27 Oct Elizabeth Arden and the Nazis

Elizabeth Arden was born in Ontario in 1884 as Florence Nightingale Graham. Ms. Graham entered nursing school in Canada but dropped out and moved to Manhattan.  Early on, she was interested in beauty products and skin care and worked for others. In 1909 (at 25 years old) she opened her first beauty salon on Fifth Avenue and changed her name to Elizabeth Arden. Twenty years later, she owned 150 salons in the United States and Europe.

The first Elizabeth Arden salon opened in Paris in 1922.

Now comes my connection. My mother’s boss in OSS Stockholm was William T. “Bill” Carlson. Bill went to work for Elizabeth Arden after graduating from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut in 1928. So if he began working with the company in 1930, he would have been 23 years old. In his own words on his application to work for the OSS, he “started from the bottom and worked up.” From 1932 to 1939, Carlson was the export manager of Elizabeth Arden Sales Corp., London. He was promoted to General Sales Manager then left to join the army in July of 1941.

Carlson’s business took him all over Europe. He was fluent in German and Swedish and could converse fairly well in French and somewhat in Spanish. In short, Carlson was the perfect candidate to work in counterintelligence for the army, and by 1942 he was doing exactly that.

In 1943, Carlson was vigorously recruited by the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and later that year went to Stockholm to head up the X-2 Counterespionage office. He urgently requested that his former secretary, Hedvig Johnson, (my mother) join him in Stockholm. Both he and Hedvig had learned to speak Swedish from their parents.

In the meantime, the FBI began to investigate Elizabeth Arden for suspected pro-Nazi activities. If you go to the Elizabeth Arden FBI files online, you will see some accusatory letters and also a notation that says, “No info in files reflecting this is true.”

It is true that the Arden salons remained open in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Milan, Budapest, all Axis occupied cities. The most influential women had their facials and hair treatments while speaking freely with each other and with the salon operators. Secrets were for sale, and no doubt spies were everywhere.

According to Peter Hore, author of Lindell’s List: Saving American and British Women at Ravensbruck, a British agent worked for Elizabeth Arden. In his book Operation Mincemeat, Ben Macintyre writes about Andre Latham, German spy turned double agent, who met compatriots in the Arden salon on Faubourg St. Honore in Paris.

In the bars, in the restaurants, and in the beauty salons, I envision a social scene right out of Rick’s Café in the legendary 1943 movie Casablanca. The Allies, the Axis, they were there. Discreet conversations, off-the-cuff questions, eavesdropping—all had the same purpose, to gather useful information and pass it along.

The FBI, of course, was worried about the Elizabeth Arden salons in our country. So were they covert spots for Nazi operations? 

That is the question.

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