Tag: Phillip Deery

Cat Links Charlie Chaplin, Cold War, communism, Phillip Deery

Charlie Chaplin and the FBI

jkimber

(Phillip Deery, Charlie Chaplin and the FBI): There is much more to the political harassment and persecution of Charlie Chaplin. J. Edgar Hoover first took an interest in the ‘little tramp’ in 1922, the year after ‘The Kid’ opened. But it was not until World War II that his FBI file, numbered 100-127090, began to thicken. FBI agents noted that he was the main speaker at a CPUSA-backed Artists Front to Win the War in Carnegie Hall on 16 October 1942, which called for a second front. He addressed the crowd as ‘comrades’ and praised the Soviet Union, then a wartime ally. … Continue readingCharlie Chaplin and the FBI

Cat Links Elizabeth Vassilieff

Portrait of an activist: Elizabeth Vassilieff

jkimber

Elizabeth Orme Hamill, née Sutton, was a 31-year-old teacher, writer and divorcee when they met in Warrandyte. Although Danila had an anti-communist background – he fought with the Whites during the civil war in Russia and was captured by the Reds[3] – Elizabeth, both during their marriage and well beyond, was not only an artist in her own right, but an activist in the peace movement and the Communist Party. … Continue readingPortrait of an activist: Elizabeth Vassilieff