The Enchanted Quest of Dana and Ginger Lamb

Chapter 3 SPYING FOR THE BOSS

CHAPTER I SPYING IOR THEBOSS Enchanted Vagabonds thrilled tens of thousands of readers in 1938, securing the Lambs' career as film-lecturers.But one satisfied customer got them into another line of work, involving travel as well as film-making. Adventure, however, was the biggest lure, for the job involved spying. And their boss for these endeavors would be no less a figure than President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That, at least, is how Dana and Ginger liked to put it. Information they provided to the Santa Ana Daily Register for a 3 March 1939 story is typical of their publicity from this time. "After returning from a desert trip this week," reporter Eleanor Elliott notes, "the couple found a personal letter" from the chief executive, stating that the great man had enjoyed "hearing their verbal account of some of the incidents of the book" and was inspired to reread it. He was also enthusiastic about their forthcoming trip in search of the lost Mayan city, and "promised his official aid when it might be necessary" (p. 5). The enchanted vagabonds lost no time in capitalizing on FDR's interest; his endorsement went right into their lecture brochure, where it remained in editions into the 1950s. World War II interrupted their jungle explorations, delaying their second book, Quest for the Lost City, until 1951. There, on page 287, the Lambs make brief reference to a "special job" they did for Roosevelt, at the 79 SPYING FOR THE BOSS expense of progress on their own work. To this day, friends refer to the "secret project" the couple undertook on the president's behalf. Indeed, the affair is never mentioned without its FDR association. "Working for Roosevelt" was a common enough task for prominent Americans during FDR's second and third terms. Whether fighting the Great Depression or the Axis powers, Franklin D. Roosevelt liked to supplement his official government team with the best and the brightest of personal associates and people he met through the media. From the China lobby in America that supported Chiang Kai-shek to the old monied interests that hoped to see the country's business world transformed into a new liberal ideal, these informal associates at once helped reshape American policy and confound officials whose work had been limited to proper channels. Though not a micromanager, Roosevelt liked to intercede from time to time with a flash of genius, ordering that someone from his days at Groton Academy,from his time in the Department of the Navy, or from his own wide reading be brought on board for temporary special duty. This is how he found Dana and Ginger Lamb, and the materials they fed the media to churn up even more interest are based on fact. Yetwhat the Lambs did with these facts was, as almost always, something else. True adventurers, there was not a story on earth that they could not make even better. "My dear Mr. and Mrs. Lamb," begins FDR's typewritten letter of 18 February 1939 (as preserved in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library), "I have been rereading 'Enchanted Vagabonds' and it becomes more interesting after having seen the film and the photographs." The occasion he describes is what the Lambs, in Quest for the Lost City, call their "'command performance' at the White House" (p. 287). "Don't forget to let me know before you start on your proposed trip to the Yucatan Peninsula and to tell me if there is anything I can do to help with officials or in any other way," the President continues, ending up with his sentiments that "It was delightful to see you both the other day." This same file 80 SPYING FOR THE BOSS includes the Lambs' friendly letter of 9 February 1939, heady with thanks for what they claim was "the most enjoyable evenings [sic]of our lives." This, then, was the foundation of Dana and Ginger's work for the Boss. From here on, the initiative would be the Lambs'. In an undated letter filed with other FDR papers from June 1940, Dana and Ginger—addressing the President as "Dear Friend"—indicate that they've been "off on the vagabond trail again, and are now deep in Mexico on a quest for the Lost City of the Mayas." They're filming, hoping for an even better product than Roosevelt admired at the White House. Then comes the matter of...