The Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library and Museum
presents a conversation and book
signing with Thomas Maier author
of THE INVISIBLE SPY: CHURCHILL'S
ROCKEFELLER CENTER SPY RING
AND AMERICA’S FIRST SECRET
AGENT OF WORLD WAR II
Wednesday, March 26, 2025 at 6PM.
In-person: Wallace Center at the
FDR Presidential Library and Home
Online: Streamed live to
the official FDR Library
YouTube and Facebook accounts
HYDE PARK, NY -- The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum presents a conversation and book signing with Thomas Maier author of THE INVISIBLE SPY: CHURCHILL'S ROCKEFELLER CENTER SPY RING AND AMERICA’S FIRST SECRET AGENT OF WORLD WAR II, at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. The event will be held in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home and streamed live to the official FDR Library YouTube and Facebook accounts. This is a free public event, but registration is required to attend in-person. CLICK HERE to register.Synopsis:
As a tough but smart Italian American kid, Ernest Cuneo played Ivy League football at Columbia University and was in the old Brooklyn Dodgers NFL franchise before becoming a city hall lawyer and “Brain Trust'' aide to President Roosevelt. He was on the payroll of national radio columnist Walter Winchell and mingled with the famous and powerful. But his status as a spy remained a secret, hiding in plain sight.
During this time, Cuneo began a close friendship with British spy Ian Fleming and helped inspire Fleming's James Bond novels. He also began a love affair with one of Churchill's agents at Rockefeller Center -- Margaret Watson, a beautiful Canadian woman with a photographic memory ideal for spycraft. In one nighttime attack, Watson was nearly smothered to death by a Nazi assassin inside her women’s dormitory near Rockefeller Center. Cuneo’s transformation from a gridiron athlete into a high-stakes intelligence go-between and political influencer is one of the great untold stories of American espionage. He has remained “invisible” in the public eye -- until now, with this unveiled look into his life.
In THE INVISIBLE SPY, bestselling author and television producer Thomas Maier weaves Cuneo’s remarkable personal story with vivid insights about many top twentieth-century figures, including Churchill, FDR and later JFK. Full of action and fascinating characters, this untold history reveals how Cuneo, as America's first WWII spy, helped the British launch a covert campaign against Nazi conspirators hidden in America, an espionage war unbeknownst to many.
Thomas Maier is an award-winning author, journalist, and television producer. He produced both the Emmy-winning Showtime drama Masters of Sex, and the Paramount+ docuseries Mafia Spies, both adapted from his non-fiction books. Additionally, he is the author of DR. SPOCK: AN AMERICAN LIFE and WHEN LIONS ROAR: THE CHURCHILLS AND THE KENNEDYS. At Newsday, Maier twice won the National Society of Professional Journalists’ top prize and several honors, including the Daniel Pearl Award from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and now serves on the paper’s editorial board. He won the Columbia University Journalism School’s Alumni Award for career achievement. Maier has appeared on the Today show, Morning Joe, 20/20, CBS Evening News, Hardball, CNN, and NPR’s Fresh Air.
