The Liberation of Marguerite Harrison
America's First Female Foreign Intelligence Agent
While they were in Tehran, Marguerite did not stay with Merian Cooper or Ernest Schoedsack. The men lodged with American vice consul Robert Imbrie and his wife, Katherine. Marguerite stayed with American financial adviser Thomas Pearson and his mother on the outskirts of the city. The arrangement is perplexing. She described the Pearsons as two …
Merican Cooper, Ernest Schoedsack and Marguerite Harrison were thrilled with the prospect of reaching the Bakhtiari, but it was already mid-March, and they hadn’t much time because soon the tribe would be setting out on its journey. A British political officer found the Americans a car to take them to Shushtar, where the Bakhtiari princes were camped. There, they met a young …
Continue reading "Marguerite smokes opium while floating on a barge of goatskins"
At the time Marguerite Harrison, Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack set out to film Grass, Western nations had keen interest in the Middle East. Inspired by the writings of British adventurers, including spies T. E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell, tourism to the region thrived. In addition to the cultural fascination with the area, the American, …
Continue reading "Turmoil in Turkey thwarts plan to film Kurds"
Marguerite Harrison, Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack formed an unusual team as they set off on the Middle East mission worker under the cover of filmmakers. Marguerite, a former Baltimore socialite, knew nothing about film making. What she knew about movies was drawn mainly from her position on the Maryland movie censorship board, that her …
Continue reading "An unusual team sets off for a mission and a movie"
Marguerite Harrison, Merian Cooper, and Ernest Schoedsack kept the Middle East mission secret their entire lives. They wrote books and articles, and they gave lectures and interviews about the expedition. But they never revealed that while documenting the epic journey of a Persian tribe’s search for pasture, they were gathering intelligence for the U.S. Army. …
Continue reading "A mission and a mystery: Harrison in the Middle East"
Merian C. Cooper in Poland Marguerite Harrison reached Poland just in time for the winter holidays. Conditions were harsh. Five years of war had left Warsaw in shambles. Poland, which had emerged from the remnants of three empires, struggled to gain a foothold in the new European order. War had broken out with Russia as …
The Liberation of Marguerite Harrison 