California historian Davis (Rivers in the Desert: William
Mulholland and the Inventing of Los Angeles, 1993) revisits Teapot
Dome, the cause celebre that began in the time of Warren Harding,
to tell the story of one of the scandal's prominent actors, now
largely forgotten. As the Gilded Age turned into the Jazz Age,
Edward Doheny, hitherto a feckless prospector, peered into the La
Brea tar pits and saw a fortune. He punched the first hole for oil
in the city of Los Angeles. Successful, he turned to wildcat
drilling in the jungles of Mexico. Gusher followed gusher and the
shrewd Doheny became wonderfully rich, the master of a great
mansion, a private railroad car, and all the accoutrements of great
wealth. It was a world of puissant bigwigs, of powerful cronies,
extravagantly mustachioed. It happened one day that the oilman
transmitted $100,000 in cash to a cash-poor old crony, Albert Fall,
who was then Harding's secretary of the interior. He called it a
loan. Just about the same time, the Department of the Interior
granted Doheny's company favorable leases in fields dedicated to
naval oil reserves. Harry Sinclair, another oilman, obtained
similar leases in a field known as Teapot Dome for its odd rock
formation. When the deals came to light, a battle between
conservationists and exploiters erupted. A Senate investigation
turned the transactions into scandal, and civil and criminal trials
followed. Fall took the Fifth, but was jailed anyway. Sinclair did
time, too, Doheny, though, was found innocent of any criminality.
His story and that of his family and friends is told expertly,
though with a clearly sympathetic bias, while some questions remain
(e.g., why was the "loan" made in cash?). Drawing on a new-found
trove of Doheny's personal correspondence, and well researched and
narrated, this revisionist biography is an interesting addition to
the social history of the times. (Kirkus Reviews)
""Dark Side of Fortune is a brilliant biography of the tarnished
oil tycoon, Edward Doheny, whose importance as an American
industrial pioneer ranks with such better-known figures as
Rockefeller and Carnegie. Margaret Leslie Davis has written a
superbly researched and definitive account of the founder of the
modern petroleum industry in California and of his machinations in
Mexico and the involvement in the notorious Teapot Dome scandal.
Davis has a sympathetic understanding of Doheny but tells his story
warts and all. He emerges from the compelling biography as a
conflicted man who is at once a hero and a scoundrel--and above all
an American original who seems larger than life."--Lou Cannon
"The life of Edward L. Doheny offers a fascinating saga of early
twentieth century American triumph and tragedy. "Dark Side of
Fortune, based on significant new archival discoveries, resurrects
Doheny in a sympathetic, yet not uncritical, and always readable,
biography, shedding new light on the oil industry, U.S. relations
with Mexico, and the political scandals of the 1920s."--Jules
Tygiel, San Francisco State University
"In terms of family saga, the Doheny story is the Ariadne's
thread of Los Angeles history. It is perhaps the best pathway both
into--and out of!--the labyrinth of the founding era. Thanks to
Margaret Davis's "Dark Side of Fortune, the full story of this
previously mysterious Los Angeles Founder, his determined wife, and
their murdered son stands revealed in all its resonant complexity.
Ours is rapidly becoming a golden era of California biography, and
here (once again, UC Press!) is further proof."--Dr. Kevin Starr,
State Librarian of California
"Margaret Davis' "Dark Sideof Fortune is pure California gold, a
biography laced with adventure and misadventure, a carefully
researched history that reads like today's investigative reporting,
a briskly told tale rife with international hugger-mugger and
domestic hanky-panky. And best of all, it just might rewrite the
story of that White House horror of another year, the Teapot Dome
scandal."--Ed Cray, University of Southern California; author of
"Chief Justice: A Biography of Earl Warren
"Once again, Margaret Davis has demonstrated that she is a
gifted writer and that truth is more fascinating than
fiction."--Burt Kennedy, Brigade Productions
"Behind Doheny's brash self-confidence and his mighty oil empire
lurks the image of la calavera, like a skeleton in the closet.
Death would undo many--from Doheny's murdered son to the fallen
reputation of Harding's administration after the Teapot Dome
scandal. This dramatic and historical tale reads like a novel.
Davis has once again revealed a vital part of Los Angeles history
and its national implications."--Noel Riley Fitch, author of
"Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child
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