Chapter 8

New York, the Hippodrome Theatre, 1935. Billy rose, the pint- sized showman with the personality, energy and charm of a six footer, was in a pet.

"We got to open Jumbo in two weeks!" he cried to his staff. "Now you tell me my best comic diver has a sprained back and can't work for a month! So what do we put in that big tank under the stage?"

"We're trying to get a replacement, Mr. Rose," an assistant placated him.

"Wait a minute," said Rose. "That sleazy guy who got me the Austin Sisters. What was his name? George, yes, George Panther. Find him. I remember he mumbled about some mug he knew who was doing a water show over at the college in Princeton. Find Panther for me."

While a member of the staff hastened to the card file, Billy Rose ruminated aloud. "Funny thing about Broadway. A spiffy guy in a high hat and spats sells me an act and it turns out to be a mangy dog show. On the other hand a guy who looks like he slides around corners and steals leavings at the Automat hands me an act that sings with class. Who can figure it?"

The staff remembered the cheap-looking agent who camped on Billy's tail with trying to promote a singing trio, the Austin Sisters. When Billy finally gave the guy a tumble and saw the act, it was classy enough to win a big spot in Jumbo. Everybody loved the Austin Sisters and so would the audience.

"Oh, yeah," said George when Billy got him on the phone. "I know this guy, he puts on water shows at colleges across the country. Raises money for swim sports. He's a real pro. Better in the water than on dry land."

"But can he dive forty feet into that tank on the stage of the Hippodrome and make it look funny?"

"If the price is right," said George, "he can scare 'em white and then make 'em red-faced with laughter."

"Get him," ordered Rose. "What's his name?"

"Phil Griffin."

"We'll look at him this afternoon at three," said Billy and hung up.

George hadn't seen Phil for eight years. He got a letter once in a while and cards at Christmas, but that was about it. When Phil came to his hotel room, George was glad to note that he looked as sleek and young as ever, though he was in his mid- thirties. He told Phil about Billy Rose, after they'd exchanged the shy greetings that were inevitable after a large gap in time.

"This Billy Rose is some kind of a genius," said George. "Started out as a hot shot shorthand and typing whiz, giving demonstrations for the companies. Set world records that way. During the war he was secretary to Bernard Baruch and other big shots in Washington, and then in the twenties he became a tin pan alley songwriter. He ran up a couple of big hits and went into the night club business."

"Oh, yes," said Phil, settling down with the bottle of beer George had offered. It still seemed strange to be able to drink right out in the open. "Isn't he the guy that's married to Fanny Brice, the comedienne?"

"Right, only don't push that at him. It burns him up that people call him Mr. Fanny Brice. So he's decided to make a big splash on Broadway at the Hippodrome with this show Jumbo. Make his name. It's got everything. A book by Hecht and MacArthur, songs by Rodgers and Hart, Paul Whiteman's orchestra, and everything class. Jock Whitney and his sisters are bankrolling it. It's a combination musical comedy and circus, with elephants and Jimmy Durante as star."

Phil looked around George's cheap room and wondered whether even after eight years he could trust George Panther again. He'd never forget Atlantic City and Catalina.

"Sounds pretty big."

"It's fantastic, Phil! His idea is that he's got the big three ingredients that pull people into the theatre; love, comedy, and death. Death-defying circus stunts, you know. For the comedy they've got clowns and stuff but for the big tank onstage he wants a comic diving act. Listen, I can get you two hundred a week if you'll let me be your agent. Rose wants to beat the "Mr. Brice" tag, so he pays big."

Phil sighed. The whole thing sounded unrealistic. But he'd finished his stint at Princeton and made the trip all the way over. Two hundred a week in these depression times sounded incredible, though.

"Maybe I could audition," Phil said. "Are you sure about the money?"

"Whitney's loaded," said George. "Come on. We're meeting Rose at three."

Just like that... after eight years. A phone call, a trip across the river, and here he was mixed up with George Panther once again.

Phil stood on the stage of the Hippodrome, looked at the tank that was revealed when the stage floor was retracted, looked up at the ladder and platform forty feet above. George sat nervously on the stage apron.

Billy Rose, his directors and some assistants sat out in the audience.

"Give us two or three jumps, if you will," Billy cried.

To everyone's astonishment, Phil removed his clothes. But as always he had a bathing suit on instead of shorts. He hadn't changed that habit in years. Then he bounced up the ladder, did a very quick half gainer, making it sloppy to look funny. Once again he felt the thrill of the leap and the rush of wind past his ears as he plummeted down. But he'd done this sort of thing so long that his body responded automatically. He emerged and did two more jumps without a pause.

The group in the audience applauded.

"We'll hire you, Mr. Griffin," said Rose. "You're very good."

One of his assistants murmured that the diver wanted the fierce sum of two hundred a week.

Billy Rose grinned. "You couldn't get me to do those jumps for a thousand a week. Hire him. He's a class act."

Phil met the Austin Sisters at the rehearsal next day. They were gorgeous looking in long, white clinging gowns and they sang in beautiful harmony. Afterwards George took Phil over to them, and Phil noticed as they approached that there was a platinum blonde, a golden blonde and a brunette.

"My God!" he cried. "Texas... Maddy... Flair!"

The three women were as startled as Phil. Although Texas was past thirty-five she looked as slim and sexy as ever. Maddy and Flair in their late twenties were at the peak of their beauty.

"Phil... Oh, Phil... Hi, Phil..."

The three were as shy as he was. Long years had passed since they had last met. In the confusion and bustle of the rehearsal there was no time to talk but there were murmurs about getting together later.

However, it was George alone who brought Phil up to date later in Phil's hotel room. Phil had taken a place in the same hotel because it was inexpensive and there was no reason to waste money on luxurious quarters. This way he could save a lot from his salary. George told Phil that the girls worked well together, that they were his best act and got a lot of appearances on radio and with big bands. They even had some records out that sold well. No, Maddy had never married Vic. Vic Singleton owned some radio stations out West, and the Austin Sisters always had free time on the air when they were out there. Vic had never married either. Then he wanted to know about Phil.

Phil's story was simple. Water shows had been popular ever since Cleopatra floated down the Nile with nothing on her luscious body but an asp clasped to her wrist. Phil moved across the country to various colleges and universities putting on shows with the local students to raise money, sometimes for sports programs, sometimes for the schools themselves. He had a small company and didn't make much money, but it kept him active in the water world that he liked. He too had never married.

"And I take it easy on sex, George. I don't get myself in tangles the way I used to."

"Wish I could get into tangles. My three beautiful broads drive me crazy, but they won't put out."

Phil found that the old ache was there, the desire for Maddy, and, to his surprise for the bold Flair, almost as strongly. But when he approached Maddy for dates, she turned him down.

"We could've been great, Phil. But you're too wild, like the time in the tent with Flair. You'll bed any woman when your lust is up."

Nor could he get anything going with Flair. She said she'd given up "the wild ways of her youth" as if she were somehow old and gray!

Still, just being in Jumbo was lots of fun. The show opened with fanfares and Paul Whiteman appeared on a white stallion followed by his band, resplendent in blue and gold uniforms, music crashing. Then came a fantastic circus parade, complete with clowns, wild animals and the title figure of the show, the elephant Jumbo, with the human star, Jimmy Durante.

A cannon boomed. A young girl shot from its mouth. There was no net to catch her. As the audience gasped, her partner, from the sidelines, jumped forward to make the catch and save her life. A woman performer slid from the top balcony three hundred feet to the stage on a taut wire, hanging by her teeth. Another daredevil group did aerial stunts on a tiny plane that zipped around a recessed dome, high up.

In another set, a high wire artist did somersaults on a wire, as the spotlight gradually revealed that he worked above a cageful of snarling jungle cats. At the end he swung down into the cage... then ran to a safety door among the animals while the crowd screamed.

Besides the thrills there was music, including the Austin Sisters, comedy, including Phil's act and spectacles with Rose's specialty, fabulous showgirls. In a wedding scene forty beauties in white satin rode forty white horses, also arrayed in white. They were escorted by forty muscular boys in black tights riding black horses. A "bride and groom" descended from the ceiling amidst fluttering petals and surrounded by white doves.

Phil found that it was almost as much fun to watch the audience's reactions to the thrills, comedy and beauty spectacles as it was to be in the show.