FREDDIES BARTHOLOMEW

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 280, 29 November 1935, Page 10

FREDDIES BARTHOLOMEW

INVOLVED IN LAWSUIT PARENTS WANT HIM BACK Intense interest in England and America has been aroused by the an'nouncement that Freddie Bartholomew, I the English child film actor, who appeared as young “David Copperfield,” is to be the subject of litigation in the American courts. He is now earning £250 a week in Hollywood. Nliss Millicent Bartholomew, the boy’s aunt, with whom he left England 18 months ago for New York, is applying for full guardianship. His parents, however, want him to return to his home in Wellerton Gardens, Barnes. It is understood that they will contest the action. Freddie Bartholomew is Hollywood’s juvenile hope. His future was assured by his performance in “David Copperfield,” the outstanding Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production. Since that success he has scored again in the new Greta Garbo film “Anna Karenina,” and he is scheduled to play “Oliver Twist” and “Little Lord Fauntleroy” for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He is under a seven-year contract with that film corporation. Mrs. Bartholomew stated recently that while she wa§ glad to think that her son had made such a name, she had no idea when he went to America that he was going to remain there playing in films. He went to New York on a holiday visit, to which both she and her husband agreed. “It did not occur to us that he would be away for more than three months, but he is still away and we hear nothing from him,” she said. “I have not had a line from* him since he has been away, though we have repeatedly written to him. AM we know of what he is doing is from what we read in the film books and newspapers. It was from these we learned that after his success in 1 David Copperfield’ he was signed 0© a contract for seven years.” Mr. Bartholomew said that they were determined to get their son back, and that they had never relinguished their parental responsibility and did not intend to do so. “I am very surprised at the report that the parents intend to contest the case,” said Mr. Felix Cunningham, a Los Angeles lawyer, who is presenting a petition on behalf of Miss Millicent Bartholomew. “We have had considerable correspondence on the matter in the past few months, and they have been kept fully apprised of our intentions and the motives underlying them. “Ever since Freddie was a baby of three, living with his grandparents at Warminster, he has been under the ! complete charge of his aunt, and has : grown up to regard her as his natural guardian. When he was chosen from hundreds of other boys to play David Copperfield it was his aunt who brought him to Hollywood. “Since his huge success as Copperfield, and more recently in ‘Anna Karenina,’ his screen price has naturally gone up. Under California law —and this is a fact that English people probably do not realise—the Probate Court is legally compelled to administer the affairs of all minors situated as Freddie is. and has, in fact, been so doing ever since the lad arrived here. What his aunt is now asking for is merely a legal confirmation of a state of affairs that ,has been in process for some time past. “Neither she nor anyone else will be able to spend a penny of his earnings without court approval, and his money will continue to be administered, as it is at present, by a court officer.”