Screen and Radio Weekly (Jun 14, 1936)

Sa a screen and RADIO THE -MILWAVUKER JOURNAL. 3s dreddie Bartholomew's Latest Role in a Real Court Drama Years of Bickering Over Boy Star End With a California Court Order By J. D. Spiro REDERICK CECIL BARTHOLO MEW, whom film fans know better as ; Freddie, has been a star of the American cinema for 18 months or more, but none of the photoplays that scenarists have contrived for him has been so poignantly and honestly realistic as the off-screen drama in which this young English lad has been reluctantly starring since mid-April of this year. Opening*in London, the drama’s scenes later moved to southern California, where mostly in lawyers’ offices and courtrooms its plot has been unfolding week by week. The dramatic personae of this absorbing piece consists principally of the following: Freddie, aged 12 years on Feb. 8 last. Cecil Llewellyn Bartholomew, Freddie’s father, a copying clerk in the English civil service, bureau of agriculture and fisheries, who formerly lived at No. 2 Wallorton Gardens, East Sheen, London, England, and is now in Hollywood. Mrs. Lilian May Bartholomew, wife of Cecil and mother of Freddie, also in Hollywood. Miss Myllicent Mary Bartholomew, sister of Cecil, aunt of Freddie, who formerly lived at Warminster, 80 miles south of London, now resides in Beverly Hills, Calif. Frederick Robert Bartholomew, father of Cecil, grandfather of Freddie; residence, Warminster, England. Mrs. Emma Bartholomew, mother of Cecil, grandmother of Freddie, also of Warminster. The story opens nine years ago in London. There in the crowded, smoky factory district of Harlesden lived the little family of a partly disabled World war veteran, Cecil Bartholomew. The household consisted of the father, the mother, Lilian May, and three children, Eileen, then 7 years of age; Hilda, 5, and the baby, Frederick Cecil, 3. ECIL BARTHOLOMEW had served with the Canadian forces in the great conflict, had been severely wounded and had come out of the war 84 per cent disabled (according to the standards of the British war office), and minus one leg. The Canadian government had awarded him a pension and to this he managed to add a small sum by working as a copyist in the British bureau of agriculture and fisheries. At this same time, down in the pleasant countryside of Wilts, at Warminster, 80 miles south of London, lived Frederick Robert and Emma Bartholomew, the parents of Cecil, with their unmarried daughter, Myllicent Mary. The elder Bartholomew was a retired accountant. Up to this moment little Frederick Cecil had known only the care of his father and mother, but late in 1927, for reasons which have been in dispute, he was taken from Harlesden to the home of his grandparents at Warminster. It was a fateful move for Freddie, for there he was given largely into the care of his aunt, Myllicent Mary, but for whose influence upon his childhood the drama now being played probably never would have been written. Aunt Myllicent, who soon came to be known to the boy as “Aunt Cissie,” took a fond and lively interest in her nephew. She soon discovered that he had far better than average mentality, a retentive memory and a sensitive nature. Before long the aunt was absorbed in the boy, and a close bond began to be forged between them. By the time he was 5 years old, Freddie, under the tutelage of Aunt Cissie, could recite many little poems, and long passages of Shakespeare, which to him apparently seemed like music, for he is reported once to have remarked, “I don’t know what they mean, but I love the sound.” Aunt Myllicent saw such promise in little Freddie that in 1929 she made an agreement with his father by which she was to look after his education, with the understanding that the boy was to be permitted to live at the grandparents’ home. Under this agreement definite arrangements were made for the disposal of Freddie’s future earnings. These provided that the aunt was to receive all of these up to $2,500 in any one year. ARNINGS above that amount were to be divided, one-third to Aunt Myllicent, onethird to the grandparents and one-third to Freddie, to be placed in trust until he came of age. As soon as he was old enough, Freddie was placed in Lord Weymouth’s school at Warminster. One day his aunt decided that his talents deserved more than ordinary training, so she took him up to London to bring him to the attention of Italia Conti, well known in the city as a drama and dancing coach. To Conti little Freddie made an instant appeal. Not long thereafter British International Pictures was looking for a child to play a small bit in a film play, “Fascination,” which was to star Madeleine Carroll, and Conti got Freddie an opportunity to meet the director and scenario editor of the picture at the film company’s offices. When Aunt Cissie took the boy to see the motion picture executives, Freddie did a few recitations, also some dance steps. Freddie got the part and after this picture came another. Then, in 1934, when Freddie was 10 years old, in Hollywood, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios began preparations to film “David Copperfield” and set about to find just the boy for the part. In the long search David O. Selznick, the associate producer, and George Cukor, the director, crossed over to London, and by July of that year Freddie was in Hollywood, definitely selected for the prized role. In “David Copperfield” Freddie was an instant hit. The picture swept him out of obscurity, made a film star out of him over night. Soon afterward he was cast in “Anna Karenina” as Garbo’s son, later co-starred with Victor McLaglen in “Professional Soldier,” then starred by his discoverer, Selznick, now producing independently, in “Little Lord Fauntleroy.” In the meantime, about mid-September, 1935, after Freddie had been in this country a little more than a year, his Aunt Myllicent applied to the courts of Los Angeles county for appointment as her nephew’s guardian. The guardianship was granted over protest of Freddie’s parents, but with support of the grandparents, who sent an affidavit to Los Anegeles declaring that Cecil’s “mode of living and insobriety resulted in lack of care and attention to his wife and family.” The affidavit further related that in 1927 Fred die’s father had agreed to allow a brother in. Canada to adopt the boy. This guardianship action set in motion a long train of events which began with the publishing in a Londan Sunday newspaper, under the name of Freddie’s mother, of a series of six articles entitled, “My Fight for Freddie.” The instigator of these articles, it is said, was a London publicity man, and an The mother—Mrs. Lilian May Bartholomew, who sought to wrest custody from Freddie’s aunt. arrangement is understood to have been made by which this publicity agent and Mrs. Bartholomew were to divide equally the sum of $1,500, the price agreed upon with the newspaper. This money, the mother said, she intended to use to enable her to cross the Atlantic to the United States and go personally to Los Angeles in order to make a legal fight for her son. As subsequently stated by her after she arrived in California, Mrs. Bartholomew got little for her newspaper articles, for by the time she had paid the promoter and a firm of London solicitors which had drawn up an agreement, only a small sum was left. Certain persons in London, she says, then proposed that if she would go to New York, put herself in the hands of a lawyer in that city to be selected by them, and agree to supply through this lawyer newspaper stories which they said could be sold both in Manhattan and in Fleet Street, they would assist her in financing her trip to Los Angeles. UST what assistance was given is not diJ vulged, but Mrs. Bartholomew crossed the Atlantic in the steerage, and later traveled tourist class from New York to California. But at the suggestion, it is said, of a United States navy intelligence officer and an officer of the United States customs service, whom she met en route, she changed her plans. These men urged her not to stop in New York but to hurry on to Los Angeles. This sudden switch, it is said, explains reports which were circulated when Mrs. Bartholomew failed to appear in New York as expected, to the effect that she had been -kidnaped. Soon after her arrival on the Pacific coast, the mother began a series of attacks in the Los Angeles courts to upset the aunt’s guardianship and obtain control of her son. In various affidavits, motions and answers filed on and subsequent to April 16, she averred that the reason she and her husband had sent Freddie to live with his grandparents when he was 3% years of age was that the smoke and fog of the factory district in which the 4e unday, June 14, 1936 sg family was living was bad for his health, that doctors had advised her the boy should be taken to the country. She also asserted that it was definitely understood that she and Freddie’s father would maintain control of the boy and would provide for him. Payments, she said, were made to the grandparents from time to time and clothing and school fees provided. She and her husband and their two daughters also visited Freddie at Warminster from time to time and he likewise visited them, she asserted, in London. Regarding the aunt, Mrs. Bartholomew set forth that Miss Myllicent was doing the household work at Warminster and acting as Sunday, June 14, 1936 nurse to Freddie, that the boy’s father, seeking to help him, made arrangements with the aunt at her suggestion to manage his affairs. For this purpose, Freddie’s father, she continued, allowed the lad to live with his grandparents. Mrs. Bartholomew further charged that Miss Myllicent Mary Bartholomew failed to pay for Freddie’s maintenance or schooling, and that she and her husband met all the bills presented to them, including such as were rendered after Freddie had gone to the United States. Only July 15, 1934, Mrs. Bartholomew told the court, Freddie’s grandfather wrote his son that Miss Myllicent had been invited to Freddie’s screen mothers: Greta Garbo (above) in ‘Anna Karenina.’ Dolores Costello Barrymore (left) in “Little Lord Faunt leroy.” take a holiday in New York state with friends and that other friends in Harrow, England, had paid her fare and had given her £60. The letter, so the as saying that Freddie had no opportunity as an actor in England but by taking him to the United States she might be able to interest some American film company in him. When Miss Myllicent Bartholomew and Freddie arrived in New York, the mother continued, Myllicent said her destination was Scarsdale, N. Y¥:, where she intended to visit friends, but instead of going to Scarsdale, she and Freddie went directly to Hollywood, “where she had previously arranged with MetroGoldwyn-Mayer studios for Freddie to work in ‘David Copperfield.’ ” Freddie, so the mother explained, had up to this time always written weekly letters to his parents, but now he ceased to do so. After he reached Hollywood, no word was received from him, she asserted, adding that he had been prevented from corresponding with his parents and sisters. The mother’s affidavit also set forth that on Aug. 7, 1935, the aunt cabled an offer to pay Freddie’s father $35 a week if he would consent to her appointment as guardian and asking his permission to make a contract with Metro-GoldwynMayer for Freddie at $1,000 a week. This offer and request the mother said she and her husband refused. Mrs. Bartholomew averred that neither she nor her husband had ever received any part of their son’s earnings, that the agreement made in 1929 between aunt and father (which she asserts was entered into without her knowledge) was illegal and had never been kept by the aunt. “The said Myllicent Mary Bartholomew,” she continued, “has at all times intended to profit out of the earnings of said minor and is not a fit person to be his guardian.” mother stated further, quoted the aunt | TE MELWAUKLER “LOURNAL ISS MYLLICENT MARY BARTHOLOMEW made no extended answer to Freddie’s mother in the original court proceedings in California, but she did charge that Mrs. Bartholomew was engaged with a group of London newspapers to send stories to England and that she wanted to see Freddie only for publicity purposes. Then she added that “no normal] mother having a real affection for her child would make the approach that has been made in this case.” Supporting her case, the grandparents filed separate affidavits in which they told of having gone from Warminster to London in October of 1935 to see their son and his wife and to try to put an end to -he publicity which was being given to the controversy in the newspapers. At that time, so Mrs. Emma Bartholomew, the grandmother, says, Freddie’s mother stated that she did not want to contest Miss Myllicent’s guardianship. N CONCLUDING, the grandmother averred that Freddie’s parents had abandoned him ‘and that his mother was not a fit person to have his care and control. When Mrs. Lilian May Bartholomew came to this country to wage her battle in the courts, she had the help and co-operation of her husband, Cecil, but shortly after she arrived in*Los Angeles he had a change of heart. In a cablegram to the court which was to hear the guardianship dispute he said that criticism of the aunt by him had been based on misunderstanding, and that he now had complete confidence in her, “subject to her co-operating with deponent and to deponent having joint contro] when deponent is within jurisdiction.” The cable was received in Los Angeles on Apr. 22. Just a day earlier the father filed a motion through lawyers acting separately from counsel for his wife to have the guardianship set aside and control of Freddie given to him. The first round of legal battle went by quick decision to the aunt. The court refused to set aside the guardianship on the ground that Mrs. Bartholomew had delayed too long her steps to oppose it. But the aunt’s victory was short lived. The mother then attacked her legal control as being no longer necessary, in view of the fact that one of the parents was now in Hollywood. 9 \\ SCREEN and RADIO-)=) A The aunt—Miss Myllicent Mary Bartholomew, who fought in court to remain Freddie's guardian. To this plea the court gave sympathetic ear and from the bench Judge Harry A. Archbald announced that he would so order unless it were shown that Freddie’s mother was not a fit person to have charge of him. Lawyers for the aunt and counsel for the father pleaded for delay. The former said they would charge abandonment and that to do so they would have to obtain more evidence from England. HEN, bringing the dramatis personae of the drama to its full strength, the father arrived in Hollywood. In the controversy each side has accused the other of an excessive interest in Freddie’s earnings, which now amount te more than $40,000 a year. When Freddie started to work for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer his salary was $125 a week. By Sept. 18, 1935, Freddie had a new contract guaranteeing him $1,00¢ a week for 40 weeks. Under the guardianship Aunt Cissie is allowed $800 a month for the car and support of Freddie and it is understood that she also receives $100 a week from Metro-GoldwynMayer. The aunt’s first accounting, as of May 1, showed that between Sept. 18, 1934, and Mar. 31, 1936, Freddie had earned approximately $30,000, while his expenses were approximately $15,000. With this fortune in salaries at stake al! the parties and their attorneys reached an agreement several days ago. By this agreement the aunt was to continue to have custody of the child actor; his father and mother were to share in the earnings. Freddie’s earnings, by the terms of the pact, are to go first into a trust fund fer his benefit: then for the support of his father and mother, who plan to reside in California, and then for the support of the boy himself and his aunt-guardian. That was the agreement which was to be submitted to Judge Archbald for approval. The boy’s millions of friends and admirers hope that peace at last has crowned the years of misunderstanding and bickering over Freddie Bartholomew. i