2 explanations for ?Gus Hall"

[Chris Brady <chris_brady@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Some petty details:
The New York Times had Hall starting out life from Virginia, Minn., as
Arvo Kusta Halberg.
See: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nyregion/AP-Obit-Hall.html

I've read two different reasons for Halberg to change his name.

>From PWW?s obit:

??At 17, he became an organizer for the Young Communist League (YCL). He

later made his way to Youngstown Ohio where he ran for mayor on the
Communist Party ticket, under his birth name, Arvo Gus Halberg. When
Hall
wanted to get a job in the steel mills, because of blacklisting he knew
he
wouldn't be hired, so he changed it to Gus Hall. The name stuck?.?

>From Paul Buhle?s Guardian obit ?Gus Hall  American communist leader
 whose rigidity reflected his party's decline (Wednesday October 18,
2000)?:

??Born Arvo Halberg in Iron, Minnesota, one of the nine children of a
Finnish-American mining family which supported the Industrial Workers of

the World - the Wobblies - he left school at 14 and became a lumber
worker. His blacklisted father was a founding CPUSA member.

"In 1927, Arvo (renamed Gus Hall in the 1930s as part of "Americanising"

communism) joined the young communist league. ??

You may have noticed that Halberg was born in two diferent towns as
well.
The New York Times said he was one of ten children...

--Chris Brady