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04926aam a2200649 i 4500 001 8EC80F765E2211E78DAED5EDDAD10320 003 SILO 005 20170701010015 008 160325s2016 ilua b 000 0aeng c 010 $a 2016014271 020 $a 022642362X (pbk. : alk. paper) 020 $a 9780226423623 (pbk. : alk. paper) 020 $a 022642359X (cloth : alk. paper) 020 $a 9780226423593 (cloth : alk. paper) 035 $a (OCoLC)944087516 040 $a ICU/DLC $b eng $e rda $c CGU $d DLC $d BTCTA $d YDXCP $d BDX $d FM0 $d NYP $d YDX $d OU9 $d IGA $d T3B $d OCLCF $d ILM $d OCLCO $d SILO 042 $a pcc 043 $a n-us--- 050 00 $a HC102.5.A2 $b A58 2016 082 00 $a B $a B $2 23 100 1 $a Altemus, Althea McDowell, $d 1885-1965, $e author. 245 10 $a Big bosses : $b a working girl's memoir of Jazz Age America / $c Althea McDowell Altemus ; edited and annotated by Robin F. Bachin ; in partnership with Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. 264 1 $a Chicago : $b The University of Chicago Press, $c 2016. 300 $a xiv, 220 pages : $b illustrations ; $c 23 cm 504 $a Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-220). 505 0 $a Foreword / Joel M. Hoffman -- Big bosses. Wealth ; Chicago ; Pierre Duval ; Sleuths ; Phylander & Company ; Country ; New York ; S.W. Strauss & Company ; Pigeonblood ruby ; Fred F. French & Company ; Miami ; Biscayne Bay -- Afterword: Chronicling the clerical life of Althea Altemus / Robin F. Bachin. 520 $a Sharp, resourceful, and with a style all her own, Althea Altemus embodied the spirit of the independent working woman of the Jazz Age. In her memoir, Big Bosses, she vividly recounts her life as a secretary for prominent (but thinly disguised) employers in Chicago, Miami, and New York during the late teens and 1920s. Alongside her we rub elbows with movie stars, artists, and high-profile businessmen, and experience lavish estate parties that routinely defied the laws of Prohibition. Beginning with her employment as a private secretary to James Deering of International Harvester, whom she describes as "probably the world's oldest and wealthiest bachelor playboy," Altemus tells us much about high society during the time, taking us inside Deering's glamorous Miami estate, Vizcaya, an Italianate mansion worthy of Gatsby himself. Later, we meet her other notable employers, including Samuel Insull, president of Chicago Edison; New York banker S. W. Straus; and real estate developer Fred F. French. We cinch up our trenchcoats and head out sleuthing in Chicago, hired by the wife of a big boss to find out how he spends his evenings (with, it turns out, a mistress hidden in an apartment within his office, no less). Altemus was also a struggling single mother, a fact she had to keep secret from her employers, and she reveals the difficulties of being a working woman at the time through glimpses into women's apartments, their friendships, and the dangers - sexual and otherwise - that she and others faced. Throughout, Altemus entertains with a tart and self-aware voice that combines the knowledge of an insider with the wit and clarity of someone on the fringe. Anchored by extensive annotation and an afterword from historian Robin F. Bachin, which contextualizes Altemus's narrative, Big Bosses provides a one-of-a-kind peek inside the excitement, extravagances, and the challenges of being a working woman roaring through the '20s. 600 10 $a Altemus, Althea McDowell, $d 1885-1965, 600 17 $a Altemus, Althea McDowell, $d 1885-1965, $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01955817 650 0 $a Businessmen $z United States. 650 0 $a Rich people $z United States. 650 0 $a Nineteen twenties. 650 0 $a Secretaries $z United States $v Biography. 650 0 $a Working mothers $z United States. $v Biography. 650 4 $a Businessmen 650 4 $a Working mothers 650 4 $a Rich people 650 4 $a Secretaries 650 4 $a Nineteen twenties. 650 7 $a BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY $x Business. $2 bisacsh 650 7 $a BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY. $x Historical. $2 bisacsh 650 7 $a HISTORY $z United States $x 20th Century. $2 bisacsh 650 7 $a SOCIAL SCIENCE $x Women's Studies. $2 bisacsh 650 7 $a Businessmen $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst00842951 650 7 $a Nineteen twenties. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01037835 650 7 $a Rich people $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01097537 650 7 $a Secretaries $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01110683 650 7 $a Working mothers $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01180647 651 7 $a United States $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01204155 655 7 $a Autobiographies. $2 lcgft 655 7 $a Autobiographies. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01919894 655 7 $a Biography $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01423686 700 1 $a Bachin, Robin Faith, $e writer of added commentary. $e writer of added commentary. 941 $a 1 952 $l GAAX314 $d 20170701010105.0 956 $a http://locator.silo.lib.ia.us/search.cgi?index_0=id&term_0=8EC80F765E2211E78DAED5EDDAD10320 994 $a Z0 $b HL6Initiate Another SILO Locator Search