For the Scottish confectioner and engineer, see Charles Spalding.
Charles F. Spalding (1918–1999) was an American heir, political advisor, television screenwriter and investment banker. He was a political campaigner during the presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, a best-selling co-author of Love At First Flight, a screenwriter for Charlie Chaplin, and later vice president of the New York City-based investment bank Lazard.
Biography
Early life Charles F. Spalding was born in 1918 in Lake Forest, Illinois.Charles Spalding, San Francisco Gate, December 30, 1999Charles Spalding; Scriptwriter, Friend of JFK, Los Angeles Times, January 1, 2000 His maternal grandfather, Patrick Cudahy, was the founder of Cudahy Packing Company, the third largest meat-packing company in the United States. He was thus an heir to the Cudahy Packing fortune.
He was educated at The Hill School, a private boarding school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He went on to graduate from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in 1941, where he was a weekly contributor to the Yale Daily News, the campus newspaper. The weekly column was called 'Ain't Necessarily So'. During the Second World War, he served in the United States Navy.
Career After he was introduced to John F. Kennedy by his Yale roommate, they became friends and he worked on the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy in Illinois and West Virginia.Photograph, Charles Spalding and Family, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and MuseumThurston Clarke, A Death in the First Family, Vanity Fair, July 01, 2013 He was an usher at Kennedy's wedding. The two friends often traveled together, sometimes flying on Air Force One.Barbara Leaming, Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years, New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2011, p. 261 Spalding also worked on Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in California.
In 1943, with his friend Otis Carney, he co-wrote a book entitled, Love At First Flight. It became a best-seller. After the rights were purchased by actor Gary Cooper, Spalding moved to Los Angeles, California to work as a scriptwriter for Charlie Chaplin. He then wrote for television, working for J. Walter Thompson. In 1952, he was a production associate of Of Three I See, a Broadway musical.Broadway World: Charles F. Spalding
He founded De Sainte Phalle Spalding, an investment banking firm. Later, he served as Vice President of Lazard in New York City. He retired in the 1980s.
Personal life With his first wife, Elizabeth Coxe Spalding, he had three sons, Charles F. Spalding Jr., Gerald C. Spalding, Richard C. Spalding, and three daughters, Elizabeth S. Perry, Josephine Spalding, and Florence C. Spalding. His second wife was Amy Ann Sullivan. He later married heiress and philanthropist Berenice Roth Spalding. She was the granddaughter of William Matson, the founder of the shipping corporation Matson, Inc., and had grown up at Filoli, an estate in Woodside, California.Carolyne Zinko, Philanthropist Berenice Spalding, who grew up in Filoli, dies, San Francisco Gate, August 05, 2013 They resided in Hillsborough, San Mateo County, California.
Spalding was a member of the Pacific-Union Club, a gentlemen's club in San Francisco.The Pacific -Union Club Constitution & Bylaws, Published by The Pacific-Union Club, San Francisco, California, May 1991.
Death He died of myeloma in 1999 in Hillsborough, California. His funeral took place at St Matthew's Episcopal Church in San Mateo, California.
Bibliography Carney, Otis; Spalding, Charles F.. Love At First Flight. 1943.
References