When Quirky Becomes Real

I was a teenager when I first saw Disney’s The Happiest Millionaire starring Fred MacMurray. I thought it was a fun movie – a musical about a quirky family. Almost like Mary Poppins but without the magic. This wealthy family just kept alligators, and had a boxing arena in the backyard, and couldn’t keep servants because they were just, well…odd. And since I like quirky (maybe because I’m not that way), I would say it’s one of my favorite musicals.

About that same time I started keeping a list of books movies were based on. If you’re like me and read most of the beginning credits of a movie (simply because you read every word in front of you), you realize that most movies come from a book. During this time period I read odd books like Blackbeard’s Ghost and The Apple Dumpling Gang. But, as you can imagine, most of these books are hard to find. And My Philadelphia Father by Cordelia Drexel Biddle with Kyle Crichton was one of them.

For some reason, I started thinking about that movie and the songs in it over the past few weeks. (You know how odd songs just jump into your mind at random times…) And I wondered if a library as old as the Carnegie system might have the book that movie was based on. The answer: yes.

By this point in time I knew that the Drexel Biddle clans of Philadelphia really did exist and had since the 1600s (in fact, they arrived before William Penn). And, of course, I knew that Cordelia Drexel Biddle (“Cordy” in the movie) married Angier “Angie” Duke of the great North Carolina family and Duke University. I even knew that the real Anthony Drexel Biddle – Cordy’s father played by Fred MacMurray – enjoyed boxing, had a Biddle Bible Class (a sort of predecessor to the FCA) and was involved with the Marines during WWI. What did I not know?

Well, now that I’ve read the book written by “Cordy” herself, I did not know that he really kept alligators. And they really did freeze over one evening thanks to a thoughtless maid, thawed overnight and were found running about the house the next morning. The real Anthony Drexel Biddle did sing opera for just about anyone, even though he wasn’t very good. Some invitations to Cordy’s wedding were misplaced (although by the postal service itself, not by Mr. Drexel Biddle). He was once on a chocolate cake diet. And, there is a real John Lawless.

Of course, the movie isn’t 100% accurate. (It couldn’t be when they break into song every fifteen minutes…) But it just goes to show that sometimes one’s imagination could never conjure up reality. I mean, who would have ever thought that alligators could survive freezing over?