Edwin Maurice Cooper

Edwin Maurice Cooper, May 12, 1885 (Clay County, Neb.) - February 26, 1971 (Montebello, Calif.)

VP candidate for Prohibition Party (1956)

Running mate with nominee: Enoch Arden Holtwick (1881-1972)

Popular vote: 41,937 (0.07%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

Chairman Lowell H. Coate resigned his office, walked out the 1955 Prohibition Party convention and took about 20 delegates with him in an effort to form a new umbrella third party which became the Pioneer Party. This episode is covered in the Burr McCloskey profile.

Meanwhile, political nomad and retired General Herbert C. Holdridge was searching for a new home. He wanted the Prohibition Party Presidential nomination but settled for the position of running mate alongside Party stalwart Enoch Arden Holtwick. In 1952 Holdridge had been the American Rally nominee for President (without a VP nominee) parallel with his nomination from the American Vegetarian Party. He had a falling out with the AVP and withdrew/was removed from the ticket before the election. Holdridge quit the American Rally Party as well but waited until immediately after the 1952 election to do so. Burr McCloskey, the 1956 Pioneer Party VP nominee, had been Holdridge's 1952 campaign manager for both the AVP and American Rally.

After being the VP nominee for nearly year, Holdridge gained some unwanted publicity for the Prohibition Party when he was ejected from the August, 1956 Republican Party convention for handing out anti-Eisenhower literature described as "virulent" and "scurrilous." It was shortly after that incident he either voluntarily withdrew or was kicked out of the position of running mate for Holtwick. After a scramble the Party selected California attorney and Prohibition loyalist Edwin M. Cooper as the replacement.

Holtwick was 75, Cooper 71. Not quite the oldest combined ages on a Presidential ticket in US history, but close.

The 1956 Party platform was mostly a repeat of the 1952 version, but there was a new section in this one that could be considered quite progressive:

Extension of Democracy

  To help perfect our political democracy and extend it to all who live under our flag we urge;

    (1) The submission to the people of an amendment to the Constitution to provide for the election of the President and Vice-President directly by the people;

    (2) Immediate home rule and the franchise and representation in Congress for the District of Columbia;

    (3) Immediate statehood for Alaska and Hawaii;

    (4) Encouraging Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and Samoa to advance as rapdily as possible to complete internal self-government;

    (5) We recognize the right of all Indians to full citizenship.

On the ballot in 10 states, their best showings were in New Jersey (0.37%), Kansas (0.35%), and Indiana (0.33%). That doesn't look very exciting but they actually fared better than most of the other third parties in the 1956 Presidential race.

Election history:
1954 - Attorney General of California (Prohibition) - defeated
1958 - Attorney General of California (Prohibition) - defeated

Other occupations: attorney, YMCA leader

Buried: Rose Hills Memorial Park (Whittier, Calif.)

Notes:
Methodist
Sometimes called Edward M. Cooper
Buried in the same cemetery as Lewis Arquette, Ron Glass, William Hopper, Nguyen Coa Ky.
Graduate of USC Law School, passed the bar in 1910.
His opponent in the 1954 AG race was Edmund G. "Pat" Brown.

John Bell Williams

John Bell Williams, December 4, 1918 (Raymond, Miss.) – March 25, 1983 (Brandon, Miss.)

VP candidate for Independent (aka Mississippi States' Rights Party aka South Carolinians for Independent Electors) (1956)

Running mate with nominee: Harry Flood Byrd Sr. (1887-1966)

Popular vote: 131,475 (0.21%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

The independent "unpledged" electors of Mississippi and South Carolina felt the Independent States' Rights Party ticket of Andrews and Werdel lacked the kind of star power to attract pro-segregation votes, so they nominated Sen. Harry Flood Byrd Sr. for President and Congressman John Bell Williams of Mississippi as the running mate. Both were members of the Democratic Party and champions of American Apartheid.

Although their names did not appear on the ballot it was highly publicized in the media just who you would be voting for in those two states if you selected the "Independent" electors. In this same election year, Byrd had also been nominated for President by the States' Rights Party of Kentucky with William Jenner as his running mate.

Williams, who was running for re-election to Congress, said he was "greatly flattered" by the nomination. The ticket was endorsed by South Carolina Democratic Party heavyweight James F. Byrnes.

Williams was representative of the shift of the Southern Democrats to the Republicans. He had supported the Dixiecrats in 1948, but endorsed Stevenson in 1952. After 1952 he endorsed only Republicans or third parties in the general election for President clear to 1980 in spite of the fact he remained a member of the Democratic Party.

Not the most widespread or base-building of the 1956 Right-wing parties, but definitely the biggest vote-getters of that group in this election, even if they were in only two states. In South Carolina they placed second with 29.45%, beating the incumbent President Eisenhower and winning in 21 counties. In Mississippi they finished with a strong third place at 17.31%, winning in 7 counties.

Election history:
1947-1968 - US House of Representatives (Miss.) (Democratic)
1968-1972 - Governor of Mississippi (Democratic)

Other occupations: attorney, WWII pilot, prosecuting attorney of Hinds County, Miss. 1944-1946

Buried: Raymond Cemetery (Raymond, Miss.)

Notes:
Lost part of his left arm during WWII in an air crash.
Youngest person from Mississippi elected to Congress at age 27.
Although nominally a member of the Democratic Party, he was a Dixiecrat in 1948, supported Stevenson in 1952, independent electors 1956-1960, Goldwater in 1964 (for which he was stripped of his Congressional seniority by the Democrats), Wallace in 1968, Nixon in 1972, Wallace in the primaries and Ford in the general in 1976, Reagan in 1980.

Thomas Harold Werdel

Thomas Harold Werdel, September 13, 1905 (Emery, S.D.) – September 30, 1966 (Bakersfield, Calif.)

VP candidate for Independent States' Rights Party (aka States' Rights Party aka For America Party aka National Andrews-Werdel Party aka Andrew-Werdel Party aka Dixiecrats aka Independent aka Conservative Party) (1956)

Running mate with nominee: T. Coleman Andrews (1899-1983)

Popular vote: 108,956 (0.18%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

Of all the Right-wing third party presidential campaigns of 1956 this one was the most well-financed and successful in terms of bridging a lasting coalition of Southern Democratic segregationists with  anti-Establishment/anti-Eisenhower Republicans and setting the stage for future victories. There had already been a large movement of unpledged electors, and the Andrews-Werdel ticket worked to gain their support. As the campaign gained steam they collected followers from various conservative factions, including the official endorsement of the Constitution Party. The new party, which seems to have had a few name changes along the way depending on the state, was chiefly boosted by disciples of the recently deceased pro-Taft "Colonel" McCormick of the Chicago Tribune.

T. Coleman Andrews, a Virginian who had never run for office, was a darling of the conservatives for being an outspoken critic of the income tax system while he was Commissioner of Internal Revenue in the Eisenhower administration 1953-1955. His running mate, ex-Congressman Thomas H. Werdel of California, was a Taft Republican and sworn enemy of Earl Warren.

Rather than being a grassroots endeavor, this party appears to have been the product of an embryonic conservative media through print and radio acting as a rallying point for vested interests. Among the supporters were 1952 Constitution Party VP and anti-income tax activist Vivien Kellems as well as Joseph Milteer, who would be implicated in future JFK assassination theories.

The platform called for a strong military, pro-state's rights (code for pro-segregation), anti-income tax, anti "dangerous trend toward socialism," anti-communism, anti-foreign aid, anti-"world government."

It is difficult to ascertain just how many votes the ticket gained on Election Day due to the presence of unpledged electors also on the ballot who may or may not have supported Andrews/Werdel. The unpledged elector result was 196,318 (0.32%), finishing third ahead of all the minor parties. Andrews/Werdel placed fourth with 108,956 (0.18%).

They were on the ballot in 12 states and finished with 6.16% in Virginia and 2.11% in Tennessee, actually winning one county in each state. In their only role as a spoiler, they probably tipped the scales in Tennessee in favor of Eisenhower. After Arkansas (1.72%) they finished with less than 1% in the remainder of the states.

The 1956 results had no impact in the short run but would be significant in the long run.

Election history:
1943-1947 - California State Assembly (Republican)
1949-1953 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Republican)
1952 - Republican nomination for US President - defeated
1952 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Republican) - defeated

Other occupations: attorney

Buried: Greenlawn Cemetery and Mortuary (Bakersfield, Calif.)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Adrian Adonis.
Died as a result of complications from diabetes.
Originally from the Taft-wing of the Republican Party and an adversary of Earl Warren.
Joseph Milteer, who would be implicated in future JFK assassination theories, was active in the 1956
 campaign. And to make this trivia totally nerdy, Milteer is buried in a cemetery in Quitman, Ga., a
 town named after third party VP John Anthony Quitman who ran in the Southern Rights Party 1852!

Georgia Olive Cozzini

Georgia Olive Cozzini, February 14, 1915 (Springfield, Mo.) – October 10, 1983 (Milwaukee, Wis.)

VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (1956, 1960)

Running mate with nominee: Eric Hass (1905-1980)

Popular vote (1956): 44,300 (0.07%)
Popular vote (1960): 47,522 (0.07%)
Electoral vote (1956): 0/531
Electoral vote (1960): 0/537

The campaign (1956)

Eric Hass was nominated for a second time, and for the next two elections his running mate was Socialist Labor Party activist Georgia Cozzini of Milwaukee.

Cozzini's acceptance speech included: "Outside the Socialist Labor Party, there may be surprise over a woman being nominated on the national slate. But it is not as a woman that I accept the nomination! It is as a member of the only political party-- the only organization that represents the interests of the majority-- the working class. For the major economic struggle today recognizes neither division nor difference as to sex or race. This is the struggle between the working class and the capitalist class over the division of the products of labor."

The 1956 SLP platform is yet another long essay, which is the Party's style. The key paragraph that demonstrated the SLP remained the Party of De Leon purists would be this:

The Socialist Labor Party declares that the only alternative to social ruin and possible atomic war is the abolition of capitalism and all forms of class rule and the establishment of Socialism. We must add that bona fide Socialism has nothing in common with the bureaucratic despotism which, despite  the "collective leadership" that has replaced Stalin's one-man rule, masquerades as "Socialism" in Soviet Russia. Nor does Socialism mean "making the politician the boss." Socialism, as Karl Marx conceived it, as Daniel De Leon, the great American Marxist, developed it, and as advocated by the Socialist Labor Party, is a society of industrial democracy in which the factories, mills, mines, railroads and land, etc., are  owned collectively by all the people, where production is carried on for use instead of for sale and profit, and where the industries are operated and administered democratically by the workers themselves, organized in Socialist Industrial Unions.

A government ruling provided equal time for the third parties on television networks, making Corzzini one of the first SLP candidates to be televised. She was well spoken and articulate, although like most politicians of the era had not learned how to effectively play to the camera in this emerging technology. JFK would teach all the others how to do that in 1960.

The SLP had a stronger election result than any other political party of the Left in 1952. On the Ballot in 15 states, they finished with the highest percentages in Washington (0.65%), Colorado (0.50%), New Jersey (0.27%) and Massachusetts (0.24%). In King County, Wash. (i.e. Seattle) they polled 1.37%.

The campaign (1960)

The 1960 SLP platform thesis statement, offering the Party's version of socialism as an alternative to nuclear self-destruction:

The overriding issue of the 1960 campaign is SOCIALISM and SURVIVAL V. CAPITALISM and CATASTROPHE! This conclusion is based on a sober and realistic appraisal of a situation that actually exists and from which no one can hide. The whole human race  is poised on the razor edge of nuclear catastrophe. As each day ends with the missiles resting on their launching pads, the  danger is so much greater that the next will witness the outbreak, by accident or design, of a suicidal nuclear war.

This was not an exaggerated concern. 1960 was the first election I can remember. In school we had three drills each with their own special siren: fire, earthquake, and nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 only heightened the sense of urgency felt by younger people. As these little Boomers turned voting age, the SLP enjoyed a brief small spike in election results.

The SLP held steady with a similar national finish to the 1956 results. Top states out of 16 with recorded votes for SLP: Washington (0.88%), Colorado (0.38%), and Illinois (0.22%).

Election history:
1942 - Governor of Wisconsin (Independent Socialist Labor) - defeated
1944 - Governor of Wisconsin (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1946 - US Senate (Wis.) (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1948 - Governor of Wisconsin (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1957 - US Senate (Wis.) (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1958 - US Senate (Wis.) (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1962 - US Senate (Wis.) (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1970 - Governor of Wisconsin (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1974 - Governor of Wisconsin (Socialist Labor) - defeated

Other occupations: door-to-door encyclopedia sales, "housewife," community activist

Buried: cremated, ashes spread at a lake in Bayfield County, Wis.

Notes:
Family moved to Milwaukee, Wis. in 1924.
Georgia Olive Purvis married Artemio Cozzini in 1936.
Joined the SLP in 1939.
One of her opponents in the 1944 Governor's race was George Nelson, Socialist Party of America VP
 nominee from 1936.
The winner for the 1946 US Senate race was Joe McCarthy.
The winner for the 1957 and 1958 US Senate races was William Proxmire.
The winner for the 1962 US Senate race was Gaylord Nelson.
The winner for the 1970 and 1974 Governor's race was Patrick Joseph Lucey, later the 1980 National
 Unity Party VP nominee

Joseph Bracken Lee

Sen. William E. Jenner, Sen. Joe McCarthy, Gov. J. Bracken Lee

Joseph Bracken Lee, January 7, 1899 (Price, Utah) – October 20, 1996 (Salt Lake City, Utah)

VP candidate for Texas Constitution Party (1956)

Running mate with nominee: William E. Jenner (1908-1985)

Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

The Texas Constitution Party was yet another protest organization that was part of the states' rights movement of the 1950s-1960s as a reaction to court-ordered racial integration. The national Constitution Party endorsed the States' Rights Party team of Thomas Coleman Andrew/Thomas Harold Werdel. But for reasons that are unclear, the Texas branch decided not to support the SRP ticket and ran their own candidates.

In Feb. 1956 the Texas Constitution Party nominated two extremely conservative Republicans: Sen. William E. Jenner of Indiana and Gov. J. Bracken "Brack" Lee of Utah. Jenner was also on the ballot that year as the VP for the States' Rights Party of Kentucky. Yes, it gets confusing real fast.

Gov. Lee was known for his style of blunt confrontation and for pulling colorful political stunts like being very public about refusing to pay his income tax unless certain conditions were met. In 1956 he was defeated in the Republican primary process for reelection and decided to try for another term instead as an Independent (and finished surprisingly well, but still failed to win).

Lee and Jenner do not seem to have been active in the campaign and were most likely nominated without their permission. Biographies of Gov. Lee give scant mention to the Texas Constitution Party if in fact it is even mentioned at all.

The platform of the party, which reflected Lee's own political beliefs, called for pulling the United States out of the United Nations, a repeal of the income tax laws, and giving communities full control of their schools (i.e. code for pro-segregation).

The Jenner/Lee ticket apparently did not make it to ballot status in Texas.

Election history:
1931 - Mayor of Price, Utah - defeated
1936-1947 - Mayor of Price, Utah
1940 - Republican nomination for Governor of Utah - defeated
1942 - US House of Representatives (Utah) (Republican) - defeated
1944 - Governor of Utah (Republican) - defeated
1949-1957 - Governor of Utah (Republican)
1956 - Republican nomination for Governor of Utah - defeated
1956 - Governor of Utah (Independent) - defeated
1958 - US Senate (Independent) - defeated
1960 - US President (Conservative Party of New Jersey) - defeated
1960-1972 - Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah
1962 - Republican primary for US Senate - defeated

Other occupations: soldier (WWI), insurance business, semi-professional baseball player, real estate, newspaper publisher

Buried: Mount Olivet Cemetery (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Notes:
Most recent of three non-Mormon Governors of Utah.
Freemason.
In Mar. 1964 Louis E. Jaeckel, a Lancaster, SC free-lance writer announced he was running for
 President under the American Party (aka American Write-In Party) and "said his running mate may
 be J. Bracken Lee, former governor of Utah." Within a few a days wrote a letter of apology to Lee.

Burr McCloskey

Burr McCloskey, July 15, 1920 (Akron, Ohio) - January 2, 2001 (Evanston, Ill.)

VP candidate for Pioneer Party (aka American Pioneer Party) (1956)

Running mate with nominee: William Langer (1886-1959)

Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

A case can be made that the short-lived Pioneer Party was a splinter of the Prohibition Party.

Lowell H. Coate (1889-1973) who was raised a Quaker and aspired at one time to be a Methodist minister, had at some point embraced atheism and was an ardent pacifist. Somehow in 1953 he became the first and only non-Protestant and humanist to attain the chairmanship of the Prohibition Party. Unsurprisingly, his tenure was brief.

One of the speakers at the 1955 Prohibition Party nominating convention was Republican maverick North Dakota US Senator William "Wild Bill" Langer. He was an isolationist and friendly to the prohibition cause. He used his opportunity to speak at the convention to criticize what he saw as President Eisenhower's willingness to bow to Wall Street. There was talk of Langer being the Party's Presidential nominee.

Apparently Coate and his faction supported Langer, but something dramatic happened as reported in the Sept. 8, 1955 issue of the Kokomo Tribune: "Dr. Lowell H. Coate of Los Angeles, who resigned this week as national chairman of the Prohibition Party and announced that he and 20 secessionists had organized a Pioneer Party, once was a resident of Howard County ... Dr. Coate resigned as chairman when the party rejected his proposal that it take a broader name adopted to embrace a wider range of questions than liquor ..."

The departure of Coate and his entourage was also the departure of the last significant faction of progressives within the Prohibition Party.

By Nov. 1955 the Pioneer Party had organized to the point where they held a convention with around 30 delegates from 16 states. They were affiliated with the American Rally Party and hoped to create an umbrella for all third parties by 1960. A news account at the time reported: "The delegates adopted a platform calling for economic reform, a return to constitutional government, a 'golden rule' foreign policy and free health service. The platform urged demilitarization and 'repudiation of war and conscription.'"

Sen. Langer was nominated for President by Burr McCloskey and in turn the convention selected the latter gentleman as the running mate.

McCloskey had been the campaign manager in 1952 for Herbert C. Holdridge when he ran for President under the banner of the American Rally for Peace, Abundance and the Constitution (aka the American Rally Party) in tandem with for President as the nominee of the American Vegetarian Party. Holdridge's effort was, to be direct, a fiasco.

Langer and McCloskey had known each other since 1938. Both men were brilliant, erratic, and unpredictable. They worked together in a theatrical but Quixotic attempt to deny Earl Warren his confirmation to the Supreme Court. Langer even denied he knew concerned-private-citizen McCloskey, which was a straight out lie. So when the Senator later called his nomination by the Pioneer Party "nonsense" one has to wonder how much Vaudeville was taking place in this game. On McCloskey's part, some on the progressive side felt that although he used rhetoric from the Left he might have been a stalking horse for the Right given his outspoken anti-Communist views.

In the end it was much ado about nothing. The Pioneer Party was not on any ballot and ceased to exist after the election.

Election history: none.

Other occupations: worker at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., labor organizer, soldier (WWII), steel mill worker, campaign manager, poet, playwright, novelist, advertising agency owner.

Buried: Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum (Chicago, Ill.)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Charles Gates Dawes, Bobby Franks, Virginia Graham, Oscar
 Mayer,  Reinhart Schwimmer, Ignaz Schwinn, Richard Warren Sears, Aaron Montgomery Ward.
If elected would have become President upon the death of Langer Nov. 8, 1959.
"I learned how to fight as a wee boy because my name is Burr and my father's name was Burr. The popular cant is that Aaron Burr was a traitor, and my lovely chums in grammar schools across the country used the cant to malicious advantage, I had to fight because I knew better. In my family the saying around the Sunday dinner table was that the only mistake Burr made in killing Hamilton was that he should have done it twenty years sooner. I still believe this. There was a national debt, an Eastern establishment: it all goes back to Hamilton. He was a pimp for Washington at Valley Forge. He should have been killed twenty years sooner. American history is so distorted that it still isn't nice to say this in polite society"--Burr McCloskey, 1973.

William Ezra Jenner

William Ezra Jenner, July 21, 1908 (Marengo, Ind.) – March 9, 1985 (Bedford, Ind.)

VP candidate for States' Rights Party of Kentucky (1956)

Running mate with nominee: Harry Flood Byrd Sr. (1887-1966)

Popular vote: 2657 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

The States' Rights Party of Kentucky seems to have had it's origin with the issue of school integration in Union County. In Sept. 1956 Gov. A.B. "Happy" Chandler, a Democrat, was obliged to request the presence of 900 National Guard troops, with tanks, in the town of Sturgis. A crowd of 500 or so segregationists attempted to block a small group of African-American students from attending the previously all-white school-- a familiar scene that would be repeated for the next decade throughout the Southern states.

Said Chandler, "We regret it is necessary to use this means of guaranteeing equal rights to our citizens, but that we must do." White supremacists took advantage of the unrest and organized a rally in Morganifield, the county seat.

The mass-meeting called for the impeachment of Chandler and the formation of a States' Rights Party of Kentucky. Present was Louisville segregationist, KKK member, anti-Semite, and states rights' activist with a name right out of a Faulkner novel, Millard Dee Grubbs. In 1956 Grubbs had also formed an alliance with John Kasper, who was promoting fascist Ezra Pound for President in 1956 and not as an ironic joke. A petition was being handed around Morganfield by Jack Kershaw of Nashville, VP of the Tennessee Federation for Constitutional Government and W.W. "Jerry" Waller, a local farm implement dealer and President of the Union County White Citizens Council.

Kershaw (1913-2010) was an ardent segregationist, Southern secessionist, and later James Earl Ray's defense attorney. In later years he sculpted the infamous Nathan Bedford Forrest Statue, defending himself from the ensuing criticism with, "Somebody needs to say a good word for slavery".

Although information is scarce on the details, the Party apparently made it to the Kentucky ballot with Democratic Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia as their Presidential nominee and Indiana Republican US Senator and right-hand man to Joe McCarthy, William E. Jenner, as the running mate. It is probable both senators were nominated without their permission but they evidently did not spurn the honor. In this same election Jenner was also the Presidential nominee of another local states' rights party, the Texas Constitution Party.

On the ballot only in Kentucky, the Byrd/Jenner ticket placed third in that state with 0.25% of the popular vote.

Election history:
1934-1942 - Indiana State Senate (Republican)
1940 - Republican nomination for Governor of Indiana - defeated
1944-1945 - US Senate (Ind.) (Republican)
1947-1959 - US Senate (Ind.) (Republican)
1948 - Republican nomination for Governor of Indiana - defeated
1956 - US President (Texas Constitution Party) - defeated

Other occupations: elevator operator, attorney, soldier in WWII, land developer

Buried: Cresthaven Memory Gardens Cemetery (Bedford, Ind.)

Notes:
Defeated Charles M. La Follete, third cousin of 1924 Progressive Party Presidential candidate Robert
 M. La Follette, for the Republican nomination for US Senate in 1946.

Edward Estlin Cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings, October 14, 1894 (Cambridge, Mass.) – September 3, 1962 (Madison, NH)

VP candidate for Independent (1956)

Running mate with nominee: Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

To include the poet ee cummings as a member of the third party vice-presidential nominee club might be stretching things a bit, but the story is too good to bypass. I did the same thing with the Spirit of George Washington in the 1952 election.

Omni-artist Bruce Conner (1933-2008) was just starting his professional career during this election year. Conner credited himself and his friend Frank English with cooking up the idea of running the poet Ezra Pound for President, starting around Feb. 1956. Heavily influenced by Marcel Duchamp and the conceptual artists of his time, Conner's campaign of "Ez for Prez" could be viewed as a dry humor art exercise rather than a political statement.

Pound, who I would like to note gives us another Pacific Northwest connection as he was born in Idaho, was a major figure in the American and expatriate literary scene during the Lost Generation and Jazz Era. By the 1930s-1940s he was an outspoken anti-Semite and fascist who embraced Hitler and Mussolini. During WWII he was a paid propagandist for the Italian government. Pound was no doubt saved from being executed for treason when the US courts ruled he was mentally ill and unfit to stand trial, and by 1956 he had been incarcerated in St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, DC for a decade.

One of the many fellow poets agitating for Pound's release was ee cummings. Although not especially political, a trip to the Soviet Union in 1931 had shifted Cummings to the far Right and he quietly supported Sen. Joe McCarthy's efforts to root out "subversives." Conner, who Cummings described to Pound as a "young scamp," had struck up a correspondence with both poets.

On the 28th of June 1956 Conner wrote to Cummings, "Ez says he wd. be most happy for you to be running mate if you wd. accept. Would you?" There is no record of Cummings declining the honor, so I will for the purposes of this blog take that as a "Yes."

Unfortunately for Pound, several people in Right-wing hate groups loved the idea of supporting this fascist for President and promoted it as well, which no doubt made the poet's release more problematic. What started as an artistic joke, Ez for Prez became an American fascist rallying cry. One of the chief organizers was John Kasper, a white supremacist, anti-Semite, KKK member, and accused Right-wing terrorist. In 1964 he ran for President with the National States' Rights Party.

Needless to say the Pound/Cummings ticket was not any ballots.

Election history: none.

Other occupations: poet, painter, essayist, author, playwright, soldier (WWI),

Buried: Forest Hills Cemetery and Crematory (Jamaica Plain, Mass.)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as William Lloyd Garrison, Eugene O'Neill, fellow third party VP nominee Samuel Clarke Pomeroy, and Anne Sexton.

Edward Kirby Meador

Edward Kirby Meador, November 6, 1885 (Chamblissburg, Va.) - December 25, 1981 (Riverside County, Calif.)

VP candidate for Greenback Party (1956, 1960)

Running mate with nominee (1956): Frederick C. Proehl (1880-1970)
Running mate with nominee (1960): Whitney Hart Slocomb (1885-1961)

Popular vote (1956): 0 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1960): 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (1956): 0/531
Electoral vote (1960): 0/537

The campaign (1956):

Proehl (pronounced Pray-el), aged 76 decided to run for a second time as a Greenback, seldom leaving his grocery store in Edmonds, Wash. He never met his running mate, 70-year old Edward Kirby Meador, a Boston-based book publisher.

Any press coverage they received usually had a focus on them as colorful antiquated characters. Proehl stated the use of checkbooks was creating what he called "false money" (I wonder if he accepted checks at his store?) and Meador advocated the eradication of income tax. All of the country's financial problems, Meador added,  traced to "Jewish, American and British Bankers." You can see where this is going.

Not on any ballots, no votes recorded.

The campaign (1960):

In their final campaign the Greenback Party could have been called the Throwback Party. The relatively youthful 65-year old Whitney Hart Slocomb, a Los Angeles "ambulance first-aid man" and sometime author was the Presidential nominee with his publisher who was none other than Meador, now 74, once again as the Party's running mate. Their campaign slogan "all reform waits for money reform— then let us get money reform first!" didn't exactly set the electorate on fire.

After the election, where they were not on any ballots and had no recorded votes, Greenback Party head honcho John Zahnd, now in his 80s, resigned as Party chair on Jan. 1, 1961. He died a month later and the Party basically died with him.

Election history: none.

Other occupations: book publisher

Buried: Olivewood Cemetery (Riverside, Calif.)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Del Lord.
If elected in 1960 would have become President in 1961 upon the death of Slocomb.
One of 12 children.
Claimed to be a descendant or close relative of Ben Franklin.

Anna Marie Yezo

Anna Marie Yezo, July 30, 1918 (Hoboken, NJ) - Nov. 18, 2012 (New Jersey)

VP candidate for American Third Party (1956), Poor Man's Party (1960, 1964)

Running mate with nominee (1956, 1960, 1964): Henry B. Krajewski (1912–1966)

Popular vote (1956): 1,829 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1960): 0 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1964): 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (1956): 0/531
Electoral vote (1960): 0/537
Electoral vote (1964): 0/538

The campaign (1956):

Henry B. Krajewski had gone through some changes since he ran for President on the Poor Man's Party in 1952. He ran for New Jersey Governor in 1953 under the Jersey Veterans Bonus Party, under the American Third Party for the US Senate in 1954, and he made an attempt for Mayor of Secaucus, NJ in 1955. He was now solidly a perennial candidate character.

He had also since the last election sold his pig farm and now relied on his tavern for regular income but continued to make the improvement of the farmers condition a staple in his campaign. His 1956 platform included a moratorium on income tax for families of 3+ people with incomes $5000 or less, veterans bonuses, 18-year olds having the right to vote, a national lottery to benefit hospitals and schools, and the USA should be able to annex Canada in payment of the UK's debt. He stated his goal was to be placed on the ballot in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, and Indiana.

His running mate was Anna Marie Yezo, described by the press as a "North Bergen mother and housewife," she was actually a former Democrat, recent mechanic and gas station owner who was outspoken on the issue of women's rights. When the announcement of her being the VP nominee was made in January, 1956, Krajewski stated, "Having a woman on the ticket will help my chances. Also, it will give women someone to vote for." They danced to Krawjewski's campaign polka theme song to the delight of the media. Also present was the Party's mascot, a piglet named "Little Miss Secaucus."

In March it was reported New Jersey Sec. of State Edward J. Patten, a Democrat, informed Krajewski it was unconstitutional to have Yezo on the ticket since they were from same state. Krajewski/Yezo apparently were later listed on the ballot, so some sort of negotiating must have taken place. Perhaps the candidate's stated goal of running in other states helped make the difference? In 1952 his running mate Frank Jenkins was also from NJ and no one objected at that time.

Three days before Election Day Krajewski endorsed Eisenhower but still voted for himself. He and his family and Yezo as well were actually invited to Ike's 1957 Inaugural Ball.

Krajewski/Yezo placed 7th out of seven parties on the ballot in New Jersey with 1,829 votes (0.07%), a much lower result than the 1952 run.

The campaign (1960):

Same ticket, but in the recycled round they returned to the original name of Krajewski's party, the Poor Man's Party.

This time New Jersey Sec. of State Patten flat-out refused to include electors for the Poor Man's Party on the ballot on the grounds that a Presidential ticket cannot have two people from the same state according to his interpretation of the US Constitution. His decision was upheld by NJ Attorney General David D. Furman. Journalists quoted Patten as telling Krajewski: "Your petition is a farce and a sham and an insult to the sacredness of our democratic processes ... You told me the other day that you have no plans to file in other states that would make you a bona fide candidate. You come into the office with a Victrola and started to play records. Another time you entered the office with a pig." Patten later claimed he meant "nothing personal" in his remarks.

The ruling, which Krajewski called "a dirty, lousy deal which stinks to high heaven," didn't slow down the campaign as they shifted into write-in mode. As late as Nov. 1960 Krajewski was still making campaign appearances, such as the Levittown (Penn.) Shop-a-Rama sponsored by the Levittown Businessmen's Association.

The campaign (1964):

Undaunted by petty legalities, Krajewski announced in Sept. 1964 he and Yezo would run a third time together, this time starting out from Day One as write-in candidates under the Poor Man's Party banner. The campaign was evidently more subdued than the previous efforts.

Also in 1964 Krajewski had offered himself as the VP nominee for President Lyndon Johnson and the Democrats, but response had he none.

Election history: none.

Other occupations: housewife, auto mechanic, gas station owner, stationary packer

Buried: Ocean County Memorial Park (Toms River, NJ)

Notes:
Sometimes called Anne Marie Yezo, Ann Marie Yezo, Ana Marie Yezo, Anne Mario Yezo.
Later lived in Brick, NJ
Anna Dopyera married Louis Yezo (1917-1969) in 1941.
Parents were immigrants from Czechoslovakia. Her father was an auto mechanic.
If elected in 1964 Yezo would have become President upon the death of Krajewski in 1966.

Charles Franklin Robertson

Charles Franklin Robertson, May 25, 1915 (W. Va.) - Mar. 4, 1999 (Tulsa, Okla.)

VP candidate for Christian Nationalist Party (aka Christian National Party) (1956)

Running mate with nominee: Gerald L.K. Smith (1898-1976)

Popular vote: 8 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

By the time Gerald L.K. Smith-- Disciples of Christ minister, fascist sympathizer, anti-Semite, white supremacist, and Holocaust denier-- made his final run for the Presidency in 1956 his star, such as it was, was already fading quickly.

Smith's running mate was his trusted aide and editor of the periodical used to promote the views of his Christian Nationalist Crusade, The Cross and the Flag.

When there was an anonymous boomlet before the 1956 Republican Convention for Right-wing California US Sen. William Knowland, it was Robertson who was identified as the source.

In August Smith threatened a "voter's strike" if Harold Stassen's effort to dump Nixon from the Republican ticket was successful. Nixon himself made it clear he did not need or want help from Smith: "Generally what Gerald L.K. Smith says should never be dignified by a comment. In this instance, however, I think it is necessary to depart from that rule. As I stated, unequivocally when I ran for the Senate in 1950, there is no place in the Republican party for race-baiting merchandizers of hate like Gerald L.K. Smith. I have been complimented by the fact that his publication, the Christian Nationalist Crusade, has on several occasions attacked me because of my work in behalf of President Eisenhower's program for guaranteeing equality of opportunity for all Americans. I am proud of the fact that our Republican platform speaks out so clearly and unequivocally on this great issue that Mr. Smith and those who share his views will take no comfort whatever from it."

Smith and Robertson initiated a lawsuit in September to get on the California ballot, complaining the requirements were too strict. The case eventually landed in the California Supreme Court where they failed to prevail in Nov. 1957.

Waging a write-in campaign, their only recorded votes nationally came to 8 in California.

Election history: none

Other occupations: part of his mother's business the B.N. (Britta N.) Robertson Publishing Co., Eureka Springs Ark. Planning Commission member, minister, editor of The Cross and the Flag

Buried: IOOF Cemetery (Eureka Springs, Ark.)

Notes:
Smith and Robertson became instrumental in constructing a giant figure of Jesus in Eureka Springs,
 Ark. as part of a never completed vision to building a Christian theme park.
In 1985 Robertson published his autobiography titled The Peaceful Storm.
Lived in Eugene, Oregon, 1930.
"One of the biggest lies of our time is that six million Jews were slaughtered." "Let's face it. The Negroes are fresh from the Jungle, and they have brought with them many of the same characteristics."--Charles F. Robertson

Samuel Herman Friedman

Samuel Herman Friedman, February 20, 1897 (Denver, Colo.) – March 17, 1990 (New York, NY)

VP candidate for Socialist Party of America (1952, 1956)

Running mate with nominee (1952, 1956): Darlington Hoopes (1896–1989)

Popular vote (1952): 20,203 (0.03%)
Popular vote (1956): 2,128  (0.00%)
Electoral vote (1952, 1956): 0/531

The campaign (1952):

Six time Presidential nominee Norman Thomas was done with campaigning for elected office and after 1948 attempted to convince the Socialist Party of America to find other avenues to further the Party's agenda.

There were many factors contributing to the rapid decline of the SPA. To name just a few-- Like several other third parties, they had run (between Debs and then Thomas) personality-driven campaigns where one individual ran for several elections and became the face of the movement. Once that person stepped down after such a long reign the changes became overly dramatic. Also, many of their once radical platform ideas were now accepted as mainstream by most Americans and both major parties, although customized to fit within a capitalist setting. With the advent of television advertising and mass media campaigning the SPA could not hope to match the funds required for such political merchandising. And the increasingly strict requirements for gaining ballot access didn't help.

The SPA leadership agreed with Thomas that it was time cease the national campaigns but the rank and file still wanted a presence in the Presidential elections. Darlington Hoopes, the 1944 VP nominee was nominated for President and the courtly SPA veteran Samuel H. Friedman was selected as his running mate.

The 1952 SPA platform stood against the same military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower (who had been in a position to do something but apparently did not do enough to stop it) would warn America about eight years later.

With votes recorded in 17 states the SPA's best showings were in New Jersey (0.36%) and Connecticut (0.20%). 

The campaign (1956):

The SPA nominated the Hoopes/Friedman ticket again in what would prove to be the SPA's final Presidential campaign.

W.E.B. Du Bois who had supported the Progressive Party in 1948 and 1952 explained in The Nation why he was not voting in 1956. His reasons touch on the SPA and no doubt describes the world view of many other progressives of that era:

    In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no "two evils" exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say. There is no third party. On the Presidential ballot in a few states (seventeen in 1952), a "Socialist" Party will appear. Few will hear its appeal because it will have almost no opportunity to take part in the campaign and explain its platform. If a voter organizes or advocates a real third-party movement, he may be accused of seeking to overthrow this government by "force and violence." Anything he advocates by way of significant reform will be called "Communist" and will of necessity be Communist in the sense that it must advocate such things as government ownership of the means of production; government in business; the limitation of private profit; social medicine, government housing and federal aid to education; the total abolition of race bias; and the welfare state.

    These things are on every Communist program; these things are the aim of socialism. Any American who advocates them today, no matter how sincerely, stands in danger of losing his job, surrendering his social status and perhaps landing in jail. The witnesses against him may be liars or insane or criminals. These witnesses need give no proof for their charges and may not even be known or appear in person. They may be in the pay of the United States Government. A.D.A.'s and "Liberals" are not third parties; they seek to act as tails to kites. But since the kites are self-propelled and radar-controlled, tails are quite superfluous and rather silly.

On the ballot in only half a dozen states the SPA's best showing was in Friedman's native state of Colorado with 0.08%. In New York they gained 82 votes and in Rhode Island a whopping sum of two votes.

Election history:
1921 - New York State Assembly (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1922 - New York State Assembly (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1923 - New York State Assembly (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1926 - New York State Assembly (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1927 - New York State Assembly (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1928 - New York State Senate (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1929 - New York State Assembly (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1930 - New York State Assembly (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1932 - New York State Senate (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1934 - US House of Representatives (NY) (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1936 - New York State Senate (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1941 - New York City Controller (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1942 - Lt. Governor of New York (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1945 - New York City Council President (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1949 - New York City Council President (Socialist Party of America) - defeated

Other occupations: journalist, editor, labor union activist, public relations agent, high school social science teacher

Buried: Cedar Grove Cemetery (Flushing, NY)

Notes:
Columbia University MA 1940.
Jewish.
Member of the Three Arrows Cooperative Society.
Arrested numerous times in acts of civil disobedience.

Myra Tanner Weiss

Myra Tanner Weiss, May 17, 1917 (Salt Lake City, Utah) – September 13, 1997 (Indio, Calif.)

VP candidate for Socialist Workers Party (aka Militant Workers Party aka Workers Party) (1952, 1956, 1960)

Running mate with nominee (1952, 1956, 1960): Farrell Dobbs (1907-1983)

Popular vote (1952): 10,312 (0.02%)
Popular vote (1956): 7,797 (0.01%)
Popular vote (1960): 40,175 (0.06%)
Electoral vote (1952, 1956): 0/531
Electoral vote (1960): 0/537

The campaign (1952):

Farrell Dobbs was once again nominated for President by the Socialist Workers Party, as he would be in 1956 and 1960. In all three elections his running mate was Myra Tanner Weiss, marking the first time in American history any party nominated the same ticket three elections in a row.

Long a SWP activist in the Los Angeles area, Weiss moved to New York in 1952 and worked as writer for the Militant. Her selection as a running mate was a balancing of the ticket in the sense that Myra and her husband Murry were considered from the Right wing of the Party and had their own distinct following.

The overly long 1952 SWP platform was anti-Stalin, anti-war, proposed the creation of a Labor Party, and demanded an end of the domestic anti-Communist persecutions by the US government.

They were on the ballot in seven states and performed poorly in all of them: New Jersey (0.16%), Wisconsin (0.08%), Minnesota (0.04%), New York (0.03%), Pennsylvania (0.03%), Michigan (0.02%) and Washington (0.01%).

The campaign (1956):

The Party had lost a number of members in the Detroit and Cleveland areas due a leadership dispute involving the definition and direction of Trotskyism.

With the death of Stalin in 1953 and Khrushchev's de-Stalinization efforts underway, the SWP openly courted refugees from the Communist Party USA who were looking for a new political home.

Weiss, ever the purist Trotskyite, attacked the CPUSA as much as she was the major political parties. One news source said she "condemned American Communists as complacent champions of bureaucracy and both Democrats and Republicans as 'big business' parties."

In a miserable election year for third parties in general, the SWP had a result that was more miserable than most. They were on the ballot in only four states but also waged a write-in campaign in California (0.00%): New Jersey (0.16%), Minnesota (0.08%), Pennsylvania (0.04%), and Wisconsin (0.04%).

The campaign (1960):

A small faction had left SWP in 1958 in a disagreement over the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The official Party line did not support the suppression of Hungarians on Trotskyist grounds. The Cuban Revolution was already starting to create further divisions within the SWP, especially as younger political activist recruits joined their ranks.

Murry Weiss suffered a stroke in 1960 around the same time the Weiss' were distancing themselves from the Party. It was dawning on Myra that SWP had some gender issues in their organization and that Marxist men could be just as sexist as capitalist men.

The CPUSA endorsed the Kennedy/Johnson ticket and in doing so took a swipe at the SWP: " ... it would be a still greater error to adopt a negative, defeatist, 'curses-on-both-your-houses' position" as this would "only encourage 'stay-at-home' moods and feed such sects as the SLP or the Trotskyites [i.e. the SWP], who render only lip service to socialist aims."

By the next election Murry and Myra Weiss would no longer be members of the Socialist Workers Party. Eventually they became involved with the Freedom Socialist Party.

The 1960 election results were, relatively speaking, a big upswing for the SWP. The Party was on the ballot in 11 states with New Jersey continuing to be their best showing at 0.41%. They finished with 0.20% in New York and Minnesota.

Election history:
1945 - Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1948 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Independent) - defeated
1949 - Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1950 - Los Angeles Board of Education (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1950 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Independent) - defeated
1953 - Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated

Other occupations: author, waitress, migrant worker, cannery worker, labor organizer

Buried: ?

Notes:
One of her opponents in the 1949 mayoral election was Jack B. Tenney, who she later competed with
 in 1952 when he was the VP nominee for the Christian Nationalist Party.
Suffered a severe stroke ca. 1992 and died in a nursing home.
Joined the Workers Party in Salt Lake City 1935, became a founding member of the Socialist
 Workers Party 1938.
Organizer of the Los Angeles SWP 1942-1952.
Brooklyn College BA 1969, NYU MA 1972
Originally studied to be a chemist but realized she might be employed to create weapons so she
 dropped that field of study.
Dropped out of SWP ca. 1963, was part of the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party
 1978-1980, then joined the Freedom Socialist Party.
#11 on the "Most Famous Person Named Myra" list on playback.fm
Was socially and politically connected with Lyndon Larouche in the 1960s.
" ...Murray and Myra were typical party leaders, intolerant to a fault and convinced of their own
 intellectual and political superiority to everybody else. At a big cocktail party in the 1950s, Junius
 was having a pleasant chat with Alger Hiss who spotted Myra Tanner Weiss. Also at the party was a
 left-wing Labour Party MP who Hiss mischievously decided to introduce to Myra. He brought the
 two together and within a matter of minutes the two of them were castigating each other loudly and
 had drawn a circle of onlookers about them, as if a fist-fight was going on. Hiss stood on the
 sidelines enjoying the spectacle thoroughly."--Synopsis of an interview with Junius Scales.
Descended from Mormon pioneers.

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.