Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Sr.
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Colonel “Tony” Drexel Biddle, Sr. led an eclectic life, as detailed in his daughter’s book My Philadelphia Father (Duke & Crichton, 1955), which was adapted into a play of the same name and, later, the Disney film The Happiest Millionaire (1967). Biddle wrote children’s fairytales, essays on nature and morality, and instruction on bayonet and hand-to-hand fighting techniques which he used to train U.S. Marines during both World Wars. He formed a movement called “Athletic Christianity” which combined his love of boxing and Christian teachings. He kept an alligator as a pet and invited boxers to his home for “boxing teas.”
Connected to two of Philadelphia’s most influential banking families, Biddle was the grandson of Anthony J. Drexel and the great-grandson of Nicholas Biddle. He married Cordelia Rundell Bradley in 1891 and the couple had three children, Ambassador Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr. (1897–1961), Cordelia Drexel Biddle (1898–1984), and Livingston Ludlow Biddle (1899–1981).