The Great Dictator 1939 1940 next previous
The Great Dictator Clippings 304/369
New York Times, New York, April 1, 1941.
PRODUCER OFFERS AN ALL-STAR CAST – IN COURT
CHARACTER WITNESSES – Testifying yesterday in behalf
of Producer Joseph M. Schenck at his trial for income-tax
evasion in New York were, left to right, Comedian Charles Chaplin,
Chief Justice Philip Gibson of the California Supreme
Court and Irving Berlin, song writer. „A man we could trust,“
said Chaplin of Schenck.
(...) AP Wirephoto, Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1941
& Chaplin Gives
Schenck Aid
Comedian Takes Stand as Character
Witness in Income Tax Trial
NEW YORK, March 31. (AP) Charles Chaplin, speaking
so softly the judge had difficulty hearing him, described
from the witness stand in Federal Court today a great friendship
with Producer Joseph M. Schenck. (...)
Chaplin, wearing a dark gray suit, walked to the stand
slowly, raised his left hand when he was to be sworn
in, then grinned when the clerk corrected him and raised
his right.
His closest association with Schenck, he said,
was when Schenck became president of United Artists Corp.
in 1924.
,They were ganging up on us in Hollywood,‘ he said.
,None of us – Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks –
could get a contract. So we decided to form a company
ourselves. We took in D. W. Griffith.
TRIBUTE TO SCHENCK
,At first we had nothing but red ink. Miss Pickford said
we must get a man who knows his business, whom
we all know, whom we could trust, a man like Mr. Schenck.‘
Chaplin described Schenck as the man who
held the company together, and one who appeased the
temperaments of the artists.
Chaplin testified after the government rested its case
on charges that Schenck, now chairman of the
board of 20th Century-Fox Film Corp., evaded payment
of $412,000 in income taxes in 1935-36-37.
(...) Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1941
AP, Associated Press.
„In short, a man like Mr. Schenck“
Editorial content. „Chaplin TESTIFIES
AS SCHENCK FRIEND
Recalls Actors‘ Choice of ,Man We Could Trust‘ for
United Artists Producing Post
IRVING BERLIN A WITNESS
Chief Justice of California Supreme Court Also Aids
Defense in Tax Trial
Charlie Chaplin appeared in Federal court yesterday,
,disguised‘ in a neat, dark business suit. Identifying
himself as Charles Spencer Chaplin, actor and producer,
he ascended the witness stand to testify in behalf
of his old friend, Joseph M. Schenck, who is a producer
but not an actor.
Mr. Chaplin spoke with great earnestness of his relation
with Schenck, which he said was ,one of great
friendship – that‘s why I‘m here.‘ He said he had known
Schenck, who is accused of income tax fraud,
almost since the time he came to this country in 1914.“ (...)
„Mr. Chaplin‘s testimony concerning Schenck
recalled the formation of the United Artists organization
in 1924, when, as Mr. Chaplin put it, some of the
movie firms were ,ganging up‘ on some of the actors. Mary
Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, D. W. Griffith and
William S. Hart formed the producing group because
none of them could get work with the big firms,
Mr. Chaplin said. Asked whether Schenck had been taken
in soon afterward, he described Schenck as an
,appeaser‘ who had the difficult task of settling disputes
and soothing the worried actors turned producers.
,That was the time when we were not faring so well,‘
he said, ,and we had a lot of red ink on our books,
so on the recommendation of Mary Pickford and Mr. Fairbanks
it was suggested that we should get a man who
understood us and whom we knew very well, whom we could
trust and whom we had confidence in – in short,
a man like Mr. Schenck.“
Redaktioneller Inhalt
The Great Dictator 1939 1940 next previous
