A Malibu resident discovers a treasure trove of film and books, which reveal her uncle might have worked for the precursor to the CIA, the OSS, and that may document priceless historical evidence from countries and events around the world.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
Lifelong Malibu resident Leslie Schwarz used to adore listening to her Uncle Art’s tall tales of adventuring in exotic lands when she was a little girl. But it wasn’t until her family was clearing out junk from an old crawlspace in her late aunt’s home last year, long after her uncle’s death, that she realized he might just have been a spy for a nascent Central Intelligence Agency, working in collaboration with celebrated adventurer and author Nicol Smith.
“We found reels and reels of these 16 millimeter films my uncle had shot with Nicol in places like Tibet and Suriname,” Schwarz said in an interview with The Malibu Times. “I don’t think the family ever really knew how incredible the lives of these two guys were. This was Indiana Jones stuff.”
Smith came from a wealthy East Coast family and grew up attending the best schools with the future scions of American industry like the Mellons. Bitten by the travel bug early on, he pursued world tours while a teen, eventually beginning to photograph, write and lecture about his journeys to upper crust audiences who had only vague notions of distant lands like Borneo and French Guiana.
In the early ’30s, Smith met up with Schwarz’s uncle, Arthur Hall, and they formed a lifelong friendship. An avid outdoorsman, Hall eventually joined Smith on his travels, filming extraordinary images never seen by most of Western civilization: Angel Falls in Venezuela (the world’s highest waterfall that purportedly inspired the “Paradise Falls” of Pixar’s recent animated film “Up”), Marinelli Glacier in Chile and the notorious Devil’s Island. Smith filmed headhunters, cannibals and voodoo doctors jumping into fire.
Smith would find himself in countries on the cusp of historical upheaval. He was present and involved with the principals of India’s chaotic Independence Day in 1947, when Britain formally turned the country over to self-rule under its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Smith was appointed special assistant to the American Embassy just after the formation of the Vichy government in France. He filmed around Pangong Lake in Ladakh, just as the Chinese People’s Liberation Army was threatening to permanently silence a very young Dalai Lama. He helped set up the Burma-Siam Free Thai underground movement after Japan’s invasion of Thailand during World War II.
“We did some research and found that Nicol had been assigned by General Donovan of Roosevelt’s State Department to travel to our foreign offices,” Schwarz said. “Donovan headed the OSS (Office of Strategic Services-precursor to the CIA) and later commended Nicol for his OSS work.”
When the trove of unknown films was discovered, Schwarz’s partner, Dean Robinson, decided to research Smith and Hall. He found a treasure trove of history in the film and books.
“These films are extraordinary in their quality and range, especially when you consider they were molding away for years under a crawlspace,” Robinson said.
Smith’s best known books were top sellers of the era, including “Golden Doorway to Tibet,” “Burma Road” and “Bush Master.”
“Nicol’s books talk a lot about the political intrigue of the time and the films give us a picture of what the countries looked like,” Robinson said.
No stranger to research (he is an designer of cars, video games and marketing schemes), Robinson dug through Smith’s published works and built himself a movie scope so he could view the fragile films-which had been stored wrapped in old newspapers-without subjecting them to the shredding dangers of a projector.
He learned that Smith had been asked by President Roosevelt’s intelligence services to travel to Vichy and ingratiate himself with Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain, France’s Fascist military and political leader during the early 1900s, and his prime minister, Pierre Laval, offering gifts of travel films. Smith’s narratives of India jibed with the content of those films.
“We have images of Gandhi playing with some of Nicol’s camera equipment,” Robinson said. “Nicol was tight with Lord Mountbatten (24th viceroy of India) and, after Presentation Day, he traveled extensively through Kashmir and Tibet, shooting lots of film.”
His adventures were not without their dangers. At one point, assassins who were thwarted only by virtue of Smith holding a special prayer shawl, given to him by a revered Sikh, pursued Smith. He filmed the then king and queen of Ladakh in 1947, who gave him a pair of prized Tibetan terriers and who soon disappeared, presumably assassinated, shortly after the Chinese took over the region.
When Hall started working with Smith in the late ’40s, they continued their worldwide travel documentation for the next 25 years. They were in Monaco for the marriage of Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier. The crystal-clear footage of the celebration shows a glowing Princess Grace, as well as shots of an expansive Monte Carlo harbor. Aristotle Onassis’ yacht, Christina, is anchored there, along with what looks to be a bikinied Ava Gardner.
Robinson believes the films show more than just exotic locales. He thinks there is priceless historical evidence preserved in them.
“We have footage of Nicol and Art visiting a special place in Ladakh, the Harong Valley, that has carved writings describing Jesus in a first century Sanskrit dialect,” Robinson said. “Jesus was known to have traveled to the Far East and historians have written about a Saint Issa who lived at a lamasery [or monastery] there. I believe he spent years there trading teachings with the Buddhists, and early Christians made pilgrimages there.”
Whatever speculation the films might incite, their quality is decidedly noteworthy. Schwarz and Robinson would like to see the footage digitally preserved and made available to future historians.
“Uncle Art was a real Ernest Hemingway kind of guy and Nicol was this roly-poly little man,” Schwarz said. “They were perfect covers for spies. Even later on, when Uncle Art would tell us stories of his travels, he wouldn’t talk about his OSS work. But we have Nicol’s books and Uncle Art’s films to tell the real story.”