“I must explain to you,” he insisted. “Where can we meet?”
“Do you think it necessary? I’d expect Sally to be taking up most of your time!”
“Can I come over to your cottage?” he pleaded.
“All right,” she said without enthusiasm. “But I don’t think we have anything to discuss.”
“Wait until I see you,” was his reply.
Nita worried that she shouldn’t have consented to see Phillip at all, and tried to prepare herself mentally for the confrontation with him. Her great weakness was that she’d really cared for him and she hadn’t expected him to act in such a scandalous fashion. On the other hand, she had kept him at a distance and not given him the encouragement she might have.
Phillip arrived less than an hour later, looking pale and weary, as well he might after finding himself in the headlines with so notorious a figure as Sally Stark.
After Nita had shown him in and given him a martini they sat down in her living room. He said, “Surely you know better than to believe everything you read in the newspapers.”
“Does it matter what I believe?”
“It does to me,” he said. “I’m in love with you. I always have been.”
“What about Sally Stark?” she wanted to know.
Phillips shook his head in despair. “I turned to her out of sheer boredom. First, she was my patient. She kept calling me to her bungalow on the lot and complaining about headaches. It wasn’t until later I discovered she was interested in me.”
“And?”
He sighed. “Call it a case of male vanity! I saw her a few times. We went to Santa Barbara for a few days.”
“So you were lovers?”
“I don’t deny that,” he said. “I can only tell you that all that while I was unhappy and wondering how I was going to get myself free of her.”
Nita said, “Judging by the headlines today you didn’t make much headway.”
He raised a hand in protest. “Give me a chance to explain. Sally was far too devious for me. I know that now. She was always one step ahead of me. And I made her angry by foolishly admitting that I really cared for you.”
“That was obviously a mistake,” Nita agreed with a bitter smile. “Especially as you were still carrying on with her!”
“I intended to break it off,” Phillip insisted. He got up and with a hand to his forehead began to pace back and forth. “Then all hell broke loose! Sally went to Lew Meyers and told him she was two months pregnant and I was to blame!”
Nita was shocked by this, even though she knew many dirty games were played and studio politics entered into everything. She covered her repulsion, saying, “By your own admission you could have been responsible!”
Phillip turned to face her unahppily. “I could have been, but I’m sure I wasn’t. The timing was all wrong. But you know what Lew Meyers is like. He demanded that she go to San Francisco and be attended to by a doctor there who specializes in abortions.”
“That sounds like Lew,” she said dryly. “Save the studio no matter what.”
“And worse, Sally pretended to panic and insisted she wouldn’t go unless I went along to take care of her and make sure everything was all right.”
“So that’s how you came to be in San Francisco together,” she said. “Did she have the abortion?”
“Yes,” he said wearily. “I thought I would finally be rid of her. Then the press caught on to the fact we were staying in a seaside house together and came hounding us.”
“So you decided to say you were engaged?”
“That’s not the worst of it,” the young doctor said. “We had a call from Lew Meyers. It seems someone tipped off Louella Parsons about Sally’s abortion. Maybe some doctor friend of her husband, who is also a doctor, got wind of it. Louella told Lew she was going to print the story.”
Nita listened to the growing complexity of it all with amazement. “So what then?”
“Lew Meyers swore that Sally and I were genuinely in love, that she’d only had the abortion because her health was not good. He also said that Sally wanted a child later on, she and I were going to be married soon and Louella would have the scoop!”
“Hence the headlines.”
“Yes,” he said. “Louella has promised to say nothing about the abortion and Meyers has vowed that Sally and I will marry.”
“Are you?”
He spread his hands. “What can I do? Sally still says I’m to blame. She’s agreed to divorce me in a year if I marry her now and save her career from collapsing in scandal.”
“I don’t believe it,” Nita gasped. “Even in Hollywood!”
He took a step towards her. “I don’t give a damn about Sally but I don’t see how I can avoid marrying her now.”
Nita leaped up, facing him. “And you were the one who refused to consider becoming part of the Hollywood mire! You said you were leaving to practice in New York.”
“I still intend to!”
“I wonder,” she said grimly. “Hollywood is filled with people who meant to leave long ago. But they’re still here, holding on to what they think are careers.”
The young doctor said, “What about you and Billy Bowers? Or you and Eric Gray? There’s been plenty of talk.”
“Whatever you’ve heard, Phillip, I’m still my own person. And I intend to continue being so. Would you kindly leave? I think I’ve heard enough.”
His arms were outstretched towards her. “Nita, I do love you!” he pleaded.
“We’ve lost our chance,” she said. “Just leave me alone!”
“I won’t give up,” he promised. He took her in his arms and kissed her with great passion. She pushed him away and he stood staring at her a long moment, hurt and indignation on his handsome face. Then he turned and rushed out of the cottage. A moment later she heard him driving away.
Only then did Nita throw herself on her bed and sob aloud until she was exhausted. There seemed little hope for Phillip now. He would be caught up in studio politics on the one hand and tied to Sally on the other.
Nita had barely recovered from this shock when she was brusquely summoned to the studio by Lew Meyers. The little Napoleon of the Master Film company received her in his huge, sumptuous office. His small, bald figure perched in a throne-like chair behind a massive desk was ludricous in contrast to his impressive surroundings.
Nita timorously approached him across the wide expanse of maroon carpet from the entrance to his desk. It was rumored the little man used this long open stretch to intimidate his underlings. Now he sat apparently absorbed in some papers as she approached him.
“Mr. Meyers?” she said in a small voice.
The wizened, crab-apple face lifted and she was subjected to a stern glance. “Ah, it’s you, Nita!” he said as if her coming was a surprise and not one arranged solely at his request.
“Yes.”
“We have a problem here,” Lew Meyers said. “It seems there is no suitable part for you in our present productions. I’m lending you to Classic Films.”
Nita had heard of these loans of contract players. Generally the studio made a handsome profit on the deal and paid the actor only his regular salary. Also it was a favorite way of punishing some recalcitrant actor or attempting to get rid of him if his being on the lot was an embarrassment. Nita felt it was a little of each in her case.
She said, “Barbara Lamont seemed to think I had promise and that I did well in my last film with her and Eric Gray.”
Lew Meyer scowled. “Miss Lamont has changed her mind. She doesn’t want you in her new picture. And she has the final word.”
“I see,” Nita said quietly, understanding all too clearly.
“You’ll get some good experience and you’ll be working,” the little man said. “It is good neither for the studio nor for you to have your idle.”
“Who will I be working with?”
“A famous director,” Lew Meyers said. “Rudolph Von Eltz. You must be familiar with his work.”
The name at once conjured up an image of the erratic German director who had won fame in Hollywood during the war playing vicious German officers. Now he was exhibiting his real talent as a director, and had become notorious for his realistic orgy scenes in nearly all his films. She had glimpsed him once in the studio cafe, a stocky, bald man with a marked Teutonic accent. His shaven head and the monocle he wore in one eye made him a formidable looking figure.
She said, “I have heard he is rather difficult to get along with.”
“Good discipline for you,” Lew Meyer said. “I’ll expect you to report at Classic Films on Monday and that you’ll do well in the new Von Eltz movie. That is all!”
So Nita was summarily dismissed. She drove back to her cottage feeling extremely low in spirits. A letter from her mother did not cheer her up, but only made her more homesick. Her father was suffering from arthritis and one of Marty’s sisters had died in childbirth. It seemed that, like many Irish matrons, her mother took some macabre pleasure in lamenting the woes of the world.
After a series of phone calls to Murphy she finally was able to reach Billy Bowers. For once the comedian seemed in a good humor and immediately suggested that they go to the Cocoanut Grove for dinner and dancing. She was a little surprised by his genial mood and his willingness to go out but she accepted. Her own spirits were at a low ebb and she needed to talk to someone.
Billy picked her up in his own car. Nita noticed that he was at the wheel rather than Murphy. He also looked better than he had for some time. She sat beside him and as they drove to the popular night spot, he told her the reason.
“I had a call from Louis B. Mayer,” he said. “It seems they are interested in grooming a new star for a series of comedies. My name was suggested. He interviewed me and told me if I could keep off the booze three months he’d give me a contract.”
Nita was delighted. “What did you say?”
“That was a month ago,” he said, glancing from the wheel with a smile. “I’ve had nothing but an occasional glass of wine since.”
“You look so well,” she said.
He nodded. “I think I’m going to make it this time. It’s my last chance to escape from two-reelers.”
“I know you can do it!”
He laughed. “Just don’t expect me to join you in martinis tonight.”
“I’ll do better than that,” she said. “I’ll drink wine with you.”
All kinds of ruses were devised for the serving of liquor in public places during prohibition. The simplest one was to secretly carry flasks and spike the mixers which the various eating places served. Another was to make a club a membership affair with a private stock of liquor for the use of various members. Often liquor was poured from bottles with a mineral bottle label. There were frequent raids, whereupon fines were paid and the various practices cheerfully continued.
On this particular night the Cocoanut Grove was crowded but Billy had reserved his favorite table under a palm tree near the entrance. No sooner had they been seated when Phillip Watters arrived with Sally Stark on his arm. The entire room suddenly turned all their attention to the headline couple. Sally, famous for her platinum blonde hair, waved to some favorites and smiled as she clung to the young doctor. Phillip merely looked embarrassed. They were taken to a table some distance away.
Billy smiled at with ironic amusement. He said, “Your doctor has been getting a lot of publicity lately.”
“I know.”
“He made a mistake in even looking Sal’s way. She’s a man-eater.”
“I’m sure he’s found that out,” she said.
“The story is they’re going to be married.”
“So I hear.”
Billy stared at her. “Doesn’t that mean anything to you? I thought you were in love.”
“I thought so, too,” she said.
“What happened?”
“Call it Hollywood,” she said. “Lew Meyers ordered them to marry.”
“The mighty midget!” Billy said with a wry smile.
“And I’m not to be in the new Barbara Lamont and Eric Gray starring vehicle. I’m being sent off the lot on loan.”
“You know why!” Billy said at once.
“Of course,” she said. “Barbara.”
“You turned her down and now she’s doing the same to you in a different way.”
“I don’t think Eric had any part in it.”
Billy shrugged. “He does what she says. They protect each other.”
“It isn’t fair to strike back at me in my work,” she said with indignation.
“What is fair in this town?”
“Not much,” she said. “I’m to report to Classic for the new Rudolph Von Eltz film on Monday.”
“Aha!” Billy said. “Now I’m sure it’s Barbara’s doing. She’s turned you over to the ‘Dirty Hun.’”
She said, “Is he called that because of the orgy scenes in his pictures?”
“Partly,” the comedian said. “And because much of the filming of his orgies is so realistic. Do you know that filming of them sometimes goes on for twenty-four hours behind locked studio doors and he treats both principals and extras to squab, caviar and champagne? His extras are hand picked for their loose morals. Some of the women he uses have been imported here from bordellos.”
Nita was shocked. “I can’t believe it!”
“Ah, but it’s true,” he replied. “And there’s also drugs. I’ve heard stories of girls coming out of these sets bleary-eyed and staggering. Some of them covered with bites and whip marks!”
“Don’t tell me any more!” Nita protested, appalled.
“I’m simply warning you about the kind of cesspool they’re sending you into,” he said.
“But Von Eltz is praised by many of the critics. He must have talent!”
“He’s a mad genius,” Billy said. “Personally, I can do without him.”
“If I don’t take the job I’ll be suspended, and probably end with my contract broken.”
Billy frowned. “You’ll have to take the job. But be on your guard all the time. You’re smart enough to take care of yourself.”
“I’m glad you think so,” she worried. “I’m not all that sure.”
Billy ordered rack of lamb and they drank red wine. After dinner the orchestra played and Billy and Nita danced to “California, Here I Come,” “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Toot, Toot, Tootsie Goodbye.” She had never seen the normally shy man in such an outgoing mood. It was apparent that sobriety agreed with him.
“I feel wonderful,” he told her as they returned to their table.
“You must stay as you are until Louis B. Mayer sees you again,” she said. “You’re bound to get a contract.”