Tag: Groucho Marx

On Grant’s Tomb

In the 1950s, Groucho Marx hosted a game show called You Bet Your Life. The show was a vehicle for the famous comedian to interact with simple American citizens and riff on their interactions, and all of it was built around a question and answer format. Sometimes, Marx and the producers found that, when faced with the lights and TV cameras and the studio audience (not to mention the larger than life persona of Groucho himself), some contestants on the show would freeze up and not be able to answer the show’s questions. That’s when Groucho would resort to a simple question in an effort to get the people to open up and begin to relax: Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb? Well, the obvious answer that Groucho wanted was, of course, “Grant.” However, that answer both is and isn’t correct. Allow me to explain.

We today forget that Ulysses S. Grant (the “S” stood for nothing–it was only an initial) was seen in his day as one of the saviors of the Union. After almost four years of trying one commanding general after another as head of the Union Army, President Abraham Lincoln found in Grant a man who wasn’t afraid to engage with Robert E. Lee’s rebel army in the field. “I can’t spare Grant,” Lincoln said, “he fights!” Grant fought the insurrectionists to the point that they surrendered in April, 1865. And, in the 1868 election, the next election after the war’s end, Grant was elected President of the United States in a landslide as a sign of how popular he was despite the fact that he had no political experience and was the youngest president elected to that date. Think Dwight D. Eisenhower but almost one hundred years earlier. Grant was re-elected four years later, again, with a good majority of the vote. Sadly, almost a decade after his last term, Grant died of cancer.

However, at that point, much of the nation was divided over Grant’s legacy. Obviously, the people of the rebelling states thought of him as a butcher, the man who forced the Confederacy to be defeated by attrition. They had no use for him. And then, even in the north and west, there were Grant detractors because of what had happened during his eight years as president. You see, those two terms were some of the most corrupt in American History. Several of Grant’s appointees and administration officials were convicted of fraud and of bribery. While Grant himself wasn’t involved, the taint of the corruption had colored how many people viewed him. And, upon his death, the nation was torn as to how to remember this important–even if he was divisive–person.

And those who revered Grant wanted him to have a tomb fitting of the national hero they saw him to be. A fundraising campaign was begun to raise money to build a fitting tomb for the former general, but, after a good and fast start, it quickly fell flat. And land was found along the western side of upper Manhattan Island in New York City for the site of the memorial and grave. Now, Grant was from Ohio originally and had lived in Illinois for a time, but it was New York City that he called home after his presidency and where he was when he died. Also, it was where his wife, Julia, wanted the tomb to be located. She, of course, wished to be buried with her husband when she passed away. That request is why Grant wasn’t buried at West Point (no women allowed at that time) or other military cemeteries. Finally, after a direct appeal by Julia Grant to the soldiers who had fought with her husband in the war, enough money was collected to begin construction.

Now, even the building itself was controversial. The amount initially set aside for the task wouldn’t build a monument grand enough for those who loved Grant, but they felt that, as time wore on, they had to erect something on the selected spot. Finally, a cornerstone was laid in 1892, a full seven years after Grant’s death. And the final structure didn’t get finished until 1897–twelve years after the great man died. Julia died in Washington, D.C., in 1902.

And, to be clear, when the bodies of President Grant and his wife, Julia, were added to the memorial, they were not interred. Instead, the bodies lie above ground, sealed in a red marble sarcophagus. And that fact leads us back to Groucho’s question, the answer to which isn’t as easy as it seemed at the time.

Thus, the real answer to the question as to who is buried in Grant’s Tomb is, actually, nobody.

On A Pen Pal

Thomas Stearnes (T.S.) Eliot was one of the 20th Century’s greatest poets. Born in the United States and choosing to live most of his life in the UK as a British citizen, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948. His lasting reputation rests on two major works, The Waste Land and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. This reputation was further enhanced by his plays (a handful of Tony Awards) and his groundbreaking literary criticism.

What few people realize is that Eliot had a relationship with an unlikely pen pal, a man named Julius, over the course of several years later in his life. Eliot and Julius were near the same age, and they wrote each other letters expressing great admiration for the other, but they never really spoke in the writing about their respective jobs. Julius was not in the literary game, you see, so the pair of pen pals didn’t seem to have that much in common. Yet, they wrote several warm and interesting letters to each other in the early 1960s.

With Eliot living and London and Julius making his home in California, the letters made their way slowly between the two men. They even exchanged photos through the letters. “I had no idea you were so handsome!” Julius teased Eliot in reply after receiving the poet’s picture. When Eliot received his picture of Julius, he quickly dashed off a response: “This is to let you know that your portrait has arrived and has given me great joy and will soon appear in its frame on my wall…” These two men, from vastly different walks of life and from divergent backgrounds nevertheless felt a kinship because of the gratitude each felt towards the other that pen and paper were taken up and heartfelt words were exchanged.

Because of the obvious connection these two correspondents had, because of the frankness of their opinions about many subjects both profound and sometimes profane, the letters make for interesting reading. For example, Julius didn’t really know or pay much attention about Eliot’s family life. He once signed off a letter saying, “Give my best to your wife–whoever she is at the moment” (Eliot had been married twice before). Julius also often referenced his Jewishness knowing that Eliot had a reputation for being at least tacitly anti-Semitic. And, not being completely understanding of Eliot’s socially conservative attitudes towards most topics (or, perhaps, not caring), Julius also told the poet to not be shy about writing to him about his views on sex. “Confide in me about it,” he told Eliot. The famously prim poet did not honor that request. However, he did express a desire to meet Julius and his wife if the couple were ever to make their way, as the British say, across the pond.

One day, Eliot received a letter that Julius would indeed be coming to London on business. Eliot quickly wrote an answer and invited his fellow letter writer for dinner one evening in London at Eliot’s house. In a letter written to one of his brothers the day after the dinner, Julius described the meeting. It turns out that both men seemed to be underwhelmed when meeting face to face. Julius wanted to impress his famous pen pal, so he read and re-read The Waste Land and memorized some of Eliot’s poems. He recited portions of them to Eliot at the dinner, but the poet merely smiled. Eliot, for his part, tried to ask Julius about his work, but Julius wasn’t interested in re-hashing his life. “He asked me to call him Tom,” Julius reported to his brother. “And, since I never liked the name Julius, I asked him to call me Tom as well,” he added.

But isn’t that type of joke something you’d expect from Groucho Marx?