By Susan Elia MacNeal | Contributing Author
Los Angeles may look to be all blue skies, palm bushes, ocean spray, orange groves, and film stars, however there was (and nonetheless is) an underbelly of American Nazis dwelling and thriving within the sunshine. Within the Nineteen Thirties and Forties, Southern California had its share of extraordinary of us — who additionally simply occurred to be members of teams like German American Bund, America First, the Silver Shirts, the Copperheads, and the Ku Klux Klan — all devoted to a fascist takeover of the USA. They have been your neighbors, shopkeepers, lecturers, and cops — and all in plain sight.
My journey with the historical past of Nazism in America begins on the Hollywood Bowl in September 2017, when my husband, a Jim Henson Firm puppeteer, was performing as Sweetums in “The Muppets Take the Hollywood Bowl.” On the time, neither of us had any concept that the Hollywood Bowl had been used for aviator and Nazi political darling Charles Lindbergh’s rally on June 20, 1941 — railing in opposition to intervening in Hitler’s takeover of Europe and the East. Nevertheless it was, and at LAX, on the best way again to New York Metropolis, my husband picked up a duplicate of Steven Ross’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated e book “Hitler in Los Angeles,” which particulars the historical past of the rise of Nazism in Southern California — together with the America First rally on the Hollywood Bowl — as a present for me.
Sounds loopy, proper? (Additionally: Have been there no Dodger T-shirts? Was the See’s Candies kiosk closed?) However for me, a historic novelist writing about World Conflict II, the e book was the right reward: the catalyst for writing two books. The primary, “The Hollywood Spy,” was a part of my Maggie Hope collection. However haunted by parallels to the rise of authoritarianism and White supremacy within the U.S. as we speak, I used to be unable to let the thought of the Los Angeles Nazis go. Supported by my agent and publishing firm, I launched into writing my first stand-alone novel, a couple of real-life mom and daughter workforce, Grace and Silvia Consolation, who went undercover in L.A. in 1940, to infiltrate harmful Nazi organizations. I beloved the thought of two extraordinary ladies committing to do such a unprecedented factor. How did a mom and daughter resolve to embark on infiltrating Nazi cells? What was it like? What have been the challenges, the payoffs? What was their day-to-day life like?
The entrance plate of Ross’s e book has a splendidly detailed map of each Nazi and anti-Nazi websites in Los Angeles, which I referred to consistently as I started writing. Regardless of spending important time in L.A. through the years (on varied Muppet-related journeys), I’d by no means heard of those native locations’ historical past of Naziism and White supremacy — and the spymasters and secret brokers who fought in opposition to them. I took two analysis journeys to Los Angeles, particularly to go to lots of the locations my characters lived and labored, many locations I’d visited, however now with Ross’s e book and its revelations in thoughts.
I used to be in a position to go to the hovering atrium of the workplace of Leon Lewis, a reserved lawyer and the hero of Ross’s “Hitler in Los Angeles.” Lewis labored in Naval Intelligence through the First World Conflict, settled in L.A., and helped discovered the Anti-Defamation League. The Nazis (each German and American) referred to as him “essentially the most harmful Jew in Los Angeles.” He based a spy group, because the LAPD and FBI have been too targeted on the Communist menace to be bothered with fascists. Along with his spies, together with Sylvia and Grace Consolation, Lewis stopped Joseph Goebbels’s intense efforts to unfold Nazi ideology in the USA, uncovered fifth column saboteurs contained in the Douglas plane plant amongst others, and thwarted the plotted lynchings of outstanding outspoken anti-Nazis, equivalent to Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Charlie Chaplin, Samuel Goldwyn, and Louis B. Mayer, amongst others.
I used to be in a position to go to Leon Lewis’s workplace on the Roosevelt constructing downtown (now house to luxurious condos), in addition to the big Trinity Auditorium (then a part of the Embassy Resort), house of Nazi rallies and a theatrical trial to “impeach” President Roosevelt. Dusty La Crescenta (previously Hindenburg) Park was the positioning of Nazi picnics, drills, and rallies. I additionally paid a go to to the now-destroyed websites of Deutsches Haus, the Continental Theater, and the spot the place Lewis and his journalist companion Joseph Roos ran the Information Analysis Service, a propaganda arm of their combat in opposition to Nazism. It’s now nameless trendy places of work, condos, and parking tons.
As a result of I used to be writing a novel, I additionally imagined the place my characters would go and went there as properly. I visited Canter’s Deli — each the previous Boyle Heights location, for the historical past, and in addition the later incarnation, on Fairfax, for the matzo-ball soup (which was scrumptious, by the best way). I went to Cole’s for his or her well-known French dip sandwiches and had cocktails on the bar of the Biltmore Resort. I attempted to view Los Angeles from the commentary deck of Metropolis Corridor as my characters do, however alas, it was closed because of COVID. I additionally visited different landmarks of Forties Los Angeles: the Georgian Resort, Angels Flight, the Gaylord Flats, and the stays of the Murphy Ranch.
The Murphy Ranch, should you don’t know — I didn’t and not one of the Angelenos I spoke to did both — was a fancy being constructed within the Santa Monica Mountains’ Rustic Canyon within the late ’30s and early ’40s as a base for Nazi sympathizers and American anti-interventionist actions. It was self-sustaining, with its personal water tank, farms, gas tank, bomb shelter, and bunker, plus plans for 22 bedrooms and assembly rooms. Murphy Ranch, commissioned by Silver Shirts Winona and Norman Stephens, was additionally envisioned as finally a compound and headquarters for Hitler in Los Angeles. Sure, it sounds loopy, however sure, it’s true. Murphy Ranch was constructed because the place for Hitler to remain and obtain American Nazi and Japanese dignitaries after profitable the conflict.
The LAPD and FBI (lastly satisfied of the U.S. Nazi menace) took the Murphy Ranch over on Monday, December 8, 1941 — the day after Japan’s assault on Pearl Harbor. They arrested over 50 members and the positioning was left deserted. It’s nonetheless straightforward sufficient to hike to the ranch within the Pacific Palisades (should you don’t thoughts steps). Not a lot is left: simply essentially the most primary of concrete constructions, now lined in colourful spray-painted graffiti. It stays a sobering reminder of these Angelenos — these People — who selected fascism and Nazism over democracy.
Susan Elia MacNeal is the New York Occasions bestselling writer of the Maggie Hope mysteries. MacNeal received the Barry Award and has been nominated for the Edgar, Macavity, Agatha, Left Coast Crime, Dilys, and ITW Thriller awards. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, along with her husband and son. “Mom Daughter Traitor Spy” is her first standalone novel.