Adloph Frank Reel

Background

Adolph Frank Reel was born on June 30, 1907, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.

Education

Reel graduated from Harvard College in 1928 and Harvard Law School in 1931.

Career

Reel was a partner in the Boston law firm Roewer & Reel, representing labor unions when he enlisted in the Army in 1942. Reel rejoined the firm after the war, representing the Massachusetts State Federation of Labor and the New England Section of the American Federation of Radio Artists, among others. He moved to the radio artists' union full time in 1947 and became its national executive secretary a year later.

Reel was assigned after World War II to defend General Tomoyuki Yamashita, who led the Japanese in conquering Malaya and the Philippines and served as a wartime commander in Manila. Yamashita, who surrendered in September 1945 to General Douglas MacArthur, was tried in Manila a month later by a military commission of five generals untrained in the law. Accused of failing to prevent atrocities by his troops, he was found guilty in December and hanged the following February. Reel, then a captain in the Army’s Claims Division in the Pacific, wrote a book printed in 1949 and reprinted in 1971 titled The Case of General Yamashita.

Reel asserted that Yamashita had no connection to the atrocities and that the sham trial, including the verdict, had been scripted by MacArthur. Reel, a native of Milwaukee, earned undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard and was a partner in the Boston law firm Roewer & Reel when he enlisted in the Army during World War II. Among his clients were the Massachusetts State Federation of Labor and the New England Section of the American Federation of Radio Artists, which became his employer from 1947 to 1954. Later he was an executive at Ziv Television programs and Metromedia Producers before resuming his law practice in the late 1970s. He wrote a second book in 1979 about network programming, The Networks: How They Stole the Show.

In 1968, he joined Metromedia Producers Corp., serving as its president from 1970 to 1977. During his tenure, Metromedia distributed several TV series and specials, including The Merv Griffin Show.

Achievements

• Reel was an outstanding specialist, who gained fame due to his professionalism and devotion. His book, The Case of General Yamashita, received much attention and high praise from readers and critics.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Case Of General Yamashita

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

    1949
  • The Networks: How They Stole the Show 1979

Politics

Reel was active in Democratic politics.

Connections

Reel was married to Virginia Wentworth Reel with whom he had four children, Tom, Christopher, Jeffrey, and Judy Reel.

Spouse:

Virginia Wentworth Reel

Daughter:

Judy Reel

Son:

Tom Reel

Son:

Christopher Reel

Son:

Jeffrey Reel

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 189
  2001