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 CON TEN TS
Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xxi

chapter 1 | Oklahoma! and the Integrated Book Musical 1

Overview 1
Integration Theory 2
Rodgers and Hammerstein 7
The Evolution of Oklahoma! 11
The Artistic Components 12
Book and Lyrics 12
Plot of Oklahoma! 14
Music 15
Choreography 17
Sets and Costumes 18
Interpretation 21
Epilogue 23
And Bear in Mind (Kiss Me, Kate) 23

chapter 2 | Musical Theater in Nineteenth-Century America 25

Plot-Centered Genres 26
The Black Crook: “The First Musical Comedy” 26
Burlesque 26
Lydia Thompson and Her “British Blondes” 26
Evangeline 28
Weber and Fields 29
Operetta 30
American-Made Musical Comedy 31
The Mulligan Guard Plays 31
Farce-Comedy 34
The Brook 34
A Trip to Chinatown 34
Gaiety Theatre Musicals 36
Variety-Show Formats 38
Minstrel Show 38
Variety 38
Vaudeville 38
Conclusion 39

vii

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 viii C ON T E N TS

chapter 3 | Broadway at the Turn of the Century 40

Musical Comedy 41
George M. Cohan 41
Background 41
Little Johnny Jones 43
Plot of Little Johnny Jones 44
Cohan’s Career During the Twenties and Thirties 47
Operetta 48
Revue 48
And Bear in Mind (The Chocolate Soldier) 51

chapter 4 | The Teens 53

Princess Theatre Musicals 56
Plot of Very Good Eddie 66
Beyond the Princess Theatre 66
And Bear in Mind (Naughty Marietta) 67

chapter 5 | The Twenties 69

The Cinderella Musicals 70
Irene 70
Sally 71
Other Musical Comedies 72
By Gershwin 72
By Rodgers and Hart 73
The Operetta Revival 73
Show Boat 74
Source Material 74
Reception 76
Score 78
Plot of Show Boat 81
After Show Boat 82
And Bear in Mind (No, No, Nanette) 83

chapter 6 | The Thirties 86

Cole Porter 87
Porter’s Music 90
Anything Goes 92
Plot of Anything Goes 94
Music 95
Reception 96

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 C ON T E N TS ix

Satirical Musical Comedies and Revues in the Thirties 97

Plot of The Cradle Will Rock 98
Other Revues 100
Other Notable Events on Broadway 100
And Bear in Mind (Of Thee I Sing) 102

chapter 7 | The Forties 105

Lerner and Loewe 106
Brigadoon 109
Book 110
Plot of Brigadoon 111
Score 112
Social and Political Context 117
The Rodgers and Hammerstein Generation 117
Kurt Weill 118
Harold Arlen 120
Vernon Duke 121
New Voices 122
Composers 122
Leonard Bernstein 122
Jule Styne 123
Frank Loesser 124
Harold Rome 124
Burton Lane 124
Lyricists 125
E. Y. Harburg 125
John La Touche 125
Johnny Mercer 126
Robert Wright and George Forrest 126
Directors 126
George Abbott 126
Jerome Robbins 127
Hassard Short 127
Beyond Brigadoon 127
And Bear in Mind (Pal Joey) 128

chapter 8 | The Fifties 130

Historical Background 132
Cultural Background 133
The Music Man 139
Meredith Willson 140

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 x C ON T E N TS

Evolution 140
Book and Score 141
Plot of The Music Man 143
Getting to Broadway 143
The Music Man Versus West Side Story 144
An Embarrassment of Riches 146
Jule Styne 146
Frank Loesser 148
Richard Adler and Jerry Ross 148
Albert Hague 149
Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick 150
Bob Merrill 150
Harold Rome 151
Conclusion 152
And Bear in Mind (The Most Happy Fella) 152

chapter 9 | The Sixties 155

“The Age of Aquarius” 155
Writers of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Era 157
Schwartz and Dietz 157
Lerner and Loewe 157
Frank Loesser 158
Harold Rome 158
Irving Berlin 159
Meredith Willson 159
Richard Rodgers 160
Richard Adler 160
Jule Styne 160
Bob Merrill 161
The First Post-Rodgers and Hammerstein Generation 162
Traditional Book Musicals 162
Oliver! 162
Hello, Dolly! 164
Tenderloin, She Loves Me, Fiddler on the Roof, The Apple Tree,
and The Rothschilds 165
Wildcat, Little Me, and Sweet Charity 167
Innovative and Experimental Musicals 169
Anyone Can Whistle 170
Stop the World—I Want to Get Off
and The Roar of the Greasepaint—The Smell of the Crowd 171
Man of La Mancha 172

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 C ON T E N TS xi

Concept Musical 175

Features 175
Origins 175
Allegro 177
Love Life 177
Cabaret 178
Evolution 178
Source Material 178
Concept 180
Music and Lyrics 180
1972 Film Version 184
Plot of Cabaret 185
1998 Broadway Revival 185
And Bear in Mind (Fiddler on the Roof) 186
The Nixon Era 187

chapter 10 | The Seventies 190

Serious and Comic Trends in the Seventies 192
Familiar Voices 192
Rock Musicals 192
Revivals 193
The Sondheim Decade 193
The Sondheim–Prince Musicals 194
The Quintessential Theater Composer 195
Subject Matter 197
Company 198
Background 198
Concept 199
Score 202
Happily Ever After? 209
Critical Reception 211
Musical Theater Beyond Broadway 211
And Bear in Mind (A Chorus Line) 212

chapter 11 | The Eighties 215

Megamusical 216
Megamusical Defined 216
The Mega Producer 218
The Growing Gap Between Critics and Audiences 219
From Rock Opera to Megamusical 219

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 xii C ON T E N TS

Andrew Lloyd Webber 221

The Phantom of the Opera 225
Background 225
Score 227
Plot of The Phantom of the Opera 229
Reception 230
American Musicals in the Eighties 233
Notable Works 233
Dreamgirls 233
Nine 234
Big River 234
Musicals Produced by the Public Theater 234
Familiar Voices 235
Interesting Flops 236
Carrie  236
A Doll’s Life and Grind 236
Revivals and Retrospectives 237
The Legacy of the Megamusical 238
And Bear in Mind (Les Misérables) 239

chapter 12 | The Nineties 242

The Incredible Story of Rent 242
Puccini on Broadway 242
Jonathan Larson 243
The Road to Rent 243
Plot of Rent 244
La Bohème and Verismo Opera 245
Music 248
Reception 251
American Megamusicals 252
Beyond the Megamusical 253
Falsettoland 253
The Secret Garden 254
Repackaging and Repurposing 254
Revivals 256
Musical Theater at the End of the Millennium 256
Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty 257
Michael John LaChiusa 258
Adam Guettel 259
Jason Robert Brown 260
Andrew Lippa 260
Jeanine Tesori 260

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 C ON T E N TS xiii

Dawn of the Corporate Producer 263

And Bear in Mind (The Lion King) 263

chapter 13 | The New Millennium 266

Corporate Producing 267
Musical Theater in the Twenty-First Century 270
The Rock Hegemony 270
Hairspray 270
Memphis 271
Film-to-Stage Musicals 271
The Producers 272
Other Notable Film-Inspired Musicals 273
Jukebox Musicals 275
Revivals 279
Satires 280
Urinetown 281
Avenue Q 281
Spamalot 283
The Drowsy Chaperone 284
Curtains 284
[title of show] 285
The Book of Mormon 285
Adaptation of Literary Sources 286
Wicked 286
Art Musicals 286
Caroline, or Change 289
The Light in the Piazza 290
Source Material 290
Adam Guettel 291
Book and Score 292
The Light in the Piazza on Broadway 294
Plot of The Light in the Piazza 294
Broadway Today 296
And Bear in Mind (In the Heights) 298

chapter 14 | Musical Theater Off Broadway 301

The Off Broadway Scene 302
Revivals of Broadway Musicals 303
Musicals Based on Classic Literature 303
Spoofs and Satires 304
Innovative Musicals 305

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 xiv C ON T E N TS

The Fantasticks 305

Background 305
Plot of The Fantasticks 308
Style and Structure 308
Interpreting The Fantasticks 311
Jones and Schmidt’s Legacy 312
The Halcyon Days of Off Broadway Musicals 313
And Bear in Mind (Little Shop of Horrors) 315

chapter 15 | The “Black Musical” 318

Early Years 319
The Twenties 322
The Thirties 324
Postwar Black Musicals 326
The Seventies 329
Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death 329
The Wiz 330
Music 330
Book 331
Plot of The Wiz 332
Reception 333
Post–Civil Rights Era 334
And Bear in Mind (In Dahomey) 335

chapter 16 | Rock on Broadway 338

The Rock Musical 340
Definition 340
Social and Political Framework of the Rock Movement 342
Musical Impact of Rock Music on Musical Theater 342
Early Rock Musicals on Broadway 343
Hair 344
Conception 344
Rehearsals 346
Music 348
Reception 351
Plot of Hair 352
After Hair 353
Your Own Thing 353
Salvation 354
Dude: The Highway Life 354

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 C ON T E N TS xv

Via Galactica 355

Rainbow 355
Jesus Christ Superstar 356
Tommy 357
Second-Wave Rock Musicals 357
Little Shop of Horrors 357
Rent 358
Hedwig and the Angry Inch 358
Bright Lights, Big City 358
Rock Musicals in the Twenty-First Century 359
Spring Awakening 359
Next to Normal 360
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson 360
Backstage Rock Musicals 360
And Bear in Mind (Godspell) 361

chapter 17 | The Star 364

Singing and Stardom 365
Al Jolson 367
Marilyn Miller 369
The “Merm” 369
Background 369
The Porter Shows 372
Gypsy and Mama Rose 374
Background 374
Plot of Gypsy 375
Rose’s Three Turns 376
“Some People” 376
“Everything’s Coming Up Roses” 378
“Rose’s Turn” 380
Merman’s Turn 380
A Rose by Any Other Name 382
Rosalind Russell 383
Angela Lansbury 384
Tyne Daly 386
Bette Midler 386
Bernadette Peters 388
Patti LuPone 389
Interpreting Rose’s Songs 390
Final Assessment 391
Broadway Stars Today 391

00-Leve-FM.indd 15 24/07/15 9:45 AM

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 xvi C ON T E N TS

Merman’s Legacy 393

And Bear in Mind (Fine and Dandy) 394
Bibliograpy 397

Credits 407

Index 411

00-Leve-FM.indd 16 24/07/15 9:45 AM

 PREFACE

A
merican Musical Theater is the culmination of many years of teaching,
researching, and writing about musical theater. In the classroom,
I have experimented with various pedagogical approaches to the topic,
and the framework that I have adopted for this book presents musical
theater in an accessible, engaging, and interdisciplinary fashion. In
addition to exposing students to the canon, performing repertory, and evolution of
the musical theater genre, this book encourages them to think across the disci-
plines; to draw on their knowledge of music, literature, popular culture, and history;
and, most important, to synthesize the study of musical theater into their intellec-
tual development.
American Musical Theater is designed for a one-semester undergraduate or
graduate course and primarily for music and theater majors. However, faculty in
other areas, especially English and American studies, will find this book easily
adaptable to their disciplinary foci. There are some technical musical discussions,
but these can be excluded from reading assignments without disrupting the narra-
tive flow of the chapters. The organizational structure that I have adopted allows for
flexibility and can serve various pedagogical styles. One can use this text to empha-
size the history of the genre, its artistic components, its cultural contexts, or any
combination thereof.

orga niz ation

American Musical Theater provides a chronological history of the musical theater
genre within a cultural context. It covers the major artistic trends, seminal works,
and leading figures in the field. Unless otherwise noted, the dates given for the
musicals refer to the original Broadway productions. The first chapter is an intro-
duction to the integrated book musical in general and Oklahoma! in particular. It
provides a foundation for understanding musical theater from several different van-
tage points. I begin with a detailed analysis of Oklahoma! in order to introduce
concepts that recur throughout the course, such as the role that musical theater
plays in the national dialogue on race relations and the hegemonic role of Jewish
writers in the history of Broadway. Beginning the course with Oklahoma! and es-
tablishing it as both a forward and backward point of reference helps students to
understand the evolution of musical comedy from a popular entertainment to a
popular art form as well as to measure the impact of Rodgers and Hammerstein on
musical theater.
Chapter 2, which is also introductory in nature, takes students back to the
nineteenth century and introduces them to the various popular forms of musical
theater that influenced the development of the Broadway musical in the early
twentieth century. This chapter establishes the two major trends that have informed
the entire history of musical theater: story-oriented genres and variety-like formats.

xvii

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 xviii PR EFACE

Chapters 3 through 12 progress through the twentieth century decade by decade,

and Chapter 13 overviews the first decade and a half of the current century. The
remaining four chapters explore issues (Off Broadway, race, rock music, and the
star) that encompass more than a single decade, tie into other chapters, and stimu-
late lively classroom discussion. Instructors can integrate these chapters at various
points in the course. For instance, the chapter on the rock musical (16), which en-
compasses the late fifties through the present, could be assigned in conjunction
with the chapter on the sixties (9).

ca se studies
A unique pedagogical feature of this book is the use a case-study musical in each
chapter. This feature is predicated on my belief that deep readings of seminal musi-
cals are preferable to an exhaustive but perfunctory examination of the repertory.
These case-study musicals have been carefully selected either to exemplify a specific
historical moment (e.g., the forties) or to provide a lens through which to examine
a particular theme (e.g., the Broadway star). The case studies are identified imme-
diately after their respective chapter’s title along with the theaters in which they ran
and the length of their runs. Each chapter includes a plot synopsis of the case study,
and the majority of photographs represent these case studies and the people associ-
ated with them. Each case study is placed into a specific thematic framework as
dictated by its respective chapter. For instance, Stephen Sondheim’s Company
(Chapter 10) grounds the discussion of the unique character and historical context
of the concept musical, the most important development of the seventies. More-
over, Company provides a basis for a discussion of Sondheim’s career and his pre-
eminence in the post–Rodgers and Hammerstein era. Lastly, the analysis of
Company connects to the discussion of Cabaret in the previous chapter and to de-
velopments covered in subsequent chapters. Instructors can assign addition or sub-
stitue titles as they see fit. I have included at least one musical example and some
analysis for most of the case studies, although the depth and scope of these discus-
sions vary, depending on the focus of the chapter.
The case studies introduce important figures and works in musical theater his-
tory while also illustrating concepts and trends so as to paint a rich and complex
picture of the genre. In other words, the repertory is not an ends but rather a means
of engaging students in the sort of larger issues that musical theater scholars are
investigating today. Instructors are encouraged to augment the reading and assign
various audio and video recordings to enhance or expand the scope of each chapter.
The important thing is that students grasp the big picture. They should avoid get-
ting bogged down in the minutia and multitude of facts inherent to any genre
survey.
This approach also has the benefit of introducing key figures such as Cole Porter
and major trends such as the megamusical in an integrated fashion rather than in
modular blocks. Further, students receive multiple exposures to certain concepts.
For instance, by the time students arrive at Chapter 7, their second contact with the
forties, they should be able to analyze the case study, Brigadoon, in relation to the

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 PR EFACE xix

musical play, which it epitomizes. Likewise, students first read about the rock musical
Hair in the context of the sixties (Chapter 9), and they re-encounter it in the discus-
sion of the concept musical (Chapter 10), the Off Broadway musical (Chapter 14), and
finally the rock musical (Chapter 16). By examining the same works and issues from
different vantage points, students are encouraged to make the sort of intellectual
connections that one hopes to foster in a liberal studies education.
Each chapter concludes with a feature called “And Bear in Mind,” which intro-
duces a musical that complements or contrasts the primary case study. For example,
the chapter on the thirties focuses on Anything Goes, a quintessential diversionary
musical comedy from the decade; the “And Bear in Mind” section introduces the
musical satire Of Thee I Sing. These two works—the two longest-running musicals of
the decade—represent the two primary musical theater trends of the Depression
years.

resources
The study of musical theater poses some practical challenges because most of the
material is still protected by copyright. I have therefore been careful to select case-
study musicals for which published scores (full vocal scores as opposed to vocal
selections), scripts, recordings, and, in some cases, films are readily available. Most
university libraries will already own much of the material. Although an accompa-
nying anthology and set of recordings would be ideal resources, such materials
would be prohibitively expensive and highly impractical for any publisher. The In-
ternet can enhance the study of musical theater in ways that only a decade ago
would not have been possible. Instructors will find a remarkable range of historical
recordings, film footage, live productions, and television excerpts of musicals (such
as those originally presented on the Tony Award ceremonies and television variety
shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show). They can also access unpublished scripts and
other archival materials. The New York Public Library of the Performing Arts is a
rich repository of such materials. Musical theater leasing companies can be of
some, albeit limited, assistance with regard to unpublished materials. The peda-
gogical apparatus at the end of each chapter consists of a list of names, terms, and
concepts as well as prompts for classroom discussion. Annotated bibliographies for
each chapter are vailable on the compansion website. The companion website also
contains addition readings, test questions, and listening suggestions. Instructors
are encouraged to make use of the fast-expanding scholarly literature on musical
theater, many titles of which are found in the general bibliography.

00-Leve-FM.indd 19 24/07/15 9:45 AM

00-Leve-FM.indd 20 24/07/15 9:45 AM
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Border
guard
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Border guard

The story of the United States Customs Service

Author: Don Whitehead

Release date: January 12, 2024 [eBook #72689]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: McGraw-Hill Book Company,

Inc, 1963

Credits: Brian Wilson, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book
was produced from images made available by the
HathiTrust Digital Library.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BORDER GUARD

***
BORDER GUARD
Also by Don Whitehead:
the fbi story
journey into crime
 Don Whitehead

BORDER GUARD
THE STORY OF THE UNITED
STATES CUSTOMS SERVICE
McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
New York Toronto London
 BORDER GUARD
Copyright © 1963 by Don Whitehead. All Rights Reserved.
Printed in the United States of America. This book or parts
thereof may not be reproduced in any form without written
permission of the publishers.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-12134
First Edition
69947
For Ruth and Gene Neilsen
 CONTENTS
1. A Slight Case of Conscience 1
2. A Time of Crisis 21
3. A President is Bamboozled 32
4. The Pirates of New Orleans 44
5. The Dark Years 55
6. Booze and Bribes 69
7. The Enforcers 86
8. Test Tube Detectives 96
9. The Informers 107
10. The Violent Border 120
11. A Dirty Business 131
12. The Case of the Crooked Diplomat 147
13. A Strange Little Room 157
14. The Diamond Smugglers 166
15. A Fool’s Dream 184
16. The Chiselers 196
17. The Innocents 213
18. The Stormy World of Art 223
19. Sex and the Censor 234
20. Of Toy Canaries and Pirates 241
21. The Middle Men 255
22. The Restless American 265
 1
A SLIGHT CASE OF CONSCIENCE
One of the most serious problems confronting the Customs Service in
this century is the control of the illegal importation of narcotics. Some
of the difficulties involved in handling dope smuggling can be seen
when it is realized that these drugs are being sent from all over the
world, by every means of international transportation. The
comparatively small number of Customs agents rely on patience,
diligence and intelligence, and they are doing a remarkable job. Since
this problem is so important, and so typical of the job the Service
does, we will begin with the story of one successful case.
On the night of May 17, 1955, seventeen-year-old Truls Arild
Halvorsen sat in an office in the Customs House in Boston,
Massachusetts, blinking back the unmanly tears that threatened to spill
down his face. He kept trying to swallow the dry lump of fear in his
throat, but it wouldn’t go away. And he had to concentrate hard to
remember the answers to all the questions being asked of him by the
men sitting about the room.
He was a tall, handsome youth. His blond hair was cropped in a
crew cut. His eyes were as blue as the waters in the fjords of his
native Norway which he had left for the first time only a little more
than a year before. That was when he had shipped out as a seaman
aboard the MS Fernhill.
He remembered the day he left home his father had said, “We are
very proud of you, son.” His mother had wept as she clung to him. His
friends had gathered to shake his hand and wish him good luck on his
first voyage. He had felt grown up and proud and excited—ready to
cope with anything the future might bring.
 But now ... now he sat, a virtual prisoner, answering questions
about his role in the plot to smuggle narcotics into the United States.
It was a nightmare he wished he could forget, but he knew he never
could. The men around him were members of the U.S. Customs’
Special Racket Squad out of New York City, whose job it was to run
down smugglers.
He heard the big, soft-voiced man sitting across the desk from him
—the agent named Dave Cardoza—say, “Let’s go over the story again,
Halvorsen. This time it’s for the official record. Tell it just as you did
before—exactly what happened.”
Halvorsen swallowed once more and nodded. He didn’t need a
translator to understand what Cardoza was saying because he spoke
excellent English as well as German.
“Will you state your full name?”
The youth replied: “Truls Arild Halvorsen.” And the recording
began.

q—What is your position on the ship?

a—Ordinary seaman.
q—What vessel are you on?
a—The name of the ship is the Fernhill.
q—How long have you been employed aboard the Fernhill?
a—Three trips, about fifteen months.
q—How old are you, Mr. Halvorsen?
a—I am seventeen and a half years old.

Was it possible this had begun only a few weeks ago? It had
begun that day in Hong Kong when he met the Chinese stranger
aboard the Fernhill and, like a fool, he had listened to the man’s talk
about making easy money. That was when he should have walked
away.
 But he hadn’t walked away. And that’s why he was now in this
strange room in Boston with these men who asked so many
questions....

q—Mr. Halvorsen, on the 15th of March, 1955, where was your

ship, the Fernhill?
a—It was in Hong Kong.
q—And did you have any conversation with a visitor to the ship?
a—Yes, I was talking to him.
q—Willyou explain what conversation you had and with whom it
was?
a—The man was a tailor and he said to me that he wanted to talk
about some business down in my cabin.
q—Had you ever met him before?
a—No.

Halvorsen recalled that he had talked to the Chinese tailor about

the price of a suit. Several tailors had boarded the Fernhill to solicit
orders as soon as the ship dropped anchor. Most of the ship’s crew had
placed orders for suits, but Halvorsen had decided the price was more
than he could afford. It was after this that the tailor—a well-dressed
man of medium height with a wart on the lobe of his left ear—
whispered to Halvorsen that he would like to talk to him alone in his
cabin.

q—What did he say when he talked about this other business of

smuggling?
a—He asked me if I wanted to make some money.
q—What did you say?
a—Yes, I said.
q—Then what did he say?
 A
a—He said, “I can give you opium if you will take the opium to
San Francisco.” He said that if I would do this for him he would
pay me $1,200 American.
q—What did you say then?
a—I was not sure if I wanted to do it or not, but I did not say no.

A
In the transcript of Halvorsen’s story, the
young seaman referred to the narcotics sometimes
as opium and at other times as cocaine and
heroin. The narcotics in each case was heroin, a
derivative of opium highly favored by drug addicts
in the United States.

The tailor then wrote an address on a slip of paper—No. 54

Cameron Road—and pressed it into Halvorsen’s hand. “If you decide
you want the money, come to this address at seven o’clock tonight.”
By six o’clock that evening, Halvorsen had reached a decision. The
sum of $1,200 sounded like a small fortune to the boy who had never
in his life had more than a few dollars at one time. It was more money
than he could save in many months at sea—enough to buy an interest
in a fishing boat back in Norway.
Halvorsen dressed in his best blue trousers and white shirt for the
trip ashore. When he left the Fernhill he carried a briefcase which the
Chinese had suggested he bring along. He hailed a rickshaw at the
ferry slip near the Peninsula Hotel, and gave the address on Cameron
Road. Then he sat back to enjoy the gaudy, East-meets-West sights of
Kowloon as the coolie trotted through streets swarming with Chinese,
most of them refugees from Red China.
After he stepped from the rickshaw and paid the driver, he stood
uncertainly at the curb looking about for the number 54. A Chinese
came up to him and said, “You looking for Number Fifty-four?”
Halvorsen said he was, and the man said, “You follow me.”...
 q—Where did he take you?
a—He took me inside the house and into a corridor. We turned
right and there was a door. He knocked on the door.
q—Was the house No. 54, Cameron Road, ground floor, Kowloon,
Hong Kong?
a—Yes.

q—Was there any number or anything written on the door of the

corridor?
a—I don’t remember.
q—Then what happened?
a—Somebody opened the door and said, “Please, come in.” He
took my hand as in welcome. He said, “I am glad to see you,”
or something like that and in the room was the Chinese tailor I
saw on the ship and another man....

Halvorsen remembered sitting with the three Chinese at a small,

round table. The room was dimly lit and dingy. One of the men offered
him whiskey but he refused and instead asked for a glass of beer. A
woman padded into the room and placed a bottle of beer on the table.
And then he was aware that a Chinese girl was standing near him. But
when he glanced at her, he was blinded momentarily by a flash of light
and so startled that he started to rise from his chair.
The wart-eared tailor laughed and said, “Don’t worry. It was only a
flash from a camera. We need a photograph to send to our man in San
Francisco so he will be able to recognize you when you arrive with the
packages.”
One of the Chinese, a short, fat man in shirt sleeves, took a slip of
paper from his pocket and scrawled on it the words, “San Francisco.”
He tore the paper in half, handing one part to Halvorsen. “You keep
this half,” he said, “and we will send the other to our man in San
Francisco. When you meet him, you give him your half of the paper
and he can match the two halves to make sure you are the right man.”
 “Where will I meet him?” Halvorsen asked.
The man wrote on another slip of paper “Lew Gar Kung Saw, 854
Clay Street, San Francisco.” He handed it to Halvorsen and said, “You
deliver the packages of heroin to this man at this address. When you
make the delivery, he will pay you twelve hundred dollars. Okay?”
Halvorsen nodded. “I guess it’s okay,” he said. Then he gave them
the itinerary of the Fernhill. He told them the ship was scheduled to
arrive in Boston on May 16. If possible, he would leave the ship there
or in New York and travel by bus to San Francisco to make the
delivery, after which he would return to Norway.
The fat Chinese left the room, and when he returned he was
carrying ten cotton bags filled with heroin, each of them weighing
about half a pound. He placed them in Halvorsen’s briefcase....

q—What happened then?

a—Then he asked me if I saw the bags. I said, “Yes.” He said that
was what I was going to take ashore and he said, “You have to
keep it on your body.” And he showed me a white silk sash.
q—Did he tell you how to use that white silk sash?
a—Yes. He said I was first to fold it double and put it around my
waist and then I could put the white bags down in the folds of
the sash. He said I should keep maybe two bags in front, two
bags in the back and the others strapped to my legs.

After the Chinese put the heroin in the briefcase, Halvorsen left
the house on Cameron Road. He returned to his ship and placed the
briefcase in a ship’s locker. He explained to the officer in charge that it
contained souvenirs.
From Hong Kong, the Fernhill steamed to Djakarta, Indonesia,
where Halvorsen hurried ashore with several crew members for a look
at the city. After a time he wandered away from the others. He was
alone, sipping a glass of beer in a bar near the Hotel Des Indes, when
a Javanese approached and stood beside him.
 “Have you got anything you would like to sell?” the Javanese said.
“Any clothes or shoes? I can get you a good price.”
Halvorsen looked at the man, a middle-aged Javanese with a
jagged scar running from his left eyebrow to his chin. He said stiffly,
“I’m not interested in small stuff.”
The Javanese slid into a chair beside the youth. “You mean you’ve
got something else you would like to sell?” he asked.
Halvorsen nodded, trying to appear casual and matter-of-fact.
“Maybe we can do business,” Scar Face said. “What have you got
to sell?”
Halvorsen said, “What would you pay for a pound of heroin?”
The Javanese was impressed. “You can get heroin? You are not
fooling me?”
“I’m not telling a lie,” Halvorsen said. “How much for a pound?”
Scar Face said, “If it’s pure stuff, I’ll take two pounds and pay you
ten thousand dollars American money.”
$10,000 for two pounds of heroin! Halvorsen was so startled that
he blurted: “That’s too much. Five thousand would be enough. I’ll
have to get the stuff from the ship.”
Scar Face said, “You wait here. I’ll be back.” And he hurried from
the bar.
In less than five minutes he was back with two other men, one of
them dressed in a police uniform. They took Halvorsen to the dock,
where they boarded a police launch which carried them to the Fernhill.
Halvorsen took Scar Face to his cabin and told him to wait there.
Then he went to the ship’s locker and removed two bags of heroin
and brought them back to his quarters. The Javanese opened one of
them. He took a pinch of the white powder and tasted it. “It looks and
tastes like it’s pure stuff, but I don’t know. I’ll have to get a doctor to
make a test.”
 This precaution seemed reasonable enough to Halvorsen. He
handed the two bags to the Javanese, who concealed them under his
coat. They returned to the police boat which carried them back to the
pier. And then he and Scar Face got into a car and drove to the
outskirts of the city, where the car swung into a driveway beside a
white frame house.
“This is the doctor’s house,” Scar Face said. “You wait in the car.”
He carried the two bags into the house.
In a few minutes Scar Face came back to the car. “The doctor says
it will take time to test the heroin. I can’t get the money until he
makes the test. I’ll bring it to you tomorrow.”
With appalling innocence, Halvorsen said, “I guess that’s okay.”
And as Scar Face drove him back to the waterfront, they agreed to
meet on the pier the following morning.
The next day Halvorsen went ashore to meet Scar Face. He waited
at the agreed meeting place for more than two hours. Slowly it
dawned on him that he would never see Scar Face again. He had been
duped. It was then that young Halvorsen felt more than chagrin. He
felt enormously ashamed. He wondered why he had ever permitted
himself to become involved in something so dishonorable as smuggling
narcotics.
He felt, too, a growing, bitter anger toward the wart-eared tailor
and his friends in Hong Kong and the scar-faced Javanese. He
wondered how he could atone for this sin. And after a while he
decided the best thing to do was to seek advice from someone older.
When the Fernhill reached Singapore, Halvorsen hurried to the
home of a Norwegian minister whom he had once met in Baltimore.
The youth poured out his story to the churchman. “What shall I do?”
he asked.
“It is a bad business, my son,” the minister said. “Let me go to the
American Consulate and ask their advice. Perhaps they can help us.”
When the minister returned from the Consulate, he shook his head.
“They can do nothing,” he said, “because the matter is out of their
jurisdiction. They said it would be best if you would take your story to
the police agency called the FBI when you reach the United States.”
But when Halvorsen reached his ship, he thought of his friend in
New York City, the Rev. Leif Aagaard, pastor of the Norwegian
Seamen’s Church, 33 First Place, Brooklyn, in whose home he had
spent the previous Christmas. On April 11, 1955, he wrote the
Reverend Aagaard a long letter:

Dear Aagaard:
Let me get right to the matter. When we were in port in Hong
Kong (March 15) I chanced to get in conversation with a tailor
who came aboard to take orders. After the usual talk about
everyday things he asked if he could get a word with me in private
in my cabin. It proved he wanted me to smuggle four pounds of
cocaine from Hong Kong to Frisco. I was to get $1,200 from the
man I was to deliver the goods to in Frisco. I said Yes!
He gave me an address in Hong Kong where I should come
the same evening. There I was to get the necessary information
as well as the cocaine. I arrived at the specified time. There a
flash photo was taken of me in order that the contact in Frisco
could identify me. I also received one half of a letter that was torn
in two parts. The photo and the other half was to be sent to
Frisco. The half which I retained was to serve as my pass in order
to get in contact with these men. I also was given the name and
address of the man I was to deliver the cocaine to in Frisco.
B
Afterwards I received eight small sack-like bags made of cotton,
each containing one-half pound. They were placed in a brief case
which I should bring them aboard in. I did everything they
instructed me to do and locked it in my cabin, later to hide it in a
safe place. I had, at that time, all intention of doing this rotten
job. Later, however, when I had had the time to think more clearly
about these things I cursed myself for having wanted to take part
in such dirty things. I came to the conclusion that I would throw it
all overboard, but at the same time a thought struck me that
perhaps I could be of help to the American authorities by getting
these people jailed in Frisco. When we arrived in Singapore I
contacted Rossebo whom I knew from the time I was ashore in
Baltimore. I told him the whole story and he promised to get in
contact with the American Consulate there, and in a discreet
manner try to find out about same. Now it was found, however,
that they could not give any direct answer as to what the
American authorities might do to me as a smuggler. They were
very much interested, but said that that type of smuggling was
something that came under FBI.
Will you now be so kind as to do me the favor of presenting
the entire matter before the FBI in New York and say that I am
placing myself entirely at their disposal in the case. Let as few as
possible in on this. I am afraid that the persons I am dealing with
on this are no small fry. I will now seal the goods and declare it on
the manifest as four pounds of camphor. This I am doing so as not
to have the ship and the captain mixed up in this affair, if it should
get that bad. Now I ask that you or the authorities who will handle
this matter send me a discreet telegram before May 10, which will
assure me that I can safely count on avoiding any trouble from the
authorities as a result of my smuggling. If I do not receive the
telegram within the specified date, I will throw everything
overboard and remove every trace of everything that might
implicate me. In case you do not want to have anything to do with
the matter, please advise me as soon as possible. Fernhill is
scheduled to arrive in Boston May 16th.
Well, now I hope that you will not judge me too harshly and
that all will be well again.
Warmest regards to you and your family.
Truls Arild Halvorsen

B
Actually, Halvorsen received ten sacks—but he
could not bring himself to admit to Aagaard that
 he had been swindled of two of the bags in
Djakarta.

When the Reverend Aagaard received the letter, he was shocked

and dismayed. He remembered young Halvorsen well because the
youth had come to his church in Brooklyn when his ship made port
there. Aagaard had become so fond of the boy that he had invited him
to his home the past Christmas for dinner with his family. He knew he
was an intelligent youth and had never before been involved in
wrongdoing.
The pastor got in touch with the Norwegian Consul General, Thor
Brodtkorb, and the two men arranged a meeting with Supervising
Customs Agent Lawrence Fleishman at his office at 21 Varick Street. At
this meeting Aagaard and Brodtkorb reviewed the entire case as it had
been told to them in the letter by Halvorsen.
After a further discussion with the U.S. District Attorney, it was
agreed that if Halvorsen would turn over the narcotics to the master of
the Fernhill while the vessel was still on the high seas, then young
Halvorsen would avoid prosecution for possession of narcotics—simply
because the narcotics would not be in his possession. It was agreed
also that if Halvorsen were cooperative there would be no prosecution
for conspiracy to smuggle narcotics into the country. The master of the
vessel was to be held blameless in this case, since he had known
nothing whatever of the smuggling plot, and there were to be no
penalties assessed against either him or his vessel once the narcotics
were turned over to the Customs officers.
As soon as it was learned that the Fernhill had cleared from Suez
on its way through the Canal to the Mediterranean, a cable was
dispatched to Halvorsen: all in order here. give it to the captain.
A representative of the steamship company dispatched a message
in international code to the captain of the Fernhill saying:

International signal book code only for the Captain.

Confidential. Halvorsen will hand over packages. Keep them safe
 until arrival Boston. Cooperating with authorities here. Everything
in order. Immunity on condition that you handle in accordance
herewith. You must not discuss this with anybody else. Wire us
following message in code to me: Have acted as per your
instructions.

On May 5 the Fernhill’s skipper radioed:

The packages have been placed for safekeeping in the safe until
arrival Boston according your instructions. Receiver has
photograph of Halvorsen and first half of papers of introduction.
Receiver’s address Lew Gar Kung Saw, 854 Clay Street, San
Francisco. Consignor Shing Kee and Co., 54 Cameron Road,
ground floor, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Signed, Captain Carlson.

Eleven days later Customs Agents Dave Cardoza, Oscar Polcuch

and Edward Finnegan boarded a launch on the Boston waterfront and
were carried into the harbor to meet the Fernhill. They were greeted
by Captain Carlson, who took them to his cabin and handed over to
them the sacks of heroin. Then he summoned Halvorsen to his cabin
and introduced him to the agents.
Cardoza said, “I understand, Halvorsen, that you are willing to
cooperate with us in breaking up this smuggling ring.”
“I’ll do anything I can to help, sir,” Halvorsen said. “I’m sorry I ever
got mixed up in this.”
“We need your help,” Cardoza said, “and you have nothing to
worry about if you do as we say.” He warned Halvorsen that a member
of the smuggling ring might approach him when he went ashore in
Boston—and he must do nothing to create any suspicion.
Cardoza drew a rough map of the waterfront and showed it to the
youth. “You will get off the ship at this point,” he explained. “Walk over
to this corner and wait for a bus. When the bus comes along, get
aboard and take a seat as near the driver as possible. If anyone
approaches you about the heroin, tell them it is still aboard the ship
and make arrangements to meet them later. But don’t worry. Finnegan
and I will be on the bus with you. Get off the bus at this street and
you’ll see a restaurant on the corner. Go in and order a glass of milk—
and sit there until we come for you. Is this clear to you?”
“I understand,” Halvorsen said. “I’ll do as you say.”
Cardoza instructed Agent Polcuch to hide the sacks of heroin under
his jacket when leaving the ship and to take them to the Customs
Bureau’s laboratory at 408 Atlantic Avenue for an analysis. “Tell them
it’s a rush job, Oscar, and we would like to know the results as soon as
possible. They can reach us at the Customs House this afternoon.”
It was almost noon when Halvorsen walked down the gangway
alone and strolled over to the bus stop. The youth boarded the bus
and did not even glance at Cardoza and Finnegan when they brushed
by him. No one spoke to him on the bus nor did anyone approach him
as he sat in the restaurant sipping a glass of milk.
Cardoza and Finnegan lounged in the doorway of a building
opposite the restaurant, from where they could see Halvorsen seated
at a table. When it seemed apparent that no one had followed him
from the waterfront, they took Halvorsen to the Customs House for
questioning. The longer they talked to him, the more certain they were
that he was telling the truth.
During the afternoon, Cardoza received a telephone call from
Acting Chief Chemist Melvin Lerner at the Bureau’s laboratory. “The
stuff is heroin, all right,” Lerner said. “It’s a very high grade. What do
you want us to do with it?”
“Make the usual report,” Cardoza said, “and hang onto those sacks
until we decide what to do next. We may need them in making a case
against the buyer. And thanks.”
The questioning of Halvorsen continued until after midnight. When
the session was over, the penitent young man knew that his personal
nightmare was nearing an end and that there was a way to atone for
what he had done. The whole sorry mess could be washed out by
helping the Customs agents trap the receiver in San Francisco—the
man named Lew Gar Kung Saw.
 Agent Finnegan accompanied Halvorsen from the Customs building
to the Fernhill and left him. It was agreed he would remain aboard the
ship until it reached New York harbor. By that time a decision would be
made on the next move.
On May 23, one week after the arrival of the Fernhill in Boston
harbor, Agents Cardoza, Polcuch and Finnegan met with their chief,
Lawrence Fleishman, at their headquarters at 21 Varick Street in New
York City. Fleishman was a lean man with graying hair who had been
doing battle with gangs of smugglers, crooked importers, and
international con men for almost thirty years. Long ago he had lost
count of the number of crooks he had helped send to prison, and the
millions of dollars involved in these cases. But he had never lost his
enthusiasm for matching wits with those he called “the bastards.”
At this moment, Halvorsen was seeing the sights of New York in
company with a young Customs agent. He had been taken from the
Fernhill when the ship reached New York harbor and he had registered
in a midtown hotel to wait for the next move in the game.
Fleishman said of Halvorsen: “The kid can never make the delivery
in San Francisco alone. He’s too nervous and it is too risky. Polcuch
had better go with him. We’ll rig up a story that Polcuch is Halvorsen’s
shipmate and that they have been working together on the deal.”
Fleishman told them it wasn’t practical to use the original eight
sacks of heroin as a decoy in trapping the receiver in San Francisco.
He agreed with officials in Washington that there was too much
danger of the heroin being lost or stolen and being put back into the
illicit market. Also there was the difficulty of obtaining legal clearances
for transporting that amount of heroin across the continent.
“We’ll have to ask the laboratory to find a substitute to put in
those bags,” Fleishman said. “It will have to be something that looks,
feels and tastes like heroin. We can blow this whole case if we’re not
careful.”
Fleishman knew the San Francisco receiver would become
suspicious if Halvorsen didn’t show up soon. He picked up the
telephone and asked his secretary to call the chief chemist in the
Bureau’s Boston laboratory....
When Acting Chief Chemist Melvin Lerner put down the telephone
after talking to Fleishman, he sent word to the laboratory that he
wished to see Chemist Paul Leavitt. Lerner was a tall, brown-haired
young man who had been with the Bureau for fourteen years.
Lerner called for Paul Leavitt because this remarkable man had an
uncanny sense of taste—and if anyone could find a material which
tasted like heroin, it was he. Leavitt could identify accurately an
enormous number of materials simply by tasting them, an odd sort of
sensory skill which he had had since childhood. It had been a valuable
asset in the laboratory, where he had spent almost forty years as a
chemist.
The problem was to find a light, white, powdery substance with
the same bulk and weight as heroin and the same bitter taste. The
taste was particularly important because it was characteristic of
narcotics buyers to taste heroin before accepting it in any large
amount.
When Leavitt came into the office, Lerner outlined the problem
that had been dumped into their laps and he gave him the details of
the Halvorsen case.
“How much time do I have?” Leavitt asked.
Lerner said, “It’s a rush job, Paul. They want it in New York on the
first plane tomorrow—in the same cotton bags which are out there in
the vault. We’ll have to remove the heroin from the bags and refill
them with a substitute material.”
Leavitt knew that sacks filled with milk sugar or ordinary sugar
would never fool a veteran trafficker in narcotics because the sugar
would weigh ten times more than heroin. The substitute had to have
the same bulk density as heroin.
For hours the chemist worked on the problem, testing different
materials, but each of them was either too dense or did not meet the
specifications in appearance or taste. It seemed that the agents in
New York had tossed the laboratory a problem that simply could not
be solved in so short a time.
Leavitt was still in the laboratory late in the evening pondering the
problem when he remembered that several months earlier the
laboratory had made a routine test of a white, light, powdery, silica
compound produced by the Johns-Manville Company as a filter agent.
Somewhere in the laboratory there was a sample of this product.
Leavitt found the sample in a storage room. He also found the
product had the bulk density, weight and appearance of heroin. The
remaining step was to make the stuff taste like the narcotic—give it
the same bitter flavor.
At last Leavitt found the solution in a mixture of quinine and
strychnine added to the filter powder in just the proper proportions.
The amount of strychnine he used was in safe limits, even if a man
should swallow a large amount of the stuff.
The following morning, Lerner supervised the job of emptying the
sacks of heroin and filling them with the harmless substitute. He took
the sacks to his secretary, Miss Alfhilde Norrman. “I’ve got a job for
you, Alfy,” he said. “Can you re-sew these bags so no one can tell
they’ve been tampered with?”
“I think so,” Miss Norrman said. Using the same threads with which
the bags had been sewn in Hong Kong, Miss Norrman stitched them
shut. She was careful to insert the needle in the old thread-holes left
in the material. When the job was finished, the eight sacks appeared
exactly as they were when young Halvorsen accepted them from the
fat Chinese.
Less than twenty-four hours after Fleishman’s call to Lerner, the
sacks of phony heroin were on their way to New York by plane. The
following day, Agent Polcuch and Halvorsen flew to San Francisco,
where they checked into a seaman’s hotel near the waterfront. After
dinner, they carried the brief case containing the heroin substitute to
the Greyhound bus station and checked it in a locker.
That same evening they met with agents from the San Francisco
Customs office to make plans for the delivery of the sacks to Lew Gar
Kung Saw—a name that meant nothing to the San Francisco agents,
who knew every suspected narcotics trafficker on the West Coast. Very
likely the name was an alias.
It was agreed Polcuch should carry a concealed radio transmitting
device to the building on Clay Street. Two agents would be hidden in a
small delivery truck parked on the street to record the conversation
with the receiver. They would come to help Polcuch and Halvorsen if
trouble should develop.
If possible, the receiver was to be lured to Polcuch’s room at the
seaman’s hotel to accept delivery of the sacks. Two agents would be
concealed in an adjoining room to help with the arrest in case more
than one man were involved.
At 10 a.m. the following day, May 27, Polcuch and Halvorsen left
their hotel and took a taxi to San Francisco’s Chinatown. They stepped
out in front of a four-story building which appeared to be a Chinese
rooming house. They walked up three flights of stairs without
encountering anyone. On the fourth floor they saw a Chinese man
walking down the hallway.
Halvorsen said, “Can you help us?” He showed the Chinese the
note bearing the name of Lew Gar Kung Saw. The Chinese pointed to
the end of the hallway. The room appeared to be a clubroom. There
were lounging chairs, a large sofa, and several tables with chairs. At
one of the tables sat an elderly Chinese reading a Chinese-language
newspaper. The man looked up as Halvorsen and Polcuch entered.
Halvorsen handed him the slip of paper and said, “We’re trying to
find this man. We were told to meet him here.” The Chinese glanced at
the name and nodded. He told them to sit down and then he went to
a wall telephone, where he began dialing several numbers. He seemed
to be having trouble locating Lew Gar Kung Saw.
Polcuch glanced at Halvorsen and winked. “Nervous?” he said in a
low voice. Halvorsen grinned for the first time in days. “Yes,” he said,
“aren’t you?”
Polcuch nodded and lit a cigarette. “You’re doing fine. Just keep it
up and everything will be all right.”
 Polcuch knew how the kid felt. No matter how many times you
played this game, you never knew what was going to happen next.
One false move and you blew the whole case, often without knowing
why. Halvorsen was old enough to know the dangers. Now that the
pressure was on, he was handling himself even better than Polcuch
had reason to expect. His hands trembled a bit, but that was the only
sign of inner excitement and fear. He hoped the boy would be as
steady later as he was now. He had been coached on what to say and
what to do under every possible contingency—but this was tricky
business even for a veteran agent.
Perhaps the best of the agents were good because they had
something of the ham actor in them. Day after day they were called
on to assume false identities and to act the part of an underworld
character in the drama of the hunters and the hunted. The only
difference between this sort of acting and the theater was that this
was not to amuse or to entertain the audience. A part was played to
protect the people and the Treasury of the United States from thieves,
looters, corrupters and chiselers. If you made one false move or spoke
one unconvincing line, then the curtain came down. The play was over.
There was the time when one veteran Customs undercover agent
worked his way into the confidence of a gang of big-time narcotics
dealers whose operation was a multi-million-dollar business. He gave
up his own identity and his own life to play the role of a narcotics
dealer. He played his part so well that he gained the confidence of the
man suspected of being the mastermind of the operation in New York.
Then came the day when it looked as though the weeks of acting
would pay off. The man who was Mr. Big agreed to sell the agent a
large supply of heroin. That evening they met in an East Side bar and
had a few drinks before going to the place where the delivery was to
be made. The agent insisted on paying for the drinks and then they
walked outside to hail a taxi. Suddenly Mr. Big mumbled something
about having forgotten an important date.
“We can’t get the stuff tonight,” he said. “I’ll see you later.” Mr. Big
ducked into a taxi and that was the last time the agent was ever able
to get within shouting distance of his man.
 What had happened? What had gone wrong? Where had the agent
made the false move that blew the case? He reviewed every word that
had been said and every move he had made without finding a clue. He
never knew the answer until months later when Mr. Big finally was
trapped by other agents. He was asked why it was that he had walked
out on the undercover agent that night at the East Side bar.
Mr. Big said, “We had two or three drinks at the bar that night and
everything was fixed to get the stuff. Then this guy insisted on picking
up the tab. He gives the bartender a sawbuck and when he gets the
change he leaves a two-bit tip. Hell, I know right then he’s a
government man because only a government man would leave a lousy
two-bit tip. That’s when I checked out.”
Polcuch knew as small a slip by him or Halvorsen could wreck the
case. While the Chinese was making the telephone calls, he left the
table and strolled over to the window looking out on Clay Street. He
saw a panel truck parked near the entrance and knew the agents were
inside.
At last the elderly Chinese hung up the receiver and came to the
table. He said, “You come back at twelve o’clock.”
Polcuch and Halvorsen left the building and whiled away the time
looking in shop windows. When they returned to the clubroom the
Chinese man was still engrossed in his newspaper. He saw them enter
the room, and went immediately to the telephone and dialed a
number. There was a brief conversation in Chinese, after which the old
man said, “In five minutes he come. You wait.”
They sat at the table waiting, and at 12:35 a well-dressed Chinese
entered the room. He wore a neat brown suit and a figured brown tie.
He looked to be a man about fifty years old, and on one pudgy finger
he wore a diamond ring. He smiled as he walked over to shake hands
with Polcuch and Halvorsen.
Halvorsen held out the slip of paper bearing the name Lew Gar
Kung Saw. “Are you this man?” he asked. The Chinese glanced at it
and said, “Yes, yes. That’s my name.” But actually, agents learned