My grandmother, the spy

Spy Story #2: A job for the willing

How do you become a Communist? 

The answer to this question depends a great deal on time, place, and the nature of your character. 

In 1931, my grandmother Majorie Tilley spends the summer before her senior year at Vassar College in New York. Though it hasn’t yet been so christened, the United States (and the world) are weathering the rising tide of the Great Depression. Marjorie’s dreams of becoming a worldly and independent working woman are increasingly threatened by the economic calamity taking place around her.

But her beau has an idea. 

Robert “Gordon” Switz had been courting Marjorie for months. A daring and dashing young man seven years her senior, he persuades Marjorie to enroll in a summer course in the New York Workers School, a covert ideological training ground for the Communist Party of the United States. With her Seven Sisters education, Marjorie likely finds the substance of the conversation elementary but the fundamental ideas compelling. The child of working class parents who divorced when she was five, she feels the collateral damage of the tsunami of inequality that has swept away her hopeful future. Marjorie yearns to put her quick wits and high-brow education to the test. 

One conversation between them that summer would change both their lives.

“Don’t be foolish,” Gordon gibes, “What future is there for you here?”

“I’ll find work–” Marjorie insists, feigning confidence.

“Where? In your mother’s boarding house?” Gordon responds, his emphasis an unspoken reminder that staying in New York will likely make her a housekeeper, just like her mother. 

“No…I have skills!” Marjorie retorts.

Gordon switches gears seamlessly.

“Yes, you do, my dear. Which is exactly why I need you with me in Europe,” he replies. “I think the Communists are really onto something. We could really do something about the terrible economic situation we’re in here.” 

“And what exactly will I do on this little journey?” she wonders aloud, still not entirely clear on the details of the proposed mission. 

“You’ll be my photographer–and my assistant!” Gordon pauses for dramatic effect before sweeping Marjorie, who is almost a full foot shorter than he, off her feet, swinging her into a deep dip over one knee. “And my wife–” 

His proposal hangs in the air, simultaneously nonchalant and dramatic. Marjorie searches his face to understand what he means. This is not the first time Gordon has suggested he and Marjorie could one day marry, but this time he seems to be asking. Marjorie pushes his arms away, and finds her balance.

“That’s quite a … proposal,” she says, carefully.

“You’ll think about it?” he says, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. 

Marjorie offers a forced smile.

“See you tomorrow!” he says with a wink and a wave as he turns, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

With a World War and more than seven decades of Red Scare history between then and now, it’s hard to imagine this argument persuading anyone. But the Roaring Twenties had made the rich richer and the poor poorer. The collapse of the global economy and the absence of a reliable social safety net to save the less fortunate from its fallout leaves many looking for a convincing alternative to capitalism. Communism’s idealistic alternative that everyone could share in collective gain and well-being would have been a compelling notion, not unlike the growing popularity of the Democratic Socialists in the 2010s. (Joseph Stalin, still embroiled in domestic political troubles in Russia, hadn’t yet made Big-C “Communism” world famous.)

While Marjorie dreamed of independence, she knew her current reality offered anything but. It would have been hard to deny that her life in New York was more than a dead end. Perhaps she could find work as a typist in an office somewhere. But the truth is, her mother—a housekeeper in a boarding house—has been struggling with mental illness and Marjorie would likely wind up taking on a growing share of her mother’s housekeeping duties—terribly dull. She knows she can do better than that. Incredibly smart with a nearly photographic memory for places, people, and events, Marjorie may have had some suspicion of what the proposed trip to Europe would entail, but she had no concrete knowledge of the real-life implications of accepting Gordon’s offer. Still, she likely thought, better to marry Gordon and risk her odds on this unknown adventure than to stay stuck where she is with no prospects. 

Gordon for his part would have played his hand carefully. With only a high school education, he had learned how to pass himself off as anyone, anywhere (a helpful talent for a spy) and knew how to use his charm to influence people. He had already been part of a few local operations directed by Communist operatives in New York, giving him a clearer understanding of what lay ahead. He also likely knew the European mission would be higher stakes with direction coming directly from Moscow. Yet, for the mission to succeed Gordon, would need a wife, someone who could provide both cover and support while also helpfully obscuring other parts of his past and present he would prefer to keep hidden. 

It’s not clear exactly when such a proposal might have taken place but when Marjorie graduated from Vassar the following spring, she and Gordon moved in together in the West Village in New York City, their romance seeming to progress in earnest. Marjorie was aware Gordon was active in local operations but never privy to the details. Under the pretense of preparing for a future assignment, Gordon began training Marjorie in photographic techniques including how to operate a camera and process film to capture documents on microfiche.

The Communists had assigned Gordon to an operation in England but when he insisted that Marjorie accompany him on the mission, his handlers resist. Gordon, temperamental and unpredictable, flies into a rage, threatening to abandon the mission. It is Marjorie, at the behest of the party officials in New York, who persuades Gordon to come back down to earth to see it through. Seeing her ability to manage his volatile nature, the officials agree Marjorie should accompany Gordon on his European mission. 

Gordon and Marjorie are married on May 9, 1933 and sail for England a week later. 

Gordon has successfully secured a prize wife (and a skilled photographer) while Marjorie has l escaped the limited professional options available to her at home. As they set sail from Hoboken, Marjorie gazes out the window of her 2nd class steamer accommodations trying to imagine what awaits her on the other side of the ocean. At 21, she is naive and hopeful, blind to the travails that lie ahead. Her world is both uncertain and wide open, like just about anything could happen next.