Between Ourselves Text Page 2

PREVIOUS PAGE	Is Mr. Zanuck content with that? No. He has starred her in two more films requiring a similar outlay. All three are not just being talked about – but they are finished – in the bag; and there is a fourth in the making. No, you haven’t heard of Nancy yet; but, by Jove, you will! Or else Mr. Zanuck drops a million sterling. She isn’t a star, she’s a nebula. John Ford directed her first picture, and he doesn’t make mistakes.	MISCELLANEOUS CONTENTS PAGE
	Three of a Kind
	What a week it’s been! First nights, parties, people. I lunched with Michael Arlen and Peter Cheyney at the Savoy. All three of us have a new book out within the space of these seven days. Michael’s (and a new Arlen is an event) is ‘The Flying Dutchman’, Peter’s is a brand new Lemmy Caution (‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’), and mine ‘The Quest of Julian Day’. We hadn’t finished our pate maison before we found that we were all 43 years old and averaged ten years marriage apiece....and were all three in love with our wives. Michael Arlen lives most of the year in the South of France. But he tell me he has taken a house in Athens for three months. His father-in-law, Count Mercati, is the Royal Chamberlain there.
	Rum Row
	Afterwards I went on to the Stafford Galleries to see Robert Gibbings’ exhibition of under-sea drawings that are the talk of the town just now. To make these, Gibbings spent countless hours in a diving suit below the surface of the sea off Tahiti and Bermuda.
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	That reminds me of the Bahamas. The under-water gardens there, viewed through glass-bottomed boats are lovely beyond description –yes – even a best-seller’s ‘golden prose’. It was from there to America I once did a spot of rum-running....Yes, I’ve seen life.
	Kings of the Show
	Whom else did I meet? Oh, yes, John Hoysradt. He’s seen life too. John is in Henry Sherek’s new cabaret show at the Dorchester. Hoysradt gives diabolically good imitations of European statesmen....with just that subtle spice of ginger that makes the world go round. He is the very nicest type of American and has a most unusual story to tell. Once he was a professor at Gratton, which is the equivalent of a house-master at Eton, then he left it for the stage. As he tutored Roosevelt’s sons, no wonder he can do such a grand take-off of ‘Poppa’.
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	In Sherek’s party, by the way, was Charles B. Cochran, who in the old days paid me many hundreds of pounds for good drink, and, generous fellow that he is, often sent me seats for his shows. Seeing Sherek’s show took me back just a fortnight when I dined at the Arizona, Budapest’s brightest nightclub. They put on a really effective act....a Roman banquet with a dozen courses – each course a girl. There was the oyster in her shell; and the mermaid (though I never yet tasted mermaid steak); the pheasant decked with feathers...and not much else; the chocolate soufflé, an African belle; and the ‘wines’ were girls, too, just rimmed with a few grapes.
	Two Bergners – Both Good
	Next day, I popped into the premier of ‘Stolen Life’ in which Bergner is twins...if you get me! Elizabeth, Michael Redgrave and Lord Reading all made personal appearances at the premier. Which brings me back to a sad episode – for me. In a rash moment I once agreed to speak for a charity and found that Lady Reading and Lady Bessborough were also to speak.
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	They insisted I should speak first. It took me just two minutes – knowing nothing of my subject – for me to peter out and sit down, very diminuendo. Of course Lady Reading was brilliant, and lovely Lady Bessborough gave such a perfect demonstration of the sort of thing I should have done that I wasn’t even third of three!
	One Serious Thought
	The soundest advice this week was given by Sir Auckland Geddes when he suggested that everyone who can afford to do so should lay in a stock of emergency supplies while these can be bought without penalising others. That’s the point. Don’t wait for emergency and then start hoarding. Do it now.
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	I laid in my iron rations two years ago, at the time of the Abyssinian crisis, and I have been urging all my friends to the same since.
	My Offer To You
	I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Here’s a bet. I offer 3 worth of goods (as per list) to the housewife who sends me the best list of emergency supplies to the value of 3 at retail prices. Entries to me. Dennis Wheatley, Sunday Graphic, 200 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1.
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	And now I’ve reached the right-hand bottom corner of the page. If I have talked a lot about myself you must forgive me. Next week...more people, more personalities...I promise!