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Toronto Star (30/Apr/1990) - Agent took on Hollywood, New York giants and won

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Agent took on Hollywood, New York giants and won

Sheldon Abend — once a kid on a dairy farm in Putnam Valley, N.Y., a tugboat captain, merchant seaman and middleweight fighter — is not known as a darling in the literary precincts of New York.

A 6-3 vote in the U.S. Supreme Court last week suddenly turned Abend into a champion of authors, playwrights, composers and their heirs — and, perhaps, made him a multimillionaire at the expense of some of the giants of Hollywood.

From a $650 (U.S.) purchase he made in 1971, buying the rights to a Woolrich magazine short story, there now exists a real possibility that Abend will get a cut of the $12 million-plus earned in recent years by the movie classic made from that story: Rear Window.

The court decision could have an impact on future royalties for hundreds of movies and countless other creative works.

It has been Abend's personal mission from an office on 44th St. in Manhattan to cause America and the world to know and love the late Cornell Woolrich. "A real master of suspense," he says. A "borderline talent," sniffed a New York Times critic in 1988.

Now, Abend's story is sure to be repeated often.

The original story was one of 16 Woolrich writings that Abend, now a literary agent, bought from their owner, Chase Manhattan Bank. He is interested in "establishing a Cornell Woolrich renaissance," he said in a telephone interview. "I have always been a Cornell Woolrich fan, and I felt it was sinful that these works were not republished and out in the market."

At this point, the magazine short story that was made into Rear Window looks like the best of his buys.

The movie, starring James Stewart and directed by the late Alfred Hitchcock, is a tense film drama of a man laid up with a broken leg who uses binoculars to watch a murderer at work in a nearby building. Rear Window is now a staple in the video rental stores, a recurring hit on late-night TV and sometimes a return feature at theatres.

But Rear Window, the Supreme Court ruled, may have violated the copyright Abend now owns for the story, "It Had to Be Murder," written by Woolrich and published in Dime Detective magazine in 1942.

The current owners of rights to the movie — Stewart, Hitchcock's estate and Universal Studio — may not own free and clear the rights to continue distributing it and making money on it without first getting Abend's permission, the court declared.

The moviemakers got the late Woolrich's permission to make the movie in the first place; but after the first 28 years of that grant of rights ran out they did not as required get new permission from Woolrich. He had died in the meantime.

In that kind of situation, the court ruled, the owner of the original story, song or play — in this instance, Abend — regains control over any further exploitation of the contents of the original.

Abend could not stop continued distribution of the movie, but he could be entitled to a share of the proceeds that can be traced to the parts of the movie based on the magazine story, the court indicated. He also could stop the movie's owners from making any new versions of it.

If the apparent legal victory does translate into a final ruling of copyright violation when the case goes back to lower courts, Abend said he plans to start negotiation with a demand for half of all the proceeds of continued distribution of the movie.

To win ultimately, he and his lawyers must convince lower courts that the movie does, in fact, infringe on his rights as the owner of the original story, and must show how much infringement there was and what his royalty share — if any — should be.

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