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The Santa Claus Man
The Rise and Fall of a Jazz Age Con Man and the Invention of Christmas in New York
Author: Alex Palmer
Narrator: Eric Michael Summerer
Unabridged: 8 hr 48 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: 10/01/2015
Categories: Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, History, Us History
Synopsis
Before the charismatic John Duval Gluck, Jr., came along, letters from New York City children to Santa Claus were destroyed, unopened, by the U.S. Post Office. Gluck saw an opportunity and created the Santa Claus Association. The effort delighted the public, and for fifteen years money and gifts flowed to the only group authorized to answer Santa's mail. Gluck became a Jazz Age celebrity, rubbing shoulders with the era's movie stars and politicians, and even planned to erect a vast Santa Claus monument in the center of Manhattan—until Gotham's crusading charity commissioner discovered some dark secrets in Santa's workshop.
The rise and fall of the Santa Claus Association is a caper both heartwarming and hard-boiled, involving stolen art, phony Boy Scouts, a kidnapping, pursuit by the FBI, a Coney Island bullfight, and above all, the thrills and dangers of a wild imagination. It's also the larger story of how Christmas became the extravagant holiday we celebrate today, from Santa's early beginnings in New York to the country's first citywide Christmas tree and Macy's first grand holiday parade.
The rise and fall of the Santa Claus Association is a caper both heartwarming and hard-boiled, involving stolen art, phony Boy Scouts, a kidnapping, pursuit by the FBI, a Coney Island bullfight, and above all, the thrills and dangers of a wild imagination. It's also the larger story of how Christmas became the extravagant holiday we celebrate today, from Santa's early beginnings in New York to the country's first citywide Christmas tree and Macy's first grand holiday parade.
