Reddit reviews Messiah of the Masses: Huey P. Long and the Great Depression (Library of American Biography Series)

I've always loved the mystique behind the bombastic and gregarious personality of Huey P. Long. There's a bit of a story about the completion of Airline Highway that after he left the governor's office for the Senate, he had a falling out with his hand appointed Mayor in New Orleans and vowed to never enter the city. But being a huge fan of the Roosevelt Hotel and its bar, he had the final construction of Airline be routed to drop him off right at the front door of the hotel. Which if you follow Airline to Tulane Ave, its only one left turn away and you're right there at the hotel.

And speaking of roads, while campaigning, he always vowed to create a highway system throughout the state. Being the depression era, this was nearly impossible, yet he promised all would see it. And keeping to his word, almost every little town saw a near immediate beginning to a highway system, but they would all stop just a few miles out. That's why when you go tour the state still today, you'll see these seemingly out of place big roads connecting little small towns, or the big roads that kind of go out a couple miles, then you're routed down to a two lane road.

There's also some conspiracy/rumor that FDR had something to do with Long's assassination as Long was the only candidate that was going to give him a run for his money in the Presidential election. These rumors point to the thought that based on the angles and positions of the people around him at the time of his assassination that some of his own bodyguards fired on him. There were also rumors about it being an inside job based on the notion that those closest to him, once he was shot, were more concerned with the whereabouts of his "Deduct Box" (a petty cash/war treasury that was supposed to hold a kings ransom) than they were of his health.

While there are few movies about him, I think the rendition executed by Edward Asner is probably the best, "The Life and Assassination of the Kingfish" from 1977. John Goodman depicted him later, but way more over the top, over acted, and just too out there to really take it seriously. And of course there was that recent one with Sean Penn or something like that, but I've still not seen that, so IDK.

I've got a book I'm going to search down and send the title to you. It was required reading in college for Louisiana History, but I cannot remember the name of it. I've just got to find it in my library first....its been years since I've even thought about it, but a good enough book for me have to kept it all this time. It had a plain white cover with a green block, and in that green block a simple line drawing. Maybe based on this description, someone else can jump in and name the book.

EDIT: Found it. Called "Messiah of the Masses" https://www.amazon.com/Messiah-Masses-Depression-American-Biography/dp/0065001621

My Louisiana history teacher was a man named Mr. Little and was old enough to have remembered Huey Long, so thankfully we got a good amount of first hand stories, if not twisted with a little bit of fancy, about the Kingfish. If I think of any other anecdotes, I'll repost.