0:01

Welcome to steph you missed in history

0:03

Class from how Stuff Works dot Com.

0:11

Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry

0:14

and I'm Tracy Wilson. Uh.

0:16

This episode is about a person who was on my list

0:18

and then our listener Rich suggested it recently

0:21

and that resparked my interest in the topic.

0:24

Uh. Nell donnely Reid was a woman way

0:26

ahead of her time in a number of ways. She was

0:28

creative. She had the business acumen

0:31

to turn that creativity into a

0:33

very successful business before women

0:35

even had the right to vote in the United States.

0:38

Uh. And her story combines the numbers of things

0:40

that make for a fascinating tale. It's

0:42

almost like a movie manuscript. Uh.

0:44

There's fashion, there's education, there's kidnapping,

0:47

there's marital scandal. Nell lived

0:49

a long life. She did a lot with her time, including

0:51

focusing on workers health and safety

0:54

needs. But she is, like

0:56

any historical figure, complicated.

0:59

She was born Ellen Howard Quinlin

1:02

on March sixth in

1:04

Parsons, Kansas. Her father,

1:06

John Quinlin, had moved to the United States

1:08

from County Cork, Ireland, and he worked

1:10

on the railroad and also farmed.

1:13

I think the railroad he worked on might have actually been the

1:15

Katie which we talked about on the Crash

1:17

at Crush episode. Nel

1:20

was born at home on the farm and John

1:22

and his wife Katherine Fitzgibbons, had thirteen

1:25

total children. Ellen was

1:27

the twelfth child and fifth daughter,

1:30

and she was nicknamed Nel by her siblings.

1:32

At a really early age, uh Nel

1:34

went to school at a convent. She didn't

1:36

stay there, but they had a school

1:38

there that she attended during the day, and then

1:41

she went to Parsons Business College and she started

1:43

working as a stenographer in Kansas City

1:45

immediately after she graduated, and

1:48

shortly after her moved to the city, she met a

1:50

man named Paul J. Donnelly and the pair

1:52

were soon married, and at this point

1:54

Nel was seventeen and Paul was twenty three.

1:57

But Nell did not follow the normal

2:00

out for the time of a young woman to give up

2:02

her career or education to settle down

2:04

into the rule of wife. Instead,

2:06

she continued to work and both she and

2:09

her husband Paul, saved their earnings

2:11

so that Nell could go to college. When

2:14

she attended classes at Lindenwood College

2:16

in St. Charles, Missouri, she was the

2:18

only married student. She graduated

2:21

in nineteen o nine. Once she

2:23

was done with school, Nell started to focus

2:25

on sewing. This was something she had done for her

2:27

whole life, and it was a skill that she had

2:29

always excelled at. Naturally, she

2:31

started making clothes both for herself and

2:34

for her family when she was still a kid. A

2:36

lot of the time, she also altered clothes

2:38

that she had had passed down from

2:40

her sisters she would remake them for

2:42

herself. Once she finished college,

2:45

she went back to sewing, largely because

2:47

she was pretty dismayed at the very frumpy

2:49

options that were available for women who

2:52

were working as homemakers. They are

2:54

very sack like. From that time, they

2:56

are very sack like. She called the

2:59

mother Hubbard dress

3:01

because at that point she had left her stenographer

3:04

job to go to school full time, and

3:06

when she finished school she kind of did to settle

3:08

into a housewife e role, even

3:11

though she didn't quite know where her life was going to go.

3:13

But she really really did not enjoy

3:15

the options for house dresses. She thought that

3:18

she should look smart, and her design

3:20

ideology was pretty simple and based on that.

3:22

She just thought that women should have clothing options

3:25

that looked smart and stylish, even if

3:27

their work was taking care of house and home,

3:29

and even if no one but family might see

3:31

them. She was also really smart

3:34

about cut. She created dresses

3:36

that flattered the figure, but they also did not restrict

3:38

movement. And when neighbors and friends

3:41

saw Nell or her sisters wearing dresses

3:43

that she had designed and made, they all wanted

3:45

their own. And so in

3:47

the seven years following her graduation from

3:50

college, now kind of had a

3:52

little bit of a cottage industry making custom

3:54

dresses for women in the community, but

3:56

she didn't really consider herself a dressmaker

3:59

at this point. Her clients and

4:01

her family, though, really urged her to take

4:03

her business out to a larger market.

4:05

So in nineteen sixteen, she started getting

4:07

a lot more serious about a career in

4:09

dressmaking. After taking

4:12

a look at the very limited market

4:14

of clothing available to women in the

4:16

Kansas City area, she had the confidence

4:18

to bring some of her ideas to a department

4:21

store. Yeah. I love that she went out and did

4:23

kind of her own market research, and that's something

4:25

that really was kind

4:27

of an ingrained part of her work

4:29

Throughout her life. She always tried to continue

4:32

to learn and when she spoke

4:35

to the buyer at the George c. Peck Dry

4:37

Goods Company, which was where she took her

4:39

dresses to show. She

4:41

was worried that she might just be laughed

4:43

out of the building. Even though she neither were not great options,

4:46

she still was a little scared. But instead

4:49

she left with an order for eighteen

4:51

dozen dresses. So then she

4:53

had a new problem, which was figuring

4:55

out how to manufacture two hundred and

4:57

sixteen garments really quickly.

4:59

I think she had a two months window, which,

5:02

uh, if you do any stitching, two

5:05

hundred and sixteen dresses in two months is a

5:07

lot. Uh. And Nell had agreed

5:09

to this order without really having the means to

5:11

fill it, so she basically had to start

5:14

her own business lickety split. So

5:16

Nell and her husband Paul talked us over. Paul,

5:19

who worked as a manager in the credit department

5:21

at the Barton Shoe Company, had one

5:24

thousand, two hundred seventy dollars

5:26

in savings and they used that

5:28

money to get Nel's business up and running.

5:30

She hired two seamstresses, bought

5:32

two power sewing machines, and then set

5:35

up shop in the attic of their home. That

5:37

first batch of dresses had a pretty

5:39

simple design. They were high waisted

5:42

dresses with a waist band yoke and kimono

5:44

sleeves. They were accentuated

5:46

by some narrow ruffle details. Nell

5:49

would say later that she just wanted to make women

5:51

pretty while they did the dishes, and

5:54

she must have really been onto something. They

5:56

filled the order, but that led

5:58

to another problem. Was a

6:00

good problem to have, but still a problem.

6:03

All two hundred sixteen dresses sold out

6:05

the day they were put on the sales floor. Yeah, there's

6:07

a really interesting um paper

6:09

that I read in preparation for this, written

6:12

by two women, and they're kind of examining

6:14

why these dresses sold

6:17

out so quickly and why they were so popular because

6:19

it wasn't as though they had no other options

6:21

for dresses. It's an interesting read

6:23

and we'll have it in this show. Notes. But

6:25

basically, she kind of was onto this idea

6:27

of like you could look cute at home, uh,

6:31

and people really liked that idea.

6:33

And so at this point Nell and Paul

6:36

knew that they had to expand their business,

6:38

and they had to do it really, really rapidly.

6:40

They were, of course, still operating in the red.

6:43

Those two hundred sixteen dresses had sold

6:45

for a dollar each. That was uh

6:47

significantly higher than the average price point

6:49

for a house dress, which I have seen listed as

6:52

around sixty nine cents. Uh.

6:54

But even so people snatch

6:56

them up. But even so, that's not uh

7:00

anything like they were going to make back that initial

7:02

one thousand, two hundred seventy dollar investment.

7:05

But they both really saw that this business

7:07

had potential, and so their next step was

7:09

to find a dedicated factory space

7:12

and move production out of their attic and get a

7:14

little bit bigger. They found a spot in Kansas

7:16

City, Missouri, on the corner of twenty ninth

7:18

Street in Brooklyn Avenue, but they outgrew

7:20

that space really quickly, and in eighteen

7:23

they moved into a larger space on twenty

7:25

one and Grand Paul left

7:28

soon after that to fight in World War One,

7:30

and Nell kept things running while he was away.

7:33

By the time he got back, Nell had grown

7:35

the company significantly. She was up to

7:37

eighteen staff, they were operating

7:39

in the black, and they were bringing in a quarter of

7:41

a million dollars annually. So

7:44

understandably, Paul quit his credit manager

7:47

job and the two of them worked side

7:49

by side full time in the garment business.

7:51

As they reorganized the company to keep

7:53

pace with its growth. Nell became

7:55

the secretary treasurer and Paul

7:58

served as president, but no really

8:00

the one running things while Paul took

8:02

care of the business in administrative details.

8:05

The Nelly Dawn clothing label, which was

8:07

created by inverting uh the

8:09

name Donnelly, took off like wildfire.

8:12

To keep pace with the fashion industry,

8:14

new started making regular trips to Europe

8:17

to see what was trending in Paris and Vienna.

8:19

She also studied the US market

8:22

to make sure she kept pace with the other designers.

8:25

She kept track of her customer base to make sure

8:27

she was serving the needs of the people who actually

8:29

purchased her clothes, and she selected

8:32

the best possible fabrics and performed

8:34

rigorous tests on them at the factory to make

8:36

sure that her garments not only looked stylish

8:39

but would also last. Yeah, she

8:41

really um had a

8:43

keen sense of the balance between fashion

8:45

and utility and how you needed both to really

8:48

be successful in the market she was in. Nel

8:51

was also really really adamant that the dresses

8:53

and aprons that they made at the Donnelly Garment

8:55

Company were true, ready to wear without

8:57

the need for professional alteration. She

9:00

would include little details that could be easily altered

9:02

by someone at home, like adjustable straps

9:04

and things like that to make it fit perfect. But

9:07

she also had samples made in every single size,

9:09

and then she would put each of those garments through

9:11

their paces with models performing

9:13

the sorts of activities that a woman might encounter

9:16

in an average day. And this was all done

9:18

to make sure that there was freedom of movement and

9:20

that no matter what size the woman

9:23

and the clothing, they were always flattering.

9:25

And a lot of the dress wearers and our audience

9:28

will also love to hear that her signature

9:30

Handy Dandy apron line and

9:32

her dresses had functional

9:35

pockets. Nell insisted on this. I

9:37

am happy to hear this because, unlike

9:39

Holly, I don't make all my own clothes to

9:43

have the features I personally want, so

9:45

I'm always excited when I find things

9:47

to buy the have pockets in them. I feel

9:49

like a fashion trader because

9:51

I don't really care about pockets. I

9:54

know I'm the only one. I just don't.

9:57

Pockets don't do much for me um

10:00

other than like a place to put my hand unless they

10:02

have a zipper closure. I don't trust them to hold things anyway,

10:04

So then I'm like just spoils the line sometimes.

10:06

I just always I always need a chap stick

10:09

in there. Yeah, that goes in my wrist wallet.

10:12

Uh see, I have a controversial pocket opinion.

10:14

Don't attack me. Um.

10:16

Throughout the growth of the Donnelly Company,

10:19

Nell took a very very progressive approach

10:21

to how their employees were treated. As

10:24

I said, she always studied the market and

10:26

the industry, and in doing so, when

10:28

she really looked at the history of manufacturing

10:31

and where it was at that point in time, so

10:33

that she could learn as much as she could and maybe find

10:35

ways that she could make her factory more

10:37

efficient. She also became really keenly

10:40

aware of the poor working conditions

10:42

that a lot of laborers face. She did not want

10:44

the kinds of accidents that often hurt or

10:47

frankly, very often killed workers in other

10:49

factories to be part of her company's legacy.

10:52

Working conditions that Donnally were a lot

10:54

safer than at most other garment factories.

10:56

The wages were also better. Employees

10:59

had acts us to medical care through their jobs,

11:02

and because Nell knew how valuable

11:04

her own education had been to her success,

11:06

she offered night classes and tuition grants

11:08

to her employees, and she started a scholarship

11:11

program for her employees children. Yeah,

11:13

one of the things she did that was really unique, particularly

11:16

for the time, is like she had a regular doctor

11:19

come like I think once a week and just do checkups.

11:21

People needed them, and eventually they

11:23

can bring their kids for those check ups. The

11:25

Donaldy's also really felt like it was important

11:28

that their employees felt respected and that they

11:30

were recognized as vital to the success

11:32

of the business. Now, some of this, too

11:34

is part of building up sort

11:36

of the forward facing

11:38

identity of the company, because

11:41

Nell was very, very comfortable giving interviews

11:43

and so part of this was also playing

11:45

up how great they were to work for. And she once told

11:47

a reporter quote, the attitude of

11:49

our employees towards the executives in

11:51

the firm is not that they work under others,

11:54

but that they are working with others. Nell's

11:56

business, which started with less than one thousand,

11:59

three d dollars and two hired seamstresses,

12:02

turned into a multimillion dollar

12:04

company during the nineteen twenties. By

12:06

nineteen thirty one, they had a thousand

12:08

employees. And because they made affordable

12:11

quality clothing, which was a necessity

12:13

instead of luxury goods. They managed

12:15

to weather the nine financial

12:17

crash and the Great Depression that followed it.

12:20

This ability of non luxury dry

12:22

goods companies to survive times of

12:24

financial instability also came up in our

12:26

Levi Strauss episode that was

12:28

not long ago this year. Yeah, but

12:31

though the Donnell's managed to keep their business

12:33

in good shape during those turbulent times,

12:35

their personal lives were a little less

12:37

smooth. And we're going to talk about that right

12:40

after we first paused for a sponsor break.

12:49

So in early Nell

12:52

got pregnant, and this was a problem

12:54

for two reasons. One,

12:57

her husband Paul had told her that if she

12:59

ever got pignant, he would kill himself.

13:02

It is not entirely clear what his motivation

13:04

for this statement was. It has been speculated

13:07

by various historians UH

13:09

and people who have studied Nell's story

13:11

that he likely suffered from depression, and

13:14

he reportedly did have some issues with drinking

13:16

and infidelity that drove a wedge between

13:18

the couple UH. And Two, to

13:20

be clear, this child was not his. We

13:23

are going to come back to the paternity of Nell's baby

13:25

in just a moment. But to

13:27

deal with this problem, Nell

13:29

came up with a plan, so while she was

13:31

still early enough in the pregnancy that she was not

13:34

showing, she traveled allegedly

13:36

to Europe. Some versions of this story

13:38

say that instead she actually just went to Chicago.

13:41

It's all because it's all kind of shrouded in a cloak

13:43

and dagger move. We don't really

13:46

know she was not at home, that she

13:48

was not in Kansas City, but she

13:50

had told Paul that she wanted to adopt a child,

13:53

so she came home to Kansas City

13:55

with a new baby, David, in the late

13:57

fall of nine. By

13:59

this point, Nell was already famous. She

14:02

was well known in Kansas City as a very

14:04

successful and very wealthy woman. She

14:06

had been profiled in magazines as a business

14:09

leader and an innovator. Her company

14:11

was a three point five million dollar

14:13

business at this point, and on the night of December

14:16

six, nineteen thirty one, that success

14:19

made her the target of a kidnapping and

14:21

ransom plot. So after work

14:23

that night, Nell got into her car with her

14:25

chauffeur, George Blair, and headed home

14:27

for the evening, and as they approached

14:29

the driveway of the Donnelly home, another

14:32

car blocked their way. Three

14:34

men got out of that second car. One

14:36

jumped in the front seat and quickly tied up Blair,

14:39

while the other two got in the back, one on

14:41

either side of Nell, and Nell

14:43

fought against them, but they pushed her to the floorboard

14:46

and they held her there. Donnelly

14:48

and Blair were taken to a house in Bonner

14:51

Springs, Kansas that was roughly twenty five

14:53

miles to the west of Donnelly's Kansas

14:55

City home. Nell was

14:57

kept on a cot and Blair was kept

15:00

and blindfolded. The kidnappers

15:02

called the home of James E. Taylor,

15:05

who was the Donnally's lawyer, that night,

15:07

but Mrs Taylor, who took the call, thought

15:09

it was just a prank. The person on the other

15:11

end of the lines told her that she could find

15:14

Nell, Donnally's abandoned car and

15:16

country club plaza. I always

15:18

wonder when I read about this why she was

15:20

like, Oh, pranksters versus

15:23

what a weird call. Maybe we should check it out. Uh.

15:26

The kidnappers also sent a ransom

15:28

note to Paul Donnally demanding seventy

15:30

five thousand dollars, and he received that

15:32

note the morning after the abduction. This

15:35

missive is a little bit awkward in that it

15:37

appears to have been dictated to

15:39

Nell to write, but the voice changes

15:42

from that of Nell writing directly to Paul

15:45

to that of the kidnappers talking to Nell,

15:47

and it reads as follows, Dear

15:50

Paul, these men say they want seventy

15:52

five thousand dollars. Use your own

15:54

judgment. They kidnapped me and chauffeur

15:57

Wednesday night. If you do not pay

15:59

his direct did seventy five thousand dollars

16:01

in cash dollars

16:03

and twenty dollar bills,

16:05

dollars in tens and twenty thousand

16:08

dollars in fifties if

16:10

he and at this point it seems like it's switched

16:12

and they're referring to Paul. If he

16:14

or any does not do is directed, we

16:16

shall take him same as we have taken

16:18

you, meaning no. If

16:21

reported to police or any authorities, we

16:23

shall blind you, meaning now and

16:25

kill. And then they use a racist slur for George

16:28

Blair. Paul yourself shall

16:30

drive the car, meaning our Lincoln at all

16:32

times. If this letter is given to any

16:34

police authorities, it will be the last

16:36

of me, and they will get you the same way they got

16:38

me. Paul called James E. Taylor,

16:41

and this is when the tailor's realized that

16:43

the call they had gotten the night before was not

16:45

a prank. Taylor called

16:47

his law partner, James Read. Just

16:50

to be clear, there's James Read, there's James Taylor.

16:53

Two different James is Read was

16:55

the Donnalley's next door neighbor. When he had

16:57

a long and impressive career. He had

16:59

been a county attorney, a counselor for

17:01

the city, the mayor of Kansas City,

17:04

and had served three terms as a U S

17:06

Senator. Yeah, James A. Reid

17:08

could be his own episode. He is not a person

17:10

I think I would have enjoyed very much. Um,

17:13

We'll talk a little bit about it here, but he definitely

17:16

uh had some some outdated

17:19

views. James,

17:21

Reid and Nell were very close.

17:23

While Nell and Paul were, as we said,

17:25

very successful at running a business together, their

17:27

marriage had become strained and distant,

17:30

and Nell and Reid had become involved romantically.

17:33

Nell and Paul's adopted son, David,

17:36

was in fact Reid's biological child, and

17:39

so when Reid got word of this kidnapping, he

17:42

immediately asked the judge of the trial that he was working

17:44

on at the time if he could have leave and

17:46

once he was granted that leave, he immediately left

17:48

the courthouse in such a speedy

17:51

manner that it set off a flurry of

17:53

gossip and speculation about what might be

17:55

going on. The specific instructions

17:57

to Paul and that original note had been

17:59

that he was to park the car that was mentioned

18:01

in the letter in front of the Mercer

18:03

Hotel at ten o'clock on December seventeenth.

18:06

He was supposed to stay there for fifteen minutes

18:08

as a signal that he was willing to go along

18:10

with the kidnappers demands. If

18:12

nobody appeared. He was supposed to repeat

18:15

this the next day, and then every day after

18:17

that until someone communicated with him.

18:20

He eventually received another note, this one

18:22

signed by Nell, authorizing the withdrawal

18:24

of the money. But though Paul Donnelly

18:26

had done as instructed and had not contacted

18:29

police himself, the police had

18:31

heard the rumors that started the day Read left

18:33

the courthouse, and the newspapers had

18:35

picked up some rumors and had been covering the story

18:38

since then as well, even though they didn't have a whole

18:40

lot to go on. It kind of seems

18:42

like somebody at the courthouse must have blabbed

18:45

when James Reid talked to the judge about

18:47

needing to to go. Uh. Someone

18:50

involved in that discussion must have blabbed

18:52

to the press because they were I mean,

18:54

they didn't magically conjure that she had been

18:56

kidnapped. They were printing it based on somebody's

18:58

information. Uh. And all of

19:00

this, this rumor and gossip

19:03

that was showing up in the press and with the police, which

19:05

they knew could sour this whole situation

19:08

made James Reid realize

19:10

he had to make a statement to the Kansas City Star

19:13

to address the situation. Read's

19:15

statement made it clear that if Nell was

19:17

returned, the kidnappers could have that

19:19

ransom that they had demanded, but if

19:22

anything happens to her, he

19:24

and Paul Donnelly would quote spend

19:26

the rest of our lives running the culprits

19:28

to earth and securing for them

19:30

the extreme penalty of law. And

19:33

soon John Lazia, a well

19:35

known Kansas City gangster with a lot of

19:37

influence in the city's politics, joined

19:40

the search. Lazia had

19:42

known Read for some time. Uh.

19:45

There are many verses of this story that say

19:47

that Reid actually reached out to Lazia and said,

19:49

you're going to do this for me because

19:51

after Lazia told the police that no

19:53

one from the criminal underworld would kidnap

19:55

Nell, knowing that James Reid was her lawyer,

19:58

Lazia then sent Carl Wads of his associates

20:01

to look for Nell. Donnelly Like twenty five

20:03

cars of men went out. Just

20:06

feels like a movie about

20:08

corrupt political figures for

20:11

sure, and with good reasons. It

20:15

was Lazia's men who eventually located

20:17

Nell and her driver. And the details here are

20:20

a little murky too, but Nell told

20:22

the police that a group of men forced their way

20:24

into the house where she and Blair were being

20:26

held. These men took their

20:28

captors outside and then told her that they

20:30

would take her home. She and George

20:32

Blair were free and relatively unharmed

20:35

after thirty four hours in captivity.

20:37

The whole retrieval of

20:39

them went so smoothly that there were

20:41

rumors that spread that this whole thing had

20:44

just been a publicity stunt. Read's

20:47

reputation in all this was also damaged

20:49

because his relationship with the city's

20:51

criminal underworld became public

20:53

knowledge through Lazia's involvement

20:55

in all this. Yeah, it was a big weird

20:58

mess where people were like, wait, uh,

21:01

this happened, and you seem really interested

21:03

in this woman's welfare even though you're just

21:05

her lawyer. And now

21:07

you have a gangster finding

21:09

her that did so because he's

21:12

your friend. What's going on here? Um?

21:15

Again, it would make a great movie. Uh.

21:17

While the kidnappers initially fled and

21:19

again we don't really know how that played out. Uh,

21:22

they were captured. Paul Shite

21:24

was the first man apprehended and brought to trial.

21:27

James A. Reid served as special prosecutor

21:29

in that trial. Shite claimed

21:31

that he believed the kidnapping was arranged

21:33

by a husband who he thought was in the oil

21:36

business. Uh, and that when he realized

21:38

that he had been duped in this whole plan, that

21:40

he had just let the captives go. In

21:43

a surprise outcome. The jury

21:45

completely believed him, and Shite was acquitted.

21:48

Martin Depew and Walter Werner had

21:50

very different outcomes in their court cases

21:52

after those two were apprehended. Both

21:54

were sentenced to life in prison, and

21:57

then a third man, Charles

21:59

I'm not sure how the last name is pronounced, Charles

22:01

Mail or Melee perhaps received

22:04

a thirty five years sentence for his part in

22:06

the kidnapping plot, although he insisted

22:09

throughout the entire trial that he had absolutely

22:11

nothing to do with it. The only evidence

22:13

against him was that Nell identified him.

22:16

We will talk about Nell's life after this kidnapping,

22:18

but first we will take a quick sponsor

22:20

break.

22:28

So while Nell's return after

22:31

her abduction relatively safe

22:33

and sound, might seem like a joyous end

22:35

to the tumult in the Donnelly home, it

22:37

was absolutely not. Just a

22:39

couple of months later, Nell divorced Paul in

22:41

early ninety two, she bought

22:43

out half of his business and she became executive

22:46

director of the company. And

22:48

that same year, James A. Reid's

22:50

wife died, and so in December

22:52

of ninety three, Nell and

22:55

James Reid were married in a ceremony

22:57

that surprised their guests. They had invited

22:59

friends to Nell's home for what the attendees

23:02

thought was just a dinner party, only to

23:04

find a wedding happening after the meal ended.

23:06

Nell was forty four at the time and Read was

23:09

seventy two. For the next several

23:11

years, Nell Donnally Reid's life was pretty

23:13

smooth. She and James seemed

23:15

happy and her business continued to thrive,

23:18

but the same could not be said for Paul don

23:20

Lane. Sadly, he also remarried to a

23:23

woman who was much younger than he was, named

23:25

Virginia George. They married in February

23:27

of nineteen thirty three, but then just

23:29

a year and a half later, he died by suicide.

23:32

That was in September of nineteen thirty four.

23:34

He had spent most of his fortune by that point.

23:37

In nineteen thirty seven, the International

23:39

Ladies Garment Workers Union made efforts

23:41

to get the workers at Donnelly Garment Manufacturing

23:44

to unionize, But, unlike

23:47

at many other companies in Kansas City, which had

23:49

become a huge clothing manufacturing hub

23:51

at this point, a lot of Nell's

23:53

employees did not see the need for reunion. They

23:56

felt that their working conditions were safe and their

23:58

benefits were excellent, far better than

24:00

any other factory offered. A lot

24:02

of the staff didn't feel like a union would be

24:04

of much benefit to them, but this was definitely

24:07

not a universally held opinion. On

24:09

the factory floor, there were employees

24:12

who talked to the union about things like tedium

24:15

and exhaustion in their sections. These

24:17

sections were small groups of employees

24:20

who were set up to create garments, with

24:22

each woman working on one specific

24:25

aspect of the garment and then turning

24:27

out the garments as a team, so each person

24:29

had one job, but they were still working together

24:32

to create each stress. This handful

24:34

of women who joined the union faced layoffs

24:37

and pressure and harassment from within their

24:39

jobs. The I l g WU,

24:42

which had been successful in unionizing

24:44

most of Kansas City's other factories, took

24:46

out ads in the local papers saying that

24:49

Nell and her company were unwilling to

24:51

meet the union standards and

24:53

that that was what was really causing all

24:55

of this um refusal to become

24:57

a part of the union. But between less

24:59

than ens who's enthusiastic support for the

25:01

union among a lot of employees, and

25:03

the few who actually did favor a union

25:05

facing retribution for it, this whole

25:08

idea just did not gain much traction. To

25:10

combat the I l g WU,

25:14

the Donally factory formed its own union,

25:16

which was the Donal League Garment Workers Union,

25:18

in May of nineteen thirty seven. Although that

25:21

group was formed under the auspices

25:23

of management to try to shut down

25:25

the other union's efforts, it wasn't something

25:27

that the employees decided on their own

25:29

to form the Donnally Union

25:31

president, who was Rose Todd, who was

25:33

a supervisor at the company, started

25:36

giving statements to the press that they could handle

25:38

their own advocacy and they didn't need outsiders

25:40

trying to manage it for them.

25:42

This union issue dragged on and on.

25:45

The i l g WU continued

25:47

to try to force unionization under their umbrella

25:50

on the Donnally factory and also tried

25:52

to dissuade department stores from carrying

25:54

the Nelly don brand UH.

25:56

They even wrote up little UH notes

25:59

that that the department stores could use

26:01

to explain the situation in

26:03

this case eventually was played

26:05

out in court. It went to federal court. A

26:08

judge forbade the International Lady's Garment

26:10

Workers Union from trying to get involved

26:12

in the Donnely plant any further, but

26:14

then that decision was later overturned the

26:17

Donnely factory and this outside union

26:19

continued to lock horns for years,

26:22

and as the issue continued to be a real thorn

26:24

in her side, Nell started to tell people that there

26:27

was no way an entrepreneur could start a

26:29

business and be successful because of all these

26:31

complications that unions brought about

26:34

this. Well, it was one of the reasons

26:36

that the conditions that the factory were so so good.

26:38

She like, she wanted things to be so good

26:40

that people wouldn't want a union. Yeah.

26:44

She felt like, I feel like I'm doing everything right.

26:46

Why are people still coming after me? Yeah. So

26:49

then to compound all these matters, While

26:51

her husband, James Reid, wasn't involved

26:53

in the running of the factory, he did have

26:55

a lot of political clout. He served in

26:57

a legal capacity for his wife's company,

27:00

and he was pretty openly racist and anti

27:02

Semitic, including when it came

27:04

to these labor matters and labor organizers.

27:08

Yes, so, the I L g W You

27:10

president, David Dubinski was a Russian

27:12

born Jew, and Read referred to him

27:14

as a foreign radical and far worse.

27:17

When Read appeared in court proceedings to

27:19

discuss the matter, Read made

27:21

the case that unions were dangerous to women.

27:24

They were run by rapists and violent people.

27:26

He talked about them being, you know, like the scum

27:28

that was scraped from the double's cauldron. Ultimately,

27:32

though the injunction against the I L g W

27:34

You was lifted, the Donnelly

27:36

Company had created an atmosphere like

27:38

we said, of of both fear

27:42

that the these foreign

27:45

devils were going to come and try to unionize

27:47

them and make something dangerous, and

27:49

also fear that anyone that actually

27:51

embraced the union would get in trouble or lose their

27:53

job. That they really did kind of

27:55

make this bubble that prevented the union

27:57

from ever penetrating. Yeah, it was

28:00

like they were simultaneously doing

28:02

things to discourage unionizing

28:04

and also really inspiring a lot

28:07

a lot of loyalty among their employees.

28:09

It was complicated. World

28:11

War two also brought a lot of changes to the Nelly

28:14

Don brand as they continued to expand

28:16

their lines who appeal to women who had jobs

28:18

outside the home. So what had started

28:20

as a business for making stylish dresses

28:23

and aprons for homemakers had

28:26

by the late nineteen forties expanded to

28:28

offer business attire and accessories.

28:30

The factory was turning out one point five

28:32

million dresses a year, making it

28:34

the largest facility of its kind in the

28:36

world, And throughout all of

28:38

this, journalists and consumers marveled

28:41

at how they managed to keep quality high

28:43

and prices reasonable. Yeah, they talked

28:45

about a lot of details that um

28:48

would be associated with much much higher

28:50

end garments, like they talked about the depth of the

28:52

hems, which if you know, you know, if

28:54

you're looking at a dress from the inside and the hem is

28:56

what is called deep. It means there is a lot of the outside

28:59

fabric folded up under to create that him

29:01

And in some places they would cut those shorter so

29:04

that you would save that couple inches of fabric, which

29:06

seems like not much, but then over one point

29:08

five million garments as up to a lot of fabric, and

29:10

it's like a cost cutting measure. But Nelly

29:12

Don was not taking those shortcuts. And

29:14

the company was also really unique in that

29:16

it hired women for positions at

29:18

all levels. Nell claimed that

29:21

she hired blindly, paying no mind to

29:23

whether the applicant was a man or a woman, and

29:25

focusing simply on whether they were the right

29:27

fit and could do the job. In

29:30

one magazine interviewed, Nell told a reporter

29:33

quote, I've heard some women say they would

29:35

rather talk with men, have business dealings

29:37

with men. I don't feel that

29:39

way about it. I have no preference or

29:41

prejudice in the matter. I like

29:43

to talk business with a competent person, whether

29:45

that person is a man or a woman. When

29:48

she saw that somebody was a hard worker and

29:50

could manage their job really well, she promoted

29:52

them, and that way a lot of women who started

29:54

in low level positions that the company rose

29:57

up through the ranks to become executives. Nine

30:00

out of ten employees that the Donnely Factory

30:02

were women, and unlike in a

30:04

lot of factories where like the line level

30:06

workers would be women and the executives

30:08

would be men, these women were spread

30:10

all through all levels of the company.

30:12

In nineteen forty four, as the company

30:15

was going through its growth into new markets,

30:17

including all this business, where Nell's

30:19

husband, James Reid, died of pneumonia. She

30:22

did not ever marry again. In

30:24

nineteen fifty two, she donated seven thirty

30:26

one acres of land the Missouri Department of

30:28

Conservation in honor of James, who she

30:31

had spent many happy hours with out

30:33

in nature, hunting, fishing, and just enjoying

30:35

each other's company. That was something they both really loved

30:38

together. The James A. Reid

30:40

Memorial Wildlife Area remains intact

30:42

today. In nineteen fifty six, Nell

30:44

sold off for company shares and retired.

30:47

She had been in the garment industry for forty

30:49

years and the Donnally Garment Company

30:51

became Nellie don Inc. And it became a

30:53

publicly traded company two years after Nell

30:56

left. But without her ability

30:58

to deal directly with tech style manufacturers

31:01

to get the best deals or to streamline production

31:03

in ways that made the factory at its most efficient,

31:06

the business really struggled. Nellie down

31:08

Ink went into bankruptcy and closed permanently

31:10

in nineteen seventy eight. But from her

31:12

retirement onward, Nell donnellly

31:15

Reid remained very, very active in the

31:17

Kansas City community. She continued

31:19

to promote education and she was a board

31:21

member at Lindenwood College, where she was in alum

31:24

as well as at the Kansas City Art Institute,

31:26

and she also became a member of the city Board

31:28

of Education. She really

31:30

really tried to promote a lot of education

31:32

reform and she was on the board of trustees

31:34

at the Midwest Research Institute. She

31:37

died at home on September eight, nineteen

31:40

one. She was a hundred and two years old.

31:42

Yeah, she looked a really long life. Uh.

31:44

In two thousand six, Nell's great nephew,

31:47

Terrance O'Malley, made a documentary about her

31:49

and her business titled Nelly Down a Stitch

31:51

in Time, and then more than a decade later

31:53

in twenty seventeen. He started it

31:55

several years before that, but I think seventeen

31:57

was the first stage reading he had developed her

31:59

story into a musical. Like we

32:01

said at the top, uh Nell was complicated.

32:04

Her life was not like all sunshine,

32:07

rainbow perfection. But one of

32:09

the things that really struck me in researching

32:11

her story was her insistence that when the workday

32:14

ended, it was over something

32:16

that grows more and more difficult as we all tend to

32:19

check email late into the night and sometimes on vacation.

32:22

Uh And she also wanted people

32:24

to continue to learn and grow, And so I

32:26

wanted to finish with a quote of hers that I really liked.

32:29

She gave it an interview where she said, you

32:31

can't be a well balanced person if you

32:33

insist on devoting all your attention to

32:35

business, even those details which

32:38

can be managed by others, leaving no free

32:40

time for your development as a human

32:42

being. Ray That

32:45

is Nell Donnelly Reid. Like we said,

32:47

she's still complicated. Do you also

32:49

have some listener mail? I do have some listener

32:52

mail. This is another one about our USO and

32:54

Bob Hope episode. Uh.

32:56

This is from our listener Thomasina, who

32:58

writes High Holly and Tracy live in Juneo, Alaska,

33:01

and I was thrilled to hear my hometown of Cordova,

33:03

Alaska name checked in your podcast about Bob

33:05

Hope in the us O Show. It reminded

33:08

me of my family story about my uncle

33:10

encountering Bob Hope while he was visiting before

33:13

that hair raising flight that you mentioned. When

33:15

Bob Hope came to visit the town of Cordova,

33:18

which then had a population of less than two

33:20

thousand people, not including military folks

33:22

station there at the time. To say it was a

33:24

really big deal is a massive understatement.

33:26

It was like a minor deity was in town.

33:29

A massive entourage followed him down the

33:31

main street, on which still stands the apartment

33:33

building in which my father's family then

33:35

lived, my father having not been born yet.

33:38

When Bob Hope passed by the front stoop of the

33:40

building, he encountered my uncle, who was a small

33:42

child at the time. My dad's family

33:44

is of Alaska Native and Caucasian heritage,

33:47

but my uncle did not really lean toward the features

33:49

of my allotique Norwegian grandpa, or my

33:51

can get Danish grandma. I'm sorry if

33:53

I said those words incorrectly. Instead, my

33:55

father's oldest brother came out with a blend of both

33:58

of his parents attributes, resulting in auburn

34:00

hair, a ski slope, nos, and freckles.

34:02

You can see where this is going. Bob

34:05

Hope saw this little kid who looked a lot like him

34:07

and stopped to chat with him, thinking you would make for a cute

34:09

photo. Ops, sadly none of us has a copy

34:11

of this picture if it survived, and said,

34:14

hey, son, how old are you for said

34:16

my uncle, and what's your name? My

34:18

uncle's name was George Robert Jr. But he

34:21

went by You guessed it, Bob and

34:23

Bob Hope, after learning this, paused for a beat,

34:25

and then he supposedly turned to his compatriots

34:28

and equipped, Now that I think about it, I did

34:30

come through here about four years ago. My

34:33

uncle passed away back in the early two thousand's,

34:35

and that was one of my grandmother's favorite stories that

34:37

she liked to share about him until she

34:39

herself passed last year. Thank you for reminding

34:41

me of it, and thanks for all the hours of crunching spreadsheets

34:44

at work that your lovely show has been more bearable.

34:47

That is the cutest family story and it makes me laugh

34:49

and laugh, So thank you so much for sharing that, Thomasina.

34:52

If you would like to write to us, you

34:54

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34:56

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