Public Libraries of Suffolk County, New York

The Santa Claus man, [the rise and fall of a Jazz Age con man and the invention of Christmas in New York], Alex Palmer

eng

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history

The Santa Claus man

sound recording audiobook CD

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Alex Palmer

[the rise and fall of a Jazz Age con man and the invention of Christmas in New York]

Before the charismatic John Duval Gluck, Jr., came along, letters from New York City children to Santa Claus were destroyed, unopened, by the U.S. Post Office. Gluck saw an opportunity and created the Santa Claus Association. The effort delighted the public, and for fifteen years money and gifts flowed to the only group authorized to answer Santa's mail. Gluck became a Jazz Age celebrity, rubbing shoulders with the era's movie stars and politicians, and even planned to erect a vast Santa Claus monument in the center of Manhattan, until Gotham's crusading charity commissioner discovered some dark secrets in Santa's workshop

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