Joel West (born April 6, 1975) is an American actor and model.

Biography

Early life

Film career

He is signed to famous Nous Model Management in Los Angeles.

Personal life

Filmography

''Starting Out in the Evening (2007)

'' .... Officer Aaron Jessop

''All Features Great and Small .... Slickster Filmmaker (2005)

'' .... Raakin (2004)

''The Division .... Chris (2004)

''American Dreams .... Staff Sgt. Finch (2004)

''Global Effect .... Nile Spencer (2002)

''Scorcher .... Zero (2002)

''Con Express .... Zednik (2002)

''Charmed .... Malek (2002)

''Felicity .... Rocco (2002)

''The Elite .... Joel (2001)

''Krocodylus .... Jeremy (2002)

''The Giving Tree aka Brutal Truth .... Kyle (2000)

''The Smokers .... Christopher (2000)

'' .... Himself/Carpenter (2005)

External links

Collection

In-depth Interview with Joel West on ModelSwim.com

Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:American male models Category:American television actors

Name	Zachariah Selwyn
Landscape	No
Background	non_performing_personnel
Years active	2003–present

Zachariah "Zach" Selwyn (born on April 23, 1975), also known as simply Zachariah, is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and writer best known for his appearances on the series Dream Job, Attack of the Show! and Catch It Keep It.

Following the release of his country-rock CD "Ghost Signs" in 2003, Selwyn beat out a potential crowd of over 20,000 and appeared on the first season of the ESPN's reality show Dream Job. Selwyn debuted on the show in its second episode on February 29, 2004. Selwyn currently hosts Fanarchy, a weekly sports debate series airing on Versus.

Early career and Dream Job

While he was reading a SportsCenter "Top Ten" highlights segment on the show, all eyes were on Selwyn's long hair, beard and his 70s Outlaw country western leisure suit. ESPN Vice-President of Talent, Al Jaffe, one of the show's judges, told him he wasn't credible because of his looks. Selwyn cleaned up his look (meaning he cut his beard into a goatee) in time for episode three. He went on to finish in third place on the show. Aaron Levine finished second to the eventual winner, Mike Hall. Tony Kornheiser later apologized for not picking Selwyn on his popular show "Pardon the Interruption" and admitted he had made a mistake.

Selwyn appeared as the backwoods country-rap singing gas station attendant Randall Keith Randall in the film Dead and Breakfast released in early 2005.

Selwyn recorded three songs with pop singer and Black Eyed Peas member Fergie from 2001 - 2002. Two of those songs, "Will The Ink Fade" and "No Place at All (Baby I'm a Drifter)" appear on Zachariah's first cd "Ghost Signs." The other song, "Other Side" is on the "C.I.L.F." ep from 2006.

Post-Dream Job career

Beginning on June 15, 2004, Selwyn debuted as a color commentator on the Game Show Network series Extreme Dodgeball. He also returned to ESPN, guest-hosting Around the Horn a week before Extreme Dodgeball debuted, with a somewhat love him or hate him reception. Ultimately, his sarcastic take on sports was deemed a little too off-color for the show's ultimate fans. Selwyn did shoot an un-aired ESPN 2 pilot called Holla Back in September 2005 with former BET host Free that was not picked up by the network.

On April 17, 2006, Selwyn became the newest correspondent on G4's Attack of the Show!. He has written and starred in numerous comedic sketches for their network. He also did a pilot for Bravo called This Evening With These People

Selwyn has a Los Angeles based band called Zachariah and the Lobos Riders, who, after Dead and Breakfast, performed their song "I Ain't Gonna Do (Walk Away)" on Attack of the Show! on July 13, 2006. Selwyn has written and performed jingles for commercials for Coors beer. He also made guest appearances on Chicago Hope, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch "" and That '70s Show.

Selwyn released his first EP in 2006 titled Cartoons I'd Like to F***, which features a new single with Fergie called "Other Side". The video for Cartoons I'd Like to F*** made waves upon its release on youtube.com in late November 2006.

He was named one of the "Heeb 100" by Heeb Magazine in September 2007.

His band's new record Alcoholiday was recently released.

He was on G4 TV's appearance at the AEE (Adult Entertainment Expo), as he performed as "Reggie Cupid" in the "Cupid University of Movie Making" sketch.

In May 2007 he appeared as a guest host for the internet video game show Epileptic Gaming. In July 2007 Selwyn served as floor reporter for G4's coverage of the three-day event E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

He performed his song "I Wanna be a Lawnmower (Cause They're Always on Grass)" on "Attack of the Show!" on September 10, 2007

His song "I'm in Edukashun" was specifically written and composed for the 2008 film "Lower Learning." He appears as "Buck" in the 2009 film "Tenure" alongside Luke Wilson and David Koechner. He appeared in a Budweiser commercial during the 2009 Super Bowl (the one where the Horse fetches the tree).

He hosts the series Fanarchy which debuted on Versus on June 7, 2009. In 2009, he began hosting the series Catch It Keep It with Mike Senese, which appears on The Science Channel. In 2009, he will began hosting the American version of the Argentinean humor series Caiga Quien Caiga along with Dominic Monaghan and Greg Giraldo.

He wrote a rap song to promote the third season of ABC Family's "Greek" in 2009, and shot a music video with the cast of the show.

He recently launched his production company Selwyn Brothers with brother Jesse Selwyn, with whom he frequently collaborates.

In September 2010, he appeared in a promo for Conan O'Brien's new show Conan.

CD releases

Zachariah (2001) - Currently available digitally

Ghost Signs (2003) - 11 song LP

Dead and Breakfast Soundtrack (2005) - 10 song LP

"Alcoholiday" (2007) - 14 song LP

"Spent Casings" (2008) - 11 song B-sides LP

;EP's

Cartoons I'd Like to F*** (2006) 5 song CD

Other appearances

Blue Meridian "Minerva" (2003) - Guest artist on "Spreading Clever"

Smooth-E "Kosher Kuts - Hungry for More" (2006) - Guest artist "Bar Mitzvah DJ's"

Executive Producer of Bobby Joyner and the Sundowners CD Skies of Blue, Fields of Green (2005)

External links

www.zachselwyn.com

Zach Selwyn at IMDb

References

Category:1975 births Category:Living people

Name	Walter Day
Birth name	Walter Aldro Day, Jr.
Birth date	May 14, 1949
Birth place	Fairfield, Iowa
Known for	Twin Galaxies
Occupation	Pro Video Game Referee/Scorekeeper
Years active	1981-2010
Home town	Oakland, California
Title	Founder
Website	http://www.twingalaxies.com/

Walter Aldro Day, Jr. (born May 14, 1949) is the founder of Twin Galaxies, an international organization based in Fairfield, Iowa, that tracks high score statistics for the worldwide electronic video gaming hobby. In March 2010, Walter Day announced his retirement from Twin Galaxies to pursue his music career.

Involvement with Video Games

On November 10, 1981, Day opened an arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa called Twin Galaxies. Though it was a modest arcade of merely 22 arcade games, it soon became known as the International Scorekeeper for the burgeoning video game industry. Under Day's direction, Twin Galaxies set rules for gameplay on hundreds of games, while maintaining a records database of competitive high scores. Twin Galaxies is considered by gaming historians as being the first organizer of professional gaming, putting competitive electronic gaming on the world map.

A former oil executive, Day left the oil industry and opened the arcade as an excuse to be able to play more video games. Twin Galaxies' role as a small-town arcade was forever altered when the January 15, 1982 issue of TIME magazine carried a cover story on the growing popularity of video games. The story focused on the high-scoring exploits of Steve Juraszek, a 15 year-old Illinois suburbanite, who had broken the world record on Defender, with a score of 15,963,100 points. When a local Ottumwa boy, Tony Mattan, broke Juraszek's record with 24,565,975 points, Day was inspired to create the International Scoreboard.

After Mattan's record breaking accomplishment, Walter Day attempted to contact Williams Electronics, the creators of the game, to report Mattan's score. However, upon learning that neither Williams nor Namco kept any records of high scores, he decided to set up his own scoreboard. He did so that same day, on February 9, 1982. Players from all around the United States began sending in their scores. Within six months of launching the scoreboard, Day was receiving about 50 to 75 phone calls per day, with many coming from countries other than the USA.

The Guinness Book of Records

Walter Day was designated an assistant editor in charge of video game scores for the 1984-1986 editions of the U.S. edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. Under Day's direction, Twin Galaxies wrote the first official rulebook for playing electronic games and established the rules and standardized settings for each game. Today, this rulebook has evolved into Twin Galaxies' most well known product: Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records (ISBN 1887472-25-8), a 984-page book containing scores from players in 31 different countries compiled since 1981. A second edition, totaling 1500 pages in a two-volume set released in 2008, updated with newer PC titles as well as 6th-generation video game consoles.

The U.S. National Video Game Team

On July 25, 1983, Day founded the U.S. National Video Game Team, consisting of him and six of the nation's best players: Billy Mitchell from Hollywood, Florida; Steve Harris from Gladstone, Missouri; Jay Kim from Miami, Florida; Aj "Cat" from Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Ben Gold from Dallas, Texas and Tim McVey of Ottumwa, Iowa.

Music career

As portrayed in recent documentary movies: and , Day is a singer and songwriter, and performs his own music on the stage. His songwriting aspirations are featured in a three part documentary filmed by VBS-TV.com, published on the internet on April 27, 2009, under the title Walter Day: Twin Galaxies and the Two Golden Domes. He plans to further pursue his musical career after his retirement from the video game sector in March 2010.

References

External links

Twin Galaxies - Official Website

Walter Day Interview on "We Talk Games" Episode 04, Volume 02 (Timecode 02:42:20) June 16, 2009

Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:People from Jefferson County, Iowa Category:History of video games

Name	Todd Rogers
Caption	Todd Rogers in 2007
Fullname	Todd Jonathan Rogers
Nationality
Birth date	September 30, 1973
Birth place	Santa Barbara, California, USA
Hometown	Santa Barbara, California, USA
Height
Currentteammate	Phil Dalhausser
Currentyears	2005–present

}} Todd Jonathan Rogers (born September 30, 1973) is an American professional beach volleyball player. He and his partner, Phil Dalhausser, were the 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 AVP Tour champions and are the reigning FIVB world champions, and reigning Olympic Gold Medalist from the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Rogers and Dalhausser won the gold medal in beach volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics after suffering a first round surprise defeat to Latvia.

Personal life

Rogers was born in Santa Barbara, California in 1973 to David and Heidi Rogers of Santa Barbara; He has one brother, Dean Rogers who lives in Japan, and is the CEO of a medium size language school chain www.mydma.com, www.sa-la.jp, www.humbird.co.jp. Todd is married to Melissa Masonheimer Rogers and has a daughter, Hannah, and son, Nate. Rogers currently resides in Solvang, California.

Early life

Rogers attended San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara from 1987 to 1991. There, Rogers played indoor volleyball for notable coach, Jon Lee. Together with teammate, Dax Holdren, Rogers won a league championship in 1990. The following year, Rogers led his team to the CIF Division I Championship. Rogers has been inducted into the Santa Barbara Athletic round table hall of fame for his achievements in the sport of indoor and beach volleyball.

College

Rogers attended the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he played for the men's indoor team from 1993–96 and was an all american. Todd earned a degree in religious studies with a minor in coaching. At UCSB, he still ranks second in career digs with 783, and second in career assists with 4831.

Rogers was named an All-American in 1995 and 1996.

1996–2001: Playing with Dax Holdren

After college, Rogers partnered with high school teammate, Dax Holdren, and began playing on both the domestic AVP Tour and the international FIVB World Tour. Rogers took Rookie of the Year honors in 1997, and the pair notched their first tournament win in 1998.

During their six years as partners, Rogers and Holdren were moderately successful, with 8 first-place, 7 second-place, and 4 third-place finishes.

2002–2005: Playing with Sean Scott

In 2002, Rogers split with Holdren and partnered with Sean Scott. The pair also found moderate success, but only made the winner's podium a total of four times on the AVP Tour, and none internationally.

2006–present: Dominance with Dalhausser

2006

While playing with Scott, Rogers took notice of a 6'9" up-and-comer named Phil Dalhausser. Recognizing his potential, Rogers partnered with him for the 2006 season and began coaching Dalhausser on the intricacies of the game.

The pair won eight AVP events and one FIVB event in 2006. Rogers also won the season-ending round-robin tournament, earning the title, "God of the Beach".

Despite their success, Rogers and Dalhausser finished the 2006 AVP season in second place, just six points shy of leaders Mike Lambert and Stein Metzger.

2007

Rogers and Dalhausser finished the 2007 AVP season as the dominant winners, finishing with more than 800 points over the second place team with 10 tournament wins.

The duo also won the FIVB World Championships in Gstaad, Switzerland, the first such win in U.S. men's beach volleyball history .

2008

Rogers and Dalhausser have been a dominant force on both the 2008 AVP and FIVB tours. They have eight domestic wins, and three international wins, all in Grand Slam events. Todd Rogers and his partner Phil Dalhausser won the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medal in Men's Beach Volleyball, topping off a year that saw them win nearly every tournament they entered.

Olympics

poses with Rogers and teammate Phil Dalhausser as he visited the practice session Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008, at Beijing's Chaoyang Park prior to their first matches of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.]]

Athens 2004

Despite being ranked as the #4 team in the world, Rogers and partner, Sean Scott, were beaten out for the top two available slots for U.S. teams. Rogers was named an alternate but did not play.

Beijing 2008

Rogers and Dalhausser qualified as the number one team for the 2008 Olympics.

On August 22, 2008, Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser won the gold medal. They defeated the Brazilian team of Fabio/Marcio in three sets.

Awards

AVP Best Defensive Player 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

AVP Crocs Cup Champion 2007 (Phil Dalhausser), 2008 (Phil Dalhausser)

AVP Most Valuable Player 2006

AVP Rookie of the Year 1997

AVP Team of the Year 2007 (Phil Dalhausser), 2008 (Phil Dalhausser)

FIVB Best Defensive Player 2006, 2007, 2008

FIVB Most Inspirational 2008

FIVB Best Setter 2005

References

External links

Todd Rogers' Official Web page

Bio at teamusa.org

Todd Rogers Photo Database

Todd Rogers' Blog

Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:American beach volleyball players Category:Beach volleyball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:People from Santa Barbara, California Category:University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Category:Olympic beach volleyball players of the United States Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States

Name	Matthew West
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Matthew Joseph West
Born	April 25, 1977
Origin	Downers Grove, IL, U.S.
Genre	CCMPop/rockAdult contemporaryIndie pop (born April 25, 1977) is a Contemporary Christian musician from Nashville, Tennessee. He has released four studio albums and is known for his number-one hits "More", "You Are Everything" and "The Motions". He was nominated for five Dove Awards in 2005, two of which were for his major label debut album Happy.
Name	West, Matthew
Short description	Contemporary Christian musician
Date of birth	April 25, 1979*
Place of birth	Downers Grove, Illinois

Category:1977 births Category:Living people Category:Performers of Christian music Category:American acoustic guitarists Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Christian songwriters Category:Musicians from Chicago, Illinois

Name	Boris Kodjoe
Birthname	Boris Frederic Cecil Tay-Natey Ofuatey-Kodjoe
Birth date	March 08, 1973
Birth place	Vienna, Austria
Spouse
Occupation	Actor
Yearsactive	1998–present}}

Boris Frederic Cecil Tay-Natey Ofuatey-Kodjoe (born 8 March 1973), better known as Boris Kodjoe, is an Austrian-born actor and former fashion model. He is perhaps best known for his role as courier-turned-sports agent Damon Carter on the Showtime television drama series Soul Food. Additionally, he starred as Steven Bloom in the cancelled 2010 NBC action/drama series Undercovers, and as Luther in the film .

Career

Kodjoe attended Virginia Commonwealth University on a tennis scholarship, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in marketing in 1996. A four-year letterman on the Rams' men's tennis team, he is currently ninth in school history with 75 career singles wins. Tied for third in doubles victories with 66, he was paired with Jonas Elmblad on 37 of them, also third all-time. His brother Patrick played for VCU's basketball team. A back injury ended Boris' tennis aspirations, but he was quickly signed as a model and soon after entered acting.

Named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" by People magazine in 2002, Kodjoe is perhaps best known as one of the seven regular cast members from the Showtime drama Soul Food, which aired from 2000 to 2004. He appeared in the 2002 film Brown Sugar and starred in the short-lived sitcom Second Time Around with his Soul Food co-star Nicole Ari Parker, whom he eventually married. He played the role of David Taylor, the wayward son of Pastor Fred Taylor in the October 2005 film The Gospel. He performed in a play called Whatever She Wants starring Vivica A. Fox and made an appearance on the fifth season of Nip/Tuck. His most recent role was in the 2009 science fiction film Surrogates. On December 16, 2009, it was announced that Kodjoe had been cast as the male lead, Steven Bloom, in the new J. J. Abrams television series Undercovers; the show premiered in September and was subsequently cancelled in November 2010 on NBC. Also that year, he appeared as Luther in the film .

Personal life

Kodjoe was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Ursula, a German psychologist, and Eric Kodjoe, a Ghanaian physician. Kodjoe's matrilineal great-grandmother was Jewish and died in the Holocaust; his maternal grandmother survived the war in hiding. Kodjoe's parents divorced when he was six years old and he grew up in the vicinity of Freiburg im Breisgau. He is fluent in French, English, German and some Spanish. He has a brother named Patrick and a sister named Nadja. His height is 6' 2½" (1.89 m).

Kodjoe married his co-star Nicole Ari Parker on May 21, 2005 in Gundelfingen, Germany. She gave birth to their first child, a girl, Sophie Tei-Naaki Lee Kodjoe, on March 5, 2005. Sophie has spina bifida, which was diagnosed at birth. Parker gave birth to the couple's second child, a boy, Nicolas Neruda Kodjoe, on October 31, 2006. Kodjoe and his wife are members of Cascade United Methodist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. The family resides in Atlanta, after moving from Los Angeles, California.

Filmography

Chosen Ones (1999–2006)

Love & Basketball (2000)

Brown Sugar (2002)

Second Time Around TV series (2004)

Doing Hard Time (2004)

The Gospel (2005)

America's Next Top Model, Cycle 4 (2005)

Madea's Family Reunion (2006)

All About Us (2007)

(2008)

Surrogates (2009)

(2010)

Undercovers (2010)

The Confidant (2010)

Take The Stand (2011)

Guest appearances on TV shows

Nip/Tuck (2007)

Tyler Perry's House of Payne (2009)

Eve

All of Us

Half & Half

Boston Public

Crossing Jordan

Lopez Tonight (2010)

Music videos

"Red Light Special" - TLC

"Never Let You Go" - Faith Evans

References

External links

Official website

Official Myspace

Category:1973 births Category:African American film actors Category:African American television actors Category:American actors of German descent Category:American people of German-Jewish descent Category:American Jews Category:American male models Category:American people of Ghanaian descent Category:Austrian film actors Category:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Category:Austrian Jews Category:Austrian immigrants to the United States Category:Austrian television actors Category:Black Jews Category:Christians of Jewish descent Category:German film actors Category:German immigrants to the United States Category:German Jews Category:German people of Black African descent Category:Jewish actors Category:Living people Category:People of Ghanaian descent Category:United Methodists Category:Virginia Commonwealth University alumni

Name	William (Billy) Mitchell
Born	December 28, 1879
Died	February 19, 1936
Placeofbirth	Nice, France
Placeofdeath	New York City, New York
Boyhood home	West Allis, Wisconsin Milwaukee Suburb
College	The George Washington University, Washington, DC
Placeofburial	Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Caption	Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, United States Army Air Service
Allegiance
Branch	United States Army
Serviceyears	1898 - 1926
Rank	Major General (posthumous)
Commands	Air Service, Third Army - AEF
Battles	Spanish-American WarWorld War I
Awards	Distinguished Service CrossDistinguished Service MedalWorld War I Victory MedalCongressional Gold Medal (posthumous)

William Lendrum "Billy" Mitchell (December 28, 1879 – February 19, 1936) was a United States Army general who is regarded as the father of the U.S. Air Force. He is one of the most famous and most controversial figures in the history of American airpower. He resigned from the service shortly afterward.

Mitchell received many honors following his death, including a commission by the President as a Major General. He is also the only individual after whom a type of American military aircraft, the B-25 Mitchell, is named.

Early life

Born in Nice, France, to John L. Mitchell, a wealthy Wisconsin senator

Mitchell received appointment on February 28, 1919, as Director of Military Aeronautics, to head the flying component of the Air Service, but that office was in name only as it was a wartime agency that would expire six months after the signing of a peace treaty. Menoher instituted a reorganization of the Air Service based on the divisional system of the AEF, eliminating the DMA as an organization, and Mitchell was assigned as Third Assistant Executive, in charge of the Training and Operations Group, Office of Director of Air Service (ODAS), in April 1919. He maintained his temporary wartime rank of brigadier general.

When the army was reorganized by Congress on June 4, 1920, the Air Service was recognized as a combatant arm of the line, third in size behind the Infantry and Artillery. On July 1, 1920, Mitchell was promoted to the permanent rank of colonel, Signal Corps, but also received a recess appointment (as did Menoher) to become Assistant Chief of Air Service with the rank of brigadier general. On July 30, 1920, he was transferred and promoted to the permanent rank of colonel, Air Service, with date of rank from July 1, placing him first in seniority among all Air Service branch officers. On March 4, 1921, Mitchell was appointed Assistant Chief of Air Service by new President Warren G. Harding with consent of the Senate.

He returned from Europe with a fervent belief that within a near future, possibly within ten years, air power would become the predominant force of war, and that it should be united entirely in an independent air force equal to the Army and Navy. He found encouragement in a number of bills before Congress proposing a Department of Aeronautics that included an air force separate from either the Army and Navy, primarily legislation introduced in August 1919 by Senator Harry New (Rep-Indiana), influenced by the recommendations of a fact-finding commission sent to Europe under the direction of Assistant Secretary of War Benedict Crowell in early 1919 that contradicted the findings of Army boards and advocated an independent air force.

Friction with the Navy

Mitchell believed that the use of floating bases was necessary to defend the nation against naval threats, but Chief of Naval Operations Adm. William S. Benson had dissolved Naval Aeronautics as an organization early in 1919. However, senior naval aviators feared that land-based aviators in a "unified" independent air force would no more understand the requirements of sea-based aviation than ground forces commanders understood the capabilities and potential of air power, and vigorously resisted any alliance with Mitchell.

The Navy's civilian leadership was equally opposed, if for other reasons. On April 3 Mitchell met with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt and a board of admirals to discuss aviation, and Mitchell urged the development of naval aviation because of growing obsolescence of the surface fleet. His assurances that the Air Service would develop whatever bomb was needed to sink a battleship, and that a national defense organization of land, sea, and air components was essential and inevitable, were met with cool hostility. Mitchell found his ideas publicly denounced as "pernicious" by Roosevelt. Convinced that within as soon as ten years strategic bombardment would become a threat to the United States and make the Air Service the nation's first line of defense instead of the Navy, he began set out to prove that aircraft could sink ships to reinforce his position.

His relations with superiors continued to sour as he began to attack both the War and Navy Departments for being insufficiently farsighted regarding airpower. Mitchell infuriated the Navy by claiming he could sink ships "under war conditions," and boasted he could prove it if he were permitted to bomb captured German battleships.

The Navy reluctantly agreed to the demonstration after news leaked of its own tests. To counter Mitchell, the Navy had sunk the old battleship Indiana near Tangier Island, Virginia, on November 1, 1920, using its own airplanes. Daniels had hoped to squelch Mitchell by releasing a report on the results written by Captain William D. Leahy stating that, "The entire experiment pointed to the improbability of a modern battleship being either destroyed or completely put out of action by aerial bombs." When the New York Tribune revealed that the Navy's "tests" were done with dummy sand bombs and that the ship was actually sunk using high explosives placed on the ship, Congress introduced two resolutions urging new tests and backed the Navy into a corner.

In the arrangements for the new tests, there was to be a news blackout until all data had been analyzed at which point only the official news report would be released; Mitchell felt that the Navy was going to bury the results. The Chief of the Air Corps attempted to have Mitchell dismissed a week before the tests began, reacting to Navy complaints about Mitchell's criticisms, but the new Secretary of War John W. Weeks backed down when it became apparent that Mitchell had widespread public and media support.

1st Provisional Air Brigade

On May 1, 1921, Mitchell assembled the 1st Provisional Air Brigade, an air and ground crew of 125 aircraft and 1,000 men at Langley, Virginia, using six squadrons from the Air Service:

Air Service Field Officers School, Langley Field, Virginia, (SE-5 fighters)

*50th Squadron (later 431st Bomb Squadron)

*88th Squadron (later 436th Bomb Squadron)

1st Day Bombardment Group (later 2nd Bomb Group), Kelly Field, Texas (SE-5 fighters, Martin NBS-1, Handley-Page O/400, and Caproni CA-5 bombers)

*49th Squadron

*96th Squadron

7th Observation Group (Second Corps Area), Mitchel Field, New York (DH-4 fighters and Douglas O-2 observation planes)

*1st Squadron

*5th Squadron

Mitchell took command on May 27 after testing bombs, fuzes, and other equipment at Aberdeen Proving Ground and began training in anti-ship bombing techniques. Alexander Seversky, a veteran Russian pilot who had bombed German ships in the Great War, joined the effort, suggesting the bombers aim near the ships so that expanding water pressure from the underwater blasts would stave in and separate hull plates. Further discussion with Captain Alfred Wilkinson Johnson, Commander, Air Force, Atlantic fleet aboard USS Shawmut, confirmed that near-miss bombs would inflict more damage than direct hits; near-misses would cause an underwater concussive effect against the hull.

Rules of engagement

The Navy and the Air Service were at cross purposes regarding the tests. Supported by General Pershing, the Navy set rules and conditions that enhanced the survivability of the targets, stating that the purpose of the tests was to determine how much damage ships could withstand. The ships had to be sunk in at least 100 fathoms of water (so as not to become navigational hazards), and the Navy chose an area off the mouth of Chesapeake Bay rather than either of two possible closer areas, minimizing the effective time the Army's bombers would have in the target area. The planes were forbidden from using aerial torpedoes, would be permitted only two hits on the battleship using their heaviest bombs, and would have to stop between hits so that a damage assessment party could go aboard. Smaller ships could not be struck by bombs larger than 600 pounds, and also were subject to the same interruptions in attacks.

Mitchell held to the Navy's restrictions for the tests of June 21, July 13 and July 18, and successfully sank the ex-German destroyer G102 and the ex-German light cruiser Frankfurt in concert with Navy aircraft. On each of these demonstrations the ships were first attacked by SE-5 fighters strafing and bombing the decks of the ships with 25-pound anti-personnel bombs to simulate suppression of antiaircraft fire, followed by attacks from twin-engined Martin NBS-1 (Martin MB-2) bombers using high explosive demolition bombs. Mitchell observed the attacks from the controls of his own DH-4, nicknamed The Osprey.

Sinking of the Ostfriesland

in bombing tests, September 1921.]] On July 20, 1921, the Navy brought out the ex-German WWI battleship, Ostfriesland, considered unsinkable. One day of scheduled 230, 550 and . bomb attacks by Marine, Navy and Army aircraft settled the Ostfriesland three feet by the stern with a five degree list to port; she was taking on water. Further bombing was delayed a day, the Navy claiming due to rough seas that prevented their Board of Observers from going aboard, the Air Service countering that as the Army bombers approached, they were ordered not to attack. Mitchell's bombers were forced to circle for 47 minutes, as a result of which they dropped only half their bombs, and none of their large bombs.

On the morning of July 21, in accordance with a strictly orchestrated schedule of attacks, five NBS-1 bombers led by 1st Lt. Clayton Bissell dropped a single 1,100 lb bomb each, scoring three direct hits. The Navy stopped further drops, although the Army bombers had nine bombs remaining, to assess damage. By noon, Ostfriesland had settled two more feet by the stern and one foot by the bow.

At this point, bombs were loaded and a flight was dispatched consisting of two Handley-Page O/400 and six NBS-1 bombers. One Handley Page dropped out for mechanical reasons, but the NBS-1s dropped six bombs in quick succession between 12:18 p.m. and 12:31 p.m., aiming for the water near the ship. There were no direct hits but three of the bombs landed close enough to rip hull plates as well as cause the ship to roll over. The ship sank at 12:40 p.m., 22 minutes after the first bomb, with a seventh bomb dropped by the Handley Page on the foam rising up from the sinking ship. Nearby the site, observing, were various foreign and domestic officials aboard the .

Although Mitchell had stressed "war-time conditions", the tests were under static conditions and the sinking of the Ostfriesland was accomplished by violating rules agreed upon by General Pershing that would have allowed Navy engineers to examine the effects of smaller munitions. Navy studies of the wreck of the Ostfriesland show she had suffered little topside damage from bombs and was sunk by progressive flooding that might have been stemmed by a fast-acting damage control party on board the vessel. Mitchell used the sinking for his own publicity purposes, though his results were downplayed in public by General of the Armies John J. Pershing who hoped to smooth Army/Navy relations. The efficacy of the tests remain in debate to this day.

Nevertheless, the test was highly influential at the time, causing budgets to be redrawn for further air development and forcing the Navy to look more closely at the possibilities of naval airpower. Despite the advantages enjoyed by the bombers in the artificial exercise, Mitchell's report stressed facts repeatedly proven later in war:

"...sea craft of all kinds, up to and including the most modern battleships, can be destroyed easily by bombs dropped from aircraft, and further, that the most effective means of destruction are bombs. [They] demonstrated beyond a doubt that, given sufficient bombing planes—in short an adequate air force— aircraft constitute a positive defense of our country against hostile invasion."

The fact of the sinkings was indisputable, and Mitchell repeated the performance twice in tests conducted with like results on obsolete U.S. pre-dreadnought battleship Alabama in September 1921, and the battleships Virginia and New Jersey in September 1923. The latter two ships were subjected to teargas attacks and hit with specially designed demolition bombs.

Aftermath of the bombing tests

The bombing tests had several immediate and turbulent results. Almost immediately the Navy and President Harding were incensed by an apparent demonstration of naval weakness just as Harding was announcing on August 11 invitations to other naval powers to gather in Washington for a conference on the limitation of naval armaments. Statements asserting the obsolescence of the battleship by disarmament proponents in Congress such as Sen. William Borah heightened official anxiety. Both services tried to defuse the results by reports from the Joint Board and Gen. Pershing dismissing Mitchell's claims, and suppressing Mitchell's report, but the latter was leaked to the press.

Gen. Menoher in September forced a showdown over Mitchell as the bombing tests continued. He confronted Secretary Weeks and demanded that either he relieve Mitchell as Assistant Chief of Air Corps or accept Menoher's resignation. Weeks allowed Menoher to resign on October 4 and return to the ground forces "for personal reasons". A reciprocal resignation offer from Mitchell was refused.

Maj. Gen. Mason Patrick was again chosen by Pershing to sort out a mess in the Air Service and became the new Chief on October 5. Patrick made it clear to Mitchell that although he would accept Mitchell's expertise as counsel, all decisions would be made by Patrick. When Mitchell soon got into a minor but embarrassing protocol rift with R/Adm. William A. Moffett at the start of the naval arms limitation conference, Patrick assigned him to an inspection tour of Europe with Alfred Verville and Lt. Clayton Bissell that lasted the duration of the conference over the winter of 1921-22.

Promoting air power

In 1922, while in Europe for Gen. Patrick, Mitchell met the Italian air power theorist Giulio Douhet on a visit to Europe and soon afterwards an excerpted translation of Douhet's The Command of the Air began to circulate in the Air Service. In 1924, Gen. Patrick again dispatched him on an inspection tour, this time to Hawaii and Asia, to get him off the front pages. Mitchell came back with a 324-page report that predicted future war with Japan, including the attack on Pearl Harbor. Of note, Mitchell discounted the value of aircraft carriers in an attack on the Hawaiian Islands, believing they were of little practical use as:

not only can they not operate efficiently on the high seas but even if they could they cannot place sufficient aircraft in the air at one time to insure a concentrated operation.

Rather he believed a surprise attack on the Hawaiian Islands would be conducted by land-based airpower operating from islands in the Pacific. His report, published in 1925 as the book Winged Defense, foretold wider benefits of an investment in air power:

Those interested in the future of the country, not only from a national defense standpoint but from a civil, commercial and economic one as well, should study this matter carefully, because air power has not only come to stay but is, and will be, a dominating factor in the world’s development.

Winged Defense sold only 4,500 copies between August, 1925 and January, 1926, the months surrounding the publicity of the court martial, thus Mitchell did not reach a widespread audience.

Friction and demotion

Mitchell experienced difficulties within the Army, notably with his superiors when he appeared before the Lampert Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and sharply castigated Army and Navy leadership. In October 1925 a charge with eight specifications was preferred against Mitchell on the direct order of President Calvin Coolidge accusing him of violation of the 96th Article of War, an omnibus article that Mitchell's chief counsel, Congressman Frank Reid, declared to be "unconstitutional" as a violation of free speech. The court martial began in early November and lasted for seven weeks.

The youngest of the 12 judges was Major General Douglas MacArthur, who later described the order to sit on Mitchell's court-martial as "one of the most distasteful orders I ever received." Of the thirteen judges, none had aviation experience and three were removed by defense challenges for bias, including Major General Charles P. Summerall, the president of the court. The case was then presided over by Major General Robert Lee Howze. Among those who testified for Mitchell were Edward Rickenbacker, Hap Arnold, Carl Spaatz and Fiorello La Guardia. The trial attracted significant interest, and public opinion supported Mitchell.

However, the court found the truth or falseness of Mitchell's accusations to be immaterial to the charge and on December 17, 1925, found him "guilty of all specifications and of the charge". The court suspended him from active duty for five years without pay, which President Coolidge later amended to half-pay. MacArthur later claimed he had voted to acquit, and Fiorello La Guardia claimed that MacArthur's "not guilty" ballot had been found in the judges' anteroom. MacArthur felt "that a senior officer should not be silenced for being at variance with his superiors in rank and with accepted doctrine."

In 1926, Mitchell made his home with his wife Elizabeth at the Boxwood Farm in Middleburg, Virginia which remained his primary residence until his death. He died of a variety of ailments including a bad heart and an extreme case of influenza

Mitchell's son, John, served in the Army as a First Lieutenant, dying in 1942. Mitchell's first cousin, the Canadian George Croil, went on to secure an autonomous status for the Royal Canadian Air Force and serve as its first Chief of the Air Staff during the opening year of World War II.

Posthumous recognition

Mitchell's concept of a battleship's vulnerability to air attack under "war-time conditions" would be vindicated after his death; a number of warships were sunk by air attack alone during World War II. The battleships Conte di Cavour, , , , , Roma, Musashi, Tirpitz, Yamato, Schleswig-Holstein, Impero, Limnos, Kilkis, Marat, Ise and Hyūga were all put out of commission or destroyed by aerial attack including bombs, air-dropped torpedoes and missiles fired from aircraft. Some of these ships were destroyed by surprise attacks in harbor, others were sunk at sea after vigorous defense. Most of the sinkings were carried out by aircraft carrier-based planes, not by land-based bombers as envisioned by Mitchell. The world's navies had responded quickly to the Ostfriesland lesson.

The North American B-25 bomber, which Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his raiders used to bomb Tokyo and four other Japanese targets in April, 1942, was named the "Mitchell," after Billy Mitchell. The B-25 is the only American military aircraft type ever to be named after a specific person.

In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt, in recognizing Mitchell's contributions to air power, elevated him to the rank of major general (two stars) on the Army Air Corps retired list and petitioned the U.S. Congress to posthumously award Mitchell the Congressional Gold Medal, "in recognition of his outstanding pioneer service and foresight in the field of American military aviation." It was awarded in 1946.

In the 1943 classic World War II movie A Guy Named Joe the unnamed "General" who gives the deceased pilot his "new assignment" strongly resembles General Mitchell. In 1955, the Air Force Association passed a resolution calling for the voiding of Mitchell's court-martial. His son petitioned in 1957 to have the court-martial verdict set aside, which the Air Force denied while expressing regret about the circumstances under which Mitchell's military career ended. The Association named their Institute for Airpower Studies for the General and the current director is Dr. Rebecca Grant. The 1955 motion picture The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, directed by Otto Preminger, portrays Mitchell's plight in a dramatic and vindicating light. In 1971, Pipes and Drums, the Billy Mitchell Scottish, was created in Milwaukee to honor Mitchell and his ties to Scotland and Milwaukee.

General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is named after him, as is the much smaller Billy Mitchell airstrip in Cape Hatteras, NC.

Mitchell Hall, the cadet dining facility at the United States Air Force Academy, was dedicated in honor of Mitchell in 1959.

William (Billy) Mitchell High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado is also named after him.

Turn 13 at the Road America race circuit near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, is also known as Bill Mitchell Bend. A now-demolished bridge that formerly crossed the track was known as the Billy Mitchell Bridge.

At The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., General Mitchell was honored by his alma mater with the naming of a large residence building, William Mitchell Hall.

The Civil Air Patrol cadet program includes an award called the General Billy Mitchell Award., signifying the rank of Cadet 2nd Lieutenant, and completion of several tests and essays.

The U.S. Air Force Pipe Band, which existed as a free-standing unit within the U.S. Air Force Band between 1960 and 1970, wore a tartan created in honor of Billy Mitchell.

In 1999, General Mitchell's portrait was put on an US airmail postage stamp.

In 2004, Congress voted to reauthorize the President to posthumously commission Mitchell as a Major General in the Army, which the President did in 2005, although President Franklin Roosevelt had previously done this in 1942. On May 18, 2006, the US Air Force unveiled two prototypes for new service dress uniforms, referencing the service's heritage. One, modeled on the United States Army Air Service uniform, was designated the "Billy Mitchell heritage coat" (the other was named for Hap Arnold). Hap Arnold told reporters shortly after Mitchell's death, "People would often say Billy Mitchell was years ahead of his time, but many would forget how it was also true." In 2007, the Air Force first awarded the Air Force Combat Action Medal, which is based on the insignia painted on Billy Mitchell's own aircraft during World War I.

See also

Alternate Generals

References

;Notes ;Bibliography

Cooke, James J. The U. S. Air Service in the Great War: 1917-1919. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1996. ISBN 0-275-94862-5.

Davis, Burke. The Billy Mitchell Affair. New York: Random House, 1967.

Henrotin, Joseph. L'Airpower au 21e siècle: Enjeux et perspectives de la stratégie aérienne. Bruxelles: Emile Bruylant (RMES), 2005. ISBN 2-8027-2091-0.

Hurley, Alfred H. Billy Mitchell: Crusader for Air Power (revised edition). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975. ISBN 0-253-31203-5, ISBN 0-253-20180-2.

Kennett, Lee. The First Air War, 1914–1918. New York: Free Press, 1991. ISBN 0-684-87120-3.

Maksel, Rebecca. "The Billy Mitchell Court-Martial". Air & Space, Vol. 24, No. 2, 46-49. Also online (as of June 28, 2009) at http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/The-Billy-Mitchell-Court-Martial.html.

Mitchell, William. Memoirs of World War I: From Start to Finish of Our Greatest War. New York: Random House, 1960.

External links

TIME Magazine, November 2, 1925">"Court Martial", TIME Magazine, November 2, 1925

TIME Magazine, November 9, 1925">"Court Martial", TIME Magazine, November 9, 1925

TIME Magazine, December 28, 1925">"Guilty", TIME Magazine, December 28, 1925

American Airpower Biography: Billy Mitchell

Category:1879 births Category:1936 deaths Category:American military personnel of World War I Category:Aerial warfare pioneers Category:American aviators Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:George Washington University alumni Category:People from West Allis, Wisconsin Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States) Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States) Category:Recipients of a posthumous promotion Category:American military personnel of the Spanish–American War Category:American expatriates in the Philippines Category:United States Army generals of World War I Category:Military aviation leaders of World War I Category:United States Army Air Forces generals Category:History of the United States Air Force

Name	Benjamin Gold
Birth date	September 08, 1898
Birth place	Bessarabia, Russian Empire
Death date	July 24, 1985
Death place	North Miami Beach, Florida, United States
Occupation	Labor leaderFur operatorManager, New York Furriers' Joint BoardSecretary-Treasurer, Needle Trades Workers Industrial UnionPresident, International Fur Workers Union (later the International Fur and Leather Workers Union)
Spouse	Sadie Algus

Benjamin Gold (1898–1985) was an American labor leader who was prosecuted for his communist political views under McCarthyism. He was president of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union from 1937 to 1955.

Early life

Ben Gold was born September 8, 1898 to Israel and Sarah (Droll) Gold, Jews living in Bessarabia, a province of the Russian Empire. His father was a jeweler, active in the revolutionary movement and a member of the local Jewish self-defense corps, institutions which existed in many towns as a precaution against pogroms launched by anti-semitic Black Hundreds groups.

The Golds emigrated to the United States in 1910, where 12-year-old Ben took a variety of jobs to help support his family, working in box factories, making pocketbooks, and working in millinery shops. in a fur shop. He attended Manhattan Preparatory School at night to complete his education, intending to go to law school.

Politically active, Gold joined the Socialist Party of America in 1916. Led by Gold, the Joint Board was on the verge of doing so when IFWU President Oizer Shachtman accused the Joint Board of being infiltrated by communists. The union responded by calling a general strike of all 12,000 fur workers in the city on February 16, 1926.

The strike quickly turned violent. On February 19, New York City police attacked a picket line of striking workers and arrested 200 workers. On March 8, Gold called out 10,000 workers for mass picketing throughout the furriers' district. Police used clubs to beat hundreds of strikers, and then drove cars at high speed into the crowd to try to break up the pickets. Only when Gold ordered the picket to break up were law enforcement authorities able to regain control; 125 workers arrested. The police response was so brutal that a city magistrate later excoriated the police department for "undue coercion" against the striking workers.

As the strike commenced, President Shachtman went into hiding, leaving Vice President Isidor Winnick to take over as Acting President. In mid-April, the Eitingon-Schild Company, the wealthiest fur importer in the United States, broke with the employers' association to settle with the union. The company agreed to a five-day, 40-hour work week; equal division of work; no subcontracting; and a 10 percent wage increase. But when the proposal was presented to the membership on April 15, they overwhelmingly rejected it. The AFL barred Gold from the meeting, but the membership chanted his name and nearly rioted until he was admitted to the hall. Shachtman accused "radicals" of leading the near-riot and coercing the workers into rejecting the settlement. Shachtman and Green tried to get the membership to adopt the proposal a second time on May 2, but it was again turned down.

In retaliation for Shachtman and Green's attempt to end-run the local leadership, and to increase pressure on the employers, Gold asked the Joint Board to initiate a drive for the 40-hour work week which would involve every union in the city. The Board agreed, and soon the New York State Federation of Labor, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the Teachers Union, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, and a number of other unions agreed to join the effort. On May 22, 1926, a mass rally filled the newly-built Madison Square Garden, making it the largest labor meeting held in the city up to that time. Even though strike relief funds were paid on June 1, the Joint Board kept up the bond drive to maintain the pressure on the employers.

The fund-raising success of the union and the pressure from the 40-hour work week drive pushed the employers to agree to a new collective bargaining agreement. The manufacturers signaled their willingness to talk on May 26, but the union kept up its demand for the 40-hour week. A mediator was called in, and a new contract reached on June 11, 1926. The contract provided for the 40-hour, five-day work week; an end to overtime from December through August; time-and-a-half overtime pay for half-days from September to November; a 10 percent wage increase; 10 paid holidays; and a ban on subcontracting.

AFL investigation

Gold's success in leading the 1926 furrier workers' strike was short-lived. On July 19, 1926, President Green sent a letter to Gold demanding that the Joint Board turn over all books, papers, ledgers and materials related to the conduct of the strike. Although the AFL successfully pressured Clarence Darrow to not take Gold's case, it was unable to prevent Frank P. Walsh, former chairman of the federal Commission on Industrial Relations and the National War Labor Board, from doing so. At Gold's trial, which began on April 14, the prosecution repeatedly asked if Gold was a member of the Communist Party, if he knew communists, and if he endorsed the party's principles. Walsh protested that these questions had nothing to do with the alleged crime of burglary, but the judge overruled his objections. Nevertheless, Gold and one other person were acquitted, but nine others were not.

The AFL also accused Gold of allegedly bribing police officers to give the union favorable treatment during the 1926 strike. Gold's trial opened on March 30, 1927, as his trial for assault continued on Long Island and the AFL-dominated Joint Council was attempting to take over the fur unions in New York City. Several witnesses testified that the police received $3,800 a week from the Joint Board, but Gold, the Joint Board and their supporters (which included the New York State Federation of Labor) alleged an AFL-led conspiracy to frame them. The trial was suspended on June 3 after two prosecution witnesses revealed they had perjured themselves in an attempt to implicate Gold. Gold and the other defendants were found innocent on July 21, 1927, after the court could find no evidence of any misuse of funds. Indeed, most testimony focused on police brutality against the union and its members, significantly undermining the prosecution's claim of police favoritism. Thousands of workers refused; many were fired, and some had to be forcibly removed from their place of employment in protest. The AFL attempted to undercut the Joint Board by releasing statements that the Gold-led union was seeking a "peace treaty" with the Joint Council, while accusing the Joint Board of coercing workers into joining. Despite AFL assertions that workers were stampeding into the Joint Council, the Gold-led Joint Board had the support of the vast majority of workers in the New York City fur industry.

Gold began threatening a new strike to force the employers to honor the terms of the 1926 contract and win recognition of the Joint Board again. The AFL accused the Joint Board of being a communist front, and pleaded for the public to withdraw support for it. In confidential talks with the New York City police, the AFL conceded that Gold's union had the support of the workers and that the only way to defeat the "Red-led" union was a massive show of police force which would intimidate the strikers. Mass arrests and heavy fines, coupled with long jail terms, would bankrupt the Joint Board and terrify the protesters, AFL officials and staff told the police. The extreme police response led Gold to call strike after strike, most of which were broken up by police attacks on peaceful picketers and which led to scores of arrests and jail sentences. The AFL and its leadership again accused Gold and the Joint Board of terrorizing workers in order to force them to join the union, and claimed that only the Joint Council had the support of the majority of workers.

But by mid-July 1927, the AFL's claims were proven to be false. The Joint Council lost most of its support, and the Gold-led Joint Board received recognition by companies employing a majority of workers in the fur district. The letter was thinly-veiled blackmail, and Shachtman knuckled under to it.

These efforts to undercut Gold and the Joint Board also failed. Several IFWU locals outside New York City passed resolutions criticizing the International Union's actions, and worker support for the Joint Council dwindled even further. Louis Hyman was elected President, and Ben Gold was elected Secretary-Treasurer. The new union's first strike occurred in the garment industry in February 1929. A second strike in the New York City's fur industry occurred in June 1929, as NTWIU sought to organize AFL-affiliated locals of fur workers into the breakaway union. With nearly all the city's fur workers already in the NTWIU, however, Gold made little headway against the anti-communist AFL locals. Meanwhile, press reports implied that most of the city's fur workers belonged to the AFL, inverting the true situation. The AFL also sought to strip the NTWIU's New York City locals of the right to use the phrase "fur workers" in their name.

As the internecine union struggles continued, Gold led strikes in both the garment and fur industries. Sporadic violence also broke out during these events. More than 3,500 union members struck for shorter working hours and higher wages on June 17, 1931, collective bargaining goals which were considered madness by nearly all labor leaders. leading to a guaranteed 40-hour work week well as increased pay—an achievement important in the establishment of the standard American work week. In August 1932, Gold won yet another agreement retaining the union's work-week and pay goals in the fur industry despite the worsening depression. The union also launched an assault on sweatshop conditions in the garment industry in early 1933, an effort the AFL-led Joint Council labeled communistic.

Battles with the AFL-led Joint Council continued to occupy much of Gold's time. The stridently anti-communist labor leader, Matthew Woll, had been placed in charge of a three-person committee of AFL Executive Council members charged with assisting the IFWU and breaking the NTWIU. Woll and the two other council members funneled funds and staff into the IFWU and assisted the IFWU in strategizing ways to win back the loyalty of the majority of fur workers in New York City. Violence broke out when AFL supporters stormed NTWIU offices in April 1933. Gold, leading the fur workers' division of the NTWIU, led a series of counter-protests and marches through the fur district in May and June 1933. The AFL also continued to work closely with the New York City police, providing law enforcement officials with information on dates, times and places Gold's union would strike or protest and pushing hard for a strong police response to intimidate the communist-led union. In July, police clashed repeatedly with marching workers led personally by Gold, leading to a number of arrests and hundreds of worker injuries. In one case, police on horseback charged at a full gallop into a peaceful march on July 5, 1933. Despite the police violence and opposition of the AFL, the "dynamic leadership of Communist Ben Gold" helped the fur workers in 1933 to salvage a 35-hour work week and win an increase in pay from $38 to $50 a week.

When the Communist Party formed the Trade Union Unity League in late August 1929, Gold affiliated the NTWIU with the umbrella labor group. The League was shuttered in 1935 when the Communist Party abandoned its strategy of dual unionism and "boring from within" in favor of the Popular Front.

Gold also worked hard to integrate the NTWIU. While other unions actively discriminated against African Americans and other minorities or ignored the issue of race, Gold encouraged a bottom-up attack on racism. He actively involved members in "trials" of union members who had used racist language or engaged in discriminatory behavior, and his efforts were largely successful in weeding racism out of the union.

Meanwhile, Gold also was heavily involved in writing the "Fur Code." Hundreds of industry codes were created, including a code governing the fur industry. Gold was appointed to the panel crafting the Fur Industry Code, and on July 21, 1933, the panel established a preliminary "blanket code" providing a 40-hour week and a minimum wage of $14 a week (about $216 a week in 2008 inflation-adjusted dollars).

In late 1933, Gold served a brief prison sentence after having been arrested for participating in a hunger march in Wilmington, Delaware. Hunger marches had been occurring throughout the United States since 1931. Catholic social activist Dorothy Day herself encouraged Gold to participate in a march from New York City to Washington, D.C. Gold was one of 315 marchers who left New York City on November 29, 1932, bound for Washington. The marchers reached Wilmington on December 2, their number having increased by several hundred. Their permit to march in the city was withdrawn. That night, the police herded most of the marchers into a warehouse downtown, but Gold, most of the women and most of the marchers from New England stayed in a rented church two blocks away. That night, the marchers at the church were refused permission to hold a meeting in the street, so they held it on the church steps. When the police tried to stop the meeting, the marchers resisted. The police began beating the people listening to the speaker, and the marchers fled into the church and barricaded the doors. The police fired tear gas through the windows of the building, then broke down the doors and entered the building with weapons drawn. The marchers resisted by hurling chairs at the police, but were beaten and gassed repeatedly until subdued. Twenty-three marchers, including Gold, were arrested. Four police and three marchers were hospitalized. Gold was convicted of incitement to riot, and served a brief prison term in Wilmington in late 1933 and early 1934. Gold participated in additional hunger marches in 1933 and 1934, and was arrested again in Albany, New York, in late October 1934.

Gold's battles with the AFL also continued in 1934. Joint Board and Joint Council supporters fought with fists, bricks and clubs in January 1934. But the AFL group continued to shrink as the Great Depression worsened, and IFWU leaders feared for the survival of their union. AFL accusations against Gold and his union also continued.

In 1934 and 1935, Gold led the garment and fur workers in two successful strikes which propelled his union into a merger with the IFWU. The first was week-long strike by 4,000 fur workers in late August 1934, which led to additional wage increases and stricter enforcement of contract provisions. The second was a strike by 10,000 garment workers in April 1935 which led to a contract guaranteeing a minimum weekly wage.

Merger with IFWU

The success of the NTWIU and particularly Gold's aggressive leadership of the union's fur workers division significantly undermined support for the AFL-supported IFWU. Gold asserted in August 1934 that the IFWU was in financial trouble and had too few members to ensure viability, but the IFWU denied his claims. IFWU President Pietro Lucchi, however, knew that Gold was correct. In May 1935, his union near bankruptcy, he approached David Dubinsky, President of the ILGWU, for an infusion of funds. Dubinsky turned him down. The committee met on May 27, 1935, with its NTWIU counterparts, and quickly hammered out a merger agreement. The merger proceeded despite Green's threat. More than 3,000 delegates from the NTWIU met on an upper floor, and about 2,500 delegates (nearly all the union's members) from the IFWU met on the ground floor.

Under an agreement reached by the merger conventions, leadership elections for the New York City locals of the merged IFWU took place 40 days later.

Business manager once again

Gold was business manager of the New York City Joint Council for two years. Since the IFWU had just held its biennial convention in May 1935, new elections for officers of the international union could not be held until 1937. In the final few days of January, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia intervened and heard presentations from both sides. The intervention by government officials worked, and a new contract reached on February 1.

Gold also led a number of organizing drives among fur and garment workers in New York City, so that by May 1937 the union had nearly 35,000 members. Continuing a campaign he began in 1927, Gold also purged the union's locals of organized crime influence.

Antitrust prosecution

On November 6, 1933, Gold and about 80 other individuals were indicted for violations of federal antitrust law. Former IFWU presidents Morris Kaufman and Pietro Lucchi, the IFWU itself, several of IFWU locals and local leaders, as well as 68 employers and several organized crime figures were also included in the indictment. The indictment alleged that Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro—co-founders of the infamous Murder, Inc. murder-for-hire organization—formed a group of employers known as the "Fur Dressers Factor Corporation" to fix prices and eliminate competition. The employers allegedly paid higher wages to unions which agreed to participate in the scheme by striking uncooperative businesses, and Buchalter and Shapiro provided the muscle to force other furriers out of the business (which included bombings, acid throwing, kidnapping, arson and more). After the convictions, the government undertook additional investigations against the IFWU and now-defunct NTWIU for violations of the Sherman Act.

But Gold and his union co-defendants appealed their convictions, and on December 19, 1938, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned the convictions of all but three union officials. Gold's conviction was among those voided.

The government then reinstated charges in February 1940 against Gold, the NTWIU and 28 other labor leaders based on allegations not pursued in 1933. Charges against six labor leaders were dropped on March 20, 1940, and four others but Gold and 17 others were tried. Despite one witness recanting most of his accusatory testimony on the witness stand, Gold and IFWU Vice President Irving Potash were convicted of these additional antitrust charges. As the union raised a $100,000 defense fund for Gold and Potash, the government brought a fresh set of charges against Gold on May 17, 1940, accusing him of jury tampering during his first trial. As the jury deliberated Gold's fate, a group of employers sued Gold and the NTWIU for $3 million in damages under the Clayton Antitrust Act, and accusations of witness tampering were levied against Gold.

A mistrial occurred in the Gold jury tampering case on June 28, 1940, after the jury was unable to reach a verdict.

Gold's second jury tampering trial (which now included the witness tampering charge) began on July 1, 1940. Gold and his three co-defendants were acquitted on July 11, 1940.

Meanwhile, Gold's appeal on the second set of Sherman Antitrust Act violations was winding its way through the courts. On May 27, 1940, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its ruling in Apex Hosiery Co. v. Leader 310 U.S. 469 (1940). In that case, a union had engaged in a sit-down strike which shuttered a hosiery company's operations and prevented it from fulfilling its interstate contracts. The union was indicted and convicted for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. But the Supreme Court disagreed:

The mere fact that strikes or agreements not to work, entered into by laborers to compel employers to yield to their demands, may restrict the power of such employers to compete in the market with those not subject to such demands does not bring the agreement within the condemnation of the Sherman Act.

Following the reasoning laid down by the Supreme Court in Apex Hosiery, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit once more voided the antitrust convictions imposed on Gold and the others in the case. The government declined to prosecute Gold further.

Presidency

Gold was elected president of the International Fur Workers Union in May 1937. The change in affiliation was driven almost solely by Gold, and shocked the members of the union.

CIO affiliation did not, however, protect the IFWU or Gold from political attacks. John L. Lewis, then the president of the CIO, was a strong anti-communist. In late January 1938, Lewis publicly announced that he would pursue a policy barring communists from membership in the CIO. Moderates within the IFWU denounced Gold for using "Hitler methods" to retain power, and pleaded with Lewis to intervene. In May 1938, the U.S. House of Representatives established the House Committee Investigating Un-American Activities as a successor to the Special Committee on Un-American Activities (which had spent the last three years investigating Nazi Germany's attempts to influence American public opinion). Rep. Martin Dies, Jr. was named chair of the committee, and charged with continuing the investigations into Nazi propaganda and initiating new investigations into the activities of the Ku Klux Klan. When committee members voiced support for the Klan and ignored the Nazi threat, Dies concentrated the committee's work on communist infiltration of the labor movement. Dies eagerly permitted the AFL time before the committee to denounce the CIO and the IFWU as riddled with communists and communist sympathizers—accusations CIO representatives called "nonsense" and Gold denounced as redbaiting.

Gold continued to pursue an aggressive collective bargaining policy until the beginning of World War II. Within weeks of taking over as president, he authorized a sympathy strike of 13,000 fur workers in New York City to support striking fur workers in Canada. The protests, rallies and spot strikes continued as Gold pushed to organize the remaining fur shops in New York City. Signed contracts were reached with newly-organized employers in July 1937.

Employers, however, often fought back, and in the spring of 1938 a lengthy strike nearly ended in defeat for the union. The U.S. economy had risen to its pre-depression levels by the spring of 1937, but a strong recession began in late summer (triggered in part by large reductions in federal spending, higher bank reserve requirements, and reductions in disposable income brought about by implementation of the Social Security Act). Between August 1937 and May 1938, industrial production fell by 30 percent, the economy contracted by more than 6 percent, and unemployment rose from 5 million to over 9 million. The steep recession led many employers to resist union demands. Gold hesitated calling a strike for seven weeks, seeking peace with the manufacturers, Hoping for a quick end to the strike and alarmed by the lockout, Gold initially kept pickets and rallies small. Infuriated, Gold ordered all the union's members out into the streets. Mass picketing and mass rallies continued, and the employers asked Mayor LaGuardia and the police to end the strike. On May 13, the parties agreed to submit their disputes to Dr. Paul Abelson, an impartial arbitrator with the National Recovery Administration. Thirteen days later, Dr. Abelson announced a tentative agreement, and IFWU members ratified the contract on May 26. Although Gold publicly characterized the strike as a victory for the union, he privately conceded that the strike had been a very near thing. The two unions agreed to merge in March 1939. The NLWA approved the merger during its 5th National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, April 29 to May 2, and the IFWU approved the merger at its annual convention in New York City on May 14. Ben Gold was elected the president of the newly amalgamated union, which adopted "International Fur and Leather Workers Union of the United States and Canada" (IFLWU)as its new name. The new union maintained distinctly separate fur and leather divisions. Each division had its own executive board and conventions and maintained its own finances.

After the United States entered World War II, Gold proved an ardent patriot. As war approached, in November 1941, he led large rallies in New York City urging union members to buy war bonds. When the CIO advocated a no-strike pledge for all American unions, Gold wholeheartedly and strongly supported the pledge. and implemented a campaign to donate 50,000 fur-lined vests to British sailors as part of the war effort.

As the war came to an end, however, Gold began to press for major salary and benefit increases for IFLWU members. Refusing to break the union's no-strike pledge, Gold submitted the union's demands to the National War Labor Board in February 1944. The War Labor Board subsequently granted the union a minimal wage rise in line with its "Little Steel Formula," but granted it substantial fringe benefit increases and ordered employers to end seasonal layoffs. The Board's order was vigorously opposed by employers, and Gold used the dispute as leverage to win a new collective bargaining agreement. The new agreement did not without a price, however, as Gold was forced to threaten to break his union's war-time pledge not to strike.

Gold also strongly advocated a third political party which would more strongly support unions and working-class Americans. Gold first backed a third-party candidate in 1947 when he asked former Vice President Henry A. Wallace to form a third party. In 1948, Soviet leaders ordered American communists to support the third party candidacy of Wallace against incumbent President Harry S. Truman, and Gold actively supported Wallace despite the CIO's refusal to do so.

Gold was a strong supporter of statehood for Israel. He was president of the Jewish Labor Committee in 1948. In March 1948, Gold led a parade of 10,000 people in a parade and rally to support the emerging Jewish state. When American recognition of Israel drew protests in April 1948, Gold defended the Truman administration's actions.

Communist purges

Gold was an active member in the Communist Party, and rose to important positions within its ranks by the late 1940s. He attended the Lenin Institute in Moscow (an institute of higher education which taught the works of Vladimir Lenin) for a short time during the winter of 1930-1931, and was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party from 1936 to 1948. His commitment to the party was occasionally tested, but never broken. For example, in 1939, the American Communist Party endorsed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Gold initially walked out of a party meeting to express his dismay at the decision. He changed his mind a few days later, and followed the party line.

In the post-World War II period, relations between the CIO leadership and communists within its member unions deteriorated. The first sign of a break came in May 1946. CIO President Philip Murray sponsored a denouncing Communist Party interference in the affairs of the CIO. Gold voted to approve the resolution. When asked why, he allegedly replied, "I have no problem being a loyal American, that's all the resolution asks. We just don't agree on the Truman foreign policy. We'll work with anyone on legitimate union business. We can't worry about Jim Carey and Reuther. They have their axes to grind." But when the CIO established a committee in November 1946 to purge the labor federation of communists and communist influence, Gold denounced the effort and said it would "destroy" the CIO. In May 1947, CIO leaders met to discuss the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, where locals representing thousands of members had recently disaffiliated due to the communist politics of the international union's leadership. CIO President Philip Murray proposed that the CIO run the international union for a time, but Gold and seven other communists voted against Murray's proposal. An outraged Murray declared, "Any man who goes into a shop ostensibly as the representative of the workers and then devotes his time to furthering the interest of the Communist Party is a goddamn traitor. I'm tired of defending Communists and I'm tired of hearing C.I.O. officials defend them. The time has come to kick them out wherever and whenever we find them." (opposition supported by most communists in the CIO). This led to a significant rupture between Murray, Walter Reuther and other leaders of the federation on one side and the communist leaders and staff in the CIO member unions on the other.

The NLRB acted to aggressively enforce the provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act. Although the level of enforcement was not certain at first, many unions quickly filed the anti-communist affidavits. Gold declared the affidavit and increasingly anti-communist atmosphere a threat to the survival of the IFLWU, and sought contract language which would lock in employer recognition of the union if its leaders failed to sign the oath.

Political pressure on Gold also increased. Rep. John Parnell Thomas, chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), subpoenaed fur industry employers to testify before the committee about Gold's political beliefs. Their September 8, 1948, testimony blasted Gold for establishing a "dictatorship" within the union and ruining the fur industry through mass picketing and intimidation. HUAC then forced Gold to testify. Gold denounced and denied the testimony of the employers, proudly declaring that he had been a member of the Communist Party for nearly a quarter century.

The CIO subsequently acted to expel Gold and the IFLWU. Over Gold's protests, the CIO expelled the Greater New York CIO Council, of which the IFLWU's Joint Council was a member, in November 1948. Gold began fighting a drive at the national level of the CIO to expel all communist-led or communist-dominated unions. The CIO censured Gold and nine other communists on its Executive Council in May 1949 for allowing the Communist Party to control their unions, and he lost re-election to the CIO Executive Council in November 1949 as the federation's leaders purged itself of all communists. A few days later, the New York State CIO banned communists from being members, and expelled Gold from that body as well.

The attacks on Gold's politics had collective bargaining consequences as well. In August 1949, a tanners' employers' association in Massachusetts refused to bargain with the IFLWU so long as Gold was president of the union, on the grounds that Gold was a communist. The labor dispute with the tanners escalated in late 1949 (leading to some limited violence and vandalism), before a new contract was signed in January 1950.

These pressures took a considerable toll on Gold and the IFLWU. Gold told delegates to the union's convention in May 1950 that the communist political views of the union's leadership could cause the organization much difficulty, yet he also defied the CIO and urged a united union front rather than caving in to redbaiting political pressure.

Nonetheless, the IFLWU agreed to order its leadership to sign the Taft-Hartley Act's non-communist affidavits.

Trial for communist beliefs

Gold resigned from the Communist Party on August 24, 1950, and signed the Taft-Hartley oath. However, he made it clear that he had resigned only so the Fur Workers could receive the protection of federal law. The Justice Department argued that Gold had not really resigned, and indicted him for perjury in August 1953 one day before the statute of limitations ran out.

At trial, Gold was charged with three counts of perjury. He was accused of continuing to be a member of the Communist Party; accused of being affiliated with Communist party; and accused of being a supporter of an organization which advocated the overthrow of the United States government by force, illegal means, or unconstitutional methods. Nonetheless, Gold was convicted on the "membership" and "supporting" counts, and sentence to 1 to 3 years in prison.

Gold appealed, and his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States. Gold raised six grounds for reversal: 1) The trial court refused to apply the rules of evidence for perjury to the case; 2) The circumstantial evidence offered at trial was not sufficient to convict him under the rules of evidence; 3) The trial court's instructions to the jury regarding the definition of "support" were unsupported by law or common usage; 4) The trial court erred in permitting expert testimony regarding his resignation (e.g., the fact of his resignation was a matter for the jury, not expert witnesses, to decide); 5) Government employees on the grand and petit juries were biased (as they themselves had to take an anti-communist oath to retain their jobs); and 6) Law enforcement officers discussed anti-communist oaths with members of the jury while investigating an unrelated case. An FBI agent, investigating another case in which falsity of a non-Communist affidavit was at issue, telephoned or visited three members of the Gold jury or their families during Gold's trial.

Although the government initially expressed interest in prosecuting Gold further, all charges against him were dropped in May 1957.

Aftereffects of the Gold trials

Gold's indictment and conviction led to two other U.S. Supreme Court cases as well.

The first case was a major test of the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) enforcement of the Taft-Hartley Act. In 1951, Lannom Manufacturing Co. refused to honor its contract with the International Fur and Leather Workers Union on the grounds that the union's officers had lied when making their Taft-Hartley anti-communist oaths. The union filed an unfair labor practice charge against the employer with the NLRB. The Board found against the employer, but after Gold's conviction in April 1954 it reversed itself. The union, already embroiled in a similar case, asked the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay; the court declined. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, granted certiorari. In Meat Cutters v. NLRB, 352 U.S. 153 (1956), the Supreme Court (relying on a decision released earlier that day, Leedom v. Mine Workers, 352 U.S. 145) held that the National Labor Relations Board had no authority to refuse to provide the protections of the NLRA to unions not in compliance with the Taft-Hartley Act. "[We] conclude that the sole sanction for the filing of a false affidavit under 9 (h) is the criminal penalty imposed on the officer who files a false affidavit, not decompliance of the union nor the withholding of the benefits of the Act," the court ruled.

The second case led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling on whether an attorney was an "officer of the court." After the grand jury had indicted Gold for perjury, Harold I. Cammer (an attorney noted for representing communists in the United States), took Gold's case. Within two days, Cammer mailed a letter and questionnaire to all members of the grand jury who were employees of the federal government. He told the grand jurors that he was Gold's attorney and that he was trying to learn the effect of the federal government's loyalty program on federal employees. Cammer undertook this action because of developments in another Taft-Hartley anti-communist oath case. In Emspak v. United States, 203 F.2d 54 (1952), the Justice Department convinced a district court that grand jurors who were federal employee were not biased. In particular, the government had argued that "there is not the slightest indication in the long motion and offer of proof that an attempt has been made to interview a single one of the persons." To prevent the government from making a similar claim in the Gold case, Cammer polled the jury. The Contempt Act of March 2, 1831 (4 Stat. 487) gave federal courts the authority to penalize officers of the court for misbehavior. For questioning the grand jurors, the district court found Cammer guilty of contempt and fined him $100. Cammer appealed. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction. Cammer appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which granted certiorari. In a landmark ruling, a unanimous Supreme Court overturned Cammer's contempt citation, holding that a lawyer is not a court "officer" in the same category as marshals, bailiffs, court clerks or judges.

Merger with the Meat Cutters and retirement

Gold was re-elected as IFLWU president in May 1954 despite his conviction for perjury. But the problems created by the Taft-Hartley Act, expulsion from the CIO, and prosecutions of the IFLWU's top leadership led Gold to seek merger with another union to strengthen the union's finances and collective bargaining power. A month after his re-election, Gold announced that he was discussing merger with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, a labor union affiliated with the AFL that represented retail butchers and packinghouse workers. AFL leaders, however, expressed strong reservation against bringing the "Red-led" union into the federation.

Although the merger talks had moved forward aggressively, Ben Gold retired as IFLWU president on October 3, 1954, in order to remove AFL objections to the merger.

Gold's resignation at age 56 provide crucial in winning AFL approval for the merger. A new effort to merge the IFLWU and Meat Cutters began the day after his retirement. Eventually, the merger was consummated in 1955 after the AFL announced it would bar the IFLWU from joining the federation directly but not from merging with an AFL affiliate. The fur workers' division underwent additional purges of communist leaders and members after the merger.

Ben Gold spent the rest of his life in Florida. He published his memoirs in 1984. He died on July 24, 1985 at his home in North Miami Beach, Florida. He also ran for justice of the New York Supreme Court in 1932. All of his campaigns were on the American Labor Party ticket, and all failed.

In literature

Throughout his life, Gold wrote short stories in Yiddish that often dealt with labor relations and Jewish immigrants. His 1944 novel Avreml Broide included illustrations by fellow communist William Gropper. In 1948, he wrote Mentshn, published by the Needle Trades Workers Committee. His last work of fiction was The Storm in Riverville, published in 1972. It is a semi-fictional account of garment workers in the 1920s, their fight against organized crime, and their attempt to win a 40-hour work week.

Gold himself appears as a character in the fiction novel Union Square. The book, published in 2001, is about two Russian Jewish families—one Marxist, the other socialist—who are forced by pogroms to flee to the United States. Sarah Levy, one of the most prominent characters in the novel, meets a slightly fictionalized Ben Gold in her attempt to unionize women garment workers in New York City.

Gold also appears as a character in the stage play I'm Not Rappaport. Actor Ron Rifkin played Gold in the film version of the play.

Works

Who are the murderers? Who paid for placing the bomb that killed Morris Langer? The ring of racketeers in the fur industry exposed. New York, General executive board, Needle traders workers industrial union, 1933

The Palestine crisis: an open letter to the Interim Committee, American Jewish Conference. with Alex Bittelman New York, Morning Freiheit Association 1946

The storm in Riverville New York, Ben Gold Book Committee, 1973

Memoirs New York, W. Howard, 1984

Footnotes

External links

Famous Cases: The Fur Dressers Case. FBI History. Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. Department of Justice.

Guide to the International Fur and Leather Workers' Union. Records, 1913-1955. Collection Number: 5676. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library, Cornell University

Category:1898 births Category:1985 deaths Category:American communists Category:American labor leaders Category:American labor union officials convicted of crimes Category:American memoirists Category:Members of the Socialist Party of America Category:History of labor relations in the United States Category:McCarthyism Category:Russian Jews Category:American Jews Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Imperial Russian immigrants to the United States Category:Bessarabian Jews Category:Yiddish-language writers