The Fish That Ate the Whale

by Rich Cohen

  Which of course means gangsters: The Mafia made its American debut in New Orleans. By the late 1800s, stevedores were paying protection, which they called “gangster tax.”

  10: Revolutin’!

  In 1894, British marines: See Meeker, And Points South.

  The resulting exchange: See Crowther, The Romance and Rise of the American Tropics; McCann, An American Company; Chernow, The House of Morgan; Kinzer, Overthrow; Whitfield, “Strange Fruit.” Also, Pringle, “A Jonah Who Swallowed the Whale,” a profile of Zemurray that ran in the defunct American Magazine in September 1933. Zemurray gave an interview for this piece, and many of the details come from him.

  “Mr. Secretary, I’m no favorite”: In quotes because these are the exact words as later reported by Zemurray.

  Zemurray would have found the men: “Filibuster” derives from the Dutch word for freebooter. By 1880, it came to mean that select group of North Americans who were fighting in Central and South America.

  “half Indian and half Negro”: Langley and Schoonover, The Banana Men.

  “the hotbed of revolution”: “New Orleans Junta Plots.”

  Between 1890 and 1925: Deutsch, The Incredible Yanqui.

  When he turned up: For details on Lee Christmas, see ibid.; Crowther, The Romance and Rise of the American Tropics; Wilson, Empire in Green and Gold; Langley and Schoonover, The Banana Men; Koeppel, Banana; Karnes, Tropical Enterprise; Kinzer, Overthrow. Also, “Lee Christmas Dies, Soldier of Fortune”; and “Gen. Lee Christmas, a Dumas Hero in Real Life.”

  In the end, he was the greatest: His stories appeared in the Blue Book Magazine of Fiction and Adventure, or Blue Book, which was published from 1905 to 1975, where his work ran beside that of the likes of Robert Heinlein and Agatha Christie. He died in Lamar, Missouri, where he retired after the Second World War. His obituary was headlined “Col. Richardson Served 6 Nations, Soldier of Fortune, 59, Dies—Captor of Managua Jammed Gun into Villa’s Stomach” (New York Times, April 23, 1949).

  When Christmas found Richardson: Interesting on Richardson is a long profile that ran in The New York Times on October 31, 1915, under the headline “The ‘Machine-Gun Man of the Princess Pats.’” Such young men were in no way distinguishable from Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, and other adventurers who made their name on the frontier.

  According to an appreciation: McNutt, “Profiles: Sam Drebin.”

  “Manuel Bonilla is now in New Orleans”: “Bonilla to Lead Revolt.”

  Called the Hornet: The ship, a private yacht before being conscripted into the U.S. Navy, saw successful action in Daiquiri and Siboney, Cuba. There is a website dedicated to all navy ships that went by the name Hornet (“The name HORNET is one of the most distinguished in American naval history”), starting with a sloop that saw action in the War of Independence. After detailing the career of Zemurray’s ship in the Spanish-American War, the website concludes, “In 1910 she was sold out of service” (http://www.usshornetassn.com). See also Feuer, The Spanish-American War at Sea; Manners, Poor Cousins.

  “coincident with the departure”: “Bonilla Gone with Hornet.”

  “I shot the roll on you”: This dialogue has been reported in several books, including, Deutsch, The Incredible Yanqui. The original source is probably the interview Zemurray gave Forbes in 1936.

  He thought he’d scored perfectly: The story appears in Deutsch, The Incredible Yanqui, as well as in interviews given by Christmas. As for the particular colors he failed to identify, these vary from telling to telling, if named at all. I have included those that seem most relevant to his railroading job.

  “Guerrero … defended the town”: F. G. Masquelette as quoted in the New York Times, February 1, 1911.

  The treaty was defeated: For details on Dávila during the war, see Langley and Schoonover, The Banana Men; Karnes, Tropical Enterprise; Deutsch, The Incredible Yanqui; Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit; Kinzer, Overthrow; “Honduran Factions Agree to Armistice”; “New Orleans Junta Plots”; “Bonilla Gone with Hornet”; “Davila Suspected of Plan to Decamp”; as well as my own interviews.

  “Dávila, who is willing”: “Americans Abroad.”

  As of 1926, Honduras: U.S. Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States.

  11: To the Isthmus and Back

  If Zemurray could be shown: This tax concerned more than bananas; it was a huge affair proposed on many goods. See The American Economist, Vol. 51, January–June 1913, published by the Anti-Tariff League of New York, which makes a strong case against the tax.

  “I think Mr. Zemurray desired it”: For investigation into the tariff, I relied on many sources, including the transcript of Proceedings of the Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 1913.

  When he failed to appear: These details come from various articles and books, but the real color, the sense of the man, comes from Frank Brogan.

  “Mr. Zemurray was pleased”: U.S. Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States.

  Cuyamel was harvesting eight million: “Cuyamel Accepts United Fruit Offer.”

  “Hell, I’m having so much fun”: Zemurray as quoted in Pringle, “A Jonah Who Swallowed the Whale.”

  12: The Banana War

  Zemurray’s work was done: On Victor Cutter, see “United Fruit Obeys”; Barton, “A Big, Human Fellow Named Cutter”; Adams, Conquest of the Tropics; Wilson, Empire in Green and Gold.

  “on which the owner”: “United Fruit Obeys.”

  When the Banana War came: The most vivid material on the war comes from Frank Brogan, who heard the stories from Guy Molony. Most of the material was covered in the daily press.

  He bought it twice: See Dosal, Doing Business with the Dictators; “Zemurray vs. Boston”; Pringle, “A Jonah Who Swallowed the Whale.” Also, Whitfield, “Strange Fruit”; Langley and Schoonover, The Banana Men; Wilson, Empire in Green and Gold; Karnes, Tropical Enterprise.

  This was a preferred Zemurray tactic: On Montgomery and Cuyamel, see United States v. Illinois Central. Also, Dosal, Doing Business with the Dictators.

  A figure worth considering: Langley and Schoonover, The Banana Men; Koeppel, Banana; as well as many articles that ran at the time of the merger.

  13: King Fish

  It was his favorite room: The house was a place of fantasy for playwright Lillian Hellman, who grew up in New Orleans and was related to Zemurray by marriage. Jake Weinberger was her uncle Charlie’s brother. Through her uncle, Hellman knew Sam Zemurray, who, according to Deborah Martinson, author of Lillian Hellman: A Life with Foxes and Scoundrels, was a romantic figure in Hellman’s childhood. Martinson says Hellman loved the “tales and rumors … [of] killings and gunships … Guy Machine-Gun Molony, Lee Christmas.” Martinson quotes a letter Hellman wrote Zemurray, in which she asked a favor. “Many times,” wrote Hellman, “when I was in Boston, I wanted to telephone you, but it always seemed intrusive … but through the years I have so often heard people speak of you, and always felt an irrational, distant in-law pleasure in what they said.” According to Martinson, Uncle Willy, an unforgettable presence in Hellman’s memoir Pentimento, was a composite character partly based on Zemurray.

  It’s where he took associates: On the house and the plantation, see Johnson, “If Walls Could Talk”; Barry, Rising Tide; Mohr and Gordon, Tulane. Information also comes from Marjorie Cowen, the wife of the current Tulane president, Scott Cowen. She gave me a tour of the house. Mrs. Cowen produced a documentary film about the house, which was also helpful. The plantation is now a national park best visited in the spring, when the azaleas bloom. See also the National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places: 1966–1991.

  His friends called him Pig Iron: I was given a quick, illuminating description of Sam Jr. by his great-grandniece, Stephanie Stone Feoli, and her husband, Ludovico Feoli. See also Davis, The Story of Louisiana, Vol. 2.

  They were married on June 25, 1936: A wedding announcement ran in The New Y
ork Times on June 26. The marriage marked the ascent of the Zemurrays into the upper stratum of American society.

  He seemed to be aware of the concept of tzedakah: Here’s how tzedakah is described in the Jewish Virtual Library: “The word tzedaka derives from the Hebrew word tzedek, ‘justice.’ Performing deeds of justice is perhaps the most important obligation Judaism imposes on the Jew. ‘Tzedek, tzedek you shall pursue,’ the Torah instructs (Deuteronomy 16:20). Hundreds of years later, the Talmud taught: ‘Tzedaka is equal to all the other commandments combined.’”

  It’s called the Samuel Zemurray Jr.: “Radcliffe Gets $250,000.”

  Still considered among the best schools of its kind: See Malo, El Zamorano.

  On occasion, he met with the president himself: Eggenberger, Encyclopedia of World Biography; Marcus, United States Jewry, 1776–1985.

  He was one of the unofficial advisers: Zemurray was brought to the White House by Felix Frankfurter, who had previously praised the Banana Man to President Roosevelt.

  “How many men ever”: The speech can be seen and heard at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIMi7fBA6e4 (last accessed February 3, 2012).

  To Long, “the people”: Sources on Huey Long include Williams, Huey Long; White, Kingfish; as well as the very funny opening pages of Liebling, The Earl of Louisiana; and Long, Every Man a King.

  “In the evenings they literally sat around”: Barry, Rising Tide.

  Why the Zemurray millions: Long, Every Man a King.

  I once knew one of the investigators: Morris Leibman was a friend and mentor of mine in Chicago. He was a founding partner, with Newton Minow, of one of the law firms that merged to become the present-day Sidley Austin.

  Others suggest a darker conspiracy: For an edgier take on Long, see Deutsch, The Huey Long Murder Case.

  14: The Fish That Ate the Whale

  It grew by accretion: Federal Writers’ Project, New Orleans City Guide (1938).

  The company was caught in a death spiral: For corporate numbers, see the Wall Street Journal and New York Times stories; “United Fruit Annual Reports” (1929–1933); Wilson, Empire in Green and Gold; Whitfield, “Strange Fruit”; Langley and Schoonover, The Banana Men. Also, “Zemurray vs. Boston.”

  “If you trust him, trust him”: This dialogue was recounted by Zemurray to a reporter for The American Magazine (Pringle, “A Jonah Who Swallowed the Whale”).

  Wing welcomed Zemurray: McCann describes the scene in An American Company. More information on this scene, which, in the way of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, has been chronicled again and again, can be found in Langley and Schoonover, The Banana Men; Koeppel, Banana; “United Fruit Obeys”; “United Fruit’s Control Shifts.”

  “[I didn’t want to watch]”: On the showdown in Boston, see Langley and Schoonover, The Banana Men; Koeppel, Banana; McCann, An American Company; “United Fruit Obeys.”

  15: Los Pericos

  Given the opportunity: On banana diseases and how the various companies reacted, see Voss, “Report on Aerial Application Procedures and Equipment”; Calpouzos, “Studies on the Sigatoka Disease of Bananas and Its Fungus Pathogen”; Pillay and Tenkouano, Banana Breeding; Taylor and Scharlin, Smart Alliance; Jenkins, Bananas; Mohr and Gordon, Tulane; Stewart, Keith and Costa Rica; Koeppel, Banana; Kobler, “Sam the Banana Man”; Unifruco, Winter 1927.

  “Please, Sport, don’t confuse me”: McCann, An American Company. Zemurray frequently referred to people as “Sport,” which is only one of the things he had in common with Jay Gatsby.

  United Fruit hired the biologist: Karnes, Tropical Enterprise.

  You see it in the climactic scene: According to McCann, the company, in exchange for the use of its facilities, asked only that Bogart sit for a short interview, conducted by McCann, for Unifruco. Bogart drank all day, was too loaded to do his scene—a stunt double was used—then swore at McCann when he approached with his notebook, saying, in essence, Get the fuck out of here, kid.

  Elia Kazan wanted to use the dock: Watch the movie carefully and you will realize one of the ships unloaded by the dockworkers is carrying bananas, which would give the union boss leverage with the owner, as a delay of even a few hours could mean the ruin of the cargo.

  16: Bananas Go to War

  War Crops: Zemurray with Smith, “War Crops from Our Neighbor’s Garden.” For further information on United Fruit in the war, see Chapman, Bananas; May and Plaza Lasso, The United Fruit Company in Latin America.

  As part of FDR’s National War Board: See “Jamaica Acts to Send Men Here.” This episode shows Zemurray behaving like a banana man in the classical sense. In the first years of the industry, when the Indians refused to work the fields, or were sickened by the work, Minor Keith imported workers from Jamaica and other islands, which is why the Caribbean coast of the isthmus seems less Central American than Caribbean today.

  Sam gave everything he had: Meanwhile, as U.F. diversified away from bananas, executives sought to fix the brand in the public mind. Enter sultry “Chiquita Banana,” the company mascot, which debuted in print ads and radio jingles in 1944. This character, created by Dik Browne, the cartoonist who created Hägar the Horrible, was nakedly based on the Brazilian nightclub singer Carmen Miranda, whose fame (she danced and sang in thickly accented English) had swept the nation. Like Miranda, Chiquita wore a fruit basket on her head; like Miranda, Chiquita high-kicked in heels; like Miranda, Chiquita tossed her fluted skirt, showing the doughboys a little too much thigh as she sang her silly song. (See Pieterse, White on Black; Jenkins, Bananas; Wilson, Empire in Green and Gold.)

  17: Israel Is Real

  “I paid my first visit to New Orleans”: Am I the only one who finds the phrasing funny?

  In 1926, he gave: “To Aid Power Plant on Jordan River.”

  In the early 1940s, Sam used: On Zemurray’s contributions to Zionism, see Feldstein, The Land That I Show You; Hammer, Good Faith and Credit; Whitfield, “Strange Fruit”; as well as various newspaper articles.

  several hundred Jewish refugees: Most of these émigrés had moved to the United States by 1960. About seventy Jews live in Sosúa today, the remnant of the wartime community. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, “Those who did remain in Sosúa and held on to their land have made a fortune. Erik Hauser, an original settler from Vienna, now owns an entire block of the lucrative downtown area, where hotels and restaurants were built on his original eighty acres. He is Sosúa’s wealthiest resident.” (See Lauren Levy, “The Dominican Republic’s Haven for Jewish Refugees,” Jewish Virtual Library.)

  “the victorious Allies”: Hochstein and Greenfield, The Jews’ Secret Fleet.

  “Zemurray helped raise the purchase price”: McCann does not have this right. The Exodus was turned back, which is what made it such a powerful symbol—these Holocaust survivors were returned to the land of their tormentors. The Exodus was the model for the ship portrayed in Leon Uris’s book Exodus, the basis for the Otto Preminger movie of the same name. I was able to interview the captain of the Exodus before he died.

  The most famous vessel: On Zemurray and the Bricha, see Hochstein and Greenfield, The Jews’ Secret Fleet; Hammer, Good Faith and Credit; Skolnik, Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 21; Weizmann, Trial and Error; Weisgal,… So Far. Additional information comes from newspaper stories and discussions with Gadi Marle.

  Behind them, behind the creation: For this section, see Klich, “Latin America, the United States, and the Birth of Israel”; Didion, Salvador; Morris, 1948; Chapman, Bananas; Hochstein and Greenfield, The Jews’ Secret Fleet; Weizmann, Trial and Error.

  18: Operation Success

  If you wanted to open: Sources for this section include Gleijeses, Shattered Hope; Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit; Cullather, Secret History; Grandin, Empire’s Workshop; Chapman, Bananas; May and Plaza Lasso, The United Fruit Company in Latin America; McCann, An American Company.

  There were no workers: See Koeppel, Banana; Perez-Brignoli, A Brief History of Central America; Gleijeses
, Shattered Hope; Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit.

  He said he would govern: Perez-Brignoli, A Brief History of Central America.

  “All the achievements of the Company”: Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit.

  In return, the company was reportedly paid: To make a point, Arbenz ordered that his own family estate be confiscated under the decree.

  “There’s a battle waging”: Anderson, Che Guevara. In addition to books mentioned above, sources include Castañeda, Compañero; and Guevara, The Complete Bolivian Diaries.

  “I had the opportunity”: Anderson, Che Guevara.

  “Right after he became Undersecretary of State”: On Tommy the Cork and political hires, see McKean, Tommy the Cork; Hunt, Undercover; Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit; Whitfield, “Strange Fruit”; McCann, An American Company; “The Cork Bobs Back.”

  When Clements died: See Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit.

  If you want to advance: Sources on Edward Bernays include Tye, The Father of Spin; as well as Bernays’s own books, especially Propaganda and Biography of an Idea.

  He took out an ad: Bernays paid models to participate in his “smokeouts,” assuring that the less attractive would fall in like sheep. I came across the following exchange in John O’Hara’s BUtterfield 8, published in 1935:

  “Didn’t you notice that girl that went by with the foreign looking man? She was smoking a cigarette.”

  “She gets paid for that.”

  “Paid for it?”

  “Yes, paid for it. I read that in Winchell’s column—”

  “Mr. Zemurray sat at a flat-top desk”: Bernays, Biography of an Idea.

  When the Times staffer: Gruson, “How Communists Won Control of Guatemala.” He actually suggested that Guatemala had gone Red.

  “As long as Khrushchev”: This quote, an expression of a long-held sentiment, appears in Dulles, The Craft of Intelligence.

  Whether he was in Athens: On Ambassador Peurifoy, see Higgins, Perfect Failure; Quigley, The Ruses for War; Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit; Chapman, Bananas; Lewis, “Ambassador Extraordinary.”