Rosenthal (shortly after Rosenthal had told the press of extortion by Becker and other police). Acting Mayor Ardolph Kline's elected successor, John Purroy Mitchel, indicated before taking office at noon on January 1, 1914, that he would not keep Commissioner Waldo in office. Waldo tendered his resignation effective at midnight December 31, 1913, after transferring or accepting resignations from most of the department's senior officers and specialists. Amid much confusion and discord, Mayor Kline (who had taken office after Mayor Gaynor's death in September 1913) refused to accept Waldo's resignation (which would have left the Department without leaders for the first 12 hours after New Year's Eve) and fired him instead. Later career In 1916, Waldo held a commission as Major in the Infantry Officers Reserve Corps. He went into World War I as a major in the 301st Infantry of the National Army in 1917. After serving in France, he was honorably discharged in 1919 and in 1923 was commissioned a colonel in the reserve. After he was out of office, he stayed involved with political affairs and while Richard Enright was New York City Police Commissioner (appointed by the regular Democratic Mayor John Francis Hylan), Waldo served for a time as a special deputy but resigned in September 1924 to organize the Coolidge Nonpartisan League, a step that "marked his formal renunciation of Tammany Hall in favor of the Republican Party." Around this time, he was mentioned as a possible candidate for governor general of the Philippines. Personal life On April 20, 1910, he was married to Virginia Otis Heckscher at the country house of artist Charles H. Ebert in Greenwich, Connecticut. Virginia, a daughter of Robert M. Otis and Helen (née Gordon) Otis of Richmond, Virginia, was twice widowed before their marriage. Her second marriage was to John Gerard Heckscher who died in 1908 (he was the widow of Mary (née Travers) Gray, a daughter of William R. Travers, and the father-in-law of Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.). He died on August 13, 1927 in his home in Philipse Road in Garrison, New York of sepsis. In popular culture Waldo was portrayed by James Cagney in the 1981 film Ragtime despite the age difference (Cagney was 81 years old when he filmed this movie; the real Rhinelander Waldo was only 32 at the time in which the movie was set and died at age 50.) However, in