'Ham and Eggs' Pension Plan Promised $30 a Week in '30s

"We have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen ... against poverty-ridden old age."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Aug. 14, 1935, as he signed the Social Security Act

*

FDR wasn't the only one who wanted to end destitution among the elderly. Even after Social Security became law, about 80 old-age pension proposals competed for support in California alone. The most prominent and sensational became known as "Ham and Eggs."

When the first Social Security check arrived in 1940, the maximum payment was $41.20 a month -- about $557 in today's dollars.

"Ham and Eggs" promised "$30 every Thursday" for each unemployed Californian age 50 or older. The idea behind the name was that every pensioner deserved a square meal a day.

The proposal made a fortune for its creators but did nothing for those who were supposed to benefit from it, according to Daniel J.B. Mitchell, professor of management and public policy at UCLA and author of "Pensions, Politics and the Elderly: Historic Social Movements and Their Lessons for Our Aging Society," published in 2000.

"Ham and Eggs" was hatched by an odd cast of characters, beginning with Los Angeles radio personality Robert Noble.

The quirky phenomenon rode the coattails of writer Upton Sinclair's EPIC -- End Poverty in California -- campaign and of Long Beach physician Francis Townsend's proposal that workers ages 60 and over receive $200 a month, funded by a 2% national sales tax.

In 1935, Noble became a radio commentator for KMTR, now KLAC-AM (690), where he began talking about his own loosely formulated pension plan. He also campaigned for clean government, targeting the Los Angeles Police Department's infamous "Red Squad," which was against union organizers and peace activists.

In April 1935, the Red Squad beat two peace demonstrators. Noble led about 200 followers into Mayor Frank Shaw's office, demanding that he disband the squad. Shaw promised an investigation -- which came to naught -- and booted Noble out.

Noble began promoting his pension plan in 1937. He called it "$25 every Monday." In the midst of the Depression, the notion caught Californians' imagination. Thousands contributed anywhere from a nickel to $100 to the campaign.

In April 1937, Noble took his pension idea to Sacramento. No legislator signed on, so he went home to Hollywood and hired the Cinema Advertising Agency.