Every Man a King: A History of the Long Presidency and Beyond

It's just the economic student version of "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?". Just a random bump.

Ah, so the cineaste version would be "What is the general mise en scène of the deconstructed visual aesthetic of the various camera roll?"

Thanks, BTW. Glad you like the TL!
 
IMAGES OF THE WORLD IN THE MAY OF 1937

"Your Majesty?"

"Yes, Stanley?" The king turned his head away from his chess game and pipe. "What is it?"

"You know of President Long, of course?"

"Of course, Stanley." He smiled slightly. "What's the madman done now? Perhaps redistributed all the mountains in the States among each and every citizen, or something silly like that?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it silly, sire. He's suspended the Constitution. There was a sort of coup d'état against him, led by that, um," he paused, "William Rudolph Hearst?"

"Randolph Hearst," said the king, smiling slightly.

"Ah yes. Pardon me, sir." The Prime Minister cleared his throat. "Well, one of Hearst's chosen dogs, some general named MacArthur, tried to kill Long, and he failed. One of Long's men took the bullet, and MacArthur was shot, and I now quote from the New York Times," he said, pulling out a neatly-folded newspaper, "62 times by the President's patriotic bodyguards."

The king turned his head. "Good god."

"Well, yes, sir, exactly! Don't you see what'll come of this? God knows what'll come of the Yanks being fascist."

"Fascist? Nonsense!" Edward VIII took a puff of his pipe. "In fact, I should like to meet Huey Long. He sounds," and the king thought for a moment, "intriguing. Send a plane for me, Mr. Baldwin."

"Very good, sir." Stanley Baldwin exited the room.

The king turned around, suspiciously. "Wallis? It's safe now," he said, as a woman emerged from the closet.

*******


THE COUP WE SUPPORTED HAS FAILED STOP MACARTHUR DEFIED ORDERS AND TRIED TO ASSANINATE LONG EARLY STOP SECRETARY BUTLER TOOK THE BULLET STOP LONG HAS SUPENDED THE CONSTITUTION STOP MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON US ALL STOP

A PATRIOT


*******

"Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, on First Person Singular, I, Orson Welles, shall be dramatizing a shocking-and timely-event. Based on all the available facts, which you, the American people, have seen and heard and read over the previous days, we, at First Person Singular on the air, will be dramatizing the attempted assassination of our President, by the traitorous General MacArthur, who I will be portraying. This piece is called 'Sic Semper Salvatores.' That's Latin for 'Thus Always to Saviors.' Thank you very much, ladies and gentleman."

MACARTHUR: Please, God! No! No, no, I swear, I swear I had my reasons. Don't sentence me to damnation eternal! No, no, please!

GABRIEL (portrayed by Joseph Cotton): I am the Archangel Gabriel. Why have you done this terrible thing, Douglas MacArthur?...

M: I honestly believed it to be for the good of the country. I thought that Huey Long was a tyrant, that he had to be stopped.

G: But don't you see that he is doing the Lord's own work? He is fulfilling the tenants of God, and of the American people. To share our wealth is just and right and godly.

M: Yes, yes, I see that now! Oh, God forgive me!

G: Do you truly repent, General?

M: Oh, god, yes I do!

G: Then you are forgiven.
 
Wait, wait, wait....is this Orson Welles as a 20th Century Shakespeare, using parody and subtly to criticize society and leaders amid the censorship and legal danger of his day?
 
So, the Prince of Wales may have an important role. Interesting plot twist. I cannot help but think of his good relations with PM Mosley in A Greater Britain (For those who haven't read it, in that TL, Mosley stays in the Labour Party and therefore remains their rising star until he becomes PM. He then succeeds in reforming many British institutions.)
 
Edward VIII is still king in 37? Oh well, fascist sympathies aside, Great Britain is lucky that's already the King have few powers...as the man strike me as one that prefer parties to work and don't like much responsabilities.
 
Wait, wait, wait....is this Orson Welles as a 20th Century Shakespeare, using parody and subtly to criticize society and leaders amid the censorship and legal danger of his day?

A little bit. Long legitimately loved this program, as ridiculous as it is (and Welles was trying to make it so.) Welles, ITTL, supports Long up to a point, but not blindly, by any means.
 
So, the Prince of Wales may have an important role. Interesting plot twist. I cannot help but think of his good relations with PM Mosley in A Greater Britain (For those who haven't read it, in that TL, Mosley stays in the Labour Party and therefore remains their rising star until he becomes PM. He then succeeds in reforming many British institutions.)

Edward VIII is still king in 37? Oh well, fascist sympathies aside, Great Britain is lucky that's already the King have few powers...as the man strike me as one that prefer parties to work and don't like much responsabilities.

I never liked Edward VIII. I thought I wrote him to be pretty fatuous, what with his hiding Wallis Simpson in a closet :) but I might use Moseley as a PM. I bet he and Long would get on well. Oh, that's scary.
 
I never liked Edward VIII. I thought I wrote him to be pretty fatuous, what with his hiding Wallis Simpson in a closet :) but I might use Moseley as a PM. I bet he and Long would get on well. Oh, that's scary.

Maybe...maybe not, IMHO the men are a little too similar in character to get along too much, they will probably start to clash very soon, expecially if one have an anti-empire mentality and the other serve the biggest empire of the planet.

Btw, yes the scene of the closet was funny:p
 
I never liked Edward VIII. I thought I wrote him to be pretty fatuous, what with his hiding Wallis Simpson in a closet :) but I might use Moseley as a PM. I bet he and Long would get on well. Oh, that's scary.

Given the fact that we already know that Hitler (and presumably his inner circle) are successfully assassinated in TTL 1939, I imagine that fascist/corportist ideals will not be as discredited as OTL. It is often forgotten today that the ideal of social engineering was quite popular with many intellectuals in the interwar period. For example, famed Socialist science fiction author HG Wells actually believed in eugenics. There was also some limited use of eugenics in the US immediately after WWI. These ideas were not largely seen as evil but as a means of ensuring a healthy and fecund population. It was simply a values dissonance. Some legacies of these ideas actually live on in modern welfare states.
 
....
Following the passing of the act, the titans of industry were shocked. A number of businessmen, led by William Randolph Hearst, plotted to overthrow Long. The "Gabriel Plot," [3] named after a film made by Hearst about a fascist president, had Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur lead a veteran's organization on Washington, which would have deposed Long. It very nearly succeeded, too.
....
===============================
Footnotes:

3. Based on the OTL Business Plot.

How might the OTL version of Seven Days In May go? With Burt Lancaster as Mac and Kirk Douglas as Smedley?
 
Not just Herbert George

Given the fact that we already know that Hitler (and presumably his inner circle) are successfully assassinated in TTL 1939, I imagine that fascist/corportist ideals will not be as discredited as OTL. It is often forgotten today that the ideal of social engineering was quite popular with many intellectuals in the interwar period. For example, famed Socialist science fiction author HG Wells actually believed in eugenics. There was also some limited use of eugenics in the US immediately after WWI. These ideas were not largely seen as evil but as a means of ensuring a healthy and fecund population. It was simply a values dissonance. Some legacies of these ideas actually live on in modern welfare states.

Many, if not most, of the US science fiction writers in the '30's were into eugenics and schemes such as Social Credit, only abandoning them (if they did) after life changes. Robert Heinlein, later paragon of Libertarian Virtue, being most notable (See Beyond This Horizon for example.)
 
Maybe...maybe not, IMHO the men are a little too similar in character to get along too much, they will probably start to clash very soon, expecially if one have an anti-empire mentality and the other serve the biggest empire of the planet.

Btw, yes the scene of the closet was funny:p

Thanks. You may be right; I'll keep it in mind, and I'll try to stay away from Kaiserreich territory in the writing of it. (For those who don't know, Edward VIII leads a Canadian government in exile from the Sydies back in Britain, and Long's American Union State is one of the states that can win the Second ACW.)

Given the fact that we already know that Hitler (and presumably his inner circle) are successfully assassinated in TTL 1939, I imagine that fascist/corportist ideals will not be as discredited as OTL. It is often forgotten today that the ideal of social engineering was quite popular with many intellectuals in the interwar period. For example, famed Socialist science fiction author HG Wells actually believed in eugenics. There was also some limited use of eugenics in the US immediately after WWI. These ideas were not largely seen as evil but as a means of ensuring a healthy and fecund population. It was simply a values dissonance. Some legacies of these ideas actually live on in modern welfare states.

Yes, those were my thoughts exactly. Very astute. ITTL, Hitler is regarded as a crazy person who thankfully died before he could do anything catastrophic. That doesn't mean that our TTL counterparts haven't written TLs where Hitler survives.

Japan, meanwhile, well, they won't be doing so hot.
 
How might the OTL version of Seven Days In May go? With Burt Lancaster as Mac and Kirk Douglas as Smedley?

I'm glad you pieced up on the fact that I, you know, set the Gabriel Plot in May.

Many, if not most, of the US science fiction writers in the '30's were into eugenics and schemes such as Social Credit, only abandoning them (if they did) after life changes. Robert Heinlein, later paragon of Libertarian Virtue, being most notable (See Beyond This Horizon for example.)

Yeah, I knew that about Heinlein. I'll keep it in mind.

I enjoyed writing the "Images" section. I'll do more in the future, I think, if you liked it.

I've got to go for a bit.
 
Last edited:
I wonder if there will be an important role for the First Lady, Rose Long. In OTL, she would become a Senator after Huey was assassinated. I picture her as a kind of American Eva Peron, a popular wife of the populist autocrat who campaigned for social justice(Eva Peron was an unambiguous feminist in OTL).
 
I wonder if there will be an important role for the First Lady, Rose Long. In OTL, she would become a Senator after Huey was assassinated. I picture her as a kind of American Eva Peron, a popular wife of the populist autocrat who campaigned for social justice(Eva Peron was an unambiguous feminist in OTL).

I hadn't considered that, but I like it.

Any guesses on who "A Patriot" is?
 
A little bit. Long legitimately loved this program, as ridiculous as it is (and Welles was trying to make it so.) Welles, ITTL, supports Long up to a point, but not blindly, by any means.

I don't know your long term plans, but I get the feeling that won't last. Welles had a habit of annoying people in power, and thumbing his nose when they got angry. There was Hearst as an obvious example, but there are more. Harry Cohn bugged his office, and Welles would start every morning with a parody greeting of his radio program and end every work day with a sign off so Cohn could hear it. J. Edgar Hoover had him investigated for Communism, as another example. When he inquired what the agents considered a Communist, they stated someone who gave their money to the government, to which Welles replied something like 60% of his income was taxed, so he must be 60% Communist, and the rest was all Capitalist. A misplaced joke which Long doesn't appreciate could be all it takes to cause a major problem.

EDIT:
That said, Welles did have many friends in powerful places, as I'm sure you yourself know. He traveled Europe freely at around age 10, for example. He met Hitler personally while on a school trip with a teacher who was a burgeoning fascist before the Nazis were anything more than crackpots -- albeit Welles was obviously not keen on Hitler. He said he was forgettable and he had little memory of him because of how little personality he really had. His life was sort of a literate Forrest Gump. He was involved in the Roosevelt White House and knew Churchill (who subsequently got him funding for a film from a White Russian Welles was trying to hustle for money -- once out of office, he happened to run into Churchill while with the businessman, and Churchill bowed to Welles in front of the Russian, and the Russian gave him the money because he was impressed). So that may negate what I just said if Welles can find a soft landing if he gets into trouble.
 
Last edited:
I don't know your long term plans, but I get the feeling that won't last. Welles had a habit of annoying people in power, and thumbing his nose when they got angry. There was Hearst as an obvious example, but there are more. Harry Cohn bugged his office, and Welles would start every morning with a parody greeting of his radio program and end every work day with a sign off so Cohn could hear it. J. Edgar Hoover had him investigated for Communism, as another example. When he inquired what the agents considered a Communist, they stated someone who gave their money to the government, to which Welles replied something like 60% of his income was taxed, so he must be 60% Communist, and the rest was all Capitalist. A misplaced joke which Long doesn't appreciate could be all it takes to cause a major problem.

Yes, that is very true. That is actually what is going to happen at some point, sadly. Fascism and Orson Welles do not mix very well, as you rightly assert.
 
Yes, that is very true. That is actually what is going to happen at some point, sadly. Fascism and Orson Welles do not mix very well, as you rightly assert.

In a reverse to OTL, with Long increased authoritarian/fascist rule and Europe avoid WW2 (probably limited to the German/Polish war plus the Phoney war and some agreement...if we can be optimistic), we can see a lot of american artist seeking refuge on Europe and Canada
 
Top