Mr. New York

Someone has said that New York is not a city—it’s a way of life. Few men who have won prominence have better exemplified this way of life, and the things that make the New Yorker what she is today, than Grover Whalen. Born in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, he became Rodman Wanamaker’s right-hand man, Mayor Hylan’s secretary and a City Commissioner, then Jimmy Walker’s Police Commissioner, and New York’s Host for 35 years and seven Mayors. The climax of his career undoubtedly was the 1939-40 World’s Fair, a $130,000,000 dream come true. Everyone has heard of Grover Whalen’s exploits, and his fashion-plate figure in an immaculate morning coat and topper has been an integral part of the scene at all the most important events of the past four decades.

Through the pages of his spirited and disarming autobiography pass the great and prominent men and women of our times—kings and queens, statesmen, politicians, heroes and adventurers. Here are firsthand portraits of Albert and Elizabeth of Belgium, Marie of Rumania, George VI and the Queen Mother of England, the Prince of Wales, Churchill, and such American idols as Eisenhower, MacArthur, LaGuardia, Lindbergh, Admiral Byrd, and Gertrude Ederle. He has also known many of the controversial figures of our day, men like William Randolph Hearst and former Mayor O’Dwyer. He talks of them, and of a varied and fascinating assortment of other celebrities, freely and frankly. Here are inside stories of New York’s political world and nostalgic reminiscences of the East Side. Here too are accounts of Mr. Whalen’s trips abroad to win foreign support for the Fair; of his interviews with Mussolini and others; of vacations in Ireland, the land of his forefathers; and of a wartime mission in Alaska.

He tells his story with the geniality and urbane humor that have made him famous. Few men have had as many friends everywhere as Grover Whalen: this book makes the reasons for this amply clear.