Shades of Fortune (61 page)

“Insurance?”

“Of course. With something called a morals clause. If Mr. Gordon has violated the morals clause in his contract, as it sounds as though he may have done, our insurance will cover everything. A morals clause is standard in all film and television contracts for performers. So don't worry about that, Edwee.”

“Worry?
Me? You're
the one who should be worried, Mimi! What about this videotape of mine?”

“Well, as I believe my husband told you, we refuse to take this threat of yours seriously until we've seen the alleged tape. Why don't you bring it around sometime? We have plenty of facilities here for screening videotapes. Actually, if it's as juicy as you say it is, there are some people here in the office who would probably get a kick out of seeing it!”

He jumps to his feet. “Damn it, Mimi,” he shouts. “You'll pay for this! You'll see! You'll pay for this! You'll be sorry when I'm through with you! If you don't find my mother's Goya for me before your party Thursday night, you'll be sorry!”

“And do me a favor, Edwee, dear,” she says. “That suit of yours needs pressing badly. And do something about your hair and fingernails. That messy, mousey look went out in the sixties.”

He charges across her office toward the door.

“Love to little Gloria!” she calls after him as he stalks out the door and slams it hard behind him.

And Mimi takes a deep breath.

30

Now it is six o'clock on Monday evening, her secretary has left for the night, and Mimi sits alone in her office, reading her grandfather's diaries. In some ways, as she reads, she recognizes the stern old man she remembers from years ago, but in other ways he emerges as a stranger. For example:

January 7, 1940

Problem with Edwin at his school in Florida. Man named Collier
—
a whole string of young schoolboys Edwin's age! Worse than Fagin in Oliver Twist! Why do they not arrest this man Collier? No solid Evidence, they say. Edwin much too young to understand this sort of thing. School has him safely back, will keep an eye on him
.

January 18, 1940

Edwin run away from school again! Authorities found him with Collier again. What does this scum of the earth do to keep himself out of prison? Corrupt Florida police, I know. Thank God no publicity. Edwin still a minor, but publicity of this nature could ruin Edwin's Presidential chances later on. Was Edwin too young to send away to boarding school? Have found new school for him in Massachusetts. Closer to home, away from Collier influences. Damn Collier! If I were there I'd strangle the scum with my bare hands.…

January 23, 1940

Have straightened out Naomi's problem with Bloomingdale's. Store satisfied, store security people satisfied. No publicity. Naomi's Dr. says she only does these things when she finds herself in stressful circumstances. Blames Naomi's recent sudden marriage, and even more recent sudden divorce. Damn it, if Naomi would just marry a decent husband, and stay married to him, and start giving me grandsons I need to carry on, there wouldn't
be
any “stressful circumstances”
!

January 26, 1940

More trouble with Edwin at his new school in Mass. Ran away, took bus to Florida. Found with Collier again! Would start legal proceedings against Collier, but what about publicity? Oh, Edwin, what is wrong with you? I begin to despair. Edwin being returned to N.Y. on train tonight. Must find new school for him with greater discipline. School in Mass, doesn't want him back
—
disruptive influence. Had words with Flo last night. Blame her for making him a “Mama's boy
.”

Also, beginning in the late 1930s, Mimi has found entries referring to certain shadowy figures, working either within or outside the company, who seemed to have been engaged, without her grandfather's approval, by his younger brother. In the diaries, these people are semi-cryptically identified as “Leo's friends,” and the diaries become increasingly peppered with the phrase “GET LEO OUT,” or “LEO MUST GO,” as in the following series of entries over a two-and-a-half-year period:

February 5, 1939

Damned Leo! Had him on the carpet today about friends he is still using to “help” our business. Leo just laughed in my face and said this is all part of the normal cost of doing business. Everybody does it. The fool! These people are nothing but animals, no respect for human life. These friends of his could ruin us if any of this got out. Must begin working out careful plan to get Leo OUT
—and
his friends
.

May 27, 1939

Guess what! Leo came in today to ask for promotion for his son Nate! Wants Nate promoted over Henry, because Nate is a few years older. Told Leo to go to hell. Leo is a schmuck, but Nate is a worse schmuck. Leo said, “Where would you be if I hadn't added quick-drying chemical to paint?” I said, “Where would you be if I hadn't figured out a way to sell it? You wanted to throw it all out
—
schmuck!” Work on ways to get Leo
out.

September 12, 1940

Now it's Alice who's telling me how to run my business! Damn Alice! She came in to see me today, drunk of course. She tells me all the things I know already about Leo and his friends. Is Henry a fool? He was a fool to tell Alice about any of this, because when Alice is drunk she runs off at the mouth. A woman has no business interfering with her husband's business. Told her that. A woman has no business coming to her husband's place of business and demanding this & that. Why doesn't Alice stay home and take care of her baby? Told her all this. Told her she is nothing but a yenta and a troublemaker. I told Henry when he married her that I saw nothing but trouble ahead with her, and I was right. Told her to get out. Told her I never wanted to lay eyes on her again. Too harsh? Henry didn't seem to think so when I told him what had happened. Just looked sheepish.… Alice puts him through holy hell, I know.…

October 2, 1940

Started work today on a plan to GET LEO OUT. It must be very careful, very detailed, and foolproof because even though Leo is stupid he can be a tough cookie.…

November 27, 1940

PLAN TO GET LEO OUT

Step 1: Stop office memos coming to him. Let time pass to let it sink in to Leo what is happening
.

Step 2: Disconnect all Leo phone lines but one. Ditto about letting time pass. Tell switchboard to direct all his calls to me
.

Step 3: Get his office repainted some ugly color while he's out of it. “Vomit green.” Ditto re time
.

Step 4: Remove nameplate from his door. Hide it. Make door of steel so he can't screw new one on. Ditto re time, but time gets shorter now between Steps
.

Step 5: Fire his secretary. Disconnect final phone line same day. Instruct switchboard to say, “Mr. Leopold Myerson is no longer with us
.”

Step 6: Have him painted out of “Founders Portrait
.”

Start date for plan: January 2, 1941
.

Read plan to Flo last night before dinner. She likes it. Added a few touches of her own (nameplate, e.g.)
.

There follow entries for the dates that each step of the plan was carried out.

January 7, 1941

Took Leo a week to figure out something's going on, why he's getting no interoffice memos, he's so stupid. Now he runs up and down office corridors after mailroom boys, trying to snatch memos from their stacks! Told Flo about this last night. She laughed and laughed.…

March 1, 1941

All Leo's extra phone lines cut off today. Took him most of the day to realize it. He's hopping mad! Tried to get in to see me, but Jonesy won't let him. Using private elevator direct to car to avoid him. Others in the office now realize something's going on, and they're getting a big kick out of it because all of them hate Leo, too. I think Henry knows something's going on, too, though I haven't told him about my Plan. Henry's in a much better mood these days, cheerier, more compliant. Think maybe my tough talk with Alice has paid off. Maybe she's nagging and hen-pecking him less.… Thank God for Henry! I despair of the other one.…

April 4, 1941

Step 3 carried out last night, after hours! Had his office repainted last night, ugliest puke color I could find. For good measure, had his carpet torn up and one large sofa removed, and had Clorox poured into the pots of all his precious plants! It will be fun when they begin to die! Painters still at work when he came in this morning. Leo started screaming like a banshee, yelling, “Who ordered this?” Painters just said, “Company orders, sir,” and went on painting. Now he is running up and down the corridors, screaming and yelling at everybody, making everybody crazy, but everybody really getting a big kick out of what is going on. He keeps trying to get me on the phone or get into my office, but can't. Ha, ha, ha
.

April 9, 1941

Leo wailing and kvetching, “What's the matter with my plants?” Making his secretary crazy. Hope I can get to Step 5 before she quits on him, he's making her so crazy.… He runs around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to get in to see me. Not yet!

May 5, 1941

Had his office door replaced with steel one yesterday. “Fire regulations,” he was told. His nameplate “lost” in process. He went out and ordered a new one, and spent an hour this morning trying to hammer his new nameplate onto the steel door, while nails kept bending and Leo cursing and screaming and banging his thumb with hammer. Wish I could have been there to see this! What a schmuck!

May 17, 1941

Had Personnel Dept. give Miss Applegate, his secretary, her walking papers last night. They say she cried a lot, but then she said she was thinking of quitting anyway, he was making her so crazy. Also had his last phone line disconnected. Leo strangely silent today. Not a peep from him all day long. They say he just sits in his office, staring into space. Is he planning something? Or have I finally “broken the camel's back”? I hope so. Anyway, I think I'll hold off my final move for a while, and let him settle into this silent state of his before I deliver the “coupé de grace”!

Now, as Mimi turns the pages of the daybook for the year 1941, she encounters an entry that is not an entry at all, but a yellowed clipping from the
New York Times
, dated June 4, 1941, and affixed to the pages of the diary with dried and crumbling Scotch tape.

HIT-AND-RUN DRIVER KILLS PEDESTRIAN ON FIFTH AVE.

Early afternoon shoppers on Fifth Avenue looked on in horror yesterday as an automobile, ignoring a red light, tore across the intersection of 54th Street, striking a male pedestrian who was crossing the Avenue from west to east and injuring several others. The victim, whose identity is not yet known, was pronounced dead upon arrival at Roosevelt Hospital. While bystanders rushed to the victim's assistance, the driver of the vehicle, which did not stop at the time of the accident, sped northward and was quickly lost in uptown traffic.

Several other pedestrians received bruises and minor injuries as they rushed, or were pushed, out of the path of the speeding car.

Though there were literally scores of witnesses to the accident, it was difficult for police to get consistent descriptions of either the car or its driver. Most, however, maintained that the automobile was a black Lincoln Zephyr sedan, of the year model 1939 or 1940. Others, however, claimed that the car was dark blue or dark green. There appeared to be a consensus among witnesses that the driver of the car was a young woman between the ages of 25 and 30, wearing a white sailor-type hat. Others claimed to have seen a small child in the front seat beside her.

Several bystanders attempted to note the license number of the car. According to one witness, the license number was KLG-130, while another claimed to remember it as HJG-030. Still others claimed that the automobile was moving too fast to note the license. All agreed that the car bore New York plates.

“What we're looking for,” said Police Chief Walter O'Malley, “is a dark Lincoln Zephyr sedan, 1939 or 1940 model, with a license plate containing at least one G as its third letter, and one three, and at least one zero. This will narrow our search considerably.”

The accident occurred at approximately 2:45
P
.
M
. yesterday. A four square block area immediately surrounding the scene was cordoned off by police for about one hour to allow access to ambulance and other emergency equipment.

The next day's entry was a second clipping, from the
Times
of the following day:

HIT-AND-RUN VICTIM'S IDENTITY LEARNED

The identity of the pedestrian killed on Fifth Avenue Tuesday afternoon by a hit-and-run driver was revealed by police today. He was Larry J. Elkins, 39, of Utica, N.Y. Mr. Elkins, a teacher in the Utica public school system, was vacationing in New York with his wife. Mrs. Elkins, who was not with her husband at the time of the accident, was waiting for him to return from a short shopping errand in the couple's room at the Gotham Hotel. The Elkinses have two children, aged 13 and 9. Mrs. Elkins returned to Utica with her husband's body today.

No arrest has yet been made in the case. However, according to Police Chief Walter O'Malley, “We have narrowed this down and have several very strong leads that we're pursuing. We are confident that an arrest will be made in the very near future.”

The driver of the car that fled the scene of the accident at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 54th Street has been described as a young woman in her mid-twenties or early thirties, wearing a white hat and driving a dark (black, dark green, or dark blue, according to various witnesses) 1939 or 1940 model Lincoln Zephyr sedan, with New York license plates.