UNDERCOVER
GIRL: The Lesbian Informant Who Helped the FBI
Bring
Down the Communist Party (Watertown, MA: Imagine Books, 2017)
By
LISA E. DAVIS
Rev.
by Hugh Murray
This
is a case in which the author clearly dislikes the chief protagonist
of her book, and this reviewer dislikes the author. Lisa E. Davis is
a politically correct academic and a lesbian, who asserts that one
high point of her life was “meeting Fidel Castro.”(Inside back
page) By contrast, Angela Calomiris, a small woman with butch
features, lived in Manhattan's bohemian Greenwich Village, beginning
in the 1930s, she joined the Photo League and then the Communist
Party in the early 1940s, and from 1942-1949, was an informant on the
League and the CP for the FBI. In 1949 she blew her cover when she
openly testified in court against the leaders of the American CP, who
were charged under the Smith Act for advocating the violent overthrow
of the American government.
Davis
relates that those who disliked Calomiris described her as
“ruthless,” “conniving,” as a woman who turned in a lesbian
to the police or FBI.(p. 2) A few pages later Davis describes Angela
as “fair-minded, cold-blooded, charming, and a phony – always
intelligent, who knew how to deceive and please and hang tough. A
complex, probably troubled person.”(8) At the trial, Angela was
labeled “fink,” “stool pigeon,” and “rat.”(12) Author
Davis condemns Angela thusly: “But she chose badly, and ended up on
the wrong side of history.”(12) Because Angela exposed the
Communist efforts to sabotage and overthrow the US Government?!
Davis should ask herself, where is the USSR today? I contend Angela
Calomiris chose the right side of history, unlike Lisa Davis and
Fidel Castro.
Academic
Davis basically rejects the findings of the Venona files – that
Alger Hiss was a Soviet agent, and whether Whittaker Chambers once
had a gay crush on Hiss is unimportant compared to the fact that
Chambers helped expose the Communist spy rings inside the US
Govt.(10-11) Davis also writes sympathetically of the atomic spies
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who most Americans at that time believed
were rightly executed. Davis grasps at left-wing straws implying the
judgment against the couple was wrong. Although for decades he
maintained his innocence, Davis ignores the belated confession of
Rosenberg co-defendant Morton Sobell (NYT, 21 Sept. 2008) Davis
ignores the speech of Vladimir Putin of early 2012 in which the
Russian leader thanked the Western scientists who had helped advance
the development of the Soviet A-bomb with suitcases filled with
secret information.(Reuters stories, Jan. and Feb. 2012) Davis
condemns Roy Cohn for being in the closet, and certainly fails to
commend him for his part in the prosecution of the Rosenberg spies.
Davis even includes play write Tony Kushner's imaginary confrontation
of the Rosenbergs to announce the imminent death of the AIDS
infected, closeted, anti-Communist Cohn.(10) Davis does not include
the the verdict of Judge Irving Kaufman that the treason by the
Rosenbergs led to the Korean War, which would cost 35,000 American
lives. We know today that Stalin gave Kim Il Sung the green light to
invade South Korea in 1950. Would Stalin have allowed that war if
his government had not already exploded an A-bomb in 1949? And
Stalin had the bomb in 1949 rather than 1959 because of the suitcases
of scientific files provided by Western scientists and others in the
Soviet spy networks. Indeed, we might thank the Rosenbergs and their
comrades for the Kim Il Sung dynasty that still rules North Korea
today.
Davis
views it differently. “The McCarthy era spawned great controversy
– the special bitterness toward informants.”(13) That bitterness
was evident for Communists and fellow travelers, but clearly not for
most Americans, as demonstrated by Davis' own book. After testifying
to expose the dangers of communism, Angela was interviewed on major
radio programs, like that of Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary Margaret
McBride; interviewed and discussed in major newspapers and mentioned
on national broadcasts of Walter Winchell. In the early 1950s
Angela, with the help of a ghost writer, Caroline Bird, produced Red
Masquerade, the story of her membership in the Party and various
front groups, like the Photo League. The book was published by
Lippincott, a major company, and was widely, favorably reviewed. It
was of a genre of the times, like Herbert Philbrick's I Led
3 Lives, which became a television series (and a favorite of the
young Lee Oswald). Matt Cvetic's I Was a Communist for the FBI
was transformed from book to the screen, and nominated for an Academy
Award as best documentary of 1951. Angela hoped her book would
become a film, too. But it did not. Angela's story was somewhat
unique, in that hers was the story of a woman, whereas most of the
other informer stories were of men. Of course, during her time in
the spotlight, Angela sought to keep her sapphic tastes secret.
Davis
is right to stress that in testifying against the CP, Angela risked
being exposed as a lesbian. The conservative and mainstream media
did what they could to portray her as an all-American girl doing
dangerous work for patriotic reasons. But even during the trial, the
CP defense team tried to insert the issue in order to discredit the
witness. Directing questions to the 33-year-old witness like, are
you married, do you have children, and stressing the Miss Calomiris,
were meant to raise the queer issue in the juror's minds. Judge
Harold R. Medina sought to shield Angela, and upheld prosecution
objections to cut off certain lines of questioning. Angela was on
the witness stand for 5 days, so the Party attorneys had ample
opportunity to try to pierce the shield, but Judge Medina protected
the witness and would later speak of the sacrifice she had made in
coming forth (and not coming out).
Like
witness Herbert Philbrick, Angela perjured herself when she denied
that she had been paid for her years of service by the FBI,(55) and
in interviews after “her” book was published, she lied by denying
it was ghosted – she asserted she merely had some help in writing.
Author Davis even exposes that, horror of horrors, when looking for
employment, Angela “padded” her resume.(167) Yet, after the
trial, after the interviews and the publication of the book, Angela
moved on, developed her business skills and died with a small real
estate empire in Province town valued at $900,000. Quite a climb for
a girl whose dad died when she was 7, and whose mom then sent her to
an orphanage. Despite the hostility of Davis toward her subject one
must commend Davis for restoring to the public the life of Angel
Calomiris, and including the closeted side not revealed in the 1950s.
Now Angela can be understood, not only as an anti-communist, but as
a lesbian too.
Davis'
political views intrude throughout her book. Eleanor Roosevelt is
quoted saying she disliked Communists because they lie; to which
Davis retorts: “Anti-Communist might tell bigger lies.”(48)
Davis then exposes Angela's lies about not receiving payment from the
FBI for her years of information. Davis does write that J. Edgar
Hoover was furious about this lie, because it placed his organization
in a bad light, unwilling to help those who were helping his security
organization. Davis then makes a generalization that what set
communist lesbians apart was “these women had a social
conscience.”(61) Other lesbians apparantly lacked that conscience,
and Angela's anti-communist stance, probably made her anti-conscience
in Davis' measurement. Davis extended her assessment when she wrote
that the Communist Party was “the conscience of the American Left
for at least two decades.”(64) So one is not surprised when,
describing the simultaneous trials in 1949, of the Communist leaders
at which Angela testified, the Alger Hiss trial for perjury (re
spying), and the Judith Copland trial (treason), Davis calls them all
“heresy” trials.(76)
When
the prosecution and the Anti-Communists praised Angela's great
courage in testifying against the CP leadership, Davis tries to avoid
this compliment. Davis notes that Angela did receive a mailed death
threat upon conviction of the Party leaders, that for a time she had
24-hour police protection, and at one point was beaten as she emerged
from a subway exit. Angela thought the assailant was a member of the
International Workers' Order. Angela had named names, including
members of the IWO. Davis diminishes this, asserting that Angela's
testimony was anti-labor. Davis refers to labor reporter Victor
Riesel as “the notorious columnist for Hearst's ...[newspapers] and
a militant anti-communist.”(149-50) She neglects to mention that
Riesel had been blinded by goons working for corrupt unions. And a
young, leading-man in California, when he opposed the communists in a
Hollywood union, was threatened that someone would throw acid in his
face so destroy his image and career if he did not yield to the
radicals. Ronald Reagan did not yield then or later.
Davis
does connect some of the attacks upon Hollywood star Judy Holiday to
Angela's expose of Holiday's police woman girl friend, who was also a
member of the CP. Thus, Davis disagrees with Arthur Laurents'
assertion that the gay issue did not surface in Hollywood's
anti-Communist purge.(156) But the police woman named by Angela was
exposed as a Communist, not as a lesbian.
A
few things Davis could have mentioned but did not are still
interesting. She writes that the CPUSA had taken up the challenge of
Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay to raise the cause of the most
exploited and oppressed section of the world's working class. McKay
was a West Indian author, whose “If We Must Die” inspired many.
He attended the 4th Congress of the Communist
International in Petrograd in 1922. With Stalin's urging, the CPUSA
did make Black civil rights a major item in its agenda by 1930. But
McKay would become disillusioned with the Communist movement, and in
1944 would be baptized as a convert to Roman Catholicism.
Davis
mentions Commonwealth College in Arkansas, which like Highlander Folk
School in Tennessee, was meant to be a left-wing institution in the
South. Indeed, it was at Highlander that Rosa Parks learned the
tactics that she would apply when she refused to yield her seat in
1955 on a Montgomery bus, which led to the bus boycott and the
reinvigoration of the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King also
attended Highlander for training and tactics. Though most of the
teachers and participants of these institutions were on the Left or
would become so, one alum of Commonwealth went on to become the
governor of Arkansas. However, Democratic Gov. Orville Faubus is
best known not for his left-wing past, but for his efforts to prevent
the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, which provoked
Republican Pres. Eisenhower to send troops to guarantee the entrance
to the schools of the 9 Blacks. That was the first time federal
troops had been used to defend Black rights since Reconstruction.
Davis'
book lacks an index, making it harder to follow chronologically some
aspects of her story, particularly about Judy Holiday. Davis
sprinkles her concluding chapters with put-downs of Angela (161, 168,
175, 177, 181) Davis quotes Angela on a point that all should
ponder: Angela “accounted for her lack of remorse at betraying
people she had worked closely with...'The Party doesn't believe in
friendship,' she told them. 'There aren't any friends there.'”(163)
There
is another reason why I dislike the author's approach in this book.
I recall Elia Kazan, who produced some wonderful films of my youth,
like “On the Waterfront” with Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint, and
Marlon Brando, and “Streetcar Named Desire,” and “East of
Eden.” In 1952 before the House Un-American Activities Committees
Kazan had named names of former comrades. Decades later, the
Hollywood Left demonstrated its hatred of Kazan, the fink. When in
1999 the Academy Award was to present the elderly Kazan with a
special award for life-time achievement, left wingers in the
audience, like Ed Harris and Nick Nolte, sat in their seats and
refused to applaud or stood and turned their backs on the whistle
blower who exposed Communists in the industry. To the Left, Kazan
was an informer. To most Americans, he was a hero. And Angela was a
heroine.
I
wonder if Ms. Davis has ever personally faced the issue. I recall
after my arrest in the first lunch-counter sit-in in New Orleans in
September 1960, I was interviewed by the police Red Squad. Seven of
us had been arrested, but I think only the two whites were so
interviewed. I refused to say how many members were in the NO CORE
chapter. Or how many attended meetings, etc. I admitted that I had
read The Communist Manifesto, and said I favored income tax.
In
1962 I was called up for the draft. Many of us in a room, and we
were handed forms to fill out. Most filled them easily and quickly.
I had to take longer. One was a question about arrests. I had been
convicted in the 1960 sit-in, a felony, that was still being appealed
through the courts. I filled that in. The other problem question
concerned subversive organizations: the KKK, the CP, and many front
groups. Perusing the list, I suddenly recognized a name – the
Jewish Culture Clubs. I realized that during the CORE training
institute in Miami in August 1960, we had some connection with the
Jewish group. Once, when we were to integrate a beach, they booked
the picnic table next to ours, as a buffer, to avoid trouble with
possible militant racists. Also we had had a dance at their meeting
hall. The first was a public beach, so I did not worry about that,
but the dance was at their hall. Should I mark it down? If I lie,
the fine mentioned on the form was about $2000, an enormous amount at
the time. It was only a dance, - indeed, that is where I first
learned the twist, a new dance of that era. Then, I also realized
photographs were taken. So I decided to mention this and put it on
the form. When I handed it to the officer, he looked, and asked in
surprise, “But you're not even Jewish?” He told me I would have
to talk to the FBI regarding my felony, but their representative was
presently speaking with the Black Muslim who opposed induction. I
sat and waited. The FBI man said they could not draft someone with a
felony conviction, but he would speak to the DA about dropping the
charge. Bottom line, in several weeks I got the answer – the new
NO DA, Jim Garrison would not drop the charges, and the case was
being appealed up to the US Supreme Court. I was not inducted.
In
early 1963 I was teaching 5th grade at a private school in
NO, and after classes, played tennis with a colleague. Thus, I
arrived home later than usual. My mother greeted me, “Humph! I
thought they had rounded you up.” I rushed to the TV to find what
she was referring to. The Louisiana Un-American Activities Committee
was engaged in an anti-red raid, and arrested 3 “subversives.”
James Dombrowski, head of the Southern Conference Education Fund, an
integration organization (I was on its mailing list), Ben Smith and
Bruce Walzer, two attorneys who defended unions, integration, and
other “subversive” types, were the 3 rounded up. Jack, a friend
from Tulane and a junior member of the Smith firm, was also wondering
if the ax would fall on him. I spoke with him and mentioned that I
had known a member of the CP going back to CORE and 1960. If called
to testify, what should I do? Happily, I was never called before
LUAC.
Nearly
2 months after the round-up, I was teaching 5th grade when
Mrs. Flagg, who taught another 5th grade class directly
across the hall from mine, came to my door. She asked me to come to
her classroom for a few minutes. I rarely left my class unattended,
but assumed there was an unusual problem. It was a new school, and
we had no cafeteria. Mrs. Flagg's class was then having lunch and
free time, so it was quite noisy in her room. One of her pupils had
brought to school one of the new transistor radios, and she wanted me
to listen. We craned out necks over the boy and his radio. I
listened a short time, but had to return to my class.
I
re-entered and shut the door. I announced that Pres. Kennedy has
just been shot in Dallas. Immediately, the pupils cheered and
applauded. One girl was the exception; she put her head on her table
and cried. I was shocked by their reaction, and gave an impromptu
history lesson. “You think this is the end of integration. At the
end of the Civil War some thought, if we can only kill Lincoln, the
North will yield, and the South will be allowed to secede
successfully. They did kill Lincoln, and the result was the North
grew angrier, harsher, and the consequence was Radical
Reconstruction. Killing Kennedy will probably make the North even
more determined to impose integration. I, like my pupils, assumed
Kennedy had been shot by a segregationist.
The
school canceled later classes and let us all out early. That
afternoon, I received a phone call from Shelly Zervigon, wife of
Carlos, one of the early CORE activists. She told me she had heard
on the news that Kennedy had been murdered by a Lee Oswald, a
communist from New Orleans! I was stunned. Who was he? Many
thought I was a communist from NO. And in October the round up had
already begun. In November 1938 Herschel Grynszpan shot and killed a
German diplomat in Paris, and shortly after, Kristallnacht, the round
up of thousands of Jews and burning of many synagogues in Germany.
If that happened because of the assassination of an embassy official,
what will happen with the assassination of a President? I began to
think, this is it. I am going to go out and drink (it may be my last
chance), and try to find out info on this Oswald. I drove to the
French Quarter and drank and asked. No one seemed to have heard of
LHO. Finally, I did hear about one person who may have spoken to
him. I was told Bob Heller, a Tulanian and former CORE activist, may
have spoken with Oswald when Oswald was distributing pro-Castro
literature in down-town NO. At that time, that was the only name I
knew that might have had a connection to LHO.
After
school on Tuesday 26 November 1963 two FBI men came to visit me at
home. In the summer of 1963 I had picked up a Fair Play leaflet in
the Tulane U. library on a table, with no one around. On it was a PO
Box address. I thought a fellow grad student had printed it, went to
his desk, showed it to him, but he knew nothing about it. We
discussed writing to the POB, but both of us were suspicious. I
joked, it could be an FBI ploy. We decided to do nothing till we
knew more. Now, the FBI was asking me about Oswald. At the time, I
had no idea we had attended the same junior high, and possibly the
same high school. I knew only one name of a person who someone
thought had met Oswald. I told the FBI Heller's name. And if I had
known 20 people who had encountered Oswald, I would have named all
20. Some years after, I became a critic of the Warren Commission's
report and conclusions about the assassination. Had I withheld
information, it would have been more difficult to be a critic. The
FBI did then go to interview Heller. Later when I encountered a
Northerner on Tulane campus, Phil Good always would point at me and
yell “fink.”
In
2008 I was teaching at Hebei Normal U. in Shijiazhuang, China, when
one night I received an email from my boss: be careful, there had
been an incident at Disco City; try to come back early (or something
like that). I assume the same email was sent to all the foreign
faculty. I had never been to Disco City, but was curious. Phone
calls here and there. With the help of a friendly Chinese woman who
had a car, a Brazilian of Chinese extraction who knew English and
Cantonese, but was studying Mandarin and was also a business man, and
one of my students to help translate, we set out. I was told there
were 3 victims, an American, an African, and an Asian. First stop,
the hospital. We found the room where one of the foreigners was
being held. The door was locked, and brown paper on the windows
blocked all views, but the strong odor of medicine gave the
impression that the injury was serious. I tried to use my foreign
privilege, with my student translating to the nurse telling her I'm
and American and want to see the American in the room. The nurse did
not yield; she would not allow us to see the injured party.
From
there we drove to the jail for illegal aliens. I was surprised that
a young Bangladeshi, who had lived in the same building as I, and
with whom I had chatted in English on occasion was in trouble. He
had arrived on a visa to study Chinese, but overstayed his visa, got
a job in another disco, and had a girl friend who happened to be one
of my students. All this was news to me. In the jail he told me at
Disco City the three foreigners were together and one had made a play
for a pretty young Chinese gal, who happened to be the girlfriend of
a local Mafioso. When the 3 exited the disco, they were met by 6
Chinese with knives. The East African had been badly wounded (it was
he who was in the hospital room). The American had received only a
slight cut on his hand, and he was more worried about being deported
as China was expelling many non-essential foreigners in preparation
for the 2008 Olympic Games. The Bangladeshi ran away and escaped
injury. But as there were so few foreigners in Shijiazhuang, a city
of about 2 million, authorities had no trouble apprehending him. We
raised some money to help pay his fines, and his parents had to pay
for his flight home.
Upon
returning to my flat, I received a phone call from my boss. Where
was I that afternoon? Who was I with? I had never before received
such a call; indeed, I had been given great freedom in teaching my
classes. But I refused to give names in this instance. I don't
think there were any negative repercussions for me or my student; I
was treated well. Overall, I probably had more freedom in teaching
at that university in China then, than I would have had at most
narrow-minded, politically correct universities in America.
I
was working as a minor bureaucrat in the police building (I did not
work for the police, however). I was shocked when young men would
enter the building wearing t-shirts, “Off the Snitch.” Kill the
informer! I assume they reside in the neighborhoods that are
crime-ridden with high murder rates.
Bottom
line – despite Davis' terms, “fink,” “stool pigeon,” “rat,”
or the more positive ones I prefer, “whistle blower,” “informer,”
“reporter,” I do not think there is a simple formula one can use
concerning informing. Sometimes it is right; sometimes wrong. And
unlike Davis, I think Angela Calomiris did the right thing in
informing on the leadership of the CP, and more, I think she, and not
they, were on the right side of history.