Ill-Advised Tributes

At a truly memorable Stanley Kramer tribute at the Directors Guild last Saturday, we were reminded of his courage, tolerance, and the value of a single human being. We were also told he did not discriminate in any way, even eating his meals with stars and crew alike.

However, after this three-hour tribute, only the chosen VIPs “on the list” were allowed past the velvet rope for light refreshment. Whoever was responsible for this shameful but subtle segregation invalidated Kramer’s lifelong career of acceptance for all persons.

FRED MARTIN

Studio City

We were staggered by Elaine Dutka’s misleading obituary of Stanley Kramer (“Stanley Kramer; Acclaimed Movies Focused on Social Issues,” Feb. 20). Any reader unfamiliar with film history of the 1940s would conclude from it that Kramer was the primary creative force behind such films as “Champion,” “Home of the Brave,” “The Men” and “High Noon.”

Her article thus does a deep disservice to the directors of those films--Mark Robson and Fred Zinnemann--and to the screenwriter of all four, our father, Carl Foreman, who was Kramer’s partner at the time.

Not only does Dutka omit the names of Robson, Zinnemann and Foreman, at one point she actually writes that “converting two Ring Lardner stories into ‘So This Is New York’ . . . and the critically acclaimed ‘Champion’ put [Kramer] on the map”--as if Kramer somehow wrote the two screenplays (which were in fact written, respectively, by Foreman and Herbert Baker, and by Foreman alone).

A moment’s consultation with any film encyclopedia would and should have enabled Dutka to avoid making such elementary errors.

JONATHAN FOREMAN

AMANDA FOREMAN

New York