“Such Friends”: 100 Years Ago, November 2, 1920, United States of America

Westinghouse-owned KDKA-AM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the first public commercial radio station in the U.S., is on air for the first time, broadcasting the results of the presidential election. The small percentage of the population in a large part of the eastern United States who own radio sets can hear the announcers read results right off the ticker tapes as they come in.

KDKA studio, November 2, 1920

And it’s also the first national election when women can vote. More voters than ever before—looks as though it will be a more than 40% increase over 1916—are creating a Republican landslide that is spilling into local elections as well.

Republican candidate Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding is about to be the first sitting senator elected president—on his 55^th birthday.

More voters also mean more votes for the Socialist candidate, Eugene V. Debs, just about to turn 65, although he is currently serving time in federal prison on charges of sedition. If he gets the predicted almost 1 million votes, it will still be a smaller percentage than the record 6% he got when he ran in 1912.

The first lady-to-be, Florence Harding, 60, tells a friend,

I don’t feel any too confident, I can tell you. I haven’t any doubt about him, but I’m not so sure of myself.”

In Cook County, Illinois, the State Attorney General, Hartley Replogle, 40, is about to be swept out in the Republican tide, and his whole team, working on prosecuting the Black Sox World Series scandal, will soon be replaced.

Harding victory in traditional print Taunton [Massachusetts] Daily Gazette

Click here to join the centenary celebrations of KDKA’s historic first broadcast, including a re-enactment of the Harding election results broadcast from a replica of the original studio.

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the book, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s, to be published by K. Donnelly Communications. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

My “Such Friends” presentations, The Founding of the Abbey Theatre and Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Round Table, are available to view for free on the website of PICT Classic Theatre.

This fall I am talking about writers’ salons in Paris and New York after the Great War in the Osher Lifelong Learning program at the University of Pittsburgh.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is available on Amazon in both print and Kindle versions. I will be talking about Perkins, Fitzgerald and Hemingway in the Osher program at Carnegie-Mellon University early in 2021.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”: Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

“Such Friends”: 100 Years Ago, October 29, 1920, Chicago, Illinois

The Cook County grand jury announce their indictments of eight former White Sox players, including “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, 34, and five professional athletes turned gamblers, on several counts of

conspiracy to obtain money by false pretenses and/or a confidence game”

for throwing the 1919 World Series.

Illinois State Assistant Attorney General Hartley Replogle, 40, is confident that his office’s handling of the “Black Sox” scandal will help in the upcoming November election.

“Shoeless” Joe Jackson and Assistant State Attorney Hartley Replogle

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the book, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s, to be published by K. Donnelly Communications. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

My “Such Friends” presentations, The Founding of the Abbey Theatre and Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Round Table, are available to view on the website of PICT Classic Theatre.

This fall I am talking about writers’ salons in Paris and New York after the Great War in the Osher Lifelong Learning program at University of Pittsburgh.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is available on Amazon in both print and Kindle versions. I will be talking about Perkins, Fitzgerald and Hemingway in the Carnegie-Mellon University Osher program early next year.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”: Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

“Such Friends”: 100 Years Ago, September 28, 1920, Chicago, Illinois

Joe Jackson, 33, now former outfielder for the Chicago White Sox, is back in his hotel room after testifying to a Cook County grand jury about whether he was involved in fixing last year’s World Series, played against the Cincinnati Reds. Which the White Sox lost, to everyone’s surprise. Except the bookies.

Joe Jackson baseball card

Jackson had been eager to tell the jury that he had taken the $5,000 offered to him by another teammate to throw three games, but he hadn’t earned it. Joe testified that throughout all the Series games he had

batted to win, fielded to win, and run the bases to win.”

He had played better than almost any ball player ever.

In addition, he’d been promised $20,000!

After his testimony, a remorseful Jackson repeatedly told the crush of reporters waiting outside the courthouse,

All I got was the $5,000…handed me in a dirty envelope. I never got the other $15,000. I told that to [the judge]. He said he didn’t care what I got…I don’t think the judge likes me. I never got the $15,000 that was coming to me.”

The next day, Joe is astounded to read in the Chicago Daily News this account of what happened when he came out of the Cook County Courthouse:

When Jackson left the criminal court building…he found several hundred youngsters, aged from 6 to 16, waiting for a glimpse of their idol. One child stepped up to the outfielder, and, grabbing his coat sleeve, said:  ‘It ain’t true, is it, Joe?’ ‘Yes, kid, I’m afraid it is,’ Jackson replied. The boys opened a path for the ball player and stood in silence until he passed out of sight. ‘Well, I’d never have thought it,’ sighed the lad.” 

What youngsters?! When the hell had that happened?! Joe wonders.

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the book, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s, to be published by K. Donnelly Communications. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

My “Such Friends” presentations, Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Round Table, and The Founding of the Abbey Theatre, are available to view on the website of PICT Classic Theatre.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is available on Amazon in both print and Kindle versions.

This fall I am talking about writers’ salons in Ireland, England, France and America before and after the Great War in the Osher Lifelong Learning programs at University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie-Mellon University.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”: Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.