Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-10-09
CHAPTER XXXu

SAh-hA LIN R-N<h
The private showing of knights
and Knaves" took place at the plaza
one Sunday night about a week aft
er James meeting with Ben Hardy.
At his earnest solicitation, she took
him along.
The showing was private only in
the sense that tickets were not sold
10 the public, but the house was
none the less crowded. Mr.. David
son. ably assisted by his super-press
agent, Mr.. Evans. saw TO il that the
theater was filled with a hand-pick-
ed audience Of friends. who could be
depended on to boost" the show in
every direction, whatever its merits.
This was the theory. at least; in
practice. it usually happens that
professional audiences are hyper
critical, apt to be cautious with
praise. except to those directly in
tcrested, in which case their congrat-
ulations are fulsome.
However they may have felt in
wardly. the audience which greeted
Irene Shirley's advent as a star was
brilliant. noisy. receptive. Compos-
ed Of theatrical and picture people
~ every sort, from stars to prop
erty men, from managers and pro-
ducers TO screen writers and press
agents, il represented every branch
of the profession. Novelists. play
wrights, magazine editors. artists
and illustrators. show girls, Broad
way first nighters. prize fighters.
ticket spectators and parsons filled
IN the ehinks. And last. but not
least. the critics.
All came. filled with n vast and
somewhat amused curiosity. The
story OF Irene Shirley's success in
vamping herself to stardom was n
legend of the street by now. and rs
few among the New York crowd had
ever seen her. either IN person or
on the silver sheet, they were al!
tager to learn how badly Lew David
son had been ~"stuug." Should Irene.
BY chance. turn "a to be a real
lind. a coming figure in the picture
world. those who had dubbed Lew
q fool for s%uccumbing to her blan.
nlshments would be the first to hail
him as the shrewd and sagacious
man Of business he had hitherto
shown himself. But-ard il was on
this account that the audience. meta
phorhically speaking. licked its chops
II Irene turned out TO he, in the
parlance Of the street. q false alarm,
alter all the frantic and costly pub
LEFTY which had been lavished upon
her, then. no matter what the spec-
tators might say to Lew, they would
20 away 70 laugh, to gibe. 70 gloat
over the fact that another Samson
had found his Delilah. that another
big man in the business had proven
himself as weak and gullihle as the
rest Of them.
A vast buzzing Of whispers filled
the theater as the orchestra began
70 play the music which Davidson
had had especially prepared for the
plcture-not that a film of the
character of knights and RnavesH
required any special music, il vas
a sordid and COMMONPLACE enough
story of crime. with the usual re-
generation of a man through the
loyalty Of a devoted wife-but Irene
wanted to have all the trimmings
insisted on them. Sitting in a box
beside her impresario, she present
ed a brilliantly attractive figure; it
was noticed BY some that Lewis
wife. contrary to her usual habit,
was not present. There her been a
shoulder of fire in the Davidson
household for weeks-a shoulder
which bid fair at any moment TO
burst into flame.
Tony Hull had asked Jane to see
the picture with him: when she
spoke of a previous engagement the
look Of pain which crossed his face
left her full Of vague regrets.
Its Mr.. Hardy. Tony she ex-
planned. Hes been awfully nice to
me. and when he asked me TO get
him a ticket-bring him along-I
couldn't well refuse" 1t was the
fourth or fifth time in as many days
that she had used Hardy's name as
excuse - a reason. rather. for re-
fusing Tony's Invitations, ard the
repetition had begun to crate on his
nerves.
"You seem TO spend an awful lot
Of time with him. he said. savage
Is. "Tvc scarcely laid eyes on you
for q week"
I'm sorry. Tony" There was q