Joseph P. Kennedy
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. was a prominent American businessman and politician, born in 1888 in Boston. He was the son of a successful saloon keeper and bank president, which influenced his own ventures in the liquor industry, banking, and politics. Kennedy made significant wealth as the president of Columbia Trust Bank and through strategic investments in the stock market, real estate, and film, notably helping to form RKO Pictures. His career was marked by a keen sense of timing and opportunism, pulling his investments from the stock market before the 1929 crash and rapidly expanding during the Great Depression.
Kennedy also served as the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and was appointed U.S. ambassador to Great Britain from 1938 to 1940. Despite never holding elected office, he played a crucial role in shaping public service values within his family, particularly impacting his sons, including President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy's legacy includes the establishment of the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation, which supports mental health initiatives, reflecting his lifelong concern for his daughter, Rosemary, who faced severe mental health issues. His complex life intertwined wealth, political influence, and family responsibility, establishing the Kennedy name as a significant presence in American public life.
Joseph P. Kennedy
- Born: September 6, 1888
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
- Died: November 18, 1969
- Place of death: Hyannis Port, Massachusetts
American businessman, investor, and diplomat
Kennedy enjoyed success in multiple fields, including banking, the stock market, real estate, and liquor importation. He imbued his children, especially his sons, with the understanding that their wealth and privilege came with the expectation that they would become national and world leaders.
Sources of wealth: Liquor importation; banking; investments; real estate
Bequeathal of wealth: Children; relatives; charity
Early Life
Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr., was born in 1888 in Boston, the son of Patrick Joseph “P. J.” Kennedy and Mary Augusta Hickey Kennedy. His father was a popular saloon keeper who drank sparingly, a banker who was loved by his clients even as he became wealthy, and an East Boston Democratic ward boss who served in the state legislature. Joseph would follow his father in all three traditions, becoming a liquor importer, serving as a bank president by the age of twenty-five, and becoming deeply involved in local, state, and national politics.
First Ventures
Kennedy had a remarkable, lifelong sense of timing and insight concerning the accumulation and maintenance of wealth, beginning with his presidency of Columbia Trust Bank in 1913 and continuing with his management of the Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, during World War I. He made millions of dollars in the unregulated stock market of the 1920’s, but he pulled his money from the market before the 1929 crash. Kennedy directed the reorganization of several smaller film studios to become RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures. In 1928, he began a decade-long affair with film star Gloria Swanson. During the Depression, his wealth increased exponentially as he bought distressed real estate, both commercial and residential.
Mature Wealth
Kennedy was accused of bootlegging during Prohibition, but these charges have never been proven. However, it is undeniable that Kennedy, anticipating the repeal of Prohibition, procured a “medical license” to warehouse large amounts of Dewar’s Scotch, Gordon’s gin, and other Somerset Importers brands, thereby creating new liquor distribution networks on and after December 5, 1933—the day Prohibition was repealed. He bought and developed the Hialeah Park Race Track in Florida and blithely mixed business with pleasure, pursuing both his business interests and various affairs with both famous women and personal secretaries throughout the United States and Europe. Although he never personally ran for office, Kennedy served as the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1934 through 1935 and as the American ambassador to Great Britain from 1938 through 1940.
During World War II, Kennedy became a major figure in the New York City real estate market and then branched out to Chicago in 1945, when he bought the Merchandise Mart, which at four million square feet was then the largest office building in the world. His oldest son, Joseph, Jr., died in a plane crash in 1944 over the English Channel, leaving Kennedy’s second son, John F. (“Jack”), to assume the family responsibility for public service. Kennedy knew that his isolationist philosophy, charges of bootlegging, underworld connections, and considerable wealth could adversely affect not only Jack’s political hopes but also the political careers of his other sons, Robert (“Bobby”) and Edward (“Ted”), so Kennedy excused himself from any public connection with his sons’ campaigns.
Legacy
Kennedy’s wealth, combined with the inculcation in his children of the responsibility of public service for those born into opportunity and privilege, has made the family name synonymous with liberal service in America. The creation of the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation has helped to fund a number of initiatives in the area of mental illness and treatment, a testimony to Kennedy’s lifelong concern about his daughter, Rosemary, who was lobotomized in 1941 and in 1949 was institutionalized for the remainder of her life.
Bibliography
Beauchamp, Cari. Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
Kessler, Ronald. The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded. New York: Warner, 1996.
Leamer, Laurence. The Kennedy Men, 1901-1963. New York: Harper, 2001.
Maier, Thomas. The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings, a Five-Generation History of the Ultimate Irish-Catholic Family. New York: Basic Books, 2004.
Whalen, Richard J. Founding Father: The Story of Joseph P. Kennedy. Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1993.