MOORHEAD — One newspaper nicknamed him “Boudoir Eyes.” Another claimed the “dapper, blue-eyed senator has been causing heart flutters since he landed in the Capitol.”
By all accounts, U.S. Senator Warren Magnuson had it going on.
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Sure, some gossip rags claimed he was a Casanova of Capitol Hill, but others said despite the handsome face, he was less showhorse and more workhorse — a potent, yet genial wheeler-dealer who got things done for the people back home who just knew him as “Maggie.”
Magnuson represented Washington state from 1937 to 1981, but people back home in Moorhead, where he was born and reared, took notice and swelled with pride as their hometown boy made good.
Now, as he's featured in the blockbuster hit "Oppenheimer," here's a closer look at the man sometimes heralded as "Good-Time Charlie Scandinavian."
Humble beginnings
As cliched as it might be for a politician to claim he came from humble beginnings, for Magnuson it wasn’t a lie. His story is vintage Horatio Alger. When he was just three or four months old, his mother put him up for adoption. He was adopted from the orphanage in Moorhead by Scandinavian immigrants Emma and Warren Magnuson, who he later recalled “didn’t have much.”
Perhaps that’s why he went to work — first as a “newsie” selling The Fargo Courier News on the streets of downtown and later delivering telegrams for Western Union. But school and activities were important to him as well. He became the captain of Moorhead High's basketball team and played quarterback for the Spud football team.
After graduating in 1923, he enrolled at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. But after six months, his sister married and his widowed mother was left alone. He moved back to Fargo-Moorhead to be with her and finish his freshman year at North Dakota State University.
But by the age of 19, he left school and found his way to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where he began work with a threshing crew. He stuffed the money he had earned into his shoe and rode box cars to the West Coast of the United States. (Some reports say he moved there to follow a high school girlfriend.)
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When he reached Seattle, he took a job pushing an ice wagon. His earnings from that job, plus his savings from his previous jobs, helped pay his way through the University of Washington. While there, he studied law and played third string on the football team which eventually made it to the Rose Bowl.
A career in public service
With a law degree in hand, the young Magnuson soon ran for public office — getting elected to the state legislature.
According to a story in The Forum, Magnuson "showed his liberal stripes there by introducing the nation's first unemployment compensation bill and a measure to give 18-year-olds the right to vote.”
Eventually, he heeded the call from constituents to go to Washington, D.C. He ran for Congress and won. He agreed to serve “for a couple of years and then come back and practice law.”
Those “couple of years” turned into almost 44. He served seven years in the House of Representatives and served more than 36 in the Senate. (His time in the House was interrupted for eight months when he served with the Navy in the South Pacific during World War II).
His time spent in Washington was largely about building relationships. According to newspaper reports of the era, he played poker with President Roosevelt, fished with President Truman, was a confidant to President Kennedy, and even recruited President Johnson to be the best man in his wedding.
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Other relationships were built between the four walls of the Senate office buildings. Later in life, with his now rumpled appearance and cigar in his mouth, he was the living embodiment of the consummate Senate insider.
“We used to sit in the cloakroom and smoke cigars and chat,” Magnuson said after he retired.
He is still that ever-loving, good-time Charlie Scandinavian come out of the woods on a Saturday night for fun, sociability, and a yearning to spread joy
Sen. Magnuson is in the spotlight again in 2023. He's featured in the hit movie “Oppenheimer.” Played by actor Gregory Jbara, Magnuson is seen chairing the committee that heard testimony from scientists about commerce secretary nominee and Oppenheimer nemesis Lewis Strauss.
The scenes featured in the movie are just part of the real Warren Magnuson resume. He was also known for introducing legislation regulating flammable fabrics, auto safety, cigarette labeling and truth in packaging. He also championed medical research and conservation.
Maggie the ladies' man
But as much attention as Magnuson garnered for achievement in bills passed, he perhaps was best known in his early years for being “the most eligible bachelor” in Congress.
After his divorce in 1935 from his first wife Eleanor Maddieux, a former Miss Seattle, he was rumored to be dating movie stars Rita Hayworth and Carole Parker. In 1940, gossip columnists hinted at an affair between New York Model Vera York and the “blond, handsome Congressman.”
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When asked about her son’s relationship with York, Magnuson’s mother, Emma, still living in Moorhead, chuckled and said “We know he has a picture of her, but that’s about all we know.”
By 1951, newspaper headlines screamed of a relationship between "the dashing Democrat" and actress June Millarde (formerly Toni Seven).
He once addressed his ladies’ man reputation while campaigning. Holding up a scandal sheet he said, “They say in here that I like girls. Well, it’s true. Would you want a senator who doesn’t?”
A “Time” magazine story profiling Magnuson in 1961 said that after all of his years in office, "he is still that ever-loving, good-time Charlie Scandinavian come out of the woods on a Saturday night for fun, sociability, and a yearning to spread joy.”
However, by 1964, he settled down and married his second wife, Jermaine Elliott Peralta, with President Johnson standing by his side as best man.
Magnuson’s Legacy
Despite holding the powerful position of chair of the Appropriations Committee, Magnuson was not re-elected in 1980, losing to Republican Slade Gorton. It was the first time Magnuson had lost an election of any kind.
After his defeat, he swore he wouldn’t be a lame duck, but a “retired rooster.” He campaigned successfully for a Seattle city bond issue for senior housing and became a mainstay of Democratic fundraisers.
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He died on May 20, 1989, at the age of 84 from congestive heart failure due to complications from diabetes. According to his obituary in The Forum, Magnsuon was survived by his wife, daughter, and two grandchildren.
His memory has been honored both in Washington state and in the Washington D. C. area, with the Warren G. Magnuson Health Sciences Building at the University of Washington and the Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. At least three important pieces of legislation bear his name as well.
He’s also being remembered in his hometown of Moorhead. He’s mentioned in
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STEP BACK IN TIME WITH TRACY BRIGGS
Hi, I'm Tracy Briggs. Thanks for reading my column! I love going "Back Then" every week with stories about interesting people, places and things from our past. Check out a few below. If you have an idea for a story, email me at tracy.briggs@forumcomm.com.
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