Diamond Jim Brady: Difference between revisions
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'''James Buchanan ("Diamond Jim") Brady''' (August 12, 1856 – April 13, 1917), was an American salesman of railroad equipment who became wealthy during the Golden Age of railroad expansion at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century but who is remembered today only as America's (and perhaps history's) greatest trencherman. His gargantuan appetite and reputed feats of eating were widely celebrated during his lifetime and, as the years have passed, his legend has only grown. Never married, although he was known for consorting with another famous personage of the [[Gilded Age]], the singer [[Lillian Russell]], a voluptuous beauty nearly as large as Brady himself, he endowed various institutions with millions of dollars, including [[Johns Hopkins Hospital]] in [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], where the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute still bears his name. | '''James Buchanan ("Diamond Jim") Brady''' (August 12, 1856 – April 13, 1917), was an American salesman of railroad equipment who became wealthy during the Golden Age of railroad expansion at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century but who is remembered today only as America's (and perhaps history's) greatest trencherman. His gargantuan appetite and reputed feats of eating were widely celebrated during his lifetime and, as the years have passed, his legend has only grown. Never married, although he was known for consorting with another famous personage of the [[Gilded Age]], the singer [[Lillian Russell]], a voluptuous beauty nearly as large as Brady himself, he endowed various institutions with millions of dollars, including [[Johns Hopkins Hospital]] in [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], where the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute still bears his name. | ||
Born in modest circumstances in New York City, Brady was the son of a saloon and free-lunch-counter operator, and, most likely, named after the Democratic presidental candidate of that year, James Buchanan. <ref>Buchanan was elected three months after Brady's birth and is universally considered by historians to be one of the two or three | Born in modest circumstances in New York City, Brady was the son of a saloon and free-lunch-counter operator, and, most likely, named after the Democratic presidental candidate of that year, James Buchanan. <ref>Buchanan was elected president three months after Brady's birth and is universally considered by historians to be one of the two or three worst presidents in American history.</ref> He first worked as a hotel bellboy, then for a few years as a young man for the [[New York Central Railroad]], and finally became the star salesman for the railroad supply company that made him rich, Manning, Maxwell & Moore. According to '''Time''' magazine, writing 21 years after his death, Charles A. Moore "sent Diamond Jim out on the road with instructions to spend all the money necessary to make customers like him. Diamond Jim stuck to this tenet through the panic of the middle nineties with such success that spending money to make money has been the Manning, Maxwell & Moore system to lick depressions ever since." <ref>'''Time''' magazine, January 24, 1938</ref> | ||
Americans of the 19th century, particularly those in the Frontier areas, had a reputation for, and enjoyment of, notable exaggeration in both their humor and their descriptions. It may be that this affection for the [[Tall tale|tall tale]] | |||
== Footnotes == | == Footnotes == | ||
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Revision as of 19:01, 5 February 2009
James Buchanan ("Diamond Jim") Brady (August 12, 1856 – April 13, 1917), was an American salesman of railroad equipment who became wealthy during the Golden Age of railroad expansion at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century but who is remembered today only as America's (and perhaps history's) greatest trencherman. His gargantuan appetite and reputed feats of eating were widely celebrated during his lifetime and, as the years have passed, his legend has only grown. Never married, although he was known for consorting with another famous personage of the Gilded Age, the singer Lillian Russell, a voluptuous beauty nearly as large as Brady himself, he endowed various institutions with millions of dollars, including Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute still bears his name.
Born in modest circumstances in New York City, Brady was the son of a saloon and free-lunch-counter operator, and, most likely, named after the Democratic presidental candidate of that year, James Buchanan. [1] He first worked as a hotel bellboy, then for a few years as a young man for the New York Central Railroad, and finally became the star salesman for the railroad supply company that made him rich, Manning, Maxwell & Moore. According to Time magazine, writing 21 years after his death, Charles A. Moore "sent Diamond Jim out on the road with instructions to spend all the money necessary to make customers like him. Diamond Jim stuck to this tenet through the panic of the middle nineties with such success that spending money to make money has been the Manning, Maxwell & Moore system to lick depressions ever since." [2]
Americans of the 19th century, particularly those in the Frontier areas, had a reputation for, and enjoyment of, notable exaggeration in both their humor and their descriptions. It may be that this affection for the tall tale