FBI Informant
In the 1940s, there was little work for women, and Calomiris struggled to find a job as a photographer.1 In 1942 at the age of twenty-five, Calomiris was recruited by the FBI to work as an informant in the New York Photo League.2 How she was recruited is unknown. Lisa E. Davis has suggested that Calomiris applied for the position, whereas many of Calomiris’ acquaintances speculate she was blackmailed.3
Her task was to report Communist Party activity in relation to the League. In her autobiography, Red Masquerade (1950), Calomiris often compared her FBI work to a war service job.4 Because of Calomiris’ work for the FBI, she was able to sustain a level of social and economic independence that was unusual for unmarried women at the time.
Smith Act Trial Testimony
In 1949, Calomiris was paid by the US Government to testify in the Smith Act Trials. She was the only woman to testify. As a result of the evidence presented by Calomiris, four of the defendants in the trial were confirmed as members of the Communist Party. The four men she identified– Benjamin J. Davis, Gil Green, Robert G. Thompson, and John Williamson– were all charged and eventually sent to prison.
Calomiris made many enemies as a result of her testimony. Dislike of Calomiris was expressed visually by artists like Alice Neel, who illustrated Calomiris during the trial. The line drawing clearly conveys Neels’ discontent and despise of Calomiris, likely made to circulate within the artist community.
Post-trial Reception
After the trial, Calomiris was very well received in newspapers and magazine features. Calomiris also received dozens of letters thanking her for her service.
Coupled with her positive public reception, Calomiris received letters of hate, some threatening her life. Calomiris submitted one death threat she received to the FBI for investigation with a request for police protection, though the FBI initially believed she had fabricated the letter for media attention.
Well Hello You Rat, I have no use for a Rat I Don’t let them live long I get you tonight maybe tomorrow or a year from now I’ll have you in my Hands sooner or later so look out Baby. The FBI is not going to protect you everywhere you go. Death will come sooner than you think I’ll hone my eyes on you from now on. I’m getting paid for this and I always Do what I get paid for. Death Death will come soon. You might get shot by some passing care or be found in the River, you are in Danger Baby so look out you not going to live long. Look out Death look out Notice.
- Calomiris, Red Masquerade, 23. ↩
- See Red Masquerade and Calomiris’ Resume at the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. ↩
- On page 77 of Davis’ Undercover Girl, she explains: “In fact, some members believed that Angela’s sexual orientation played a part in her collaboration with the FBI. Dr. Annette Rubinstein, former New York City educator and author, immediately assumed that Angela had been blackmailed, forced to spy on the Party and to testify in the trial. Likewise, the wife of Angela’s photography instructor, Sid Grossman— whose name Angela had offered up from the witness stand as a Communist and her Party recruiter— did not doubt that Angela had been blackmailed.” ↩
- On page 30 of Red Masquerade, Calomiris explains, “I wanted to do my share in the war. I didn’t want to profit personally or even professionally by it. If I had been a man it would have been simple. I would have enlisted without waiting for the draft.” ↩