The Screenwriting Mystic Who Wanted to Be the American Führer
William Dudley Pelley and his Silver Shirts were just one of many Nazi-sympathizers operating in the United States in the 1930s
By Jason Daley
October 3, 2018
When Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933, an American named William Dudley Pelley believed the Führer’s rise was the fulfillment of a prophecy revealed to him by the spirit world in 1929. It was a sign, he thought, ushering in his own ascent to power, and he announced the creation of the Silver Legion, a Christian militia dedicated to the spiritual and political renewal of the United States. Jesus, Pelley reported, even dropped a line to say he approved of the plan.
That was the beginning of the group that a Congressional committee would later characterize as “probably the largest, best financed and best publicized†Nazi-copycats in the United States (Nazi Germany chose to keep Pelley and his spirits at arm’s length). A former novelist and Hollywood screenwriter who had begun publishing mystical and spiritual writings in the 1920s, Pelley dubbed himself "The Chief" of the group that became known as the Silver Shirts, due to the shimmery gray-and-blue uniforms with giant red “Lâ€s embroidered over the heart that Pelley, a student of Hollywood pizzaz, designed himself.
Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/meet-screenwriting-mystic-who-wanted-be-american-fuhrer-180970449/#CjU77jlrC8JaxI4o.99
