Vintage Love

by Clarissa Ross

  “That’s probably true. I’m not sure I don’t agree with him.”

  Eric smiled sadly. “Don’t say that! You’re too near the top to give up now.”

  “I wonder,” she said.

  His reply was to suddenly take a step forward and embrace her. His kiss was ardent and, taken by surprise, she found being in his arms a not unpleasant experience. As he let her go, he smiled and said, “Just to convince you I do care!” The next second he had gone.

  She watched from her cottage window as he stepped into his long cream sports car and drove away. His kiss was still tingling on her lips, as she thought ironically that surely he was the ideal image of a stalwart Hollywood hero. So much for Hollywood heroes!

  When Billy came by later she told him over the dinner table of the strange aftermath to the weekend. She said, “It was the last thing I expected. There he was in my doorway!”

  Billy, shaven and pale, looked more like himself than he had the previous night. He said, “I think he was being truthful with you.”

  Nita stared at him. “You’re saying he may truly be interested in me?”

  “Yes.”

  “How could he be?”

  “He had at least one bona-fide affair with Clara Bow,” Billy said. “And any girl who cheerfully takes on a football team plus the coach isn’t going to be satisfied with a pale imitation. I’d say he proved his virility with her.”

  “But since then he’s turned to men again,” she pointed out.

  “Would you say being married to a creature like Barbara was apt to help him?”

  “No.”

  “Then there’s your answer. People like Eric live a difficult and dangerous existence. If the truth about him or Barbara comes out it would ruin them in films.”

  “I pity the people taken in by their facade.”

  “It happens in many areas of life,” Billy said. “But I think the important point Eric made is that he wants to straighten out his life and Barbara doesn’t.”

  “You think so?”

  “What other reason would he have for coming to you as he did? He made no plea for Barbara but only for himself. And he’s important enough in this town not to be worried about your opinion of him unless he really cares for you. So I think he does.”

  She smiled. “You make a very persuasive argument.”

  “I think I’m right.”

  “I don’t want to try and reform another actor. I had little success with Marty.”

  Billy reminded her, “You said he had improved in his last months.”

  “After we lost the baby,” she said. “I didn’t tell him I couldn’ve have another. But I think he may have guessed.”

  “Still, you wanted to be in this business. So you have to be prepared to deal with the people in it. We’re all rather complicated, I fear.”

  “I’ve recently learned that,” she agreed with a small smile. “You’re surely no exception.”

  Billy gave her a teasing look. “I think I know where your heart lies. With the good Dr. Phillip Watters.”

  “That could very well be,” she said thoughtfully.

  Chapter Eight

  Within a few days two events happened which were to make an unexpected chance in Nita’s plans for the future. She was home on a short holiday from the studio when she picked up the morning paper to the confronted by huge headlines: “LATEST FILM ROMANCE, Film Star Sally Stark and Dashing Dr. Phillip Watters!” She could hardly believe her eyes when she saw the smiling photos of the two standing with their arms around each other.

  The story went on to tell of their secretly dating for some time and that they had recently spent two weeks together in a hideaway on the outskirts of San Francisco. Sally and the handsome doctor insisted her mother had been along as chaperone, but did not deny there was a possibility of marriage in the offing. The story gave other details about the two, indicating that the vivacious Sally felt this new man in her life was the one she’d been waiting for. Her two previous marriages had ended in divorce.

  Nita threw the paper down with a feeling of despair. She knew now that she cared for Phillip a great deal more than she’d been willing to admit, but had been so intent on her career she’d let them drift apart. He had been away several times and she had not thought anything about it. Now it became clear. He and Sally Stark had been having an affair.

  No doubt the newspapers had managed to get onto the story and the studio had made Sally indicate that marriage was in the offing, whether it was or not. Sally Stark was still one of Master Films’s biggest grossing stars but she was known to everyone as a woman of flagrantly loose morals. Her affair with a handsome prop man had been mentioned in the gossip columns, as had numerous other affairs.

  There had been times when Nita had speculated about agreeing to marry the young doctor. Now it would clearly be impossible. The studio would likely put pressure on the Phillip to marry Sally, thus avoiding further scandal. Nita felt that the handsome Phillip had degraded himself in getting involved with a person like Sally Stark.

  She was moping about the cottage when the phone rang. Phillip was on the line. He sounded worried. “I’ve been trying to reach you,” he said. “I thought you’d be at the studio.”

  “I’m waiting for a new assignment,” she said. “And I see you’ve found one.”

  “That newspaper story!” he groaned. “You mustn’t believe any of it!”

  “I thought you both looked charming. So adoring!” she said.

  “I want to talk to you,” he insisted. “Let’s go out to dinner tonight.”

  “I don’t think that would be wise,” Nita snapped. “You’d better not be seen with anyone but Sally Stark.”

  “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 inten
ded 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 t
o 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.