# Julia Child, Woman of Mystery **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 14, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918 "2008-08-14T00:45:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/1 "2008-08-14T00:45:03Z")
Apparently Julia Child, amongst other notables served in a spy network during WWII as part of the OSS! She rocks. I remain hopeful that this is not some sort of spoof, because I just love this idea. Linky: [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080813/ap\_on\_go\_ot/spies\_revealed](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080813/ap_on_go_ot/spies_revealed) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/2 "2008-08-14T00:50:22Z")
She was some sort of code clerk in Ceylon, I seem to recall. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/3 "2008-08-14T00:52:44Z")
From her biography page on [Starchefs.com](http://www.starchefs.com/JChild/html/biography.shtml): > [@](#): > > Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California and graduated from Smith College in 1934. After college, she worked in publicity and advertising in New York, and during World War II, she served with the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, D.C., Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and China. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/4 "2008-08-14T00:55:25Z")
Well, its news to me… and I love it. She was one of my favorite personalities- hers was my favorite show on PBS when I was a small child- it came on right after Mr. Rogers! Apparently the names of those individuals involved will be released shortly-- They were not supposed to divulge their involvement before now. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/5 "2008-08-14T01:07:02Z")
Yeah, this has been known about her for a while - well, at least anything non-classified about that job has been. 😃[She tried to help develop a shark repellent](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Child) to help keep sharks from setting off bombs/mines intended for U-boats. And she was rejected by the US Navy because she was too tall! ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/6 "2008-08-14T01:38:01Z")
I seen to recall that Stuart Copeland acknowledged that his father Miles work for the OSS (and I think later the CIA) in interviews as far back as the early 1980’s. ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/7 "2008-08-14T04:55:42Z")
She was indeed rejected by the Navy because she was too tall; she thereafter shaved a bit off her height. She met her husband Paul Child while in the OSS; so it’s not been a secret that she was in the OSS, although precisely what she did I don’t think she really talked about (except for the filing). Frankly, if you were to ask her the best part about being in the OSS, she’d likely say it was meeting her husband Paul. He was the one that opened her eyes to exotic food, it was his job that brought them to France, and it was his support and partnering that supported her when her career as a TV chef took off. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/8 "2008-08-14T06:38:00Z")
That’s nice, but it’s not nearly as awesome as the fact that Dr. Ruth Westheimer fought as a sniper in the Israeli War of Independence. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/9 "2008-08-14T06:48:54Z")
What about Rachel Rey? What has _she_ been up to? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/10 "2008-08-14T12:06:10Z")
[QUOTE=Alessan] That’s nice, but it’s not nearly as awesome as the fact that Dr. Ruth Westheimer fought as a sniper in the Israeli War of Independence. [/QUOTE] That is cool! My dad fought in that war- maybe they were war buddies! ---
**Author:** ![Salem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Salem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salem)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/11 "2008-08-14T16:40:42Z")
[QUOTE=guizot] What about Rachel Rey? What has _she_ been up to? [/QUOTE] Secretly working for Starbucks. Good to go, my ass, you perky little bitch… ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/12 "2008-08-14T17:19:16Z")
And here I thought Julia learned how to handle a knife by cooking. Evidently she was slitting the throats of SS officers in gruesome hand to hand combat. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/13 "2008-08-14T17:57:55Z")
In the play _Nunsense_, the convent’s cook is “Sister Julia, Child of God”. I always liked that. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/14 "2008-08-14T18:02:30Z")
[QUOTE=Valgard] And here I thought Julia learned how to handle a knife by cooking. Evidently she was slitting the throats of SS officers in gruesome hand to hand combat. 😃 [/QUOTE] Actually she didn’t learn to cook until much later in life. She was forty when she decided to learn French cooking. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/15 "2008-08-14T18:22:33Z")
[QUOTE=Valgard] And here I thought Julia learned how to handle a knife by cooking. Evidently she was slitting the throats of SS officers in gruesome hand to hand combat. 😃 [/QUOTE] Of course, she was eight feet tall and could kill you with her elbows. ---
**Author:** ![MsFancyPlants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@MsFancyPlants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsFancyPlants)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/16 "2008-08-14T18:56:56Z")
I was amazed to read about this, too, just recently at the Internation Spy Musuem in D.C. where there was information on display about her time in the OSS. As **Campion** alluded to already, she said she deserved no special recognition for her work since it was basically nothing more than filing. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/17 "2008-08-14T19:25:49Z")
Don’t get too excited, she was only spying to steal recipes. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/18 "2008-08-14T22:28:06Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] She was some sort of code clerk in Ceylon, I seem to recall. [/QUOTE] _What were you doing in Ceylon in WW2?_ Agent Beegarten? Is dot you? “The snow is in the horseradish.” \ ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/19 "2008-08-14T22:34:10Z")
It’s long been known that baseball player Moe Berg performed espionage. The book [_The Catcher Was a Spy_](http://www.unb.ca/bruns/9596/IssueS/ents/catcher.html), which details his enigmatic life, came out in 1994. Author Nicholas Dawidoff had access to some OSS files while doing research for the biography. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julia-child-woman-of-mystery/459918/20 "2008-08-15T01:37:40Z")
[QUOTE=Valgard] And here I thought Julia learned how to handle a knife by cooking. Evidently she was slitting the throats of SS officers in gruesome hand to hand combat. 😃 [/QUOTE] [Julia Child]“Oooooh Yes..! Now that’s a juicy Carotid Artery. You know, beer naturally dehydrates the body, so if you want a Really good wall spray, you just have to plan meeting your Hun before they reach the Beer Garden. Yes, it is easier afterwards and some of the lesser chefs still do take the easy route. Still, in my opinon, catch them early or you really will miss out the best part of the assignment…”[/Julia Child] - Was Deathly Afraid of Julia Child all through childhood & now knows why \*