Helen Gahagan Douglas facts for kids
Helen Gahagan Douglas (born Helen Mary Gahagan; November 25, 1900 – June 28, 1980) was a talented American actress and a powerful politician. She had a successful career on Broadway, as an opera singer touring Europe, and in Hollywood movies. Her role as the villain in the 1935 film She even inspired the Evil Queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
In politics, she made history as the third woman and first Democratic woman elected to Congress from California. She ran for the United States Senate in 1950 but lost to Republican Richard Nixon. Helen Gahagan Douglas was married to actor Melvyn Douglas, and they had two children.
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Early life
Helen Mary Gahagan was born in Boonton, New Jersey, on November 25, 1900. Her family was of Scotch-Irish descent. Her father, Walter H. Gahagan, was an engineer who owned a construction business. Her mother, Lillian Rose Mussen, had been a schoolteacher.
Helen grew up in an upper-middle-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. She went to the Berkeley Carroll School, where she was noticed for her performances in school plays. She later attended the Capen School for Girls in Massachusetts.
Helen was accepted into Barnard College, part of Columbia University. However, she left after two years without finishing her degree. She decided to follow her dream of becoming an actress.
Acting career
Helen Gahagan quickly became a famous star on Broadway in the 1920s. She appeared in popular plays like Young Woodley.
In 1927, at age 26, Helen decided to become an opera singer. After two years of voice lessons, she toured Europe and received great praise, which was unusual for an American singer at that time. In 1930, she returned to Broadway to star in Tonight or Never. There, she acted alongside Melvyn Douglas. They married in 1931, and Helen kept her maiden name.
In 1935, Helen Gahagan Douglas went to Los Angeles to star in the Hollywood movie She. She played Hash-a-Motep, the queen of a lost city. This movie is famous for popularizing the phrase "She who must be obeyed." Helen's portrayal of the "ageless ice goddess" inspired the Evil Queen in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
In 1938, while performing opera in Vienna, Helen had an upsetting experience with someone who supported the Nazis. This made her determined to fight against Nazism. She immediately flew back to Los Angeles to get involved.
Political career
Helen Gahagan Douglas became interested in politics through her husband. She joined the Democratic Party shortly after Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1932. The Roosevelts and the Douglases became close friends, and Eleanor Roosevelt became a political guide for Helen.
Helen didn't really like the Hollywood scene. After her daughter, Mary Helen, was born in 1938, Helen started learning about the difficult lives of migrant workers. She became more and more interested in politics. Soon, she became the director of the John Steinbeck Committee, named after the author of The Grapes of Wrath. By 1940, she was a national spokesperson for migrant workers.
Appointments and activities
Helen and her husband joined the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League. In 1939, they encouraged people in the United States to stop buying goods made in Nazi Germany.
Helen Gahagan Douglas was a member of important national and state committees from 1939 to 1944. She also served as the Democratic national committeewoman for California. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her to the Office of Civilian Defense. Later, President Harry S. Truman appointed her as a delegate to the United Nations Assembly.
In 1946, she was honored by the National Association of Colored Women. This was for her work in helping different races and genders work together for equality.
House of Representatives
In 1943, Democratic leaders, including President Roosevelt, encouraged Helen Gahagan to run for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. To gain support, she started using her husband's last name, Douglas. She gave an impressive speech at the 1944 Democratic National Convention, which made many people think she could become a Vice President or even a President one day.
In the fall elections, Helen Gahagan Douglas won the House race. She then won two more terms, serving from January 1945 to January 1951. During her time in the House, she supported many important issues. These included civil rights, better conditions for migrant workers, women's rights, affordable housing, fair taxes, and nuclear disarmament. She was also the first to propose a bill to stop lynching. She also worked to protect California redwood trees by proposing a national forest bill.
1950 campaign for U.S. Senate
In 1950, Helen Gahagan Douglas decided to run for the United States Senate. She ran against the Republican U.S. Representative Richard M. Nixon.
The campaign between Douglas and Nixon was one of the toughest in California's political history. Nixon's campaign used very strong tactics against her. He tried to make it seem like she had ideas that were too extreme or even linked to communism. He compared her votes to those of another representative who was seen as pro-Soviet.
Nixon won the election with more than 59% of the votes. This ended Helen Gahagan Douglas's political career in Congress. However, she continued to be an activist, working for many years to control nuclear weapons.
Douglas later said that Nixon's harsh campaign was "completely unnecessary." She felt she probably would have lost anyway because many younger, Republican voters felt more connected to Nixon. Also, she was seen as too liberal and from an older political era. Money from oil companies also helped Nixon's campaign.
Later life
After her time in Congress, Helen Gahagan Douglas returned to acting in 1952. She also campaigned for John F. Kennedy, who successfully ran against Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential race.
Helen Gahagan Douglas was mentioned in a 1965 song by satirist Tom Lehrer, which talked about people from Hollywood who went into politics.
President Lyndon Johnson appointed her as a "Special Ambassador" to Liberia. However, Douglas later opposed the Vietnam War, which caused a disagreement with Johnson. She also campaigned for George McGovern in his attempt to prevent Nixon's re-election in 1972. She even called for Nixon to be removed from office during the Watergate scandal.
During and after the Watergate scandal, bumper stickers appeared in California that said, "Don't blame me, I voted for Helen Gahagan Douglas." In October 1973, she was one of the first women featured on the cover of Ms. magazine. In 1979, Barnard College gave her its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction. She passed away the next year, on June 28, 1980, from breast and lung cancer. Her husband, Melvyn, was by her side.
Legacy
Senator Alan Cranston of California spoke about Helen Gahagan Douglas in the Senate on August 5, 1980. He said she was "one of the grandest, most eloquent, deepest-thinking people we have had in American politics." He believed she was among the best leaders of the 20th century, comparing her to Eleanor Roosevelt for her greatness and kindness.
A collection of Helen Gahagan Douglas's papers, covering her life and career, is kept at the Carl Albert Center.
See also
In Spanish: Helen Gahagan Douglas para niños
- Women in the United States House of Representatives
