James Michael Curley was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
politicianA politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
famous for his four terms as
mayorIn many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Boston, Massachusetts. He also served twice in the
United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
and one term as
53rd Governor of MassachusettsThe Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the executive magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The current governor is Democrat Deval Patrick.-Constitutional role:...
.
Early life
Curley's father, Michael Curley, left
OughterardOughterard is a small town on the banks of the Owenriff River close to the western shore of Lough Corrib in County Galway, Ireland. The population of the town in 2006 was 1,305...
,
County GalwayCounty Galway is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the city of Galway. Galway County Council is the local authority for the county. There are several strongly Irish-speaking areas in the west of the county...
,
IrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
at age 14. He settled in Roxbury, an Irish immigrant neighborhood in Boston, where he met Sarah Clancy, also from Co. Galway. They married, and in 1874, their second son, James Michael Curley, was born.
Curley's father died when the boy was just 10 years old, leaving his mother a young widow forced to support her children on her own. His mother got a job scrubbing floors in offices and churches all over Boston. It was back-breaking work and his mother's struggle influenced Curley's attitude toward the poor for the rest of his life. James had two brothers: John J. (1872-1944) and Michael (born 1879), who died at 2½.
Early in his political career he served in various municipal offices and one term in the
Massachusetts House of RepresentativesThe Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives serve two-year terms...
(1902–1903).
Curley married twice, first to Mary Emelda Herlihy (1884–1930) in 1906 and then to Gertrude Casey Dennis in 1937, on his last day as governor.
1st prison term
Curley's first notoriety came as a result of having been elected to Boston's Board of Aldermen in 1904 while in prison on a fraud conviction. Curley and an associate, Thomas Curley (no relation), took the civil service exams for postmen for two men in their district to help them get the jobs with the federal government. Though the incident gave him a dark reputation in upper-class circles, it aided his image among the working class and poor because they saw him as a man willing to stick his neck out to help those in need. He kept that reputation for the rest of his life and it was known all over the city that the poor and unemployed often lined up outside his house in the mornings to speak with him about getting a job or to get a handout of a few dollars to get them through the week.
First election to the U.S. House
In 1910 while a Member of the Board of Aldermen for the City of Boston, Curley decided to run for the 10th District U.S. congressional seat then occupied by
Joseph F. O'ConnellJoseph Francis O'Connell was a Massachusetts lawyer, law professor, politician and U.S. Representative.-Early life:...
. (In the previous general election O'Connell won by a four-vote margin over his Republican opponent, ex-City Clerk J. Mitchell Galvin.) In a three-way primary among O'Connell, Curley, and O'Connell's predecessor
William S. McNaryWilliam Sarsfield McNary was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.-Early years:McNary was born in Abington, Massachusetts, McNary attended the public schools of Abington and graduated from the Boston English High School....
, Curley defeated O'Connell and McNary. After winning the nomination of the Democratic party Curley went on to win the general election by a substantial plurality over Galvin, who was again the Republican nominee.
Mayor of Boston
Curley served four terms as Mayor of Boston: 1914-1918, 1922–1926, 1930–1934 and 1946-1950. During his second term in the House of Representatives, Curley's popularity in Boston remained high, even in the face of a felony
indictmentAn indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
in 1943 for
influence peddlingInfluence peddling is the illegal practice of using one's influence in government or connections with persons in authority to obtain favors or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment. Also called traffic of influence or trading in influence ...
, which stemmed from his involvement with a consulting firm seeking to secure defense contracts. On the slogan "Curley Gets Things Done" he won an unprecedented fourth term as mayor of Boston in 1945. A second indictment by a federal grand jury, for mail fraud, did not harm his campaign and Curley won the election with 45% of the vote.
2nd prison term
In June 1947, he was sentenced to 6–18 months on the mail fraud conviction and spent five months at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut before his sentence was commuted by
President TrumanHarry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
under pressure from the Massachusetts congressional delegation. City Clerk John B. Hynes served as acting mayor during his absence. Truman gave Curley a full pardon in 1950 for both his 1904 and 1947 convictions.
Return to office
A crowd of thousands greeted Curley upon his return to Boston, with a brass band playing "
Hail to the Chief"Hail to the Chief" is a march primarily associated with the President of the United States. Its playing accompanies the appearance of the President at many public appearances. For major official occasions, the United States Marine Band and other military ensembles generally are the performers, so...
". In a fit of hubris after his first day back in office, Curley told reporters, "I have accomplished more in one day than has been done in the five months of my absence." John Hynes, the city clerk and acting mayor, had intentionally held many important agenda items back until Curley's release from prison so the mayor could handle them himself. Angered and insulted by Curley's remark, Hynes ran against him for mayor in the 1949 election, defeating Curley and essentially ending Curley's long political career.
Governor of Massachusetts
Curley ran for
Governor of MassachusettsThe Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the executive magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The current governor is Democrat Deval Patrick.-Constitutional role:...
in 1934, and this time he won, having lost in 1924. Over the course of his term, Curley's extravagant personal spending and expensive vacations drew criticism and series of scandals rocked his administration, including the involvement of his state limousine in several traffic accidents, the alleged sale of pardons to state convicts, and the appointment of poorly qualified individuals, including his brother John, to public offices.
In the late 1930s Curley's political fortunes began to ebb. Denied Franklin Delano Roosevelt's endorsement in the 1936 senatorial election, he lost against a moderate Republican,
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. was a Republican United States Senator from Massachusetts and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, South Vietnam, West Germany, and the Holy See . He was the Republican nominee for Vice President in the 1960 Presidential election.-Early life:Lodge was born in Nahant,...
He was twice defeated, in 1937 and 1940, for the Boston mayoralty by one of his closest former political confidants,
Maurice J. TobinMaurice Joseph Tobin was a Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, the 56th Governor of the U.S. state of Massachusetts, and U.S. Secretary of Labor....
, and in 1938
Leverett SaltonstallLeverett A. Saltonstall was an American Republican politician who served as the 55th Governor of Massachusetts and as a United States Senator .-Biography:...
turned back Curley's attempt to recapture the Massachusetts governorship. After leaving the office of governor, he squandered a substantial sum of his money in unsuccessful investments in Nevada gold mines; then he lost a civil suit brought by the
Suffolk CountySuffolk County has no land border with Plymouth County to its southeast, but the two counties share a water boundary in the middle of Massachusetts Bay.-National protected areas:*Boston African American National Historic Site...
prosecutor that forced him to forfeit to the city of Boston the $40,000 he received from General Equipment Company for "fixing" a damage claim settlement.
In 1942, however, Curley managed to revive his faltering career by returning to Congress, serving from 1943 to 1947, this time in the . In defeating his liberal opponent
Thomas H. EliotThomas Hopkinson Eliot was a lawyer, politician, and academic, serving as chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis and in the US House of Representatives from Massachusetts....
, a former
New DealThe New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
attorney with an exemplary voting record on behalf of the Roosevelt administration in the Democratic party primary. Eliot was the son of a Unitarian minister and grandson of Harvard president Charles Eliot and Curley based his campaign on appeals to ethnic, class and religious prejudice against the well to do WASP Eliot. In a quote from a campaign speech which has famously entered Boston political lore, Curley raised the specter of communist leanings in his opponent saying, "There is more Americanism in one half of Jim Curley's ass than in that pink body of Tom Eliot." Curley won in a walk, and once back in Congress, he compiled a voting record that matched his former opponent's in support of the Roosevelt administration's social agenda.
Democratic National Convention
Denied by the then Republican governor a place in the Massachusetts delegation to the
1932 Democratic National ConventionThe 1932 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois from June 27 - July 2, 1932. The convention resulted in the nomination of Governor Franklin Roosevelt of New York for President and Speaker of the House John Nance Garner of Texas for Vice-President...
, Curley engineered his selection as a delegate from
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
(under the alias of Alcalde Jaime Curleo). Some say his support was instrumental in winning the presidential nomination for
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, but he broke with Roosevelt after the President refused to appoint him
Ambassador to IrelandThere have been a total of 30 Ambassadors of the United States to Ireland meaning the Republic of Ireland. All except one, Frederick A. Sterling, have been non-career appointees, while there were three under President George W. Bush.-List of Ambassadors:...
.
End of career
A failed mayoral bid in 1951 marked the end of his serious political career, although he continued to support other candidates and remain active within the Democratic Party, and even ran for mayor one last time in 1955, his 10th time running for the office. His death in Boston in 1958 led to one of the largest funerals in the city's history.
Curley's personal life was unusually tragic. He outlived his first wife Mary Emelda (
néeNEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Herlihy), who died in 1930 after a long battle with cancer, and seven of his nine children. Twin sons John and Joseph died in infancy. Daughter Dorothea died of pneumonia as a teenager. His namesake, James Jr., who was being groomed as Curley's political successor, died in 1931 at age 21 following an operation to remove a gallstone. Son Paul, who was an alcoholic, died while Curley ran for mayor in 1945. His remaining daughter Mary died of a stroke in February, 1950 and when her brother Leo was called to the scene, he became so distraught that he, too, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died the same day, at age 34. Two remaining sons, George (1919–1983) and Francis X. (1923–1992) a Jesuit priest, outlived Curley.
Curley is honored with two statues at
Faneuil HallFaneuil Hall , located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts, has been a marketplace and a meeting hall since 1742. It was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain, and is now part of...
, across from Boston's new
City HallBoston City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of Boston, Massachusetts. Architecturally, it is an example of the brutalist style. It was designed by Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles...
. One shows him seated on a park bench, the other shows him standing, as if giving a speech, a campaign button on his lapel. A few feet away is a bar named for one of his symbols, The Purple Shamrock.
His house, known in his time as "the house with the shamrock shutters," located at 350 The Jamaicaway, is now a city historical site. His former summer home in Scituate also has shamrock shutters.
In popular culture
- Curley is considered the inspiration for the protagonist Frank Skeffington in the novel and film The Last Hurrah
The Last Hurrah is a 1956 novel written by Edwin O'Connor. It is considered the most popular of O’Connor's works, partly because of a significant 1958 movie adaptation starring Spencer Tracy. The novel was immediately a bestseller in the United States for 20 weeks, and was also on lists for...
by Edwin O'ConnorEdwin O'Connor was an American radio personality, journalist, and novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1962 for The Edge of Sadness...
. Curley himself thought so; initially considering legal action, he changed his mind, and upon meeting O'Connor, he told him he enjoyed the book, the passage he enjoyed most being: "The part where I die."
- Curley was the inspiration for the song The Rascal King on the album Let's Face It
Let's Face It is an album by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. It was released on March 11, 1997 by Mercury Records. This album sold very well due to the success of its single "The Impression That I Get", which reached #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Also faring well were the album's...
by The Mighty Mighty BosstonesThe Mighty Mighty Bosstones are an American ska punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1983. Since the band's inception, lead vocalist Dicky Barrett, bassist Joe Gittleman, tenor saxophonist Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton and dancer Ben Carr have remained constant members...
.
- Since Curley, every Boston Mayor has been driven in a car with the license registration 576 - which were the corresponding numbers for his first, middle, and last name. James (5) Michael (7) Curley (6).
- The Curley family still holds Massachusetts auto registration number 5.
- Curley appeared at the Harvard University commencement ceremony in 1935 in his role as Governor wearing silk stockings, knee britches, a powdered wig, and a three-cornered hat with flowing plume. When University marshals objected to his costume, the story goes, Curley whipped out a copy of the Statutes of the Massachusetts Bay Colony which prescribed proper dress for the occasion and claimed that he was the only person at the ceremony properly dressed.
External links