A Letter From The Publisher, May 2, 1949

Seldom has a National Affairs cover story in TIME been done without any help from the subject. In the case of Communist leader Eugene Dennis (TIME, April 25), however, it had to be that way. Three weeks before the story was due Researcher Blanche Finn asked Dennis for an interview. He turned the matter over to his publicity man, who asked Miss Finn to submit her questions in writing. She did. The publicity man took one look at the questions, declared they were “too knowing,” and refused to give the answers.

At that juncture—although Dennis’ refusal to talk had been expected—among the few available substantiated facts on him were these: he had been born Francis Waldron in Seattle in 1904 or 1905 and had a part in the 1941 Allis-Chalmers strike in Milwaukee. Starting with these scanty clues, Chicago Bureau Chief Hugh Moffett and Correspondent Ben Williamson set out, respectively, for Milwaukee and Seattle. Almost at once they began to turn up leads.

Williamson, for instance, finding that no birth record of Waldron-Dennis was available in Seattle, was able to establish Aug. 10, 1905 as his birth date by digging through the public school records. From old Seattle city directories he found four addresses where the Waldron family had once lived. After ringing a score of doorbells in these neighborhoods and making dozens of telephone calls, he turned up

1) Waldron-Dennis’ boyhood pal and

2) his best friend from the period when he was indoctrinating himself in Communism.

Meanwhile, Miss Finn was turning up fresh leads of her own in New York City. She learned that Dennis’ only sister, Nora, now married to a musician, was living in New York. But she did not know her married name. With the help of a single address at which Nora had once lived in Queens, a reverse telephone directory (which lists telephone numbers by addresses), and some luck, she got Nora on the phone. An hour later they were talking together.

Although Nora, who is strongly antiCommunist, would say little about her brother, she provided some important background on their family. She said that after not seeing him for 18 years she found out his identity and position in the U.S. Communist Party when an aunt told her to get a copy of TIME’S April 7, 1947 issue. There she read about her brother’s appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee and his refusal to give his right name.

As these and other bits & pieces of fact began to fill in the pattern of Dennis’ life, other TIME bureaus were put to work investigating the important new leads that kept turning up. In New York, Miss Finn turned up the exact address of Waldron-Dennis’ stepmother in Southern California, where James Murray, of our Los Angeles bureau, located her. A tip from Washington (about a phony name Dennis had used on a passport) was relayed (with a picture of Dennis) to TIME Inc.’s Tokyo bureau, which turned up the story of his activities in the Far East.

When all of the tag ends of this far-flung reporting job were in, Senior Editor Duncan Norton-Taylor sat down to write the story. He had his facts and, when his story was done, Frankie Waldron, alias Eugene Dennis, was no longer such a mystery man.

Cordially yours,