JACKIE COOGAN’S PLEA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 April 1938, Page 7

JACKIE COOGAN’S PLEA

RECOVERY OF EARNINGS SOUGHT ■X FOUR MILLION DOLLARS. ACTION AGAINST MOTHER AND STEPFATHER. HOLLYWOOD, April 11. Jackie Coogan, the film actor and former child star, brought an action against his mother and his step-fath-er, Arthur Bernstein, charging them with depriving him of 4,000,000 dollars of his earnings. A judge appointed a receiver of all assets in the parents’ possession, enjoined them from disposing of them, and fixed a preliminary hearing of the injunction for April 20.

The complaint stated that Coogan earned in excess of 4,000,000 dollars between his fourth and his twentyfirst birthdays. ’He received about six dollars weekly as an allowance until he was 21, when he was given 1000 dollars as a gift. He received nothing after that and was forced to live on his present earnings. Coogan accused Bernstein of throwing away money in horse wagers and deducting his losses from the estate, and also with appropriating gifts from admirers. He said his late father limited his expenditures so that he would grow up like other boys. “I was always under the impression that I would take over the estate on reaching manhood,” Coogan added, “but my mother declared that I was not getting a cent and that it all belongs to her and Arthur.”