Charles M. Aulino

Following are thumb-nail sketches of each of the essays:

Ignacy Jan Paderewski. He did not become a concert pianist until age 28 -- impossibly too old. His 1888 debut in Paris was a triumph, but a subsequent performance in London met with poor attendance. Press was mostly negative, except for a review written by “Corno Di Bassetto” who was later famous under his real name, Bernard Shaw. Paderewski became an international sensation. At his concerts all over the world, he spent a few minutes talking about “the Polish question” during intermissions. Paderewski managed to work his way into Woodrow Wilson’s inner circle and was undoubtedly responsible for Wilson’s inclusion of the freedom of Poland as the 13th point of his 14 point plan. After the Great War, he was swept into office as Prime Minister and represented Poland at Versailles. The end of his political career found Paderewski destitute -- he had expended his entire fortune on relief of suffering in Poland. Paderewski resumed his concert career and was more successful than ever. When he died in New York in 1941, the Germans had already occupied Poland. FDR ordered the remains held in temporary interment at Arlington National Cemetery until Poland was once again free.

Amadeo Peter Giannini. After achieving success in the produce business in San Francisco, he became restless. He burst into the office of James Fagan, a bank executive, and exclaimed, "Giacomo, I'm going to start a bank. Tell me how to do it." The Bank of Italy in America was established to serve the needs of immigrant working families. In 1906, Giannini personally rescued the bank’s gold from smoldering ashes after the famous earthquake and fire and set up a temporary office on the San Francisco wharf. His story includes epic battles with J.P. Morgan and the banking authorities of the Hoover and FDR administrations plus the mother of all proxy fights. It’s hard to believe that financial stuff could be this thrilling. What became the largest privately owned bank in the world during Giannini’s lifetime is still in business, now simply known as Bank of America.

Moe Berg. How many major league baseball players can you name who graduated magna cum laude from Princeton, spoke seven languages and attended the Sorbonne and Columbia in the off-season? After 19 years, Berg’s sports career ended just in time for him to become a WWII spy for the OSS, predecessor of the CIA. He tracked down Werner Heisenberg, father of the German A-Bomb program, and obtained valuable intelligence. FDR, briefed on Berg’s report that the German’s were not about to let the atomic genie out of the bottle, reacted, “Let’s pray Heisenberg is right. And, General, my regards to the catcher.” After the war, the CIA did not retain Berg as a spy and he became a kind of urban vagabond, supported by his brother and sister, “dropping in” on friends, and sometimes staying for weeks. Although the end of the story is sad, it is also mysterious and fascinating.

Max Schmeling & Joe Louis. These are two very different stories of struggle to overcome humble beginnings. By the time of their first bout in 1936, they were both heavyweight contenders and both beloved by legions of fans. Just 2 years later, Schmeling had been unwittingly cast in the role of Champion of the Nazis, while Louis became the American Standard in an allegory of the impeding battle between Allied and Axis Powers. Who can resist lines like these: Joe Jacobs, "We wuz robbed," Two-Ton Tony Galento, "I'll moida da bum," or Jack Roper’s plausible and often-repeated explanation of why Joe Louis had so easily knocked him out: “I zigged when I should have zagged.”

Branch Rickey. This story connects the history of modern baseball with the civil rights struggle. As president the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s, Rickey made the momentous decision to end baseball’s color line. Among the many wonderful real life stories that emerge is that of Walter Lanier "Red" Barber, the Dodger’s play-by-play announcer who had to overcome a culture of racial segregation that had persisted for generations. When Jackie Robinson told Rickey he could take anything the bigots dished out, but warned that he was not “an obsequious cringing fellow,” Rickey knew he had his man. He made Robinson promise to “turn the other cheek” for three full years. The heroic actions of sports figures involved present a moving backdrop.

After her husband’s death, Margaret Chase Smith won election to serve the balance of his congressional term in 1940, then re-election four times in her own right. The voters of Maine promoted her to the U.S. Senate in 1948 and she served until 1972. In 1950, Smith was the only member of the upper chamber who showed the courage to stand in opposition to the tactics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy in her “Declaration of Conscience.” When Smith’s name was placed in nomination for presidency at the 1964 Republican National Convention, it was an historic first. That was the same campaign in which Goldwater made his outrageous statement about “extremism in the defense of liberty” and used the slogan, “In your heart, you know he’s right,” presenting an irresistible target to the Democrats, who cleverly added “far right.” Smith’s skirmishes with so many leaders, including Eisenhower, Goldwater, Kennedy, and Kruschev are both fascinating and fun.

Medgar Evers. Maybe not the most famous leader of the civil rights movement, but his story is certainly one of the most inspirational. It includes the post-Civil-War events leading to reconstruction, the Jim Crow Laws, activities of the Ku Klux Klan and the events whirling around Evers' life as field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi. He investigated the murder of Emmett Till and others and helped James Meredith break the color line at Ole Miss. After his murder at the hands of a white supremacist, his widow and children were consoled at the White House. They stood in awe of President John F. Kennedy, himself the victim of a sniper just 5 months later.

Katharine Graham. Arguably not “qualified” for this collection because she is too well remembered, but irresistible. Eugene Meyer, her father, once held Ben Bernanke’s job at the Fed and bought The Washington Post when it was near economic ruin during The Great Depression. After Myer successfully recruited his son-in-law,it looked as if he had a worthy successor. Though Katharine had journalistic experience, it was nothing approaching what she needed to take the reins after Phil took his own life. Somehow she managed. This essay includes the episodes of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, but even without those elements, the story is compelling.

Paul Winchell. He grew up in a poor Jewish family in Brooklyn. His handicaps, speech impediments and the physical consequences of Polio, were exacerbated by his mother’s physical and psychological abuse. He overcame all of it. Winchell’s big chance came when the principal of his high school got him a try-out as a ventriloquist on Major Bows’ “Original Amateur Hour.” He went on to a career in radio, vaudeville, the big bands of the ‘40s and early ‘50s, TV and voice-overs in the movies. The story features many luminaries of the entertainment world of the 20th Century. “Hank” Heimlich was a life-long friend. Winchell helped attract press attention for the first public demonstration of his “maneuver.” Heimlich encouraged his friend’s interest in medicine and provided guidance and consultation on the most amazing of Winchell’s many inventions, the artificial heart. After being institutionalized for psychotic episodes, Winchell found additional success later in his life as the voice of “Tigger” in animated movies.

Edward W. Said, public intellectual who spoke truth to power. Born in Jerusalem in 1935, Said ultimately became a professor of comparative literature at Columbia. His seminal work, Orientalism, placed him in the vanguard of post-colonial studies. But Said achieved fame for his role as a leading advocate in the western world for the cause of oppressed and dispossessed Palestinians. His work recognizes the horror of the holocaust and the need for a Jewish homeland, but he asks the world also to consider the plight of those whom he describes as "the victims of victims." His writing is both full of outrage and devoid of hatred.