Citizen-Spy

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I Led 3 Lives and the Agent of History
In May 1949 Herbert Philbrick, an advertising executive for a Paramount Pictures
theater exhibition chain in Boston, stepped out of the shadows and into
the witness box to give the star testimony in a widely publicized case against
eleven Communist leaders. Through banner headlines, the nation learned that
for nine years Philbrick had been a secret member of the Communist Party.
Throughout that time, he had supplied the FBI with thousands of documents
that exposed the operations of the Communist Party of America. Overnight,
Herbert Philbrick became an outspoken anti-Communist and a hero of the
political right. In 1952 he wrote a best-selling book that was quickly adapted
into a successful television series. Both went by the title I Led 3 Lives.
Ziv Television developed I Led 3 Lives as a syndicated program, producing
117 episodes from 1953 to 1956. For over a year, the show was America’s top-rated
syndicated series. Throughout its production, I Led 3 Lives remained closely
tied to the figure of Herbert Philbrick, using his life as the primary source of
material for its episodes. The program declared its authenticity through voiceover
pronouncements at the beginning of each episode which invoked the authority
of Herbert Philbrick, the “real” counterspy and author of the initial autobiography.
As a paid staff member, Philbrick read and revised scripts, suggested
potential plotlines, and verified the accuracy of the show’s representations of
Communism and the FBI. But despite Philbrick’s involvement, the program
freely adapted his experiences to fit the conventions of narrative television and
the economic demands of syndicated production.
It is hardly remarkable that I Led 3 Lives might make truth claims that didn’t
exactly conform to the lived experiences of those it purported to represent.
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