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PE -O . a d “D) fo,” ' De UTice Meniran UM + UNITED S. ATES GOVERNMENT | tO .: ° MR. TOLSON , pate:. October 17, 1959. . . . Tolson _ FROM : C. D.. DELOAGY/, a Sees a V4 _sunjecr: - = "THE UNTOUCHABLES" 2.4) Fee 55 Rouen a Yj +... . PRODUCED BY DESILU'. . : oo _ ieee” — we . . : aoe Gendy = "=" -. ‘Jn December, 1958, Desi Arnaz advised you by telegram that _ '. Desilu contemplated dramatizing the book ''The Untouchables" by the late Elliot Ness. He asked permission to use, in dramatic reference, the name of the FBI in the story but not in the title.. By letter dated January 5, 1959, the Director advised Arnaz | that "The Untouchables" describes the activities of prohibition investigators and not of Special Agents of the FBI. The Director's letter pointed out the undesirability of using the name of the FBI in the dramatization, We have been approached three | times since then by Arnaz or Desilu Productions to use the FBI's name in a TV series. These requests were turned down. By letter dated October 7, 1959, we gave . || Arnaz permission to use the Director's name in a playhouse feature entitled _ "Lepke,"' inasmuch as this is an excellent program which will be narrated by - In 1958, Desilu Productions produced the above-mentioned ._. spectacular called ''The Untouchables." It was presented in a two-part program, had : very high ratings, and this year is back as a regular one-hour series based on the [|saze format of Elliot Ness and the Treasury Department vs. the beer barons and hoodlums of the 1920s and 1930s. Soe The first program of "The Untouchables" was monitored by us on October 15, 1959, It dealt with the struggle for power by Al Capone's old associates in taking over the gang following Capone's imprisonment. The FBI was in no way mentioned. _ : — On October 15, 1959, we received a radiogram from the Little Rock Office advising that the October 22, 1959, a of "The Untouchables" will deal B6 specifically with Ma Barker and her gang. in Little Rock had requested ee: the SAC for any data concerning activities wich the Barkers might have carried on in . 34. «| Arkansas, Little Rock advised that a preview of this program gave brief glimpses =i _——‘ifjof the growth,’ development and demise of the Barker gang. There wasascene | showing Elliot Ness, the old prohibition agent who wag formerly a police officer in - Cleveland, Ohio, firing from behind a tree an tke? in a cabin in Florida. mai) 7 .c l-Mr. Jones... : ‘ | CDD:ejp (4)