by Larry Loftis
$8,500 German intercepts confirm that Engels paid Popov a total of $18,500. On March 9, 1942, Lisbon cabled Berlin: “Please inform me in detail of what sum IVAN received in Rio.” Three days later Berlin cabled back: “For LUDOVICO. . . IVAN received . . . W/T operator Dec. to Feb. 1500; traveling expenses 1500; Total 18500.” KV 2/860 (p. 1040b). See also Hilton, 176.
S.S. Uruguay Moore-McCormack was the only cruise ship company providing luxury cruise service between Rio de Janeiro and New York, running three, 33,000-ton liners: the Uruguay, the Brazil, and the Argentina. The Uruguay is recorded as Popov’s ship in Special Agent Charles Lanman’s December 24, 1941, report. Record Group 65, Box 6, 65-HQ-36994, NARA.
a small pilot boat approached Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 187; Miller, 113.
CHAPTER 15 BUTTERFLIES AND CARNAGE
Several crew members disappeared Report of FBI Special Agent Charles Lanman, December 24, 1941, Record Group 65, Box 6, 65-HQ-36994, NARA (“Lanman Report”) (p. 13). While it is possible that MI6 removed the crew members because Popov tipped them off about the butterfly trays, it seems unlikely; in his memoirs Dusko does not mention telling Major Wren of the trays, and neither MI5 files nor FBI files mention Popov informing Wren, or noticing the trays before the Trinidad stop.
captain called everyone to the first-class lounge Dusko Popov, “Pearl Harbor: Did J. Edgar Hoover Blunder?” True, October 1973, 110, 113.
“I was very, very proud” Ibid.
how they were coming Ibid.
killed 2,388 persons USS Arizona Memorial, National Park Service; Edwin T. Layton, And I Was There: Pearl Harbor and Midway—Breaking the Secrets, 320.
John Toland wrote to the FBI in 1978 Roger S. Young, John F. Bratzel, Leslie B. Rout, Jr., Otto Pflanze, and John Toland, “Once More: Pearl Harbor, Microdots, and J. Edgar Hoover: Letters and Replies,” American Historical Review 88, no. 4 (October 1983), 958–60. Note that Toland believed that FDR had prior knowledge of Japan’s intent to attack Pearl Harbor. See John Toland, Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath.
1982 article for American Historical Review John F. Bratzel and Leslie B. Rout, Jr., “Pearl Harbor, Microdots, and J. Edgar Hoover,” American Historical Review 87, no. 5 (December 1982), 1342–51.
Roger S. Young, FBI assistant director in charge Ibid., 1347, fn. 14 and accompanying text.
“neither the Naval Historical Center nor” Ibid., 1347.
“The FBI had sent” Roger S. Young, John F. Bratzel, Leslie B. Rout, Jr., Otto Pflanze, and John Toland, “Once More: Pearl Harbor, Microdots, and J. Edgar Hoover: Letters and Replies,” American Historical Review 88, no. 4 (October 1983), 954.
The professors countered Ibid, 953–57.
“questionnaire . . . had been paraphrased” Ibid., 956.
“that J. Edgar Hoover” Ibid.
“It should also be pointed out” Ibid., 954.
“Hoover was to drop the ball” Edwin T. Layton, And I Was There: Pearl Harbor and Midway—Breaking the Secrets, 105.
“Hoover had shown his total incompetence” William Casey, The Secret War Against Hitler, 10.
On December 15, 1941 Lanman Report (p. 2).
confiscation of butterfly trays Ibid.
“Mr. Popov told Mr. Foxworth” J. Edgar Hoover memo of December 15, 1941, to Mr. Tolson, Mr. Tamm, and Mr. Ladd. Record Group 65, Box 6, 65-HQ-36994, NARA.
Atelier Elizabeth Lanman Report (p. 3). In his report, Lanman misspelled Industria as “Industra.” See also Ian Wilson “TRICYCLE” memo for Tar Robertson (undated), point 34, KV 2/850 (354A).
“lapse of memory” . . . “truth beyond your reach” Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 195–96; Miller, Codename TRICYCLE, 115.
CHAPTER 16 BLOWN
Sonja Henie Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 205; Miller, Codename TRICYCLE, 117.
For Sun Valley history, see Sun Valley Resort website: https://www.sunvalley.com/about-sun-valley.
Hemingway, who worked on For Whom the Bell Tolls Jeffrey Meyers, Hemingway: A Biography, 326, 343.
“My family was in occupied territory” Popov, 205; Miller, 118.
“Wishing you and all our friends” KV 2/849 (p. 228A).
“You know what that means” Popov, 207.
tapping his phone and keeping open files on his girlfriends The FBI tapped Dusko’s phone, maintained mail surveillance on Terry Richardson, tapped Simone Simon’s phone, and maintained tight surveillance on Simon, reporting back to Hoover whom she was dating, whom she spent time with, and where she went.
an apartment close to Dusko’s Popov recorded that Simone had taken a unit on the seventh floor of his building (Spy Counter-Spy, 208). FBI files, however, indicate that her apartment was in another building but on the same block of Park Avenue. Popov may have confused girlfriends, as Terry Richardson did move into his building. See “Dusan M. Popov, Confidential Informant” memo of FBI agent R. G. Fletcher to D. M. Ladd, October 13, 1941, Box 6, Section 1, 65-HQ-36994, NARA .
sipping coffee on the terrace of Café de la Paix Jacques Lory, “Tender Little Savage: France’s Favorite Descends upon the Hollywood Scene,” Screen & Radio Weekly, Oakland Tribune, December 29, 1935, 3.
favorite haunt of Oscar Wilde’s Café de la Paix website: http://www.cafedelapaix.fr/uk/index.php#une-institution-parisienne.php.
“Please remember to send” Russell Miller, 123-24.
“Keep main attention, Difficult to obtain” Ibid., 124.
“Blindfold me” Popov, 209.
“very proper” Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, 125.
“Her mother is a sensationally beautiful woman” Earl Wilson, “It Happened Last Night,” Tucson Daily Citizen, August 1, 1944, 5.
“enthusiastic about everything” Popov, 211.
air conference in Ottawa . . . removed him from the plane Ian Wilson “TRICYCLE” memo for Tar Robertson (undated), point 25, KV 2/850 (p. 354A). Popov recalled in his memoirs (Spy Counter-Spy, 212–13) that he had driven to the border and was turned back for want of an income tax declaration, but Wilson recorded at the time that Dusko was removed from his flight for want of a proper exit permit, which the FBI had prepared. Since when leaving for London Popov incurred difficulties with the U.S. Revenue authorities, which the New York FBI office was to have cleared (resulting in MI6 paying $480 on Popov’s nominal salary from the Yugoslav Ministry of Information), Dusko may have confused the two trips or may have encountered the hurdle on both trips. See also Wilson memo, point 23, KV 2/850 (p. 354A); Ian Wilson “TRICYCLE and Money Affairs” memo, November 12, 1942, KV 2/850 (p. 353a).
“As there is a suspicion” March 20, 1942, wireless intercept at KV 2/860 (p. 1040b).
“IVAN may be playing” March 21, 1942, wireless intercept at KV 2/860 (p. 1040b).
“Before he left England” Miller, 124–25.
On March 26 he received two letters . . . “Decay of Uran” “Activities of Tricycle in the United States,” KV 2/855 (p. 662B).
“sound reasons for suspecting” May 5, 1942, wireless intercept, KV 2/860 (p. 1040b).
“We have heard” Felix Cowgill cable, May 8, 1942, KV 2/849 (p. 250).
“Evidence is now available” “Tribage Organisation” memorandum of Charles C. Cholmondeley, May 10, 1942, KV 2/849 (p. 254B).
The Stork Club, El Morocco Dusko Popov, interview with Frederick Bear, “Dusko [007] Popov: Exclusive Interview,” Genesis, 68.
“I do crossword puzzles” Earl Wilson, “It Happened One Night,” 5.
$1,900 per month Ian Wilson July 4, 1942, memo, KV 2/849 (p. 275b). The Germans eventually paid Popov and he was able to repay all loans. Some authors have written that Dusko borrowed $10,000 from Simone Simon, but this is untrue; he had borrowed $10,000 from MI6 but couldn’t show such accounting to the Germans. Accordingly, the
fiction was created—to show the Abwehr—that he had borrowed $10,000 from Simon. Ian Wilson explained the accounting in his memorandum of March 29, 1943: “The notional receipts are the same as his actual receipts except that TRICYCLE did not of course receive any salary from the Ministry of Information and the $10,000 loan was not from his girlfriend Simone SIMON but from S.I.S.” KV 2/853 (p. 457a).
a carefully disguised letter KV 2/850 (p. 297); Ian Wilson memo, December 22, 1942, KV 2/851 (p. 383A).
“Greetings Dear Dule” KV 2/850, sub-file 2 (unpaginated, following 299).
Walter Winchell was one of the most powerful See Neil Gabler, Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity; Bernard Weinraub, “He Turned Gossip into Tawdry Power; Walter Winchell, Who Climbed High and Fell Far, Still Scintillates,” New York Times, November 18, 1998, www.nytimes.com/1998/11/18; Ralph D. Gardner, “The Age of Winchell,” http://www.evesmag.com/winchell.htm (2001).
invented tabloid journalism Gabler, xii; Weinraub.
carried by two thousand newspapers Gabler, xi; Weinraub, Gardner.
“he possessed the extraordinary ability” Gardner.
featured in popular songs The full lyrics (as sung by Ella Fitzgerald) of Lorenz Hart’s “The Lady Is a Tramp” mention him in refrain 2 (removed in Sinatra’s version):
I go to Coney, the beach is divine/I go to ballgames, the bleachers are fine/I find a Winchell, and read every line/That’s why the lady is a tramp
In Cole Porter’s “Let’s Fly Away”:
Let’s fly away And find a land that’s so provincial, We’ll never hear what Walter Winchell Might be forced to say!
“From Table 50” Weinraub.
“call whenever he wanted” Ibid. Calendar entries for President Roosevelt show that Winchell met with FDR on May 4, 1936; May 10, 1938; January 27, 1939; October 8, 1940; October 20, 1942; May 11, 1943 (just before FDR had dinner with Prime Minister Winston Churchill); March 24, 1944; and October 13, 1944. President Roosevelt calendar, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
friends with J. Edgar Hoover Gardner. According to President Roosevelt’s calendar, Winchell had cocktails with Hoover and President Roosevelt at the White House on May 4, 1936. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. See also photo of Winchell and Hoover in Summers, photo #18.
“Broadway Small-Talk: . . . Dusko Popov” Walter Winchell, “On Broadway,” syndicated column from New York Daily Mirror. See, e.g., reprints in: High Point Enterprise, July 16, 1942, A-4; Panama City News-Herald, July 19, 1942, 6; Port Arthur News, July 22, 1942, 4; Wisconsin State Journal, July 22, 1942, 6.
Germans saw the column Ian Wilson telegram to Colonel Wren, November 17, 1942, KV 2/850 (p. 356Q).
returned him to British control August 3, 1942, telegram from Colonel Wren to Major Frank Foley, included in Foley’s cable to Tar Robertson, KV 2/850 (p. 285a).
Hoover intercepting his telegrams? Ian Wilson “TRICYCLE” memo, November 11, 1942, KV 2/850 (p. 349a); correspondence from Tar Robertson to Frank Foley, November 13, 1942, KV 2/850 (p. 351).
“Kosta 20 S. West St.” KV 2/850 (p. 352k).
Ian Wilson received a report Ian Wilson memo, July 30, 1942, KV 2/849 (p. 281a).
“rendered suspect virtually the whole” Ian Wilson memo to Major Frank Foley, August 10, 1942, KV 2/850 (p.288). See also Wilson memo, July 27, 1942, KV 2/849 (p. 279a).
“You’d be a damned fool” Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 217.
“He could end his double agent work” Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, 80-81.
“ability not to give a damn” Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon, 58 (emphasis added).
“I think I survived” Dusko Popov, interview with Jonathan Braun, “Superspy Dusko Popov: The Real-Life James Bond,” Parade, 27.
“Nearly all bullfighters” Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon, 58.
“There is always the feeling” Dusko Popov interview with Frederick Bear, “Dusko [007] Popov: Exclusive Interview,” Genesis, 36.
Pascal’s Wager Blaise Pascal, The Mind on Fire, 131–32.
CHAPTER 17 INCOMPLETE CANVAS
every man’s death diminishes me John Donne, Meditation 17, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions and Death’s Duel, 63.
“I expected” Ian Wilson, “POPOV” memo, March 26, 1943, KV 2/852 (p. 457k).
“I would be lacking” Ibid.
Cat People Two weeks after Winchell’s public disclosure of Simone and Dusko’s relationship, Simon began filming Cat People. Released on Christmas Day, the movie was a smashing success, and overnight Simone Simon became an international sensation. Released almost the same time as Casablanca, Cat People easily bested Bogart at the box office. On a budget of only $134,000, Cat People grossed a whopping $8 million, earning $4 million domestically and another $4 million abroad. Casablanca, released only a month after Cat People, made $3.7 million domestically on a budget of $878,000. Casablanca, Cat People budgets and box office receipts from Thomas Schatz, Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s (University of California Press, 1999), 218; Nash Information Services, LLC, http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Cat-People#tab=summary.
Astonishingly, since the advent of feature sound film in 1927, on a cost to gross box office basis, Cat People remains today—after more than seventy years—the second most profitable major studio (non-animated) motion picture. With a cost of $134,000 and worldwide gross receipts of $8 million, Cat People earned almost 60 times its budget. By comparison, 1939’s Gone with the Wind (cost: $3.9 million, gross: $198 million) earned 50 times its budget; 1953’s Peter Pan (cost: $4 million, gross: $142 million) earned 35 times its budget; 1965’s The Sound of Music (cost: $8.2 million, gross: $163 million) earned 20 times its budget; 1975’s Jaws (cost: $12 million, gross: $220 million) earned 19 times its budget; 1978’s Grease (cost: $6 million, gross: $190 million) earned 32 times its budget; 1997’s Titanic (cost: $200 million, gross: $2.2 billion) earned 11 times its budget; 2009’s Avatar (cost: $425 million, gross: $2.8 billion) earned less than 7 times its budget.
Where costs are available for calculation, only one non-animated major studio movie has bested Cat People: Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky, in 1976 (cost: $1 million, gross: $117 million), earning an astounding 117 times its budget. Two animated motion pictures have also exceeded Cat People: 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (cost: $1.49 million, gross: $185 million), earning 124 times its budget, and 1942’s Bambi (for which cost is not available, but gross receipts exceeded $102 million). Nash Information Services, LLC, http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/budgets/.
“Yes, every morning” All conversation between Popov and Simon cited from FBI wiretaps. FBI Agent H. Frank Angel, “Simone Simon” report, December 29, 1942, Record Group 65, Box 6, 65-HQ-36994, NARA.
“It is not kindness” Ibid.
seventeen-point memorandum Ian Wilson memo, August 24,1942, KV 2/850 (p. 292a).
“F.B.I. HAVE FAILED” Foley telegram to Tar Robertson, October 10, 1942, KV 2/850 (p. 305y).
“Can you at this late hour” Ibid.
Robertson put John Marriott on it See John Marriott, “TRICYCLE” memo to Major Robertson, October 11, 1942, KV 2/850 (p. 305a) and accompanying notes.
Ewen Montagu offered naval updates John Marriott memo to Major Robertson, October 12, 1942, KV 2/850 (p. 307B).
“The Girl You Like” Conversation between Popov and Simon cited from FBI wiretaps. FBI Agent H. Frank Angel, “Simone Simon” report, December 29, 1942, Record Group 65, Box 6, 65-HQ-36994, NARA.
October 12, Dusko returned to London Colonel Wren “POPOV” memo (undated), KV 2/850 (p. 355b).
“The greatest instance of cold-blooded courage” Ewen Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, 81.
“the steel within . . . putting his head into the lion’s mouth” Ewen Montagu, foreword to Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, vi.
“My rea
ction disturbed me in a way” Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 220; Popov, Parade, 27.
He checked into the Palácio Dusko Popov, MI5 report of October 23, 1942, KV 2/850 (p. 313A) (“Popov October report”); Ian Wilson memo, “TRICYCLE’S FIFTH VISIT TO LISBON: 14th–21st Oct: 1942,” December 22, 1942, KV 2/851 (p. 383A) (“Wilson memo”).
The “second’s hesitation” Ibid.; Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 220–21.
Thursday morning Popov October report; Wilson memo. In his memoirs, Dusko misremembered the details of the rendezvous, thinking that he had been picked up on “the road outside Estoril” by von Karsthoff and Elisabeth the evening of his arrival and driven to Ludovico’s country house. Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 220–21.
“I know” Popov October report; Wilson memo. From the major’s comment Popov knew that he had been followed when he arrived in Lisbon.
“Now, what happened?” Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 221.
“A lie when it is needed” J. C. Masterman, The Double-Cross System, 20.
“No mortal can keep a secret” Sigmund Freud, Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria, 69.
went on the offensive Wilson memo.
“was a colossal error” Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 222.
borrowing from a girlfriend Wilson memo.
Simone Simon Ibid.
“Give Berlin a very rude message” Popov October report.
Mr. Bacher . . . Boris Cassini Wilson memo. Bacher also recorded as “Becher.” See, e.g., correspondence from J. C. Masterman to Frank Foley, October 28, 1942, KV 2/850 (p. 322a), telegram at KV 2/850 (p. 319B).
“It is Berlin’s fault” Popov October report.
never asked about Popov’s movements Wilson memo.
radioman Ibid.; Popov October report.
“Are you very sure” Popov October report.
when Popov would be returning to the U.S. Popov October report; Wilson memo.
after three o’clock Ibid.
any English-speaking country under British or American control Ibid.
trap “The ease with which I was being reintegrated in the Abwehr,” Dusko said in his memoirs, “made me slightly suspicious. I had come prepared for a thorough interrogation and at least a good dressing down.” Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 223.
