The Dream Merchants Read online

  “We can’t help him if we all lose our licenses,” Borden protested.

  “Then how are you gonna help him?” Johnny asked.

  “I—I don’t know,” Borden stammered. “Let me think about it. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “All right,” Johnny said, and hung up the phone. He turned to Joe. “The combine put the word out already. We’re on the blacklist.”

  Joe got to his feet.

  Johnny looked at him in surprise. “Where you goin’?”

  Joe smiled at him. “Out to git a paper. Want to see what the want ads have got in ’em.”

  “Sit down and quit horsin’ around,” Johnny said. “We got enough troubles.”

  Joe sat down. “What we gonna do next?” he asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” Johnny answered, “but there must be a way out of this mess. I got him into it an’ I gotta get him out.”

  “All right kid,” Joe said seriously. “Count me in. I’m with yuh, all the way.”

  Johnny smiled at him. “Thanks Joe.”

  Joe grinned back at him. “Don’t thank me. I got twenty-five hundred fish in this, remember.”

  ***

  It was late in the evening when he called Peter’s home. Esther answered.

  “Esther, this is Johnny. How is Peter?”

  Her voice was quiet and even. “He’s got a headache. He’s lying down in the bedroom.”

  “Good,” Johnny said. “Keep his mind off the business. Make him get some rest.”

  “Looks bad, Johnny?” Her voice was still quiet and controlled.

  “Doesn’t look bright,” he admitted. “But don’t worry, things’ll look better in the morning.”

  “I’m not worried.” Her voice was clear. “My father, God rest his soul, used to say: ‘What will be will be.’ A living we can always make.”

  “Good,” Johnny said. “Make Peter feel like that and we can’t lose.”

  “Leave Peter to me,” she answered confidently. “But Johnny—”

  “What?”

  “Don’t you start worrying. It’s not your fault and we like you too much to want you to get sick over this.”

  Johnny felt the tears come perilously close to his eyes. “I won’t, Esther,” he promised.

  He hung up the phone and turned to Joe, his eyes shining brightly. “What are you gonna do with people like that?” he asked wonderingly.

  8

  The summer dragged on and nowhere could they find a place that was willing to take a chance and let them shoot their picture. Johnny had been to every independent in the business, but could get no help.

  They were all sympathetic. They agreed with Johnny that the only way the combine would ever be beaten was by what Magnum was doing, but that was where they drew the line. More than sympathy Johnny could not get. In vain he would argue and point out that Magnum was fighting their fight. That if Magnum won out they would all benefit. They agreed, but none of them would risk losing his license.

  By the end of August they had pretty nearly reached the breaking point. Their money was almost gone. Peter had lost his paunch. Esther had let her maid go in July and now Peter found himself looking enviously and speculatively at hardware stores when he passed them.

  Joe spent most of his day at the studio engaged in an endless game of solitaire. Neither he nor Johnny had drawn a cent of pay since Magnum’s license had been revoked, but they all hung together. To save money they would all eat at Peter’s house. The meals were simple but satisfying, and Esther did not complain at the extra work.

  Several times Joe had got an odd job at one of the independents and he threw the money he earned into the pot. But it was Johnny who had changed most of all.

  He seldom smiled now. Slim he had been when all their troubles had begun. Now he was thin, taut, and intense. His eyes were sunken hollows in his face. Only the flames in them had not dimmed. At night he would lie in his bed and stare sleeplessly at the ceiling. It was his fault, he would think; if he hadn’t been so insistent, this would never have happened.

  Making this picture became the one thought in his mind. He knew that once this picture was made, their battle would be won. Each morning he would wake up with the conviction that this would be the day he would be able to talk one of the independents into letting them use his studio. But as time went by, the producers began to get tired of his persistent cajoling. They left orders with their help to shunt him off and if they saw him coming they would try to avoid him.

  When Johnny realized what they were doing and that he was being avoided, he grew bitter. “The dirty bastards,” he would think, “they’re all heroes when you’re doing the fighting for them, but ask them to help a little bit and they won’t even talk to you.”

  Their lawyer had been in court all summer trying without success to get an injunction against the combine to prevent it from applying its blacklist against Magnum. At last he came to Peter one day and told him there was no use in continuing the fight. The license was too cleverly drawn, the combine’s position too cleverly planned for an attack to be made on it in such a manner. Besides he wanted some money instead of promises.

  Quietly Peter paid him and they continued their struggle. But now it was the end of August and the day of reckoning was fast approaching.

  Peter and Johnny and Joe were sitting in the office when Warren Craig came in with Sam Sharpe.

  Johnny got to his feet and held out his hand. “Hello, Warren.”

  Craig ignored it and walked past him to Peter. “Mr. Kessler,” he said.

  Peter looked up at him tiredly. He hadn’t slept too well last night, he had been trying to figure how much longer their money would carry them. It wasn’t far. “Yes, Mr. Craig,” he answered.

  “Mr. Kessler, we must have a definite starting date for the picture or I must give you notice now.” Craig’s voice was pompous.

  Peter spread his hands wearily on the desk. “I’d like to give you a starting date for the picture, Mr. Craig, but how can I? I don’t know when we can start the picture myself.”

  “Then I must give you my notice,” Craig said.

  Sam Sharpe’s thin voice cut in. “Don’t be too hasty, Warren. After all, it’s not really their fault. Maybe if—”

  Craig turned on Sharpe quickly. His voice was cutting and sharp. “Maybe nothing, Sam. I let you talk me into this in the first place. When we signed the agreement, the picture was supposed to be completed by mid-July. Now here it is almost September. A new Broadway season is about to start. If you were the proper kind of agent you would see to it that I was set in one of the new plays instead of keeping me waiting for this fool’s dream to materialize.”

  Sharpe seemed to shrink within his clothes. “But, Warren—” he began to say, when a look from Craig shut him up.

  “Wait a minute, wait a minute.” Johnny planted himself in front of Craig belligerently. “You’ve been paid for the time you stood by, haven’t you?”

  “That’s right,” Craig admitted.

  “Two thousand smackers a month, every month, June, July, and August, isn’t that right?”

  “Yes,” Craig answered, “but—”

  “But, hell,” Johnny shouted. “We agreed to pay you two thousand for the picture. When we found out the picture wouldn’t start on time, you agreed to take two thousand a month until the picture was finished. Now that the summer is over and your dead season is gone, you want to run out on us!”

  “I’m not running out,” Craig answered uncomfortably. “But I have my career to think of. They forget about you quickly on Broadway if you don’t come up with a new play.”

  “You have a contract with us to make this picture, and, by God, you’re going to live up to it!” Johnny shouted, his fists clenched.

  “Johnny!” Peter’s voice was sharp.

  Johnny turned to him in surprise.

  “What’s the use, Johnny?” Peter said; his voice was low. “Let him go if he wants. The whole thing is no good anyway.”

&
nbsp; “But we paid him six thousand dollars already,” Johnny said.

  “We could pay him a hundred thousand more if we had it,” Peter answered, “and we wouldn’t be any closer to making the picture than we are now.” He turned to Craig.

  “All right Mr. Craig, I’ll accept your notice.”

  Craig started to say something, then changed his mind. He turned on his heel and started out. “Come on, Sam,” he called to Sharpe over his shoulder.

  Sharpe hung back for a moment. “I’m sorry, Johnny,” he said softly. “It wasn’t my idea. I tried to talk him out of it.”

  Johnny nodded his head.

  “I’ll send back my commissions and bonus in the morning,” Sharpe said.

  Johnny looked at Sharpe suddenly. The man’s eyes were warm with understanding. “You don’t have to do that,” he said quickly; “you earned your money. It’s not your fault.”

  “Our agreement was contingent upon Craig making the picture,” Sharpe said simply. “He didn’t make it. I don’t take pay for not keeping my share of a bargain.”

  Johnny looked at him. The little man had his pride. “All right Sam,” he said. They touched hands and the little man scurried after his client.

  Silently they watched him leave. “A square little guy,” Johnny said as the door closed behind him.

  Peter turned back to his desk and looked at it for a while. He picked up a pencil and toyed with it. He put it down. He picked up a butt of a cigar from his ashtray and put it in his mouth and chewed on it reflectively. Then he turned to Johnny and Joe.

  “Well,” he said slowly, “I guess that’s the finish.”

  “The hell you say,” Johnny came back at him. “There are other actors just as good as he is.”

  Peter looked at him. “Do you think they’ll take a chance with us after the experience he had? Even if we had the money, which we haven’t?” He spoke with irrefutable logic.

  Johnny had no answer. Joe turned up a red queen and put it on a black jack.

  “We might as well face it,” Peter said heavily. “We’re licked.” He held up a hand to still Johnny’s protest. “Don’t tell me any different. You know it too. We tried everything and it didn’t work, so we might as well close up shop.”

  Joe took a vicious swipe at the cards. They scattered into the air and fluttered to the floor. His lips were moving with silent curses.

  Johnny said nothing. He couldn’t speak even if he wanted to, his throat was all knotted up.

  Peter stood up wearily. “I don’t know how I’m going to pay you boys back your money.”

  Johnny found his voice. “You don’t owe me nothing.”

  Joe followed right along. “Me neither,” he growled.

  Peter looked at them steadily for a few seconds. There was a suspicious moisture in his eyes. He stepped toward Joe and held out his hand. He gripped Joe’s hand silently, then he turned to Johnny.

  Johnny held out his hand. For some strange reason he couldn’t keep it steady. It kept shaking.

  Peter took it and held it tightly. They looked into each other’s eyes for a moment. Then Peter clasped Johnny to him. Tears were running freely from his eyes now.

  “You Americans!” Peter said. “What can you say with a handshake?”

  Johnny couldn’t speak.

  “Johnny, Johnny, my boy, don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault. You tried harder than any of us.”

  “I’m sorry, Peter, I’m sorry.”

  Peter held him at arm’s length and looked at him. “Don’t give up, Johnny. This is your business. You were meant for it. It’s not for old men like me. You’ll do great things with it.”

  “We’ll do great things, Peter.”

  Peter shook his head. “Not me. I’m through.” His hands fell to his sides. “Well, I guess I’ll be going home.” He walked slowly to the door. At the door he turned back and looked at them. He took a half look around the office and tried to smile. He couldn’t. He made a helpless little gesture with his hand and shut the door behind him.

  For a few seconds there was silence in the room. Joe was the first to speak. His voice was strained and cracked. “I think I’ll go out and get drunk.”

  Johnny looked at him strangely. “That’s the first good idea we had all summer!”

  9

  The bartender looked at them threateningly. He held the two drinks in his hand close to him on the bar. “That will be seventy cents, gentlemen.” His pleasant voice belied his appearance, but his grasp on the glasses indicated the firmness with which he was prepared to deal with the situation.

  Johnny looked over at Joe. He didn’t know whether he was weaving or Joe. He wished that Joe would weave in the same way he did. Maybe he wouldn’t be so dizzy that way.

  “The man inshists on cash,” he said.

  Joe nodded his head solemnly. “I heard him. Pay him.”

  “Shure.” Johnny stuck his hand in his pockets and came up with some coins. Laboriously he laid them on the bar and counted them. “Shixty five, sheventy,” he crowed happily. “Give ush our drinksh.”

  The bartender looked at the change and pushed the drinks toward them. He picked up the change and rung it up on the register.

  Before the sound of the bell had faded away, Joe was pounding on the bar. “Shet up two more,” he said.

  The bartender looked at him. “Cash in advance.”

  Joe drew himself up indignantly. “Shee here, my good man,” he said solemnly, “I was polite enough when you spoke to my frien’ like that. But when you talk to me, thash something differn’. I am a shteady cushtomer. He ish not ash mush a drinker ash me, therefore when I order drinksh, I egshpect drinksh.”

  The bartender nodded to a man standing down at the end of the bar. The man came up to them and took them each by the arm. “Come along now, boys,” he said quietly.

  Joe shook himself loose. “Take your hands off me.”

  The man ignored him. Instead he put both hands on Johnny’s back and pushed him out the door, then he turned back to Joe and rolled up a sleeve. “Are yuh leavin’?”

  Joe looked at him disdainfully. “Of coursh I’m leavin’. Did you think I would care to shtay after sush a dishplay of inhoshpitably?” He weaved his way to the door.

  At the door he turned and held his fingers up to his mouth and made a vulgar sound at the man. The man made a gesture toward him. Joe ducked quickly out of the door, missed the step down, and fell sprawling.

  Johnny helped him to his feet. “Did they throw you out, Joe?”

  Joe leaned on him. “Of coursh not. They know better than to try and throw Joe Turner out. I jusht mished the shtep, thash all.”

  They leaned against the corner of the building. “Where’ll we go now?” Johnny asked.

  Joe looked at him, trying to clear his head. “What time ish it?”

  Johnny took his watch out of his pocket and tried to focus his eyes upon it. “Twelve o’clock,” he said. He turned and tried to put his arm around Joe. “Joe, it’sh midnight!”

  Joe pushed him away. “Don’t kish me. You shtink from whishky.”

  Johnny drew back, hurt. “All ri’, Joe, but I like you anyway.”

  “Yuh got any money?” Joe asked.

  Johnny went through his pockets one by one. At last he came up with a crumpled dollar bill.

  Joe took it. “Letsh get a cab,” he said. “I know a saloon where we can get shome credit.”

  ***

  Johnny’s head lay on the table. The cool marble top felt good against his face. Someone was trying to pull him up, but he didn’t want to get up. He pushed the hands away. “Ish my fault, Peter, ish my fault.”

  Joe looked down at him, then turned to the man standing with him. “He’sh drunk, Al.”

  Al Santos spoke tersely. “You’ra the fin-a one to talk.”

  “He’sh drunker than I am,” Joe insisted.

  “That’sa only because he hasn’t the experience with drinking that you have,” Al replied. “He’sa not
as old as you are. He’s still a kid.”

  “He’sh twenty-two.”

  “I wouldn’t care if he was fifty,” Al shot back. “He’d still be a kid to me.” He turned back to Johnny and shook him. “Come on, Johnny boy, get up. It’s Al, I been looking for you all night.”

  Johnny just turned his head and mumbled: “I’m sorry, Peter. ’Sall my fault.”

  Al turned to Joe. “What’s this he always keeps saying he’s sorry for?”

  Joe was beginning to sober up, his eyes were beginning to clear. “Poor kid,” he said. “He wanted to make a picture that busted up the works. We all lost our dough and Johnny keeps saying it’s his fault.”

  “Is it?” Al asked.

  Joe looked at him. “No, it isn’t. True enough, it was his idea, but it was a good one and nobody made us go into it. We were old enough to know what we were doing.”

  “Come over here and tell me about it,” Al said, leading the way to another table. The waiter came up and he ordered a bottle of wine.

  He listened silently to Joe’s story. Every now and then he would look over at the table where Johnny was sleeping and smile to himself fondly.

  Johnny Edge. He remembered the first time he had heard the name. A wagon had pulled into the carnival he had been running, late one night in 1898. That was thirteen years ago. A long time, but now it didn’t seem so long ago. The years had flown by.

  That was the year he and his brother, Luigi, had bought that farm in California. Luigi wanted to see things grow, raise grapes for wine, and see oranges hanging from the trees like in the old country, and he wanted to have some place to go when he retired. And here he was, fifty-four years old and retired, and going out to the farm in California.

  It had been early morning and he had come out of his wagon. The purple gray mists of the dawn still hung closely to the ground as he walked around to the back of his wagon and relieved himself. He had felt someone watching him and he turned around.

  It was a small boy, about nine years old. Al looked at him closely; there weren’t any boys that age around the carnival. “Who are you?” he had asked.

  “Johnny Edge,” the boy had answered, looking at him levelly out of candid blue eyes.