Details
ROOSEVELT, Franklin D. Typed letter signed ("Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ph. D."), to Harry Hopkins, Warm Springs, Ga., 8 December 1944. 1 page, 8vo, White House stationery, small paperclip burn in top left corner. With carbon of Hopkins memo to FDR, and a letter to Walter Winchell from one of his readers.
ROOSEVELT HAS SOME FUN AT THE EXPENSE OF HIS DEFEATED CAMPAIGN OPPONENT THOMAS E. DEWEY
Writing to "Dear Dr. Hopkins," Roosevelt says: "I understand from some friends in Meriwether County, Georgia, that you are an expert face lifter and dermatologist. It has also come to my attention that a gentleman with a mustache would like to shave it but does not dare find out what is underneath. Perhaps you can help him. It would be a pity to have him go through life not knowing what is underneath." Hopkins had passed along a letter that columnist Walter Winchell got from one of his readers. It was from a woman who claimed she was a childhood schoolmate of Dewey, and according to her, Dewey wore a mustache to cover a scar on his lip which he got when a boy socked him in the mouth for insulting another girl in their class.
Dewey was Roosevelt's bitterest opponent in any of the four Presidential contests FDR waged. The rackets-busting former New York City prosecutor and the three-time incumbent President genuinely disliked each other. Dewey rode to national prominence in 1942 when he defeated FDR's successor, Herbert Lehman, to take control of the New York statehouse. The GOP put him forward in 1944 as a fresh, youthful alternative to a failing FDR and the "tired old men" around him. Dewey's digs at FDR's infirmities outraged the President, and he contemptuously referred to his height-challenged rival as "the little man," or, in more irritable moments simply as "the son of a bitch." As this letter to Hopkins makes clear, Roosevelt's contempt for Dewey continued even after vanquishing him in the November elections.
ROOSEVELT HAS SOME FUN AT THE EXPENSE OF HIS DEFEATED CAMPAIGN OPPONENT THOMAS E. DEWEY
Writing to "Dear Dr. Hopkins," Roosevelt says: "I understand from some friends in Meriwether County, Georgia, that you are an expert face lifter and dermatologist. It has also come to my attention that a gentleman with a mustache would like to shave it but does not dare find out what is underneath. Perhaps you can help him. It would be a pity to have him go through life not knowing what is underneath." Hopkins had passed along a letter that columnist Walter Winchell got from one of his readers. It was from a woman who claimed she was a childhood schoolmate of Dewey, and according to her, Dewey wore a mustache to cover a scar on his lip which he got when a boy socked him in the mouth for insulting another girl in their class.
Dewey was Roosevelt's bitterest opponent in any of the four Presidential contests FDR waged. The rackets-busting former New York City prosecutor and the three-time incumbent President genuinely disliked each other. Dewey rode to national prominence in 1942 when he defeated FDR's successor, Herbert Lehman, to take control of the New York statehouse. The GOP put him forward in 1944 as a fresh, youthful alternative to a failing FDR and the "tired old men" around him. Dewey's digs at FDR's infirmities outraged the President, and he contemptuously referred to his height-challenged rival as "the little man," or, in more irritable moments simply as "the son of a bitch." As this letter to Hopkins makes clear, Roosevelt's contempt for Dewey continued even after vanquishing him in the November elections.