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:
“The complaint ... about modern steel furniture, modern glass houses, modern red bars and modern streamlined trains and cars is that all these objets modernes, while adequate and amusing in themselves, tend to make the people who use them look dated. It is an honest criticism. The human race has done nothing much about changing its own appearance to conform to the form and texture of its appurtenances.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)
“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)