# Who is Bow-Tie Man? An Historical missing link. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 25, 2002, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bow-tie-man-an-historical-missing-link/120807 "2002-07-25T19:05:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mullinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@Mullinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mullinator)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bow-tie-man-an-historical-missing-link/120807/41 "2003-04-01T17:31:08Z")
While I tend to dislike resurrecting old threads, I remembered this one and became very curious if anything ever came of it. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bow-tie-man-an-historical-missing-link/120807/42 "2003-04-01T17:44:41Z")
_ **Mullinator** stands hunched over a metal slab, that is attached to 4 different chains on each corner. A bizarre amalgam of medical and electrical tools and machines are scattered around the room. Suddenly a flash of lightning illuminates the entire room and we get our first glimpse of **Mullinator’s** face. It is contorted in a scowl with one eye wildly roaming. Suddenly, the door to his lab is thrown open._ **Hamlet:** Stop this insanity, **Mully** , you can’t play God!!! **Mully** : But I must know… I MUST KNOW!!! **Hamlet** : NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!! _Another flash of lightning brings a year old thread to life. **Hamlet** promptly faints._ **Mullinator** : Yessss. YESSSS!!! YESSSSSSS!!! ---
**Author:** ![Osip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4491bb/32.png) [@Osip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osip)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bow-tie-man-an-historical-missing-link/120807/43 "2003-04-02T00:18:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cervaise \* > \*\*Leave it to the Straight Dope Irregulars to solve in less than a week a mystery that’s clearly been bugging this Large Government Agency for a very long time. > > Next stop, the “Lockbox.” 😉 \*\* I am wondering what lockbox and what would be my share in the loot in getting it open? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bow-tie-man-an-historical-missing-link/120807/44 "2003-04-02T05:56:39Z")
Despite my submitting convincing photographic evidence to the Social Security Administration’s historian that “Bowtie Man” is Rep. Joshua Twing Brooks of Pennsylvania, he has decided that he wants [positive proof](http://www.ssa.gov/history/bowtieman.html) that Brooks was there at the 1935 signing ceremony with President Roosevelt. Well, he may as well stop holding his breath. Brooks’ papers as a congressman do not seem to be in any archive today. I tried the National Archives, the Pennsylvania State Archives, Yale University (Brooks’ alma mater), the Pittsburgh Public Library (Brooks’ hometown), and two national guides to archived collections of personal papers. I also looked at the account of the signing ceremony published in the _Pittsburgh Post-Gazette_ in 1935; no mention of Brooks. (Anyone who lives in Pittsburgh is welcome to check the news story as published in the other daily newspaper, whose name escapes me.) ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bow-tie-man-an-historical-missing-link/120807/45 "2003-04-02T07:35:00Z")
Walloon, I suggest you try to reach Brook’s family. In my experience, they always have leads and information (and in this case, pehaps papers) that prove useful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bow-tie-man-an-historical-missing-link/120807.md?page=2)