Washington College Magazine
College President Joseph H. McLain '37 (left) and James M. Cain '10, pictured at Cain's home in Hyattsville, MD, became good friends. Cain refused an honorary degree but the College awarded him an alumni citation posthumously in 1978.
A testament to Cain's output as a writer, these book covers give today's readers a taste of his noir sensibilities.
Legendary Lives
The history of Washington College can be told through the stories of its alumni. As a 225th Anniversary tribute we have collected just a few examples of those who have led lives of revolutionary purpose.
From Chestertown to Hollywood: James M. Cain, Class of 1910
By Christopher Ames, Provost and Dean
James M. Cain '10 was not a typical student of Washington College: he was the son of the President, James W. Cain, and he entered the college at age 14. The senior Cain had been recruited to Chestertown from Annapolis, where he served as the Dean of St. John's College.
When the family arrived in Chestertown, they found it a bit rural for their taste: young Jamie Cain said it exhibited all "the familiar symptoms of yokelry." In particular, the family was dismayed that Kent County was dry and they had to get their weekly supply of liquor by boat from Baltimore. They were also appalled by the elevated boardwalks on the campus. Before he built William Smith Hall, President Cain turned early to building brick walkways, including the "Lover's Lane" that still parallels Washington Avenue. Years later, the writer James Cain, known for his facility with natural working-class dialogue, would credit his long days spent with bricklayer Ike Newton on the Washington campus: "If a writer owes a debt to what his ears pick up, mine would be to Ike."
At Washington College, Jamie Cain failed speech but excelled in his other subjects, particularly mathematics, German, French, literature and history. He was a member of the Adelphia Literary Society, vice president of his class in 1907-08, a member of the Glee Club (he had a fine operatic voice), class poet in 1910, and literary editor of the Pegasus in both 1909 and the year of his graduation, 1910. Yearbook entries reveal that he excelled in playing poker and shooting pool as well.
Jamie Cain graduated from college at the age of 17 and spent the next four years trying various jobs: working for the State Road Commission, selling insurance, attempting an operatic career and selling Victrola records. In 1914, he returned to Chestertown and taught math and English at Washington College, earning a master's degree in literature and developing a reputation for stressing correct grammar and mechanics above all else in writing.
By then, Cain had decided he would be a writer. From Washington College, he went to Baltimore and worked as a reporter for the Baltimore American and the Baltimore Sun. After serving in World War I, he became a successful editorial writer, eventually publishing regularly in H. L. Mencken's American Mercury and becoming, briefly, the managing editor of The New Yorker.
Like so many writers of the glory years at The New Yorker, Cain found it impossible to work with editor Harold Ross. When he had had enough and wanted to quit, he asked his agent to find him a job in Hollywood.
In doing so, Cain joined a burgeoning and fascinating literary migration. Hollywood was an enormously successful industry in the 1920s: weekly attendance at motion pictures exceeded 50 million, as compared with only 30 million today. In 1929, this successful industry added the technological development of synchronized sound and suddenly they needed . . . well, writers. Hollywood successfully recruited hundreds of established writers: journalists, dramatists and novelists. Along with James Cain, Hollywood drew such writers as Scott Fitzgerald, Nathanael West, William Faulkner, John O'Hara, Horace McCoy and Aldous Huxley.
The result was a collision: a collision of East and West, the ways of publishing and moviemaking, the world in which the written word was king and the world in which the written word served a different medium. Out of that collision came a fruitful subgenre of American fiction: the Hollywood novel. Whether or not they succeeded in screenwriting, many of these writers used the southern Californian world as inspiration for their own fiction.
Indeed, Cain believed that the move to Los Angeles was crucial to his development as a fiction writer because he thought that New York City was overused and hackneyed as a ground for literary inspiration. Cain now took his inspiration in long drives around southern California, setting his first novel in a Southern California roadside gas station and lunch counter.
The result was publishing history: the first book to be a hardcover bestseller, paperback bestseller, serialized publication and source for multiple motion pictures. The year was 1934, and the bestseller was The Postman Always Rings Twice.
He would go on to publish 15 novels and 20 short stories. He even published two poems in The New Yorker, one about Washington College. Cain also supported himself, like many writers, by working for the studios as a screenwriter. He felt himself a failure at this, though he enjoyed the atmosphere of the studios. We know that he worked on at least 20 motion pictures (probably more), but he received only three screen credits. His best known film was Algiers in 1938 with Hedy Lamarr and Charles Boyer.
The fascinating thing about Cain's connection with Hollywood is this: none of the movies he wrote for was nearly as successful and well known as the films that other writers adapted from his novels and short stories. Cain's novels struck a chord with their disaffected heroes driven by primal passions to violence and self-destruction. And they proved to be great material for the movies.
There are 14 films based on novels or stories by Cain. Three became film noir classics: Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and The Postman Always Rings Twice. His films have remained in circulation and his fiction has remained in print.
This article is indebted to Roy Hoopes' fine biography Cain (New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1982.) Christopher Ames, Provost and Dean of the College at Washington College, is the author of Movies About the Movies: Hollywood Reflected.
Politics: Thomas Ward Veazey, Class of 1795, Maryland Governor, 1836-39
Thomas Ward Veazey dedicated his career to serving Maryland. Born in 1774, Veazey married three times and had eleven children. He died in 1842 after an illustrious career in government.
The youngest son of Captain Edward Veazey, who was killed in the Battle of Long Island in 1776, Thomas Veazey served as a Lieutenant Colonel during the War of 1812. Better known, however, for civilian public service, in 1808 and 1812 Veazey was a presidential elector who supported James Madison. In 1811 he was elected to the Maryland House of Representatives as the delegate from Cecil County and from 1833 to 1835 he was a member of Governor James Thomas' Executive Council.
In 1836, Veazey, a slaveholder who opposed abolition and advocated states' rights, began his first term as Governor of Maryland. The state's final Whig governor, he was also the last governor elected by the General Assembly, rather than by direct popular vote. Re-elected in 1837 and 1838, he served the maximum three one-year terms. During his tenure, $8 million was allotted to public works projects, including the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. The Maryland Constitution was amended during his term of office to provide for direct popular election of the governor and senators. —JH
Military Service: Benjamin Hays Vandervoort, Class of 1938, Decorated WWII Paratrooper
One of the most decorated alumni to fight for his country, Benjamin Hays Vandervoort was an officer in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.
Vandervoort, whose twin also attended Washington College, took part in all the Division's World War II combat jumps, including Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. He broke his leg during the early morning jump on D-Day but continued fighting, using his rifle as a crutch. He refused to abandon his troops despite his injuries.
He was unstoppable until the winter of 1945, when a fragment of shrapnel struck him in the face, taking his left eye, leaving a hole in his forehead and causing severe sinus damage.
Vandervoort was awarded three Distinguished Service Crosses for bravery in combat, three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for valor; he also received honors from France, Holland and Belgium.
Actor John Wayne immortalized his heroics on the silver screen in the 1962 film, The Longest Day. —JH
Education: Mary Adele France, Class of 1900, Founder, St. Mary's College of Maryland
As a student and as an educator, Mary Adele France was a pioneer. The fifth woman awarded a bachelor's degree from Washington College, she was also among the first to receive an honorary degree from the school.
France (pictured second from right) dedicated her career to providing young girls with inspiration and educational opportunities rare in the early 20th century.
France began teaching at St. Mary's Female Seminary in Maryland in 1909, beginning what would be an enduring association with the school. From 1918 to 1920, France was the supervisor of the Kent County Elementary School, and, during the following two years, she held the same position in the Shelby, TN, school system.
In 1923, she returned to the seminary, where she served as principal for 14 years before becoming president in 1937. During her tenure, she established a junior college program which laid the foundation for the present-day St. Mary's College of Maryland.
At WC's fiftieth anniversary of coeducation in 1942, France, along with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and the writer Sophie Kerr, received an honorary degree for her significant contributions to education for young women. — JH
Entertainment Industry: Colonel Hiram S. Brown, Class of 1900, President, RKO Studios
Called "The Last Emperor" by faculty and staff, Colonel Hiram Staunton Brown handled the institution's personnel and finances during 28 years as chairman of the Board of Visitors and Governors.
As an undergraduate, Brown was already prominent on campus. According to a classmate, federal judge T. Alan Goldsborough, Brown held many student offices, earned high grades, and always had the prettiest dates. He graduated magna cum laude at 17, then moved to New York City, where his success as a banker and businessman prepared him to be Chief of Finance of the Air Corps during World War I.
After the war, Brown became president of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp (RKO). A fan of Broadway, Brown was behind the pairing of the legendary Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, whose popularity kept RKO from bankruptcy during the Depression and allowed RKO to offer jobs to a number of Washington College graduates. While chairman of the Board he earned a reputation as "a benevolent dictator" for closely monitoring the college's finances and making important decisions without consulting a soul.
Brown's legacies include helping arrange the 1933 visit of his close friend President Franklin D. Roosevelt and convincing Colonel Clarence Hodson to make a generous financial gift. —JH
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