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On the 5th of June in 1941, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art was opened, after much anticipation.
As we see below, the newspaper ran a photo of the celebration showing several people in the museum’s central courtyard.
Above the announcement, the headline in big bold letters, was “HITLER THREATENS SOVIET BLOW, REPORT; further, “Air offensive opens in East, German bombers attack Alexandria, 100 persons killed; British troops ready to march into French Syria.”
Regarding the museum, among a small group, Emily Hall Tremaine (1908-87), then known as Emily Spreckels, was a key part of the forming of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. She was on the organizing committee to convert the old post office into a museum, from the start of planning in fall 1939. She had been married to her second husband, Adolph B. Spreckels, for just a few weeks.
Emily sponsored one of the gallery spaces in the museum to be named the Von Romberg Gallery. This was to be named after her first husband Max von Romberg (b. 1911), who died in a suspicious plane crash in June 1938; he was flying the plane. The museum opening actually took place almost three years after the day of his death.
His plane ended up nose-diving into a river in New Jersey, near New York City.
The cause of the crash needs to be re-investigated. Was it the intense fog known in the area? Or was the plane sabotaged by American Nazi agents generally known to be working in aircraft maintenance at some US airports?
Max had German nationality, was around US Naval Intelligence, and quietly applying for US citizenship, cancelling out his German citizenship. In Germany, this was considered traitorous.
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In any event, the Von Romberg Gallery was opened along with the museum, and as we see in the newspaper, under a Nazi cloud and serious Nazi threats.
Among the artworks exhibited in the initial installation, the Santa Barbara newspaper tells us that a portrait of Max was hung in the Von Romberg Gallery: “… A direct, thoughtful portrait of Maximilian, Baron von Romberg, by Frederick Taubes is in the gallery named in the baron’s memory…“
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There also was another situation. Emily Hall Tremaine, then known as Emily Spreckels, had just stepped out of a nasty divorce fight in April 1941 with her second husband of one year, Adolph B. Speckels, Jr. of San Francisco.
The case started in September 1940 with Emily announcing to Santa Barbara, America, and the world the following: she declared that Adolph B. Spreckels, Jr. was a Nazi, he beat her, and she wanted a divorce.
His family owned a famous hotel next to the San Diego naval base and had shipping interests. Both were a real prize for Nazis — as well as the Japanese.
Think of the intelligence opportunities!
Emily declared that Adolph was an American Nazi; and this was two months before the 1940 Presidential election.
Three months later, Adolph fired back: “I’m not the Nazi, SHE is” — and he rolled out a string of sensational allegations. This prompted another national wave of media coverage.
Adolph also fired off pro-Nazi allegations against Emily’s beloved first husband, Max von Romberg. He died over two years earlier, and wasn’t alive to defend himself. So Emily did. She declared, “She and Max were NO Nazis”.
From September 1940 for seven months in the Santa Barbara newspaper, you could read about development in the “He’s a Nazi, no SHE is” divorce case. Then, in separate articles with no mention of the case, you could read about Emily and others working on forming the museum.
Months later, and publicity waves later, in April 1941, the divorce case between Emily and Adolph was dismissed, just two months before the museum opening.
Did Emily want to get this divorce battle out of the way — for her beloved Max?
And in early June 1941, here we see Santa Barbara society, and museum society from literally the Western half of the United States in attendance to celebrate the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, its Von Romberg Gallery, with portrait of Max inside, among other artworks.
Key questions include: What did the museum administration and the attendees know about Emily and Max? What records did the museum keep? Who attended the museum opening?
And will the museum ever make the records publicly accessible?
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Almost 50 years later, in 1987, Emily Hall Tremaine, by then a famous contemporary art collector, living in NY/CT after World War II, died in Connecticut at the age of 79. Emily’s final wishes were to have her ashes sprinkled by plane above the higher hills of Montecito, which took place.
This parallels what happened after Max died in 1938; his ashes were spread by plane over their villa in Montecito on Hot Springs Road down the hill.
For the past two decades, there has been a pro-Nazi cloud over Max and Emily. But recent research is questioning that, particularly after finding a secret deposition of her from 1940, and evidence suggesting that Emily was allied to US Naval Intelligence, all around her from 1933-42. Was she pro-Nazi or an informal US spy? And what about Max?
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If we indeed find out that Max and Emily were anti-Nazis in declassified government intelligence, and they were indeed informally assisting in the US military intelligence effort, I do hope that the portrait of Max will be hung inside the Von Romberg Gallery once again.
Emily and Max both had direct, immediate access to that American intelligence sphere, at the highest levels.
Then, after several decades, it could be announced that the pro-Nazi cloud over Emily and Max— for decades— has been finally lifted. Finally, the Nazi cloud over them has been lifted— for history.
And Emily and Max’s spirits— and their histories— can rest.
"Live apart, work as one."
Learn more:
> See the coverage on Emily Hall Tremaine, CT's rock n roll art lady, at the Connecticut Centinal.
Stay updated with the latest in the Constitution State with The CT Centinal
