Fiorello La Guardia

American politician; 99th Mayor of New York City (1934–45)

Fiorello La Guardia

La Guardia c. 1915–20

2nd Director General of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
In office
April 1, 1946 – December 31, 1946
Preceded by| Herbert H. Lehman
Succeeded by| Office abolished
99th Mayor of New York City[1]
In office
January 1, 1934 – December 31, 1945
Preceded by| John P. O'Brien
Succeeded by| William O'Dwyer
5th President of the United States Conference of Mayors
In office
1935–1945
Preceded by| Daniel Hoan
Succeeded by| Edward Joseph Kelly
Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
from New York
In office
March 4, 1923 – March 3, 1933
Preceded by| Isaac Siegel
Succeeded by| James J. Lanzetta
Constituency| 20th district
In office
March 4, 1917 – December 31, 1919
Preceded by| Michael F. Farley
Succeeded by| Nathan D. Perlman
Constituency| 14th district
10th President of the
New York City Board of Aldermen
In office
January 1, 1920 – December 31, 1921
Preceded by| Robert L. Moran
Succeeded by| Murray Hulbert
Personal details
Born|

Fiorello Enrico Raeffaelo La Guardia

(1882-12-11)December 11, 1882
New York City, New York, U.S.
Died| September 20, 1947(1947-09-20) (aged 64)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Resting place| Woodlawn Cemetery
Political party| Republican
Other political
affiliations| Roosevelt Progressive (1916)
American (1916)
Democratic (1918)
LaFollette Progressive (1924)
Socialist Party of America (1924)
Progressive Labor (1926)
City Fusion (1933–41)
American Labor (1937–41)
Ind. Progressive (1937)
United City (1941)
Spouse(s)|

Thea Almerigotti

(m. 1919; died 1921)​

Marie Fisher

(m. 1929)​

Children| 3
Education| Timothy Dwight School
Alma mater|

* New York University
* New York University School of Law

Profession| Politician
Signature|
Military service
Allegiance| United States
Branch/service| United States Army Air Service
Years of service| 1917–1919
Rank|  Major
Battles/wars| World War I

* Italian front

Fiorello Henry La Guardia (/fiːəˈrɛloʊ ləˈɡwɑːrdiə/; born Fiorello Enrico La Guardia,[a] Italian pronunciation: [fjoˈrɛllo enˈriːko la ˈɡwardja]; December 11, 1882 - September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945. Known for his irascible, energetic, and charismatic personality and diminutive, rotund stature,[b] La Guardia is acclaimed as one of the greatest mayors in American history.[2] La Guardia was frequently cross-endorsed by parties other than his own, including the Democratic Party, under New York's electoral fusion laws.

Before serving as mayor, La Guardia represented Manhattan in Congress and on the New York City Board of Aldermen. As mayor, during the Great Depression and World War II, La Guardia unified the city's transit system; expanded construction of public housing, playgrounds, parks, and airports; reorganized the New York Police Department; and implemented federal New Deal programs within the city. He pursued a long series of political reforms, curbing the power of the powerful Tammany Hall political machine and re-establishing merit-based employment and promotion within city administration.[3]

La Guardia was also a major national political figure. His support for the New Deal and relationship with President Franklin D. Roosevelt crossed party lines, brought federal funds to New York City, and cut off patronage to La Guardia's enemies. La Guardia's WNYC radio program "Talk to the People", which aired from December 1941 until December 1945, expanded his public influence beyond the borders of the city.[4]

## Contents

* 1 Early life and career
* 2 Early political career
* 2.1 Election to Congress and World War I
* 2.2 President of the Board of Aldermen
* 2.2.1 1919 special election
* 2.3 1921 mayoral election
* 2.4 Return to Congress from Harlem
* 2.5 1929 mayoral election
* 3 Mayor of New York
* 3.1 1933 mayoral election
* 3.2 Agenda
* 3.3 African-American politics
* 3.4 Ethnic politics
* 3.5 Crime
* 3.6 Public works
* 3.7 1939
* 3.8 Reform
* 3.9 World War II
* 4 Political views
* 4.1 Foreign policy
* 4.2 Prohibition
* 5 Personal life
* 5.1 Family
* 5.2 Nazi detention of sister and brother-in-law
* 6 Death and legacy
* 6.1 Legacy
* 6.2 Namesakes
* 6.3 In popular culture
* 7 See also
* 8 Publications
* 9 Notes
* 10 References
* 10.1 Bibliography
* 11 Further reading
* 12 External links

## Early life and career[edit | edit source]

La Guardia was born in Greenwich Village, New York City, on December 12, 1882. His father, Achille La Guardia, was a Catholic native of Cerignola, Apulia, Italy.[5] His father was an Italian immigrant to the United States and a non-practicing Catholic.[6] His mother, Irene Luzzatto Coen, was a Jewish native of Trieste, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His maternal grandmother Fiorina (Luzzatto) Coen was a Luzzatto, a member of the prestigious Italian Jewish family of scholars, kabbalists, and poets. La Guardia's parents met and married in Trieste.[7] Fiorello was raised an Episcopalian and practiced that religion all his life.[6] His middle name "Enrico" was eventually anglicized to "Henry".[8]

He moved to Arizona in 1890 with his family, where his father had a bandmaster position at Fort Whipple in the U.S. Army. La Guardia attended public schools and high school in Prescott, Arizona.[9] After his father was discharged from his bandmaster position in 1898, Fiorello lived in Trieste. He graduated from the Dwight School, a private school on the Upper West Side of New York City.[10]

La Guardia joined the State Department in 1901 and served in U.S. consulates in Budapest, Trieste, and Fiume. In 1906, he returned to the United States to continue his education at New York University. While studying at NYU from 1907 to 1910, he worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration at the Ellis Island immigration station. La Guardia was fluent in Italian, Yiddish, and Croatian.[11]

He graduated from New York University School of Law in 1910, was admitted to the bar the same year, and began a law practice in New York City.[9]

## Early political career[edit | edit source]

### Election to Congress and World War I[edit | edit source]

In 1914, La Guardia ran for U.S. Representative for New York's 14th district, which stretched across the island of Manhattan between 3rd and 14th Streets, encompassing Greenwich Village. La Guardia was defeated by Michael F. Farley.[12]

La Guardia became Deputy Attorney General of New York in January 1915.[13]

File:F.H.LaGuardia in front CaproniCa.44 bomber.jpg

La Guardia between two Italian officers in front of a Ca.44, c. 1918

In 1916, he challenged Farley again, this time successfully. La Guardia took office on March 4, 1917, but was soon commissioned into the United States Army Air Service amid the American entry into World War I. He rose to the rank of major in command of a unit of Caproni Ca.44 bombers on the Italian-Austrian front.

He was re-elected to Congress in 1918.

### President of the Board of Aldermen[edit | edit source]

#### 1919 special election[edit | edit source]

File:LaGuardia In.JPG

The New York Times front page November 5, 1919

In 1919, New York City Board of Aldermen President Al Smith resigned to become Governor of New York, triggering a special election scheduled for the fall. La Guardia narrowly won the Republican nomination over William M. Bennett, who had been the party nominee for Mayor in 1917.[14] La Guardia's opponent in the November special election was Robert L. Moran, a Tammany Hall-aligned Democratic alderman from the Bronx, who had filled the seat since Smith's resignation.[15]

La Guardia benefited from the presence of Michael "Dynamite Mike" Kelly, commander in the Irish heritage 69th New York Infantry Regiment, in the race. Tammany Hall tried to persuade Kelly to withdraw his candidacy and support Moran. When he refused, Tammany went to the New York Supreme Court and successfully sued to keep Kelly's name off the ballot.[16]

When Election Day arrived, over 3,500 of Kelly's supporters wrote Kelly's name on the ballot.[16] Another 129,000 votes were cast for Socialist James O'Neal. La Guardia won narrowly by 1,363 votes.[17][18]

He resigned from Congress on December 31, 1919, to take office as president the next day.

### 1921 mayoral election[edit | edit source]

In 1921, La Guardia made his first bid for Mayor of New York City, but was defeated in the Republican primary by Manhattan Borough President Henry H. Curran.[19] Curran lost the general election to Mayor John Hylan in a landslide.[20]

### Return to Congress from Harlem[edit | edit source]

Running as a Republican, La Guardia won a seat in Congress from the Italian stronghold of East Harlem in 1922 and served in the House until March 3, 1933.[21]

File:LaGuardia Congress.jpg

La Guardia during the 70th United States Congress c. 1929

He gained a reputation as a fiery and devoted reformer.[22] La Guardia sponsored labor legislation and railed against immigration quotas. His major legislation was the Norris–La Guardia Act, cosponsored with Nebraska senator George Norris in 1932. It circumvented Supreme Court limitations on the activities of labor unions, especially as those limitations were imposed between the enactment of the Clayton Antitrust Act in 1914 and the end of the 1920s. Based on the theory that the lower courts are creations not of the Constitution but of Congress, and that Congress therefore has wide power in defining and restricting their jurisdiction, the act forbids issuance of injunctions to sustain anti-union contracts of employment, to prevent ceasing or refusing to perform any work or remain in any relation of employment, or to restrain acts generally constituting component parts of strikes, boycotts, and picketing. It also said courts could no longer enforce yellow-dog contracts, which are labor contracts prohibiting a worker from joining a union.[23][24]

As a Republican, La Guardia had to support Harding in 1920; he had to be silent in the 1928 campaign although he favored Al Smith, a Democrat.[25]

### 1929 mayoral election[edit | edit source]

Main article: 1929 New York City mayoral election

File:New York City Mayor 1929.png

Results of the 1929 mayoral election, in which La Guardia did not carry a single State Assembly district.

In 1929, La Guardia ran for Mayor once again. This time, he received the Republican nomination, once again defeating William Bennett.[26] However, he lost the general election to incumbent Jimmy Walker in a landslide.[27]

## Mayor of New York[edit | edit source]

Main article: Mayoralty of Fiorello La Guardia

### 1933 mayoral election[edit | edit source]

Mayor Jimmy Walker and his Irish-run Tammany Hall were forced out of office by scandal and La Guardia was determined to replace him. La Guardia ran on the Fusion Party platform, which was supported by Republicans, reform-minded Democrats, and independents.[28] La Guardia had enormous determination, high visibility, the support of reformer Samuel Seabury and a divisive primary contest. He also represented previously underrepresented communities, appealed to a wide range of cultural backgrounds with his lineage.[28] He secured the nominations and expected an easy win against incumbent Mayor John P. O'Brien. However, Joseph V. McKee entered the race as the nominee of the new "Recovery Party" at the last minute. McKee was a formidable opponent, sponsored by Bronx Democratic boss Edward J. Flynn. La Guardia promised a more honest government, championing for greater efficiency and inclusiveness.[28] La Guardia's win was based on a complex coalition of Republicans (mostly middle class German Americans in the boroughs outside Manhattan), a minority of reform-minded Democrats, Socialists, a large proportion of middle-class Jews, and the great majority of Italians, whose votes had previously been overwhelmingly loyal Tammany.[28]

During his mayoralty, La Guardia served as president of the United States Conference of Mayors from 1935 until 1945.[29]

### Agenda[edit | edit source]

File:Franklin D. Roosevelt and Fiorello LaGuardia in Hyde Park - NARA - 196764.tif

La Guardia and Franklin D. Roosevelt

La Guardia came to office in January 1934 with five main goals:[3]

* Restore the financial health and break free from the bankers' control
* Expand the federally funded work-relief program for the unemployed
* End corruption in government and racketeering in key sectors of the economy
* Replace patronage with a merit-based civil service, with high prestige
* Modernize the infrastructure, especially transportation and parks

He achieved most of the first four goals in his first hundred days, as FDR gave him 20% of the entire national CWA budget for work relief. La Guardia then collaborated closely with Robert Moses, with support from the governor, Democrat Herbert Lehman, to upgrade the decaying infrastructure. The city was favored by the New Deal in terms of funding for public works projects. La Guardia's modernization efforts were publicized in the 1936 book New York Advancing: A Scientific Approach to Municipal Government, edited by Rebecca B. Rankin.

### African-American politics[edit | edit source]

In 1935 a riot took place in Harlem. Termed the Harlem riot of 1935, it has been described as the first "modern" race riot, because it was committed primarily against property rather than persons. During the riots, La Guardia and Hubert Delany walked through the streets in an effort to calm the situation.[28] After the riots, La Guardia convened the Mayor's Commission on Conditions of Harlem to determine the causes of the riot and a detailed report was prepared.[28] The report identified "injustices of discrimination in employment, the aggressions of the police, and the racial segregation" as conditions which led to the outbreak of rioting.[28] However, the Mayor shelved the committee's report, and did not make it public. The report would be unknown, except that a black New York newspaper, the Amsterdam News, subsequently published it in serial form.[30]

### Ethnic politics[edit | edit source]

La Guardia governed in an uneasy alliance with New York's Jews and liberal WASPs, together with ethnic Italians and Germans.[31]

Not an orthodox Republican, he also ran as the nominee of the American Labor Party, a union-dominated anti-Tammany left wing group that supported Franklin D. Roosevelt for president beginning in 1936. La Guardia supported Roosevelt, chairing the Committee of Independent Voters for Roosevelt and his running mate, Henry A. Wallace, with Senator George Norris during the 1940 presidential election.

La Guardia was the city's first Italian-American mayor, but was not a typical Italian New Yorker. He was a Republican Episcopalian who had grown up in Arizona and had a Triestine Jewish mother[7] and a lapsed Catholic father. He spoke several languages; when working at Ellis Island, he was certified as an interpreter for Italian, German, Yiddish, and Croatian.[32] It served him well during a contentious congressional campaign in 1922. When Henry Frank, a Jewish opponent, accused him of anti-Semitism, La Guardia rejected the suggestion that he publicly disclose that his mother was Jewish as "self-serving". Instead, La Guardia dictated an open letter in Yiddish that was also printed in Yiddish. In it, he challenged Frank to publicly and openly debate the issues of the campaign entirely in the Yiddish language. Frank, although he was Jewish, could not speak the language and was forced to decline—and lost the election.[33][34]

La Guardia's 1933 campaign coincided with the rise of racial and religious hostilities in Germany, and he supported a more anti-Nazi response while in office.[28] He publicly supported groups that engaged in boycotts of German goods and spoke alongside Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, leader of the American Jewish Congress.[28] In 1935, La Guardia caused an international stir when he denied a masseur license to a German immigrant, stating that Germany had violated a treaty guaranteeing equal treatment of American professionals by discriminating against American Jews.[28] Despite threats from Germany (including a bomb threat against New York City's German Consulate), La Guardia continued to use his position as mayor to denounce Nazism.[28] During his reelection campaign in 1937, speaking before the Women's Division of the American Jewish Congress, he called for the creation of a special pavilion at the upcoming New York World's Fair, "a chamber of horrors" for "that brown-shirted fanatic," referring to Hitler.[35][28] He also led anti-Nazi rallies and promoted legislation to facilitate the U.S. rescue of the Jewish refugees.[36][28] He also appointed more racially and religiously diverse judges to various New York courts, which was one of his most powerful weapons against Nazi prejudice.[28] These appointments included Rosalie Loew Whitney, Herbert O'Brien, Jane Bolin, and Hubert Thomas Delany.[28] LaGuardia would soon regret appointing the Catholic O'Brien, who engaged in reactionary politics on the bench including decrying support for the Allied forces against the Axis in 1941, leading to LaGuardia's condemnation of him with the famous line, “Senator, I have made a lot of good appointments and I think I am good ... but when I make a mistake, it’s a beaut.”[37]

### Crime[edit | edit source]

La Guardia criticized the gangsters who brought a negative stereotype and shame to the Italian community.[38] His first action as mayor was to order the chief of police to arrest mob boss Lucky Luciano on whatever charges could be found. La Guardia then went after the gangsters with a vengeance, stating in a radio address to the people of New York in his distinct voice, "Let's drive the bums out of town." In 1934 he went on a search-and-destroy mission looking for mob boss Frank Costello's slot machines, rounding up thousands of the "one armed bandits," swinging a sledgehammer and dumping them off a barge into the water for the newspapers and media. In 1935 La Guardia appeared at the Bronx Terminal Market to institute a citywide ban on the sale, display, and possession of artichokes, whose prices were inflated by mobsters. When prices went down, the ban was lifted.[39] In 1936, La Guardia had special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey, a future Republican presidential candidate, single out Lucky Luciano for prosecution. Dewey led a successful investigation into Luciano's lucrative prostitution operation, eventually sending Luciano to jail with a 30–50 year sentence. The case was made into the 1937 movie Marked Woman, starring Bette Davis.

La Guardia proved successful in shutting down the burlesque theaters, whose shows offended his sensibilities.[40]

### Public works[edit | edit source]

La Guardia's admirers credit him, among other things, with restoring the economy of New York City during and after the Great Depression. He is given credit for many massive public works programs administered by his powerful Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, which employed thousands of voters. The mayor's relentless lobbying for federal funds allowed New York to develop its economic infrastructure.[41]

To obtain large-scale federal money the mayor became a close ally of Roosevelt and New Deal agencies such as the CWA, PWA, and WPA, which poured $1.1 billion into the city from 1934 to 1939. In turn he gave FDR a showcase for New Deal achievement, helped defeat FDR's political enemies in Tammany Hall (the Democratic party machine in Manhattan). He and Moses built highways, bridges and tunnels, transforming the physical landscape of New York City. The West Side Highway, East River Drive, Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Triborough Bridge, and two airports (LaGuardia Airport, and, later, Idlewild, now JFK Airport) were built during his mayoralty.[42]

In 1943, La Guardia saved the Mecca Temple on 55th Street from demolition. Together with New York City Council President Newbold Morris, La Guardia converted the building to the New York City Center of Music and Dance. On December 11, 1943, City Center opened its doors with a concert from the New York Philharmonic—La Guardia even conducted a rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner."[43]

### 1939[edit | edit source]

1939 was a busy year, as he opened the 1939 New York World's Fair at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, opened New York Municipal Airport No. 2 in Queens (later renamed Fiorello H. La Guardia Field), and had the city buy out the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, thus completing the public takeover of the New York City Subway system. The U.S. arrival of Georg and Maria Von Trapp and their children from Austria that fall at Ellis Island who would eventually become the Trapp Family Singers was another significant decade-ending event that year in La Guardia's mayoralty.

### Reform[edit | edit source]

Responding to popular disdain for the sometimes corrupt City Council, La Guardia successfully proposed a reformed 1938 City Charter that created a powerful new New York City Board of Estimate, similar to a corporate board of directors.[citation needed]

La Guardia was also a supporter of the Ives-Quinn Law "a law that would ban discrimination in employment on the bases of 'race, creed, color or national origin' and task a new agency, the New York State Commission Against Discrimination (SCAD), with education and enforcement."[28] The bill passed in 1945, making New York the first state in the country to create an agency tasked with handling employment discrimination complaints.[28]

### World War II[edit | edit source]

In 1941 during the run-up to American involvement in World War II, President Roosevelt appointed La Guardia first director of the new Office of Civilian Defense (OCD). Roosevelt was an admirer of La Guardia; after meeting Winston Churchill for the first time he described him as "an English Mayor La Guardia".[44] The OCD was the national agency responsible for preparing for blackouts, air raid wardens, sirens, and shelters in case of German air raids. The goal was to psychologically mobilize many thousands of middle class volunteers to make them feel part of the war effort. At the urging of aviation advocate Gill Robb Wilson, La Guardia, in his capacity as Director of the OCD, created the Civil Air Patrol with Administrative Order 9, signed by him on December 1, 1941, and published December 8, 1941.[45] La Guardia remained Mayor of New York, shuttling back and forth with three days in Washington and four in the city in an effort to do justice to two herculean jobs. La Guardia focused on setting up air raid systems and training volunteer wardens. However Roosevelt appointed his wife Eleanor Roosevelt as his assistant. She issued calls for actors to lead a volunteer talent program, and dancers to start a physical fitness program. That led to widespread ridicule and the president replaced both of them in December 1941 with a full-time director James M. Landis.[46]

The war ended the Great Depression in the city. Unemployment ended, and the city was a gateway for military supplies and soldiers sent to Europe, with the Brooklyn Navy Yard providing many of the warships and the garment trade providing uniforms. The city's great financiers, however, were less important in decision making than the policy makers in Washington, and very high wartime taxes were not offset by heavy war spending. New York was not a center of heavy industry and did not see a wartime boom, as defense plants were built elsewhere.[47]

FDR refused to make La Guardia a general and was unable to provide fresh money for the city. By 1944 the city was short of funds to pay for La Guardia's new programs. La Guardia was frustrated and his popularity slipped away and he ran so poorly in straw polls in 1945 that he did not run for a fourth term.[48] [49]

In July 1945, when the city's newspapers were closed by a strike, La Guardia famously read the comics on the radio.[50][51][52]

## Political views[edit | edit source]

As a Congressman, La Guardia was a tireless and vocal champion of progressive causes, including relaxed restriction on immigration, removal of U.S. troops from Nicaragua to speaking up for the rights and livelihoods of striking miners, impoverished farmers, oppressed minorities, and struggling families. He supported progressive income taxes, greater government oversight of Wall Street, and national employment insurance for workers idled by the Great Depression.[21]

In domestic policies he tended toward socialism and wanted to nationalize and regulate; however he was never close to the Socialist Party and never bothered to read Karl Marx.[53]

When Mussolini's Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia on October 3, 1935, a Black protest of Italian vendors at the King Julius General Market on Lenox and 118th Street turned into a riot and 1,200 extra NYC policemen were deployed on "war duty" to quell the riot.[54] In December 1935, at an Italian-American rally, attended by 20,000, in Madison Square Garden, La Guardia presented a $100,000 check to the Italian Consul General, part of a total $700,000 raised from Italian-Americans to help fund the invasion.[55][56][57]

### Foreign policy[edit | edit source]

Never an isolationist, he supported using American influence abroad on behalf of democracy or for national independence or against autocracy. Thus he supported the Irish independence movement and the anti-czarist Russian Revolution of 1917, but did not approve of Vladimir Lenin. By 1946 he was praising Moscow. Unlike most progressive colleagues who were isolationist, La Guardia consistently backed internationalism, speaking in favor of the League of Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union as well as peace and disarmament conferences.[58]

In 1946 President Harry Truman sent the ex-mayor as an envoy to Brazil, but diplomacy was not his forte. Truman then gave him as major job as head of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), with responsibility for helping millions of desperate refugees in Europe. La Guardia was exhausted and after seeing the horrors of war in Europe called for a massive aid program. Critics ridiculed that as worldwide WPA and the biggest boondoggle ever. He sided with Henry A. Wallace in calling for friendship with the Soviet Union, and attacked the new breed of Cold Warriors. He provided UNRRA funds to the Soviets despite warnings that the Kremlin used the money to rebuild its army. UNRRA shut down at the end of 1946. Despite his declining health La Guardia attacked the emerging "Truman Doctrine" that promised American financial help to stop the spread of Communism.[59]

### Prohibition[edit | edit source]

As Congressman, La Guardia was one of the first Republicans to voice his opinion against prohibition, urging that the Dry cause "would prove disastrous in the long run". This was breaking a taboo, given the fact that both parties "avoided taking a stand on prohibition issues" at the time.[60][61]

## Personal life[edit | edit source]

La Guardia was a Scottish Rite Freemason and was a member of Garibaldi Lodge #542 in New York City.[62][63][64][65]

### Family[edit | edit source]

La Guardia married twice. His first wife was Thea Almerigotti, an Istrian immigrant, whom he married on March 8, 1919. In June 1920, they had a daughter, Fioretta Thea La Guardia, who died May 9, 1921, of spinal meningitis. Thea died of tuberculosis on November 29, 1921, at the age of 26.[66]

In 1929, La Guardia remarried to Marie Fisher (1895–1984) who had been his secretary while in Congress. They adopted two children:

* Eric Henry (born 1930), a Hobart College graduate who became a professor at the University of Washington,[67]
* Jean Marie (1928–1962), La Guardia's niece from his first marriage, the biological daughter of Thea's sister, a Barnard College graduate who later became an editor of Mademoiselle.[68][69][70][71][72]

### Nazi detention of sister and brother-in-law[edit | edit source]

La Guardia's sister, the writer Gemma La Guardia Gluck[73] and brother-in-law, Herman Gluck were living in Hungary and were arrested by the Gestapo on June 7, 1944,[74] when the Nazis took control of Budapest. Adolf Eichmann and Heinrich Himmler knew that Gemma was La Guardia's sister and ordered her to be held as a political prisoner. She and Herman were deported to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.[75][76] Gemma did not learn until her release that Herman had died at Mauthausen.[75][76] Gemma was transferred from Mauthausen to the notorious women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück, fifty miles from Berlin, where—unbeknownst to Gemma at the time—her daughter Yolanda (whose husband also died in the camps) and baby grandson were also held for a year in a separate barracks.[77] Gemma Gluck, who was held in Block II of the camp and assigned prisoner #44139,[74] was one of the few survivors of Ravensbrück[78] and wrote about her time there.[79][80]

The Germans abandoned Gluck, her daughter, and her grandson for a possible hostage exchange in April 1945 as the Russians advanced on Berlin. After the liberation of the camps, Gemma later wrote, the Soviets were "violating girls and women of all ages," and the three struggled as displaced persons in postwar Berlin, because they did not speak German and had no identity papers, money, or means of documenting where they had been.[73][81][82]

Gemma finally managed to get word to the Americans, who contacted Fiorello, who was then director of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and had been unable to locate his sister and brother-in-law since their disappearance. He worked to get them on the immigration lists, but asserted in a letter, included in the appendix of Gemma's memoir, that her "case was the same as that of hundreds of thousands of displaced people" and "no exceptions can be made." It took two years for her to be cleared and sent to the United States. She returned to New York in May 1947, where she was reunited with her brother only four months before his death. As he had made no provision for her, she lived the remainder of her life in very reduced circumstances in a public housing project in Queens until her death in 1962.[73][82]

Gluck is one of the few American-born women interned by the Nazis, along with Virginia d'Albert-Lake.

## Death and legacy[edit | edit source]

File:Fiorello LaGuardia Grave 1024.jpg

The grave of Fiorello La Guardia

A man of short stature, La Guardia's height is sometimes given as 5 feet 0 inches (1.52 m). According to an article in The New York Times; however, his actual height was 5 feet 2 inches (1.57 m).[83]

He died of pancreatic cancer in his home at 5020 Goodridge Avenue, in the Fieldston neighbourhood of Riverdale, Bronx, on September 20, 1947, aged 64.[84] La Guardia is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.[85]

### Legacy[edit | edit source]

La Guardia was ranked first among the nation's mayors in a 1993 poll of historians and social scientists.[3][86]

According to biographer Mason B. Williams, his close collaboration with Roosevelt's New Deal proved a striking success in linking national money and local needs.[87] La Guardia enabled the political recognition of new groups that had been largely excluded from the political system, such as Jews and Italians.[31] His administration (in cooperation with Robert Moses) gave New York its modern infrastructure.[41] His far-sighted goals raised ambitions for new levels of urban possibility. According to Thomas Kessner, trends since his tenure mean that "people would be afraid of allowing anybody to take that kind of power".[3]

### Namesakes[edit | edit source]

File:Fiorello La Guardia Stamp.jpg

14¢ Fiorello LaGuardia U.S. postage stamp issued April 24, 1972

File:Fiorello LaGuardia footstone 800.jpg

The footstone of Fiorello La Guardia

In 1972, the United States Postal Service honored La Guardia with a 14-cent postage stamp.

New York's LaGuardia Airport, LaGuardia Community College, and other parks and buildings around New York City are named for him.

A strong supporter of Zionism, LaGuardia Street and LaGuardia interchange, both in Tel Aviv, Israel, were named in his honor.

A street in Rijeka, Croatia, is named after Fiorello La Guardia. La Guardia worked in Rijeka as a U.S. Consular Agent from 1903 to 1906, when the city was known as Fiume and was under Hungarian administration. It was during this time that Rijeka's port played a vital role in connecting the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the United States, featuring direct passenger service between Rijeka and New York.

Known for his love of music, La Guardia was noted for spontaneously conducting professional and student orchestras and was instrumental in the creation of the High School of Music & Art in 1936, now renamed the Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.[88]

### In popular culture[edit | edit source]

* La Guardia was the subject of the hit 1959 Broadway musical Fiorello! The original production of Fiorello! ran for two years and won 3 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and for Tom Bosley's portrayal of La Guardia, as well as a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1960.
* Actor Tony Lo Bianco has portrayed La Guardia in several one-man plays, beginning with Hizzoner! in 1984. It debuted on Broadway in 1989, and Lo Bianco has since portrayed La Guardia in several off-Broadway versions, including LaGuardia (2008) and The Little Flower (2012–15).
* In Ghostbusters II, La Guardia's ghost talks to New York Mayor Lenny Clotch (David Margulies).
* In the alternate history drama The Plot Against America (2020), La Guardia is part of the opposition against the fascists in America.
* In the 2021 film In the Heights, Abuela Claudia refers to dancing with La Guardia during the song "Paciencia Y Fe" which recounts her early life.

The “Tammany Hall” off-Broadway show in NYC depicts La Guardia’s 1929 mayoral run against Jimmy Walker.

## See also[edit | edit source]

* Statue of Fiorello H. La Guardia, Manhattan
* La Guardia and Wagner Archives
* La Guardia Commission, a study on marijuana in U.S. society
* List of mayors of New York City
* New York City mayoral elections for votes in 1929, 1933, 1937 and 1941.
* Timeline of New York City, 1930s–1940s
* Mayor LaGuardia "Talk to the people" series on WNYC
* Fiorello LaGuardia (The Compassion of New York’s Famous Mayor)

## Publications[edit | edit source]

* La Guardia, Fiorello H. (1948). The Making of an Insurgent: An Autobiography. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott.

## Notes[edit | edit source]

1. ^ He signed his surname as a single word with no space between the La and the capitalized G which follows, but also with no space between his initial F and the surname; in his lifetime his surname was almost always written as two words.
2. ^ Only five feet, two inches (1.57 m) tall, he was called "the Little Flower" (Fiorello is Italian for "little flower").

## References[edit | edit source]

1. ^ "The Green Book: Mayors of the City of New York" Archived May 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine on the official NYC website.
2. ^ He was ranked first in Melvin G. Holli, The American Mayor (1993)
3. ^ a b c d Kessner 1989.
4. ^ "Talk to the People | WNYC". WNYC. Archived from the original on June 14, 2018.
5. ^ For one biographical account of Achille La Guardia, see Foraker, Sheila. "Achille La Guardia: Bandmaster of the 11th U.S. Infantry Territorial Brass". Archived from the original on July 16, 2011.
6. ^ a b Apmann, Sara Bean (December 11, 2017). "Remembering Fiorello LaGuardia". Off the Grid. Village Preservation. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
7. ^ a b Gross, Daniela. "Le radici triestine di Fiorello LaGuardia leggendario sindaco di New York City". Newspaper article (in Italian). Il Piccolo. p. 1\. Archived from the original on August 18, 2011.
8. ^ Carskadon, T. R. (1936). "New York's Fighting Mayor". Current History. 43 (4): 353–358. doi:10.1525/curh.1936.43.4.353. JSTOR 45335189. S2CID 249073834. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
9. ^ a b United States Congress. "LA GUARDIA, Fiorello Henry (id: L000007)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
10. ^ Backes, Aaron D. (January 3, 2021). "Fiorello La Guardia – History of New York City Mayors". ClassicNewYorkHistory.com. Retrieved October 22, 2021.
11. ^ "An Insurgent's Origin: Immigration and Unions in New York" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on August 28, 2013.
12. ^ "NY District 14". Retrieved March 13, 2021.
13. ^ Zinn 1969, p. 7.
14. ^ "NYC Aldermanic President – Special R Primary". Retrieved March 13, 2021.
15. ^ "R. L. Moran Led City Alderman" Archived July 22, 2018, at the Wayback Machine (fee). The New York Times. August 19, 1954.
16. ^ a b "Major Kelly Killed by His Own Pistol" Archived June 15, 2018, at the Wayback Machine (fee). The New York Times. July 23, 1930.
17. ^ "New York City Aldermanic President Special". Retrieved March 13, 2021.
18. ^ "This Election Near A Collapse for Tammany Archived June 15, 2018, at the Wayback Machine", New York Times, November 6, 1919.
19. ^ "NYC Mayor – R Primary". Retrieved March 13, 2021.
20. ^ "New York City Mayor". Retrieved March 13, 2021.
21. ^ a b Zinn 1969.
22. ^ Zinn, Howard (1997). The Zinn Reader. Seven Stories Press. p. 165\. ISBN 978-1-583229-46-0.
23. ^ Zinn 1969, pp. 226–30.
24. ^ Bernstein, Irving (1966). The Lean Years: A History of the American Worker, 1920–1933. pp. 406–9.
25. ^ McGoldrick, Joseph (August 1930). "The New York City Election of 1929". The American Political Science Review. 24 (3): 688–690. doi:10.2307/1946937. JSTOR 1946937. S2CID 146912519. Archived from the original on November 9, 2017.
26. ^ "NYC Mayor – R Primary". Retrieved March 13, 2021.
27. ^ "New York City Mayor". Retrieved March 13, 2021.
28. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Katz, Elizabeth D. (June 30, 2020). ""Racial and Religious Democracy": Identity and Equality in Midcentury Courts". Rochester, NY. SSRN 3441367.
29. ^ "Leadership". The United States Conference of Mayors. November 23, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
30. ^ North, Anna. How racist policing took over American cities, explained by a historian. Archived June 7, 2020, at the Wayback Machine Vox, June 6, 2020.
31. ^ a b Bayor 1993.
32. ^ "Interpreter". National Park Service – Ellis Island. Archived from the original on August 12, 2018.
33. ^ "Fiorello LaGuardia". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Archived from the original on December 5, 2019.
34. ^ Roberts, Sam (July 20, 2009). "Yiddish Resurfaces as City's 2nd Political Language". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 10, 2019 - via NYTimes.com.
35. ^ David M. Esposito, and Jackie R. Esposito, "La Guardia and the Nazis, 1933–1938." American Jewish History 1988 78(1): 38–53. ISSN 0164-0178; quote from H. Paul Jeffers, The Napoleon of New York (2002) p. 233.
36. ^ "They Spoke Out: American Voices Against The Holocaust". dep.disney.go.com. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016.
37. ^ Elizabeth D. Katz (June 2020). ""Racial and Religious Democracy":Identity and Equality in Midcentury Courts" (PDF). Stanford Law Review. 72: 1498–1500, 1518–1523, passim. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
38. ^ Kessner 1989, pp. 350–68.
39. ^ Gray, Christopher (May 8, 1994). "Streetscapes/Bronx Terminal Market; Trying to Duplicate the Little Flower's Success". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 21, 2011.
40. ^ Friedman, Andrea (October 1996). "The Habitats of Sex-Crazed Perverts': Campaigns against Burlesque in Depression-Era New York City". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 7 (2): 203–238. JSTOR 3704140. Archived from the original on November 9, 2017.
41. ^ a b Shefter, Martin (1992). Political Crisis/fiscal Crisis: The Collapse and Revival of New York City. Columbia UP. p. 30\. ISBN 978-0231079433.
42. ^ Williams 2013, pp. 197, 256–68, 318.
43. ^ "About | New York City Center". www.nycitycenter.org. Archived from the original on August 11, 2020.
44. ^ Thompson, Kenneth W. (1996). Virginia Papers on the Presidency. Lanham: University Press of America. p. 114\. ISBN 978-0-7618-0545-8.
45. ^ Introduction to Civil Air Patrol (PDF). Maxwell AFB: National Headquarters Civil Air Patrol. August 1, 2002. CAP Pamphlet 50-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 24, 2009.
46. ^ Allan M. Winkler, "A 40-year history of civil defense." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 40.6 (1984): 16-22.
47. ^ Karl Drew Hartzell, The Empire State At War, World War II (1949)
48. ^ Erwin Hargrove, "The Dramas of Reform," in James D. Barber, ed. Political Leadership in American Government (1964), p. 94.
49. ^ Kessner, Thomas (1993). "Fiorello H. LaGuardia". History Teacher. 26 (2): 151–59. doi:10.2307/494812. ISSN 0018-2745. JSTOR 494812.
50. ^ Jeffers, H. Paul (2002). The Napoleon of New York. pp. 275–90.
51. ^ Fiorello LaGuardia Reading the Comics (July 8, 1945) Library of Congress.
52. ^ LaGuardia Reads The Funnies For The Children Tampa Tribune. July 2, 1945.
53. ^ Zinn 1969, pp. 267–70.
54. ^ Pearce, Jeff (2017). Prevail: The Inspiring Story of Ethiopia's Victory over Mussolini's Invasion, 1935–1941. Simon and Schuster. p. 272\. ISBN 978-1-5107-1874-6.
55. ^ Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (June 8, 2021). "When Harlem and Little Italy Clashed over Ethiopia". Lucid. substack. Archived from the original on June 12, 2021.
56. ^ Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (August 3, 2020). "Perspective: When fascist aggression in Ethiopia sparked a movement of Black solidarity". Washington Post. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
57. ^ LaGumina, Salvatore John (1999). Wop!: A Documentary History of Anti-Italian Discrimination in the United States. Guernica Editions. p. 250\. ISBN 978-1-55071-047-2.
58. ^ Daniel Marrone, "Fiorello H. La Guardia: Mayor, Statesman, and Humanitarian." International Journal of the Humanities 8.3 (2010).
59. ^ Kessner, 1989, pp 579-588.
60. ^ Lerner, Michael A. (2009). Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City. Harvard University Press. p. 234\. ISBN 978-0674040090.
61. ^ "Fiorella LaGuardia on Prohibition | Temperance & Prohibition". prohibition.osu.edu. Archived from the original on March 2, 2017.
62. ^ "Famous Masons". American Canadian Grand Lodge ACGL. Archived from the original on November 17, 2018.
63. ^ "Celebrating more than 100 years of the Freemasonry: famous Freemasons in the history". Mathawan Lodge No 192 F.A. & A.M., New Jersey. Archived from the original on May 10, 2008.
64. ^ "List of famous Freemasons". Archived from the original on October 16, 2008.
65. ^ "Famous Masons". MWGLNY. January 2014. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013.
66. ^ "La Guardia and Wagner Archives Photo Collection – Family Album # 2".
67. ^ "Eric LaGuardia | Department of English | University of Washington". english.washington.edu. Archived from the original on July 20, 2020.
68. ^ "Letter form Jean Marie LaGuardia, jobs and futures editor at Mademoiselle magazine, to Margery A. Thackwray, dated July 24, 1953, asking if any updates are necessary for the information Mademoiselle has on the LCU". cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org. Archived from the original on July 20, 2020.
69. ^ "Fiorello H. LaGuardia Foundation – promoting global sustainable development". www.laguardiafoundation.org. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020.
70. ^ Lerner, Michael A. (2007). Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 235, 236. ISBN 978-0-674-03057-2. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020.
71. ^ "Barnard Alumnae Magazine, July 1955 | Barnard Digital Collections". digitalcollections.barnard.edu. Archived from the original on July 20, 2020.
72. ^ "Barnard Bulletin, June 4, 1947, page 1 | Barnard Digital Collections". digitalcollections.barnard.edu. Archived from the original on December 13, 2020.
73. ^ a b c Leiter, Robert (January 31, 2008). "Pain & Triumph: The journey of a New York mayor's family". The Jewish Exponent.
74. ^ a b Herbermann, Nanda; Hester Baer; Elizabeth Roberts Baer (2000). The Blessed Abyss: Inmate #6582 in Ravensbrück Concentration Camp for Women. googlebooks. ISBN 978-0814329207.
75. ^ a b Jon Kalish (June 26, 2007). "Ravensbruck's Famous Survivor: Memoir". The Jewish Daily Forward. Archived from the original on August 2, 2012.
76. ^ a b Reid, Donald (May–August 2008). "America so far from Ravensbrück". Histoire@Politique: Politique, Culture, Société, N°5.
77. ^ Mulligan, Katherine. "New book Reveals Holocaust Plight of La Guardia's Sister". Jewish Federation of Rockland County. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013.
78. ^ "Adolf Eichmann's List". Times Online. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008.
79. ^ Brawarsky, Sandee (April 13, 2007). "Mayor LaGuardia's Sister". The Jewish Week. Rememberwomen.org. Archived from the original on June 14, 2012.
80. ^ Gluck, Gemma La Guardia (2007) [originally published as My Story in 1961]. Saidel, Rochelle G. (ed.). Fiorello's Sister: Gemma La Guardia Gluck's Story (Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust). Syracuse University Press.
81. ^ Gluck, Gemma La Guardia (1961). My Life.
82. ^ a b "Book reviews at Rememberwomen.org of Fiorello's Sister: Gemma La Guardia Gluck's Story, New Expanded Edition (2007) edited by Rochelle G. Saidel of My Story by Gemma La Guardia Gluck (1961), edited by S. L. Shneiderman". Archived from the original on June 14, 2012.
83. ^ Chan, Sewell (December 4, 2006). "The Empire Zone: The Mayor's Tall Tales". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 5, 2008.
84. ^ Jackson, Nancy Beth. "If You're Thinking of Living In/Fieldston; A Leafy Enclave in the Hills of the Bronx" Archived June 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine on September 20, 1947. The New York Times. February 17, 2002. Retrieved May 3, 2008. "Fiorello H. La Guardia, a three-time mayor of New York, lived and died at 5020 Goodridge Avenue."
85. ^ "La Guardia Is Dead; City Pays Homage To 3-Time Mayor". New York Times. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017.
86. ^ Roberts, Sam (April 18, 2008). "The Giuliani Years: History; LaGuardia's Legacy Is Formidable, But It May Be Surpassed". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 23, 2009.
87. ^ Williams 2013.
88. ^ Steigman, Benjamin: Accent on Talent - New York's High School of Music & Art Wayne State University Press, 1984

### Bibliography[edit | edit source]

* Bayor, Ronald H. (1993). Fiorello La Guardia: Ethnicity and Reform. Harlan Davidson. ISBN 0-88295-894-1.
* Jeffers, H. Paul (2002). The Napoleon of New York. pp. 275–90.
* Kessner, Thomas (1989). Fiorello H. LaGuardia and the Making of Modern New York. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-034244-X. online

* La Guardia Gluck, Gemma (2007) [1961]. Saidel, Rochelle (ed.). Fiorello's Sister: Gemma La Guardia Gluck's Story. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-0861-5.
* Williams, Mason B. (2013). City of Ambition: FDR, La Guardia, and the Making of Modern New York. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06691-3.. online
* Zinn, Howard (1969). LaGuardia in Congress. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-7617-4.

## Further reading[edit | edit source]

* Brodsky, Alyn. (2003). The Great Mayor: Fiorello La Guardia and the Making of the City of New York. New York: Truman Talley Books.
* Capeci, Dominic J. “From Different Liberal Perspectives: Fiorello H. La Guardia, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and Civil Rights in New York City, 1941-1943.” Journal of Negro History 62#2 1977, pp. 160–73. online and in JSTOR
* Caro, Robert (1974). The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-48076-3. OCLC 834874.
* Elliott, Lawrence. (1983). Little Flower: The Life and Times of Fiorello La Guardia. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-02057-7. online
* Garrett, Charles. (1961). The La Guardia Years: Machine and Reform Politics in New York City. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
* Goldstein, Richard. Helluva Town: The Story of New York City During World War II (2010) Online review
* Gunther, John (1947). "The Not-So-Little Flower". Inside U.S.A.. New York City, London: Harper & Brothers. pp. 578–588.
* Heckscher II, August. (1978). When La Guardia Was Mayor: New York's Legendary Years. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-07534-6.
* Jeffers, H. Paul. (2002). The Napoleon of New York: Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-02465-1. online.
* Kaufman, Herbert. "Fiorello H. La Guardia, Political Maverick" Political Science Quarterly 1990 105(1): 113–122. ISSN 0032-3195 in Jstor
* Mann, Arthur H. (1959). La Guardia: A Fighter Against His Times 1882–1933. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott; scholarly biography. online
* La Guardia comes to power: 1933 (1965) online

## External links[edit | edit source]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fiorello LaGuardia.

Wikisource has original works by or about:
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia

* Obituary, New York Times, September 21, 1947 La Guardia Is Dead; City Pays Homage To 3-Time Mayor
* La Guardia and Wagner Archives/Fiorello H. La Guardia Collection Archived May 1, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
* oral interviews from the La Guardia and Wagner Archives/Fiorello H. La Guardia Oral History database
* Tiziano Thomas Dossena, "Fiorello La Guardia" in Bridge Apulia USA, No.3 (Italy, 1998) Archived June 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
* 1919 passport photo of Fiorello La Guardia
* WNYC Archives blogs featuring Mayor La Guardia
* Fiorello LaGuardia (The Compassion of New York’s Famous Mayor)
* Newspaper clippings about Fiorello La Guardia in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

U.S. House of Representatives

Preceded by

Michael F. Farley

|  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 14th congressional district
March 4, 1917 – December 31, 1919 (resigned)  | Succeeded by

Nathan D. Perlman

Preceded by

Isaac Siegel

|  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 20th congressional district
March 4, 1923 – March 3, 1933  | Succeeded by

James J. Lanzetta

Party political offices
Preceded by

Frank D. Waterman

|  Republican Nominee for Mayor of New York City
1929  | Succeeded by

Lewis H. Pounds

Political offices
Preceded by

John P. O'Brien

|  Mayor of New York City
1934–1945  | Succeeded by

William O'Dwyer

Government offices
Preceded by

None

|  Director of Civilian Defense
1941–1942  | Succeeded by

James Landis

Non-profit organization positions
Preceded by

Herbert H. Lehman

|  Director-General of the UNRRA
1946  | Succeeded by

General Lowell Rooks

* v
* t
* e

Mayors of New York City since the 1898 consolidation

* Van Wyck (1898–1901)
* Low (1902–1903)
* McClellan (1904–1909)
* Gaynor (1910–1913)
* Kline (1913)
* Mitchel (1914–1917)
* Hylan (1918–1925)
* Collins (1925)
* Walker (1926–1932)
* McKee (1932)
* O'Brien (1933)
* La Guardia (1934–1945)
* O'Dwyer (1946–1950)
* Impelitteri (1950–1953)
* Wagner (1954–1965)
* Lindsay (1966–1973)
* Beame (1974–1977)
* Koch (1978–1989)
* Dinkins (1990–1993)
* Giuliani (1994–2001)
* Bloomberg (2002–2013)
* de Blasio (2014–2021)
* Adams (2022–present)

File:Flag of the Mayor of New York City.svg

* v
* t
* e

Republican Party nominees for mayor of New York City since the 1898 consolidation

* Benjamin F. Tracy
* Seth Low
* William Mills Ivins Sr.
* Otto Bannard
* John Purroy Mitchel
* William M. Bennett
* Henry H. Curran
* Frank D. Waterman
* Fiorello La Guardia
* Lewis H. Pounds
* Fiorello La Guardia
* Jonah J. Goldstein
* Newbold Morris
* Edward F. Corsi
* Harold Riegelman
* Robert K. Christenberry
* Louis Lefkowitz
* John Lindsay
* John J. Marchi
* Roy M. Goodman
* Ed Koch
* Diane McGrath
* Rudy Giuliani
* Michael Bloomberg
* Joe Lhota
* Nicole Malliotakis
* Curtis Sliwa

File:Flag of the Mayor of New York City.svg

* v
* t
* e

Presidents of the United States Conference of Mayors

* Murphy
* Curley
* Walmsley
* Hoan
* La Guardia
* Kelly
* Welsh
* Green
* Lawrence
* Kennelly
* Burke
* Robinson
* Hynes
* Wagner
* Poulson
* R. J. Daley
* Dilworth
* Burns
* Celebrezze
* Lee
* Selland
* Tucker
* Blaisdell
* Cavanagh
* Barr
* Schrunk
* Maltester
* Tate
* Maier
* Welch
* Martin
* Alioto
* M. E. Landrieu
* Gibson
* Alexander
* McNichols
* Carver
* Hatcher
* Boosalis
* Young
* Fulton
* Padilla
* E. Morial
* Riley
* Berkley
* Holland
* Whitmire
* Isaac
* Flynn
* Althaus
* Abramson
* Ashe
* Rice
* R. M. Daley
* Helmke
* Corradini
* Webb
* Coles
* M. Morial
* Menino
* Garner
* Plusquellic
* O'Neill
* Guido
* Palmer
* Diaz
* Nickles
* Kautz
* Villaraigosa
* Nutter
* Smith
* Johnson
* Rawlings-Blake
* Cornett
* M. J. Landrieu
* Benjamin
* Barnett
* Fischer
* Whaley
* Suarez

* v
* t
* e

New York's delegation(s) to the 65th–66th & 68th–72nd United States Congress (ordered by seniority)

| 65th |

Senate: ▌J. Wadsworth Jr. (R) * ▌W. Calder (R)

House:

* ▌J. Fitzgerald (D)
* ▌D. Riordan (D)
* ▌G. Fairchild (R)
* ▌J. Maher (D)
* ▌L. Mott (R)
* ▌C. Smith (D)
* ▌H. Bruckner (R)
* ▌J. Carew (D)
* ▌W. Chandler (R)
* ▌H. Dale (D)
* ▌P. Dooling (D)
* ▌T. Dunn (R)
* ▌D. Griffin (R)
* ▌C. Hamilton (R)
* ▌J. Parker (R)
* ▌E. Platt (R)
* ▌P. Caldwell (D)
* ▌W. Dempsey (R)
* ▌J. Flynn (D)
* ▌R. Haskell (R)
* ▌F. Hicks (R)
* ▌G. Hulbert (D)
* ▌J. Husted (R)
* ▌M. London (S)
* ▌W. Magee (R)
* ▌H. Pratt (R)
* ▌F. Rowe (R)
* ▌R. Sanford (R)
* ▌I. Siegel (R)
* ▌H. Snyder (R)
* ▌O. Swift (R)
* ▌C. Ward (R)
* ▌N. Gould (R)
* ▌B. Snell (R)
* ▌B. Fairchild (R)
* ▌G. Francis (R)
* ▌F. La Guardia (R)
* ▌G. Lunn (D)
* ▌D. Oliver (D)
* ▌A. Sanders (R)
* ▌C. Sullivan (D)
* ▌W. Waldow (R)
* ▌T. Smith (D)
* ▌W. Cleary (D)
* ▌Jo. Delaney (D)
* ▌J. Donovan (D)
* ▌A. Griffin (D)

|
|

66th |

Senate: ▌J. Wadsworth Jr. (R) * ▌W. Calder (R)

House:

* ▌D. Riordan (D)
* ▌H. Goldfogle (D)
* ▌J. Maher (D)
* ▌L. Mott (R)
* ▌J. Carew (D)
* ▌P. Dooling (D)
* ▌T. Dunn (R)
* ▌J. Parker (R)
* ▌E. Platt (R)
* ▌P. Caldwell (D)
* ▌W. Dempsey (R)
* ▌R. Haskell (R)
* ▌F. Hicks (R)
* ▌J. Husted (R)
* ▌W. Magee (R)
* ▌F. Rowe (R)
* ▌R. Sanford (R)
* ▌I. Siegel (R)
* ▌H. Snyder (R)
* ▌C. Ward (R)
* ▌N. Gould (R)
* ▌B. Snell (R)
* ▌F. La Guardia (R)
* ▌A. Sanders (R)
* ▌C. Sullivan (D)
* ▌T. Smith (D)
* ▌W. Cleary (D)
* ▌J. Donovan (D)
* ▌A. Griffin (D)
* ▌F. Crowther (R)
* ▌T. Cullen (D)
* ▌J. Ganly (D)
* ▌W. Hill (R)
* ▌A. Houghton (R)
* ▌J. Johnston (D)
* ▌J. MacCrate (R)
* ▌C. MacGregor (R)
* ▌R. McKiniry (D)
* ▌J. Mead (D)
* ▌D. O'Connell (D)
* ▌H. Pell (D)
* ▌D. Reed (R)
* ▌J. Rowan (D)
* ▌H. Fish III (R)
* ▌N. Perlman (R)
* ▌L. Volk (R)

68th |

Senate: ▌J. Wadsworth Jr. (R) * ▌R. Copeland (D)

House:

* ▌D. Riordan (D)
* ▌L. Mott (R)
* ▌J. Carew (D)
* ▌J. Parker (R)
* ▌W. Dempsey (R)
* ▌W. Magee (R)
* ▌H. Snyder (R)
* ▌C. Ward (R)
* ▌B. Snell (R)
* ▌A. Sanders (R)
* ▌C. Sullivan (D)
* ▌A. Griffin (D)
* ▌B. Fairchild (R)
* ▌F. Crowther (R)
* ▌T. Cullen (D)
* ▌C. MacGregor (R)
* ▌J. Mead (D)
* ▌D. Reed (R)
* ▌H. Fish III (R)
* ▌N. Perlman (R)
* ▌W. Cleary (D)
* ▌J. Kindred (D)
* ▌F. La Guardia (R)
* ▌J. Clarke (R)
* ▌O. Mills (R)
* ▌J. Ganly (D)
* ▌D. O'Connell (D)
* ▌R. Bacon (R)
* ▌L. Black (D)
* ▌S. Bloom (D)
* ▌J. Boylan (D)
* ▌E. Celler (D)
* ▌P. Conrning (D)
* ▌S. Dickstein (D)
* ▌M. Jacobstein (D)
* ▌G. Lindsay (D)
* ▌F. Oliver (D)
* ▌J. Quayle (D)
* ▌G. Stalker (R)
* ▌C. Stengle (D)
* ▌J. Taber (R)
* ▌M. Wainright (R)
* ▌R. Weller (D)
* ▌J. O'Connor (D)
* ▌A. Prall (D)
* ▌T. Sweet (R)

69th |

Senate: ▌J. Wadsworth Jr. (R) * ▌R. Copeland (D)

House:

* ▌J. Carew (D)
* ▌J. Parker (R)
* ▌W. Dempsey (R)
* ▌W. Magee (R)
* ▌B. Snell (R)
* ▌A. Sanders (R)
* ▌C. Sullivan (D)
* ▌A. Griffin (D)
* ▌B. Fairchild (R)
* ▌F. Crowther (R)
* ▌T. Cullen (D)
* ▌C. MacGregor (R)
* ▌J. Mead (D)
* ▌D. Reed (R)
* ▌H. Fish III (R)
* ▌N. Perlman (R)
* ▌W. Cleary (D)
* ▌J. Kindred (D)
* ▌F. La Guardia (R)
* ▌O. Mills (R)
* ▌D. O'Connell (D)
* ▌R. Bacon (R)
* ▌L. Black (D)
* ▌S. Bloom (D)
* ▌J. Boylan (D)
* ▌E. Celler (D)
* ▌P. Conrning (D)
* ▌S. Dickstein (D)
* ▌M. Jacobstein (D)
* ▌G. Lindsay (D)
* ▌F. Oliver (D)
* ▌J. Quayle (D)
* ▌G. Stalker (R)
* ▌J. Taber (R)
* ▌M. Wainright (R)
* ▌R. Weller (D)
* ▌J. O'Connor (D)
* ▌A. Prall (D)
* ▌T. Sweet (R)
* ▌F. Davenport (R)
* ▌H. Pratt (R)
* ▌A. Somers (D)
* ▌H. Tolley (R)

70th |

Senate: ▌R. Copeland (D) * ▌R. Wagner (D)

House:

* ▌J. Carew (D)
* ▌J. Parker (R)
* ▌W. Dempsey (R)
* ▌W. Magee (R)
* ▌B. Snell (R)
* ▌A. Sanders (R)
* ▌C. Sullivan (D)
* ▌A. Griffin (D)
* ▌F. Crowther (R)
* ▌T. Cullen (D)
* ▌C. MacGregor (R)
* ▌J. Mead (D)
* ▌D. Reed (R)
* ▌H. Fish III (R)
* ▌J. Kindred (D)
* ▌F. La Guardia (D)
* ▌D. O'Connell (D)
* ▌R. Bacon (R)
* ▌L. Black (D)
* ▌S. Bloom (D)
* ▌J. Boylan (D)
* ▌E. Celler (D)
* ▌P. Conrning (D)
* ▌S. Dickstein (D)
* ▌M. Jacobstein (D)
* ▌G. Lindsay (D)
* ▌F. Oliver (D)
* ▌J. Quayle (D)
* ▌G. Stalker (R)
* ▌J. Taber (R)
* ▌M. Wainright (R)
* ▌R. Weller (D)
* ▌J. O'Connor (D)
* ▌A. Prall (D)
* ▌T. Sweet (R)
* ▌J. Clarke (R)
* ▌F. Davenport (R)
* ▌H. Pratt (R)
* ▌A. Somers (D)
* ▌P. Carley (D)
* ▌W. Cohen (D)
* ▌J. Fitzpatrick (D)
* ▌W. Sirovich (D)
* ▌C. Hancock (R)
* ▌F. Culkin (R)

71st |

Senate: ▌R. Copeland (D) * ▌R. Wagner (D)

House:

* ▌J. Carew (D)
* ▌J. Parker (R)
* ▌W. Dempsey (R)
* ▌B. Snell (R)
* ▌A. Sanders (R)
* ▌C. Sullivan (D)
* ▌A. Griffin (D)
* ▌F. Crowther (R)
* ▌T. Cullen (D)
* ▌J. Mead (D)
* ▌D. Reed (R)
* ▌H. Fish III (R)
* ▌F. La Guardia (R)
* ▌D. O'Connell (D)
* ▌R. Bacon (R)
* ▌L. Black (D)
* ▌S. Bloom (D)
* ▌J. Boylan (D)
* ▌E. Celler (D)
* ▌P. Conrning (D)
* ▌S. Dickstein (D)
* ▌G. Lindsay (D)
* ▌F. Oliver (D)
* ▌J. Quayle (D)
* ▌G. Stalker (R)
* ▌J. Taber (R)
* ▌M. Wainright (R)
* ▌J. O'Connor (D)
* ▌A. Prall (D)
* ▌J. Clarke (R)
* ▌F. Davenport (R)
* ▌H. Pratt (R)
* ▌A. Somers (D)
* ▌P. Carley (D)
* ▌J. Fitzpatrick (D)
* ▌W. Sirovich (D)
* ▌C. Hancock (R)
* ▌F. Culkin (R)
* ▌W. Brunner (D)
* ▌E. Cooke (R)
* ▌R. Pratt (R)
* ▌J. Whitley (R)
* ▌J. Gavagan (D)
* ▌Ma. Kennedy (D)
* ▌S. Rudd (D)

72nd |

Senate: ▌R. Copeland (D) * ▌R. Wagner (D)

House:

* ▌J. Parker (R)
* ▌B. Snell (R)
* ▌A. Sanders (R)
* ▌C. Sullivan (D)
* ▌A. Griffin (D)
* ▌F. Crowther (R)
* ▌T. Cullen (D)
* ▌J. Mead (D)
* ▌D. Reed (R)
* ▌H. Fish III (R)
* ▌F. La Guardia (R)
* ▌R. Bacon (R)
* ▌L. Black (D)
* ▌S. Bloom (D)
* ▌J. Boylan (D)
* ▌E. Celler (D)
* ▌P. Conrning (D)
* ▌S. Dickstein (D)
* ▌G. Lindsay (D)
* ▌F. Oliver (D)
* ▌G. Stalker (R)
* ▌J. Taber (R)
* ▌J. O'Connor (D)
* ▌A. Prall (D)
* ▌J. Clarke (R)
* ▌F. Davenport (R)
* ▌H. Pratt (R)
* ▌A. Somers (D)
* ▌P. Carley (D)
* ▌J. Fitzpatrick (D)
* ▌W. Sirovich (D)
* ▌C. Hancock (R)
* ▌F. Culkin (R)
* ▌W. Brunner (D)
* ▌E. Cooke (R)
* ▌R. Pratt (R)
* ▌J. Whitley (R)
* ▌J. Gavagan (D)
* ▌Ma. Kennedy (D)
* ▌S. Rudd (D)
* ▌Jo. Delaney (D)
* ▌W. Andrews (R)
* ▌C. Millard (R)

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