Harry Heye Tammen

Harry Heye Tammen
Tammen in 1913
Born	Heinrich Heye Tammen March 6, 1856 Baltimore, Maryland, US
Died	July 19, 1924 (68 years old) Denver, Colorado, US
Burial place	Fairmount Cemetery
Nationality	American
Other names	H. H. Tammen
Occupations	Businessman journalist publisher
Employer	The Denver Post
Parent(s)	Heye Henrich (father) Caroline Henrietta Piepenbruker (mother)

Heinrich "Harry" Heye Tammen (March 6, 1856 — July 19, 1924) was an American journalist, publisher, and businessman. He worked alongside Frederick Gilmer Bonfils and co-owned The Denver Post, the Kansas City Post, and the Sells Floto Circus.

Early life

Heinrich Heye Tammen was born on March 6, 1856, in Baltimore, Maryland.^[1] His father was a pharmacist and supposed attaché for the Netherlands^[2] named Heye Henrich. His mother was named Caroline Henrietta (née Piepenbruker). Both were immigrants from Hanover, Germany.^[3]

He grew up working for beer gardens and became a bartender before he was 21. He moved to Philadelphia, then to Denver in 1880 to continue bartending at the Windsor Hotel.^[3][4][5] In 1881, he founded the H. H. Tammen Curio Company. The company sold inauthentic skookum dolls, Navajo blankets, arrowheads, and other fake Native American memorabilia.^[3][6]

Journalism

While working at the Windsor Hotel, Tammen met his business partner, Fredrick Gilmer Bonfils. Tammen and Bonfils, known together as "Tam and Bon",^[2] bought The Denver Post in 1895.^[5]

With their silent partner, J. Ogden Armour, they also acquired the Kansas City Post.^[7] They owned The Post until 1922, when they sold it to Walter S. Dickey, who combined it with the Kansas City Journal, and made the Kansas City Journal-Post.^[8]

They also bought the Sells Brothers Circus.^[9] After buying the circus, Tammen renamed it to the Sells Floto circus, naming it after Otto Floto, because he liked the name Floto.^[10] Tammen and Bonfils owned the circus until 1921, when they sold it to the American Circus Corporation.^[11]

In December 1899, he and Bonfils were shot by W. W. Anderson, an attourney representing Alferd Packer. Tammen's life was saved by newspaper editor Polly Pry, who used her skirt to bandage the wounds.^[12]

In 1900, Tammen and Bonfils were involved in the Teapot Dome scandal, after they received $250,000 in bribes from Harry Ford Sinclair to not report on the oil drilling in Teapot Rock.^[4][13][14]

Tammen was a close friend with mobster Lou Blonger. After he was arrested, Tammen refused to publish a story about it. Bonfils insisted a story be published, calling it a "Million-Dollar Bunco Ring".^[15]

Tammen died on July 19, 1924 in Denver, Colorado, aged 68.^[3]

References

1. "Collections Online | British Museum". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
2. Bricklin, Julia (2018-09-01). Polly Pry: The Woman Who Wrote the West. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4930-3440-6.
3. Colorado, State Historical and Natural History Society of (1927). History of Colorado. Linderman Company, Incorporated.
4. McCartney, Laton (2008). The Teapot Dome Scandal : how big oil bought the Harding White House and tried to steal the country. Internet Archive. New York : Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6316-1.
5. Leavitt, Craig; Noel, Thomas J. (2016-02-15). Herndon Davis: Painting Colorado History, 1901–1962. University Press of Colorado. ISBN 978-1-60732-420-1.
6. Rogan, Bjarne (January 2006). "Folk Art and Politics In Inter-War Europe: An Early Debate on Applied Ethnology". Folk Life. 45 (1): 7–23. doi:10.1179/flk.2006.45.1.7. ISSN 0430-8778. S2CID 147030198.
7. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-02. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
8. Ford, Susan Jezak (2003). "Biography of Walter S. Dickey (1862-1931), Newspaper Owner".
9. Johnston, Winifred (1935). "PASSING OF THE 'WILD WEST': A Chapter in the History of American Entertainment". Southwest Review. 21 (1): 33–51. ISSN 0038-4712. JSTOR 43462218.
10. DeArment, Robert K. (2014-04-14). Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-7073-2.
11. "Bailey and the Ringlings". 2008-06-11. Archived from the original on 2008-06-11. Retrieved 2024-03-21.
12. "Polly Pry (1857 - 1938) | Denver Public Library History". history.denverlibrary.org. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
13. Incorporated, Time (1954-03-29). LIFE. Time Inc.
14. Fowler, Gene (1974). Timber Line: A Story of Bonfils and Tammen Paperback. Comstock Editions, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0891740070.
15. Shalloo, J. P.; Cise, Philip S. Van (June 1936). "Fighting the Underworld". American Sociological Review. 1 (3): 212–213. doi:10.2307/2083982. ISSN 0003-1224.

External links

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