CONTEMPT TRIAL SAID TO BE PUBLICITY STUNT

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28284, 23 May 1957, Page 13

CONTEMPT TRIAL SAID TO BE PUBLICITY STUNT

(Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, May 21. The defence lawyer for Arthur Miller, the playwright who is charged with contempt of Congress, alleged in Court today that the Un-American Activities Committee of the House of Representatives had cross-examined Miller to get publicity from his marriage to the film star, Marilyn Monroe. This was the first time during the five-day-old trial that Miss Monroe’s name had been mentioned. Mr Miller, aged 41, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his play, “Death of a Salesman,” was indicted for contempt of Congress after his refusal at hearings in June, 1956, to give information about persons with whom he was alleged to have attended Communist meetings in 1947. The penalty for conviction could be a fine of 1000 dollars and one year’s gaol. Miss Monroe has been in seclusion since the trial started and has not been seen near the Court, Mr Miller’s lawyer, Joseph Rauh, introduced Miss Monroe’s name in a subpoena served this morning on a clerk of the UnAmerican Activities Committee The subpoena called on the clerk to produce any documents, memoranda, newspaper clippings

or any other references in the committee files that would show that the committee had received information between February 1 and June 1, 1956, that Miller was rumoured to be engaged to, or about to marry, Miss Marilyn Monroe. The Judge of the Federal District Court hearing the trial quashed the subpoena, but before he did he heard Mr Rauh argue that the Un-American Activities Committee had no legislative purpose in calling Mr Miller before it for questioning in June, 1956, during hearings on the issuance of United States passports. Mr Rauh said that Miller had not travelled behind the Iron Curtain and had not been involved in litigation over a passport, as had all the other witnesses called to the hearing. “We are suggesting that the true purpose in calling Mr Miller was that the committee sought the publicity which would come from a witness who was about to marry a famous movie star.” Later in the morning, Mr Rauh put forward a motion for acquittal, after completion of the Government’s case. But the Judge said he would withhold a ruling until the close of all evidence, including defence testimony.