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See Also in
Notorious Lives

Thomas Joseph Pendergast

Arnold Rothstein

William Marcy Tweed.

Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives

James J. Walker

by Jerome L. Neapolitan

Mayor of New York City (1926-1932)

Cause of notoriety: As mayor of New York City, Walker faithfully served the interests of Tammany Hall—the corrupt Democratic Party machine of the time—through cronyism in political appointments and favoritism in the awarding of contracts.

Active: 1926-1932

Locale: New York, New York

Early Life

James J. (Jimmy) Walker (WAH-kuhr) was born June 19, 1881, to William Walker, a Democratic assemblyman and alderman from Greenwich Village. Before entering politics, Jimmy Walker was an aspiring actor and fairly successful songwriter; his most popular composition was “Will You Love Me in December (As You Do in May)?” He studied law, and his first successful foray into politics was his election to the New York State Assembly in 1909. He married chorus girl Janet Allen in 1912, but they were divorced in 1933. He then married actress Betty Compton, whom he divorced in 1942.

Political Career

In 1914, Walker won election to the New York State Senate. While still a state senator, he had helped pass legislation that legalized after-church entertainment on Sundays, including baseball, boxing, and filmgoing. This move won him the approval of many working-class people and helped his election to mayor in 1926.

Walker was a flamboyant and charismatic mayor, more interested in nightclubbing, showgirls, and gambling than in governing. Despite frequent vacations, a showgirl mistress (Compton), and rumors of corruption, the people loved “Beau James,” as Walker was often called. Walker represented the city’s rebellious “anything goes” attitude toward the social repression of the times. Although Walker operated within the context of the Volstead Act, which had enacted Prohibition, the youth of the Roaring Twenties found a way around Prohibition in speakeasies and black-market liquor.

Despite the lack of attention to his job, Walker was a surprisingly shrewd and effective politician. He was part of Tammany Hall, the name given to the corrupt Democratic Party machine of the time. He was an effective machine boss and knew how to find votes for himself and his cronies. For example, some tax revenues from questionable and private real estate deals, which brought in a half-billion dollars annually to the city, were used for better wages for city employees. Actions like this greatly endeared him to New Yorkers. In 1929, he won reelection by an overwhelming margin.

However, the Great Depression that began in 1929 exposed Walker’s neglect of essential city services and made his flamboyant lifestyle less palatable to the masses. Furthermore, the gangland murder of organized crime kingpin Arnold Rothstein exposed the weakness and corruption of the district attorney and the police department. Resultant social unrest led to investigations in 1931 into Walker’s administration. They revealed an enormous amount of corruption at all levels of the Walker administration, particularly in the city’s court system and the police vice squad.

In 1932, Walker was charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in payoffs and bribes from people who had business ties to the city. He was called before Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt to answer the charges. On September 1, 1932, Walker resigned from office and fled the country to live in Europe.

There were some notable accomplishments of the Walker administration, including the creation of the Department of Sanitation and the beginnings of construction on the Triborough Bridge, the West Side Highway, and the Queens Midtown Tunnel. Walker returned to New York City in 1935 and eventually became head of Majestic Records, where he remained until his death in New York on November 18, 1946.

Impact

In the mid-1990’s, political historian Melvin G. Holli polled 160 journalists, historians, and social scientists about the ten best and ten worst mayors in the history of the United States between 1820 and 1993. Because of the massive corruption of the Walker administration and Walker’s contributions to the greatest economic collapse in the city’s history, he was ranked as the third worst. However, in his time, Walker was loved by many New Yorkers. As the mayoral election approached in 1945, Daily News straw pollsters showed the voters in New York City favored him as Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s successor. A romanticized version of Walker’s life appeared in the 1957 film Beau James, starring Bob Hope.

The investigation and eventual downfall of Walker played a crucial role in Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s ascendance to the presidency. Governor Roosevelt, who was in the midst of his first presidential campaign in 1932, became personally involved in the investigations of Walker. A former Tammany Hall man himself, Roosevelt recast himself as a “goo-goo” (advocate of good government), which greatly contributed to his successful run for the presidency that year.

Further Reading

1 

Fowler, Gene. Beau James: The Life and Times of Jimmy Walker. New York: Viking, 1949. This book is considered by many to be the best biography of Walker.

2 

Holli, Melvin G. The American Mayor: The Best and the Worst Big-City Leaders. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999. Includes the results of Holli’s poll and gives biographies for each mayor who ranked in the poll. Also discusses what qualities distinguish good from bad city leaders.

3 

Leinwand, Gerald. Mackerels in the Moonlight: Four Corrupt American Mayors. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004. Four of America’s most corrupt mayors, including Walker, are profiled and analyzed.

4 

Mitang, Herbert. Once upon a Time in New York: Jimmy Walker, Franklin Roosevelt, and the Last Great Battle of the Jazz Age. New York: Free Press, 2000. This book traces the political downfall of Mayor Walker and rise of Governor Roosevelt to the presidency.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Neapolitan, Jerome L. "James J. Walker." Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives, edited by Carl L. Bankston III, Salem Press, 2007. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLN_1605.
APA 7th
Neapolitan, J. L. (2007). James J. Walker. In C. L. Bankston III (Ed.), Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Neapolitan, Jerome L. "James J. Walker." Edited by Carl L. Bankston III. Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2007. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.