Irrepressible (51 page)

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Authors: Leslie Brody

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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.

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