Boris Morros

In 1933, the Soviets had a great idea to penetrate America... let's get into the music business!

The Soviets found a perfect patsy: Russian-born music producer Boris Morros. He was a musical director at Paramount, contributing to dozens of films. Morros wanted to start a music company on his own, so the Soviets would use that as an opportunity to spread their influence in America!

Or so they thought. Morros did start his own music production company with Soviet money, but used it to... produce music. He also produced films, starring the likes of Fred Astaire and Laurel and Hardy. But after World War II, Morros' once-successful company ran out of money after producing a series of flops. So he was enlisted by the FBI, becoming a double-agent to spy on the Soviets! (He tried to convince them to start an American television network. Alas, that never came to fruition.)

Today, if Soviets Russians want to influence Americans, they would simply send an army of bots to Facebook and a bunch of bitcoin to some of our most unscrupulous newsmakers and politicians — we can give you names, but let's revel in the relative simplicity of the 1930s...