Irrepressible (51 page)

Read Irrepressible Online

Authors: Leslie Brody

BOOK: Irrepressible
11.43Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
135 “comrades in Petaluma” ”: JM,
AFOC
, 87.
135 “broiled or fried?” JM,
AFOC
, 87.
136 “Just to send you my love”: Lovell,
The Sisters
, 386.
137 “life drawing class for retired longshoremen” ”: Pele deLappe, interview by author, October 2008.
137 “he was puzzled”: RT to Aranka Treuhaft, 7 November 1944, OSU.
137 “We’re very much worried”: RT to Aranka Treuhaft, 3 December 1944, OSU.
137 “Decca loves them”: RT to Aranka Treuhaft, 30 November 1944, OSU.
137 “attorney in Reno and can”: Ibid.
138 “the goal of socialism”: JM,
AFOC
, 64.
138 “secretly disappointed that”: JM,
AFOC
, 65.
139 “Did I feel we were automatons”: JM,
AFOC
, 66.
140 “Have you noted”: NM to JM, 15 November, 1968,
TM-LBSS
, 521.
142 “What could possibly”: JM,
AFOC
, 149.
142 “concrete upper lip”: JM to Aranka Treuhaft, fall 1957, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 172.
143 “what a criminal thing”: JM to Muv, 21 May 1946, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 125.
143 “At what price?” NM to Diana, 25 May 1946, NM,
Love from Nancy
, 165.
CHAPTER 14
145 “Gallstones, Gruesome, Sewer & Odious”: JM,
AFOC
, 98.
145 “looked on as dangerous reds.”: Pele deLappe, interview by author, October 2006.
146 “5 big doses of castor oil”: JM to Aranka, 21 October 1943, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 126-127.
146 “the tidal wave of washing”: JM,
AFOC
, 103.
146 “For a few depressing months”: JM,
AFOC
, 103.
147 “Housework is highly unproductive”: JM,
AFOC
, 104.
147 “patronizingly stupid”: Lerner,
Fireweed
, 262.
148 “at once immensely excited”: JM,
AFOC
, 150.
148 “You’re supposed to start at the top and go down”: Marge Frantz, interview by author, July 2007. This is a frequently told JM story. Peter Sussmann also records it in
Decca
.
148 “set us all to shrieking”: JM,
AFOC
, 151.
148 “wonderful & very pretty”: JM, interview,
Desert Island Discs
, BBC Radio 4, 9 August 1977.
148 “like a musical comedy stage set”: Ibid.
148 “absolutely bent on friendship: Ibid.
149 “Wicked Aunt Diana”: Dinky, interview by author, May 2006.
150 “strange and childish: JM,
AFOC
, 154.
150 “wonderful”: Pryce-Jones,
Unity Mitford
, 270.
151 “opening ‘a restaurant with an Italian partner’”: Waugh,
The Loved One
, 17.
151 “non-Jewish-motherishness”: JM,
AFOC
, 153.
151 “What a pity. But of course”: JM,
AFOC
, 153.
151 “How can you do this to me?” ”: JM,
AFOC
, 154.
153 “desirability, of overthrowing the government”: Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940.
153 “was quite unchanged”: Lovell,
The Sisters
, 413.
154 “Purulent Meningitis, Cerebral Abscess, Old gun-shot wound”: Pryce-Jones,
Unity Mitford
, 276.
154 “But it always seemed to me”: JM,
H & R
, 274.
CHAPTER 15
155 “Two policemen would get”: RT and Larsen,
Robert E. Treuhaft
, 46.
155 “sickening number of similar cases”: Ibid.
156 “Nobody made Decca do anything”: Doris (Dobby) Brin Walker, interview by author, August 2007.
157 “mesmeric ability to wring the last ounce”: JM,
AFOC
, 105.
157 “grinding down on people”: Pele deLappe, interview by author, August 2007.
157 “there was nobody in the [police] department”: RT and Larsen,
Robert E. Treuhaft
, 45.
157 “Thugs in Uniform”: JM,
AFOC
, 108.
157 “hard to describe adequately the monstrous beastliness”: JM,
AFOC
, 108.
158 “Do you know T-Bone?” JM,
AFOC
, 122.
158 “a singularly glib, smooth-tongued individual”: JM,
AFOC
, 109.
158 “the first time in the history”: JM,
AFOC
, 111.
158 “some degree of truth”: JM,
AFOC
, 111.
159 “cooperated with the CRC”: JM,
AFOC
, 112.
159 linking civil rights and subversion: Nora Sayre brilliantly covers this in
Previous Convictions
.
159 “Decca scooted down to the address”: RT and Larsen,
Robert E. Treuhaft
, 48.
159 “few and far between”: Ibid., 47.
160 “a source of nagging irritation”: Fursland,
Jessica Mitford
, 148.
160 “Get to work, you lazy good-for-nothing”: JM,
AFOC
, 140.
161 “I sent my son to Harvard”: JM,
AFOC
, 142.
161 “Oh Decca”: JM,
AFOC
, 143.
CHAPTER 16
163 “a conspiracy so immense” . . . “the most evil, monstrous conspiracy”: Thanks to Cecil Belfrage for first putting these side by side in
American Inquisition
, 119.
164 “crazy as a bedbug”: Durr and Barnard,
Outside the Magic Circle
, 206.
164 “scared the United States”: Ibid.
164 “You couldn’t go to a church meeting”: Ibid., 202.
164 “You couldn’t possibly have guessed”: Lillian Hellman,
Scoundrel Time
, 75.
164 “Skin-color blindness”: Belfrage,
American Inquisition
, 131.
164 “If someone insists that”: Sayre,
Previous Convictions
, 267.
164 “Here we were blaming Russia for being a totalitarian dictatorship”: Barnard,
Outside the Magic Circle
, 284.
166 “Subversive nature”: JM,
Why I Live Where I Live
, OSU.
166 “days of the Truman-McCarthy”: Ibid.
166 “a mutual enmity that flourished”: JM,
AFOC
, 121.
166 “That mike wasn’t put there for you”: JM,
AFOC
, 121.
166 “best Aranka hat”: JM,
AFOC
, 124.
167 “her face contorted”:
AFOC
, 125.
167 “That pinko Treuhaft outsmarted me this time!”: Ibid.
167 “Could you possibly ring up the”: JM to Muv, 25 June 1950, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 135.
168 “I believe there is now a very”: JM to Muv, 20 August 1950, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 137.
168 “empathized with us as members”: Horne,
Communist Front?
19.
169 “a perfect foil for Decc”: Dinky, interview by author, February 2010.
169 “sparkplugs”: JM to Maya Angelou, 9 August 1980, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman.
170 “the realities of Mississippi”: JM,
AFOC
, 163.
170 “one of the bravest people”: JM to Muv, 23 September 1951, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman.
171 “challenge the rape myth that every” . . . “white womanhood.”: JM (as Decca Treuhaft), “The Case of Willie McGee: A Fact Sheet Prepared by the Civil Rights Congress,” 1951.
171 “concentration camp of the mind”: JM,
AFOC
, 178.
171 “the real sacrificers . . . rollicking jolly”: JM,
AFOC
, 166.
171 “the Youth Comrade”: JM,
AFOC
, 166.
172 “were the whole delegation”: JM,
AFOC
, 172.
172 “the Youth Comrade said not a word”: JM,
AFOC
, 166.
173 “murky eloquence”: JM,
AFOC
, 182.
173 “McGee and the woman”: JM,
AFOC
, 182.
173 “We drove a total of 7700 miles”: JM to Muv, 2 April 1951, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 139.
174 “would end in a massacre”: JM,
AFOC
, 186.
174 “Tell the People the real reason”: JM,
AFOC
, 194.
CHAPTER 17
175 “not a good time in which to stand trial”: Trumbo,
Time of the Toad
, 92.
175 “Do you think Treuhaft really wants”: JM,
AFOC
, 216.
176 “hard-drinking, paranoid, dyspeptic”: Starr,
Embattled Dreams
, 301.
176 “the grand inquisitor of California”: Ibid., 303.
177 “the privilege could not be invoked”: JM,
AFOC
, 200.
177 “unfriendly Witnesses”: JM,
AFOC
, 213.
177 “Should I end up behind bars”: JM,
AFOC
, 200.
177 “She was absolutely terrified.”: Dinky, interview by author, January, 2007.
177 “Have you ever heard of or read”: JM,
AFOC
, 202.
178 “Are you . . . a member of the Communist Party?” JM,
AFOC
, 202.
178 “irksome”: JM,
AFOC
, 202.
178 “I refuse to answer on the ground”: JM,
AFOC
, 202.
178 “Are you a member of the Berkeley
Tenants
Club?” JM,
AFOC
, 203.
178 “bastion of posh conservatism”: JM,
AFOC
, 203.
178 “This witness is totally uncooperative”: JM,
AFOC
, 203.
178 “You got them so rattled they forgot to ask for the CRC records”: JM,
AFOC
, 203.
178 “Do tell her to come . . . few days off”: JM to Muv, 23 September 1951, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 141.
179 “Poor Nicholas got arrested”: JM to Muv, 6 June 1952, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 142.
179 “The only trouble was Benjamin”: Ibid.
179 “what it was always accused of doing”: Belfrage,
American Inquisition
, 163.
180 “might not have believed the country was becoming fascist” Maas,
Looking Back on a Life in the Left
, 65.
181 “back in the Hons’ Cupboard”: JM,
AFOC
, 158.
181 “fortress mentality”: JM,
AFOC
, 116.
182 “little suburban house”: Debo to Diana, 8 February 1952, in
TM-LBSS
, ed. Mosley, 277.
182 “rather sweet”: Ibid.
182 “she is
heaven
”: Ibid.
182 “Although they couldn’t quite”: JM to Muv, 6 June 1952, OSU.
183 “CP fashion . . . in which one indicates”: JM,
AFOC
, 158.
183 “herself and Andrew, dressed in ducal”: JM,
AFOC
, 159.
184 “stood idly by watching the scene”: JM,
AFOC
, 129.
184 “throwing garbage and other things”:
Albion Monitor
, 9 October 1995,
www.monitornet/monitor
.
184 “‘Get out nigger or we’ll burn your house down’”:
People’s Daily World
, 7 March 1952, quoted in Jovanka Beckles, “The Gary Family of Richmond: Fighting
for Equality and Standing for Their Rights (1952),” 22 September 2008,
www.smartvoter.org/2008/11/04/ca/cc/vote/beckles_j/paper2.html
, 5.
184 “with a petition signed by him and twenty-one other neighbors”: Beckles, “The Gary Family of Richmond,” 8.
184 “we wanted to take credit”: JM,
AFOC
, 131.
CHAPTER 18
186 “thousands and thousands of people”: Bernstein,
Loyalties
, 102.
187 “After a cold two weeks”: deLappe,
Passionate Journey
, 44.
187 “every intellectual called”: Albert Einstein, quoted in Leonard Buder, “‘Refuse to Testify’ Einstein Advises Intellectuals Called in by Congress,”
New York Times
, 12 June 1953
188 “give the kids extra care”: JM to Aranka, 5 December 1953, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 146.
188 “The most strongminded”: JM to Muv, 5 December 1953, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 143.
188 “served up more than 300 names”: JM,
AFOC
, 207.
188 “Are you accompanied by counsel?” RT and Larsen,
Robert E. Treuhaft
, 98.
189 “You’ll have to submit that”: Ibid., 99.
189 “I am answering . . . whether I had counsel”: JM,
AFOC
, 214.
189 “What a shameful thing it was”: RT and Larsen,
Robert E. Treuhaft
, 99.
189 “determined to reveal through his testimony”: JM,
AFOC
, 213.
189 “Everyone was breathless”: Aranka, 5 December 1953, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 146.
189 “there was terrific cheering & applause”: Ibid.
189 “The Day’s Stormiest”: Sussman,
Decca
, 105.
190 “escaped by her wits”: Marge Frantz, interview by author, July 2007.
190 “narrow escape”: Katie Edwards, interview by author, December 2006.
191 “it was bloody uncomfortable”: Bettin Aptheker, interview by author, August, 2008.
191 “So I told him to hurry up”: Kathy Kahn, e-mail to author, 23 November 2008.
191 “puzzled over the rape story too”: Peter Sussman to author, e-mail to author, 21 November 2008.
191 “I could hardly pry my eyes”: Sussman,
Decca
, xiv.
192 “
frightfully
unfair”: JM to NM, 6 October 1954, in
TM-LBSS
, ed. Mosley, 278.
192 “outlook is gloomy”: JM to Muv, [no date] February 1954, OSU.
192 “ring up Cousin Winston & tell him”: JM to Muv, February 1954, OSU.
192 “Winston Churchill’s sister-in-law”: Ibid.
192 “Thinking to give her a little news”: JM to Muv, 25 October 1954, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 149.
193 “Nature, nature”: Doris (Dobby) Brin Walker, interview by author, August 2007.
193 “The tide here seems to be turning”: JM to Muv, March 1954, OSU.
194 “perhaps in the next few years”: JM to Muv, February 1954, OSU.
194 “beastly Un-American Committee”: JM to Muv, 23 June 1954, in
Decca
, ed. Sussman, 147.

Other books

For Love Alone by Christina Stead
Long Shot by Paul Monette
The Watson Brothers by Lori Foster
Depth Perception by Linda Castillo
tmp0 by Bally
Until Spring by Pamela Browning
Christie Ridgway by Must Love Mistletoe