Anthony
Joseph Drexel Biddle Sr. (1874–1948)
was a millionaire whose fortune allowed him to pursue theatricals,
self-published writing, athletics, and Christianity on a full-time basis.
He was the man upon whom the book My Philadelphia Father and
the play and film The Happiest Millionaire were
based. He trained men in hand-to-hand combat in both World War I and World War II,
was a fellow of the American Geographical Society and
founded a movement called "Athletic Christianity" that eventually
attracted 300,000 members around the world. A 1955 Sports Illustrated article
called him "boxing's greatest amateur" as well as a "major
factor in the re-establishment of boxing as a legal and, at that time,
estimable sport." He was born on October 1, 1874, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
to Edward Biddle II and Emily Drexel. He was a grandson of banker Anthony Joseph Drexel, and
a great-grandson of banker Nicholas Biddle. Biddle
was a graduate of Germany's Heidelberg University. An
officer in the United States Marine Corps,
Biddle was an expert in close-quarters fighting and the author of Do or
Die: A Supplementary Manual on Individual Combat, a book on combat methods,
including knives and empty-hand skills, training both the United States Marine Corps in
two world wars and special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
He can be seen training Marines in the RKO short
documentary Soldiers of the Sea.
He was considered not just an expert in fighting, but also a pioneer of United
States Marine Corps training in the bayonet and hand-to-hand combat. He based
his style on fencing, though this approach was sometimes criticized as being
unrealistic for military combat. Having joined the Marines in 1917
at the age of 41, he also convinced his superiors to include boxing in Marine
Corps recruit training. In 1919, he was promoted to the rank of major,
and became a lieutenant colonel in 1934. In Lansdowne, Pennsylvania,
right outside of Philadelphia, Biddle opened a military training facility,
where he trained 4,000 men. His training included long hours of calisthenics and gymnastics, and taught skills such as
machete, saber, dagger, and bayonet combat, as well as hand grenade use,
boxing, wrestling, savate and jiujitsu. He also served two years in the National Guard. A keen
boxer, Biddle sparred with Jack Johnson and
taught boxing to Gene Tunney. He even hosted "boxing
teas" in his home, where other boxers would spar a couple of rounds with
him and then join the family for dinner. A February 1909 match with Philadelphia Jack O'Brien was
attended by society leaders including women in elegant evening gowns. He served as a judge in the fight
between Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard on 4 July 1919. On February 5, 1920,
Biddle, as chairman of the Army Navy and Civilian Board of Boxing Control of
New York, became a member the International
Boxing Union.
During World War II, Biddle returned to active duty with the Marine Corps
with the rank of colonel and taught hand to hand combat to recruits. Biddle
also worked in and on periodicals. He spent time as a sports reporter for
the Public Ledger, and jokingly referred to himself as "the
poorest and richest reporter in Philadelphia". He also revived the Philadelphia
Sunday Graphic for a short interval, before it was forced to fold, and
founded a short-lived "society weekly"–type publication, The
People. After organizing the also short-lived Drexel Biddle Publishing
House, he acted as its head for two years.