may 13, 1940 - Carl Ziedler becomes Mayor of Milwaukee

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Carl Zeidler (c. 1906-1942) was the mayor of the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1940-1942.

Serving as an assistant city attorney in the late 1930s, Zeidler stunned the city when he upset six-term Socialist mayor Daniel Hoan to become mayor of Milwaukee in 1940. Hoan had served as mayor for the past 24 years.

His rise to power was orchestrated by Harold Gauer and Rober Bloch (later the author of Psycho), who created elaborate campaign shows.

In Bloch's autobiography, Once Around the Bloch, he gives an inside account of the campaign, and the innovations he and Gauer came up with...for instance, the original 'releasing-balloons-from-the-ceiling' shtick. He comments bitterly on how, after Zeidler's election, they were ignored and not even paid their promised salaries.

Zeidler was starting to distinguish himself on the national political scene when World War II broke out. He believed that he could best help the war effort by enlisting, so he resigned his position as mayor and joined the Navy. He asked for the most dangerous job on the ship and became an officer in charge of a gun battery on board the merchant ship SS La Salle. The ship and all hands were lost at sea off the coast of South Africa in December of 1942.

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