Angela Calomiris
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Angela Calomiris (August 1, 1916 – January 30, 1995) was an American photographer who became a secret
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
informant within the
American Communist Party The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
(CPUSA) under the name Angela Cole. Calomiris spent seven years undercover in the party from February 1942 until April 26, 1949, when she was called to testify in the trial of eleven CPUSA leaders, who were convicted of conspiracy to advocate the overthrow of the US government on October 13, 1949.


Background

The daughter of Greek immigrants, Calomiris was born in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on August 1, 1916, and grew up on the
Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...
of Manhattan. Her father was a
furrier Fur clothing is clothing made from the preserved skins of mammals. Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing, and is thought to have been widely used by people for at least 120,000 years. The term 'fur' is often used to refer to a specific i ...
, who lost his job during the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
and was forced to support his family through menial labor. Calomiris attended
Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...
and
Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
of the
City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
for two years, and decided to become a professional photographer, having fallen in love with photography as a child.


Career

After her studies, Calomiris took up residence in
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
and "instead of buying food, she saved money to buy a camera". She worked for Broadway photographer Hal Phyfe and also joined the
Photo League The Photo League was a cooperative of photographers in New York who banded together around a range of common social and creative causes. Founded in 1936, the League included some of the most noted American photographers of the mid-20th century amon ...
, a group of amateur photographic enthusiasts, which included a number of
communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...
among its members.
Sid Grossman Sid Grossman (June 25, 1913 in Manhattan – December 31, 1955 in Provincetown) was an American photographer, teacher, and social activist. Life Sid Grossman was the younger son of Morris and Ethel Grossman. He attended the City College of ...
, director of the Photo League's school, recruited her; Leona Saron was the Party operative to whom she first reported.


FBI Informant

In February 1942, Calomiris was approached by two FBI agents, who asked her if she would be willing to infiltrate the CPUSA as an informant. The agents told her that she would receive neither money nor glory for her work, and that she would be disavowed if discovered, possibly putting her in personal danger, but Calomiris accepted their offer anyway after a week of deliberation. In the end she was well paid and earned a respectable pay check despite claims to the contrary. When asked about her decision in 1950, Calomiris told ''
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'' that she accepted the offer because she "kind of wanted to be a hero." Her FBI handlers advised her to "never act conspiratorially or try to pry into party secrets", but rather to simply gather and report whatever information came her way. A few weeks after meeting with the FBI, Calomiris attended a lecture about Soviet efforts in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, where she was recruited by communist organizers. She then agreed to join the party, but was advised by her communist recruiters that she should take an assumed name for security reasons and chose the name Angela Cole. Calomiris then rose quickly through the ranks of the party by volunteering for jobs that no one else wanted to do.Mahoney, p. 39 Over her time in the party, she served as educational director, branch organizer, and co-section organizer of the West Midtown Branch of the CPUSA, before rising to the position of finance secretary. As finance secretary, Calomiris had access to extensive information on party members, including the real names of all members of the branch and the leaders of the national party, and passed all of this information to the FBI. Throughout the time that Calomiris served as an informant, she supported herself as a professional photographer, specializing in animal photographs, but the FBI also paid her a salary (a fact which Calomiris later denied) and covered her expenses, including Communist Party dues.


Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders

During World War II, the
US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
avoided prosecuting American communists, to avoid antagonizing the Soviet Union, then a military ally. After the end of the war, they began compiling a case against the leadership of the CPUSA, using evidence from informants, including Calomiris. John McGohey, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was given the lead role in prosecuting the cases and, under the
Smith Act The Alien Registration Act, popularly known as the Smith Act, 76th United States Congress, 3d session, ch. 439, , is a United States federal statute that was enacted on June 28, 1940. It set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of th ...
, presented charges against twelve communist leaders on July 20, 1948. The defendants were then indicted by a grand jury and arrested. After the arrests, Calomiris remained undercover, and continued her activities within the Party. When the trial of the communist leaders began in January, she travelled to Washington, D.C., to join a protest against the prosecutions. She also donated $50 in government money to the legal defense fund for the defendants, and was asked to help plan their legal strategy, but refused. During the trial, the prosecution decided to use Calomiris as a surprise witness and on April 26, she "stunned" the defendants by taking the stand for the prosecution. In her testimony, Calomiris identified four of the defendants, John Williamson,
Benjamin J. Davis Benjamin Jefferson Davis Jr. (September 8, 1903 – August 22, 1964), was an African-American lawyer and w:communist, communist who was elected in 1943 to the New York City Council, representing Harlem. He faced increasing opposition from outsi ...
,
Robert G. Thompson Robert George Thompson (June 21, 1915 – October 16, 1965) was a distinguished US soldier who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (United States) during World War II but was later jailed for several years for his communist sympathie ...
, and Gil Green as members of the Communist Party and provided information on its organization. She also testified that the Party espoused violent revolution against the government and that the Party had attempted to recruit members working in key war industries, on instructions from Moscow. Calomiris was then cross-examined so harshly by the defense, that the presiding judge
Harold Medina Harold Raymond Medina (February 16, 1888 – March 14, 1990) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for ...
rebuked the defense attorney, but the questioning "failed to shake her testimony." Around the time of the trial, Calomiris also began dating Myrtis Johnson, the sister-in-law of her FBI handler, Ken Bierly, a fact that attracted attention from the media.


Celebrity after the trial

The defendants in the Foley Square trial were convicted on October 13, 1949, and Calomiris became a minor celebrity as the result of her role in the proceedings. She capitalized on the fame by writing an autobiography, ''Red Masquerade: Undercover for the FBI'', which was published by Lippincott in 1950. George Scharsburg of the ''
Chicago Daily Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are ...
'' wrote that the book was "well worth reading" and A.H. Raskin of ''The New York Times'' praised it for being "as interesting for its insight into the problems that best a Government 'plant' in the party as it is for the light it throws on the jealousies, personal intrigues and divisions that exist behind the party's monolithic facade", but Richard Donnelly criticized the book in ''
The Yale Law Journal The ''Yale Law Journal'' (YLJ), known also as the ''Yale Law Review'', is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students ...
'' for being "rather pretentious". After the publication of her book, Calomiris went on a number of talk radio shows, appearing most notably on former first lady
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
's show on
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, ''Today with Mrs. Roosevelt'', where Roosevelt praised Calomiris as "a young lady of great courage."Davis, p. 623 During the same period, Calomiris continued to work with the FBI, providing information on a communist lesbian policewoman named Yetta Cohn, which resulted in the firing of Cohn and another woman.


Later life

Calomiris's celebrity status soon began to evaporate, and a number of potential television and movie projects fell through as did offers of a photography job. Around the same time, Calomiris broke up with Myrtis Johnson, and fell out with many of her friends in the New York lesbian community, who disapproved of her decision to give the FBI information on Cohn. Calomiris then left New York, opening a
bed and breakfast Bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. Bed and breakfasts are often private family homes and typically have between four and eleven rooms, wit ...
in
Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...
, in the 1960s. Arriving at the start of Provincetown's transition from fishing village to seaside resort, Calomiris bought a number of prime properties, including the rooming house at 353 Commercial St. that she named Angels' Landing, which still exists today, memorializing the FBI spy.


Death

Calomiris died on January 30, 1995, in
San Miguel de Allende San Miguel de Allende () is the principal city in the municipality of San Miguel de Allende, located in the far eastern part of Guanajuato, Mexico. A part of the Bajío region, the city lies from Mexico City, 86 km (53 mi) from Queré ...
,
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.


Legacy

Exhibitions of Calomiris' work include: *November 4, 2011 - March 25, 2012 "The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League, 1936-1951" at
Jewish Museum (New York) The Jewish Museum is an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in the former Felix M. Warburg House, along Museum Mile on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The first Jewish museum in the Unite ...
*March 19 - May 9, 200
"The Women of the Photo League"
at Higher Pictures Gallery, New York City In 2008, Veronica Wilson published "Red Masquerades: Gender and Political Subversion during the Cold War, 1945-1963," as her PhD Dissertation at
Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
. In 2009,
SUNY New Paltz The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz or New Paltz) is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an ac ...
theater professor John Wade wrote a play ''Red Masquerade'', directed by Stephen Kitsakos.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calomiris, Angela Photographers from New York City Federal Bureau of Investigation informants American communists of the Stalin era American people of Greek descent American women photographers American LGBT photographers 1916 births 1995 deaths Lesbian photographers Members of the Communist Party USA Brooklyn College alumni American lesbian artists