January 2, 1950: Representative J. Parnell Thomas resigns his seat in Congress. He had little choice.
He was a phony from early on. Born on January 16, 1895 as John Parnell Feeney Jr. in Jersey City, New Jersey, and raised Catholic, he believed his political ambitions wouldn't be realized if people knew that. So, after serving in World War I, he changed his named to John Parnell Thomas, and became an Episcopalian -- Protestant, but often considered "Catholic Lite."
He was elected a Councilman in the Bergen County town of Allendale in 1924, Mayor in 1925, and to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1934. In 1936, he bucked a Democratic tide to be elected as a Republican to the open seat in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District, and was never seriously challenged for re-election.
Thomas was a staunch anti-Communist, opposing Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman at every turn. In 1947, with the Republicans having gained control of Congress, he was named Chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), one of the most un-American things America has ever produced.
His investigations into the American film industry led to the imprisonment of the screenwriters known as "The Hollywood Ten." But some actors stood up to him, including a pair of married couples: Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, labor-supporting Democrats, and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, staunch Republicans, basically told Thomas to stick it.
In 1949, Thomas called Secretary of Defense James Forrestal "the most dangerous man in America," and said that if Forrestal were not removed from office, he would cause another world war. Truman already had problems with Forrestal, and fired him on March 31. On May 22, Forrestal died, probably a suicide.
Washington Post columnists Drew Pearson (no relation to the later football star of the same name) and Jack Anderson uncovered Thomas' corruption: They received documents showing that, on New Year's Day of 1940, he placed Myra Midkiff, niece of his secretary, Helen Campbell, and Arnette Minor, Campbell's maid, on his payroll, as clerks. They earned about $1,200 a year, and kicked their entire salaries back to the Congressman. Through this practice, he would also evade a tax bracket increase. Once this was exposed, Thomas and Campbell were summoned to answer to charges of salary fraud before a grand jury.
Irony #1: Thomas pled the 5th Amendment, to protect himself from self-incrimination in legal proceedings, just like the Hollywood Ten did. On January 2, 1950, just 38 days before the "I hold in my hand" speech that allowed Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin to succeed him as the leading anti-Communist in Congress, Thomas resigned.
Irony #2: After being convicted of fraud, and being sentenced to 18 months, he was sent to the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, then "home" to 2 of the Hollywood Ten: Lester Cole and Ring Lardner Jr.
Although politically opposed to him, Truman pardoned Thomas, as a measure of goodwill, on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1952, with just 27 days left in his term. Thomas tried to regain his seat in 1954, but couldn't even win the Republican nomination. He retired to St. Petersburg, Florida, and died there on November 19, 1970.
McCarthy and Richard Nixon rode television to become famous, and infamous. Parnell resigned at the dawn of the TV era, and, despite appearing in many a newsreel in the late 1940s, has largely been forgotten.
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January 2, 1950 was a Monday. These college football bowl games, normally played on January 1, were bumped to January 2, because New Year's Day fell on a Sunday:
* Sugar Bowl, Tulane Stadium, New Orleans: Number 2 Oklahoma beat Number 9 Louisiana State (LSU), 35-0.
* Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California: Number 3 California lost to Number 6 Ohio State, 17-14.
* Cotton Bowl, Dallas: Number 5 Rice beat Number 16 North Carolina, 27-13.
* Orange Bowl, Burdine Stadium (renamed the Orange Bowl in 1959), Miami: Number 11 Kentucky lost to Number 15 Santa Clara, 21-13.
* Pineapple Bowl, Honolulu Stadium: Number 12 Stanford 74, University of Hawaii 20. Yes, 74-20. (If you're a fan of the 1990s ABC sitcom Coach, you should know that there was a real game named the Pineapple Bowl, from 1940 to 1957.)
* Gator Bowl, Jacksonville: Number 14 Maryland beat Missouri, 20-7.
* Tangerine Bowl, Orlando: St. Vincent's of Pennsylvania beat Emory & Henry, 7-6. This game has been known as the Citrus Bowl since 1983, and the Tangerine Bowl Stadium would later be named the Citrus Bowl, and now Camping World Stadium.
* Sun Bowl, Kidd Field, El Paso: Texas Western beat Georgetown, 33-20. Texas Western were playing on their home field. In 1950, Kidd Field was replaced with a stadium named the Sun Bowl, where the game is still played today. In 1967, a year after winning college basketball's National Championship, Texas Western changed its name to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).
Number 1 Notre Dame did not accept any invitations to bowl games in this period, and were named National Champions for the 1949 season. Number 4 Army and Number 8 Minnesota also did not accept bowl bids.
Baseball was out of season. No games were scheduled for the NHL. One game was played in the NBA: The Anderson Packers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 92-75 at the gymnasium at Anderson High School in Anderson, Indiana. Brooklyn Dodger pitcher Carl Erskine was a recent graduate of the at school.
Neither of these teams exists any longer. Founded in the National Basketball League in 1946, the Packers won that league's title in 1949, then moved to the NBA, but played only one season, then one more in another league, and folded in 1951. The Bullets won the NBA title in 1948, but folded early in the 1953-54 season, their name being taken by a new team in 1963.
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