The Standard: Edgar, The Forgotten Kennedy
mikeg...@gmail.com
By John J. McGuinness
BROTHER ACTS were common among the early moguls in Hollywood-- Warners
had Jack, Harry and Sam, Cecil B. DeMille had William, and MGM's
Nicholas Schenck had Joseph (who in turn married a Talmadge sister--
keeping it all in the family).
But the strangest brother act of all must have been the combination of
one of the most fiercely ambitious men in America, for whom Hollywood
was a mere stepping-stone on a lifelong path to world fame and, in the
end, hubristic tragedy, and the kid brother who was happy merely to
leave his mark as one of filmdom's memorable faces-- and less easily
remembered names.
Once world-famous, Joseph P. Kennedy now pales next to the legend of
his charismatic and tragic progeny-- president Jack, presidential
might-have-been Bobby, senatorial lion Teddy, and all the other
relations whose golden youths turned into tragedy or scandal.
But make no mistake: without Joe, there would be no Kennedy legend.
What's less well known is that without younger brother Edgar, the very
same might be true.
HOLLYWOOD WAS where Joe first tasted national fame and celebrity. But
Edgar had gone there years earlier, his ruddy good Irish looks earning
him a spot at the Mack Sennett studios, where he quickly made his name
as a comedian and strongman.
His success in the fledgling field attracted the eye of brother Joe,
then making his fortune on Wall Street. Together the Kennedy brothers
began using their Wall Street connections to take control of a number
of studios-- and in Joe's case, to woo the famous star Gloria Swanson,
despite a marriage which had already produced seven children.
Yet Edgar always had a taste for simple pleasures that eluded Joe, to
whom pleasure was merely a way of keeping score. Edgar's refusal to
give up work as a "low comedian," even under Joe's highly persuasive
threats and cajolings, led to the dissolution of their business
partnership as sound came in.
Still, if the business relationship between the brothers was strained,
they remained friendly-- which in Joe's world meant useful. Thus as
Joe's political ambitions started to grow, Edgar was again pressed into
service.
As author Browning demonstrates through extensive use of declassified
intelligence reports, Edgar's seemingly inexplicable foray into street
vending in a number of Central European capitals in the early 1930s was
in fact cover for an intelligence-gathering mission for his brother.
No LeCarre character, Edgar was easily outmatched by the canny
professionals working the same streets, and he soon gave up his
concession in disgust.
MORE SERIOUS trouble between the brothers came with Joe's increasing
isolationism and sympathy for Germany's rise to power under Hitler.
Edgar, long since established in the progressive and highly Jewish
circles of Hollywood, slowly burned with indignation at Joe's tilt
toward Nazi sympathy during his time as ambassador to England.
Indeed, it is difficult not to see one of Edgar's most impressive
acting roles, as the old hermit Nepomuk in Douglas Sirk's Hitler's
Madman (1943), as a direct rebuke to the brother whose admiration for
power had come unmoored from morality.
Where the 1940s brought Joe disappointment and sorrow, his political
career in tatters and firstborn son Joe Jr. killed in action in the
Pacific, Edgar found simple satisfaction starring as "The Average Man"
in a series of domestic situation comedy shorts for RKO. By the time
of his death in 1948, playing an ordinary American and little imagining
the heights and depths his brother would experience in the next two
decades, Edgar had become what few other Kennedys have ever been: an
average man, and by author Browning's account, a happy one.
Edgar, The Forgotten Kennedy, by George Browning. McGonigle Press, 282
pp., $24.95.
Neil Midkiff
> In America's most ambitious family, he stood out for his averageness
>
> By John J. McGuinness
>
> BROTHER ACTS were common among the early moguls in Hollywood-- Warners
> had Jack, Harry and Sam, Cecil B. DeMille had William, and MGM's
> Nicholas Schenck had Joseph (who in turn married a Talmadge sister--
> keeping it all in the family).
>
> But the strangest brother act of all must have been the combination of
> one of the most fiercely ambitious men in America, for whom Hollywood
> was a mere stepping-stone on a lifelong path to world fame and, in the
> end, hubristic tragedy, and the kid brother who was happy merely to
> leave his mark as one of filmdom's memorable faces-- and less easily
> remembered names.
>
> Once world-famous, Joseph P. Kennedy now pales next to the legend of
> his charismatic and tragic progeny-- president Jack, presidential
> might-have-been Bobby, senatorial lion Teddy, and all the other
> relations whose golden youths turned into tragedy or scandal.
>
> But make no mistake: without Joe, there would be no Kennedy legend.
> What's less well known is that without younger brother Edgar, the very
> same might be true.
>
> HOLLYWOOD WAS where Joe first tasted national fame and celebrity. But
> Edgar had gone there years earlier, his ruddy good Irish looks earning
> him a spot at the Mack Sennett studios, where he quickly made his name
> as a comedian and strongman.
> [...]
> Edgar, The Forgotten Kennedy, by George Browning. McGonigle Press, 282
> pp., $24.95.
Hey Mike, it's still March 31 on the Pacific Coast. This got here a
little too early.
-Neil Midkiff
William Ferry
joker or an even greater dumbbell? I've heard that Edgar and TOM Kennedy
were related, but this is the first time anyone's ever tied Edgar into the
Kennedy's of Massachusetts.
As Edgar put it so succinctly in A PERFECT DAY, "Oh, s**t!"
--
Yours for bigger and better silents,
Bill Ferry
<mikeg...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1143871590.3...@t31g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
William Ferry
Please disregard my previous post...should have read through the Inbox a bit
further. Good one, though. You certainly bunkoed me!
Or again, as Edgar said it so succinctly in A PERFECT DAY, "Oh, s**t!"
--
Yours for bigger and better silents,
Bill Ferry
"Neil Midkiff" <nmid...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:YkpXf.43810$_S7....@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com...
haub...@yahoo.com
Tom were NOT related. Read Bill Cassara's great book "Edgar Kennedy:
Master of the Slow Burn" for details.
Brent Walker
(I however refuse to deny the rumors of Ted and Madge Kennedy being
related)