Evening star., 1936-01-26

almost time tOT her flnal scene.
was standing beside my board
waiting to work the lights on her entrance
She always played the final big scene in dim
light. Much more effective for tragedy"
she'd said And she sure was right never
saw an audience eat up scene like they did
that last one of Vioiet's.
| had wondered myself why she wasn't
there. She usually came up to the entrance
and stood gabbing with me for second
before her cue came. But tonight she had some
guy in her dressing room. saw them come into
gether just after the half hour had been called
They were battling like nobody's business
Id never seen the guy before. but he was
plenty sore. and it told on Violet s perform
ance. She wasn't doing her stuff You could
feel the audience getting fidgety and after the
second act. as she passed the board. heard
her say to herself. "Oh. why doesn't he go!'
And now it looked like she'd be late for her
last entrance and that's enough to kill any
scene
had nothing to do on the board until
Violet made her entrance. so made bee
line fol her dressing room. l was kind of
worried. She d made couple of cracks to me
about the -showmust -go-on stuff being lot
of bunk and, if ever anything serious hap
pened. she'd chuck the show. And tonight
what with that guy in her dressing room
getting her all upset. l thought maybe she
mightn't finish the show.
Just as had my hand raised to knock,
heard Violet say. kind of low and choked up
-@You wouldn't dare do that to me"
Then heard the guys voice say, "Oh
wouldn't I'
knocked loud and told Violet she'd have
to step on it or she d be late for the scene.
There was dead pause: then she said. very
low and tense like, "All right Ill make it,
l had started back to the board when
thought heard gun shot. wasn't sure. so
beat it back to my lights. A bit later Violet
came out. just in time to pick up her cue.
Boy, what locker! She had black hair and
black eyes. Her eyes had way of softening
when she talked to someone she liked that
put goose flesh all over you. And did she have
a figure! Nothing skinny about her. She had
sMore curves than a coied spring. couldn't
see how any guy in his right mind could
battle with her.
As she passed me. noticed she was white
More than usual. mean. She always took off
her grease paint for this last scene, but she
was too white With the black silk dress she
wore. it made her face look awful. 1t gave me
the creeps. She had look in her eyes that
made me think that shot was no phoney.
fixed the lights for her scene and burned
the air getting to Violets dressing room.
threw open the door and looked in. Almost
at my feet lay little pearl-handled revolver.
I'd seen it before. Violet always carried it in
her bag and kept it on her makeup shelf in
the theatre.
Sitting in chair in the middle of the room
was the guy I'd seen come into the theatre
with Violet. He had silly grin on his mug.
He was looking straight at me, and right
between his eyes was neat little hole about
the size OF shirt button.
didn't let any grass grow under my feet
getting back to the stage. l opened the door
of the set a crack and watched the scene.
could feel the sweat running down my back
in a stream.
- Boy, what an actress! In the five months
run Of the play I'd never seen her do her stuff
like that. She had the audience lifted right
rs <bosr