Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle
| Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Sr. | |
|---|---|
Biddle Sr. in 1918
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| Born |
October 1, 1874 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Died | May 27, 1948 (aged 73) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Resting place |
The Woodlands Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Spouse(s) | Cordelia Rundell Bradley |
| Children |
Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr. Livingston Ludlow Biddle Cordelia Drexel Biddle |
| Parent(s) | Edward Biddle III Emilie Taylor Drexel |
Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle I (1874–1948) was an eccentric 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 grandson of banker Anthony Joseph Drexel, and 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.
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