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This article is about the 1926 Mayor of New York. For similarly-named persons, see James Walker (disambiguation).
James John Walker, often known as
Jimmy Walker and colloquially as
Beau James (
June 19, 1881 –
November 18, 1946), was the
mayor of New York City during the
Jazz Age.
Walker was the son of Irish-born
William Walker, a Democratic assemblyman and alderman from
Greenwich Village, belying certain accounts of Walker's childhood which stated he grew up in poverty. Before entering politics, the young Jimmy Walker worked as a songwriter, his most popular composition being "Will You Love Me in December (as you do in May)?"
He attended
Xavier College and
New York Law School. He was elected to the New York State Assembly in
1909 and the
New York State Senate in
1914. He acted as majority leader of the state senate, in which capacity he was served by a young
Robert Moses. In
1926 he became Mayor of New York City, having defeated incumbent
John F. Hylan in the 1925 Democratic primary with the help of Governor
Alfred E. Smith and
Tammany Hall. The initial years of his mayoralty were a prosperous time for the city, with many public works profects. However, Walker's term was also known for the proliferation of speakeasies during the
Prohibition era. His affairs with "chorus girls" were widely known, and he left his wife, Janet, for showgirl
Betty Compton without impairing his popularity. He managed to maintain the five-cent subway fare despite a threatened strike.
He won re-election by an overwhelming margin in 1929, defeating Republican
Fiorello H. LaGuardia and Socialist
Norman Thomas. Walker's fortunes turned downward with the
economy (due to the
stock-market crash of 1929). Patrick Cardinal Hayes denounced him, implying that the immorality of the mayor, both personal and political in tolerating "girlie
magazines" and
casinos, was a cause of the economic downturn.
Increasing social unrest led to investigations into corruption within his administration, and he was eventually forced to testify before the investigative committee of Judge Samuel Seabury (the
Seabury Commission). Facing pressure from Governor
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Walker resigned from office on
September 1, 1932 and promptly left for
Europe until the danger of criminal prosecution appeared remote. There he married Betty Compton.
After his return to the United States, for a time Walker acted as head of
Majestic Records. On his death, at the age of 65, in 1946, he was interred in the
Gate of Heaven Cemetery in
Hawthorne, New York.
A romanticized version of Walker's tenure as mayor was presented in the
1957 film
Beau James starring
Bob Hope.
