMDB.  I think the whole story is more telling about Roosevelt himself, his feelings, and thoughts about his own life.  A story about a wealthy man seeking to escape a loveless marriage and a life he found unsatisfying would have been an escapism which would certainly resonate with him. If you would like to read more background to the story, you may do so at the link below. There is also a small excerpt there. If you want to read it, you'll have to hunt down a copy. The last version was published in 1967 with an ending by Earl Stanley Gardner, famous for creating Perry Mason.

 

http://libertymagazine.com/presidential_roosevelt.htm

[Celethiel]

Mr and Misses Roosevelt didn't love each other?

That's sad considering he was an invalid...

btw that's a fairly creepy picture....

Edited November 29, 2015 by Celethiel

[drpaladin]

Officially Marguerite  Alice "Missy" LeHand was FDR's private secretary. Unofficially she was the chief of staff, policy adviser, social host, and so much more during the first nine years of FDR's presidency. Anyone who wanted access to FDR had to pass through her first. She was one of the most influential and powerful women of the 20th century. It should be noted that FDR had arranged for half his income to go to her in the event of his death, but she predeceased him. It is a shame that her importance has been overlooked and neglected.

Edited November 29, 2015 by drpaladin

[Bill W]

FDR had a mistress, Lucy Mercer Rutherford, who was Eleanor's social secretary.  She was said to have been with him when he died.  

 

Don't feel badly though, because Eleanor was believed to have had a lesbian affair with a female journalist, Lorena Hickok.  

 

Even though the marriage hadn't been perfect, they both seemed to have found love.  

 

The idea of the mystery novel was interesting.  

[drpaladin]

FDR had a mistress, Lucy Mercer Rutherford, who was Eleanor's social secretary.  She was said to have been with him when he died.  

 

Don't feel badly though, because Eleanor was believed to have had a lesbian affair with a female journalist, Lorena Hickok.  

 

Even though the marriage hadn't been perfect, they both seemed to have found love.  

 

The idea of the mystery novel was interesting.  

Yes, she was in the mix too. There were at least five in total. FDR was fairly adept at keeping secrets and the media of the time was certainly kinder than they have been to other presidents.

[W_L]

Makes you wonder if Kennedy built those tunnels for Marilyn Monroe or if FDR built them for one of his girlfriends (or as an escape route during Nazi Bombing if it was ever discovered).

 

FDR and Elanor Roosevelt were akin to Bill and Hilary; you know the relationship is political rather than physical or romantic, Elanor was far more open to the idea of Civil Rights than FDR back in the 1930's as one particular difference.

Edited November 30, 2015 by W_L

[drpaladin]

Actor Bruce Dern told this funny story about Eleanor Roosevelt to Tavis Smiley. Now every time I think of her is exactly like that.  LOL

 

Eleanor Roosevelt, the thing there was my father’s father, George Dern, was the first non-Mormon governor of Utah.

 

Tavis: Two-term.

 

Dern: Yeah, right. Then he went to become Roosevelt’s first secretary of war, in the first Cabinet, and he died while he was in office. My family used to go visit the Roosevelts up at Hyde Park, where they were outside of New York.

One year they were visiting and little Brucie got to go with them, and I was riding a bicycle in the afternoon, and ran into a tree and hit my head and had a concussion.

In those days when you had a concussion they laid you down with your head on a pillow and then strapped your head across the pillow so you couldn’t move it to the side or forward or anything.

When I kind of came to, I guess it was late at night, 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, and as I rolled my head to the side, I saw this lady’s legs. They were kind of veiny, and had a nightgown down to about here with little kind of tacky slippers. (Laughter)

I didn’t understand. As I slowly came up and started looking up to where the woman’s face was, she had a book in her lap, and she looked like this (makes face) and had that Roosevelt bite. I realized, my God, it’s the president’s wife. (Laughter)

I had – it was just before he went to Yalta, so I would have been about eight, I guess. This was ’44; I think that’s when he went to Yalta. So that was in my house. Somebody took that and ran with it and assumed, well, who would babysit a guy like that unless it was his godmother?

Who else would put up with that? So that was how it got misconstrued. But that was the history.

 

Tavis: Well, that’s a great story to be misconstrued. (Laughter) Eleanor Roosevelt sitting there looking at you when you wake up.