Hollywood double agent The true tale of Boris Morros, film producer turned Cold War spy
Book - 2020
"The Cold War and the Golden Age of Hollywood meet in this story of the remarkable career of Boris Morros, film producer and Russian double agent. Boris Morros was a major figure in the 1930s and '40s. The head of music at Paramount, nominated for Academy Awards, he then went on to produce his own films with Laurel and Hardy, Fred Astaire, Henry Fonda, and others. But as J. Edgar Hoover would discover, these successes were a cover for one of the most incredible espionage tales in the history of the Cold War-Boris Morros also worked for Russian intelligence. Morros's assignments took him to the White House, the Vatican, and deep behind the iron curtain. The high-level intel he provided the KGB included military secrets and com...promising information on prominent Americans: his friends. But in 1947, Morros flipped. At the height of the McCarthy era, he played a leading role in a deadly tale. Jonathan Gill's 'Hollywood Double Agent' is an extraordinary story about Russian spies at the heart of American culture and politics, and one man caught in the middle of the Cold War"--
- Subjects
- Genres
- Biographies
- Published
-
New York :
Abrams Press
2020.
- Language
- English
- Main Author
- Physical Description
- xi, 323 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 23 cm
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-314) and index.
- ISBN
- 9781419740091
- Prologue: Endgame, January 20, 1957
- Part I.
- Chapter 1. Enter Boris, 1891-1914
- Chapter 2. Broken Chords, 1914-22
- Chapter 3. The Golden Land, 1922-25
- Chapter 4. The Entertainer, 1925-33
- Chapter 5. Cover Stories, 1933-34
- Chapter 6. Paradise and its Discontents, 1934-35
- Chapter 7. Gateway to Hollywood, 1935-36
- Chapter 8. A Double Life, 1936-38
- Chapter 9. Declaring Independence, 1938-42
- Chapter 10. Turnabout, 1942-43
- Chapter 11. Chord and Discord, 1943-44
- Chapter 12. Spook's Ball, 1944-45
- Chapter 13. Getting To Carnegie Hall, 1945-47
- Part II.
- Chapter 14. Double or Nothing, 1947
- Chapter 15. Boris Loves Money! 1947-48
- Chapter 16. Pontifex Maximus, 1948-49
- Chapter 17. Inside the Temple, 1949
- Chapter 18. Believing in Tears, 1949-50
- Chapter 19. My Own FBI, 1950-51
- Chapter 20. Atomic Bonds, 1951-52
- Chapter 21. In Chains, 1952-54
- Chapter 22. The Agent in Black, 1954-55
- Chapter 23. A Cooked Goose, 1955-57
- Chapter 24. Above the Fold, 1957-63
- Notes on Sources
- Index
Review by Kirkus Book Review