Cheerful, by Request

Productinformatie

CONTENTS PAGE I. CHEERFUL BY REQUEST 3 IL THE GAY OLD DOG 38 III. THE TOUGH GUY 73 IV. THE ELDEST 113 V. THATS MARRIAGE 143 VI. THE WOMAN WHO TRIED TO BE GOOD . . . 181 VII. THE GIRLWHO WENT RIGHT 200 VIII. THE HOOKER-UP-THE-BACK 224 IX. THE GUIDING Miss GOWD 250 X. SOPHY-AS-SHE-MIGHT-HAVE-BEEN .... 278 XI. THE THREE OF THEM 305 XII. SHORE LEAVE 329 866339 CHEERFUL BY REQUEST CHEERFUL-BY REQUEST CHEERFUL BY REQUEST THE editor paid for the lunch as editors do. He lighted his seventh cigarette and leaned back. The conversation, which had zigzagged from the war to Zuloaga, and from Rasputin the Monk to the number of miles aDarrow would go on a gallon, narrowed down to the thin, straight line of business. Now dont misunderstand. Please Were not presuming to dictate. Dear me, no We have always felt that the writer should be free to express that which is in his ah heart. But hi the last year weve been swamped with these drab, realistic stories. Strong, relentless things, you know, about dish- washers, with a lot of fine detail about the fuzz of grease on the rim of the pan. And then those drear and hopeless ones about fallen sisters who end it all in the East River. The East River must be choked up with em. Now, I know that life is real, life is earnest, and Im not demanding a happy ending, exactly. But if you could that is would you do you see your way at all clear to giving us a fairly cheerful story Not necessarily Glad, but not so but not darned Russian, if you get me. Not pink, all grey either. Say mauve. . . . That was Josie Fifers existence. Mostly grey, with a dash of pink. Which makes mauve. Unless you are connected which you probably are not with the great firm of Hahn Lohman, theatrical producers, you never will have heard of Josie Fifer. There are things about the theatre that the public does not know. A statement, at first blush, to be disputed. The press agent, the special writer, the critic, the magazines, the Sunday supplement, the divorce courts what have they left untold We know the make of car Miss Billboard drives who her husbands are and were how much the movies have offered her what she wears, reads, says, thinks, and eats for breakfast. Snapshots of author writing play at place on Hudson pictures of the play in rehearsal of the director directing it of the stage hands rewriting it long before the opening night we know more about the piece than does the play- wright himself, and are ten tunes less eager to see it. Josie Fifers knowledge surpassed even this. For she was keeper of the ghosts of the firm of Hahn Lohman. Not only was she present at the birth of a play she ofiiciated at its funeral. She carried the keys to the closets that housed the skeletons of the firm. When a play died of inanition, old age, or as was sometimes the case before it was born, it was Josie Fifer who laid out its remains and followed it to the grave. Her notification of its demise would come thus Hello, Fifer This is McCabe the property man of H. L. at the phone. Well A little waspish this morning, arent you, Jose- phine Ive got twenty-five bathing suits for the No. 2 Ataboy company to mend and clean and press be- fore five this afternoon...