A Good American Family

by David Maraniss

  Pearson was not done: Drew Pearson, “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” June 20, 24, 1950.

  Wood responded by taking to the House floor: “Rep. John S. Wood Answers Drew Pearson,” Speech of Hon. John S. Wood of Georgia in the House of Representatives, Congressional Record, June 15, 1950.

  A few weeks before Christmas 1950: Farrell, Richard Nixon, 163.

  When Tavenner took the job: New York Times, obituary, Oct. 22, 1964.

  The merits of Fifth Amendment protections . . . became a debate topic: Valparaiso (IN) Vidette-Messenger, Mar. 6, 1951.

  Truman’s Executive Order also set in motion: Responses to Red Scare drawn from Caute, The Great Fear; Morgan, Reds; Griffith, The Politics of Fear; Farrell, Richard Nixon.

  For Potter, it had been a long road back: Potter’s slow recovery from war wounds drawn from Charles E. Potter Papers, Boxes 1–2, Bentley Historical Library; information from the Hospital Admission Cards created by the Office of the Surgeon General, Department of the Army for Service, No. 01306316, World War II Military Records Group, National Archives. One campaign pamphlet quoted a magazine story on Potter: “There is something peculiarly American in the story of . . . Potter’s personal victory over disaster. It is compounded of faith, optimism, ambition, risk-taking, and humor, and the steadfast support of his wife.”

  Potter won the election in a landslide: Potter election and appointment to HUAC drawn from Escanaba (MI) Daily Press, July–Nov. 1952; Charles E. Potter Papers, scrapbook, Bentley Historical Library. Several northern Michigan newspapers carried the headline “Legless Ex-GI Wins Election.”

  It was typical of newspapers to promote the comings and goings of HUAC: Long Beach Press-Telegram, Sept. 15, 1951.

  Chapter 22: A Good American Family

  Go back three and a half years: MM letter to Phil Cummins, May 14, 1946, Maraniss Family Papers.

  The Detroit Field Office of the FBI knew: Account of FBI investigation from FBI files on EM, obtained by FOIA request through the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, declassified and screened by Mary Kay Schmidt, June 17, 2015. The files came in two batches a year apart. The first batch was 69 pages. The second batch of 186 pages included the military intelligence report conducted during World War II.

  The most compelling feature in that first edition: Michigan Herald, Jan. 12, Apr. 20, Apr. 27, 1947, Newspaper and Current Periodicals Reading Room, Library of Congress.

  the Herald published a guest column by Coleman Young: Michigan Herald, May 11, 1947, Library of Congress.

  She reported to FBI agents that James E. Jackson: EM FBI file. Jackson was a leading figure in the party in Detroit and New York City. Life circles around in strange ways. As I was writing this book, I became a patient of Mark D. Scarupa at the Institute for Asthma and Allergy in Chevy Chase, Maryland. During one visit to his office, he asked me what my book was about, and I said HUAC and my father. He said that his grandfather had been hounded by Red hunters during that era. When I asked where, he said Detroit and New York. When I asked what his grandfather’s name was, he said, “James E. Jackson.” “James E. Jackson!” I exclaimed. “He’s in my book.” Scarupa is a world-class doctor. He remembered seeing Paul Robeson at his grandparents’ house.

  The good American family was dealt another blow: DM, “Uncle Phil’s Brain,” Washington Post Magazine, Oct. 27, 2002.

  Phil’s siblings in Detroit were eager for news: MM letter to Phil Cummins, Mar. 30, 1949; Bob Cummins letter to Phil Cummins, May 1949, Cummins Family Papers.

  But there is a story from those days: EM recollection; Barbas, The First Lady of Hollywood, 282–88.

  I came along on August 6: MM letter to Phil Cummins, Aug. 7, 1949, Cummins Family Papers. Two days earlier, MM had written another note to Phil: “I’m writing this note on the eve of someone’s approaching birth. We’re not sure of much about this person—name or sex. I hope I’ll know by tomorrow. Maybe I’m being obscure, but the point is I’m sitting around biting my fingernails waiting for Maraniss child # 3.”

  My father was at work on Labor Day: Typed letter to Joe and Ida Maraniss, Sept. 5, 1949, Maraniss Family Papers.

  One month after the war started: Associated Press, July 28, 1950. Bob’s physical removal from the auto plant came on his birthday.

  Susan, Bob’s wife: Account of Sue’s sickness and death from correspondence with Rachel Cummins, her daughter; also Bob Cummins letter to Phil Cummins, Oct. 27, 1950, Cummins Family Papers.

  Peggy had one other strong memory: Interview with Peggy Datz, July 16, 2017.

  Bob confessed that he was jobless again: Typed letter to Phil Cummins from Bob Cummins, May 12, 1951, Cummins Family Papers.

  The following description of the Subject: EM FBI file, Mar. 3, 1951.

  Mary had three small children: Letter from MM to Phil Cummins, Apr. 30, 1951.

  a man in a dark suit rang the front bell: Interview with Peggy Datz, July 16, 2017.

  Chapter 23: March 12, 1952

  The weather in Detroit: Detroit Times, Mar. 12, 1952; Detroit Free Press, Mar. 13, 1952; Detroit News, Mar. 13, 1952.

  Testimony of Elliott Maraniss: Communism in the Detroit Area, Part 2, Mar. 10, 11, 12, 1952, 3179–83. Fifteen witnesses were called on the last day of the hearings. EM was the eleventh witness to testify that day.

  Chapter 24: The Whole Pattern of a Life

  Statement of Elliott Maraniss: HUAC Investigative Name Files, Series 1, Box 32, National Archives. Along with the Mar. 12, 1952, statement, the file included a copy of the subpoena served on EM on Feb. 29, 1952, and an abbreviated account of the FBI and Detroit Red Squad investigations of his comings and goings.

  Chapter 25: Witches or Traitors

  “Why the hell did you make the picture”: Miller, Timebends, 315–16. For an insightful examination of Miller’s dispute with Columbia see “Arthur Miller vs. Columbia Pictures: The Strange Case of Career of a Salesman,” Kevin Kerrane, The Journal of American Culture, Sept. 2004.

  His first impression was that Salem was trapped: Account of Miller’s first trip to Salem from Miller, “Journey to The Crucible,” in The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller, 27–30, originally published in New York Times, Feb. 8, 1953; Miller, Timebends, 338–42.

  Real or imagined, was being a communist the equivalent: Statement of EM, HUAC Investigative Name Files, National Archives.

  in the context of Judge Learned Hand’s axiom: Caute, The Great Fear, 148; “Gravity of the Evil Test,” First Amendment Encyclopedia, https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/963/gravity-of-the-evil-test. Hand’s formula was his interpretation of an earlier judicial axiom constructed by U.S. Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in a 1919 case involving whether an antiwar activist had the First Amendment right to advocate draft resistance: “The question in every case is whether the words used are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that the United States Congress has the right to prevent. It is a case of proximity and degree.”

  Along with the Bill of Rights: Statement of EM, HUAC Investigative Names File.

  This was Miller’s first time in Salem: Miller, The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller, 27–30; Crucible Notebook, Arthur Miller Papers, Harry Ransom Center. In his notes to himself as he was plotting the play, Miller wrote, “It has got to be basically Proctor’s story. The important thing—the process by which a man, feeling guilt for A, sees himself as guilty of B, and thus belies himself—accommodates his credo to believe in what he knows is not true.” He also was thinking about the connection between the concepts of the devil and outsiderness. “[They] believed he (the devil) attacked to prevent Christianizing America—hence ‘his woods’ and ‘his Indians.’ ”

  The morning after Elliott was interrogated: Detroit Free Press, Mar. 13, 1952.

  That last film, meant to glorify: Account of the making of Big Jim McLain and the interaction between producers John Wayne and Robert Fellows and HUAC counsel Tavenner and commi
ttee members Jackson and Wood drawn from Administrative Files for Frank Tavenner, HUAC, RG 233 LL Composite Box, National Archives; Murphy, Congressional Theatre, 75–86. Murphy wrote of the movie’s close, “The last frame is an acknowledgment of HUAC’s help: ‘The incidents in this motion picture are based on the files of the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Congress of the United States. Names and places have been changed. We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of this Committee.”

  Chapter 26: American Wanderers

  The rest of us followed: Correspondence and conversations with Jean (Maraniss) Alexander and Jim Maraniss.

  There is a photograph taken of the five of us: Maraniss family albums. A note on the back in MM’s soothing cursive handwriting labels it summer 1952.

  We moved into the small apartment of our Brooklyn grandparents: Correspondence and conversations with Jean (Maraniss) Alexander and Jim Maraniss. My strongest memories of Coney Island came later, when I was between ten and fourteen and we made annual pilgrimages east in our light green Rambler station wagon.

  The Daily Compass, a morning tabloid: Copies of Compass in Maraniss Family Papers; EM’s storytelling as recalled by my siblings and me.

  Our family was cut adrift again: Correspondence with Jim Maraniss.

  George Crockett was out of prison: Account of Crockett’s imprisonment and experiences after his release drawn from FBI File, National Lawyers Guild, Crockett folders, Tamiment Library; “An Unofficial, Incomplete Biographical Sketch and a Few Personal Recollections of Congressman George W. Crockett, Jr., by his former law partner, Ernie Goodman,” George Crockett and Ernest Goodman Papers, Reuther Library; New York Times, Apr. 24, 1952; Associated Press, Apr. 24, 1952; Daily People’s World, Feb. 1952; Wright, The Making of a Champion; Babson et al., The Color of Law.

  With the new year came the Broadway premiere of The Crucible: Miller, The Portable Arthur Miller, introduction to the original edition by Harold Clurman; Miller, The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller, 152–62, 171–74.

  Our family moved again: Portrait of family life in Cleveland drawn from MM letter to Phil Cummins, Feb. 18, 1953.

  As soon as Mom could arrange it: Portrait of family experiences in Cleveland drawn from EM unpublished story about MM, Maraniss Family Papers; Jean (Maraniss) Alexander correspondence; Jim Maraniss correspondence.

  We were a family of baseball lovers: Like so many others of my generation, I wish I still had that Al Smith autograph, or any of the baseball cards I collected from age five to fifteen. I remember clearly one summer, when we were visiting our grandparents in Ann Arbor, walking home from the nearby grocery and opening a pack, and the first card was Jackie Robinson, who in our family was a deity (but so were Al Rosen and Ted Williams and a variety of other ballplayers, for different reasons). The Jackie card was one of those years that featured the ballplayers in lifelike miniature action paintings.

  One day Jim was at the house of a friend: Jim Maraniss correspondence.

  “Have you ever seen a copy of the Pee-Dee?”: EM letter to Phil Cummins, Feb. 18, 1953.

  The FBI continued to follow him in Cleveland: EM FBI file, June 17, 1953.

  There was internal debate between Cleveland and Washington: EM FBI file, Summary administrative page, Jan. 1, 1955: “By letter dated June 18, 1954, the Cleveland Office requested authority to interview the subject, ELLIOTT MARANISS. By letter dated June 30, 1954, the Bureau requested that further consideration be given this matter and temporarily deferred authority to interview subject. By letter dated July 16, 1954, the Cleveland Office reiterated its request for authority to interview captioned subject. By letter dated July 28, 1954, the Bureau advised that a file review of the subject indicated the inadvisability of interviewing the subject at that time and authority for such interview was denied.”

  Then our lives were disrupted once again: EM FBI file. Summary of Elliott’s firing and interaction with the Newspaper Guild: “Mr. Anthony S. Fernandez, a former Special Agent of the Bureau at Cleveland, Ohio. Fernandez orally furnished information to SA Robert S. Burgins, Jr. and stated that his information was received from a Confidential Source at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, whom he did not wish to identify.”

  For many people, Joe McCarthy: Depiction of Potter interaction with Joseph R. McCarthy and McCarthy’s demise drawn primarily from Days of Shame (New York: Signet, 1971), Potter’s retrospect book of regret; Farrell, Nixon; Morgan, Reds; Caute, The Great Fear; Griffith, The Politics of Fear; Detroit Free Press, Nov. 27, 1979; David Nevin, “An Insider’s Memoir of a Sinister Era,” Life, Oct. 1965.

  John Stephens Wood had been home in Canton: Senate Transcripts, Wood nomination to SACB, from Mitchell F. Dolin, Covington and Burling, Oney Papers, Georgia Historical Society; Drew Pearson columns, May 18, 27, 1955; Wood Investigative File, HUAC Papers, National Archives; “Ex-Rep Wood Denies Ever Being in Klan,” Washington Post, June 21, 1954; interview with John Gollner.

  Frank Tavenner still maintained his rural domain: Account of John Peter Muhlenberg from Woodstock statue memorial; history of Shenandoah County papers at Woodstock Library.

  The date was August 18, 1955: Transcript of HUAC hearing witness Pete Seeger, HUAC files, National Archives.

  By the summer of 1955 we had been back in Detroit: Correspondence with Jean (Maraniss) Alexander and Jim Maraniss.

  The FBI visited the OSI office: EM FBI file, Jan. 1956 summary.

  Even as the Red-hunting fervor ebbed: Account of Arthur Miller and HUAC drawn from Arthur Miller Investigative Name File, HUAC Papers, 52, National Archives; Miller, Timebends, 389–94, 449–56. The Miller investigation came after the Youth Board of New York hired him to write the script for a film on juvenile delinquency. His hiring sparked protests by various conservative groups, including the Catholic War Veterans, and attracted the attention of HUAC investigators, who were looking for reasons to hold hearings on the theater world.

  Soon after the school year started: Letter from MM to David Maraniss, July 8, 1991. At the time my mother wrote this letter, I was interested in writing a novel loosely based on our year in Iowa and was conducting research for that inept and aborted attempt at fiction.

  If this was a new start for my father, it was a quixotic one: Account of EM and his colleagues at the Quint-City Labor’s Daily and Quint-City Special drawn from lengthy interviews with Al Maund at his apartment in New Orleans, Sept. 24–25, 1986; correspondence with Al Maund, Aug. 2, 30, 1986; correspondence with Dorothy Maund, Nov. 14, 1986; correspondence with Robert Meloon, Oct. 31, 1986; letter from EM to David Maraniss, Aug. 27, 1991; correspondence with Nigel Hampton, Nov. 4, 21, 1986; correspondence with and recollections of Jean (Maraniss) Alexander and Jim Maraniss; all copies of Quint-City Labor’s Daily and Quint-City Special from Maund Family Papers.

  But at least the FBI was no longer following us: EM FBI Papers, Oct. 17, 1958, summary report. The reports are so prosaic: “T-1 advised that Elliott Maraniss and his wife Mary Jane [she hated that middle name, and in fact had ditched it by then] and their four children had resided at 1443 Chandler Street in Madison for a little over a year until about the middle of September 1958, when they moved to another house on Regent Street in Madison. T-1 said that ELLIOTT MARANISS was employed as a reporter by the Capital Times, a Madison, Wisconsin, daily newspaper and he had evidently been quite successful in this position since he was assigned to the writing of feature stories and articles, on which his name appeared in the newspaper. T-1 advised that one of the assignments handled by ELLIOTT MARANISS was a series of articles on juvenile delinquency in the Madison area, and the informant said that Maraniss in this series, as well as in his other stories, appeared to be a competent reporter, who was objective and fair-minded in his attitude. . . . T-1 advised that no question had arisen concerning the loyalty of Mr. and Mrs. Maraniss since their arrival in Madison, and they appeared to be well regarded in the neighborhood in which they lived.”

  “Well, the wanderers are wandering again”: MM l
etter to Phil Cummins, June 22, 1957. Knowing her brother (and husband) loved sports, MM added, “You could say we’re following the Big Ten championship, but I doubt if Wisconsin will make it next year. Or you could say we’re doing personal research on the Midwest. In any case, we’re heading for Madison.”

  Epilogue: Second Acts

  If we had benefactors: William Evjue, born in 1882, was already a white-haired progressive legend when we reached Madison in 1957. He lived until 1970, but Miles McMillin, known as Mac, loomed larger during those years and was always supportive of our family. I know I would not have been hired by the Trenton (NJ) Times in 1977, when it was owned by the Washington Post, had Mac not written a winning letter about me to Richard Harwood, the Post editor who was brought up to Trenton to run that paper for a few years. I was covering Congress for the Post in 1982 when McMillin, suffering from terminal cancer, shot and killed himself and his wife, Elsie. Mac was retired by then, and he and Elsie were living at her family’s Bay Pond estate near Lake Placid, New York. Her family happened to be the Rockefellers; she was the daughter of a grandson of the original William Rockefeller. Before marrying McMillin, Elsie had been married for a decade to William Proxmire, the Democratic senator from Wisconsin. I was in the well of the Senate at the U.S. Capitol talking to Proxmire the day the shootings happened.

  When my brother spent a college summer writing: Jim Maraniss told this story at our father’s memorial service. Horribly enough, there were at least two generations of Winkie the elephants who killed young children by slipping their trunks through the iron grills of the cage. Vilas no longer has elephants.

  For the most part . . . the judged and their defenders survived: After retiring from the Capital Times in 1983, EM spent a few years in Milwaukee working as a senior adviser to Mayor Henry Meier and often accompanied Meier to U.S. Conference of Mayors conventions. Coleman Young was the mayor of Detroit during that period, and I can only wonder in retrospect whether he and EM ever met and acknowledged their past experiences in Room 740.