User:Richard Arthur Norton (1958- )/Gerard David Schine

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Gerard David Schine

Schine at the Army-McCarthy hearings, 1954
Born September 11, 1927(1927-09-11)
Gloversville, New York
Died June 19, 1996 (aged 68)
Los Angeles, California
Cause of death Airplane crash
Burial place Westwood Village Cemetery
Known for Army-McCarthy Hearings
Spouse Hillevi Rombin
Children F. Berndt Schine (1964-1996)
Parents Junius Myer Schine
Hildegarde Feldman
Relatives Renee Schine Crown (sister)

Gerard David Schine, better known as G. David Schine (September 11, 1927 – June 19, 1996), was the chief consultant to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He received national attention when he became a central figure in the Army-McCarthy Hearings of 1954.[1]

Contents

[edit] Early years

He was born in Gloversville, New York to Junius Myer Schine.[2] Junius was in the movie theater, hotel and real estate industries. Gerard attended Phillips Academy and graduated from Harvard University in 1949.[3]

[edit] Anti-communism and Army-McCarthy

At age 24, Schine published an anti-communism pamphlet called Definition of Communism in 1952, and had a copy placed in every room of his family's chain of hotels. This attracted the attention of Roy Cohn, who at that time was Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel. Schine soon joined McCarthy's staff as chief consultant. Among their other anti-communist activities, Schine and Cohn conducted a highly publicized, and widely ridiculed,[4] tour of Europe in 1953, examining libraries of the United States Information Agency for books written by authors they deemed to be Communists or fellow travelers.[5]

In November 1953, Schine was drafted into the U. S. Army as a private.[6] Cohn immediately began a campaign to get special privileges for Schine. Cohn met with and made repeated phone calls to military officials from the Secretary of the Army down to Schine's company commander. He asked that Schine be given a commission, which the Army refused due to Schine's lack of qualifications, and that Schine be given light duties, extra leave and not be assigned overseas. At one point, Cohn was reported to have threatened to "wreck the Army" if his demands were not met.[7] In the Army-McCarthy Hearings of 1954, the Army charged Cohn and McCarthy with using improper pressure to influence the Army, while McCarthy and Cohn counter-charged that the Army was holding Schine "hostage" in an attempt to squelch McCarthy's investigations into Communists in the Army. The hearings were broadcast live using the relatively new medium of television and were viewed by an estimated 20 million people. In anticipation of the hearings, Schine and Cohn appeared on the cover of TIME magazine on March 22, 1954.[8]

Schine and Cohn were rumored to have a sexual relationship, although there has never been any proof of this. More recently, some historians have concluded it was a friendship and that Schine was heterosexual.[9] [10] Schine was known to have a fondness for attractive women, and during this period, he was romantically linked with some starlets, including Rhonda Fleming and Piper Laurie.[11] Roy Cohn's homosexuality would later become publicly known, and he died of AIDS in 1986.[12]

The findings of the Army-McCarthy hearings cleared Senator McCarthy of any direct wrongdoing, placing the blame on Cohn alone. But the exposure of McCarthy and his methods before a television audience is considered by many as being key to his downfall from his former position of power and influence.[13] Roy Cohn resigned from McCarthy's staff shortly after the hearings.

[edit] Later years

After the hearings, Schine left politics and declined to comment on the episode for the rest of his life. He remained active in the private sector as a businessman and an entrepreneur, working in the hotel, music, and film industries, and he was a founding member of the Young Presidents' Organization.[14] In 1957, he married the Miss Universe of 1955, Hillevi Rombin of Sweden.[15][16] They had six children, including F. Berndt Schine (1964-1996), and were married for nearly 40 years until their deaths in 1996.[15] Also in 1957, Gerard was named head of Schine Enterprises, by his father Junius. In 1963 Junius resumed his position as head of the company.[17]

Schine made a cameo appearance as himself on a 1968 episode of Batman.[18] Schine was executive producer of the 1971 film The French Connection, which was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won five, including Best Picture.[3] Shortly afterwards, Schine was involved with chart topping music that achieved Billboard gold and platinum and Cash Box #1, by The DeFranco Family. Schine's company, Schine Music, would also provide songs to Lou Rawls and Bobby Sherman, among others. A musician himself, Schine had music that he had composed published, and at one point, he guest-conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra for Arthur Fiedler. Schine's post production video house in Hollywood, Studio Television Services, handled clients such as HBO, Disney, Orion, and MGM/UA. His publicly traded research and development company, High Resolution Sciences, endeavored for years to bring high definition to broadcast television.

[edit] Death

Schine was killed in 1996, at the age of 68, in a private airplane accident in Burbank, California.[6] His wife was with him on the plane, and his son, Berndt, was piloting the airplane. All three died from their injuries.[3][15]

[edit] Legacy

Following Schine's death, Tony Kushner wrote a one act comedy play, G. David Schine in Hell. The play takes place on June 19, 1996 (the day Schine died), and portrays Schine as he arrives in hell, where he is reunited with Roy Cohn, Richard Nixon, Whittaker Chambers, and J. Edgar Hoover.

Schine appears as a character in the Novel Fellow Travelers by Thomas Mallon (Pantheon Books: 2007).

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "G. David Schine", New York Times, June 5, 1977, Sunday. Retrieved on 2008-04-01. "At the start, the focus was on G. David Schine, an Army private who had been chief consultant to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations ..." 
  2. ^ "J. M. Schine, Hotel Chain Founder, Dies", Los Angeles Times, May 9, 1971. Retrieved on 2008-03-16. "J. Myer Schine, 79, founder and chairman of Schine Enterprises, owners of the Los Angeles Ambassador and other hostelries throughout the nation, died Saturday..." 
  3. ^ a b c "Crash Kills G. David Schine, 69, McCarthy-Era Figure", New York Times, June 21, 1996. Retrieved on 2008-03-11. "G. David Schine, a catalytic figure in the fierce drama that brought to a climax the chapter in American history known as the McCarthy era, was killed on Wednesday when a single-engine plane piloted by his son Berndt crashed shortly after takeoff from Burbank, California. Mr. Schine, who was 69 and lived in Los Angeles, died with his wife, Hillevi, 64, and their son, 35." 
  4. ^ See for example: Cook, Fred J. (1971). The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy. Random House, pp. 411-413. ISBN 0-394-46270-X. 
  5. ^ Ward, Geoffrey C.. "Roy Cohn", American Heritage Magazine, 1988. Retrieved on 2008-03-12. "His single stated regret was that he and his young fellow-counsel, G. David Schine, had ever undertaken their celebrated 1953 trip to Europe to purge United States Information Agency libraries of 'more than thirty thousand works by Communists, fellow-travelers and unwitting promoters of the Soviet cause.'" 
  6. ^ a b "Plane Crash Kills McCarthy Aide; Aviation: G. David Schine, his wife and son die as single-engine craft goes down near freeway soon after takeoff from Burbank Airport.", Los Angeles Times, June 20, 1996. Retrieved on 2008-03-15. "G. David Schine -- focus of the epic congressional hearings in the 1950s that led to the downfall of Sen. Joseph McCarthy -- Schine's wife and their son were killed Wednesday when their single-engine plane crashed moments after takeoff from Burbank airport, police said." 
  7. ^ "The Self-Inflated Target", Time (magazine), March 22, 1954. Retrieved on 2008-03-11. "... the Army's sensational charge: Roy Cohn had threatened to "wreck the Army" in an attempt to get special treatment for one Private G. David Schine." 
  8. ^ Cohen and Schine. The Army Got Its Orders.. Time (magazine) (March 22, 1954). Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
  9. ^ Miller, Neil (1995). Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present. New York: Vintage Books. “Ironically, it was the inordinate concern on the part of McCarthy and his chief counsel, Roy M. Cohn, regarding the military server of McCarthy committee aid G. David Schine — a concern that may or may not have had a homosexual element to it — that was to precipitate the Army-McCarthy hearings that finally brought down the Washington senator.”
  10. ^ See for example:
    Wolfe, Tom. "Dangerous Obsessions", New York Times, April 3, 1988. "But so far as Mr. Schine is concerned, there has never been the slightest evidence that he was anything but a good-looking kid who was having a helluva good time in a helluva good cause. In any event, the rumors were sizzling away ..." ;
    Baxter, Randolph (November 13, 2006). An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. glbtq, Inc. “Tall, rich, and suave, the Harvard-educated (and heterosexual) Schine contrasted starkly with the short, physically undistinguished, and caustic Cohn.”
    On the other hand, author Tom Wicker refers to Schine as "Cohn's boyfriend:" Wicker, Tom (1995). Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy. Harcourt, pp. 127, 138 & 166. ISBN 015101082X. 
  11. ^ Piper Laurie. Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen.
  12. ^ Hoffman, Nicholas Von (1988). Citizen Cohn: The Life and Times of Roy Cohn. Doubleday, pp. 127, 183-190. ISBN 0245545050. 
  13. ^ See, for example:
    Oshinsky, David M. (2005). A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy. Oxford University Press, pp 464-465. ISBN 0-19-515424-X. ,
    Reeves, Thomas C. (1982). The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography. Madison Books, pp 639 et seq.. ISBN 1-56833-101-0. 
  14. ^ McNees, Pat. YPO: The First 50 Years.
  15. ^ a b c "G. David Schine Dies at 68. Key Figure in McCarthy Era.", Washington Post, June 21, 1996. Retrieved on 2008-03-15. "Also killed in the crash were Mr. Schine's wife, Hillevi Schine, 62, and his son, F. Berndt Schine, 34. Mrs. Schine was Miss Universe in 1956." 
  16. ^ "G. David Schine Is Married.", New York Times, October 23, 1957. Retrieved on 2008-03-11. 
  17. ^ "A Towering Empire.", Time (magazine), 1965. Retrieved on 2008-03-15. "In 1957, he turned over the title of president of Schine Enterprises to his elder son, G. (for Gerard) David Schine, who was once the most famous private in the U.S. Army. ... He has not been company president since 1963, when his father took the job back himself." 
  18. ^ The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra.. TV.com (March 7, 1968).

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