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Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr. (1897–1961), also known as A. J. Drexel Biddle, Jr. or Tony Biddle, was a wealthy socialite who became a diplomat of the United States, and served in the United States Army during World War I and after World War II, reaching the rank of major general. ==Biography== Biddle was the son of millionaire Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Sr. (1874–1948), and Cordelia Rundell Bradley (1873–1947). He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 17, 1897. His father, grandson of banker Anthony Joseph Drexel and great-grandson of banker Nicholas Biddle, was an eccentric boxing fan. When he was ten years old, the younger Biddle was in an exhibition match with Bob Fitzsimmons, who of course knocked him into a wall with a punch traveling about two inches. He graduated from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire but never attended college. Biddle married Mary Lillian Duke, a tobacco heiress, on June 16, 1915. They divorced in 1931 after having two children: Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans (1920-2012) and Nicholas Duke Biddle (1921–2004), who was initially named Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle III, only to have his mother change his name following the divorce. His second wife, whom he married in 1931 (later divorced), was Margaret Thompson Schulze, the only child of mining magnate William Boyce Thompson; by this marriage he had two stepchildren, (Margaret) Boyce Schulze and Theodore Schulze Jr, as well as a son, given the name Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle III, who died at birth. He married as his third wife, in 1946, Margaret Atkinson Loughborough, the former wife of William Ellery Loughborough and had two children, Margaret Biddle and Anthony Biddle III; after Biddle's death, she married, as her fourth husband, Colonel Edwinston Robbins. In World War I he first enlisted as a private, and was promoted to rank of captain. In the 1920s he engaged in several business ventures, which were known as social successes but financial failures. For example, he managed Belgian boxer René deVos, and invested in the St. Regis Hotel. A party he held for the boxer at the hotel was marked by the loss of many bottles of fine champagne (at great expense due to prohibition in the United States). "Guests" even tried to wheel out the piano before it was retrieved.〔 Biddle also made a deal to rent part of Central Park in New York City and open an expensive nightclub called The Casino.〔(【引用サイトリンク】work= Central Park History web site ) Excerpt from ''The Park and the People: A History of Central Park'', Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar ISBN 978-0-8014-9751-3〕 After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 many of his investments failed. The Casino was raided and shut down. In 1931 he and other directors of the bankrupt Sonora Products Corporation of America (formerly Acoustic Products Company, in the phonograph and radio business) were sued by the Irving Trust Company. The directors were accused of diverting profits from stock sales into their own accounts. A district court dismissed the claims against the defendants, but the dismissal of Biddle and several others was reversed on appeal.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url= http://lawschool.courtroomview.com/acf_cases/9352-irving-trust-co-v-deutsch )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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