Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 166: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

796 Phillips starts doing his stuff I get up and join some pecple at another table. Be- cause Percival would of no doubt remem- bered that I had also listened in. Though maybe it wouldn’t of made any difference. That boy was certainly imaginative! But from where I was sitting I could see that Percival was all ears. Well, it was quite an interesting story. Next morning I invited no less than Mr. Mannie Eckstein, the great movie magnate, to join me for lunch at the Café de Boule- vard. I told him Mr. Percival Norris would be amongst those present. Notwith- standing the liberality with which Percival spends Mr. Eckstein’s money, why, per- sonally, as you might say, he didn’t hesitate an instant to accept my second invitation to lunch within the space of two days. Also I sort of hinted to Mr. Eckstein that maybe there might be something stirring. Mr. Eckstein accepted with alacrity. So that noon I and Percival and Mr. Mannie Eckstein formed quite a distin- guished looking party at the famous Café de Boulevard. So to start the conversational ball rolling —and maybe something else—I says care- lessly: “Well, I see by the paper where there was another bank messenger stick-up yes- terday.” “Speaking of stick-ups,” says Percival instantly, ‘‘ here’s one I guess I never told you. Getit. It’s good! It happened quite a while back, before I broke into the movies. Probably you’d never guess that at one time I was a regular Hawkshaw with a badge and everything. Well, it’s a fact. ¥ did gum-shoe stuff for a private detective agency in the village of Hollywood—just to get along. Feature that! “Well, about this stick-up stuff, at the time I’m doubling for Nick Carter, why, there was a bird by the name of Goldheimer, a graduate of the cloak and suit trade, try- ing to get a toe-hold in the movie business.” You should of seen Mannie sit up and take notice when Percival pulls that line about the cloak and suit trade! ‘“So this man, Goldheimer, see,” con- tinues Percival, “is getting out a fierce line oi two-reel custard-pie atrocities, so it ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, naturally follows that he’s coining money, of course. Also, as you might expect, he thinks no more of a nickel than he does of his right eye; and as for his business meth- ods, why, Goldheimer makes Mr. Jesse James, and the bucket-shop boys of the present era look like a bunch of pikers!” I noticed that Mr. Mannie Eckstein’s face was beginning to take on a beautiful purple tinge. “Well, anyway,” says Percival, “ it seems there’s a little girl by the name of Deane, Carol Deane, working for Gold- heimer; and she’s not only got the looks, but, with half a chance, would probably turn out to be a great little actress.” At the mention of Carol Deane, I guess most anybody but the imaginative Percival, all wrapped up in his story, so to say, would of noticed that Mr. Mannie Eekstein was either on the point of having a fit or com- mitting a murder, or both. But not Per- cival! ‘““ Anyway,” goes on Percival, “ Warren Hoyt, who at the time was directing the old Climax productions, saw the possibilities in this little Deane wren, and, after a ter- rible struggle, succeeded in borrowing her from Goldheimer—she was just the type Hoyt needed, see, for the picture he was doing at the time. “Well, to make a short story shorter, Carol Dean’s work in that picture of Hoyt’s was one of the outstanding sensations of the year, and the Climax people stood ready to pay her an even two thousand a week for a period of three years when she’d com- pleted her Goldheimer contract which had only a few months to run. And then it turned out that before letting her go, Gold- heimer had practically forced Carol to give him an option on a renewal of her contract, on its original terms—one hundred dollars the week! } “And they couldn’t do a thing with Goldheimer. Not athing! That old pirate —though I’m not saying his methods were any worse than those of his contemporary magnates—had a world-famous star sewed up at one hundred fish a week, and he pro- posed to take every advantage of the situ- ation! ‘“‘ So the Climax people turned the matter EOMmichooks:co