Grover Whalen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grover Whalen was a prominent politician, businessman, and public relations guru in New York City during the 1930s and 1940s. His first major political assignment was as chief of police, where he was known to be a ruthless enforcer of current prohibition laws. He is known to have declared at this time, "There is plenty of law at the end of a nightstick."
He was later appointed by Fiorello La Guardia as New York's official greeter and became a public celebrity easily recognized by his exquisitely groomed moustache and ever-present carnation boutonniere. In this capacity, in which he served until the early 1950s, successor to William Francis Deegan, he officially welcomed everyone from Charles Lindbergh to Admiral Richard Byrd to Douglas MacArthur to New York and became master of the ticker tape parade.
In 1935 he became president of the New York World Fair Corporation and put a familiar face on the 1939 New York World's Fair. In this capacity he graced the cover of Time Magazine on May 1, 1939.
He died in April 1962.
He is mentioned in the immortal Groucho Marx song, Lydia the Tattooed Lady, as well as in the 1933 film The Prizefighter and the Lady starring Myrna Loy and Max Baer.
