I like Ike

[BaltACD]

Norm48327

wanswheel

1952 marked the first presidential campaign in which the spouses of a presidential ticket were consciously marketed to women voters as part of a larger effort.

Do you suppose women would favor Slick Willie for first husband?

Sorry, The Devil made me do it. LOL

Like Ike didn't really have a wandering eye (even though we didn't know it at the time)

[54light15]

Regarding Slick Willie, I read that a female reporter said regarding his charisma, "I had a full-body sexual experience with Bill Clinton and all I did was shake his hand." Wish I had what Bill has.

[CShaveRR]

Today (October 14) is the 125th anniversary of Ike's birth.  

Didn't want that to slip by unnoticed in this thread.

[wanswheel]

  

  

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

 

[Norm48327]

BaltACD

Like Ike didn't really have a wandering eye (even though we didn't know it at the time)

That seems to be a rather common trait in men of power.

[NKP guy]

For BaltACD & Norm48327:

 

"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac"       

                       -----Henry Kissinger     28 Oct 1973

 

[tree68]

BaltACD

Like Ike didn't really have a wandering eye (even though we didn't know it at the time)

Wasn't there something about an aide in Britain?

And people in power tend to have groupies, too...

[schlimm]

tree68

 

 

BaltACD

Like Ike didn't really have a wandering eye (even though we didn't know it at the time)

 

 

Wasn't there something about an aide in Britain?

And people in power tend to have groupies, too...

 

Kay Summersby was his mistress in the UK, but that didn't seem to have a negative impact on his leadership.

[wanswheel]

Gen. Omar Bradley and Lt. Kay Summersby, London, May 16, 1945

Excerpt from NY Times, June 6, 1991

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/06/us/eisenhower-letters-hint-at-affair-with-aide.html

A previously unknown collection of wartime letters from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to his driver, Capt. Kay Summersby, appears likely to stir renewed debate over whether the two were lovers during the last year of World War II…

Historians' interest in the relationship was spurred by remarks of former President Harry S. Truman during an interview with Merle Miller for an oral biography published in 1974. Mr. Truman said then that General Eisenhower had written to General of the Army George C. Marshall, saying that he wanted to return from Europe to the United States to get a divorce from his wife, Mamie, and marry Miss Summersby. According to this account, General Marshall threatened to run General Eisenhower "out of the Army" and prevent him from "ever drawing a peaceful breath."

[Firelock76]

Hmmmm, Eisenhower and Kay Summersby....

Back in the 90's I was watching a series of documentaries commemorating the 50th anniversary of World War Two.  One of the shows was concerned with the top generals, Eisenhower of course being a major subject.

Two of the people being interviewed were Eisenhowers orderly and the woman who commanded the WAC detachment assigned to Ikes HQ.  When the subject of the affair with Kay Summersby came up they both said the same thing, "It never happened, and it couldn't have happened."

According to Eisenhowers orderly, as a VIP, in fact THE American VIP in Europe Ike was never alone.  Everwhere he went he had his entourage and MP guards.  When Ike turned in at night, anywhere from midnight to 1:00 AM, he had two MP guards stationed outside his room, and there was only one door.  In fact, Ikes orderly had a room next to the general in case he was needed and his door was always open.  No-one got past those MPs when Ike had retired.

The former WAC officer said Kay stayed in the WAC officers barracks, lights out were at 10:00, and there were MP guards stationed outside the barracks to insure the women were left alone.  No-one got in or out of those barracks after they'd been secured for the evening.

When asked why Kay Summersby would make a claim of an affair so many years later, the WAC CO said, "Well, I suppose she was just a lonely old woman trying to call attention to herself."

Take it for what it's worth folks.  They were there, we weren't.

I'll comment on the Ike jacket and other cool uniforms later.

[schlimm]

Firelock76

When asked why Kay Summersby would make a claim of an affair so many years later, the WAC CO said, "Well, I suppose she was just a lonely old woman trying to call attention to herself."

Maybe so, but the rumors/stories about Ike and Kay Summersby were around for many years before she "went

public."  When she dictated the book about the affair, she was dying of cancer.

Additionally, Omar Bradley in his autobiography wrote that the two were in love and that "Their close relationship is quite accurately portrayed, so far as my personal knowledge extends, in Kay's second book."

[Firelock76]

All I can say Schlimm was those two old vets were pretty annoyed about the whole thing, the WAC CO was downright indignant.

Enough on that.  We'll never know for certain, what's it matter anyway?

NOW, on the cool uniforms...

The genesis of the Eisenhower, or "Ike" jacket was the battle dress jacket and uniform the British Army adopted prior to World War Two.  Smart, stylish and practical it was very popular with officers and enlisted men alike.  As a matter of fact the Germans were impressed with it as well.  After overrunning France in 1940 the Germans captured a large stock of British BDU's.  Liking them but not knowing what to do with them, they issued the Brit uniforms to U-Boat crews as on-board working uniforms.

When Eisenhower got to Britain he saw the battle dress jacket and liked the look of it himself.  (He might have said "Hey, that's cool!" had the phrase existed back then.  More than likely he said "Hey, that looks swell!")

Back in the World War Two era US Army general officers had the priviledge of designing their own uniforms.  Considering the best men's tailors in the world happen to be in Britain it was a simple matter for Ike to have had an Americanized battle jacket made for himself.  Other US Army generals liked the look so they just had to have one too.  And so a trend was started that eventually spread to the whole army.

On the other side of the world the US Marines picked up on the look, but from another source.  When the 1st Marine Division was withdrawn from Guadalcanal to Australia their uniforms were in tatters, so they were re-uniformed from Australian stocks.  Lo and behold the Aussies were using British style battle dress as well, but with a greenish cast to the material, which suited the Gyrenes just fine.  Eventually the Marines wound up with their own version of the Eisenhower jacket.  And yeah, it looked swell!

Oh, those funny-lookin' hats the Marines were pictured wearing in a previous post?  Those are actually a throw-back to the "bell caps" Marines wore around the First World War period.  If you've seen modern day firefighters in their dress uniforms you've seen "bell caps."  The reason for the attempted revival is the manufacturer of the female Marine caps has gone out of business and apparantly the Corps can't find anyone else to make them, so the "bell cap" was dusted off after a 90 year absence as a unisex substitute.  Not going to happen as far as I know, nobody likes the look.  It was OK in 1918 but it's hopelessly out of date in 2015.  Like wearing a Civil War kepi.

[wanswheel]

Bob Considine’s column, Jan. 28, 1975  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Considine

NEW YORK – The death of Kay Summersby, who served Gen. Eisenhower as a chauffeur-secretary during the European war, prods me to write that she was the victim of perhaps the cruelest character assassination of those gossipy times. Hitler did better.

The beautiful Irish girl, born on the island of Inish Beg off County Cork, and christened Kathleen McCarthy-Morrogh, went to London in the early 1930's to become a model and movie bit player, had a short-lived marriage with one Gordon Summersby, and on came the war.

She enlisted in the British Women's Auxiliary Corps in 1942 and, to her astonishment, was assigned to General Eisenhower's staff while he was preparing to lead the invasion of North Africa. She was not selected by Ike. Her appointment was in the nature of a tribute to, and recognition of, the many thousands of girls – British, Irish, Scot, Welsh – who served in uniform.

Kay nearly perished when the ship on which she was being sent to Oran, Algeria, was torpedoed. She was in the water for eight hours and witnessed the blowup of the ammunition-laden vessel.

Thereafter, wherever the Supreme Commander traveled, be it to a front line position or a Summit meeting, Kay inescapable appeared in pictures of his arrivals and departure. She was too tall to duck under the steering wheel.

Multitudes of common gossips put one and one together and came up with a total of three—Ike, Kay, and poor Mamie keeping the home fires burning at her suite in the Wardman Park Hotel, Washington. People in general accepted the whole thing as gospel, just as millions of U.S. servicemen around the world believed the story that one of the country's best-known and respected girl singers had had a baby by a black GI after a USO tour.

The N.Y. Times' obit on Kay took unduly reverent note of the utter trash concerning her, said to have been deleted from Merle Miller's book "Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S Truman." It purports that Ike wrote to HST and Gen. George C. Marshall just after V-E Day telling them that he proposed to ask Mamie for a divorce and marry Kay.

I can't believe that, any more than I can believe Miller's is a totally honest book.

My wife and I became close friends of Kay after the war. She asked me to spook her book for her, but I was involved in other assignments. The ghostwriting job was given to the late Mel Heimer. He gave it a racy flavor that corresponded roughly to what by then had become an accepted belief that she and Ike were lovers. Mel had her familiarly referring to the Supreme Commander, in purported conversations, as "Ike." In the book and a magazine piece she was portrayed as one who was able to address the great Gen. Omar Bradley as "Brad," and the fiercely combatative Gen. George Patton as "George." I was surprised upon reading the tasteless material that she never once said to Patton, "Hi, there, Old Blood and Guts!" (She never called the gentlemen anything except "General." With a salute, of course.)

All in all it was a literary disaster that made her a few bucks but plunged her deeper in the unrealistic world of being "Ike's Girl," even as Eisenhower moved on to become Chief of Staff, President of Columbia University, Supreme Commander of NATO's military arm, and President of the United States.

Kay never saw him after giving him his last jeep ride in the war. She had her own life to lead, and did: fashion consultant at CBS and a number of Broadway shows.

Late one night at the Stork Club, of happy memory, my wife asked Kay a question that one assumes only a clearheaded and honest woman could ask another. "Kay," she said to her friend, "did you ever sleep with General Eisenhower?"

Kay looked at my wife and her great blue eyes welled with tears that were not of anger but relief.

"You know," Kay said, "You're the first person I've ever met who has had courage enough to ask me that question. I've seen that question in too many thousands of eyes during the years. But you, God bless, are the first one to give me a chance to answer.

"The answer is no. Never. I loved him as everybody in uniform or out of uniform loved him around the world. If he had asked me, beckoned a finger to me, I would have done anything he asked me to do.

"But he never asked me," Kay said with great dignity.

I'll believe her as long as I live. And then some. She was a good woman, done wrong by boobs.

[jeffhergert]

wanswheel

  

  

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Depots at Newton, Brookyn, Marengo, and Iowa City, Iowa on the Rock Island.  The one at Marengo is where I spent many Saturdays back in the late 1970s.  Also the line I model in N gauge.

Thanks for the pictures.

Jeff

[wanswheel]

From the National Archives, here is what seems to be the basic schedule of an 11-day train trip from Fort Wayne to Richmond. There may have been other stops not listed.  Ike took one day off (Sept. 17) to fly to New York for a speech, and then to Davenport.  

9-15-52 Fort Wayne, Indiana [whistle stop; comments on political campaign, Korea, Communism, and national debt; press release and notes; correspondence and clippings; background information on city]

9-15-52 Warsaw, Indiana [whistle stop; comments on Poland, Communism, and religious faith; press release, drafts, facts on town, and notes]

9-15-52 Plymouth, Indiana [whistle stop; agriculture, government programs, inflation, and economy; press release, draft, facts on town, and notes]

9-15-52 University of Notre Dame [whistle stop; football; spiritual values;

happiness]

9-15-52 South Bend, Indiana [whistle stop; the greatness of America and its future; faith, values, and idealism; press release, notes, and facts on city]

9-15-52 LaPorte, Indiana [whistle stop; politics, “mess in Washington,” Fair Deal, corruption, inflation, taxes, waste, Communists in government; press release, notes, and facts on town]

9-15-52 Gary, Indiana [whistle stop; Eastern Europe, freedom and right of self-determination; government spending; press release, drafts, notes, and facts on city]

9-15-52 Indiana Harbor, Indiana [whistle stop; Korea, taxes, inflation, corruption]

9-15-52 Englewood, Illinois [whistle stop; need to clean up government in

Washington; honesty; peace]

9-15-52 Joliet, Illinois [whistle stop; Korea, peace, high prices, taxes, corruption in government, crusade]

9-15-52 Aurora, Illinois [whistle stop; Communism; right to vote; problems of Korea, deficit spending, and taxes]

9-15-52 Ottawa, Illinois [whistle stop; Korea, high prices, taxes, corruption, decentralization of government power, need for change; press release, drafts, and facts on town]

9-16-52 Albert Lea, Minnesota [whistle stop; farm program; press release, draft, notes, and facts on town]

9-16-52 Owatonna, Minnesota [whistle stop; Korean War; corruption in government; inflation, taxes, national debt, rights and responsibilities of citizens; press release, draft, notes, and facts about town]

9-16-52 Faribault, Minnesota [whistle stop; inflation; partial press release copy]

9-16-52 Northfield, Minnesota [whistle stop; tribute to small colleges; moral values; Communism; growing up poor; press release, drafts, notes, and facts on town]

9-16-52 St. Paul, Minnesota [Minnesota’s clean-up of state government; draft, notes, and facts on city] 

9-17-52 New York City, American Federation of Labor (1)-(5) [labor problems and issues, strikes, Taft-Hartley Act; press release, drafts, notes, and outline]

 

9-18-52 Davenport, Iowa [whistle stop; political campaign; Korea; Communism; national debt; taxes; corruption in government; press release, draft, and notes]

9-l8-52 Wilton Junction, Iowa [whistle stop; problems in America; need for new leadership to clean up the government]

9-18-52 West Liberty, Iowa [whistle stop; corruption in government; Communist infiltration of government]

9-18-52 Iowa City, Iowa [whistle stop; politics; peace; religious faith; atomic age; national debt and wasteful spending]

9-18-52 Marengo, Iowa [whistle stop; political campaigning; problems in world; corruption in government; high taxes]

9-18-52 Brooklyn, Iowa [whistle stop; corruption in government; inflation; taxes; communists in government]

9-18-52 Grinnell, Iowa [whistle stop; inflation; taxes; budget deficit]

9-18-52 Newton, Iowa [whistle stop; inflation; taxes; government waste; Korea; Jasper County, Iowa]

9-18-52 Des Moines, Iowa [Biblical text, “A time to keep and a time to cast away;” compares Republican and Democratic parties; need to clean-up corruption in government; inflation; taxes; trend toward the “super-state;” rights of states and communities; drafts and press release]

9-18-52 Atlantic, Iowa [whistle stop; farm program; Americanism; all-powerful central government]

9-18-52 Omaha, Nebraska (1)-(3) [government waste and corruption; “Farm Speech”-major speech on farm programs]

9-19-52 Plattsmouth, Nebraska [whistle stop; clean up Washington]

9-19-52 Nebraska City, Nebraska [whistle stop; traditional American values; government waste and corruption]

9-19-52 Auburn, Nebraska [whistle stop; problems of current administration; budget deficits; inflation; leadership]

9-19-52 Falls City, Nebraska [whistle stop; problems of current administration; budget deficits; inflation; taxes; government waste and corruption; guiding principle what is good for U.S.]

9-19-52 St. Joseph, Missouri [whistle stop; campaigning; problems of current administration; centralization of power; need to clean up government]

9-19-52 Kansas City, Missouri [major speech on government waste and corruption and inflation; taxes; central government; drafts and press release]

9-19-52 Kansas City, Missouri--Remarks on Nixon Fund

9-20-52 Pleasant Hill, Missouri [whistle stop; story re Sgt. Kuhlen and hedgerow cutters at Normandy; appeal to young Americans]

9-20-52 Sedalia, Missouri [whistle stop; Hoover Commission; need to streamline and decentralize government; budget deficits; “cleaning house”]

9-20-52 California, Missouri [whistle stop; waste and corruption in government; taxes; inflation; farm programs]

9-20-52 Jefferson City, Missouri [whistle stop; good government vs. bad

government; budget deficit]

9-20-52 Hermann, Missouri [whistle stop; government waste and corruption; budget deficit; moral values; inflation; current problems]

 

9-20-52 Washington, Missouri [whistle stop; good government vs. bad government; Democratic National Convention--controlled by bosses]

9-20-52 St. Louis, Missouri, National Federation of Republican Women’s Clubs (1)(2) [speech on crusade for good government; example of clean up in Kansas City; ethics and morality; government waste; national debt; need to streamline government; decentralize government; drafts, clipping, and press release]

9-20-52(?) Mississippi River Town--Draft

9-20-52 Natural Resources, Incomplete Draft

9-22-52 Evansville, Indiana [whistle stop; World War II; Korea; Berlin airlift; leadership; containment of Communism]

9-22-52 Henderson, Kentucky [whistle stop; deficit spending; tobacco]

9-22-52 Owensboro, Kentucky [whistle stop; deficit spending; need to end waste and inefficient government]

9-22-52 Louisville, Kentucky [whistle stop; rights of individuals; world crises; need for South Koreans to defend themselves; Communist subversion; taxes; peace; threat of global war]

9-22-52 Louisville, Kentucky (?) [foreign policy; Iron Curtain; crusade of ideas; U.S.-Soviet relations; policy of containment; NATO; corruption in government; draft; note--this speech may not have been delivered]

9-22-52 Louisville, Kentucky, Press Conference [comments on telephone

conversation with Senator Nixon re Nixon’s need to present his case to the public]

3 9-22-52 Cincinnati, Ohio, “Of Peace and War” (1)-(3) [major speech; Cold War; Korea; need for peace; advance of Communism; need for unified foreign policy; wasteful spending; better government; Senator Robert A. Taft; Senator John W. Bricker; drafts and press release-one draft is annotated by Robert Cutler]

9-23-52 Dayton, Ohio [whistle stop; leadership problem; inflation; budget deficits; rights of citizens; need to vote]

9-23-52 Springfield, Ohio [whistle stop; World War II; campaign; inflation; honest government]

9-23-52 Columbus, Ohio [whistle stop; references to Abraham Lincoln and President McKinley and football; the mess in Washington; record of the “fair deal” administration; corruption in government; taxes; farmers and food prices; budget deficit; Communists in government; need for clean-up in Washington]

9-23-52 Cleveland, Ohio (1)(2) [“The Menace of Inflation;” drafts; not delivered]

9-24-52 Chillicothe, Ohio [whistle stop; prestige and respect for government at home and abroad; wasteful spending; inflation; corruption; mess in Washington]

9-24-52 Portsmouth, Ohio [whistle stop; peace; Soviet threat; budget deficit; taxes; inflation; need for honest government]

9-24-52 Ironton, Ohio [whistle stop; wasteful spending; inflation]

9-24-52 Kenova, West Virginia [whistle stop; political campaigning; Senator Nixon; leadership in past seven years; peace and war; national debt; inflation; taxes; corruption in government; right to vote; clean up mess in Washington; Senator Revercomb]

9-24-52 Huntington, West Virginia [whistle stop; values; corruption in

government; budget deficit; inflation; taxes; prosperity and peace]

9-24-52 Point Pleasant, West Virginia [whistle stop; Senator Nixon; mess in Washington; security for older citizens; national debt; farm programs; corruption in government; Senator Revercomb]

9-24-52 Parkersburg, West Virginia [whistle stop; mess in Washington; budget deficits; inflation; taxes; peace; honesty in government]

9-24-52 Wheeling, West Virginia (1)(2) [general campaign topics-emphasis on domestic economic problems; two-party system; taxes; inflation; unemployment after the war; peace; prosperity; equality; responsive government; drafts; press release with introduction by Eisenhower and statement by Nixon]

9-25-52 Hagerstown, Maryland [whistle stop; poor leadership in government; Bill of Rights]

9-25-52 Frederick, Maryland [whistle stop; Nixon; pay for soldiers; rotation and tours of duty for soldiers; federal employees; first voters; women; spiritual and moral integrity]

9-25-52 Point of Rocks, Maryland [whistle stop; need for change in government]

9-25-52 Silver Spring, Maryland [whistle stop; Nixon; government failures abroad and waste and inefficiency at home; honesty and integrity; civil servants; what is good for America]

9-25-52 Baltimore, Maryland (1)-(4) [major speech on national defense; wasteful spending; budget deficits; overseas bases; defense planning; leadership; unification of armed forces; National Security Council]

9-26-52 Charlotte, North Carolina [whistle stop; commitment to campaign in the South; Fair Deal; inflation; subversion and disloyalty]

9-26-52 Winston-Salem, North Carolina [whistle stop; notes only]

9-26-52 Roanoke, Virginia [whistle stop; campaigning in the South; mother’s home state; problems in U.S. and world; budget deficits; inflation; corruption in government; honesty]

9-26-52 Petersburg, Virginia [whistle stop; Leonard Gerow; Democrats for Eisenhower; Harry F. Byrd; Robert E. Lee; reference to his mother being a “pacifist;” DDE born in Texas; pledge to voters]

9-26-52 Richmond, Virginia [government for all America; Democrats for

Eisenhower; Dr. Henry Southall Freeman; Thomas Jefferson; budget deficits; central government too powerful; Democrat control of South; mother’s roots in Virginia; Korean War; crusade to end corruption in government]

[wanswheel]

jeffhergert

Depots at Newton, Brookyn, Marengo, and Iowa City, Iowa on the Rock Island.  The one at Marengo is where I spent many Saturdays back in the late 1970s.  Also the line I model in N gauge.

Thanks for the pictures.

Jeff

 

 

You're welcome, Jeff, thanks for commenting.

 

Excerpt from the Quad City Times

Follow-up on the story of Louie Rich, the rags-to-riches Rock Island chicken-and-eggs man who brought turkey to the table year-’round. Louie, with sons Martin and Norman, had a turkey plant in West Liberty, Iowa. When Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was running for president in 1952, he made a whistle-stop in West Liberty.

“Dad handed General Eisenhower a frozen turkey,” Martin says.

Eisenhower laughed and said, “We will talk cold turkey.”

http://qctimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/columnists/bill-wundram/thanks-louie-you-brought-us-turkey-every-day-of-the/article_7c3de561-a9fa-50e8-95e9-97513ca55b1f.html\

 

 

[wanswheel]

[54light15]

Firelock, that Bell Cap looks a lot like a conductor's cap on the Long Island Rail Road when I was a kid. Not just generals designed thier own unforms. In the First World War, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker had a London tailor make him a suit along British lines. He was walking in London and an American general asked him "What the hell army are you in? He said, "Don't you like it?" and the general said yes and asked him for the address of his tailor. Eddie sure looked swell in that uniform.

And yes, thanks a lot for the pictures of Ike's train. What a way to travel!

[Firelock76]

54Light, I forgot about conductors!  They used to wear bell caps too, as a matter of fact some still do.  I see Amtrak conductors wearing them, and I believe NJ Transit conductors wear them as well.  They look OK on conductors and firefighters, I'm not so sure about Marines at this late date.

I remember the story about Captain Eddies uniform, read it in his biography years ago.  Rickenbacker wasn't the only American aviator who had a British-styled uniform blouse made, quite a few of them did.  That high choker coller on the standard uniform was just too much for combat pilots who had to keep turning their heads constantly to look out for the bad guys, rubbed their necks raw!

In addition to advocating for air power, General Billy Mitchell also argued for an open collar blouse for the air service, and the rest of the army for that matter.  Photos of General (then colonel) Mitchell at his court-martial show him wearing one.  That was one suggestion the general made that the army didn't have a problem with. 

The current dress blue uniform blouse the Marines wear is essentially the same as the First World War era US Army and Marine blouses, except for color.  I can say from experience it's actually quite comfortable to wear if it's sized and tailored correctly, although I wouldn't want to fight in it.