This wasn’t meant to be such a long piece but it just kept growing!
Back in 1991-96 I took a second degree in Business and Computer Studies as a part-time student. First-year students had to take two non-cognate modules to broaden their education. One of mine was ‘American History 101’ and then, though it would not count towards my degree, after this I enrolled for ‘Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal’. Enthused by the subject, I saved all my 22 textbooks with the aim of re-reading them at some point. 30+ years later I’ve finally done this: speed reading though and the books are set for the academic bookshop so don’t ask me questions! Comments welcome though.
‘Tommy the Cork’ book cover
One book though wasn’t in my original collection; I bought it recently wanting to know about its subject. David McKean’s ‘Tommy the Cork – Washington’s Ultimate Insider from Roosevelt to Reagan’ tells the story of Thomas Gardiner Corcoran (1900-1981), one of the New Deal’s top lawyers and adviser and speechwriter to FDR, then a successful lobbyist.
It’s a life which promised so much but ended up laced with a fair degree of sadness. Here, I’ve tried to focus on the man himself; for lots more on his political and lobbying activities, see McKean’s book or this page on the Spartacus Educational website.
Early life
Corcoran was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island to middle-class Irish immigrant parents. He was his high school’s ‘prize scholar’ then, following in his father’s footsteps, studied law at Brown University where he was a top student. At Harvard Law School Professor Felix Frankfurter noted his exceptional ability and arranged for him to clerk for Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935) during 1926-27. Holmes had fought in the Civil War and served as a Supreme Court justice from 1902 to 1932. Corcoran continued as a friend and caregiver to Justice Holmes until Holmes’ death, especially after the death of Mrs Holmes in 1929, and was at his bedside when he died. As McKean’s book tells, Corcoran was a complicated person: ruthlessly ambitious, ever keen to make money, yet capable of extreme kindness and generosity. Countless young lawyers benefitted from his support and encouragement.
Following his clerkship year Corcoran joined Wall Street law firm Cotton and Franklin where he learned the finer points of corporate law, mergers and acquisitions. He reputedly made a quarter of a million dollars in the late 1920s (nearly $5m 2025) only to lose nearly all of it in the Wall Street crash.
The New Deal Years
In 1932 Corcoran moved to Washington DC, joining the Reconstruction Finance Corporation as Special Counsel. Over time he would find his way into the White House, becoming a speechwriter, political adviser and friend to FDR. It was during this time that he teamed up with Benjamin Cohen, another gifted lawyer. Temperamentally the two were total opposite: Corcoran was an extrovert who loved to entertain; on occasions he’d take his accordion to the White House and lead a singalong. In contrast Cohen was quiet, sensitive, described by Joseph Lash as ‘the parfit gentil knight’ of the New Deal1. The two of them, described by ‘Time’, 1938, as ‘The gold dust twins’ would help draft some of the key New Deal legislation.
By the time FDR assumed office on 4th March 1933 the USA was on the verge of collapse. FDR asked Felix Frankfurter to assemble a team of lawyers to rewrite the nation’s security laws to minimise the risk of another Wall Street crash. Among those nominated were Corcoran and Cohen. Corcoran had his Wall Street experience; Cohen was a brilliant legal draftsman. His deep knowledge of British company legislation acquired while working in London would influence their thinking. Also appointed to the team was Jim Landis, Harvard’s first professor of legislation, who had the best understanding of markets. The fourth member of the team was 22-year-old Peggy Dowd, previously Corcoran’s PA at the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), of whom more later.
By March 1934 the bill that would establish the Securities and Exchange Commission was ready. Vested interests whipped up a huge campaign against it. Corcoran was chosen to defend it before the House Committee. After a bitter debate it passed. Legislation controlling utilities would follow, again the subject of a big fight.
After the New Deal
As the 1930s progressed Corcoran got involved in all sorts of political adventures. FDR’s son Elliott ventured “Apart from my father, Tom was the single most influential person in the country.” Alva Johnson of the Saturday Evening Post claimed that Corcoran held “a position of power vaguely resembling that which the Duke of Buckingham held under James I”2.
After FDR’s 1936 landslide victory, Corcoran’s influence began to decline. To FDR’s frustration, the Supreme Court increasingly took a critical view of New Deal legislation. During his first term not one justice had died or retired and a majority of the nine justices he’d inherited owed him no loyalty. The solution put forward was to appoint additional justices. This drew outrage from various quarters and the plan was dropped. Then the dam broke and FDR was able to appoint nine justices before his death in 1945. The first, Hugo Black, appointed 1937, served on the bench until 1971; Felix Frankfurter was another notable appointment, serving from 1939 to 1962.
With his marriage in 1940 Corcoran needed more money. He thought of returning to Cotton and Franklin, but only if Ben could come with him. The firm would not take Cohen on account of him being Jewish so Corcoran decided to stay in Washington and use his legal skills and political and personal contacts as a lobbyist.
WW2 saw Corcoran involved with the Chinese Flying Tigers who were attacking Japan well before Pearl Harbour. This brought him into contact with General Claire Chennault (1893-1958). This part of his life is marked by his name appearing in the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame.
In 1941 the post of Solicitor General became vacant. Corcoran desperately wanted the job. He asked various people to recommend him. Four justices wrote in on his behalf. He needed one more to have a majority of the Supreme Court on his side. He went to see his old mentor Felix Frankfurter. Frankfurter said that he was sorry, but he couldn’t oblige. Corcoran reportedly then said, “I put you here, now produce”3. Frankfurter wouldn’t! Later he said that if he’d thought that Corcoran would devote himself to the post, he would have been happy to recommend him, but he felt that he would use the post as a political platform.
With this door closed, Corcoran redoubled his lobbying work which he would pursue for the rest of his life. Here are several of the many examples cited by McKean:
- In 1941 Corcoran was approached by Henry Kaiser who was after a loan from RFC to build a magnesium plant. Using his contacts Corcoran secured the loan and sent Kaiser a bill for $135,000, also asking for a 15% stake in the enterprise. Kaiser hadn’t got rich by being free with his money so Corcoran had to make do with ‘just’ $65,000 (at this time a WW2 US Private was paid $50 a month).
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- At congressional hearing in December 1941 Corcoran was asked about his lobbying. He admitted to making more than $100,000 during the year for his defence-related work and was quizzed on various assignments. He’d helped the Savannah shipbuilding company to get a contract (subsequently rescinded) to build twelve cargo ships for twenty million dollars; they had no relevant experience of such work. Corcoran had collected a $5,000 fee. To avoid public scandal, the company was then awarded $1,285,000 compensation!
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- One of Corcoran’s key clients was the American-owned United Fruit Company which had substantial interests in Guatemala. In 1951 a democratically-elected government led by Jacobo Arbenz took charge and reformed education and healthcare in the country. It also instituted a new labour code that improved worker’s rights. UFC owned 42% of Guatemalan land yet only utilized a small part of it. Arbenz’s aim was to redistribute these huge tracts of unused land to the landless poor.
In 1953, with Eisenhower installed as US President, Corcoran started urging the US government to undermine and overthrow the Arbenz government. With the help of the CIA, the United Fruit Company began a massive disinformation campaign in the USA, labelling Arbenz and his administration as being under communist influence. In June 1954 the Arbenz government was overthrown, Corcoran having acted as a liaison between the CIA and UFC. When the full story came out, “for those who had served with Corcoran in the New Deal it was an inexplicable betrayal”4.
Lots more on the influence of the United Fruit Company in Guatemala here.
The women in Tom’s life
Tom’s mother, Mary O’Keefe was a strong and intelligent woman. McKean quotes him as saying: “Mother had given me an abiding discomfort about women”5. She wanted her son to achieve great things and didn’t wanted him being distracted. Away from her influence in New York, Isabel Cotton, his boss’s daughter, caught his eye and in due course their engagement was announced. She, though, broke it off. Tom later recorded that she had “decided I was too busy to pay the attention to her that an aristocratic girl deserved”6.
In 1932 Peggy Dowd enters the story, joining the RFC as a PA. Her parents were immigrants: her father worked for the post office. She was stunningly attractive – FDR later referred to her as ‘Our gorgeous hussy’, not of course the sort of language a present-day president would use of a junior female employee. She’d never attended college, only taken a typing course, but impressed Tom’s RFC colleague Frank Watson: “My secretary at that time was Peggy Dowd, who later became Mrs Tom Corcoran She was a brilliant individual and a very beautiful girl. She could type so fast you could hardly see the keys move, and at the same time carry on a conversation or ask a question. During this period, l would be up on the Hill all morning, going over the act with the committees. Then I’d come back and Peggy and I would work until midnight, running off copies for the next day’s meetings7.”
Her ability and work ethic did not go unnoticed: “To help with the typing Corcoran asked the RFC to send over a young secretary named Peggy Dowd. … She was only twenty-two years old. She had met Corcoran a few weeks earlier when she had been sent to his office by the chief of the secretarial pool. “You’re Irish. Maybe you can handle him,” she was told. During their first encounter Corcoran sat behind his desk chomping on a cigar and barking orders when Peggy interrupted him and said coolly, “Take the cigar out of your mouth or I won’t take dictation from you.” Corcoran, looking stunned but amused, obliged.”8.
Over the next few years the two grew increasingly close. Tom loved Peggy whilst wanting to maintain his bachelor freedom; Peggy loved him but was getting impatient. “I bore no ill will towards your mother”, she told him, “but it’s a long time since I knew that I was in love with you, that your mother died [she died in 1936]. But I understand being Irish — you’re the oldest son and the oldest son, I don’t know when it began, can never marry till his mother dies. So his mother will never believe that any other woman came before her“9.
Still Tom didn’t rush things. In early 1940 he finally asked Peggy to marry him. Not everyone was supportive. His mother had referred to Peggy as “your warmed over French fried potato of a secretary.” FDR thought that Corcoran could do better than marry a working girl whose father was a mailman. Frankfurter wanted him to marry someone with money so that he would be free to continue in public service10. Marion Frankfurter told Tom that in Britain it was the accepted practice for bright young lawyers to marry into the English gentry – though we can note that her husband married the solidly middle-class daughter of a Congregational minister. But all to no avail. Once engaged, Tom made an appointment to formally introduce his intended to FDR. Peggy bought a new dress and hat. On the day FDR sent a message that he was too busy to see them. Tom viewed this as a snub for many years after.
The couple married on March 4th 1940. Not long afterwards Peggy was expecting the first of their six children. The couple moved to a larger house where they often entertained. Peggy seemed to be happy, but this was an illusion. Sadly she’d began to drink, not just at social events but at home. In 1957 she died of a cerebral haemorrhage, aged just forty-four.
Left a widower, Tom tried to be a good father, pushing all his children to achieve, especially daughter Margaret. She studied law, possibly not by choice, and, although not an exceptional student, through her father she got a clerkship with Justice Black. The pressure was getting to her. In January 1970, aged twenty-eight, she died from an overdose of sleeping pills.
‘The Education of Anna’ book cover
Following Peggy’s death, Tom had acquired a number of female friends. Most prominent was Peking-born Anna Chennault (1923-2018). At 21 as a junior journalist she was sent to interview General Claire Chennault, then head of the US China-based 14th air force. In 1946 he divorced his wife (leaving her with eight children!), marrying Anna a year later. He died in 1958 of lung cancer. She moved into the world of politics, campaigning for Richard Nixon among Chinese-Americans in 1960, then began a career as a society hostess in Washington, living in a Watergate penthouse at the time of the notorious burglaries.
Anna’s 1980 memoir, ‘The Education of Anna’ is dedicated “to all my teachers, and to the best teacher of them all, Thomas G. Corcoran”. In it she tells us: “… my parties were never very large. With rare exception they were limited to three tables of twelve each …”. Eight courses were the norm. How the other half live! Anna claimed that Tommy wanted to marry her, but she’d vowed never to marry again.
In later years a second female friend and regular escort was Lindy Boggs (1916-2013). Like Tasmania’s own Enid Lyons, she started life as a political wife and then built her own political career: her husband Hale was majority leader of the US House of Representatives. In 1972 he was in a plane that went missing over Alaska and was declared dead. In the ensuing special election Lindy was elected to succeed him. She was elected to a full term in 1974 with 82% of the vote and was re-elected seven times thereafter until she vacated her office in January 1991. After her district was redrawn in 1984 she became the only white member of Congress representing a majority-African-American constituency. In 1997 President Bill Clinton appointed her official U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, a position she held until 2001.
McKean tells us that “Corcoran, however, told one friend that he would not marry Lindy or Anna or anyone else for that matter, because, “once you marry, they’re not nice to you””11
Later years
One might have hoped that age would bring increasing wisdom but McKean tells a number of stories that sadly suggest otherwise:
- In 1969 the Supreme Court initially declined a petition to re-hear the El Paso Natural Gas case. El Paso wasn’t a Corcoran client but the suggestion is that he may have been providing informal advice. Totally disregarding legal rules, Tom went up to see Justice Hugo Black in his Supreme Court chambers to petition him to think again. Shocked, Black threw Tom out but not wishing to humiliate an old friend, he decided to say nothing. A few days later Tom made a similar visit to Justice Brennan, with a similar result.
At the weekly justices meeting, Brennan told them what had happened. A number of justices were sympathetic to reopening the case but knew if this happened, Tom might have then started boasting about his achievement in bending the court’s will. So the application to re-hear was denied. To quote McKean, “Had Douglas’s dissent been made public, Tommy Corcoran, one of the most distinguished and successful lawyers in Washington for more than forty years, would surely have been disbarred.”12 Ten years later the District of Columbia Bar was asked to examine Corcoran’s conduct. Thankfully for him, Justice Black was dead (d.1971) and Justice Brennan conveniently couldn’t remember the conversation13. A lucky escape!
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- In 1971 a number of Washington’s legal elite gathered for a black-tie dinner to mark Tom’s 70th birthday. In his speech Ben Cohen remarked that “I think we may count the New Deal years among the best years of his life. ….. There has never been a better spirit de corps in government than that inspired by Tom in the New Deal years.” Then it was Tom’s turn and to the dismay of many listening he began by noting that he represented one of the largest pipeline companies in the USA. Close friend Joe Rauh later said that seeing this once brilliant, crusading lawyer now bragging about his corporate clients “made me sick”14.
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- Ten months later Tom attended the funeral of Peggy’s cousin, Michael Dowd. After the ceremony he offered a lift to Michael’s 19-year-old daughter, Maureen. While driving back to the family home Tom told her that he would like to adopt her. She would have the best education possible and a credit card and sports car like the ones Margaret had had. Daughter and newly-widowed mother were, not surprisingly, horrified by the suggestion.15
While most of his contemporaries were long retired, Corcoran worked almost to the end. In late 1981 he went into hospital for a gall bladder operation. On December 5th he told visiting son Tim that when he got out of hospital he was going to make lots more money. The next day he was dead, from an embolism. At his funeral fellow lawyer James Rowe spoke, quoting Justice Holmes: “Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire.”16 If only this sentiment had underlaid Tom’s 70th birthday speech.
References (to ‘Tommy the Cork’ unless otherwise stated)
• 1. p.452; 2. p.91; 3. p.152; 4. p.227; 5. p.13; 6. p.28; 7. Louchheim, p.109; 8. p.39; 9. Lash p.445; 10.p.126; 11. p.310; 12. p.272; 13. pp.306-8; 14. p.298; 15. p.299; 16. p.316
Key books (links are to AbeBooks):
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- ‘Tommy the Cork – Washington’s Ultimate Insider from Roosevelt to Reagan’, David McKean, Steerforth Press,2004, ISBN 1-58642-068-2
- ‘The Education of Anna’, Anna Chennault, Imperial Book Co., 1980
- ‘The Making of the New Deal’, Katie Louchheim, Harvard University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-674-54346-7
- ‘Dealers and Dreamers – A New Look at the New Deal’, Joseph Lash, Doubleday, 1988, ISBN 0-385-18716-5
For a detailed account of Tommy Corcoran’s political and lobbying career, check out this Spartacus Educational article.
3. DAF 66 Estate
4. 1979 Chrysler Sunbeam 1.3 – my first new car
5. 1981 Austin Maxi 1750L
8. 1995 Skoda Felicia
Later I was attracted by the idea of a Saab 96 or Nissan Prairie but both were too long for my parking space. With hindsight I wish I’d bought a Triumph 1300 at some point.
