William Dudley Pelley Read online

  William Dudley Pelley

  A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult

  SCOTT BEEKMAN

  The first full-length biography of an important figure in the development of right-wing extremism in the United States, called by some detractors the "Star-Spangled Fascist."

  WILLIAM DUDLEY PELLEY was one of the most important figures of the anti-Semitic radical right in the twentieth century. Best remembered as the leader of the paramilitary Silver Shirts, Pelley was also an award-winning short story writer, Hollywood screenwriter, and religious leader. During the Depression Pelley was a notorious presence in American politics. He ran for president on a platform calling for the ghettoization of American Jews and in 1942 was a defendant in a headline-grabbing sedition trial thanks to his unwavering support of Nazi Germany.

  Scott Beekman offers not only a political but also an intellectual and literary biography of Pelley, greatly advancing our understanding of a figure often dismissed as a madman or charlatan. His belief system, composed of anti-Semitism, economic nostrums, racialism, neo-Theosophical channeling, and millenarian Christianity, anticipates the eclecticism of later cult personalities such as Shoko Asahara, leader of Aum Shinrikyo, and the British conspiracy theorist David Icke.

  By charting the course of Pelley's career, Beekman does an admirable job of placing Pelley within the history of both the anti-Semitic right and American occult movements. This exhaustively researched book is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship on American extremism and esoteric religions.

  Front: From William Dudley Pelley's autobiography,

  The Door to Revelation, Pelley Publishers, 1939.

  WILLIAM DUDLEY PELLEY

  Religion and Politics

  Michael Barkun, Series Editor

  William Dudley Pelley

  "Far and wide across the nation, in the opening months of 1933, went the high tocsin to America's Christian patriots to form the Legion of the Silvershirts!"

  —from The Door to Revelation

  WILLIAM DUDLEY PELLEY

  A LIFE IN RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM AND THE OCCULT

  Scott Beekman

  SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY PRESS

  Copyright © 2005 by Syracuse University Press

  Syracuse, New York, 13244–5160

  All Rights Reserved

  First Edition 2005

  05 06 07 08 09 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Frontispiece: William Dudley Pelley. From his autobiography, The Door to Revelation (Pelley Publishers, 1939).

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Beekman, Scott.

  William Dudley Pelley : a life in right-wing extremism and the occult / Scott.—1st ed.

  p. cm.—(Religion and politics)

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 0–8156–0819–5 (hardcover : alk. paper)

  1. Pelley, William Dudley, 1890– . 2. Authors, American—20th century—Biography. 3. Political activists—United States—Biography. 4. Antisemitism—United States— History—20th century. 5. Politics and literature—United States—History—20th century. 6. Cults—United States—History—20th century. 7. Silver Shirts of America (Organization) I. Title. II. Series.

  PS3531.E32Z56 2005

  818'.5209—dc22

  [B]

  2005015040

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  Dedicated to the memory of Lucile May Beekman

  SCOTT BEEKMAN is visiting assistant professor of history at Ohio University. He lives in Athens, Ohio, with his wife, historian Kimberly K. Little, and son, Miller.

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction

  1.Early Years: 1890–1915

  2.Paris and Asia: 1916–1919

  3.Hollywood: 1920–1927

  4.Seven Minutes in Eternity: 1928–1929

  5.Liberation: 1930–1932

  6.Silver Shirts: 1933

  7.Extremists: 1934

  8.Tribulation: 1934–1936

  9.Silver Shirts Redux: 1937–1939

  10.Sedition: 1940–1949

  11.Soulcraft: 1950–1965

  Epilogue

  Notes

  Bibliography

  Acknowledgments

  A STUDY OF THIS NATURE is only possible through the generous assistance of librarians and archivists—and I have benefited from the expertise of many. I owe special debts of thanks to Kim Kumber of the North Carolina State Archives, Ann Wright of the Asheville (N.C.) Pack Memorial Library, Nancy Massey of the Noblesville (Ind.) Southeastern Library, Tim Blevins of the Pikes Peak Library District, and all the friendly folks at the Indiana University Government Records Archive. The interlibrary loan staff at Ohio University's Alden Library tracked down obscure materials for me too many times to mention.

  I also garnered assistance from individuals with a personal interests in William Dudley Pelley. Independent Pelley scholar Vance Pollock provided invaluable information pertaining to Pelley's publications and life. Toward the end of this project I made contact with members of Pelley's family, who offered personal insights about the man. I am especially indebted to Pelley's daughter, Adelaide Pearson, and her husband, Melford. While I suspect Mr. Pearson will disagree with many of my views on his father-in-law, I sincerely hope he will at least find that I have portrayed Pelley's beliefs accurately and fairly.

  This study had its origins in a discussion that arose during Charles C. Alexander's colloquium on the 1930s at Ohio University. From the outset, Dr. Alexander has guided this project with insight, patience, and constructive criticism. This work has been greatly improved by the suggestions offered by Katherine Jellison, Norman Goda, Richard Vedder, Michael Barkun, and John Werly. Mary Selden Evans and Glenn Wright of Syracuse University Press have been both sympathetic and a calming influence on this oft-nervous writer.

  Ohio University has been my home for many years now, and my time here has been very pleasurable thanks to the assistance of numerous Athenians. History Department secretaries Sherry Gillogly and Kathy Cooper led me through the labyrinth of forms, guidelines, and minor headaches endemic to the academic world. My fellow graduate students have created a network of support and friendship in Athens. I owe special debts of gratitude to the League of Athens Poker Players (LAPP), the Memphis Mafia, the Pike County Players, and all the long-gone attendees of Farrell-Fest.

  Finally, I wish to thank my family. My parents have provided support of all kinds during my work on this manuscript. My wife, Kimberly K. Little, tirelessly aided my research (particularly during a rather trying year spent with the ladies of Tutor Time) and patiently listened to my frequently rambling discourses about Bill Pelley; she deserves a coauthor credit on this book. And, as always, this work is for Miller.

  Introduction

  IN A 1994 American Historical Review symposium, Leo Ribuffo posed the question, "Why is there so much conservatism in the United States, and why do so few historians know anything about it?" Ribuffo not only assailed historians who failed to discern the presence of a conservative movement in American history but also issued a clarion call for future research on the political and ideological right. Since Ribuffo made his challenge, a small coterie of historians has begun exploring not only conservatism but also right-wing extremism. Thanks to the pioneering work of Glen Jeansonne, Michael Barkun, and Jeffrey Kaplan, the farther shores of politics are being mapped. This study attempts to add to the burgeoning body of literature on right-wing extremism by detailing the career of William Dudley Pelley.1

  During the 1930s the American extreme right achieved a level of popular success it has never again reached. Distraught by the Depression's massive economic dislocation and increasingly cynical over t
he inability of the existing two-party system to address the nation's ills, a significant portion of the American people sought answers to their woes in the utopian visions of radical politics. While American historians have focused their attentions on the Popular Front aspects of the "Red decade," the extreme right also attracted large numbers of Americans who believed some form of authoritarianism could answer the country's problems. A meaningful percentage of these right-leaning Americans looked to William Dudley Pelley for guidance.

  Pelley's career as an agitator during the Depression era represents one of the more successful efforts in American history to create a paramilitary, anti-Semitic political organization. His Silver Legion of America, at its peak, boasted several thousand members, and Pelley garnered attention in the national media as one of America's leading "star-spangled fascists." Pelley, then, was a significant player in the extreme right of the period. By outlining his career, I hope to document his beliefs and to place Pelley within the context of this vibrant, extremist world. This study, the first full-length biography of Pelley, is intended to add to the prior works of Ribuffo, Jeansonne, and Francis MacDonnell and to help further scholarly understanding of 1930s extremism.

  As these authors have noted, the extreme right attracted support throughout the decade, which propelled a backlash, the so-called "brown scare," as the United States geared up to enter World War II. Pelley, as one of the leaders of the radical right, helped create the loosely knit network of extremist organizations that peaked during the mid-1930s, and he became a martyr for the cause as a result of his 1942 sedition conviction. His story is an excellent case study of the rise and fall of the Depression-era right.

  Pelley also proved to be a literate and prolific writer in a world of badly typed screeds and cheaply produced, emotionally driven extremist newsletters. The Silver Shirt chief spent the first half of his life as a journalist, fiction writer, and screenwriter during Hollywood's wildcat era of the early 1920s. His experience in the literary world gave Pelley a unique perspective on the published products of right-wing writers. Pelley took great care in producing books and magazines that were professionally designed and edited. As an obsessively prolific author, Pelley also issued an enormous quantity of materials to promote his views. Lawrence Dennis may have been the theoretician of American fascism, but Pelley was its Elbert Hubbard.

  Pelley was also far more than a simple, authoritarian anti-Semite. He buttressed his attacks on "Jewish-Communism" and the New Deal with a Christian millennialism developed from his own spiritualist-Theosophical eschatology. Pelley's religious system, known as Liberation doctrine, marked him as a distinctive figure on the extreme right. At a time when figures such as Gerald L. K. Smith and Gerald Winrod assaulted the same enemies with ammunition derived from the Bible, Pelley armed himself with ideas obtained from clairaudient "Ascended Masters." He mixed spiritualism, Theosophy, Christianity, and pyramidism into a potent concoction that gave him supporters in both anti-Semitic and metaphysical circles.

  Pelley's unique belief system led many contemporary critics to brand him as an opportunist, psychotic, or confidence man and later scholars have, unfortunately, often followed their lead. Frequently self-serving, these characterizations ignore the disquieting fact that during the 1930s many thoughtful and educated Americans attempted to alleviate their anxieties with anti-Semitic bigotry. Pelley's opponents always described him as well-spoken and intelligent and found it hard to believe that such a man would develop an organization based on hatred.

  These critics ignore both the long history of bigotry in the United States, among all social classes, and the concerns over modernization, industrialization, and urbanization that fed the fears of traditional individuals such as Pelley. A parochial New Englander at heart, Pelley felt truly uncomfortable in modern, urban America, yet his drive to make a name for himself as a respected writer forced him into close quarters with that alien world. Unable to make sense of the society in which he operated and, perhaps even more important, convinced that his small-town America was systematically being destroyed, Pelley found it easier to explain the changes as part of a vast conspiracy than to confront the fact that America was not developing in accordance with his views.

  Pelley's unhappy experiences as a screenwriter in Hollywood presented him with the opportunity to put a face on the conspiracy and to blame Jews for all that was wrong with this country. He never wavered in his hatred of the Jews, even after it became economically unprofitable and politically suicidal, and it is clear he adopted a career based upon bigotry because it offered a means of countering dreaded modern "isms," not financial remuneration. As Pelley himself noted, his income as a screenwriter in "Jewish" Hollywood far exceeded what he earned as head of the Silver Shirts. Contemporary critics quite rightly attacked the validity of his anti-Jew pronouncements and beliefs, but the suggestion that Pelley adopted these views to make a quick buck is patently false.

  Those critics who attacked Pelley as a psychotic invariably based their criticisms on his religious system. His beliefs were atypical and, on the surface, difficult to connect with his otherwise conservative views, but the easy characterization that Liberation doctrine must be the ravings of a madman appears to be a gross over-simplification. Pelley led a national organization, operated a thriving press, ran for president, gave cross-country speaking tours, and published voluminous writings—a record difficult to reconcile with the notion that he was thoroughly mentally unbalanced.

  Pelley was an orthodox Christian, although not a very diligent one, until 1928. In that year, significantly while he was still working in Hollywood, Pelley underwent a conversion experience, undoubtedly brought about through exhaustion related to his workaholic personality, that permanently changed his metaphysical beliefs and began the process that led to the development of Liberation. While it is impossible, from the distant vantage point of the twenty-first century, to make an exact determination of what happened to Pelley that year, it is clear he emerged from the experience a different man.

  His opponents usually cited this event as the point at which Pelley went "insane" and buttressed their assertion by documenting the unorthodox nature of his Liberation system. Pelley's beliefs were controversial, even among the Silver Shirt faithful, but are consistent with his personality. Despite the ad hoc nature of Liberation, Pelley always maintained he was a Christian, in keeping with his generally traditional views, and that Liberation doctrine represented no more than the corrected teachings of Christ. Pelley removed what he believed to be the Jewish corruptions from Christianity by downgrading the importance of the "falsified" scriptures and replacing them with his own clairaudiently received messages. These messages, which Pelley transcribed on an almost daily basis, served as a religious bulwark for Pelley's political beliefs. Pelley, then, could claim that his anti-Semitic political program was not only in the country's best interest, but also had divine support.

  The Silver Shirt chief was supremely confident that he had a significant role to play in world affairs. He frequently trumpeted his important "brevet," and the messages he received were often egotistical and self-aggrandizing. Pelley was a man obsessed with establishing himself. He harnessed a boundless energy to work, frequently long into the night, and cranked out writings at an astonishing rate. Pelley's conviction of his own importance, coupled with his exceptional work ethic, pushed him to establish the Silver Shirts and Liberation doctrine in an attempt to make himself a significant player in both political and religious affairs.

  Pelley's sincerity and sanity are taken for granted in the present study. I have found no evidence to support the allegation that Pelley created the Silver Shirts as a money-making venture, adopted anti-Semitism as a perceived political expediency, or consciously fabricated clairaudient messages to bilk gullible spiritualists. Pelley's views, both political and religious, were unusual—and at times intentionally hurtful and narrow-minded—but he seems to have truly believed in both a Jewish conspiracy and a series of discorporate sp
heres of existence. Combined with his ego and overarching desire for public recognition, these beliefs propelled Pelley's public career in the Depression decade.

  Released from prison in 1950 after serving eight years for his sedition conviction, Pelley began a virtual second career by developing his Liberation system into a full-blown religion, known as Soulcraft. Enjoined from engaging in political activities under the terms of his parole, Pelley dedicated himself to establishing Soulcraft as a viable cult, and he published more than two dozen volumes of Soulcraft materials, thereby ensuring that dedicated Soulcrafters would have a lifetime's worth of scriptures to study. Liberation and Soulcraft eventually served as models for a variety of similar Theosophically oriented organizations. There is a direct link from Pelley to Mighty I AM, Summit Lighthouse, the Church Universal and Triumphant, and countless other metaphysical groups. Pelley was also an important figure in the development of the Aquarian New Age movement in this country and deserves study for his role in twentieth-century American alternative religion alone.

  Although Pelley's political work has received attention from scholars, his important religious activities are not thoroughly documented in any of the previous studies of his career. This monograph is the first work to detail Pelley's life fully and give equal attention to his literary, political, and religious works. Pelley's other endeavors help give context to his activities with the Silver Shirts, which are generally regarded as the most significant aspect of his public life, and an examination of his nonpolitical work is essential to a proper understanding of the man. The cluster of dissertations and chapters that focus on Pelley concentrate on the Silver Shirts and only discuss his religious beliefs as an ancillary topic—and none of these prior works discusses his post-Silver Shirt religious system.2