Fun Fact #237 Franksgiving

 Fun Fact Throwback:

Fun Fact #237

Franksgiving

When The Great Depression came, everyone fell upon hard times. However FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt) had a plan, for FDR always had a plan. In this case, Secretary of Commerce, Harry Hopkins, suggested expanding the 1939 Holiday Shopping season by  moving Thanksgiving ahead 7 days. In short this was catastrophic, with the term “Franksgiving” becoming its own cuss word for a time. The issue wasn’t starting the Holiday shopping early, but rather many contracts, sports organizations, and families made their plans around the holiday. Thus Tammany Hall played up “How Foolish FDR was” but it did work to help give a temporary boost to the economy.  

However Congress was having none of it, and passed a law setting the dates of Holidays –specifically Thanksgiving. Congress would have to approve permanent changes to holidays. It also happens to be one of the shortest pieces of legislation written by congress, being shorter than this fun fact. 

As for Franksgiving, while it seemed to disappear it was not forgotten with many people still celebrating it today. Turns out having the same holiday but in advance makes coordinating time off with family easier. 

As for Tammany Hall, they would lose their remaining influence as the probes by FDR continued into them. While “Big Tim” had died years before, eventually it came out that the current “Bowery King” had been instructing Poll watchers to take voters out for a trim, then have them vote again; repeating this process until they were clean shaven.  This is what finally killed Tammany Hall, gutting the organization to the point they disbanded with their assets being absorbed via donation to the modern Democratic Party –ironically on Franksgiving 1967.