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Benjamin Disraeli: Dead Cool
From befriending Queen Victoria to appearing on Family Guy, British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli is a modern icon. In his new column, Simon Doonan explains why the long-dead leader is now wildly cool.
Benjamin Disraeli was a wise-cracking, crazy genius who, despite a penchant for wearing his hair in Shirley Temple ringlets and sporting canary yellow velvet waistcoats, managed to claw his way to prominence and become, on two separate occasions, the first and only Jewish prime minister of Great Britain. How Obama-cool is that? OK, so he became a bit of an imperialist asshole along the way, but who said cool people were warm and fuzzy 24/7? (Paging Sid Vicious!)
Benjamin Disraeli was born 205 years ago this year. A charismatic attention-junkie from the get-go, he dropped out of law school and skipped off to the Far East for a Byronic interlude. He returned from his travels with the kind of souvenir every Jewish mother dreads: a nice dose of clap.
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After a bracing mercury cure, he launched into a newspaper career and began churning out books with strange exotic titles like Vivian Grey and The Voyage of Captain Popanilla. “When I want to read a book, I write a book,” quipped the prolific and bestselling overachiever.
His political career was harder won. Benjy ran for office five times before becoming a member of Parliament. Once he got his foppish foot in the door, he celebrated by unleashing the full majesty of his pent-up fashion exhibitionism. In the dusty corridors of power, Disraeli was an exotic orchid whose drag enlivened many a boring wet Monday. While the bombastic power-toffs were repelled by his lace-and-brocade flamboyance, few could fail to be amused by his playful badinage: When his ethnicity was dissed by an adversary, Disraeli replied, “Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.” Sashay! Touché!
Benjy ran for office five times before becoming a member of Parliament. Once he got his foppish foot in the door, he celebrated by unleashing the full majesty of his pent-up fashion exhibitionism.
Like all wildly cool people—he’s so cool he has even been featured on Seth MacFarlane’s legendary cartoon series Family Guy. Disraeli was a spiked cocktail of bizarre contradictions: As poofy as Oscar Wilde, he enthusiastically challenged adversaries to duels and even shagged their women; though smart as a whip, he was dreadful with money; initially a radical Whig, he ultimately turned Tory, preferring to penetrate the establishment rather than detonate it. To the surprise of many, he became a brown-nosing intimate of Queen Victoria, affectionately dubbing her—despite her girth—“The Faerie Queen.” They gave each other extravagant hostess gifts: He titled her “Empress of India,” and she reciprocated by dubbing Disraeli and his wife “Earl and Viscountess of Beaconsfield.”
Mazel tov on the back-scratching!
Writer, fashion commentator and window-dresser, Simon Doonan is known for his provocative "Simon Says" column in The New York Observer. He has written four books: Confessions of a Window Dresser, Wacky Chicks, a memoir entitled Nasty, and a tongue-in-cheek style guide entitled Eccentric Glamour to be published in paperback in mid-April. A comedy TV series entitled Beautiful People, produced by Jon Plowman, will debut on LOGO in May.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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Writer, fashion commentator and window-dresser, Simon Doonan, is known for his provocative "Simon Says" column in the New York Observer. He has written four books: Confessions of a Window Dresser, Wacky Chicks, a memoir entitled Nasty and a tongue-in-cheek style guide entitled Eccentric Glamour to be published in paperback in mid-April. Nasty is to be re-released as Beautiful People. A comedy TV series entitled Beautiful People, produced by Jon Plowman, will debut on LOGO in May.
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Writer, fashion commentator and window-dresser, Simon Doonan, is known for his provocative "Simon Says" column in the New York Observer. He has written four books: Confessions of a Window Dresser, Wacky Chicks, a memoir entitled Nasty and a tongue-in-cheek style guide entitled Eccentric Glamour to be published in paperback in mid-April. Nasty is to be re-released as Beautiful People. A comedy TV series entitled Beautiful People, produced by Jon Plowman, will debut on LOGO in May.
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Writer, fashion commentator and window-dresser, Simon Doonan, is known for his provocative "Simon Says" column in the New York Observer. He has written four books: Confessions of a Window Dresser, Wacky Chicks, a memoir entitled Nasty and a tongue-in-cheek style guide entitled Eccentric Glamour to be published in paperback in mid-April. Nasty is to be re-released as Beautiful People. A comedy TV series entitled Beautiful People, produced by Jon Plowman, will debut on LOGO in May.
spotted
I didn't get the memo that Family Guy had eclipsed South Park as the arbiter of taste and influence. I feel so passé.
Martyz42
Not sure what the reason for this article was but maybe if Bibi came down with the Clap the government of the UK might become more prone to stop the anti everything against Israel & stop the pro Arab everything. The people of the UK also have very short memories when it comes to anything Jewish, if not for another Jew by the name of Rothchild the government would have fallen & lost a few wars...
The mad king might have gotten the UK away from the pope, but the "Jews are all bad" has stayed with them.
Recently a program on the History Channel talked about Jack The Ripper. They talked about many many suspects & surprise, not one religion of the suspects was mentioned except one, he was referred to a Jewish Butcher. All the other suspects were mentioned but none with their religion, GEE I wonder why that is???
The popes & the church's, all of them over two thousand yers have done a good job of plain & simple brainwashing of a stupid ignorant people & make not the mistake that the people of the UK at of that line of ignorant anti anything Jewish along with the French & all of the rest of Europe & Russia & the Middle East as well as most of the Southern US....
oldpunk
The Jews have always been scapegoats in Europe through most of history.England also has had a large Jewish population through most of its history.By 1882, 46,000 Jews lived in England and, by 1890, Jewish emancipation was complete in every walk of life. Since 1858, Parliament has never been without Jewish members.
By 1919, the Jewish population had increased from 60,000 in 1880 to about 250,000 Jews, who lived primarily in the large cities, especially London.Many of these from Russia.
The Whitechapel area of London was the main area Jews settled in London.This was also the area of the Jack The Ripper Murders , & the Goulston Street Graffito with its "The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing." comment.
The Battle of Cable Street where anti-semitism was strongly resisted. There was never wholesale persecution of the Jews before or during World War II in Britain.
dailyplanet
The British can claim an earlier distinction vis-a-vis the Jewish people.
England banned Jews from living in their country in 1290. The French didn't get around to outlawing Jewish residence on their soil until 1394.
Fritz77
Just to clarify- The Jewish banishment from England was due to the fact that the king owed them so much money and like any good tyrannical king he refused to pay it, instead choosing to kick them out. The reason he owed Jews specifically was because of the Feudal system relegated them to work in areas like banking. The king, of course, spent the money poorly and then made them suffer for it. I believe he would have done this to any groups clearly distinguishable from the English (i.e. the Irish). That is not to say there were not anti-Semitic aspects to the way England treated Jews but the facts behind the history should be made clear.
barrett
What makes him cool, the sashaying, the imperialism or the clap?
bristolcities
Thanks, Simon. Disraeli has been on the periphery of my awareness for a while (such as the Cream album incorporating his name), but I never took the time to find out much about him. Def worth looking into more. Or at least a quick check on wiki.
pludger
bristolcities: the Cream album "Disraeli Gears" was not meant as an homage to the former Prime Minister. It was an inside joke with the band. See my comment below. Nothing to do with history. I doubt that Clapton would have supported Disraeli's politics!
bpai99
I've long enjoyed the following exchange between Disraeli and Gladstone on the floor in Parliament. Now this is civilized debate!
Gladstone: "You, sir, will either die on the gallows or of some loathsome disease."
Disraeli: "That depends, sir, on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."
barrett
O.K. Now I get it.
Fritz77
Disrael converted to Christianity before his bar mitzvah and promoted British racial superiority. I can't say I am in love with the guy.
dailyplanet
Disraeli was decidedly an "A-type" personality with an obsession for the aristocracy and aristocratic privilege. British culture was such at the time that the heights to which he achieved could not be obtained by a "non-Christian."
Heinrich Heine, the German poet converted from Judaism to Christianity and went ahead to say:
"No such conversion to Christ could be genuine, and heartfelt because no Jew could ever believe in the divinity of another."
Obviously Disraeli didn't have Heine's scruples.
Fritz77
He converted before his Bar Mitzvah. That is a heck of a lot of foresight, which maybe he had, who knows. I don't think he was ever really accepted as a Christian either...but you are right it was the only way he could have done what he did. It was just one of the many facts this article completely ignored, along with his strong racist views.
pludger
I don't think a man who is responsible for the subjugation of millions should be lauded as "cool" by any means. Disraeli is one of the original architects of economic imperialism, the source of much despair, war, and terror for the last 150 years.
Also, for the record, Cream did NOT name their album after him. The title "Disraeli Gears" was a malapropism spoken by a confused Ginger Baker. It was NOT an homage to this blowhard.
AHP111
Interesting how Simon neglected to mention that Disraeli converted to Christianity while a teenager. Was that omitted because it made him less cool?
finderj
Disraeli was a political genius, defined, as are most of us, by his times.
His views on the superiority of the English people were a reflection of his times. Even leading scientists were telling people that white-skinned people were superior to darkers skinned people.
Today, we know that sort of thing is utter nonsense, but not then.
You have to consider Disraeli in context before you judge him by 21st century values and knowledge.
interfaith
Actually, Dizzy's father had him baptized when he was a child, so technically he was an Anglican Christian. But unlike other converts, he did not turn his back of his Jewish friends and family. On the contrary, he was an enthusiastic supporter of legislation that would allow Jews to serve in the House of Commons. (They were prohibited from doing so for most of the 19th century.)
As a result, there was always a great deal of muttering in the back benches that Dizzy was a "secret Jew," because his parents were Jewish and because he opposed religious bigotry against them. D'Israeli paid it no mind.
All of which is a bit of a deja vu for 21st century Americans. Our President is Christian, but is always being accused by the Neanderthal Right of being a "secret Muslim" because his father was one. There are still a large proportion of people in the south who believe Obama took his oath of office on a Koran.
Some things never change, only the names are different. Islamophobia is today's anti-Semitism.
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