J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets (39 page)

Alger Hiss, secretary-general of the organizing conference of the United Nations, is shown shaking hands with President Truman, in San Francisco, 1945. (To the right is Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr.; in the background is Truman’s military aide General Harry Vaughan.) In less than five years Hiss was in prison, convicted of perjury, in denying he passed secret documents to the Communist party member Whittaker Chambers. With Hoover’s help, the Hiss case launched the career of a young California congressman named Richard Milhous Nixon.
Wide World Photos.

The convicted atom spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, in a patrol van after their sentencing. Although there was no credible evidence implicating Ethel, Hoover insisted she be brought to trial to “serve as a lever” to get her husband to confess. The plan failed, however, and on June 19, 1953, both were executed, at Sing Sing prison. Recently released documents reveal that the judge, Irving S. Kaufman, engaged in ex parte conversations with the prosecution before, during, and after the trial.
UPI/Bettmann Newsphotos.

“Are you married?” the child actress asked. “No,” the FBI director replied, “I live with my mother.” “Then I’ll kiss you,” she responded.

Shirley Temple Black recalled, in her autobiography,
Child Star,
“Hoover’s lap was outstanding as laps go. Thighs just fleshy enough, knees held closely together, and no bouncing or wiggling.”
Wide World Photos.

J. Edgar Hoover,
center,
in a publicity shot with “Amos” (Freeman Gosden),
left,
and “Andy” (Charles Correll),
right.
The pair played stereotypical blacks on one of radio’s most popular shows. When the FBI director was accused of prejudice by the NAACP, he countered that he numbered Amos and Andy among his closest friends.
National Archives 65-H-104-1.

Hoover with Dorothy Lamour (Mrs. William Howard III) at the running of the Preakness, at Pimlico, in Baltimore, Maryland, 1946. An inveterate handicapper, with more than a dozen horses named after him, Hoover spent most Saturdays at the track.
National Archives H-65-791.

Hoover with Marilyn Monroe and Milton Berle. The FBI director kept one of her famous nude calendars in his basement recreation room, and a thick file on her personal life in his outer office.
National Archives 65-H-1250

The famous boxer/bulldog photo. Crime Records, the FBI’s huge publicity mill, arranged the shot in an attempt to show that the director had a lighter side. Personally Hoover liked neither breed, favoring cairn terriers; over the years he had six, three of whom he named G-Boy.
Wide World and National Archives. 65-H-1187-1.

Hoover “shooting” Tolson in a scene for the movie
You Can’t Get Away With It.
On the far right are the moviemakers Bill Miller and Charles Ford. The FBI director endorsed dozens of motion pictures and radio and television shows. At one point he even suggested the FBI film its own pictures and pocket the proceeds, but calmer heads prevailed.
National Archives 65-H-240-1.

Jimmy Stewart played a generic special agent in the movie version of the book
The FBI Story
and was responsible for solving all of the Bureau’s biggest cases. (Melvin Purvis, who actually lit the cigar signaling that Dillinger was leaving the Biograph Theatre, was excised from all FBI-authorized accounts).
From left:
Selene Walters as Dillinger’s girlfriend Polly; Scott Leters as Dillinger; Jean Willes as Anna Sage, the “Lady in Red”; and Stewart. Everyone who worked on the picture had to be cleared by the FBI.
AP/Wide World Photos.

Life imitating art. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., star of the TV series “The FBI,” with the director. Hoover told his agents that they should emulate the actor. Hoover donated the payments from the TV series, and the royalties from his books and articles, which were written by Bureau employees on government time, to a mysterious fund known as the FBI Recreational Association.
National Archives 65-2098-1.