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Stephen C. Shadegg Papers 1855-1991 (Bulk 1930s–1990)

FM MSS 53

Biographical Note

Stephen Caroyl Shadegg was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on December 8, 1909 and was raised in Redlands, California. He was a graduate of Redlands High School and attended the Pasadena Community Playhouse School of Theatre. In 1932 he moved to Arizona, where he sold insurance, began writing and producing shows for Phoenix radio stations KTAR and KOY, and married Byrnice Crist. In 1939 he was the publicity director of the Arizona Exhibit at the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, California. Shadegg married Eugenia Kehr (1913-1988) in the same year and the couple had four children, Cynthia, Eugenia, Stephen David, and John Barden. John Shadegg served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2010.

Stephen Shadegg was president of S-K Research Laboratories, Inc., a pharmaceutical manufacturing company (1941-1977), and president of Stephen Shadegg Associates, Inc., a Phoenix advertising and public relations firm (1963-1990). Among the prominent clients he represented in public policy decisions were the Salt River Project, Phelps Dodge Corporation, and Samaritan Health Service.

As an author, publicist, campaign strategist, and speech writer, Stephen Shadegg emerged as the most successful Republican campaign manager in Arizona at a time when Democrats predominated. His career as an election strategist began in 1942 with Lon Jordan's campaign for Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. The first Arizona statewide election he masterminded was Democratic Senator Carl Hayden's 1950 re-election. Subsequently, Shadegg managed numerous Republican campaigns beginning with Senator Barry Goldwater's first campaign for the Senate in 1952 and continuing with his re-election drives in 1958, 1974, and 1980. Shadegg also served as Western Regional Director for Goldwater's run for president in 1964. Senator Goldwater described Shadegg as "one of the most knowledgeable and practical men we have ever had in politics."

Shadegg managed successful campaigns for other Republican candidates, including Senator Paul Fannin, U.S. Representative Eldon Rudd, and Arizona Governor Jack Williams, who regarded Shadegg as a "real innovator in political campaigns." Outside of Arizona, Shadegg served as a campaign consultant for Republican U. S. Senators Karl Mundt, Carl Curtis, Gordon Allott, Margaret Chase Smith, Henry Dvorshak, John Cooper, Clifford Case, Leverett Saltonstall, Keith Thomson, Andrew Schoeppel, Paul Laxalt, and John Tower. In all, he participated in twenty-nine national campaigns.

Shadegg served as State Chairman of the Arizona Republican Central Committee and also served as an influential member and strategist of the Republican National Committee (1960-1962). Shadegg ran for the U.S. Senate in 1962 but was defeated in the Arizona Republican primary election by Evan Mecham.

Shadegg was a prolific writer of fiction and non-fiction and published nine books. His most well known non-fiction publications include Barry Goldwater: Freedom is His Flight Plan, With No Apologies, What Happened to Goldwater, Winning's a Lot More Fun, Arizona Politics, Arizona: An Adventure in Irrigation, The Phoenix Story, and How to Win an Election (which became a widely read political text). He also wrote a biography of Clare Boothe Luce, a history of Good Samaritan Hospital titled Miss Lulu's Legacy, and articles for the Episcopalian Church. In addition, Shadegg ghosted Barry Goldwater's popular "How Do You Stand Sir" column for the Los Angeles Times. His fictional works include a political novel, The Remnant, hundreds of articles and short stories for pulp crime, detective and general magazines under several pseudonyms (1936-1949), and screenplays for RKO Pictures (1939-1940).

Shadegg was active in civic and church affairs. He served as president of the Phoenix Community Council, the Arizona Country Club, and the Phoenix Little Theatre, where he led the efforts to construct the new playhouse as a part of the new Phoenix Civic Center. He was active in the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, the First Phoenix Growth Committee, and the Phoenix Municipal Aeronautics Commission in addition to serving as Crusade Chairman of the American Cancer Society, as Executive Secretary of the Association of Arizona of Insurance Companies, and as Maricopa County Deputy Sheriff. In recognition of his community service, the Phoenix Advertising Club named him Phoenix Man of the Year in 1951. As an Episcopalian, Shadegg served as a vestryman at Trinity Cathedral in Phoenix and on the national executive board for the Episcopal Church. He was listed in Who's Who in America, in Who's Who in the West, and in Contemporary Writers.

Shadegg was an adjunct Political Science Lecturer at Arizona State University (1981-1984) and the University published two of his books. Stephen Shadegg died of cancer on April 16, 1990.

Scope and Content Note

Series I: Personal. Original folder headings were retained. This series includes family and financial correspondence and documents as well as the files Shadegg created as an adjunct lecturer at Arizona State University (1981-1984). The 1930s General Correspondence file documents Shadegg's association with KOY Phoenix Radio Station and his free-lance submissions to various mystery and detective magazines, including sensational crimes and murders like the Winnie Ruth Judd case. Subsequent files contain correspondence with his various publishers including letters showing the Harcourt-Brace-Jovanovich lawsuit about Barry Goldwater's memoir With No Apologies. Correspondence with various officials of the Episcopal Church includes discussions of the role of religion and churches in national politics. In 1979, Shadegg visited South Africa and subsequently became a supporter, apologist, and host of South African government officials. This series documents that relationship and includes extensive background reports, pamphlets, and brochures from South African government agencies and organizations (1970-1986).

Series II: Boards and Memberships. Shadegg engaged in a wide range of civic, cultural, religious, and philanthropic activities. He was a trained actor from the Pasadena Playhouse and was instrumental in building a new theater for the Phoenix Little Theatre. He held many offices and duties in the Episcopal Church, participated in programming for Arizona Town Hall meetings, served on the Board of Directors of the Barry Goldwater Institute for Public Policy, and contributed his expertise on the Arizona Select Law Enforcement Review Commission.

Series III: Business. Shadegg was widely regarded as an authority on water issues in Arizona from the 1940s to his death. In addition to his public relations work for the Salt River Project and the Phelps Dodge Corporation, Shadegg maintained a number of other business interests. He served as the director of the Arizona Institute of Forensic Medicine. These files include polygraph examinations of criminal suspects in Arizona (1948-1960). He was the owner of the S-K Research Laboratory (pharmaceuticals industry) in Phoenix. He was also involved in public relations, insurance, investment, and real estate ventures.

Series IV: Politics. Files are arranged alphabetically by client or topic. Significant files include Arizona political campaigns for Barry Goldwater, Paul Fannin, Eldon Rudd, and Jack Williams as well as Shadegg's own unsuccessful run for the U. S. Senate in 1962. The research and background files on Democratic opponents to Republican candidates make this series a rich source for documenting Arizona politics from an insider's perspective (1950s-1980s). The state-by-state Republican Party files compiled while Shadegg was on the Republican National Committee (1960-1962) document the grassroots genesis of the 1964 Presidential Campaign. The files showing the recall effort by the United Farm Workers led by Cesar Chavez against Governor Jack Williams in 1972 are also extensive.

Series V: Publications is arranged chronologically by publication date. Publications include social and political tracts, Arizona, Episcopal Church, and religious articles, digests of news stories in the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette (1977 clipping service), and aviation maps of the U. S. West. These items reflect the political, social, and religious interests that shaped Shadegg's thinking as well as various Arizona subjects that he conducted research on. Many of the obscure and polemical pamphlets as well as newsletters documenting conservative and rightist ideology are believed to be rare.

Series VI: Writings is arranged by genre and divided into seven sub-series: Sub-Series A: Books, Sub-Series B: Magazine Articles, Sub-Series C: Newspaper Columns, Sub-Series D: Radio Programs, Sub-Series E: Radio and Film Scripts, Sub-Series F: Short Stories, and Sub-Series G: Speeches.

Sub-Series A: Books contains unpublished drafts, background material, notes, interviews, research correspondence, correspondence with publishers, and reviews. Frequently, the files contain information not included in the final published versions. For example, the extensive interviews and recorded telephone conversations of Republican Party officials involved with the 1964 Presidential Campaign for the book What Happened to Goldwater contain first-person accounts contemporary with the campaign. A select few have been digitized onto compact discs. The files regarding the Clare Boothe Luce book have extensive interviews and background information about Luce. The files for Miss Lulu's Legacy contain documentation of the history of hospitals and medical care in Phoenix. Shadegg's two unpublished memoirs reveal a candid perspective of Arizona people and politics.

Some of the books in this subseries were either proposals to publishers or completed manuscripts that were never published. The 1980-1981 book proposal Knaves, Fools or Naïve Idealists was a foreign policy book proposal made with Senator Barry Goldwater. Shadegg did not shy away from taking stands and writing on controversial social and political subjects. For example, The Sword or the Knife advocates compulsory sterilization for the poor to lower the birth rate.

Sub-Series E: Radio and Film Scripts includes a 1941 screenplay titled Valley of the Sun, a Western portraying Phoenix founders Jack Swilling and Darrel Duppa. It was first conceived and sketched by Shadegg and later developed into a compete screenplay by RKO writer Bartlett Cormack. This subseries also includes a film script titled For Freedom's Sake featuring a courtroom dialog between Senator Barry Goldwater and Joseph Stalin.

Sub-Series F: Short Stories houses the crime, mystery, and detective stories that Shadegg wrote from 1938 through the 1940s. These pieces include both fictionalized accounts and those based on real cases. Many of these stories were published in pulp magazines like Sensation, Crime Confessions, True Police Cases, Detective, Master Detective, National Detective, Crime Detective, Real Detective, Headquarters Detective, Inside Detective, Startling Detective, and True Detective under a variety of pen names including Lance Christopher, Henry Knapp, H. Henry Messenkopf, Honey O'Bear, Mark Stevens, Charles Proctor, John Victor, J. Victor Bale, and others. There may be additional Shadegg stories with unknown pen names in the pulp magazines filed by title at the end of this subseries. This series also contains a few non-detective stories, including "They Can Have All The Glory" about the bombing attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and "I Sold Sex To Soldiers". Magazine fiction is filed alphabetically by title. Shadegg maintained a card index file between 1938 and 1951 of his short story submissions to magazines. Each card, filed alphabetically by title, includes the pen name used, the name and date of the crime it was based upon, submissions to and responses from various editors, and date and sale price if the story was sold.

Sub-Series G: Speeches reflects Shadegg's career delivering various civic, political and religious speeches. In the 1950s and 1960s he gave frequent speeches before regional and national Episcopal Church groups on the subject of morality. At the end of the series are speeches he wrote for hire in conjunction with his public relations business.

Series VII: Media, Oversize, Artifacts is arranged by format and divided into nine subseries: Sub-Series A: Photographs, Sub-Series B: Film, Sub-Series C: Video Tapes, Sub-Series D: Audio Tapes, Sub-Series E: Edison Voicewriter Dictation Discs, Sub-Series F: Wire Recordings, Sub-Series G: Phonograph Recordings, Sub-Series H: Scrapbooks, Posters, and Sub-Series I: Oversize and Artifacts.

Sub-Series A: Photographs is arranged alphabetically. Significant sections are family photographs; photographs used by Shadegg in his magazine and book publications, including crime photographs; Clare Boothe Luce; Miss Lulu's Legacy; water-related photographs under Central Arizona Project and Century One, and African American soldiers training at Fort Huachuca, Arizona in 1943.

Shadegg collected crime photographs of murders, kidnappings, and other sensational crimes in Arizona, California, and Nevada to illustrate his fictional and non-fictional crime stores. He filed positive copies alphabetically loosely under the name he assigned to a case. Some cases are listed under the victim, while others are listed by the perpetrator. Sometimes he included both names in a case heading. Some of his files contain more than one case and numerous loose photos are unidentified by case. From 1942 to 1950 he filed his crime photograph negatives chronologically by year. His card index in Series VI: Writings can be used to identify and link these negative and positive photographs to his manuscripts and published articles.

Slides are arranged alphabetically in small boxes by Shadegg's assigned categories. They include images of his family, business interests, and political clients.

Sub-Series B: Film is arranged alphabetically by Shadegg's assigned categories. The majority of these reels relate to his political clients. Only a few are commercially produced.

Sub-Series C: Video Tapes is arranged alphabetically by Shadegg's assigned categories within each format, including Quad, U-matic, and VHS. Sub-Series D: Audio Tapes (reel-to-reel and cassette) is arranged alphabetically within each format. Descriptions are derived from outside labels. No attempt was made to confirm the accuracy of the labels or to determine their physical condition.

Sub-Series E: Edison Voicewriter Dictation Discs is arranged alphabetically. Shadegg recorded a variety of telephone conversations, meetings, conferences, manuscript drafts, and personal notes. The format is a floppy disc that is roughly equivalent to a 45 RPM phonograph recording. Many of the existing labels are abbreviated and cryptic.

Sub-Series F: Wire Recordings (1947-1955) is arranged chronologically and primarily documents events relating to Shadegg's children and family.

Sub-Series G: Phonograph Recordings houses commercial and non-commercial phonograph records. Locally produced and World Broadcasting System phonograph recordings of readings of classic children's books were broadcast by the KOY Radio Station for their Children's Story Hour (1947-1948). Shadegg narrated some of these titles. The series was sponsored by the Junior League of America and commercially produced by Western Electric Company. The records play at 33.3 RPM. The discs were not cleaned or conserved during processing. Some are in poor condition.

Goldwater Senate and Presidential Campaign phonograph recordings were produced for radio broadcast in two sizes, 12 inch and 15.5 inch. Both formats play at 33.3 RPM. The discs were not cleaned or conserved during processing. Some are in poor condition.

Sub-Series I: Oversize and Artifacts contains large format material collected from all the series.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.

Copyright

The Arizona Board of Regents retains copyright to this collection for and on behalf of the Arizona State University Library. Requests to publish, display, or redistribute information from this collection must be submitted via our online application.

Related Material

In 1965, Shadegg sold various Goldwater campaign-related materials from the 1950s and 1960s, including the 1964 Goldwater presidential campaign, to the University of Texas at Austin. These materials were processed as the Stephen Shadegg/Barry Goldwater Collection, 1949-1965 and a guide is available at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00096/cah-00096.html.

Researchers interested in Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign are also advised to consult the Personal and Political Papers of Barry M. Goldwater (FM MSS 1) and the Dean Burch Collection (FM MSS 142).

Access Terms

Administrative Information

Custodial History

Stephen David Shadegg donated these papers to the Arizona Historical Foundation.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Stephen C. Shadegg Papers, FM MSS 53, Arizona State University Library.

Provenance

The Arizona Historical Foundation transferred these materials to the Arizona Collection in 2012.

Processing Note

Photographs in this collection were separated from their original boxes and folders in 1996 by AHF staff during preparation of a preliminary box inventory. These photographs have been re-integrated into the original files (campaigns, various publications) wherever possible. The photographs in Series VII, Sub-Series A represent those photographs that could not be refiled.

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