Random Thoughts
A man of many achievements – Part 6
January 15, 2021
By Charles Dawes’s term as vice president of the United States ended in March 1929. The new president, Herbert Hoover, got along with Dawes much better than had his predecessor, Calvin Coolidge.
Consequently, Hoover appointed Dawes U.S. ambassador to Great Britain – a job that Dawes held from June 1929 through December 1931. In the meantime, however, the country had been plunged into the Great Depression.
The Hoover administration, in an effort to boost the flagging economy, created an agency called the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which made government loans to banks and other businesses.
Because of Dawes’s experience in government and banking, Hoover prevailed upon him to return to the United States and head up the agency. He resigned after a few months, however, and this turned out to be the end of his political career.
Hoover lost his reelection bid in 1932 to New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt, ushering in 20 years of Democratic control of the federal government. Consequently, Dawes was never called upon to serve in any other capacity.
There is, however, one final achievement of this remarkable individual that we need to note before we end our examination of his life. In addition to all of his other accomplishments, Dawes was a self-taught musician.
He composed an orchestral piece in 1912 called “Melody in A Major” that was played often and recorded at least twice during Dawes’s lifetime.
In 1951, the year Dawes died, a well-known composer named Carl Sigman wrote some lyrics for Dawes’s music. The result was a song called “It’s All in the Game” about the ups and downs of falling in love.
The tune, as sung by an American named Tommy Edwards, became a No. 1 hit in both the United States and Great Britain in 1958. Over the years the composition has been recorded numerous times so that it can rightfully be called an American “standard” – a song well-known and recognizable to the general public.
So, Charles Dawes had successful careers in numerous fields; he was, indeed, a man of many achievements!
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