Counsel for the defendant, Max Chopick, attorney with offices at 551 Fifth avenue, denied the allegations contained in the allegations contained in teh charge. The original complaint was served on September 3, 1931, and the defendant’s answer was received on October 3, 1931.
Supreme Court records disclosed that Pelley had on April 14, 1931, acknowledged the debt owed the Putman company in a personal communication to the plaintiff. The letter read in part:
“Give me a year of growth and increment at the present rate and I won’t have any trouble in taking care of your obligation . . . I now have enough readers to the New Liberator throughout the nation to make the book (“Dragon on the Roof”) a decided initial success.”
PELLEY’S REPUTATION
In his defense action Pelley set forth that: “I have for many years been an author and have achieved a certain standing and reputation in the profession. The plaintiff undertook to publish certain book which I wrote”
The books included “Dragon on the Roof” and “Golden Rubbish,” both of them novels. One T. Herbert Daniels was employed by Pelley as presee agent for the novels.
The litigants contested the case before Supreme Court Justice Albert Cohn.
Mr. Putman is no longer affiliated with the publishing concern. At the present time he is with Paramount Pictures. Melville Minton is president of the Putman company.
DEFENDED BY JEW
Mr. Chopick, a Jewish attorney, who defended Pelley, denied knowing anything about his former client. He said that he did not know Pelley ios anti-Semitic unitil by accident he read a newspaper story dealing with the publication of Liberation, self-styled leader in his “fight against Jewish domination of the United States.”
Pelley’s action in the Buncombe Country Superior Court for divorce from his wife, Mrs. Marian Hariet Pelley, filed on January 3, is pending. They were married in 1911 and have been separated since July 1, 1921.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
