Part 20 (1/2)
Peter's voice crackled again and Borden handed the phone back to me. ”Didn't you believe me?” I asked.
”Believe you?” Peter's voice was full and happy. ”My boy, my own ears I didn't believe. Forty thousand dollars!”
”I'll transfer the money to you in the morning,” I said.
”No,” he replied. ”Transfer half of it to me so I could pay off Al the twenty thousand dollars I owe him. The other half you use to pay off our notes in New York.”
”But, Peter, that will leave us broke again. We owe almost twenty here and we'll need money to make the next picture.”
”If I pay off the money I owe for this picture,” he said, ”I can sleep easy for one night. Tomorrow I will worry about getting money for the next one.”
”But what about money for a studio? We can't keep working on a farm all the time. Pay off half now; they'll be glad to wait for the rest of it. This picture looks like it will gross a quarter of a million dollars and they know it.”
”If it grosses that much we can afford to pay them now,” Peter said.
”But we'll have to wait almost a year for the money,” I protested. Under the states' rights method of distribution we were ent.i.tled to get our money six months after the release of the picture by the distributor. ”What will we do until then? Sit around on our behinds and wait? We can't afford to wait now!”
Peter's voice was firm. ”Pay the money like I said. One good night's sleep I'm getting out of this!”
I knew I was licked. When that stubborn tone crept into Peter's voice, standing on my head wouldn't change his mind. ”All right, Peter.”
His voice lightened. ”They liked the picture, hah?”
”They were crazy about it,” I told him, ”especially that gun fight where the sheriff and the bandit shoot it out in the parlor of the girl's house.” I knew that would please him, it was his idea. In the play the shooting took place in a big saloon, but we didn't have the money to build a set like that, so Peter switched to the girl's parlor.
He laughed. ”I told you it was more dramatic that way, didn't I?”
”You were right, Peter,” I said, smiling at the proud manner in which he spoke.
He chuckled again. ”They didn't mind sitting through the whole picture?”
”They didn't want it to finish, they liked it so much. They applauded when it was over. You should have seen them, Peter, they stood up and applauded.”
I heard him turn from the phone and say something to someone. I couldn't make out what he said. His voice came over the phone again: ”I was just telling Esther that I was right about seven reels not being too long.”
I laughed, remembering what he had said once before-that six reels were too much for a person to sit through.
He interrupted my laugh. ”Esther just asked me who's paying for this phone call.”
I looked at Borden and smiled. ”We are, of course. You don't think I would make a call like this on somebody else's phone and not pay for it, do you?”
There was a second of stunned silence at the other end of the wire. When his voice came through, it sounded weak. ”Almost twenty minutes already we been talking. A hundred dollar phone call.” His voice grew stronger. ”Good-by, Johnny.”
”But, Peter-” I started to say, when I heard the click of the phone being hung up in the receiver. I stared at it a moment in a sort of surprise and hung up my phone.
I looked over at Borden and smiled. He shrugged his shoulders and together we walked out of his office into the general office. There was still a crowd of men gathered in there talking. The air was blue with smoke and conversation. Among them were the leading independents of the day.
One of them was saying: ”I guess that proves it once and for all. The day of the two-reeler is over; from now on we have to think in terms of big pictures.”
”What you say, Sam?” another of them replied. ”Might be true, but where are we going to make them? In New York here the outdoor season is only three months at the most. The best we could make is five pictures in that time. What'll we do the rest of the year? Lay off?”
The first man thought for a minute before he answered: ”We'll have to go some place where there is a longer season, then.”
The second man spoke glumly; his manner didn't express much hope. ”But where? We all ain't got friends like Kessler has. We can't all make pictures in California.”
Suddenly everything clicked for me. I knew all the answers. ”Why not, gentlemen?” I said, stepping into the middle of the group. ”Why can't you all make pictures in California?”
I looked around at them. The expressions on their faces ranged from open amazement to restrained curiosity.
”What do you mean?” one of them asked.
I looked at them a moment before I answered. I wanted them to be properly impressed with what I was about to tell them. I lowered my voice to a confidential tone.
”Magnum has not been without foresight enough, gentlemen, to realize the effect The Bandit would have on the future of the picture business. And Peter Kessler has not been without grat.i.tude to his many friends among you for standing by him when the outlook was darkest. And so, gentlemen”-I lowered my voice still more and they pressed closer to hear me-”after just speaking to Kessler over the phone to California, he has informed me that he has decided to offer you the same opportunity that he himself now enjoys. To make pictures in California! Think of it, gentlemen, think of it!” I smiled to myself; this was the old carny pitch. ”An opportunity to make pictures not only thirteen weeks a year, but fifty-two! An opportunity to make pictures where the sun always s.h.i.+nes, where there's room to make any kind of a picture you want!
”Magnum has under option almost a thousand acres of land in Hollywood. Enough land to build a hundred studios. When Lasky, Goldwyn, and Laemmle came out there, Peter got the brilliant idea that all you independents would come out too and make Hollywood the motion-picture capital of the world! And so he has authorized me to offer you the following deal. In return for your many past kindnesses and favors to him, he will transfer to you his option on as many acres and as much land as you may require for the same price that he has paid for those options! One hundred dollars an acre!
”Of course he does not expect you gentlemen to buy a pig in a poke. He will give you the option for as many acres as you wish now, subject to your approval of the site when you see it. The opportunity to select the site will be given in the same order as the option is made. That is, the first person to take an option will have the first choice of the site. If any man is not satisfied, his option money will be refunded without protest.”
Borden was as amazed as any of them. ”You didn't say anything about this to me before,” he said.
”I'm sorry, Bill,” I said, turning to him. ”I was under orders from Peter not to say anything until he gave the okay. He just gave me the okay inside.”
”But what about our studios here?” Bill said. ”We've got a lot of money tied up in them.”
”You can still use them for shorts and other subjects,” I answered, ”but for big pictures and big money you will have to come to Hollywood. How big is your studio here? About three blocks square. Can you drive a hundred head of cattle through here as we did in The Bandit? Can you run a group of men on horses and photograph them here as we did in The Bandit? The answer is obvious. If you stay here, you're limited. Limited by s.p.a.ce, limited by time, and limited by opportunity.”
I stopped and looked around me. Their faces showed that they were impressed. I knew I had them. There was only one hitch. If any of them asked me where Peter had got the money necessary to take all these options, I was sunk. But I didn't have to worry, because Borden was the first to sucker for it.
He took out his fountain pen and began writing a check. ”I want fifty acres,” he said.
In an hour I had sold options on land we didn't have amounting to sixty thousand dollars. The others, seeing Borden leap to the bait, fell all over themselves trying to get on the hook. It was easier than getting the yokels to buy a ticket to see Salome and her Dance of the Seven Veils.
At three o'clock in the morning I had Peter on the phone again, this time from my hotel, where no one could hear me.
He answered the phone. I could hear the sound of other voices talking excitedly in the room behind him. ”h.e.l.lo,” he said.
”Peter, this is Johnny.”
His voice grew excited. ”I thought I told you you shouldn't call me. It's too expensive.”
”d.a.m.n the expense,” I said, ”I had to call you. I just sold sixty thousand dollars' worth of land out there and you have to buy some right away!”
”My G.o.d,” he shouted, his voice rising to a shrill scream, ”have you gone crazy? You want us all to go to jail?”
”Calm down,” I said as quietly as I could. ”I had to do it. The suckers were falling all over themselves to get out to California. It's better that we make some dough out of it than the land sharks. What can we get an acre of land out there for?”