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WAS IT RIGHT TO FILM
See if you agree with these famous lawyers,
THE GREATEST drama of the age was played in a little, old courtroom at Flemington, New Jersey, where an alien ex-convict waged a desperate but futile fight to save himself from a death sentence for kidnapping the little baby of America's best-loved hero.
And out of that quiet, country courtroom came the newsreel film that has overturned the motion picture industry and aroused nearly as much controversy as did the question of Bruno Richard Hauptmann's innocence or guilt.
Attorney General David T„ Wilentz (Does that "T" stand for Tiger? If you've seen the picture, you'll agree) has threatened the producers with contempt of court proceedings. Newsreel men, on the other hand, publicly deny accusations that "subterfuge, trickery and broken
promises" enabled them to get the film.
What's the real story? Only the men who made the picture know. Let's ask them.
Charlie Ford was the man who edited the film and arranged the coverage of the trial for Universal, so I went to his office. He told me the whole inside story, and showed me signed documents to back up salient points.
"There was no trickery at all," he said, as he pointed to a photograph of the courtroom. "Here's the camera, right up in the front of the balcony, and that's Dave Oliver, the cameraman, standing next to it. The camera was housed in a blimp — that's the very one, over there in the corner." He pointed to a big felt-lined wooden box, nearly four feet square and two feet thick.
"You couldn't hide that, could you? And do
Below, four great newsreel companies line up outside the Flemington courthouse— Pathe, Hearst, Universal and Paramount. Roy Edwards, Universal' s ace cameraman, second from right.
Below, Hauptmann tells Attorney General Wilentz, "No, I never saw that board beforel" This was a tense moment when Hauptmann was on the stand.