Tonight's weird but true case involves the unlucky Queen Esther who eventually had her day. In the 1939 case of Spector v. News Syndicate, Inc., 280 N.Y. 346, 21 N.E.2d 185 (NY 1939), New York's Court of Appeals examined a matter involving a girl (Katherine Spector) who had won a beauty contest in Bayonne, New Jersey in 1933. Although Spector was single, the Daily News ran the following piece under Ed Sullivan's byline:
Too often, beauty contest and bathing beauty pageants bring about situations that are unpleasant. City editors, for instance, might look into the aftermath of the recent Queen Esther contest, in which nineteen-year-old Katherine Spector was adjudged most beautiful of the Jewish girls of the country.
What hasn't been brought out is that Katherine Spector was married secretly in August, 1931, at Newark, to William Shemin, young Bayonne, N.J. attorney. They were completely happy until the Queen Esther contest. Shemin was delighted, as any youngster might be. He okayed a fat Hollywood contract for his bride.
On Saturday night, Katherine Spector leaves ‘Music in the Air.’ Not to accept the Hollywood contract, but to leave her young husband for the long trip to Palestine. The Shemins, in other words, have Called it a Day.
Ms Spector filed suit against the Daily News, News Syndicate (its parent company) and Ed Sullivan. The trial court dismissed the complaint and the Appellate Division (with one Judge dissenting) affirmed the dismissal. In a terse opinion, the Court of Appeals reversed the ruling of the lower courts and indicated that the article was libelous per se.
V'nahafoch Hu was alive and well in New York in 1939!
If you have seen this post being carried on another site such as JBlog, please feel free to click here to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!
No comments:
Post a Comment