WW II Hollywood make-up artists drafted by CIA
Bat Child (Sue M.)
http://www.apbnews.com/media/gfiles/spy/index.html
====================
WW II Hollywood Makeup Artists Drafted by CIA
Spies' Disguise Manual Details Subterfuges Both Clever and Silly
Dec. 13, 1999
By Janon Fisher
NEW YORK (APBnews.com) -- The laboratory of Hollywood's makeup
manufacturing pioneer Max Factor was also a test site for America's
first spy agency, records show.
Factor's makeup lab worked with the Office of Strategic Services
(OSS), the precursor to the CIA, during World War II to create
skin-pigmentation makeup that would hold up under the scrutiny of the
Axis powers.
The spy agency created the "Manual on Personal Disguise," which
contained methods for masking one's identity in every aspect, from
skin color to height.
"[Makeup] must look completely natural even upon close inspection, the
range of colors must be unlimited, and the material must stand up
under difficult conditions without needing constant care and touching
up," according to the OSS manual on personal disguise. "With these
requirements in mind, special experiments were conducted in the
cosmetic research laboratories of Max Factor in Hollywood, where their
chief chemists, their formulas and the benefit of their years of
experience in cosmetology were made available for this purpose."
Tinseltown consulted until the '70s
Michael Key, publisher of Make-up Artist Magazine, acknowledged that
Hollywood makeup artists were used by the intelligence community,
although he said he had never participated first-hand.
"The government did solicit our help at the early part of this century
up until the late 1970s. At that point I think they had enough
internal knowledge that they didn't need our help," he said.
Key, however, was reluctant to name makeup artists, even those who
have died, who the intelligence community called into service.
But Antonio Mendez has no reservations about talking of altering
identities; in fact, he just published a book called Master of
Disguise, about his 25-year career as chief of disguises for the CIA.
"I was impressed," said Mendez. "They had to test 50 formulas to get
the right combination of makeup. They obviously did a lot of
research."
'An act of desperation'
"In the case of the OSS, disguise is an act of desperation," said
Mendez. "They have been dropped behind enemy lines with a black
parachute, and they have to make sure they don't get picked up."
Geoffrey Jones, president of the OSS Society Inc. and one of the
agency's few surviving members, dismissed the manual as irrelevant.
"They've churned these things out and they were probably good for
someone. It's like the S.O.P. manual. They had a manual that would
tell you how to make a bed. But no one ever read it."
Jones said he had done intelligence work for the OSS just prior to the
Allied invasion of southern France in 1945. "I was only behind [enemy]
lines for 10 days. I had a French identity, and I never saw that
manual," Jones said.
'Play it for all it's worth'
The manual, discovered at the National Archives by intelligence
community researcher Nathan Estey, was put out for the camouflage
division of research and development in 1944, three years after the
OSS was established and a year before World War II ended. It details
the philosophy and mechanics of creating a credible disguise and
carrying it off.
The manual begins the way a class with the famous method acting coach
Lee Strasberg might have: "You must know your cover story thoroughly:
Know the character or characters you will have to be, inside and out
-- their clothes, facial expressions, gait, gestures, personal habits,
thoughts and reactions."
"Dispel from your mind the fear that every little action is
necessarily significant. A good rule to follow is never use a disguise
except as a last resort -- but when you do, play it for all it's
worth."
It is a philosophy that was still applied during the Cold War, Mendez
said.
"It is a game of millimeters," he said.
He recalled an incident when he was trying to smuggle a KGB defector
out of hostile territory. "Here was a man on the edge. We had lead him
along like mother elephant with a baby elephant, trunk and tail."
Mendez said he disguised the defector with elevator shoes and
sunglasses and gave the man a cigar to give him something to do to
calm his nerves.
"When it was his turn in line to check his passport, one of the KGB
goons came out of the back room to look at him. He just lit up the
cigar and blew smoke in his face," said Mendez.
Crude and ridiculous
The mechanics of disguise appear fairly crude and ridiculous at times,
such as the recommendation to "hoist your trousers way up and tighten
the belt. This will make your legs look longer."
Other methods are more advanced, such as the experimental wrinkling
cream that slows the flow of blood to the face to help "sag" the
facial muscles.
The manual, which is only 33 pages long, ends with the ultimate in
disguises -- permanent change, which "requires the services of a
plastic surgeon."
The manual makes it clear that the United States was fighting a war on
two fronts, as these tips illustrate:
The use of pigmentation makeup is encouraged because its "advantages
are readily apparent when one realizes that when white officers and
men go in with native troops, it is usually the white faces that the
Japs shoot at first."
And permanent disguises were geared toward evading Nazi troops. The
manual advises that "surgery has been used to alter the racial
characteristics of Jewish students before they enter the field."
Janon Fisher is an APBnews.com staff writer
(janon....@apbnews.com).
====================
Sue, SP4(:), listed on the Scieno Sitter list 5 times!
--
http://www.primenet.com/~xenubat
"It will take a *long* time to find another enemy
with the combination of evil and incompetence
you see in Scientology."--Keith Henson