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\n\u201cHistory is herstory, too.\u201d ~Anon.
\nby Cathy Tchorni
\n worldly, separate from rural Cape May County, Wildwood \u201cvibe\u201d during the first half of the 20th century was characteristic of the barrier islands. Hidden, overgrown inlets, allowed liquor to leave the Cape May stills, bound for the cities. Moneyed developers brought knowledge of a wider world from Philadelphia and New York City. Many people transplanted themselves from urban areas to summer cottages and year-around homes in Wildwood.
\nAn example of a newcomer was Doris Bradway. She was born in Elizabeth, NJ, a New York City suburb in 1895, and was educated at Pierce Business College in Philadelphia. She moved to Wildwood in 1919. Her husband, Edwin, worked as a sheet metal contractor. They had two sons, Edwin and Robert.
\nHer early life seems to have been uneventful. She broke into politics in 1932, becoming Commissioner of Finance for Wildwood after Kenneth Kirbyulen was killed in a car accident. She was appointed mayor when William H. Bright, a friend, died suddenly.
\nOnce she became the Commissioner of Finance she oversaw the Civil Workers Administration (CWA), a job- creation program that was part of President Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal. The CWA did not last long, but Mrs. Bradway brought her concepts learned about the CWA with her into her mayor role. She was the mayor of Wildwood from 1933 to 1938.
\nShe vocally criticized the \u201cold order\u2019s\u201d administration of the CWA. Bradway characterized herself as an \u201cIndependent Republican\u201d. Instead of using the CWA funds to assist poverty-stricken residents, she accused the \u201croyal family\u201d\u2014wealthy Republicans who reportedly used the funds for themselves \u2013 of \u201cblatant irregularities\u2026using Federal monies for political intrigue and plunder.\u201d
\nMrs. Bradway disrupted the traditional world of politics by being a woman in a (then) man\u2019s world. In a newspaper interview (probably 1933) short mention was made of her role as City Commissioner of Finance, yet devoted two long paragraphs to her role as wife and mother. \u201cShe determined her home life shall go on just as it did before and that she will shirk no house duties\u2026She does all the work in her 10 room house, keeps it spotless, does her marketing, cooks three hot meals a day for her husband and two sons, does her own baking, washing and ironing\u2026\u201d
\nShe worked in partnership with Edward Zelig (E.J.) Fox, who had arrived with his family from Latvia in 1909, and became committed to beautifying Wildwood with parks. According to an undated transcript from the 1970s, Bradway commented in a transcript of an interview conducted probably in the 1970s, that she had \u201c400 people on relief [in Wildwood during the Depression].\u201d Many homeowners lost them because of non-payment of taxes. Mrs. Bradway helped E.J. Fox acquire defaulted properties, and gave many unemployed men jobs working for the City to create the resulting parks. Bradway and Fox used low land near the bay to build greenhouses, growing shrubs and bright annual flowers to be transplanted to parks as they were created. She also donated flowers to all the churches on Sundays.
\nBradway was vocal in that she believed every able-bodied man should work. From the same transcript: \u201cThe State would give any city, all of the trees they wanted\u2026understand they\u2019re only little things in a flower pot\u2026now they\u2019re gigantic\u2026it was 40,000 or 50,000 trees\u2026 In the meantime we had men\u2026cut down the [old] trees that [were] already there. We had coal and we had wood [to heat houses].\u201d \u2026And the old people who couldn\u2019t cut, and the widows that couldn\u2019t go out there and cut, they got the wood every night, or as many times as they needed it\u2026we supplied city trucks and city men to bring it back.\u201d
\n\u201c\u2026But I never approved of a relief lines. I don\u2019t approve of it today.\u201d \u2026I wouldn\u2019t put up with that kind of stuff. I had them repair the boardwalk. I had them paint the City buildings.\u201d
\nBradway was a determined, forthright, outspoken person. When lifeguards and reporters made fun of her weight, calling her \u201cBig Girl\u201d, she acknowledged that the extra weight prevented her from energetically doing her job. She publicly promised to lose 100 pounds in a year. She did, dropping from 251 to 149. A quote from a newspaper describes her transformation: \u201cNow she has bobbed her hair and wears it becomingly curled around her head. Her eyebrows are thinned and nicely arched.\u201d The paper even published her measurements before and after her weight loss! She was quoted as saying, \u201cHow could I be seen in a size 52 bathing suit and then expect the lifeguards to listen to me when I bawled them out?\u201d
\nDuring her short, approximately five years in office, Mrs. Bradway made many enemies, none as powerful as William C. Hunt, a Wildwood businessman and politician. As the owner of amusements and movie theaters, he pushed hard to open his businesses on Sundays. Mayor Bradway pushed equally hard and closed his theaters for Sunday. Mr. Hunt promptly sued her for $50,000.
\nGradually her enemies outnumbered her supporters. Her personality and actions that had previously been viewed as forthright was now viewed as unfair, unreasonable and illegal. She became unpopular with many of her constituents. Many voters in Wildwood agreed to a special election.
\nOn February 18, 1938 Doris Bradway and City Commissioner, Frederick McMurray were defeated in a recall election in a circus-like atmosphere. Bands played, people milled around the streets. Mrs. Bradley argued that all of Wildwood\u2019s paperwork was at risk and tried to protect it. 3100 of 3500 voters turned out. After the tallies, Bradway had lost by 571 votes, McMurray by 620. She blamed Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City, a State Democratic czar, saying, \u201cHague was too much for me today.\u201d She added \u201cI want him [Hague] to live a long enough to regret the day he invaded Wildwood and devoted three years of effort to unseat me\u2026\u201d
\nBoth McMurray and Bradway accepted their defeat, and turned over governance of Wildwood the next day.
\nHer Wildwood life filled with sensationalism did not end there. Her husband sued for divorce soon after her defeat, saying to the papers that her \u201caffections waned\u201d beginning in 1933. He asked her to leave the house in 1938 and she refused. Her estranged husband allowed the house to fall into foreclosure. Once Doris left the house, he reportedly bought it back.
\nDivorced in 1939 she ran a confectionary – drug store. Doris and Edwin both remarried, Doris in 1943 to Fred Wood. The second marriage apparently did not last long and Doris took the Bradway name back after a second divorce. Doris lived quietly on 18th Street in North Wildwood, known to nearly every year-around resident. She died in 1982.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"