Yesterday, I posted a tweet from the CBS This Morning show that included a segment they did about the song "Strange Fruit," which focused on the writer, Abel Meerapol. I mentioned that it was full of interesting surprises throughout -- and then it turns out that CBS This Morning deleted the video from their own show that they themselves had posted! So, my mention of "surprises" in the story was totally meaningless -- and probably a bit annoying.
I can't remember all the "surprises," but I do recall a few of the more notable ones, so I can at least fill in those gaps. A lot of the stories came from two men being interviewed in the piece, who were the sons of Abel Meerapol, and they talked about some of the famous people who'd often be in their house. Most were what would be called radicals of the time, some of them perhaps Communists or sympathizers, as was their father. I wish I could remember who, but alas. Sorry But I do remember the biggest twist to the story, a little over halfway through. And it's that the two sons were both adopted. Their birth parents were...Julius and Ethel Rosenberg! And it's when they were executed for having been convicted of passing information on the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union that Meerapol and his wife adopted the two boys. The other surprising story that I recall came at the end, and I did allude to it. And it's that Abel Meerapol also wrote the fairly famous song, "The House I Live In." I'll have more on that later.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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