Cinema: The New Pictures: Apr. 20, 1936

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Son of a retired British soldier named Cecil Llewelyn Bartholomew, small Freddi was packed off at 3 to be brought up by his grandparents and his father's sister, Myllicent Bartholomew. His "Aunt Cissie' promptly decided he was an actor, pu him on the London stage. In 1934, she took him to Hollywood to appear in David Copperfield. He was a sensational success.

Last autumn, "Aunt Cissie applied to legal custody of the child. His parent objected, charged that Freddie had been removed to the U. S. by "trickery an deceit." A California court heard th petition, called Freddie as a witness. He testified that his aunt had taken him to California with his parents' consent. The court made "Aunt Cissie" Cinemactor Bartholomew's guardian, gave his parents six months in which to contest the appointment. Last week, Mrs. Lillian Mae Bartholomew arrived in Manhattan on her way to Hollywood. Said she: "No one can love a child like his mother. . . 1 will fight all the way to Washington. . . . I'm sure the President's wife will understand me because she's a mother too. . . ."

In Hollywood, last week, Aunt Myllicent Bartholomew refused to reply to Mother Lillian Mae Bartholomew's charges that she had, in effect, kidnapped Cinemactor Freddie. Her lawyer stated that she knew nothing about the case except what she had read in the papers. MGM, scared to antagonize Mrs. Bartholomew in case she should gain custody of her valuable son, said nothing. Cinemactor Freddie himself was reported "on vacation."

In Manhattan, Mrs. Bartholomew, who had arrived third class on the S. S. Europa, told reporters that a family friend named Joseph W. Hobbs had arranged for her to stay at the Waldorf-Astoria. Next day, reporters tried unsuccessfully to find her at that expensive hotel. A New York lawyer, who said he had been retained by Mrs. Bartholomew's London attorneys, frantically announced that she had disappeared. He put private detectives on the trail of Mrs. Bartholomew and Mr. Hobbs.

In London, Cecil Llewelyn Bartholomew announced that Joseph W. Hobbs was an officer who had once been in his regiment. He was told that Mr. Levey had received a cablegram from Mrs. Bartholomew saying she was traveling "incognito." Said he: "None of the words of my wife's cablegram sound at all like her. . . . She has been kidnapped. . . ." She had not been kidnapped. Three days later she strode calmly into the British Consul's office in Los Angeles, branded as "publicity" the nationwide search for her.