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The Immaculate Politician. The Democratic leaders of New York City's outlying boroughs chose as their candidate one of the most distinguished looking gentlemen in New York City, Grover Aloysius Whalen. His father was Mike Whalen, an Irish contractor who never got very far in the world, but who named his son Grover because the lad was born June 2, 1886, the day that one of New York State's greatest Democratic politicians, Grover Cleveland, was married to Frances Folsom (now Mrs. Preston) in the White House. Grover got his start in politics when he was 30 by working for the election of John F. ("Red Mike") Hylan, Tammany's candidate to succeed the previous Fusion mayor, John Purroy Mitchell. Soon Whalen blossomed out as commissioner of plant & structures and holder of various other city offices. The one which made his reputation was secretary of Mayor Hylan's committee to welcome home coming troops after the War. He soon became the city's official welcomer. For years no notable arrived in New York harbor—not Lindbergh, not Admiral Byrd nor Queen Marie of Roumania—without the press carrying pictures of Grover Whalen in frock coat and striped trousers, topper in hand, gardenia in buttonhole, steaming down the bay on the bridge of the municipal yacht Macom to extend the hospitality of the city.
About the time Tammany decided that Hylan was becoming the butt of too many municipal jokes and replaced him with the sophisticated Jimmy Walker, Grover Whalen retired. His friend Rodman Wanamaker, who knew that besides looking the apotheosis of a floorwalker Grover Whalen had real executive ability, made him general manager of Wanamaker's Manhattan store. After only three years he was called back to the city's service. While Mayor Walker was dining out and making the wisecracks which endeared him to every Irish heart, things had gone on which put his administration in bad odor. One was the notoriously unsolved murder of the famed Gambler Arnold Rothstein. To rescue the administration from shame, Grover Whalen was made police commissioner. Soon the shortcomings of the police department were forgotten. Commissioner Whalen completely and drastically altered the city's method of traffic regulation, thereby producing an entirely new furor.
But Grover Whalen and Jimmy Walker, models of sartorial perfection though both were, had little in common. Whalen was an ambitious man but he had none of the Walker flair, and after two years Walker was glad to get rid of him. Since then Grover Whalen's talents have been devoted to private business and movements for civic improvement, chief of which was heading NRA's headquarters in Manhattan. Last year, he got an even bigger job: head promoter for New York City's World's Fair of 1939. Once more his tailored form was produced in rotogravure and then the lightning struck. He was chosen as the New Deal, anti-Tammany candidate for mayor.