The power broker : Robert Moses and the fall of New York

by Caro, Robert A

  Fire RM?: Cooney, Sere vane; confirmed by Coleman, Goldwater, Lutsky,

  Moscow, O'Keefe confidential

  Needed RM: Autho •• analysis. RM (s -timates: Mom-

  ing Congress." I'nsv misunderstand Various papers, July, Aui:.. Sept. best summarized ; r. 'Shame," pp. 300. Quote is p. 298. "And I noir uould have": Wagner. Checking (juieth": Fried. "Moses Ready to Quit" and nien Massena: NYT, June 27, 28. CMsew Union statement: NYT, Julv i< Who will take his place?": DN, Jul) 12 Wanner sure RM not serious: Lutsky " dead duck": NYT, July 4. Pounding his desk: WT&S, July 9. "Indicated ... the axe": DN, July 9. "Wagner Ducks": DN, July 10. Golf Club incident: HT, July 3.

  Not life and death: O'Keefe, Brennan.

  RM's thinking: Interviews with Brennan, Jane Moses Collins, Cullman, Dewey, Ingraham, Madigan, O'Keefe, Screvane, Shapiro, Wagner and others with whom he consulted or who were attempting to analyze his thinking at the time—plus the author's interpretation of remarks RM made to him. Atomic power: Moses, Dangerous Trade, pp. 407-10. Haussmann: RM's recognition of the importance of the Fair in Haussmann's career emerges clearly from speeches he made in 1959-60.

  Resignation announcement: Long Island Press, May 22, i960. Wagner's letter: NYT, May 10, i960. Grand-ballroom dinner: NYT, Apr. 22, i960.

  Morris' hero worship: Barnes, Ingraham, Mulcahy. Also Papp, who says: "He hero-worshipped Moses. You could just tell it from the things that he said. He was a poor, sad man, like a little boy." Humiliating Newbold: Barnes. "A giant": Post, May 19, i960. Phone episodes: Ingraham, confirmed confidentially by another reporter. The public spanking: NYT, July 15, i960.

  Katcher's article: Post, May 9, i960. Kihss's article: NYT, May 24, i960.

  46. Nelson

  SOURCES

  Books, articles and documents:

  Gervasi, The Real Rockefeller', Lund-berg, America's Sixty Families and The Rich and the Super-Rich; Morris, Nelson Rockefeller: A Biography and Those Rockefeller Brothers; Moses, Dangerous Trade; Poling, The Rockefeller Record; Rodgers, Rockefeller's Follies, White, The Making of the President—1960, 1964 and 1968.

  Notes for pages 1067-1081

  1240

  Frank Lynn, "The Rockefeller Years," Newsday, Apr. 14-18, 1969; David Nevin, "Rockefeller: The Old Avidity Is Gone," Life, Mar. 29, 1968.

  Nelson A. Rockefeller, "The Story of Rockefeller Center," address at the luncheon of the New York Building Congress, Nov. 10, 1937.

  La Guardia and Wagner Papers.

  Author's interviews:

  Harold Blake, Peter J. Brennan, William S. Chapin, Ernest J. Clark, John A. Coleman, Thomas E. Dewey, Perry Duryea, Jr., Jerry Finkelstein, Leonard W. Hall, Joseph T. Ingraham, H. Elliot Kaplan, Arthur Levitt, Jacob Lutsky, Michael J. Madigan, J. Burch McMor-ran, Paul R. Screvane, Sidney M. Shapiro, Bertram D. Tallamy, Hazel Tappan, Robert F. Wagner, Jr., William J. Zeck-endorf and various sources who would talk only on guarantees of anonymity.

  NOTES

  Rockefeller's wealth: Lundberg, Sixty Families, pp. 6, 424-28; The Rich, pp. 592-631; White, i960, pp. 79, 87, 217; 1964, p. 65. Vs. Harriman: Lundberg, The Rich, p. 136. $5 billion: Lundberg, The Rich, p. 158.

  "Almost a dependency": White, 1968, p. 226. "The last great bank": White, 1964, p. 65. "I bet on money": Quoted in White, 1964, p. 68.

  Ruthlessness similar to RM's: This comparison was made, over and over, to the author by men who are afraid to be quoted. Among those willing: Shapiro (if he was dead), Dewey, Zeckendorf.

  "Enjoyed his job": Rodgers, p. 25. The imagination of the builder: Duryea. Backdoor financing: Lynn series; Levitt in NYT, Jan. 30, Aug. 18, 1970.

  "Strange, pietistic": White, i960, p. 182. "Rough": White, 1964, p. 77. Civil rights donations: White, 1964, p. 74. "No crevice": White, 1968, pp. 224-28. "Button": Lutsky.

  RM sure Nelson liked him: RM, Dewey, Shapiro. Palisades Parkway: Moses, Dangerous Trade, p. 137. The closeness of the relationship between RM and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., is documented in LaG to RM and RM to LaG, Nov. 15, 1934, I^aG Papers. Dorado Beach: Dangerous Trade, pp. 819-20. South America: Brochure, Dangerous Trade, pp. 791-806; Clark. Fantastic fee: $100,000, Madigan says.

  Spanking Ronan: He called the report: "Impractical ideas edged with malice

  which emanated from an ambitious professorial mind." HT, Feb. 22, 1957. "Task Force" recommendations: Recommendation 19: "The Department of Conservation should be assigned the responsibility for the management of state parks now delegated to the regional state park commissions and the State Council of Parks. The commissions should be reconstituted as advisory councils to regional park directors appointed by the Commissioner of Conservation."

  Discussing parks with Laurance: Nelson Rockefeller quoted in NYT, Dec. 2, 1962. Red cardboard folders: White, 1968, p. 225. Becoming a crusade: Confidential source. "Sucking up": Shapiro, Blake. Poisoning: Stan Hinden, Newsday, Dec. 1, 1962.

  Tension over retirement extensions: Shapiro, Blake; confirmed by H. Elliot Kaplan, head of the State Retirement System. Lake Welch speech: HT, June 16, 1962; Shapiro, Chapin.

  The meeting at the brownstone: Shapiro. "Asked, I might say ordered": RM statement, Nov. 30, 1962. RM at DN: Confidential sources. Ploy: Shapiro, confidential sources. Rockefeller trying to call him: Shapiro, Tappan. "I urged him not to resign": Rockefeller statement, Nov. 29, 1962.

  Firming up his threat: RM to Rockefeller, Nov. 28, 1962. Modifying it: Shapiro. Rockefeller accepted it: Rockefeller to RM, Nov. 29.

  The events conspiring, RM's feelings: Shapiro, confidential sources. RM's statement: Nov. 29, 1962. Rockefeller's statement: Nov. 30.

  "It broke his heart": In his memoirs, RM says, in the only such admission he ever made on any subject, so far as the author could find, that his resignation was offered "perhaps impetuously, as I look at it now." Dangerous Trade, p. 154.

  "There is nothing": RM quoted in DN, Dec. 2, 1962.

  "Calmly": DN, Dec. 2, 1962. Maneuvering: Brennan, Dewey.

  "Nepotism": DN, Dec. 1, 1962. Sokol-sky: In "These Days," Long Island Press, Dec. 6. No statements: The new reporter was the author. Hardly any public reaction: Various newspapers, Nov. 30-Dec. 7.

  State Council of Parks meeting: News-day, Jan. 23, 1963. "Emotional strain": Duryea. "They broke his heart": Ingraham. Bridge dedication: Various newspapers, Jan. 18, 1963.

  Notes for pages 1082-1086 47. The Great Fair

  SOURCES

  Books, brochures, articles and documents:

  Moscow, The Last of the Big-Time Bosses; Moses, Dangerous Trade, Flushing Meadow-Corona Park: A Family Park and Working for the People; Rod-gers, Robert Moses; Talese, The Kingdom and the Power.

  John Brooks, "Diplomacy at Flushing Meadow," The New Yorker, June i,

  1963.

  Martin Mayer, "Ho Hum, Come to the Fair," Esquire, Oct. 1963.

  Mary Perot Nichols, "Private Opinion," The Village Voice, Apr. 4, 1963-Mar. 11, 1965, particularly Apr. 4, Dec. 5, 1963; Nov. 26, Dec. 17, 1964; Mar. 11, 1965.

  Chris Welles, "The Big Bash That Is Running Short of Cash," Life, May 14,

  1965.

  Metropolitan Conference on Parks, "Program for Extension of Parks and Parkways in the Metropolitan Region," Feb. 25, 1930.

  New York World's Fair 1939-1940 Corporation, "Minutes of Executive Committee, Dec. 4, 1935-June 24, 1941."

  City of New York, Park Department, Report to the World's Fair Committee of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment on the Acquisition and Development of the World's Fair Site, 1935.

  Moses, "After the Fair—Flushing Meadows Park," Apr. 30, 1939.

  Building Trades Employers' Association, Inc., "Builders of New York and the New York World's Fair 1964-65," Mar. 16, 1961.

  New York World's Fair 1964-1965 Corporation, Flushing Meadow and Beyond, Jan. 20, 1964.

  New York World's Fair 1964-1965 Corporation, "Progress Reports," eleven reports, issued at intervals, Jan. 16, 1961-March, 1964.

  Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., NYWF 1964-1965 Corp., Financial
Statements and Schedules, Dec. 31, 1964.

  City of New York, Office of the Comptroller, Third Supplemental Report on New York World's Fair 1964-1965 Corporation, "Covering Operations from Inception to December 31, 1966," Oct. 26, 1967.

  Kahn Files. Kopple Papers. La Guardia Papers, particularly Box 687, Folder "Parks Dept. F." Wagner Papers, particularly Box 5570, folders marked

  "World's Fair—1961" (all . folders).

  New York W 1 1 Fair iv Corporation, various internal menu other documents made available to author by confidential souk

  Speeches: Moses, 'The lair and the Building Congress," May 4, 1961 Statement by RM," May 4, 1961.

  Oral History Reminiscence:

  George McAneny.

  Author's interviews:

  Robert Alden, Henry Barnes, Harold Blake, Peter J. Brennan, Ernest J. Clark, Gilmore Clark, John A. Coleman, Timothy J. Cooney, Howard S. Cullman, Thomas E. Dewey, Perry B. Duryea, Jr., Fred Ferretti, Joseph T. Ingraham, Joseph Kahn, Robert Kopple, Jacob Lut-sky, Michael J. Madigan, J. Burch Mc-Morran, Harry L. Meyers, Mary Perot Nichols, Paul O'Keefe, John Sattler, Paul R. Screvane, Sidney M. Shapiro, Robert F. Wagner, Jr., Bernard Weiner.

  NOTES

  (The author covered the Fair and investigated its finances during 1965 as a reporter for Newsday. Many of the observations in this chapter are those made by him at that time.)

  Wanted it named after him: Madigan, Shapiro.

  History of FM Park and RM's dreams for it: Moses, "The Saga of FM," FM-Corona Park, pp. 7-24; Metropolitan Park Conference, "Program," pp. 10, 12. "A cloud of smoke": Moses, Dangerous Trade, p. 541. 1930 maps: Metropolitan Park Conference, "Program," p. 16. Rereading Isaiah: RM interview with author; he used the slogan in numerous speeches. "It takes more than a good idea": RM, quoted in Rodgers, p. no. "Dark wall": Rodgers, p. 112. "For a while," "the miracle": Moses, "The Saga," p. 8. "By God": McAneny OHR. "Stop at nothing": Moses, "The Saga," pp. 8-9.

  Every form of insurance: RM; RM to La Guardia, memos, letters, Jan. 4, 1936-Sept. 18, 1939, La Guardia Papers; Park Department, Report to the World's Fair Committee of the Board of Estimate, 1935. Mud waves: Weiner. $59,000,000; "staggering": Moses, "The Saga," p. n. "A lot of building": RM.

  "Of more concern": "residuary legatee"; "a heritage": Moses, Introduction, FM and Beyond, p.5. $56,000,000: FM and Beyond, p. 4. The applicable items

  Notes for pages 1086-1095

  1242

  are "Demolition—$2,000,000; Restoration of Park—$5,000,000"; "Reimbursement to the City for Construction—$24,-000,000"; "Balance available for Flushing Meadows and Corridor Improvements, of which $23,000,000 is required to complete the program, leaving a possible balance of $2,725,000—$25,-725,000." Timetable: W. Earle Andrews, Gilmore Clarke, "Report of Consultants," FM and Beyond, pp. 7-9. In private: Shapiro, Madigan, private sources. After an interview with Moses, Martin Mayer wrote that "Moses says that the thing that interests him most is the park, which will remain in perpetuity" {Esquire, p. 183). Banker's suggestion: George S. Moore to RM, Feb. 24, 1963, quoted in Moses, Dangerous Trade, p. 605.

  A billion: Moses, 'The Fair and the Building Congress." "Miscellaneous— $55,000,000": WF Progress Report No. 1, Jan. 16, 1961, p. 5. Constable memo: "To: All Participants," Mar. 9, 1964, Kahn Files. $10,000,000: Peat, Marwick audit, Schedules 1, 2, 3. $3,000,000 insurance premiums: Audit, Schedules 2 and 3 for WF Corp. through end of 1964— $2,280,710. Campo & Roberts: Screvane, confidential sources; Moscow, p. 195. Discussion leading up to the approval was not extensive. Recalls one Fair official: "Moses just said it would be Campo & Roberts and that was that." Wagner: Interview with author. Screvane: Interview with author.

  "Attitude of affluence": Confidential source; Wells, Life, pp. 142, 144. Unions encouraged: Brennan, Screvane, confidential sources. $12,000,000 more for maintenance: Peat, Marwick audit, Schedules 1, 2, 3. $10,000,000 for security: Audit, Schedule 3. Deegan's statement: Post, Nov. 27, 1963. His fees and expenses: Audit, Schedules 1, 2, 3; HT, Feb. 7, 1965. Donoghue and other PR costs: Audit; NYT, Sept. 3, 1965. Entertainment: Author's observations. "A dirty word": Confidential source. $706,053: Peat, Marwick audit. $33,299,000: Audit has $35,508,822. Belgian Village loan: NYT, May 8, 1964. "Why don't you come aboard?": Among the people asked was the author, whose articles were angering RM, and Kahn. Legal fees to Rosenman and Preusse: In 1965 alone, the WF Corporation paid $47,297.11 to Rosen-man's firm, $299,525.73 to Preusse's, Whitman, Ransom and Coulson. (Comptroller, "Third Supplemental Report," p. 40.) The Fair's total legal fees came to $2,243,128.65. Of this amount, the bulk went to the Rosenman and Preusse firms.

  Preusse to RM, Apr. 27, i960; RM to Preusse, Apr. 28, Wagner Papers. Post Nov. 27, 1963. Some size of the figures involved is indicated by a single bill from Preusse's firm, Whitman, Ransom and Coulson—$116,996,31. HT, Feb. 7, 1965.

  Lucrative concessions: To Monaghan: Post, Nov. 27, 1963. To Cullman: He was given a slice of the Terrace Club at the Fair. Luce and Whitney: Mayer, Esquire, p. 180; Post, Nov. 27. $24,000,000 allocation: Nichols, Voice, Dec. 17, 1964. Actual figure $60,000,000: Comptroller's Report; also worksheets of Comptroller's auditors.

  No outsiders: A roster of upper-echelon Fair officials can be found in WF Progress Report No. 1, pp. 53-55. The list of "Administration" and "Consultants" includes such long-time Moses Men as Constable, Witt, Andrews, Clarke, Farrell, Edward C. Maguire, Robert G. McCul-lough (of the Cross-Bronx Expressway), A. K. Morgan, Shapiro. Panuch "never sold," "couldn't do the job": Mayer, Esquire, p. 180.

  Determined not to repeat Whelan's mistake: RM; Potter, quoted in Mayer, Esquire, pp. 179, 180. The critic is Walter McQuade, The Nation, p. 357. Design Committee proposal and RM's turndown: Summary in Mayer, p. 180. The clearest statement of the reason RM was determined not to have a single building is in a confidential letter to Wagner, Dec. 17, 1959, Wagner Papers: "We need a park there." Haussmann: Moses, Dangerous Trade, p. 549. Commissioning Port Authority: Mayer, p. 180.

  Disorganization: Among the critics who commented on this. The one quoted is NYT, May 3, 1964.

  Sukarno: Brooks, The New Yorker, p. 56. West Berlin: Brooks, p. 48.

  BIE: Obstacles not insuperable: Kop-ple; Deegan to Wagner, Nov. 5, 1959, Wagner Papers. Brooks, The New Yorker, p. 42. Precedent: Brooks, p. 42. "Informal" exhibits being planned: Kopple. "Three people living obscurely": NYT, Sept. 11, 1963. "Not subject": Kopple. BIE's retaliation: Summary in Mayer, Esquire, p. 179. "It's pretty hard": Poletti quoted in Mayer, p. 182.

  Extensive public relations effort: Detailed in Post, Nov. 14, 1963. Fair publicity deliberately built around RM: PR men O'Brien and Davis discussed this in author's presence during the Fair.

  Newsday's ambivalence: Altschul series, editorial May 11, 1962.

  Mrs. Sulzberger's letter: NYT, May 7, 1961. "Mr. Moses would complain":

  Notes for pages 1095-1109

  Shapiro. Expressways editorial: NYT, June 15, 1963. "Infuriated": Ingraham.

  Predisposition to be favorable: Kahn.

  RM's attitude at press conferences: Alden, Ferretti; author was present at some. "The Lester Markel Lecture": Moses, "Moses Meets the Press—Head On," NYT Magazine, Aug. 5, 1962. "Only one way": Kahn.

  Kahn's crusade: Kahn. Opotowsky article: Post, Nov. 27, 1963. California: Lucien C. Haas (Brown's press secretary) to Kahn, Mar. 29, 1963, Kahn Files. Post, July 30, 1963. Puerto Rico, Virgin Is.: Post, Mar. 18, 29, 1963.

  "Foul the nest": RM quoted in NYT, July 24, 1963. See also his speech "The Fair, the City and the Critics," Oct. 13, 1964, on "avant-garde critics and left-wing commentators, . . . jaded publishers [who] befoul everything."

  NYT editors' luncheon: Ingraham, confidential source. Carping on Administration Building opening: Various newspapers, Jan. 12, 1961. On landscaping: NYT, Aug. 28, 1963. On Science Museum: NYT, Apr. 10, 1963; Oct. 9, 1963. Press conferences: NYT, Sept. 15, 1964.

  Fighting with H. L. Hunt: NYT, Oct. 10, 19, 25, 1963. RM's version in Dangerous Trade, pp. 587-91. Douglas: HT, Sept.
13, 1961. Request had been assured of passage: HT, Mar., 14,1962. NYT, Apr. 18, 1962. RM all but killed it: HT, Sept. 13, 1 96 1. Attacks Congress: NYT, Sept. 21, 1961, Mar. 11, 1962.

  Racial controversy: NYT, Mar. 12, 1962, June 19, 1963, Apr. 10, 1964; Screvane. Religious controversy: Moses, Dangerous Trade, pp. 579-87. In 1965, RM was awarded the Jordanian Kawkob (Star of Jordan) decoration of the First Order, for "contribution to understanding and friendship of nations." Garbage controversy: Welles, Life, p. 138. Art controversy: NYT, Nov. 18, 1963. Opening-on-time controversy: NYT, Feb. 28, 1964.

  Daily expenses $300,000; $30,000,000 spent before opening day: Peat, Marwick audit, p. 3, Schedules 2 and 3. Needed 220,000 per day: Author's calculation based on internal Fair memos. Daily attendance figures: "Daily Turnstile Count," internal WF Corp. memo.

  Witt's mistake: Peat, Marwick audit, p. 3. In Dangerous Trade, RM wrote: "It is clear that I relied too much on . . . the late Erwin Witt, who proved honest but timid and weak" (p. 606). Afraid to tell him, firing Spargo: Welles, Life, p. 144. "Never the same again": Confidential source.

  "Drastically reduced budget": Welles, Life, p. 146. His dilemma: Brennai lied, Pinkerton cut back: A

  2, 1965.

  Inflating attendance figures: II, thor, as a reporter covering the I an given the "official" figures by air PR men, but the true figures by a talk president with whom RM was negotiating for a loan to keep the Fair afloat and who had insisted on being given RM's personal "Daily Turnstile Count." "Financial success": NYT, Oct. 14, 1964. Mary Nichols spotted it: Voice, Dec. 17! 1964. "A fool's paradise": Welles, Life, p. 146.

  MacTavish episode: Welles, Life, pp. 146-48; confirmed by Spargo to RM, Feb. 1, 1965, and Witt to RM, Jan. 20, 1965 (given to author by confidential source). Moore-RM conversation: Welles, p. 148. Moore resignation: NYT, Jan. 19, 1965.