Christopher Gian-Cursio

Christopher Gian-Cursio, February 5, 1910 (Rochester, NY) - July 26, 1985 (Rochester, NY)

VP candidate for American Vegetarian Party (aka Vegetarian Party) (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Symon Gould (1894-1963)

Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

He was the founder of the American Vegetarian Party, but in the three previous elections Symon Gould had placed himself in the role of running-mate. In 1960 he finally stepped up to the position of Presidential nominee.

The VP choice was Christopher Gian-Cursio, who has the distinction of being the first hyphenated surnamed running mate in American history. Gian-Cursio was a Miami-based naturopathic practitioner and chiropractor who was a professional associate with the better known Herbert M. Shelton, who had served as the AVP's Presidential nominee in 1956. And, like Shelton, Gian-Cursio had experienced years of finding himself in court under charges of practicing without a license. Shelton himself likened Establishment efforts to haul them into court with that of the Gestapo. Gian-Cursio was sentenced to a year in prison in 1947 when two of his patients died. Shortly after the 1960 election, Gian-Cursio would be convicted of manslaughter in Florida for the 1963 death of a patient and sentenced to five years of incarceration.

Beyond dietary policy the AVP endorsed the protest methods being used at the time by Martin Luther King. Said Gould, "The American Vegetarian Party endorses all forms of protest on the part of Negroes, especially the passive, non-violent kind, and takes special note in endorsing the Gandhian method of protest illustrated by the 'sit down' strike, especially that Mahatma Gandhi subscribed to the vegetarian ethical ideals in his procedures."

After the election Gould told the press he thought the Party polled half a million votes and he personally spent three hundred dollars on the campaign. On Gian-Cursio's role, Gould said, "He did an outstanding job, especially around Miami." I could not find any evidence that Gian-Cursio campaigned at all and his nomination did not seem to be counted as an important milestone or credential in his life by his followers or foes.

Gould's post-election summary included, "The 2-Party system is too limited for this big country. We're big enough to be exposed to all sorts of philosophies. It's a pity that we find it so difficult to have our names listed on Big City voting machines. We must depend on places where the voters mark their ballots or can write in the candidates of their choice."

Since they were not on any ballots and no votes for AVP were recorded it is difficult to ascertain the strength of their poll numbers. But Gould's guess of half a million is probably off by several zeroes.

"We face the future with confidence," Gould concluded, "I'll be 70 in 1964 when we try again." He wouldn't make it.
   
Election history: none

Other occupations: naturopathic practitioner, chiropractor, author, lecturer

Buried: Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (Rochester, NY)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Louise Brooks
Purchased Warner Castle in Rochester, NY in 1944 to use as a sanitarium called The Castle of Health.
  The building and land became part of a city park in 1951.
Moved from Rochester to New York City in 1952. Living in Miami, Fla. by 1960
Radio comedian Fred Allen appeared as a character witness in a 1947 trial on behalf of Gian-Cursio
 It didn't help.
Described by the press in 1947 as "a suave, dark man with a small mustache."

Symon Gould

Holdridge and Gould

Symon Gould, May 19, 1894 (New York, NY) - November 24, 1963 (New York, NY)

VP candidate for American Vegetarian Party (aka Vegetarian Party) (1948, 1952, 1956)

Running mate with nominee (1948): John Maxwell (1863-1960)
Running mate with nominee (1952): Daniel J. Murphy (1887-1965)
Running mate with nominee (1956): Herbert M. Shelton (1895-1985)

Popular vote (1948): 68 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1952): 0 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1956): 0 (0.00%)

Electoral vote (1948, 1952, 1956): 0/531

The campaign (1948):

Attempting to build on the perceived momentum of America seeing the advantages of a meatless diet as a result of WWII food rationing, vegetarian activist Symon Gould was one of the main forces behind the creation of the American Vegetarian Party in 1947 during the sessions of a American Naturopathic Association meeting. The aims of the Party appeared to be simply for promotional purposes rather than political, since they apparently never attained ballot status in any state during the five presidential elections they existed.

85-year old John Maxwell, who ran a vegetarian restaurant in Chicago, was selected as the Presidential nominee. Along with Peter Cooper, standard-bearer of the Greenback Party in 1876, this age is something of a record for Presidential candidates (Lorenzo Stephen Coffin was also 85 when he was the running mate for the United Christian Party in 1908). One legal problem regarding Maxwell-- he was born in England evidently as a British subject-- making him ineligible to hold the Presidential office. Gould selected himself, or so the story goes, as the running mate.

Wikipedia cites Daniel J. Murphy as the 1948 running mate but all other evidence points to Gould.

Maxwell said he had "tasted no meat for 45 years" and also ran against alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical medicine. Other issues included supporting government ownership of all natural resources, advocating a law prohibiting farmers from spending more than 20% of their labor on raising meat, and a pension of $100 for everyone over the age of 65.

According to Gould, Maxwell "wanted to accomplish something during the campaign" and that was his thinking behind marrying a woman 40 years younger than himself as the election season unfolded.

Gould predicted 5 million votes for the Party: "Three million of these would be the American vegetarians and the remainder of the votes would come from prohibitionist, anti-vivisectionists and anti-cigarette smoking groups. We will also attract other groups of people of similar high moral principle."

During the campaign Gould became embroiled in a public feud with the writer George Bernard Shaw regarding some esoteric differences in vegetarianism.

The campaign (1952):

The original 1952 ticket was headed by frequent party-jumper Herbert C. Holdridge with Gould once again being in the VP slot.

Holdridge, who claimed he had been a vegetarian since 1947, was the only American general who retired during the Second World War. In 1944 he appeared to be in support of the Socialist Party of America but by 1948 the retired general was attempting to gain the Democratic Party nomination for President. By 1952 he was covering all bets-- He was the Presidential nominee of the American Rally for Peace, Abundance and the Constitution (aka the American Rally Party), and he was making moves to be the Democratic Party nominee again, plus he was the nominee of the American Vegetarian Party.

For reasons that are unclear, Holdridge either withdrew or was forced off the ticket in late September/early October, 1952. Holdridge's campaign manager Burr McCloskey claimed the retired general quit because the vegetarians were "making Holdridge out to look as crackpot as they are." In another news source McCloskey said Holdridge was "asked" to resign from the ticket as the AVP had sharp differences of opinion over issues with the parallel American Rally Party campaign and could not endorse those activities or issues. As an aside, McCloskey would later be the VP nominee for the Pioneer Party in 1956.

The retired general continued to campaign, without a running mate, on the American Rally Party and quit that party shortly after Election Day.

At this point with only a month left in the campaign, Daniel J. Murphy was selected as the new substitute Presidential nominee for the American Vegetarian Party. Murphy had lost his left arm and leg decades earlier in an accident as a railroad employee and was now running an artificial limb shop in San Francisco. 

The campaign (1956):

The AVP nominated Herbert M. Shelton for President with Gould being the Party's VP choice for the third election in a row.

Shelton was a naturopath and pacifist. He was arrested, convicted, and jailed many times in his life, once for anti-draft activity during WWI, but most of his legal woes were due to charges of quackery, practicing medicine without a license, and twice for negligent homicide in the course of his "treatments" (1942 and 1978). Apparently Shelton himself didn't take his nomination very seriously.

The AVP platform promoted ideas that were obscure in 1956 but are more widely discussed today such as: "Vegetarianism is synonymous with universal brotherhood and universal peace. Its fundamental principle of 'anti-killing' if generally adopted would banish wars. In furtherance of this ideal, the American Vegetarian Party is unconditionally opposed to the slaughter of animals for sustenance, sport, or style. We contend that these barbaric and uncivilized practices brutalize men and generate in them a blood-lust that ultitmately seems to find an outlet in annihilating wars."

Election history:
1960 - US President (American Vegetarian Party) - defeated
1962 - US Senate (NY) (American Vegetarian Party) - defeated
1964 - US President (American Vegetarian Party) - died before election

Other occupations: editor, Secretary of the Vegetarian Society of New York, founder of the International Film Arts Guild in 1930, founder of American Library Service in 1922,

Buried: ?

Notes:
The winner of the 1962 Senate election was Republican Jacob Javits, a former classmate of Gould's--
 Also in that Senate race was Stephen Emery who also the Socialist Labor VP nominee in 1948 and  1952.
Alleged editor of the American print of the silent film Nosferatu.
Went on a three-week fast on an annual basis.
Jewish by birth, became pro-Israel during a 1949 visit, urging the UK to support US efforts there.
Died of cancer at age 70 two days after President Kennedy was assassinated.                                          In the Liz Taylor/Richard Burton film The Comedians (1967), the actor Paul Ford portrays "Mr. Smith," who was the fictional 1948 Vegetarian Party nominee for President.