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To his friends, and to strangers when he wants something from them, Cushing can display a formidable charm, and a determination that is awesome. But Alec Cushing had a certain rudeness about him from the beginning. "He was a beautiful baby," recalls his older sister, Mrs. Lily Cushing Boyd. "He was also the most determined boy you ever saw. Whenever people came up and went itchykoo at him, Alexander would lie back and bark like a sea lion." He was born to wealth. His grandfather, Robert M. Cushing, was an old Boston tea merchant. His father was a talented painter, died when Alec was four. Young Cushing grew up in New
York and Newport luxury. A gangling, tree-tall adolescent with a huge head topped by unruly red hair, Alec inevitably got the nickname "Pin," learned to play tennis well enough to reach the quarterfinals of the Newport Invitational when he was 16. He prepared for the match (against Wilmer Allison) by drinking till dawn, then amazed himself by taking a 4-1 lead in the second set. At this point his hangover caught up with him. Says Cushing: "I had a total blackout. When I tried to throw the ball up for service, I almost went flat on my face. At least that's my story. My friends say Allison looked at his watch, noticed that it was nearly lunchtime, and quickly ran off five straight games."
At Groton, the gangling Cushing was a good-hit, no-field first baseman ("I couldn't bend over far enough to get to ground balls"), did the crudest kind of skiing (classmates recall he was forever stepping out of his bindings, losing skis on the slightest of hills). At Harvard he played squash, flopped at crew ("I learned a wrist trick—a way of making a big puddle without actually pulling hard. The coach caught me one afternoon, stopped the boat and took me off").
As a matter of course, he made the Porcellian Club. Summers he traveled abroad, became expert at living like a first-class passenger on a third-class ticket. On one voyage, he ingratiated himself with Boxing Manager Joe ("I should have stood in bed") Jacobs before the ship left the dock, spent most of the trip playing poker on A-deck with Jacobs, Max Schmeling and Morton Downey. In his sophomore year Alec decided summer trips were too short, set out to get his degree in three years, didn't quite make it (he lacked one-half unit), but managed a nine-month tour of the Far East (on which he visited with Fred Astaire) while his classmates labored back in Cambridge.
Graduating in 1936, Cushing cast around for something to do, decided to go to Harvard Law School. "I had no particular love for the law," he admits, "but the alternative was going to work."
Matter of Contacts. Before he left Harvard Law, Cushing married blonde, blue-eyed Justine Cutting, socialite daughter of Dr. Fulton Cutting of New York, professor of physics at New Jersey's Stevens Institute. His closest friend (and fellow Porcellian), Alexander McFadden, had married Justine's older sister. All through his life Alec Cushing has known important people, and casually made the most of his contacts. Desultorily looking for a job. Cushing ran into his old Groton classmate, Stewart Alsop, through him got an interview with Justice Department Trustbuster Thurman Arnold, who promptly hired him.