She went to him and sighed, “What an idiot I am to be in love with you!”
“Ain’t it the truth!” Marty chuckled as he kissed her and held her close, sending the usual thrills through her. There was no question that he had the gift of easily stirring her physically.
She looked up at him dreamily. “Do you know we’re supposed to me at the office of the Justice of Peace in an hour?”
Marty groaned. “And I can’t even think yet!”
“You’d better work on it,” she told him.
He cleaned up and dressed. His jacket was presentable and he was able to wear it. Just to make sure there was no odor lingering Anita sprayed it with some cologne. Marty expressed distaste with this but she could see that he was secretly pleased.
They left for the tiny office of the JP hand in hand. The others were already there waiting for them. Romero gave her a bunch of roses and smilingly told her, “I promise I didn’t pull them out of my sleeve and they won’t vanish!”
“Thank you,” she said, kissing him on the cheek. “You’re a dear!”
Belle Ames was standing by, dressed in her best two piece woolen suit. She had a boutonniere for Marty.
“Just what I needed,” Marty declared and kissed her.
The Justice of the Peace was a doleful little man with a small gray mustache and thin graying hair. He also had one turned-in eye which made him look almost a double for the cross-eyed comedian Ben Turpin. This came to Anita’s mind as she and Marty stood before him and she had a hard time keeping her mind on the event.
He had a squeaky voice and conducted the brief ceremony in an almost automatic fashion, no doubt because he’d married people endless times before. They all had to sign the register. Anita was proud of the wide, brass wedding ring which Marty had picked up in some local jewelery store. The little man shook hands with them and wished them well and they all left his office together.
On the street she burst into laughter and said, “I can’t help it! We were just married by Ben Turpin!”
They went on to a local restaurant for a wedding luncheon, a simple affair of bacon and eggs. Toasts were drunk in water but Romero produced a flask from an inner pocket and laced the water generously with whiskey. They lingered at the table until mid-afternoon and became hilarious though not truly drunken.
Then Anita and Marty said goodbye to the others and went back to their room. Since they had several hours before having to report to the theatre Marty at once undressed her and set about enjoying his marital rights.
Making love in the afternoon seemed immoral to Anita, even though they were married. She’d always imagined that married people only made love in the dark late on Saturday night. Marty hadn’t even drawn the blinds, so they romped on the bed in the bright afternoon sunshine.
The experience wasn’t as painful as it had been the first time and Anita actually began to enjoy his thrustings. He seemed insatiable. He’d make love to her and then stretch out for a few minutes, only to begin again.
As the time to go to the theatre drew near she had to warn him, “You’ll wear yourself out! How will you have the energy to dance tonight?”
Astride her the naked Marty leered, “Don’t you worry about me, honey!”
She did worry and finally she coaxed him into getting dressed and ready. He was in his best mood and she wondered if married life would be like this every day. If so, she knew it was going to be an exhausting experience for her.
They reached the theatre barely in time. Marty went on and did his act while she watched in the wings. When Marty took his usual curtain calls, little Sherman Kress trotted out and with one of his famous fake smiles announced that Marty had taken himself a bride that very day. And then the little man came into the wings and dragged Anita onstage, blushing and smiling. The audience were kind and gave her a fine ovation and she was very happy indeed.
So Anita’s married life began. She’d been relatively innocent about sex until she’d married Marty. Now her training began and she was introduced to every variety of loving that active young lothario had picked up in brothels on the road during the several years he’d been in vaudeville.
Belle Ames and Madame Irma daily gave her stern warnings to avoid becoming pregnant, but with Marty after her every spare moment, she couldn’t think that this would long be possible.
They continued to play a series of small towns first in Ohio and then in Illinois. The weather became hot and the theatres were like ovens much of the time with only weak fan systems to cool them. Percy the seal was feeling the heat badly and not his usual perky self, while Belle met the crisis by wearing no undies beneath her skimpy costumes, which brought some outraged complaints from several ladies’ groups in the places they played.
When the heat was at its worst, Marty began to drink heavily again. No matter where they were playing he seemed to find a source of supply. Anita begged, argued and even refused to go to bed with him, but it only kept him sober at intervals.
She was beginning to be a worldly-wise trouper’s wife, but she was tired of standing during the performance and doing nothing and began to pester Marty about letting her join the act. She had written home that she was going to be his partner and she wanted to be able to send her angry folks the proof that she’d not made the mistake they’d insisted when she’d married Marty.
One hot night in their tiny hotel room she halted him as he prepared to make love to her for a third time, saying, “Only if tomorrow you begin to train me for the act!”
“Sure, honey,” he said kissing her and placing his sweaty naked body over hers.
The next morning she reminded him first thing when they woke up. “Today is the day!”
Marty frowned at her and ran a hand through his touseled red hair. “What’s today?”
“You start training me for the new act!”
He sat up abruptly. “Where did you get that idea?”
“You promised me last night!” she protested.
Marty grinned and reached over and caressed one of her nipples. “I’ll say anything when I want it!”
Anita pushed his hand away and jumped out of bed. Pointing a finger at him, she warned him, “You’ll not be getting anything until you keep your word!”
So her dance training began. Anita picked up steps fast. Marty borrowed a small wind-up phonograph from Madame Irma for their rehearsals. He had several records especially made for tap dancing and they were played over until Anita expected they’d be worn out. She ended every session weary. But it was a new interest, and it diverted Marty from spending all his spare time with bootleg booze and sex.
Anita sweated and worked all through the summer and by the time the cooler days of autumn arrived she was good enough to make her first appearance. There was only one catch. Sherman Kress didn’t mean to hire another performer, so Marty had to make a deal.
He told the little man, “Anita will work free. We’ll call the act Nita and Nolan. You’ll be getting two for one.”
“Okay,” Kress said sourly. “But don’t get any ideas about holding me up. The two of you together are no better than one good talent.”
Anita asked Marty in their dressing room, “Why do you let him talk to you like that?”
Marty assumed one of his jaunty poses. “Because we can wait. We’ll smooth the act off with this unit and when we’re ready we’ll move on. Get a booking with some decent outfit!”
She saw the wisdom of the idea and went along with it. Anita’s first performance was in a small Pennsylvania town with an audience of hard-working coal miners. Not an easy audience to please, she was warned.
Sherman Kress announced them with a flourish: “And direct from Broadway, New York, the flashy team of Nita and Nolan!” Anita and Marty danced on. Anita wore a skimpy spangled bra and a tiny skirt of the same material which displayed her long, slender legs to best advantage. She thought she would faint with stage fright but the knowledge that Madame Irma, Belle and Romero, along with Pontiface and Percy,
were all cheering for her from the wings, kept her going.
Then came the comedy skit, and though Anita’s voice trembled at first, she was able to make the proper saucy replies to Marty’s teasing comments. This went over well.
When they went into a second dance routine, it seemed they had won the audience over completely. The curtain fell to great applause.
Madame Irma came over and took Anita in her arms and cried, “You’re a natural, dearie! You’ve got true talent!”
Romero kissed her, Pontiface congratulated her gravely and Percy made seal sounds of approval. Only little Sherman Kress was restrained in his comments.
He frowned at her. “You could do better than that outfit. And you should smile more, though I admit that’s not easy with a partner like Marty.”
Marty made a mock gesture of punching the little man. “You always say the right thing, boss!” he said as Sherman Kress marched off with dignity.
Nita (for now this became her name) felt things had to get better. And they did for a while. Letters from Billy Bowers in Hollywood continued to arrive at intervals. Billy wrote about the Fatty Arbuckle scandal and said it had calmed down Hollywood for a while, but there was lots of excitement still going on. He had been friendly with Arbuckle but thought the fat man had lost all control. And he was repulsed by his part in the death of that unfortunate girl at his party in San Francisco. Bowers again suggested that Marty try his luck on the West Coast.
Marty held the latest letter in his hand and said, “If we could only get bookings to take us out there!”
“We could make the trip and be paid along the way,” she agreed. “But how do you arrange it?”
Marty’s youthful face was grim. “We’ll have to get away from this cheap circuit and go to New York. All the important booking is done there.”
“Do you think they’d even look at our act?” she worried.
Marty was indignant. “I’m a name! Maybe not a big one! But I’ve been in the business a few years. They’re bound to give me an audition. And when they see what we can do, we’re on our way!”
Nita was thrilled. The drudgery of one night stands bothered her less now that she knew that they would soon be heading for New York City.
Then she visited one of the small town doctors after a few worrisome months and came away with the unwelcome information that she was pregnant.
Chapter Three
Anita had suspected for some time but she’d been afraid to face up to the truth. Now there was no question about it. She waited until she and Marty returned to their room that night and before they undressed for bed she told him in faltering fashion. Marty stared at her with shocked dismay as if she’d just informed him she’d contracted leprosy.
“Maybe it’s a mistake!” he said hopefully.
“No!”
He was visibly growing more distressed. “Maybe it can be fixed! How long?”
“Almost four months,” she told him.
“Four months! You ninny! Why didn’t you do something about it before?”
Tears brimmed in her eyes. She had hoped he would be happy at the news of his impending fatherhood. She said, “I was afraid.”
He began to pace angrily before her. “You darn well should be afraid! What have you done to us? Just when we’re ready to make our big break!”
She couldn’t resist saying, “I didn’t do it alone!”
He whirled on her angrily. “You enjoyed yourself just as much as me! Don’t deny it!”
She lashed out at him in the same vein, “And I’m not afraid to pay the price! You are!”
Marty scowled. “Smart women don’t let this happen! I’m married to a dummy!” And with that he turned and left the room, slamming the door after him.
Nita knew him well enough to guess what he’d do. And he did. He returned in the small hours of the morning almost unable to walk. She helped him inside and onto the bed. Just another night of having to sleep in a chair, she thought wearily. She didn’t dare allow herself to think of anything else.
In the morning she brought him the usual coffee. He drank it and sulked. After a little, he said, “I’d better start doing the act as a single again.”
“I can carry on for another month or so. The doctor told me it would be safe enough.”
From his seat on the side of the bed he scowled at her. “I can’t let you go on with a pot belly!”
Her cheeks burning, she said, “Don’t worry. I’ll not embarrass you!”
He sighed. “It’s all right. I just haven’t gotten used to the idea.”
“That’s easy to see.”
“I’ve had big plans for us. This will end everything!”
“I don’t see why,” she said, sitting by him. “Lots of other vaudeville people have kids and keep going.”
“In the small time,” he said bitterly. “Now we’ll be locked in!”
“What about the Cohans? They’re big time, and they built their fame on a family act.”
“They were always big time,” he said sullenly. “It’s not the same with us.”
“I’ll only be out of the act a few months. We can take the baby along with us. Lots of acts do.”
“Yeah, I suppose so,” he said, rising. “I guess it will be a long time before we see the West Coast and Billy Bowers.”
“You never can tell,” she said. But she knew her optimism was lost on him. He was still down in the dumps and determined to blame her pregnancy for everything.
The rest of the company were sympathetic once the word got around. Most of them pitied her. They saw how Marty was rebelling at the prospect of the baby’s arrival and thought she had made the ultimate mistake in becoming pregnant. The baby would make it harder to gain her freedom from him.
But Nita wasn’t ready to give up so easily. She still loved Marty despite his weaknesses — perhaps because of them. She hoped they could see this crisis through together and he would emerge a stronger person for it. As for herself, she doubted that any woman was truly sad about becoming a mother. She was looking forward to the baby and hoping it would be a boy so she could call it Marty.
Then came a series of weeks when she felt hope ebbing away. She was ready to leave the act for the rest of her term though she still wasn’t showing any outward signs of her pregnancy. Marty was drinking every night now instead of only once in a while. And worse, he was coming to the theatre drunk. She kept on in the act with him longer than she intended because she was afraid he couldn’t manage on his own in his drunken state. One night he stumbled and almost fell in the last dance routine and another night he slurred his spoken lines so badly they could not be understood.
She warned him backstage one night, “If you go on like this we won’t even be able to hold this job!”
“I don’t want it anyway,” he said with drunken bravado and tipped a half-empty flask to his lips.
“What a coward you are!” she shot at him.
“Yeah?” he eyed her blearily.
“Taking your spite out on a poor little child that hasn’t even been born yet!”
He got up and faced her angrily. “Never should be born!” he said. And he brushed by her and went out to wait backstage for their second appearance of the evening.
Nita went down the iron steps to the stage level and saw Marty talking with Romero. He paid no attention to her as she took her place in the wings ready for their entrance. Only at the last minute, when she was frantic, did he finally join her and go on with her to do the act.
All went well until the final dance number. Just before the finish of the act he missed a step. He tried to cover his mistake and almost caused her to trip and fall. The dance ended in confusion instead of the usual smooth fashion, and there was only a tiny spattering of applause.
Sherman Kress came up to Marty with his fist clenched, and rasped, “You drunken bum! One more performance like that and you’re out! I’m only keeping you now because of Nita!” And he turned his back on the swaying, perspiring Marty.
Marty gave her a crooked smile. “Seems you’re the star now, honey!”
She didn’t bother to argue with him but went back to the dressing room and changed into her street clothes, then returned alone to their boarding house room. Marty didn’t come home that night or the following day when they took the train to the next town. He’d vanished for a little while at other times when they’d had quarrels but he always returned in time for the performance. She felt this would happen again.
Sherman Kress came and sat beside her in the second-class car seat. The little man was clearly concerned. “What about Marty? Do you think he’ll show up?”
“I’m certain of it. He always has.”
“But his drinking has been getting worse. It will be no good if he shows up again like he did last night.”
“I agree,” she said. “But I think he’ll sober up and follow us on the next train. He could still make the first show.”
Kress shook his head. “I’d have fired him long ago if it hadn’t been for you. And knowing you have a baby on the way.”
“That’s what’s upset Marty.”
“He ought to be pleased!”
“He’s little more than a boy himself,” she said with a wistful smile. “With all a boy’s dreams and lack of desire for any responsibilities. He may look like a man but I know him!”
Kress gave her a disgusted look. “So why marry a silly kid? Especially one on the booze!”
“I think he needs me,” she said. “And I guess in a strange way I need him. He first represented all my illusions about the stage. And if I lose him I’ll lose all my dreams of the theatre.”
“Show business” the sour little man said with disgust. “I’d like to get out of it! Look, I’ve got a brother who’s a tailor, pressing, repairing and cleaning. He owns two apartment houses already. Not bad! I can hardly pay for my room and have any money left!”
She smiled at him. “I’ve seen you on stage. You’re as proud as a peacock. You love it and you know it!”
He looked slightly guilty. “You’re a smart girl! I wish I was as smart. Why don’t you go back to your folks and have the baby like any young woman should?”
Vintage Love Page 215