When Julia Child was a Spy...

[liz_marcs]

I seem to recall that it was an "open secret" in the Boston area that Julia Child, one of the first mega-celebrity cooks in America, during World War II worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was the forerunner of today's CIA.

Today those records of Child's work with the OSS are going to be released by The National Archives.

Also on the list of OSS personnel who went on to become famous (or were already related to famous people when they joined): Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg; major league catcher Moe Berg; historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr.; film actor Sterling Hayden; John Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway; Kermit Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt; and Miles Copeland Jr., father of Stewart Copeland.

More than 35,000 documents associated with OSS personnel files are scheduled to be released today via The National Archive.

History lovers, start your engines!

Comments

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

It might've been known in your area but I had no idea... I'm now filled with this "the world just got a little more awesome" feeling. :)

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

See? When it made a huge splash on Boston.com today, I was like, "Wait! I thought everyone knew that Julia Child worked for the OSS during World War II." No one knew what she did, exactly, but it seems everyone kind of knew it.

And I can't even remember who that information even got out. It was just kind of known.

Anyway, glad I could make your day a little more awesome...

[szandara.livejournal.com]

It's not widely known, but it has never been a secret, it was in her biography. The story up to now has been that she was doing clerical work for them; she was stationed in their office in Cyprus, and it's where she met her husband. It would be interesting to find out that she did some field work, or was more than a secretary.

I actually met JC a few times; a friend of mine was her assistant for the last 16 or so years of her life, and I've eaten at her house in Cambridge, which is now on the market for something like $4.7 million.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

And now you can find out! :-)

Heeee! The linked article has a couple of tidbits about what's in Julia's file, although all signs point to her being just what she said she was...a file clerk.

And thank you for telling me how it because known she was in the OSS. The AP article played up the Julia Child angle like it was so all-fired unbelievable, yet I knew she had served in the OSS so it wasn't like it was a total state secret. Of course, it would've either come out in her biography or in a newspaper interview. *smacks head like duh!*

[dawnmipb.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall that it was an "open secret" in the Boston area that Julia Child, one of the first mega-celebrity cooks in America, during World War II worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was the forerunner of today's CIA.

You know, when I read the big reveal on Yahoo! yesterday, I thought, "Huh? Who didn't know this?" Because she's talked about it in many, many articles, memoirs and even cookbooks. She's never, to my knowledge, discussed what it was she actually did, but she's told how she got the job and she said it was mostly clerical on her part, very little derring do.

All the same, pretty damn awesome!

[sam-arkand.livejournal.com]

I've known about this for some while. It is one of those celebrity fun facts that settles in the random trivia section of your brain. Even it is was "just clerical", her service was no less important than a field operative. Intelligence and espionage agencies are largely composed of staff whose job it is to shuffle, collate, and analyse the raw material sent in by field assets.

Now that I think about it, kinda resembles the Watcher's Council...

Another fun fact: Dr. Ruth Westheimer was a trained as a scout-sniper for the Hagannah, the Independence-War period Israeli army. She says she never took a life. However, the good doctor can still apparently field strip a Sten submachinegun blindfolded.

[rubywisp.livejournal.com]

i never paid much attention to julia child before, so i didn't know. i was glued to the tv this morning when they were talking about it.

[bastardsnow.livejournal.com]

Btw, did you get my msg? =)

[iyalode.livejournal.com]

I pretty much have no clue who she is.

HOWEVER, the history geek in me in sort of squeeing all over the place. No doubt I'll be bookmarking the links with London's Old Bailey records (which are made of win).

Thank you for this.

And dang it. I still have to finish reading your latest Xander/Faith fic Roll on weekend.