ACTRESS’S BATH

Hokitika Guardian, 10 January 1930, Page 2

ACTRESS’S BATH

COSTS £33,500. NEW YOIRK, November 24. The comfortable sum of £33,530 is the award granted to Aliss Juanita Hansen, formerly a prominent film actress, in one of the most unusual suits for damages ever heard in an American court. Aliss Hansen told a Supreme Court jury at White Plains, New York, that she took a hath at the Hotel Lincoln during the heat-wave in June 1938 and turned the shower-handle marked “C01d.”.., Instead of .enjoying the cooling sensation she expected, she sai l, scalding water poured out, and for many days sue suffered,,so terribly from its effect that she was at the point of death. Her back was disfigured, she could not raise her arms, and she spent thousands of dollars on medical treatment. The accident, she asserted, left -her 1 unable to earn her living. 1 ATiss Hansen s evidence was . sup- 1 ported by doctors. The hotel pro- ’ prietors, on the other baud, sought to prove that she was a drug addict. Aliss Nansen admitted that at one time she took drugs, but she declared < that early in.the year she had written f articles lor a New York newspaper t telling of her victorious fight against f their pernicious influence, ,

Dr Nathaniel Boardman stated that when. Aliss Hansen, who was one of the early stars in the film world, realised how badly her face was scarred, she refused to have a. mirror in her room, nor would she permit the furniture to he so highly polished as to reflect . features. Aliss Hansen claimed £50,100 damages. raww