THE CUFF LINKS CLUB By Les Dropkin In his 1920 bid for the Vice-Presidency as the Democratic Partys
candidate, FDR had the support and advice of many people. With some, like FDRs political mentor Louis Howe, the relationship went back to the early days of FDRs political career in New York after he won the race in 1910 for State Senator for Dutchess County normally a stronghold of the Republican Party. For others, becoming part of FDRs team was of much more recent origin. In December of 1920, just a few months after the Democratic Partys electoral loss, FDR wanted to express his gratitude to five people in particular who had worked so long and hard on his campaign. He chose to do this by giving to each of them a set of golden cuff links from Tiffanys. One of the cuff links bore the initials FDR; the other, the initials of the recipient. This group of five Louis Howe, Steve Early [who had covered the Navy for the Associated Press during the Wilson Administration and then served as the advance man for the campaign], Marvin McIntyre [who was a former newsman and did publicity for the Navy before becoming FDRs speechwriter], Tom Lynch [a friend from Dutchess County who had helped FDR in 1910 and who had been in charge of the campaign funds] and Charles McCarthy[ FDRs former secretary and an assistant to Howe in the campaign] - were the original members of the Cuff Links Club. In very short order the membership was extended to include four others. The cuff links shown here were those given to Renah F. Camalier, one of FDRs stenographers in the campaign. The others were Stanley Prenosil and Kirke L. Simpson, both of whom were with the Associated Press and James P. Sullivan, another stenographer on the campaign train. The cuff links were much more than souvenirs of a hard fought campaign. It soon became the custom for members of the Club to get together for dinner every year on or about January 30th, FDRs birthday. These men of extraordinary abilities were thus brought together regularly; the ties of loyalty to FDR and the preservation of the relationships among them would make the Club a potent force in later years and later campaigns. The dinners were very private affairs. They afforded Club members a chance to reminisce and indulge in skits and high jinks. Well oiled by the end of dinner, they would enjoy a poker game afterwards. The Club would also be a source of strong support to both Eleanor and Franklin in the very difficult years after he contracted polio in 1921. As the years passed the group began to be referred to as the Cuff Links Gang. Wives, Eleanor and Eleanors friends began to be invited; they graciously retired after dinner so the poker night could begin. More individuals became members: Added later were Samuel Rosenman, Henry Morgenthau,Jr., Basil OConnor, Henry Hooker, Robert Sherwood, Harry L. Hopkins, Adm. Ross McIntyre and Gen. Edwin (Pa) Watson.
Louis Howe often took the lead in preparing the program for the evening. A good sense of his preparation for the night is afforded using 1924 as an example. The idea was to pretend they were still in the middle of the 1920 campaign; that they were in the wardroom of a battleship at the Brooklyn Navy Yard where there was going to be a dinner in FDRs honor and that the Gang would be impersonating Navy Yard workers.
Part of Howes letter to McCarthy
If photos of the Club dinners were taken they remain in private hands, with one exception. In 1973 photos of the January 30,1934 get together of the Club surfaced. The dinner that night, the first to be held in the White House, has come to be known as the toga, toga party. Some people who were opposed to the New Deal measures being taken had begun calling FDR prickly Caesar. The theme for the dinner had been found.
These pictures belonged to Kirke L. Simpson he is just below FDR in the upper left photo. The person he gave them to later donated them to the Tacoma Public Library. By this time the women were participating fully in the high jinks. Eleanor standing to FDRs right is dressed as the Delphic Oracle; his daughter Anna seated just to his left is one of the Vestal Virgins surrounding FDR. 1934 saw the start of another tradition the Birthday Balls. These were balls held in thousands of communities across the country on FDRs birthday to raise money for the Warm Springs Foundation and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Since Franklin, Eleanor, Anna and their friends would have to appear at the many Washington venues, it meant that less time was open for the Cuff Links Gang dinner and revelries. By January, 1936 Louis Howe was gravely ill. FDR drove out to Washingtons
Naval Hospital to see him, went back to the White House for the dinner and then with Eleanor and their entourage to four of the balls. With Howes death in April a major driving force behind the Clubs meetings was gone. In succeeding years surviving Gang members simply became invitees to the Birthday Balls. The Club and the Birthday Balls ended together with the death of FDR in April, 1945.
