The Red Files are highly confidential files and documents which J. R. Ewing inherited when his father appointed him president of Ewing oil upon his retirement, the majority of them Bobby Ewing has access to but in the case of J.R.'s major dirty double crossing deals he keeps those files hidden from the other Ewings. J.R. Ewing double crosses the team of Ames & Garr with a forged copy of Jock's will. They entered into business deals based on the "Red File"(see description of Red Files below) Ewing land drilling rights and the fact that they would share in the profits from the oil drilled off Southfork following Jock's death.
Seasons 1-3 of Dallas are the only time that J. R. and Bobby Ewing mentions the Red Files in their business dealings. In Season 1 Victoria Principal's character Pamela Barnes Ewing is accused of leaking a very important Red File to Ken Kercheval's character Clifford "Cliff" Barnes. Norman Alden's character on Dallas Senator William Orloff had to resign his senate seat because of the leaked Red File.
Famous quotes containing the words red and/or files:
“One will meet, for example, the virtual assumption that what is relative to thought cannot be real. But why not, exactly? Red is relative to sight, but the fact that this or that is in that relation to vision that we call being red is not itself relative to sight; it is a real fact.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“But some who this blithe mood present,
As on in lightsome files they fare,
Shall die experienced ere three days be spent—
Perish, enlightened by the vollied glare;
Or shame survive, and, like to adamant,
Thy after shock, Manassas, share.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)