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NOTE: This event has now sold out and no further tickets will be available.
Thomas Raddall and the ‘Jolly Millionaire’ Leo Koretz: A Young Author, A Fugitive Chicago Swindler and Nova Scotia’s Dazzling Summer of 1924
Dean Jobb, Associate Professor and Associate Director
School of Journalism, University of King’s College, Halifax
ABSTRACT
Thomas Raddall, the acclaimed author of popular histories and historical novels, was a young bookkeeper in Liverpool, N.S., in the summer of 1924 when he befriended a wealthy American newcomer. Lou Keyte was a mysterious figure who hosted lavish parties at his secluded Queen’s County estate and became a fixture of Halifax’s social scene. Raddall dubbed him the “jolly millionaire” and was as shocked as anyone when Keyte was arrested and exposed as Leo Koretz, a notorious swindler wanted in Chicago for promoting a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme. It’s a saga of Prohibition-era glitz and glamour that Raddall, the master storyteller, kept mostly to himself.
Click here for a bio of Dean Jobb.
RNSHS ANNUAL DINNER AT THE DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY CLUB
6:00 pm Cash Bar (featuring local beers and wines)
6:30 pm Dinner – Annual Nova Scotian History Quiz
7:30 pm LectureTickets for this event must be purchased by Friday, 11 April 2014. Seating for this event is limited. To reserve tickets please print and complete a copy of the reservation form available below, and then mail it along with a cheque (made payable to the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society), to the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society, PO Box 2622, Halifax, NS B3J 3P7. Please be sure to phone or e-mail the Society about your plans to attend the dinner meeting, using the contact information in the reservation form.