Tuxedo Park : A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II [Hardcover]

Jennet Conant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 9, 2002

In the fall of 1940, as German bombers flew over London and with America not yet at war, a small team of British scientists on orders from Winston Churchill carried out a daring trans-atlantic mission. The British unveiled their most valuable military secret in a clandestine meeting with American nuclear physicists at the Tuxedo Park mansion of a mysterious Wall Street tycoon, Alfred Lee Loomis. Powerful, handsome, and enormously wealthy, Loomis had for years led a double life, spending his days brokering huge deals and his weekends working with the world's leading scientists in his deluxe private laboratory that was hidden in a massive stone castle.

In this dramatic account of a hitherto unexplored but crucial story of the war, Jennet Conant traces one of the world's most extraordinary careers and scientific enterprises. She describes Loomis' phenomenal rise to become one of the Wall Street legends of the go-go twenties. He foresaw the stock market crash of 1929 in time to protect his vast holdings, making a fortune while other bankers were losing their shirts. He rode out the Depression years in high style, and indulged in the hobbies of the fabulously rich. He raced his own America's Cup yacht against the Vanderbilts and Astors, and purchased Hilton Head Island in South Carolina as his private game reserve. Conant writes about the glamour and privilege of his charmed circle as well as Loomis' marriage to a beautiful but depressive wife, whom he sent away for repeated hospitalizations while he pursued a covert affair with his protege's young wife. His bitter divorce scandalized New York society and drove Loomis into near seclusion in East Hampton.

At the height of hisinfluence on Wall Street, Loomis abruptly retired and devoted himself purely to science. He turned his Tuxedo Park laboratory into the meeting place for the most visionary minds of the twentieth century: Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, James Franck, Niels Bohr, and Enrico Fermi. With England threatened by invasion, he joined Vannevar Bush, Karl Compton, and the author's grandfather, Harvard president James B. Conant, in mobilizing civilian scientists to defeat Nazi Germany, and personally bankrolled pioneering research into the radar detection systems that ultimately changed the course of World War II.

Together with his friend Ernest Lawrence, the Nobel Prize-winning atom smasher, Loomis established a top-secret wartime laboratory at MIT and recruited the most famous names in physics. Through his close ties to his cousin Henry Stimson, who was secretary of war, Loomis was able to push FDR to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to create the advanced radar systems that defeated the German Air Force and deadly U-boats, and then to build the first atomic bomb. One of the greatest scientific generals of World War II, Loomis' legacy exists not only in the development of radar but also in his critical role in speeding the day of victory.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This must have been an extremely difficult book to write. Its subject, Alfred Loomis, never gave interviews during his lifetime and destroyed all his papers before his death. "Few men of Loomis' prominence and achievement have gone to greater lengths to foil history," writes author Jennet Conant. Had he not done these things, his name would be better known--and this probably wouldn't be the first biography about him. So who was Alfred Loomis? "He was too complex to categorize--financier, philanthropist, society figure, physicist, inventor, amateur, dilettante--a contradiction in terms," writes Conant. Loomis established a private laboratory in New York and hired scientists whose work in the 1930s wound up making possible both the radar and the atomic bomb. These developments were essential to Allied victory in the Second World War. Conant is perhaps the only person who could have pierced Loomis's obsessive secrecy and written this book; she grew up with Loomis's children and other members of his family. Her grandfather, Harvard president James Bryant Conant, was one of Loomis's scientists. Tuxedo Park is an important book about the development of military technology in the United States; admirers of The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes and similar titles won't want to miss it. --John Miller

From Publishers Weekly

Alfred Lee Loomis (1887-1975) made his fortune in the 1920s by investing in public utilities, but science was his first love. In 1928, he established a premier research facility in Tuxedo Park, N.Y., that attracted such brilliant minds as Einstein, Bohr and Fermi and became instrumental in the Allies' WWII victory. Conant, a magazine writer, draws on studies, family papers and interviews with Loomis's friends, family and colleagues (she's a relative of two scientists who worked with Loomis) to trace the story of the tycoon's professional and social life (the latter fairly racy). At the Tuxedo Park lab, Loomis attracted top-flight scientists who experimented with sound, time measurement and brain waves. During WWII, he established a laboratory at MIT (the "rad lab") where radar was developed. He also served as a conduit between civilian scientists and Roosevelt's military establishment. Although he lost some of his top people to the Manhattan Project, the "rad lab" was a major contributor to the allies' defense. In his well-publicized personal life, Loomis angered family members by trying to have his emotionally unstable wife institutionalized while he pursued an affair with another woman. Through Conant's spare, unobtrusive prose and well-paced storytelling, Loomis emerges as a contradictory man who craved scientific accomplishment and influence, but rarely took credit for himself. Those interested in science or WWII history will appreciate this well-researched bio.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (May 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684872870
• ISBN-13: 978-0684872872
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #552,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jennet Conant is the author of the 2002 New York Times bestseller Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II. A former journalist, she has written for Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, Newsweek, and The New York Times. She lives in New York City and Sag Harbor, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

106 of 108 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Hidden Genius, Shown for the First Time, June 10, 2002

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tuxedo Park : A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II (Hardcover)

Unless you are interested in the history of physics, I will bet you never before heard of Alfred Loomis. And I bet you will not be able to forget him, once you have read _Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science that Changed the Course of World War II_ (Simon and Schuster) by Jennet Conant. World War II, more than any preceding conflict, was won by scientific and technological superiority, and one of the allies' successes was radar. There was no more daring or inventive mind on the project than that of Alfred Loomis, and we can hope that this remarkable book redeems him from obscurity.

Loomis was groomed for WASP success. He went to Yale, and to law school at Harvard, and then on to Wall Street where he made a fortune. He displayed "a high-powered intellect that could cut through a maze of difficulty with dazzling speed." He was a chess prodigy, a brilliant solver of puzzles, and a keen magician. He and a partner took over a failing bond firm, and started specializing in utilities. They realized the volatility of the 1920s market, and were among the few to make money during the crash and after it. He had one idea in finance after another, and he was dazzlingly successful. But he wasn't interested in making money. He was interested in science. He bought a rambling Tudor mansion in Tuxedo Park, the estate in which he lived, and turned it into a crackerjack private lab, where he did first-rate experiments in timekeeping, ultrasound, biology, and encephalography. Einstein called it "a palace of science." Loomis not only dabbled brilliantly in many fields, he allowed plenty of the greats to come use his lab, and set up conferences for them all to be together. When someone had a good idea but no money to pursue it, Loomis granted the money. He not only had money, but he had contacts. Having underwritten Earnest Lawrence's efforts to produce a cyclotron, he then squired him around to the princes of industry who thereafter supplied the materials and equipment at bargain rates. He had an unbelievably useful ability to make networks. He was at the heart of the development of radar, and the science behind radar (which was devastatingly successful against Nazi planes as well as submarines), and the excitement of successful testing and deployment, are well conveyed here.

Loomis loved his anonymity, he loved being able to experiment in his own way unbeholden to others, and he modestly avoided any of the fame that he deserved. "He was, by disposition, an extremely understated man who really did not care for being center stage." He would have been embarrassed had this summary of his efforts been published in his lifetime, but Conant has had access to his papers and other documents that had previously been unavailable. This is a great story of an astonishing intellect, powerfully told, bringing to light his many accomplishments and contributions to science and to public service.

68 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing history, June 6, 2002

By 

J. Picardi "jphs5" (Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tuxedo Park : A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II (Hardcover)

I went to the World Book Encyclopedia to look for information about Alfred Lee Loomis. There was none. I wondered as I read this wonderful, well researched biography if maybe I was being led to believe that Loomis was the author's invention and that he was not as important an historical figure as he appeared to be. When I read the testimonials of those individuals who wrote about him or who the author interviewed, I readily became convinced that I was reading the story of a legend who was so private about his accomplishments that he had been forgotten. That is, until Jennet Conant completed this fascinating historical account that kept me spellbound through the last words of the epilogue, biography, and acknowledgements. Although Loomis did not literally invent radar or the atomic bomb, it was his scientific and patriotic interest that helped mold the events that led to their development. As a physician, I was fascinated by his development of the clinical application of the electroencephalogram as well as ultrasonography, each of which is currently well utilized in modern medical diagnostics. Among other scientific associations, the "L" in Loran is directly associated with the "L" in Loomis as the development of Loran was essentially his idea. And all this from an amateur physicist who by training was a Harvard educated attorney and investment banker. I will not discuss here where the name "Tuxedo Park" originates since the story will tell you the intricacies of life in the elite gated community that few until now have associated with such original and illustrious scientific discoveries. Anyone with a penchant for history that so touched all of our lives will also be spellbound by this superbly written account of a man, his associates, and the events that just may have led to the preservation of American and western world democracy.

82 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank You Jennet Conant, June 24, 2002

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taking a rest - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tuxedo Park : A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II (Hardcover)

With her biography of Alfred Lee Loomis through her book, "Tuxedo Park", Jennet Conant has given those interested the best view yet of this extraordinary man. I have read many books regarding Wall Street when Mr. Loomis was a player, and many other books on the exchange of information between Great Britain and The United States during World War II, specifically on radar and atomic weapons. The name Loomis is a vague one at best, happily Ms. Conant has remedied this gap in the historical record and delivers a great deal of knowledge about the man and his talents.

Exceptional would be an appropriate word to describe this man. A major financier on Wall Street, he not only was unhurt by the crash of 1929 he benefited from it. While enjoying after dinner conversation he could also play multiple games of chess with his back to the boards, carrying on both the conversation and the multiple games in his mind's eye alone. Clearly a man with a formidable intellect, it is not altogether shocking that after making a huge fortune on Wall Street, he walked away from it and the boards he served on to pursue other interests, interests that would have a major impact on the outcome of the Second World War.

A capitalist to his core, when the need arose for development of important scientific research he routinely would take the money from his own pocket. Over the years this amounted to huge sums of money, and much was spent long before there was the urgency of war. He encouraged and financed the best minds in physics, literally feeding and housing them in a house turned private laboratory in one of the country's wealthiest enclaves Tuxedo Park. Write down any name from Einstein to Fermi to a host of Nobel winners and they all spent time at his homes on many occasions.

And this man was just not a wanna-be with deep pockets. Whether it was innovations with radar, cyclotrons, or getting the armed forces to sit up and pay attention to devices they were in desperate need of, or gathering the money and talent to do whatever was required, he was the facilitator, and he literally made it happen. He also understood the science he was assisting.

Without his organizing the manpower and the facilities to produce devices that were recently just science fiction, the tools that were so critical to winning the war would have taken years to develop if left to the federal government. The armed forces were of little help as they were inherently protective of their own turf and distrustful of the other branches and especially of the, "long hair", physicists. He also bridged the gap of distrust when the British wanted to share innovations The United States was nowhere near to developing. Fortunately diplomacy was almost as offensive to him as a federally run science project, so when the diplomats were arguing he would go off in to a corner and start swapping information.

There were two events described in the book that are priceless. They not only illustrate all that is wrong with bureaucracy but also protecting one's turf when the turf is the same country. These events also proved why privately run efforts would beat Washington every day of the week. The military routinely dismissed the ideas and instruments that were suggested and then built. Mr. Loomis and his people knew better and they would go ahead and build a dozen prototypes, demonstrate them to the top brass, and watch the feeding frenzy begin. After watching these people who hours before had no time to waste on these ideas much less the actual product, Mr. Loomis would politely interject that all the arguing was unnecessary, as the devices were owned by him. The looks on the faces must have been worth any frustration leading up to the moment. All the infighting stopped as the bureaucrats and generals realized they were fighting over what was not theirs. The bickering stopped, and the results of the incredible researchers and Loomis were happily accepted, and orders for countless more were placed.

The book is a very well written account a man who did not want history's attention, and until this book largely avoided it. He is gone now but the implements created by his money, his determination, patriotism, and the huge groups he assembled, are still in use today. They have advanced exponentially in their capabilities, but many started or were nurtured in Tuxedo Park. This country owes a major debt to this visionary.