Steerpike Steerpike

Sir David Frost: Hoover’s ‘hippie’

News of J. Edgar Hoover’s interest in Sir David Frost resurfaced in yesterday’s Sunday Times. In an FBI memo, which Mr S has seen, Hoover wrote, ‘Check with our legal attaché in London. Frost shows every indication of being a hippie’.

Frost1

A cable instructing the London office to conduct an ‘extremely discreet check re-Frost’ is below.

Frost2

Needless to say, the Feds never found anything on Frost.

Mr S wonders why Hoover suspected Frost of being a ‘hippie’. At the time in question, Frost was doing 8 TV shows a week on both sides of the Atlantic: leaving little time for daisy chains and hemp knitting. Maybe his sideburns were seditious?

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