Al Smith

Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873–October 4, 1944), often known as Al Smith, was Governor of New York and a U.S. presidential candidate in 1928. He lost the election to Herbert Hoover.

Later life

After the 1928 election, when a friend of Smith encouraged him to invest in a real estate company that was constructing the world's tallest building in New York's Midtown Manhattan, he became the president of Empire State, Inc., the corporation which built and operated the Empire State Building. Smith was present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony when the building opened for business in May 1931, built in only 18 months by men and women who were left penniless by the 1929 Great Depression. In 1936, having become a right-wing industrialist Republican, Smith campaigned against the liberal "Wasp", Franklin Delano Roosevelt, although Smith maintained good relations with Winston Churchill and supported the WWII effort.

Related Topics:
Real estate - Empire State Building - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Winston Churchill

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He died on October 4, 1944, at the age of 70, broken-hearted ever since the death of his wife from cancer the previous year; he is interred at Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York.

Related Topics:
October 4 - 1944 - Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York

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