So apparently Anthony J Drexel Biddle was a bigger name in his time. I learned about him from my obsession with Disney classic live-action (thank you, Fred MacMurray). The author's tone is wry and humorous but in this case hindsight is a drawback. She talks about him like he's an incredibly famous man instead of as a father that she loved and, given the fact that this book is extremely rare in libraries and my husband had no idea who he was, this is not the case.

I'm not sure if the book would have been a 3 if I hadn't seen the Disneyfied film. Half of the fun seemed to be searching for the real stories in the book. ( )

Like a lot of people whose reviews I've read, I picked up this book after having grown up watching Disney's "The Happiest Millionaire". You can imagine my thrill when I found out that stories of chocolate cake diets, alligators in the house, and a Bible class based on exercise and singing religious songs were all true.

Cordelia Drexel Biddle writes a veritable love letter about her father, Anthony J. Drexel Biddle. This man was larger than life. Able to pick up any language he set his mind to learning, able to mix with anyone of any age or class, and a master at self-defense classes, Biddle was one of a kind. Even the US Marine Corps and the FBI were in awe of him. At the time of the writing of this book (1955), they were still using his methods to train recruits.

If you've seen the movie, enjoy reading about societal figures, or just love a good biography, I'm sure you'll not be sorry as you read about "The Happiest Millionaire". ( )