Fiorello H. LaGuardia

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LaGuardia redirects here. For the airport, see LaGuardia Airport.

Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (December 11, 1882–September 20, 1947) was the Mayor of New York from 1934 to 1945. He was popularly known as "the Little Flower," the translation of his Italian first name. According to modern historians, LaGuardia is considered one of New York City's greatest mayors because of his role in leading New York during the Great Depression.

LaGuardia was born in The Bronx to a Italian Catholic father and a Hungarian of Jewish origin mother and was raised an Episcopalian. He spent most of his childhood in Prescott, Arizona. The family moved to Trieste, Italy after his father was discharged from his bandmaster position in the U.S. Army in 1898. LaGuardia served in U.S. consulates in Budapest, Trieste, and Fiume (1901–1906). Fiorello returned to the U.S. to continue his education at New York University, and during this time he worked as a translator at Ellis Island (1907–1910).

He became the Deputy Attorney General of New York in 1914. In 1916 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives where he developed a reputation as a fiery and devoted reformer. In Congress, LaGuardia represented then-Italian East Harlem.

In 1921 his wife died of tuberculosis, LaGuardia having nursed her through the 17 month ordeal; depressed, he turned to the bottle and spent most of the year following her death on an alcoholic binge. He recovered and became a teetotaler.

Extending his record as a reformer, LaGuardia sponsored labor legislation and railed against immigration quotas. He was overwhelmingly defeated by incumbent Jimmy Walker in the 1929 mayoral election.

In 1932, along with Sen. George Norris (R-NE), Rep. LaGuardia passed the Norris-LaGuardia Act.

LaGuardia was elected mayor of New York City on an anti-corruption "fusion" ticket during the Great Depression, which united him in an uneasy alliance with New York's liberal bluebloods. These included the famed architect and New York historian I.N. Phelps-Stokes whose patrician manners LaGuardia detested. Surprisingly, the two men became friends. Phelps-Stokes had personally nursed his wife during the last five years of her life, during which she was paralysed and speechless due to a series of strokes. On learning of Phelps-Stokes's ordeal, so like his own, LaGuardia ceased all bickering and the two developed genuine affection for each other.

LaGuardia was the city's first Italian-American mayor, but LaGuardia was far from being a typical Italian New Yorker. He was Republican, Episcopalian, had grown up in Arizona, and had an Istrian Jewish mother and a Roman Catholic-turned-atheist father. He reportedly spoke seven languages, including Hebrew, Italian, and Yiddish.

LaGuardia is famous for, among other things, restoring the economic lifeblood of New York City during and after the Great Depression. His massive public works programs employed thousands of unemployed New Yorkers and his constant lobbying for federal government funds allowed New York to establish the foundation for its economic infrastructure. He was also well known for reading the comics on the radio during a newspaper strike, and pushing to have a commercial airport (Floyd Bennett Field, and now LaGuardia Airport) within city limits. Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and LaGuardia Community College are also named for him. He was also the subject of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Fiorello!.

External link

• Fiorello La Guardia from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

Preceded by: Michael Francis Farley	U.S. Representative 14th District of New York 1917–1919	Succeeded by: Nathan D. Pearlman
Preceded by: Isaac Siegel	U.S. Representative 20th District of New York 1922–1933	Succeeded by: James J. Lanzetta
Preceded by: John P. O'Brien	Mayor of New York City 1934–1945	Succeeded by: William O'Dwyer