Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II

Written by Jennet Conant

Narrated by John Kroft

The untold story of an eccentric Wall Street tycoon and the circle of scientific geniuses he assembled before World War II to develop the science for radar and the atomic bomb. Together they changed the course of history.

Legendary financier, philanthropist, and society figure Alfred Lee Loomis gathered the most visionary scientific minds of the twentieth century-Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, and others-at his state-of-the-art laboratory in Tuxedo Park, New York, in the late 1930s. He established a top-secret defense laboratory at MIT and personally bankrolled pioneering research into new, high-powered radar detection systems that helped defeat the German Air Force and U-boats. With Ernest Lawrence, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, he pushed Franklin Delano Roosevelt to fund research in nuclear fission, which led to the development of the atomic bomb.

Jennet Conant, the granddaughter of James Bryant Conant, one of the leading scientific advisers of World War II, enjoyed unprecedented access to Loomis' papers, as well as to people intimately involved in his life and work. She pierces through Loomis' obsessive secrecy and illuminates his role in assuring the Allied victory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Sep 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781977387004

Jennet Conant

Jennet Conant is the author of Man of the Hour: James B. Conant, Warrior Scientist, and the New York Times bestsellers The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington and Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II. She has written for Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, Newsweek, and The New York Times. She lives in New York City and Sag Harbor, New York.

Reviews for Tuxedo Park

[Ernest Mixco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent! Not to be missed!! The book paints a rich tapestry of how amazing thing were and are not now...

[schmerguls · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

5665. Tuxedo Park A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II, by Jennet Conant (read 20 Dec 2019) This book was published in 2002 . I had it and it is essentially a biography of Alfred Loomis, of whom I had never heard. But I decided to read it since I had it on my 'shelves'. Loomis, after making much money on Wall Street, had a place in Tuxedo Park, New York (about 45 miles northwest of New York City) where he invited scientists to work in his well-equipped laboratory. Work related to the development of radar and of the atomic bomb was done there amd Loomis encouraged and financed the work. The book did not always entrance me and only after I had finished it did I come to have a better opinion of the book. Brian Lamb interviewed the author on 25 Apr 2002 and his interview is on the computer and I watched it after I read the book and was impressed by the author and her knowledge and the work she did to write the book. She is a granddaughter of James Conant , who was president of Harvard for twenty years and worked in connection with the production of the atomic bomb. So I have come to be more impressed by the book on reflection than I was while reading it and anyone interested in the development of radar or the atomic bomb will find the book informative and of interest.

[publiusdb-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

He's a Wall Street tycoon, a brilliant scientific mind, and an inventor of devices and instruments used by the military to defeat the forces of evil.

No, he's not Tony Stark; he's Alfred Lee Loomis, and his work helped bring down the Nazis and win World War II. And yet, you're unlikely to find a lot of information on Loomis in the history books. A businessman turned scientist, he was one step up from a dilettante among scientists, possessing the abilities to understand and to cultivate scientific research in his top of the line, skunk-works lab that he built on his property in the decades preceding World War II. His rise was remarkable for the seeming ease with which he accomplished every task before him.

Prior to the war, Loomis built a fortune as a Wall Street investor selling bonds for the incipient utilities industry. As the market began to bubble, Loomis recognized the signs of instability, and divested his holdings in utilities. Then as the crash of 1929 rolled the country, he earned even more through careful investing, growing his fortune at a time when others were ruined. By the time the 1930s were closing, Loomis had been able to leave business with a fortune that put him in the upper echelons of society in America, while at the same time allowing him to pursue his true interest, scientific research. As World War II began, and the Nazi menace spread, Loomis joined a nationwide network of scientists working to develop technologies that would help defeat Germany and its allies.

Loomis' story is remarkable, but in many ways felt lacking largely because of the lack of tension or obstacle. Written by a descendent, Tuxedo Park (the location of the laboratory Loomis built) feels like a long Wall Street Journal article, where quotations are given with the expectation that they will appear in the press and facts are presented dispassionately. In short, the story lacks narrative, a sense of progress. Loomis appears on the scene--whatever the scene may be-- and sua sponte achieves his aims. As one friend suggested while discussing the book, there's not many obstacles that can't be overcome, apparently, if you're both brilliant and filthy stinking rich. Especially rich.

And yet, wealth is no excuse for a flat story. Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill also came from means, rising from wealthy families, but both would overcome great obstacles during their life to create biographies that beg to be told. If Loomis has that story, I found this one to be lacking in that regards. While I'm glad to have learned a new chapter of the World War II saga, I don't know that I would have missed not reading it.

[grandpahobo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fascinating biography of Alfred Loomis. It goes into a fair amount of detail on the technical aspects of his work, which might leave some feeling a bit overwhelmed. However, the story of his involvement in critical research during WWII is well worth the effort.

[aj_mexico · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Tuxedo Park is primarily a biography of Alfred Loomis. He is one of those characters of history who was better known at the time, and deserves to be better known to history than he is. The book covers his dual careers on Wall Street and as a scientist. (He was good at both.) Loomis was very wealthy, and in the 1930s he operated his home as a private science laboratory. He had a significant role in the Radiation Lab at MIT, which developed and refined radar into an effective weapon during World War II. Loomis invented and had the patent for Loran (the long-range navigation system predecessor to GPS). On the plus side, the author had some family connections to the events in the book, which obviously inspired the book, and opened doors to her research. On the minus side, the narrative is a bit flat and tedious after a while. Parts of the book seem a rote recitation of chronology. The book lacks technical detail which I would have found interesting, but it is accessible to general readers, and has a lot of general human interest, including a lot of famous people. Loomis knew everybody in science and government, it seems.

[yeremenko_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is a fascinating topic for a book. Ms. Conant makes the case that Alfred Loomis is an under-rated figure in history. It is hard to argue with the evidence she provides. Certainly this must have been a tough topic since Loomis was skilled at working in the background and avoiding the spotlight. But her storytelling is flawed, and it drags considerably in the middle of the book. She will spend pages on the background of an interesting person then only de them in a short passage of the narrative then never mention them again. On a personal note, I love this period of history and crave books about the remarkable transformation of the USA from isolationist to military power, but this book was a chore to read. Hopefully another, better book will be written on this topic.

[libri_amor · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As an electrical engineering students getting an education in the late 60's, everyone knew the MIT Radiation Series of reference texts. The distinctive black binding of the 27 volume set stood out plainly in the college library engineering section. Quite often a single volume might be used as a text book in a course. At the time all most of us knew about these books was that they documented once classified work from WWII. The specifics of the hardware were well out of date by the 60's but the theoretical descriptions and fundamentals of electromagnetics based on physical laws were (and still are) excellent references. BTW, the entire set is now available on CDROM for under $500! But, what does all this have to do with Tuxedo Park?This book is the story of Alfred Loomis who was driving spirit, financier and contributor behind what became the MIT Radiation Lab. As a member of the Loomis family, Jennet Conant was provided unique access to Loomis family materials. As a result she has written the definitive source for Alfred Loomis' life and role in the development of radar and LORAN navigation.Loomis was born to privilege and started his career as a Wall Street financier of the 20's. Along with his partner and life long friend (Landon Thorne), established the first electrical power industry financing company. In the process both men became fabulously wealthy in the boom times of the late 20's. Loomis had superior foresight throughout his life and one prime example occurred in 1929. Worried that the stock market and economy was over heating and couldn't be supported by the fundamentals, Loomis moved his personnel wealth into a heavy cash position. In October he was proved right with the stock market crash and economic depression. Disillusioned by much of the government's reaction to the depression and at the height of his Wall Street leadership, Alfred Loomis completely abandoned his financial career for a life promoting science at his personnel laboratory at Tuxedo Park