The Past Creeps Back

I've spoken before about “degrees of separation” and how you can be connected to famous or infamous people. I again today did some Googling of the past and came across people my Dad knew, if just by association.

J Howard McGrath, was a onetime governor of Rhode Island, Solicitor General, US Attorney General and the founder of First Federal Savings and Loan that was located on Westminster St in Providence, where my Dad started his banking career.

Growing up, I heard the McGrath name mentioned but it was more about J Howard's brother, Russell who was the President of that bank. Even so, McGrath this and McGrath that would come up around the dinner table. I being a young kid then, paid about as much attention to it as kids pay attention to the boring discussions adults have.

Apparently J. Howard had to resign his position as Attorney General of the US after a corruption investigation in the Justice Department. J Edgar Hoover had engineered this ouster along with President Truman. It was more of political wrangling to avoid the appearance of corruption so I've read. The Justice Department's IRS tax division was handing out favors to various people. They were squashing audits and hampering the IRS in tax evasion investigations. I guess they had to hang someone and J Howard McGrath was the obvious choice. This led to the Kefauver Senate Committee to investigate organized crime. 

 

Here's a Wikipedia link to Howard McGrath:

 

J. Howard McGrath 

I never knew my Dad worked with such people. It does explain a small fact my brother told me though. In 1974, my brother tells me the FBI approached my Dad to be a forensic accountant. That is, his job would be to dig into the money of suspected criminals in order to attain convictions. That's how they got Al Capone, on tax evasion. My Dad declined the offer my brother had told me. Or so he declined it? We'll never know. I'm struck at the connections that bank has had to the FBI and the US Dept of Justice...and God Knows What Else? I have to add, my Dad did make a few trips down to DC a few times, though he never explained it other than “banking business.” There was also a strange trip to Seattle, WA. My Mom and Dad spoke about in hushed tones. I guess he took all his secrets to the grave back in 1977.

J. Howard McGrath had a son, David, who took the reins of the bank over when my Dad died. I knew precious little about him until I read his obituary a couple of months ago. I never knew this guy was FBI, an executive at MGM movie studios and had shot some of “Francis the Talking Mule” at his farm in Narragansett. This struck me as I had been to that farm/family compound in Narragansett as a boy.

*****

David McGrath, Former Top Marketing Exec at MGM, Dies at 74

12:25 PM PDT 3/13/2012 by Mike Barnes , Variety Magazine.

The former FBI agent spearheaded campaigns for such films as “Doctor Zhivago” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

David McGrath, a senior marketing executive at MGM in the 1960s, died Feb. 29 in San Diego after a lengthy illness. He was 74.

McGrath handled the marketing campaigns for such films as Doctor Zhivago (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Ryan’s Daughter (1970) and scores of others.

 

McGrath came to the studio after serving in the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, who reported to his father, J. Howard McGrath, attorney general for Harry Truman from 1949-52. His FBI service was primarily protecting the family of Robert Kennedy.

At MGM from 1962-72, McGrath worked his way through the ranks of the studio, achieving success at the box office with his campaigns on numerous films. He was responsible for organizing the migration of the marketing department from its New York headquarters to the studio in Culver City, California.

 

Following the move to California, McGrath left the business to return to his Rhode Island farm in Narragansett, where the 1950s film “Francis the Talking Mule” had been filmed. He headed up First Federal Savings and Loan, where his marketing skills grew the S&L to the biggest in the state, then left banking to do charitable work and professional cooking.

 

Survivors include his son, Brian. Donations in his memory can be made to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation.

*****

I say it again, I never knew my Dad knew people from the Truman Administration, Hollywood or that many from the FBI and Justice Dept.

My only real memory of those people was the time I spent at a BBQ at the Narragansett farm. It was my first time seeing “real” money. Real money in that I never saw swimming pools that big or that homes can contain numerous, very large rooms. I felt a bit out of place there as our home was a complete dump compared to the McGrath compound. I had a good time there however.

I have a puzzle to put together now. Just what in the hell did my Dad really do? Or perhaps it's nothing at all? I doubt I can get much information as the actors in this story are dead or are quickly headed that way. Still, there's in itch in my head about certain people and things I noticed around this house and what I found out from an obituary of a man who I visited a long time ago.