Bookcases continue to be filled with new accounts of the beginning of World War II and/or the myths and truths behind Pearl Harbor and related Japanese espionage. Ronald Drabkin’s first book, “Beverly Hills Spy: The Double-Agent War Hero Who Helped Japan Attack Pearl Harbor” (William Morrow, 272 pgs., $29.
99) follows his personal interest in espionage after finding that his father and grandfather were involved in counterintelligence. Hoping to write a family history, he began research, but never found what his relatives did in “the service.” However, Drabkin discovered that Englishman Frederick Rutland was an associate of his grandfather.
He sought the FBI files for Rutland still hoping to find some family connection. There were, however, no details. Recently, unclassified files of Rutland revealed that the British World War I pilot and war hero became a spy for the then-developing Japanese navy.
And Drabkin then realized he had his book, not about his family, but about a man who helped Japan in the months and years leading up to Pearl Harbor. “I am one degree of separation from most of the characters in the story,” Drabkin writes. Much of the background for this book came not from academia, but firsthand, in stories I heard as a child from my father, his family, his tight-knit group of friends who had worked in U.
S. intelligence, and friends.” Rutland’s claim to history was participation in the vast Battle of Jutland in the North Sea in May 31-June 1, 1916.
His aerial exploits in the battle earned him the nickname “Rutland of Jutland.” Having flown off British ships redesigned to accommodate airplanes, Rutland gradually became an expert in aircraft carrier design. Regarding the Pearl Harbor connection, Drabkin writes that Rutland helped with the design of two of the aircraft carriers used by the Japanese in the strike against the Hawaiian naval base.
Rutland also provided other “nice-to-know” information and “did — undoubtedly and substantially — contribute to the naval aviation capabilities of the Japanese Navy, without which the Pearl Harbor attack might not have been possible.” Rutland lived a life of luxury in Beverly Hills, enjoying the friendship of many Hollywood celebrities, thanks to much Japanese money from his espionage work. Later, when he realized a Japanese attack was forthcoming, he tried unsuccessfully to warn the U.
S. and his native Britain. Drabkin also writes about Rutland’s idealism, love of family and his attempts to “make up for his sins.
” However, author Barbara Spindel wrote in a Wall Street Journal review: “Evidence of Rutland’s idealism is scant; on the contrary he comes off in these pages as more interested in saving than redeeming himself.” In 1941 just before Pearl Harbor, Drabkin explains, Rutland returned to Britain and subsequently was interned for two years under a World War II regulation for “alleged hostile associations.” He killed himself in 1949 without any espionage charges being brought by either U.
S. or British authorities. Who was Rouben Mamoulian? That was my first question when faced with scrutinizing “Peerless: Rouben Mamoulian, Hollywood and Broadway” (University of Wisconsin Press, 376 pgs.
, $34.95) by Kurt Jensen. I first became interested in the book because the author was a journalistic colleague, having worked at The Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg 1984-1987 while I was working as bureau chief for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The modern-day movie or Broadway musical buff also may not know who Mamoulian was, but in Jensen’s narrative stories, he reveals he directed the original stage productions of “Porgy and Bess,” “Carousel” and “Oklahoma” and the movie classics “Love Me Tonight,” “Queen Christina,” “Clay Streets” and “Silk Stockings.” This volume, by film reviewer Jensen, is one of an amazing group of books in Wisconsin Film Studies that included subjects such as Somerset Maugham, George Stevens, Glenn Ford and Stanley Kubrick. The University of Wisconsin Press says the film studies “offer works by emerging and eminent scholars focusing on deserving areas of film study.
” Without a doubt, Jensen is one of those whose scholarship becomes very evident early in the manuscript. At the Gazette, Jensen was a very good young reporter, whose detailed research enhanced his work. The same holds true for “Peerless.
” Jensen is also a wordsmith. Forty years ago, his vocabulary and word usage were very good. Now they’re excellent.
Likewise, in The Wall Street Journal, author and Mamoulian specialist Joseph Horowitz put it succinctly: “The author has assiduously scoured the sources at hand. He has scrutinized the self-serving reminiscences Mamoulian recorded and rerecorded in his retirement. He has amassed a trove of anecdotes deftly told and judgments reasonably rendered.
” Publishers Weekly said it is “a scrupulously research portrait” in a “well-told film biography,” echoed the Library Journal. If you’ve heard little of Mamoulian’s efforts, it will not be a quick read — nor should it be. However, it will be an interesting and important read.
By the way, among Mamoulian’s more fascinating sides is the fact that he was the original director of Elizabeth Taylor’s cinema catastrophe, “Cleopatra.” He spent about two years in preparation work, Jensen explains, but ultimately resigned over one scene. Both he and the film’s executives then were happy.
“Cleopatra” was just one of many incidents in Mamoulian’s convoluted life — both private and public. To Jensen’s credit, the biography does the director justice on both accounts. A.
J. Jacobs has written a marvelous account of his own year of sacrifice — “The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning” (Crown, 304 pgs., $30).
The Constitution is a very serious document, but the way Jacobs tries to live within its framework became a hilarious sequence of incidents. But he also brings some thoughtful and solemnity to it. Through the Constitution, Jacobs tries to learn about the Founding Fathers and their understanding of certain elements such as free speech and creating all men equal.
Initially, to live within the Constitution, the author felt it was essential to try to live in the style of the late 18th century. He used candles instead of electricity; he also put women in their place. It will still predominately a man’s world, Jacobs related.
Few women had gained the right to own property. This approach was very much like his earlier work, “The Year of Living Biblically,” as he tried to live within the framework of life thousands of years ago. I totally agree with Publishers Weekly: “Jacob’s well-researched romp carefully reckons with the Constitution’s ethical blind spots while staying consistently entertaining.
U.S. history buffs will have fun with this one.
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