The Stylish Millionaire Diplomat, Anthony J.
Drexel Biddle Jr.
The patriotic scion of several prominent Philadelphia
families is the subject of an intimate exhibition.
BY DAVID
NASHPUBLISHED: JAN 2, 2020
Anthony J.
Drexel Biddle, Jr. could easily lay claim to being one of the most
fascinating—though often forgotten—figures of the 20th century. Now a new
exhibition at Drexel University, Citizen, Soldier, Diplomat: An Exhibition on
the Life and Career of Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr., chronicles the
extraordinary life of the great grandson of Drexel University’s founder,
Anthony J. Drexel.
https://drexel.edu/drexel-founding-collection/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/AJDB-Jr/
The
prominent Philadelphian was a favorite subject of society columns, receiving
regular recognition for his personal style and athleticism. In 1937 Biddle was
named among the best-dressed by the National Association of Merchant Tailors of
America, and by Flair in 1950, and Esquire in 1960. He was also a founding
member of the Palm Beach Bath & Tennis Club, and as a court tennis champion
won the Racquet d’Argent in France in 1933. But it’s perhaps his service to the
United States during the course of two World Wars, and several administrations,
that should be remembered as Biddle’s most meaningful contribution.
Born in
1897, Biddle was the son of the eccentric and wealthy Colonel Anthony J. Drexel
Biddle, whose unconventional life was immortalized in the 1967 Walt Disney
musical film The Happiest Millionaire, itself based on the book My Philadelphia
Father written by Biddle’s sister Cordelia. In 1955, in response to the book’s
publication, the New York Times reported that “What the Cabots are to Boston
the Biddles are to Philadelphia, and if the Biddle position with respect to
Deity is not quite as clearly defined as the Cabots, they have a distinction of
their own; they are known for their charm.”
Biddle
graduated St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire in 1915 and married his
first wife, tobacco heiress Mary L. Duke, a cousin of Doris Duke. In 1917, at
age 20, he enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army. After leaving the military
in the early 1920s, Biddle engaged in a number of ventures and was, at one
time, a director of 11 corporations simultaneously.
The stock
market crash of 1929 curtailed most of his earlier business interests, and his
marriage to Duke ended shortly after in 1931. Biddle married his second wife,
copper mining heiress Margaret Thompson Schulze, that same year. President
Roosevelt first appointed him minister to Norway in 1935, and then Ambassador
to Poland in 1937.
“In
addition to the many personal objects in the exhibition, we have a number of
pieces Biddle used in the U.S. Embassy in Poland including the desk he used,
the official embassy seal removed when he fled Warsaw in 1939, and a lot of
rare occupation documents,” says Lynn Clouser, director of the Drexel
Collection.
This second
appointment also led to his London-based commission in 1941 to the
governments-in-exile of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Yugoslavia–making Biddle the ambassador to
more countries at once than any other person in history. The prior year he had
also served as the interim ambassador to France.
After
leaving the State Department in 1944 Biddle re-enlisted in the army, rose to
the rank of Brigadier General, and served in various high-level positions under
General Eisenhower until retiring in 1955. In 1946 Biddle married his third
wife, Margaret Atkinson Loughborough, a major also serving under Eisenhower.
The couple raised their two children between France, Washington DC, and
Pennsylvania.
“He passed
away when I was 12-years-old–it was a short but memorable period,” recalls
Biddle’s son, Anthony "Tony" J. Drexel Biddle III. “I remember being
two or three on the front lawn [of our house] in Paris and he stood me
underneath an apple tree, then stepped around back and shook it so hard that
apples were raining down on me–that was the first trick he pulled that I can
remember,” he laughs.
In January
1961 Biddle reluctantly took his final State Department appointment as
Ambassador to Spain under President Kennedy. “America and Western Europe were
having a difficult time with [Spanish dictator] Francisco Franco over possibly
losing [the territory of] Gibraltar,” says Tony. “So, Jack [Kennedy] implored
my father to return to the diplomatic core though, initially, he respectfully
declined.”
Kennedy
then approached Biddle’s close friend, General James Gavin–who Kennedy had just
appointed Ambassador to France–to help convince him to take the job. “Gavin
said to my father, ‘if you go to Spain, I’ll go to Paris–but if you don’t, I
won’t.’ Then, suddenly we were in Spain,” Tony remembers. “We must have landed
there a week after Jack was inaugurated and in a remarkably short period of
time Dad nullified the problem, and Franco was absolutely in love with him.”
Biddle
maintained three strong political relationships throughout his life and nearly
30-year career—those with Presidents Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. “Ike
[Eisenhower] was being drafted to run for president and he asked my father to
consider running as his vice president,” says Tony. “Dad accepted that as an
enormous compliment but declined.”
When
pressed, Biddle offered two reasons: First he wasn’t cut out for campaigning,
and second he was a Democrat, to which Eisenhower replied, “Who cares!”
According to Tony, at one time both the Democratic and Republican parties in
Pennsylvania were after his father to run for governor.
Biddle’s
relationship with Kennedy began when the future president was a student at
Harvard. “Joe [Kennedy] was in London at the time and called up Dad in Warsaw
to say, ‘I have this vision my son is going to be Secretary of State one day,
and it would be good if he learned some of the ropes early.’”
The younger
Kennedy would spend a summer in Poland with Biddle, and the pair became fast
friends. “Jack always depended on him a lot for the rest of his life,” says
Tony. “When Jack ran for the nomination the first time—and didn’t get it—my Dad
was a very important morale-boosting supporter. He encouraged Jack to stay the
course, and the next time he won.”
By the time
they arrived in Spain, Tony recalls having, at 11-years-old, a “young person’s
understanding” of what his father did. “We were there basically a year, then
Dad became ill and died that November.” At the end of his life, Biddle spent a
month at the Airforce base outside Madrid before being transferred to Walter
Reed Medical Center in Washington DC, and ultimately succumbed to lung cancer
at age 64.
“One of the
most important things in life to Dad was a sense of humor,” says Tony. “Today
that would translate into not taking yourself too seriously. He loved people,
and the more he loved you, the more likely he was going to do something funny.”
Located in
Drexel University’s Rincliffe Gallery and A.J. Drexel Picture Gallery, the
exhibition runs through May 1, 2020.
No comments:
Post a Comment