The long, dim hallway on the 4th floor of the CIA’s Washington, D.C. technical services office was the perfect setting for Tony Mendez, chief of disguise, to show off his 45-second ‘Disguise-on-the-Run’ technique.

He’d designed it for Moscow spies to use during the Cold War when they could find a gap - a 45-second interlude - in which the American officer could shake off a Russian surveillance team and alter their appearance on the fly.

Tony’s director, David Brandwein, wasn’t on board with Disguise-on-the-Run just yet. Worse, Brandwein had narcolepsy, so he might fall asleep if Tony’s demonstration wasn’t dazzling enough, the CIA officer recalled in Moscow Rules (2018). Tony had 45 seconds to complete 45 steps and transform from a businessman in a raincoat into a little old lady in a pink coat pulling a grocery cart. The clock was ticking.

“While I had rehearsed this disguise numerous times on the streets of Washington, D.C.,” Tony explained, “it didn't mean that my adrenaline wasn't going crazy. That my breath wasn't coming too fast. That my heart wasn't about to jump out of my chest.”

45 Steps in 45 Seconds

To start, Tony touched a button on his briefcase. It popped open, transforming into a grocery cart on wheels. The briefcase handle became the top of the handle for the cart. A brown paper bag inflated simultaneously, and the contents - bread and vegetables - expanded to fill the space. Tony turned his raincoat inside out, so he was now wearing a dark-pink women's coat with an attached shawl.

Tony pulled up his trouser legs into velcro snaps to reveal black stockings. He slipped his shoes into his dress to double as breasts, and put on his new pair of black Mary Janes. Mendez pulled a mask out of his coat pocket, pulled the shawl over his head, and adjusted a gray-haired female wig that now fell onto his head with the shawl.

Forty-five seconds later, Brandwein - by now wide awake - congratulated the gray-haired lady. The disguise worked perfectly at CIA HQ, but would it deceive the KGB on the cold streets of Moscow where there were Russian spies around every corner? 
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Enter Jim Olson, nuclear spy‍

The CIA’s Jim Olson was about to find out. Jim was selected for a top-secret operation in the 1970s which involved spying on a Russian communications line between Moscow and a nuclear weapons facility. Jim’s operation required him to slip away from his wife, Meredith, while they picnicked in a Moscow park. The plan was for Jim to disguise himself as a bearded Russian professor in baggy pants so he could escape his KGB surveillance team without notice.

Jim was brought over to the CIA’s D.C. labs to run through several scenarios. He’d have 45 seconds to transform while using the Moscow park’s dense trees as cover.

“You are under observation in one identity, in one location, and there is an opportunity for you to change that identity very, very quickly on the move while you are temporarily out of sight, then instantly reappear in a different identity and walk back through your surveillance without being detected,” Jim Olson told the True Spies podcast.
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Giving Moscow spies the slip

Back in the Soviet Union, Jim wandered around after a picnic with his wife, apparently looking for the Moscow park’s restroom. Within seconds, he’d applied his disguise in fluid, expert movements.

First, Jim slipped on the semi-animated mask designed by John Chambers - the legendary prosthetics artist behind the original Planet of the Apes movies. Second, Jim donned his disguise clothes which were bought from various flea markets around Eastern Europe, so as not to create a paper trail to any Russian store.

As Jim left the park and took a winding path toward the highway, he checked and double-checked his surroundings. The KGB was nowhere to be seen. Jim had gone ‘black’ as spies say. Tony Mendez later received confirmation that the disguise had worked perfectly and that Jim Olson completed his nuclear operation undetected. Mission accomplished.