Charles Bedaux

Charles Eugène Bedaux
Bedaux with his film crew in Canada in 1934
Born	26 October 1886 Paris, France
Died	18 February 1944 Miami, Florida
Spouse	Fern

Charles Eugène Bedaux (26 October 1886 – 18 February 1944) was one of the most colorful millionaires of the early twentieth century. Friends with British royalty and Nazis alike, he amassed a fortune expanding on the Taylorism style of scientific management and was a big game hunter and explorer.

Early years

Charles Bedaux was born in Paris, France.^[1] In 1903, he dropped out of school and worked a series of menial jobs before befriending Henri Ledoux, a successful pimp from the infamous Pigalle district. Ledoux taught Bedaux lessons on proper dress, confidence and street-fighting, but when Ledoux was murdered in 1906, Bedaux moved to the United States where he became an United States citizen, married, and had a son, Charles Emile Bedaux (1909–1993).^[2]

Scientific management

Bedaux was one of the leading contributors in the field of scientific management and introduced the concept of rating assessment and timing work which led to great improvements in employee productivity. He was strongly influenced by Fredrick Winslow Taylor and also an adherent of Frank Gilbreth's theories of time and motion studies and allowing rest periods to prevent employee fatigue.

By 1916, Charles Bedaux had established a management consulting firm in Cleveland. It would be one of the first of its kind and within a decade its success would allow for the creation of a string of firms across the United States, Europe, and eventually throughout Africa, Australia and the Orient.^[3]

The Bedaux Canadian Sub-Arctic Expedition

The Bedaux Canadian Sub-Arctic Expedition was the grand title Bedaux gave to the expedition he formed to cross the wilderness of Northern British Columbia, Canada in 1934. Mostly, the expedition was a publicity stunt, but it was also formed to test out the new Citroën half-track cars that were being developed by Bedaux's friend André Citroën.^[4] Key points in the trip were filmed by Academy Award winning cinematographer from Hollywood, Floyd Crosby, who would later be praised for his work on High Noon. Also along for the trip were several dozen Alberta cowboys and a large film crew. To map the route of the expedition, the Canadian government sent along two geographers, Frank Swannell and Ernest Lemarque. The expedition started off at Edmonton, Alberta on 6 July 1934 and their goal was to travel 1500 miles to Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. Much of the trip would have to be made through regions that were relatively uncharted and had no trails.^[5] The party failed to reach their destination and the original movie was never made, but in 1995, Canadian director, George Ungar, produced a television biography of Bedaux incorporating Crosby's footage of the expedition, entitled "The Champagne Safari".^{[3] [6]}

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor

Bedaux purchased the sixteenth-century Château de Candé, in France, and lived there with his American second wife, the former Fern Lombard (1892–1972), a daughter of lawyer James Lombard of Grand Rapids, Michigan.^[7][8] On 3 June 1937, they hosted the wedding of Wallis Warfield and Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor.^[3]

Later years

When Paris was occupied by the Germans during World War II, he became acquainted with leading Nazi and Vichy figures. After the fall of France in 1940, he was appointed as an economic advisor to the Reich and, according to Martin Allen, given responsibility for the liquidation of Jewish businesses in Occupied France.^[9]

Bedaux was in North Africa supervising the construction of a German pipeline when he and his son were arrested by the Free French Forces in November 1942 during Operation Torch.^[9] Bedaux was taken back to the United States on a charge of treason, and committed suicide in prison in Miami, Florida awaiting a grand jury investigation into his wartime activities.^[2][9]

Bedaux's wife, Fern, and her sister, Eve Duez (Mme Louis S Duez), were interned briefly in Paris during the war but were soon released through their connections to the Nazi government in France, according to a memoir by Drue Leyton Tartière (née Dorothy Blackmon Tartière), an American former actress and broadcaster who worked with the Resistance.^[10]

Notes

1. ^ Britannica. "Charles Bedaux". http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9001763/Bedaux,%20Charles%20Eugene. Retrieved 2007-07-10. 
2. ^ ^{a b} NY Times (1985-06-02). "Dropout Millionaire". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04E7D81739F931A35755C0A963948260. Retrieved 2007-07-10. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Bedaux. "Charles Bedaux". http://www.bedaux.com/com/bedaux/charlesbedaux.php. Retrieved 2007-07-10. 
4. ^ Saskatoon Sun. "Rumours surround legendary Bedaux trek". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20070928072236/http://www.wdm.ca/wdmbedau.html. Retrieved 2007-07-10. 
5. ^ Bob Dyke. "Bedaux Expedition". http://www.fsj.nlc.bc.ca/nlc/sroe/bob_dyke.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-10. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ Mostra. "Champagne Safari". http://www2.uol.com.br/mostra/21/english/films/safari-i.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-10. 
7. ^ http://ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx&BU=&TN=IMAGEBAN&SN=AUTO15706&SE=580&RN=0&MR=10&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=0&XP=&RF=WebResults&EF=&DF=WebResultsDetails&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=255&ID=&MF=WPEngMsg.ini&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=17085&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1
8. ^ http://www.polyvore.com/nicolas_becker_oil_on_canvas/thing?id=3003323
9. ^ ^{a b c} Allen, Martin (2000). Hidden Agenda: How the Duke of Windsor Betrayed the Allies. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0333901819. 
10. ^ "My attention was drawn to a woman who was sitting on the edge of a cot with an ermine wrap around her feet. She was passing around a five-pound box of chocolates to her friends. I learned that she was Mrs. Charles Bedaux, at whose chateau the Duke of Windsor married Mrs. Simpson. Mrs. Bedaux said in a very loud voice that she did not expect to be with us long, and that she was waiting for Otto Abetz, Nazi fifth columnist in France before the war and the new Nazi Ambassador to France, to come and get her and her sister released. Next morning a group of French collaborationists, obviously personages high in treachery, arrived with an important German in uniform. They were very respectful to Mrs. Bedaux, helped her pack her things, and out she swept, while the rest of us were enraged at this exhibition of the power of social and political influence." From The House Near Paris: An American Woman's Story of Traffic in Patriots by Drue Tartière and M R Werner, Simon & Schuster, 1946, page 105.

Further reading

• Christy, Jim (1984). The Price of Power : A Biography of Charles Eugene Bedaux. Doubleday. ISBN 0385189095. 
• Berton, Pierre (2002). My Country: The Remarkable Past. Anchor Canada. ISBN 978-0-385-65928-4. 

• Charles Glass, Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation, Harper Collins, U.K. ISBN: 978-0-00-722853-9.
• Charles Higham (biographer) Trading With the Enemy ISBN 044019055X

Persondata
Name	Bedaux, Charles
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	26 October 1887
Place of birth	Paris, France
Date of death	18 February 1944
Place of death	Miami, Florida