Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Sr.

Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Sr.
Born (1874 -10-01)October 1, 1874
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died May 27, 1948 (1948 -05-27) (aged 73)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Resting place The Woodlands (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Spouse(s) Cordelia Rundell Bradley
Children Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr.
Livingston Ludlow Biddle
Cordelia Drexel Biddle
Parent(s) Edward Biddle III
Emilie Taylor Drexel

Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle I (1874–1948), also known as Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Sr., was the man upon whom the book My Philadelphia Father[1] and the play and film The Happiest Millionaire were based. He was a fellow of the American Geographical Society[2] and was renowned as an eccentric gentleman whose fortune allowed him to pursue theatricals, self-published writing, athletics, and Christianity on a full-time basis; he also kept alligators as pets.[3] He founded a movement called "Athletic Christianity"[4] that eventually attracted 300,000 members around the world. A 1955 Sports Illustrated article called him "boxing's greatest amateur" as well as a "major factor in the re-establishment of boxing as a legal and, at that time, estimable sport."[5]

Life and career

Born October 1, 1874, to Edward and Emily Drexel Biddle, into one of Pennsylvania's oldest families (William Biddle, Society of Friends member, left London for America in 1681),[6] he married Cordelia Rundell Bradley in 1895. Biddle was a graduate of Germany's Heidelberg University.[7]

An officer in the United States Marine Corps, Biddle was an expert in close-quarters fighting and the author of Do or Die: A Supplementary Manual on Individual Combat, a book on combat methods, including knives and empty-hand skills, training both the United States Marine Corps in two world wars and Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He can be seen training Marines in the RKO short documentary Soldiers of the Sea. He was considered not just an expert in fighting, but also a pioneer of United States Marine Corps training in the bayonet and hand-to-hand combat. He based his style on fencing, though this approach was sometimes criticized as being unrealistic for military combat.[8] Having joined the Marines in 1917 at the age of 41, he also convinced his superiors to include boxing in Marine Corps recruit training.[9] In 1919 he was promoted to the rank of major, and became a lieutenant colonel in 1934. To the consternation of his trainees, Biddle would face them unarmed, as they wielded bayonets, and order them to attempt to kill him. His worst injury from this tactic was a wrist cut that landed him in the hospital for two months.[5] In Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, right outside of Philadelphia, Biddle opened a military training facility, where he trained 4,000 men. His training included long hours of calisthenics and gymnastics, and taught skills such as machete, saber, dagger, and bayonet combat, as well as hand grenade use and jiujitsu.[9] He also served two years in the National Guard.

A keen boxer, Biddle sparred with Jack Johnson and taught boxing to Gene Tunney.[5] He even hosted "boxing teas" in his home, where other boxers would spar a couple of rounds with him and then join the family for dinner. A February 1909 match with Philadelphia Jack O'Brien was attended by society leaders including women in elegant evening gowns.[10]

He served as a judge in the fight between Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard on 4 July 1919.

Biddle also worked in and on periodicals. He spent time as a sports reporter for the Public Ledger, and jokingly referred to himself as "the poorest and richest reporter in Philadelphia." He also revived the Philadelphia Sunday Graphic for a short space, before it was forced to fold, and founded a short-lived "society weekly"-type publication, The People. After organizing the also short-lived Drexel Biddle Publishing House, he acted as its head for two years.[7]

He died 27 May 1948 from a cerebral hemorrhage brought on by uremic poisoning.[7][11][12]

Publications

Books written by Biddle include:

Legacy

His sons were Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr. and Livingston Ludlow Biddle. His daughter, Cordelia Drexel Biddle, married Angier Buchanan Duke, the son of Benjamin Newton Duke. Cordelia Drexel Biddle worked with Kyle Crichton (father of Robert Crichton) to write a novel based on her family in 1955.[13] In 1956 it was made into a play starring Walter Pidgeon.[1] In 1967 a musical film based on the story, The Happiest Millionaire, was the last to have personal involvement from Walt Disney. Biddle was played by Fred MacMurray in the film.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 "The Theater: New Plays in Manhattan". Time magazine. December 3, 1956. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
  2. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/shantytownsketches00biddiala/shantytownsketches00biddiala_djvu.txt
  3. ↑ p.253 Baltzell, Edward Digby Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class 1958 Free Press
  4. ↑ "Foreign Service: Athletic Christian". Time magazine. August 5, 1935. Retrieved March 20, 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 "Events & Discoveries". Sports Illustrated. May 9, 1955. Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  6. ↑ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, v.7, 1897
  7. 1 2 3 Philadelphia Inquirer, Friday Morning, 28 May 1948
  8. ↑ James N. Wright (April 1940). "On the Art of Hand to Hand: An Interview with Col. A. J. Drexel Biddle, USMCR". Leatherneck Magazine.
  9. 1 2 Joseph R. Svinth (December 2001). "Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, USMC CQB Pioneer". Journal of Non-Lethal Combatives.
  10. ↑ "Women See Biddle Box: Bout with "Jack" O'Brien for Society Friends at Philadelphia" (pdf). New York Times. 24 February 1909. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
  11. ↑ "Col. A. J. Biddle Sr. Dead at Age of 73: Trained Men in Two World Wars for Hand-to-Hand Combat -Sponsored Boxing Groups". New York Times. May 28, 1948. Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  12. ↑ Karl Schuon (1963). U S Marine Corps Biographical Dictionary. New York: Franklin Watts. pp. 16–17.
  13. ↑ Kyle Crichton; Cordelia Drexel Biddle (1955). My Philadelphia Father. Doubleday.
  14. ↑ The Happiest Millionaire at the Internet Movie Database

Further reading

External links

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