Transmittal letter found in a book of Al Smith's quotations
Some years ago I owned this privately printed slipcase-edition of quotations from New York Governor Alfred E. Smith (1873-1944), who was the 1928 Democratic nominee for president. The book is entitled, "Let's Look at the Record." There was no copyright date or publication information in it. At some point, I included it in a large donation to a library sale.
Last week I found another copy of it at a used bookstore for $2. Enclosed with it was the original letter of transmittal from the man who published it. I bought the book as a curiosity, and researched "Bill," the man who printed and distributed these to his friends.
As it turns out, "Bill" was William J. McCormack, who was a friend and supporter of Smith's. He was also a bit more than that. According to his Wikipedia biography, McCormack began his business career as a grocer's wagon-boy running errands along New York's West Side docks. He went on to establish one of the most powerful stevedoring companies in the United States. By the mid-1930s, he held a virtual monopoly on stevedoring along the New York docks. He became known as the mysterious "Mr. Big" of the New York waterfront.
In the early 1950s, details of McCormack's relationships with International Longshoreman's Association President Joseph P. Ryan and various organized crime figures were revealed in a series of New York Sun articles by Malcolm Johnson entitled "Crime on the Waterfront." These articles, and the 1953 Waterfront Crime Commission hearings that followed, provided Elia Kazan with the factual background for his classic 1954 film "On the Waterfront." In the film, Kazan based the character "Mr. Upstairs," whose face is never shown (only the plush estate where he lives), on William J. "Bill" McCormack.
Kazan's film received twelve Academy Award nominations and won eight, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Marlon Brando, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Director for Kazan. In 1997, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the eighth-greatest American movie of all time. Kazan's original director's script is now housed at Wesleyan Cinema Archives. In the section depicting a key scene with "Mr. Upstairs," Kazan kept a magazine picture of William McCormack.
The Lesson: always flip through the pages of old books in used bookstores. One never knows what interesting tidbits one might find.