Oursler v. Macfadden

Editor-in-chief of Liberty and adviser to many another of the lucrative, mass-appealing, Macfadden Magazines* is a remarkable character named Charles Fulton Oursler. A former law clerk and Baltimore reporter, Mr. Oursler has written a successful melodrama (The Spider), a number of novels, a series of detective stories, and a book on travel and religion called A Skeptic in the Holy Land. Mr. Oursler is a capable prestidigitator and, say some, an expert ventriloquist. Tweed-coated, narrow-chinned, high of brow, Mr. Oursler has a vaguely ministerial appearance. This facile and versatile literary man does his writing and conducts his employer's magazines on a cliff's edge at West Falmouth, Mass. In stormy weather, the spume of Buzzards Bay flies almost to the wide windows of Mr.

Oursler's study, where a teletype machine is ready to carry his commands to editorial underlings in Manhattan. Last year the Falmouth teletype flashed to Liberty one of Editor Oursler's decisions : to publish the "inside story" of Dr. John F. ("Jafsie") Condon, the garrulous Bronx schoolmaster who projected himself into the Lindbergh kidnapping case and helped Colonel Lindbergh get rid of $50,000 to no avail. A guest at West Falmouth, "Jafsie" had convinced Editor Oursler, who candidly admits his magazine function is primarily to entertain the publie, that he had "new material" to reveal.

The "Jafsie" articles ran their course, pleased Liberty's public, were soon forgotten. Last fortnight, a strange reverberation of Editor Oursler's interest in the Lindbergh case was heard when it was revealed that he had filed suit against Mrs. Mary Macfadden, divorced wife of Publisher Macfadden (and mother of his five daughters), for allegedly accusing him not merely of making editorial capital of the case, but of actually conspiring to steal the Lindbergh child. Asking $150,000 for libel, Mr. Oursler announced that this fantastic charge was contained in a long rigmarole which Mrs. Macfadden allegedly wrote and dispatched last June to New Jersey's harried Governor Harold Giles Hoffman. The editor's lawyers complained that Mrs.

Macfadden had referred to Mr. Oursler thus: "This Fulton Oursler came into our employment about 14 or 15 years ago with only $50 to his name, but with an abundance of shrewdness through his former work as a magician and hypnotist and was soon able to influence Macfadden in nearly every action. He played upon Mr. Macfadden's love of publicity. ... It is my firm belief that Mr. Oursler conceived and conspired with Gaston B. Means and others, the plan to take and hold for ransom the Lindbergh child (without intent to kill or harm it), only for publicity for Oursler and Mr. Macfadden. . . . "I feel sure that it was Mr. Oursler's intention, with his great influence over Mr. Macfadden--which at times borders on hypnotism--to persuade Mr. Macfadden to pay any large or fabulous reward for the child's return, as a grand gesture which would appeal to the public and prove Mr. Macfadden as a great philanthropist, etc so Oursler had a double motive for the crime, the great publicity for Mr. Macfadden . . . also . . . the large reward paid by Mr. Macfadden. . . ." To this citation, Mrs. Macfadden's attorneys interposed a general denial.

Questioned as to Mrs. Macfadden's version of the case, they said that the letter quoted was a crude forgery which a blackmailer had prepared for the embarrassment of Mrs. Macfadden. They also said that two letters were actually written by Mrs. Macfadden to Governor Hoffman's secretary in which, as one who had "suffered," she expressed ''suspicions" about Mr. Oursler and the Lindbergh case. Her attorney added that though Mrs. Macfadden had urged the Governor to keep these letters confidential, he nevertheless turned them over to his "good friend, Fulton Oursler," who had also obtained the supposedly palpable fake. So crowded is the New York County's Supreme Court calendar that a final, legal answer to this Macfadden muddle may not be handed down for two years or more.

*Physical Culture, True Story, True Romances, Love and Romance, True Experiences, Movie Mirror, Radio Mirror, Photoplay, True Detective Mysteries, Master Detective.

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