From Dawn Scibilia, the director of the Emmy Award winning documentary HOME, Mrs M is a documentary about Belle Moskowitz, former political strategist to NY Governor Al Smith. She exercised power in a feminine way, not wanting to be a threat to the men in the room, she sat in the corner of cabinet meetings, knitting. Eventually the Governor would turn to her and ask, “What do you think Mrs. M?”Commentators, including the late historian and granddaughter of Belle Moskowitz, Elisabeth Israels Perry, discuss the legacy of the now largely unknown master politician Belle Moskowitz and the unique way she exercised power in the 1920s. Born and raised in Harlem, Belle was the daughter of Ashkenazi Jews who immigrated to New York from East Prussia. She began her career as a Settlement House worker on the Lower East Side of New York City before becoming a well-known reformer who gained national attention after helping pass laws reforming corrupt dance halls at the turn of the century. She later became a labor mediator who settled grievances in the wake of the Triangle fire. In 1918 she organized the woman’s vote for Al Smith, recognizing newly enfranchised NY women voters (1917) could help Smith win the 1918 Gubernatorial election. After Smith won, she became his chief advisor. The Tammany man from the Fulton Fish Market called her Mrs. M and relied on her judgement regularly. She was responsible for much of Smith’s legislative agenda, precursors to President Roosevelt’s New Deal. Before her untimely death in 1933 Belle helped Smith become the first Roman Catholic to win the Democratic Presidential nomination.
