William Dudley Pelley
by Mark McFadden, DGML 8992
In the course of my reading I've found this personality that begs to be added to Karotechia history.
There's a pretty good overview at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dudley_Pelley
Here are some excerpts:
"Not only did Pelley produce numerous screenplays and become a
respected figure in the movie business, but he also established himself
as novelist and became one of the most popular authors of the time
period. Pelley eventually became disillusioned in Hollywood, however,
and had practically left the film industry by 1929. In 1928, Pelley
claimed to have had an out of body experience, which he detailed in the
pamphlet “My Seven Minutes in Eternity.” Pelley subsequently became
fascinated with metaphysics and Christianity and gained a newfound
popularity with his numerous publications on the subjects."
and
"In 1933, when Adolf Hitler seized control of Germany, Pelley (an
ardent fascist and admirer of Hitler and Mein Kampf) was inspired to
form a political movement and founded the Silver Legion, a fascist
organization whose followers (known as the Silver Shirts and “Christian
Patriots”) wore Nazi-like silver uniforms. The Silver Legion’s emblem
was a scarlet L, which was featured on their flags and uniforms. Pelley
founded chapters of the Silver Legion in almost every state in the
country, and soon gained a considerable amount of followers."
Here's his page in the IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0671163/
If you are looking for writing with that paranoid Thule-ish bouquet,
try Pelley's "The 45 Questions Most Frequently Asked About the Jews",
which can be found at:
http://www.come-and-hear.com/supplement/pelley.html
Those "seven minutes in eternity" seem to have hit him about as hard
as David Icke's epiphany. Hey, it led to both of them wearing funny clothes.
Pelley's "Why I Believe the Dead Are Alive" can be found at:
http://www.harvestfields.ca/ebook/02/036/01.htm
It would appear that Pelley was thinking up his own American version
of Theosophy, what with his mental voyages to the Seventh Sphere and all.
There is also an online copy of Pelley's 'Beyond Grandeur: Design For
Immortality' at:
http://www.sanctusgermano.net/books/Beyond%20Grandeur%20by%20William%20D.Pelley.pdf
With chapters such as 'The Meaning of Mind', 'The Meaning of Space',
and 'The Meaning of Eternity', you know it has to be good. Informative,
too. It ain't everyone that's qualified to give the definitive Meaning
of such vast subjects.
A picture of him (on a Wanted poster) can be found at:
http://toto.lib.unca.edu/vertical_files/pelley/pelley.htm
Pelley helped disseminate an anti-Semitic document that for a short
time (although according to the ADL it has recently re-raised it's ugly
head) became almost as infamous as the 'Protocols of the Learned Elders
of Zion'. Called the Franklin Prophecy, it is claimed to be a speech
delivered by Benjamin Franklin during the Constitutional Convention of
1787. The fake speech has Franklin issuing a dire warning that unless
Jews were expelled from the new nation by Constitutional decree they
would ultimately immigrate in great numbers to the detriment of the
Christian population.
Pelley published it in 1934 in 'Liberation'.
If you want to see how he is remembered by fellow travelers, try out a
bio written about him from Stormfront:
http://www.stormfront.org/pelley.htm
"Pelley's life as a White Patriot was similarly meteoric. He was our
country's first racial activist in the National Socialist style. He was
the predecessor to Commander Rockwell and the White Power Movement in
America Today. His living martyrdom in the belly of the Jew beast won
him a place of honor in the hearts of fellow fighters who came after
him. He did not fail, as he thought, any more than a brave soldier who
does his best when captured by the enemy fails."
and
"From the outset, however, Pelley was faced with a serious dilemma:
While he wanted to clearly identify his organization as National
Socialist, he was anxious to make it appear as American as possible.
Although he loved the Swastika symbol and understood its pan-Aryan
significance, he knew too, that it was the official emblem of a foreign
power. He did not wish to create the impression that he was the agent of
another country. Instead of the old Hooked Cross, he chose the letter
"L" as the symbol of his new organization. It was simple to reproduce
under a variety of circumstances and stood for Love of the Aryan Race,
Loyalty to the American Republic, Liberation from Jewry and, of course,
the Silver Legion itself. He personally designed its flag, a square,
white standard emblazoned with a capital L in scarlet. For the next nine
years, it was to be seen by millions of Americans, carried into vicious
street battles and hoisted over every state in the Union."
and
"At the height of his career's success and his emotional turmoil, on
May 29th, 1928, he was suddenly and unexpectedly confronted by a deeply
moving personal experience. He wrote about it in My Seven Minutes in
Eternity, which sold 90,000 copies. Before 1930, he received more than
20,000 letters from his readers. Despite the pamphlet's phenomenal
success, the author revealed few details concerning his experience,
beyond his insistence that synchronous events of personally significant
"coincidences" are occurrences in everyone's life that connect us to
some Divine Plan. Never before a religious man, Pelley was no St. Paul
struck off his horse by God's holy lightning. Whatever happened to him,
it appears to have been not unlike the vision of a young Hitler had of
his life when, as a 15 year-old student in Linz, Austria, something in a
performance of Wagner's music showed him a glimpse of his future
mission. Such personally significant happenings are not at all that
rare, but usually occur to revolutionary personalities of a high order.
In any case, Pelley saw that he was wasting his time in "the necromancy
of making movies" that where becoming more anti-Gentile, and determined
to devote the rest of his life doing meaningful work, whatever that
turned out to be. He was ready for greatness, he felt, but lacked any
sense of direction."
Oh, and her's an odd bit. It seems that he had a connection to the
Serpent Volk:
"Returning to the United States a changed and shaken man, Pelley made
his report to Representative Louis F. McFadden of Pennsylvania in 1920.
The politician was so alarmed at what he heard, he personally read aloud
the Protocols for the Learned Elders of Zion on the floor of Congress,
officially introducing this vitally important document into the
Congressional Record."
ObDG:
That epiphany of Pelley's is evocative. Similar to Hitler's while
watching Wagner. Pelley seems like a suitable character to make the
focus of an alternate history.
Those mystical musings of his could have led him to dabbling in the
occult. I wonder if he was visited by a transcendant Nathan Bedford Forrest?
I wonder if the Triumvirate would want to resurrect him as a
Lebenstoten liaison to the American neo-Nazi movements?
