The Champion Clippings 34/37
Motion Picture News, New York, October 16, 1916.
CHARLES CHAPLIN
(...) Cartoon, Motion Picture, May 1915
& Wurts Bros. (photographer), 145 West 45th Street, New York,
1935, New York Public Library
& Wurts Bros. (photographer), 145 West 45th Street, Office Building,
New York, 1935, Museum of the City of New York
„Rushed off with the film to a photographic printing establishment“
Editorial content. „BROKER ARRESTED IN ESSANAY‘S
CAMPAIGN TO STOP PIRATING OF CHAPLIN FILMS
ABRAHAM GEORGE LEVI, a moving picture
broker, of 145 West Forty-fifth street, New York City, was arrested
and arraigned before United States Commissioner
Clarence S. Houghton, on a charge of violating the criminal
section of the copyright infringement law in respect
to an Essanay-Chaplin picture.
According to United States Attorney Harold A. Content,
Levi operated as the Chaplin Film Company. It is said
that in three months he sold outright at least $50,000 worth
of counterfeit Chaplin films, chiefly in the West. His
arrest is the second of the kind in the New York district under
the copyright law.
,The profits made by these concerns is enormous,
I understand,‘ said Mr. Content. ,That can readily
be understood, as it costs the film pirates about 3½ cents
a foot to duplicate the films, whereas it costs the
Essanay company several thousand dollars a film because
of the large salary and royalties paid to Charles
Chaplin, as well as money spent in operating studios,
special settings, etc.‘
Levi is specifically charged with infringing the copyright
on The Champion, a film owned by The Essanay
Film Manufacturing Company, for which Chaplin is working
exclusively. The federal authorities charge that the
method used by Levi to get hold of the original films was to call
up a renting company that handled the Chaplin
films and ask that the latest productions be sent to a certain
theatre on a one-day rental basis. As soon as the
messenger disappeared, it is said that Levi rushed off with
the film to a photographic printing establishment,
where he would have a duplicate negative made from
the positive films.“
Redaktioneller Inhalt
