Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1936-07-10

it tomorrow. But tomorrow he didn't
have time-or some other excuse.
Moe Feinberg was pulling another
fast one. Any of the chorus could
have told Dixie so, but Dixie wasn't
confiding in anyone that she hadn't
been actually signed yet. 1t really
didn't matter, she consoled herself.
Nobody got paid for rehearsals, and
before the show opened, surely she
could pin Moe down by then.
AS the end of rehearsals drew near,
the tension frightened up. Everyone's
nerves were taut. Everyone was look
ing forward to the opening night in
Boston. After the opening, things
would be better.
So it was with feeling of decided
relief that Dixie packed and met the
company at the station. Moe still
hadn't come through with contract,
but he promised to meet the company
in Boston with it, and Dixie trusted
him because there wasn't anything
else she could do.
And then, as their train neared
Boston, the blow fell. They began to
see billboards advertising the open
ing two days away. And it wasn't
Dixie Mason's name that appeared in
big letters as star. It was a high
priced temperamental, we'll established
musical comedy star, whose boast it
was that she never rehearsed with q
company until the final dress rehear-
SAL
Dixie who had been watching out
the train windows for the first bill
boards, thought she would die right
tkeupre in her seat when she saw it.
For the billboard read-Ada Baird
in Lady Bird"
The whole company had been watch
ing, just as she had, and they immed-
lately gathered around her. Every
one knew what it meant. Moe Fem
berg had pulled another fast one. He
had tricked Dixie into replacing the
star during hot, strenuous month of
rehearsals, without ever intending to
let her sing the role when the show
opened. Then she had to admit that
she never had been able to get con-
tract out of Moe.
"You shut your teeth and take it,"
tfcy ali ad3iSed her. you'll under
study Baird, that's sure. And you
may get your chance yet"
There wasn't anything else she
could do. It was past the first of
September. The winters shows were
all cast. If she walked out, she would
very likely be out of a job all winter,
and he couldn't afford that. If she
stuck, and put her pride in her pocket,
she was sure of her fifty week for
chorus work and an extra ten for un-
derstudying Baird.
The worst of it was that in seven
weeks Blinn would be back. And
Blinn had already bought front row
seat for the October 25 performance.
How she could square it with Blinn,
she didn't know.
A million doubts and fears assail-
ed her. Suppose it was the glamour
of the stage-the prestige of the star
that had caught Blinn. Suppose he
wouldn't love Dixie Mason, chorus
girl. Suppose he should think she
and Bud had lied when they told him
she was starring in Lady Bird?"
Dixie Mason, huddled down in her
lonely bed night after night in an an
guish of shame and humiliation and
fear that increased instead of abated,
knew that she couldn't bear that.
Somehow or other she had to sing
the lead on the twenty-fifth of Oc-
tober. If she could only manage to
do that, she could tell Blinn that she
had withdrawn from the cast of her
own accord.
If Blinn could see her in the lead
that one night, surely, surely after
the show he would take her in his
arms and they would set definite
date for their marriage. If she could
only manage that, she could save her
face. Maybe she could even alibi for
Ada Baird's name on the billboards.
Meantime, during the seven weeks
that interviewed, she had to save every
possible penny TO take care of even
Qualities.
Somehow she had to put it over.
There were only two ways. One was
to throw herself on Ada Baird's mercy
and tell her the whole story, and beg
her to feign headache or a cold or
something that night. And the other
was by trickery.
Ada knew all about the trick Moe