1946 brings to life the amazing journey of Reg and Edwina — two people who came from very different worlds. Edwina was raised in New York’s high society, while Reg started out small-town but went on to change the game in navigation and wartime tech. This is a real, honest look at two extraordinary lives that history almost forgot told with love by their grand daughter Diana.

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Welcome to this edition of Newsgram! 

Today, I’m bringing you a firsthand look at two extraordinary lives that history nearly forgot. Thanks to author Diana Gillmor, we now have their stories—stories that include dinners with royalty, friendships with world leaders, and innovations that changed how we navigate the sea and sky. One of them was a self-made visionary who helped revolutionize aviation and defense technology. The other? A high-society debutante from the Gilded Age with secrets of her own. Yes, Winston Churchill once stayed at their house—but until recently, even Diana didn’t know the full extent of her grandparents’ remarkable lives. 

Diana Gillmor – It’s a great study in the lives of two people during that time period and how one of them is very rich and one of them is not very rich and how they got together and their, how their life went.

As Diana Gillmor puts it, her book,  1946: A True Story of Wealth, Extraordinary Success and Great Tragedy is a fascinating study in contrast—one wealthy, one not—joined by fate and ambition.

As I began writing this edition of Newsgram it occurred to me that together, we have explored a lot of books and some pretty unforgettable personal journeys. Many of them came from diaries and memoirs—personal treasures uncovered long after their authors were gone.

We have also discovered some truly fascinating people like Martin Kaiser who uncovered corruption in the FBI. Thanks to Barbara Birchim we were able to experience “Searching For The Truth” a fiction-based-on-fact account of the Vietnam conflict inspired by her relentless pursuit of justice for her husband. Fascinating people sharing their personal journeys.  I encourage you to look through the Newsgram archives at Webtalkradio.com there are over 186 episodes to choose from. But, every now and then, a story comes along that reads less like a memoir and more like an untold chapter of world history and that is where we are today. 

Diana Gilmore recently decided to look a little closer at her own family history, and that gives us the chance to visit 1946 and the story of Reg and Edwina. Reg was a young, poor boy from America, who was one of the youngest graduates of the Naval Academy. He meets Edwina, a wealthy socialite from Mrs. Astor’s Gilded Age circle and together, they build a life that intersects with royalty, espionage and some of the most significant innovations of the 20th century. Let’s begin with her grandmother

Diana Gillmor – I knew my grandmother was one of Mrs. Astor’s 400. So that wasn’t really a surprise. But what really surprised me was how famous my grandfather was. He was the president of Ferry Gyroscope for 40 years. And he was the third employee. And when he went to work for them, there were only three people in this little shop at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge.

And in the course of studying both of them, I realized that they lived in London. And they, because my grandfather was selling equipment that the British Air Force and the Navy needed, they became really, really good friends with some very high up people in the British government, which was quite startling that they knew all these people like Winston Churchill and the Mountbatten’s. And they went to a lot of social occasions with them. That was really surprising.

Just to clarify, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor’s list of 400 included the crème de la crème of New York society; Why 400? Many reasons but for one, that was the capacity of her grand ballroom on Fifth Avenue. While we are here and due in part to the popularity of HBO’s The Gilded Age let’s dive a little deeper into New York high society.  

Diana Gillmor – Yes. People seem to be very interested in that now. Apparently, how my grandparents got involved was they had a lot of money and they had a lot of the proper behavior. Mrs. Astor thought that you could not be part of her social circle if you had ever done anything to embarrass your family. And so they adhered to those rules. My grandmother’s father died in 1910 and they lived in Toledo, Ohio. And my grandmother’s mother said, let’s get away from Toledo because it’s very unfortunate for us that he died here. I’m thinking of going to New York. And some friends of hers had written and said, there’s a new hotel opening where you can rent a suite and they can supply flowers and they can supply a chef and waiters and housecleaning and all that. And you can have like a New York pied-à-terre, but you don’t have anything but the expense of it. And that happened to be the Plaza Hotel, which opened in 1910 and they were one of the first people to take up an apartment.

Yea let’s unpack that one because you’re gonna want a Time Machine. The current cost of a two bedroom apartment at the plaza…about 2000 square feet will run you somewhere around six million bucks. You can probably score a studio for just under a million but the Plaza is some prime real estate. Being one of the first to move into the Plaza would have been a pretty sweet investment. 

Diana Gillmor – And I remember spending a lot of time, because I’m from New York, in the Palm Court, which is one of my favorite places in the Plaza. 

That is just one of the many visual memories in her book but we are just getting started. Let’s talk about Diana’s grandfather because he would eventually run the company responsible for teaching us which way is up – literally. At only 23, her grandfather left the Navy and joined what was then a tiny little shop in Brooklyn. 

Diana Gillmor – One time my father took me when I was a little girl to the Sperry gyroscope plant that was in Lake Success on Long Island. I think I was about 10 and it was nighttime and he drove me up to this hill and we looked down on what looked like a city to me, all lit up. And he said the entire thing was the Sperry gyroscope plant.

It grew quite a bit. Perry would eventually have 200,000 employees all around the world.  

Diana Gillmor – Mr. Sperry was 53 when he met him, and my grandfather was 23. So when Mr. Sperry died, he became his protege and expanded the company to 200,000 employees around the world, and he was the president for 40 years.

That growth was mainly due to the success of their Gyroscope technology. It is everywhere including aviation, ships and submarines, spacecraft in fact it’s even in your pocket —  it tells that smartphone you’re holding when to rotate the screen.

Diana Gillmor – They made things that even now are very essential. I used to own a flying school. And I, when I was much younger and I flew and I knew that if you didn’t have those six instruments in this tiny little plane that I own, you wouldn’t be able to fly.

From New York’s Gilded Age to the halls of the Sperry Gyroscope factory, Diana Gillmor’s book is rich with uncovered facts and vivid details from one of the most fascinating eras in American history—featuring some of the period’s most influential figures.

Diana Gillmor – And he became a great friend of Winston Churchill because Winston Churchill was very interested in introducing planes into the armament of Britain, even though the rest of the parliament didn’t think that was necessary. In fact, Churchill came to stay at our house. That was way before I was born, but that was an interesting thing. 

Check this out. See if you find the thing that made me go…wait what. 

Diana Gillmor – They lived in New York for a while, and then they lived in London during the bombing. And that really added to the story greatly because you saw the history of when New York subways were being built, and the history of the war, and when they were spies.

That was it. She drops that little nugget on us and then follows up with another visual that puts right there on a ship headed overseas. 

Diana Gillmor – When my grandmother and grandfather went to Sherbrooke to spy for the U.S. government, my grandmother, her passport, she’s all dolled up in a fancy hat and everything.

So many cool things. In a world where technology and privilege still shape power, 1946 reminds us that the roots of modern influence and their cost can run deeper than we often realize.

Diana Gillmor – But the story also has a lot of tragedies.

Yes, 1946 isn’t just a tale of invention, high society and diplomacy. It also uncovers some deep tragedy including suicide, the emotional cost of ambition, and the reminder that money does not always buy happiness. 

Diana Gillmor – The life of a debutante in New York. I would like them to see the life of a poor man from Wisconsin who made a lot of money being the representative of Sperry Gyroscope and the president for 40 years. And then I would like them to see that tragedy befalls even rich people. And there’s a lot of tragedy that you would not expect.

This episode was a lot of fun to write because at its core this program is about interesting people living their lives and letting us catch a glimpse of it. Whether it’s through their own words or those of skilled writer, it’s all about story telling. A little voyeurism. 

So as we wrap up, I think it’s important to say—this book isn’t just a success story. It’s not just a love story. And it’s not just a history lesson either. 1946 is a reminder that behind every headline or groundbreaking invention, there are real people like Reg and Edwina—living their lives, driven by ambition, love, loss, and yes… a little gyroscope magic.

In her book 1946: A True Story of Wealth, Extraordinary Success and Great Tragedy, Diana Gillmor shares a story so incredible, not even her own family fully understood it—until now.

Thanks for listening to this edition of Newsgram from Webtalkradio.com.

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