Up for auction "Texas Congressman" Fritz G. Lanham Hand Signed 3X5 Card. 

ES-6361

Frederick

Garland "Fritz" Lanham (January

3, 1880 – July 31, 1965) was a Democratic member

of the United States

House of Representatives from the state of Texas.

Born in Weatherford, Texas, Lanham

was the son of Sarah Beona (née Meng) and Samuel Willis Tucker Lanham, later an eight term member of the

U.S. House of Representatives and Governor of Texas. He was given the nickname "Fritz"

by a neighbor. During his father's congressional career, he attended public

schools in Washington, D.C., and went

on to earn as B.A. from Weatherford College in

1897. He attended Vanderbilt University from

1897 to 1898, and then the University of Texas at Austin,

where he was the first editor of the student newspaper, The Texan, graduating in 1900. After

serving as his father's secretary and working in a Weatherford bank, Lanham

returned to UT to study law. He subsequently held jobs at the Deaf and Dumb

Institute in Austin and at The Dallas Morning News. An

amateur magician, he wrote two musical comedies with his brother, as well as

toured with a stage company in 1907. Although he did not earn a legal degree,

Lanham was admitted to the bar in 1909, commencing practice in Weatherford. In

addition, he was the first editor of The Alcalde, the UT alumni magazine, from 1913.

During World War I, he spoke at Liberty bond drives, solicited subscriptions for

the Red Cross, and entertained

troops in camps around Fort Worth. Lanham's first run for office, for Parker County Attorney,

was unsuccessful and he subsequently moved to Fort Worth in 1917, becoming an

assistant county attorney in Tarrant County. In 1919,

he won a special election to Congress in Texas's 12th

congressional district, succeeding fellow Democrat James Clifton Wilson, who

resigned to accept a judgeship on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He was

reelected thirteen times, serving until his retirement in 1946. In

Congress, Lanham served on the Committee on the District of Columbia, the

Committee on Patents, the Committee on Public Lands, and the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, the last of which

he became chairman of starting in 1931. He was the lead sponsor of the National

Housing for Defense Act and the Lanham Community Facilities Act, both of which

passed just prior to American entry into World War II, as well as the Lanham Act, a standing federal law which protects

against trademark infringement, trademark dilution,

and false advertising. After

retiring from Congress he remained in Washington as a lobbyist for the National

Patent Council, the American Fair Trade Council, and the Trinity Improvement

Association of Texas, which he was named vice president of in 1946.