In his movie
Crimes and Misdemeanors,
Woody Allen plays Cliff Stern, a hapless
documentary filmmaker who is making a documentary about his brother-in-law Lester (played by
Alan Alda), a typical successful
TV producer. Cliff, who despises Lester, his work, and what he stands for, is editing the film to make the slimy Lester look as stupid as possible. At one point, Cliff tells Lester that he loves him like a brother – David Greenglass.
In the
1950s, this was a common joke among
liberals in
New York. Sergeant David Greenglass was the brother of
Ethel Rosenberg (as in
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg). He served in the
army as a
machinist assigned to the
Manhattan Project at
Los Alamos. Greenglass and
Julius Rosenberg, a civilian
engineer with the US Army
Signal Corps, stole
military secrets, including data on
nuclear weapons.
They were caught, of course, and put on trial for
espionage. While the Rosenbergs were executed, Greenglass ratted out his own sister by testifying as a
witness for the prosecution. Greenglass actually stole secrets but served only 15 years, while his sister, who was merely a typist by some accounts, was killed.
Things like this make me glad I am an
only child.