CUSTODY OF BOY ACTOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22398, 20 April 1936, Page 9

CUSTODY OF BOY ACTOR

MOTHER FILES SUIT GUARDIANSHIP OF AUNT (Received April 19. 6.35 p.m.) LOS ANGELES. April 13 The controversy over the custody of Freddie Bartholomew, the talented 12-year-okl film actor who played the title role in the picture " David Copperfield," reached a state of legal action to-day with the filing of a suit by the boy's mother, Mrs. Lilian Bartholomew, to remove the child from the guardianship of his aunt. Miss Myllicent Bartholomew.

The suit claimed that the child had been brought to America illegally and alleged that the aunt had promised to return him to England within 60 days. Instead of this he had remained at Hollywood and the child had become a world-famous player with a fabulous income.

Mrs. Bartholomew's petition said she had never relinquished the guardianship of her son. Since the age of three Freddie had been allowed to reside with his grandmother in Warminster because it was more healthy than in the factory town where the family lived.

The petition furthei charged Freddie's father, Mr. Cecil Bartholomew, with secretly entering into an agreement with his. sister, granting approximately one-third of the child's earnings to her, one-third going to the grandparents and the remaining third going to a trust fund for the child. Mrs. Bartholomew asks the Court to void this financial agreement and to award full custody of the child to her.