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The appearance of Jack Morgan, head of the Morgan financial group, before the Senate Banking Committee became something of a public carnival. The spectacle of the nation's most powerful banker being grilled by bulldog New York prosecutor Ferdinand Pecora inspired a media frenzy. Senators had to request photographers to stop snapping flashbulbs and quit shuffling chairs so they could see and hear the witnesses. "We are having a circus," stammered Virginia senator Carter Glass, "and the only things lacking now are peanuts and colored lemonade."
The next day the circus literally arrived at the Senate. A Ringling Brothers press agent, Charles Leef, had overheard Glass's comment and brought to Capitol Hill a thirty-two-year-old midget named Lya Graf. As the hearing began, Leef took a seat beside Morgan and plopped the twentyseven- inch-tall Graf on his lap. To the horror of Morgan's partners, Morgan...
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This section contains 252 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) |
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