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Big Bosses: A Working Girl's Memoir of Jazz Age America
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.
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.
192 pages, Paperback
Published November 18, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 7, 2016
My review from the Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifesty...
In the early days of a certain revolutionary piece of office machinery, as well as the history-making move into the workforce of women who made their living with it, both the device and its operator were referred to as "typewriters."
Fittingly, struggling divorcee and single mother Althea McDowell Altemus wrote her lively and enchanting book, "Big Bosses: A Working Girl's Memoir of Jazz Age America," on one. It seems apt that she composed her memoir using the tool of her trade, with which she labored as a secretary for renowned employers in Miami, New York and Chicago throughout the late teens and 1920s.
As Dr. Joel M. Hoffman, executive director of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, writes in his admiring and illuminating foreword, "Reading the original manuscript as a thick stack of 8 1/2-by-11-inch pages, with double-spaced text in traditional Courier font, one can imagine the staccato rhythm of Althea's fingers pressing the keys," and appreciate that Althea's "act of committing her tell-all to paper in so formal a manner seems extremely courageous."
Before it became a museum, Vizcaya was the lavish Miami winter residence of titan of industry James Deering of International Harvester, for whom Altemus worked. It is because of this connection that the book, decades after it was written, has ended up published at all. Altemus retired in Miami and her son Robert raised his two sons, Robert and Donald, there. Through a chance introduction, Hoffman met Donald who, after that meeting, tracked down the manuscript hidden away in one of his closets.
In fact, the book opens with charming reproductions of some of the original pages of her lost manuscript, which begins dashingly and engagingly and with a reference to Deering: "Neither beautiful nor dumb, I received my first assignment as private secretary to probably the world's oldest and wealthiest bachelor playboy."
In turn, editor Robin F. Bachin, a history professor at the University of Miami, notes: "misspelled words, grammatical irregularities and formatting inconsistencies have all been retained to reflect the challenges Altemus faced in writing a manuscript of this length, sophistication and complexity on a typewriter, as well as her limited education and training."
This professional typewriter and her trusty typewriter give the reader tales that are of immense social, historical and feminist significance. Of the flagrantly discriminatory hiring practices faced by female job seekers, she writes, "Whatever crime it is for a woman … to wish to earn her own living and keep her child with her, I do not know — but crime it seems to be."
Yet so, too, are her tales dishy, witty and a ton of fun. Of one of the many decadent poolside parties Deering threw at Vizcaya, Altemus writes, "Only the tropic moon could ever know what the philanderers and their filomels found so satisfying in this pool and even romantic moonlight couldn't penetrate the awning roofed cabanas in the pines."
Her situation — a bright, driven woman required by circumstance to support herself financially — was not atypical. But her famous employers were, including such men as Samuel Insull, president of Chicago Edison; New York banker S.W. Straus; real estate developer Fred F. French; a Swiss architect; and a jeweler whose primary clients were prostitutes. In doing so, she rubbed shoulders with such luminaries as John Singer Sargent, Thomas Edison, William Jennings Bryan, Helen Clay Frick and actress Constance Talmadge. Thanks to the latter, Altemus even ended up cast as an extra in the 1921 silent film "Lessons in Love."
It's unclear what Altemus intended for this manuscript, which she wrote in 1932, but never released. What is clear is that, thanks to the efforts of her descendants, Hoffman, and Bachin, we are lucky now to have this remarkable — and remarkably written — document of everyday life and work in 20th century America from a perspective that is all too rarely seen.
In the early days of a certain revolutionary piece of office machinery, as well as the history-making move into the workforce of women who made their living with it, both the device and its operator were referred to as "typewriters."
Fittingly, struggling divorcee and single mother Althea McDowell Altemus wrote her lively and enchanting book, "Big Bosses: A Working Girl's Memoir of Jazz Age America," on one. It seems apt that she composed her memoir using the tool of her trade, with which she labored as a secretary for renowned employers in Miami, New York and Chicago throughout the late teens and 1920s.
As Dr. Joel M. Hoffman, executive director of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, writes in his admiring and illuminating foreword, "Reading the original manuscript as a thick stack of 8 1/2-by-11-inch pages, with double-spaced text in traditional Courier font, one can imagine the staccato rhythm of Althea's fingers pressing the keys," and appreciate that Althea's "act of committing her tell-all to paper in so formal a manner seems extremely courageous."
Before it became a museum, Vizcaya was the lavish Miami winter residence of titan of industry James Deering of International Harvester, for whom Altemus worked. It is because of this connection that the book, decades after it was written, has ended up published at all. Altemus retired in Miami and her son Robert raised his two sons, Robert and Donald, there. Through a chance introduction, Hoffman met Donald who, after that meeting, tracked down the manuscript hidden away in one of his closets.
In fact, the book opens with charming reproductions of some of the original pages of her lost manuscript, which begins dashingly and engagingly and with a reference to Deering: "Neither beautiful nor dumb, I received my first assignment as private secretary to probably the world's oldest and wealthiest bachelor playboy."
In turn, editor Robin F. Bachin, a history professor at the University of Miami, notes: "misspelled words, grammatical irregularities and formatting inconsistencies have all been retained to reflect the challenges Altemus faced in writing a manuscript of this length, sophistication and complexity on a typewriter, as well as her limited education and training."
This professional typewriter and her trusty typewriter give the reader tales that are of immense social, historical and feminist significance. Of the flagrantly discriminatory hiring practices faced by female job seekers, she writes, "Whatever crime it is for a woman … to wish to earn her own living and keep her child with her, I do not know — but crime it seems to be."
Yet so, too, are her tales dishy, witty and a ton of fun. Of one of the many decadent poolside parties Deering threw at Vizcaya, Altemus writes, "Only the tropic moon could ever know what the philanderers and their filomels found so satisfying in this pool and even romantic moonlight couldn't penetrate the awning roofed cabanas in the pines."
Her situation — a bright, driven woman required by circumstance to support herself financially — was not atypical. But her famous employers were, including such men as Samuel Insull, president of Chicago Edison; New York banker S.W. Straus; real estate developer Fred F. French; a Swiss architect; and a jeweler whose primary clients were prostitutes. In doing so, she rubbed shoulders with such luminaries as John Singer Sargent, Thomas Edison, William Jennings Bryan, Helen Clay Frick and actress Constance Talmadge. Thanks to the latter, Altemus even ended up cast as an extra in the 1921 silent film "Lessons in Love."
It's unclear what Altemus intended for this manuscript, which she wrote in 1932, but never released. What is clear is that, thanks to the efforts of her descendants, Hoffman, and Bachin, we are lucky now to have this remarkable — and remarkably written — document of everyday life and work in 20th century America from a perspective that is all too rarely seen.
January 9, 2017
I read an article about this book in the Wall Street Journal so I decided to pick it up. I love the Jazz Age and found the memoir of a single working mother during that era rather interesting. It is mind boggling to think that a woman could be fired for being a mother, a wife, having a bob hairstyle, or even being a blond. This country is far from perfect but thankfully some progress has been made :-)
December 10, 2016
A delightful discovery at the library. I recommend reading just the original memoir and its immediate footnotes (about 156 pages) and avoid the lengthy historical discussion and footnotes that follow.
I loved the idea of this book. It was highly readable with modern language, unlike other 1920's works. I think it was stated that the author worked on her memoir into the 1940s. It was also incredibly interesting. If half the things the author describes are real, she led an amazing life! It was hard to put down. All these factors did make me seriously doubt the historical authenticity of the work, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
I thought it was interesting that the editor makes a statement in the Forward that she removed 3 words "considered pejorative today" from the text, but left in grammar and spelling mistakes for "authenticity".
The immediate footnotes are interesting because they help the reader determine the difference between what the author writes and what she means. I liked the author's personality and what she attempts to conceal for the sake of propriety. For example, she refers to herself as a widow instead of a divorcee.
There are other parts of the text, however, that seem to indicate she worked for the Hugh Hefners of her time. Anything goes with multiple girlfriend and mistresses. Although to their credit, these were long running affairs and not random hook-ups like today's culture sees. In one chapter, she sympathies with a mistress who is forced to conceal her current affair due to the "conservatism" of others around her.
The end of the original text was disappointingly abrupt, as if the author lost interest in writing. It did not contain any sort of conclusion or personal statement that one might expect to find at the end of a memoir. The last chapter doesn't even seem fully flushed out.
It felt odd to me that secretaries were referred to as "business women" and "career women". I guess that made sense in a time when all the executives were male, but it sounded laughable to my modern ears. The author did make being a private secretary in the 1920s sound like a fun adventure - if your morals had a significant amount of flexibility.
I loved the idea of this book. It was highly readable with modern language, unlike other 1920's works. I think it was stated that the author worked on her memoir into the 1940s. It was also incredibly interesting. If half the things the author describes are real, she led an amazing life! It was hard to put down. All these factors did make me seriously doubt the historical authenticity of the work, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
I thought it was interesting that the editor makes a statement in the Forward that she removed 3 words "considered pejorative today" from the text, but left in grammar and spelling mistakes for "authenticity".
The immediate footnotes are interesting because they help the reader determine the difference between what the author writes and what she means. I liked the author's personality and what she attempts to conceal for the sake of propriety. For example, she refers to herself as a widow instead of a divorcee.
There are other parts of the text, however, that seem to indicate she worked for the Hugh Hefners of her time. Anything goes with multiple girlfriend and mistresses. Although to their credit, these were long running affairs and not random hook-ups like today's culture sees. In one chapter, she sympathies with a mistress who is forced to conceal her current affair due to the "conservatism" of others around her.
The end of the original text was disappointingly abrupt, as if the author lost interest in writing. It did not contain any sort of conclusion or personal statement that one might expect to find at the end of a memoir. The last chapter doesn't even seem fully flushed out.
It felt odd to me that secretaries were referred to as "business women" and "career women". I guess that made sense in a time when all the executives were male, but it sounded laughable to my modern ears. The author did make being a private secretary in the 1920s sound like a fun adventure - if your morals had a significant amount of flexibility.
July 20, 2022
While the writing wasn't what you'd call literary, it was quite a feat for a its novice author, who provided intriguing insight into the life of a commoner living and working among society's upper crust in this romanticized era of American life. It's certainly a one-of-a-kind memoir, with peculiar anecdotes involving society's rich and famous. But it's also a look into what it was like to be a working mother back when women were expected to be mothers, but not expected (or usually allowed) to work for a living. The author's grit and determination, intellect, kindness to others and dedication to friends and family make a rare and remarkable combination. The sketches were a little odd, especially considering the artist's reputation, but the few photos provided interesting documentation of her story.
Read
March 18, 2020Using some of this corona time to pick up unread books I've had on my shelves for awhile. I went to a book talk more than 2 years ago by Robin Bachin, the historian who edited and annotated this memoir. It's by Althea McDowell Altemus, who worked as a secretary for a number of prominent businessmen in the 1920s and 1930s in Miami, Chicago, and New York, and who provides a poignant and often very funny view of what life was like for a single working mother at this time. It was really engaging in general and (although I knew this to be the case) still kind of shocking the lengths she had to go to to hide her marital and parenting status from her employers. Fun read and I'm glad I finally got around to it!
July 12, 2020
1920's Working Lady
This is a very excellent autobiographical account of the working career of Althea Altemus, Secretary to quite a few major business tycoons. At the beginning of respectable work for women in America, Althea made her way as a single parent through the bias of the period. The flavor of the 1920's and 1930's comes through really giving you a glimpse of the time. A good read, that's been enhanced by scrupulous study, footnotes and comments this is definitely worth reading for those interested in this time. Althea's story is quite worth it by itself and I think you would agree she's got spunk.
This is a very excellent autobiographical account of the working career of Althea Altemus, Secretary to quite a few major business tycoons. At the beginning of respectable work for women in America, Althea made her way as a single parent through the bias of the period. The flavor of the 1920's and 1930's comes through really giving you a glimpse of the time. A good read, that's been enhanced by scrupulous study, footnotes and comments this is definitely worth reading for those interested in this time. Althea's story is quite worth it by itself and I think you would agree she's got spunk.
August 15, 2017
I found this book at the gift shop at Vizcaya Gardens. The memoir not only gives a snapshot of life at the estate and some insight into Deering, the estate's owner named Beau in the book, but it also shows how Altemus has to navigate between being a divorced single mother in the twenties, often hiding that fact from her employers. My favorite part is the chapter Sleuths, when Altemus secures a job as an investigator for a faded actress. Fun, gossipy read from the 1920s.
February 19, 2019
Interesting little look at working mothers in the 1920s, though slight overall.
May 16, 2023
This book was oddly fascinating. I read it for research purposes but ended up thoroughly enjoying it. It reads easily and quickly (two afternoons for me) like a good friend telling you stories.
January 13, 2025
Read because it had info related to John Deering who built Vizcaya in Miami.
September 26, 2017
The manuscript for this book was not found until after Althea McDowell Altemus's death. It has been published thanks to her descendants and the staff of the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, Florida (where Althea once worked as the private secretary of Vizcaya's original owner). Altemus had a unique perspective on industry, gender and the private lives of the privileged and powerful of the 1920s.
April 6, 2017
What an awesome little tome! A house museum in Florida came by this manuscript and engaged a historian to add historical notes and context. A gem of a book by a working single mother in the 1920s and the various famous men she worked for in Chicago, New York and Florida. Great mix of slices of life and dishy details. The original author's voice is very much intact.
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June 26, 2017When Althea's husband turned to drink, she turned to clerical work to support her family. Unfortunately, in the early 20th century, married women weren't allowed to be employed. Althea had to lie about her marital status and motherhood. Her memoir shows the challenges she faced, her creativity in overcoming them, and the odd characters she met along the way. She changed names to protect the not-so-innocent, but library detective work revealed much. Historical context is provided.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews