Table for Two: Fictions

Charlie sits in the dining car on a train headed to Los Angeles next to Evelyn “Eve” Ross, who has a scar across her face. Charlie, a former police officer, has seen many scars, but always on men. Charlie needs to take care of his deceased wife Betty’s things and is considering moving in with his son, Tommy. Eve asks to extend her ticket to Los Angeles. A couple of women sit nearby and gossip about neighbors in their hometown, repeating the phrase, “It just shows to go you” (241). The women remind Charlie of his daughter-in-law, Caroline, who rigidly adheres to social norms. One of the women asks Eve about her book, and Eve mockingly replies, with a Southern accent, that the book is boring because it does not have enough sex, noting that it also confuses the effects of the strong anesthetic Rohypnol and gunshots. The women are offended and leave.

Charlie tells Eve that she is correct about the Rohypnol and gunshots. Two of his friends have been shot, but only one of them, his former partner, died. Charlie moved to Los Angeles with Betty and their infant son, Tommy, in 1905, when Los Angeles was not yet a metropolis. The criminal underground of the city developed as fast as the bustling movie and theater scene. Eve laughs, making Charlie feel good. Asked why she extended her ticket, Eve gives a vague answer and asks Charlie how to make a strong dose of Rohypnol.

Prentice Symmons, a former Hollywood star, wanders the Beverly Hills Hotel, lamenting his fall from the spotlight. He finds Eve sitting in his chair and introduces himself, requesting that she switch chairs. Prentice sees the lobby of the hotel as a microcosm of the world. He plans to go to Maison Robert for dinner, but the approach of a black car unnerves him, leading him to retreat to his room. The next day, Prentice reveals his former stardom to Eve, who recites six of Prentice’s films from memory. Prentice praises stage acting over acting on screen, explains that he quit acting because he is overweight, and claims that he does not miss it. In his room, Prentice finds a ticket to his first performance as Hamlet in 1917; his terrace door is unlocked. He searches the room before finally going to bed.

The next day, Prentice stays in his room; Eve sends him a note lamenting that they missed each other on his chair. Outside, Prentice sees shadows around the pool, stumbles to the ground, and thinks he is about to die. Eve helps him to a chair. Prentice dieted throughout his acting career, which made him irritable and unpleasant, until he eventually gave in to his gluttony. Eve notes that it is better that Prentice is overweight and happy. Prentice tells her to use the hotel-provided chauffeur to see Los Angeles, rather than sitting around the hotel.

Olivia steps away from her date at a restaurant and finds Eve talking with the attendant in the bathroom about churros. Eve offers Olivia a cigarette. Olivia’s date is Wilmot, an actor—the date was arranged for publicity. Olivia’s mother told her never to finish a cigarette, a meal, or a drink, but Eve does not follow her mother’s advice. Olivia returns to Wilmot, but they are interrupted by Eve, speaking with a Southern accent and claiming to be Olivia’s cousin. Eve grabs Wilmot’s drink, takes his seat, and insists that Olivia leave with her. Wilmot appears to be ill, and the women leave.

Eve takes Olivia to the Beverly Hills Hotel car, driven by chauffeur Billy. Eve and Billy made a list of things for Eve to do in Los Angeles—next is to have churros at the Santa Monica Pier. Olivia reflects on her busy career since arriving in Los Angeles. She is hoping to be in the movie version of Gone with the Wind the following year, based on the best-selling novel published two years prior in 1936, though she has a contract with a different company. (This identifies Olivia as a fictionalized version of real actress Olivia de Havilland, who indeed starred in the film adaptation of Gone with the Wind.)

Eve and Olivia find the churros, but get distracted by a man with a strange machine—an Astrologicon. The man offers to tell Eve’s fortune for $1. Eve accepts, tells him her name and birth date, and receives an envelope with her fortune. Stepping to the pier to watch the floating casinos, Eve gives Olivia the unopened envelope and tells her to follow its advice without question. Olivia decides to accept the advice and never look back.

As journalist Jeremiah Litsky sits in the El Rey club, he sees Eve enter with famous actress Olivia de Havilland. Litsky is impressed that Eve seems to have shaken Olivia loose from the chains of the studio, and he watches them drink and enjoy the band. Litsky reluctantly gets a drink, sees some men get into a fight, and then calls the police when the men leave, knowing that they will fight outside the club. Eve and Olivia dance, and Litsky reluctantly orders a drink. When Litsky hears sirens, Billy enters and alerts Eve and Olivia, who quickly leave the club through the kitchen. Litsky jumps up, runs to the kitchen exit, and takes a picture of Olivia and Eve as they get into Billy’s car. Litsky then sprints to his own car and drives to O’Malley’s bar.

At O’Malley’s, Litsky muses on the nature of stardom, noting how average people like to see famous people fall. Litsky calls Marcus Benton, the lawyer of real life producer and screenwriter David Selznick, to arrange a meeting at eight o’clock the next night. Then he calls his employer, Humpty Dumpty, to quit his job. Returning from the phone, Litsky sees Eve at the bar, and he wonders how she followed him. Eve introduces herself, and Litsky responds warily, wondering why Eve came to Los Angeles, as her scar will stop her from becoming famous. Eve takes Litsky’s drink to a table and asks Litsky about his work. Litsky calls Los Angeles a waiting room, where everyone hopes to take the Payday Express. Eve tells Litsky about an Italian man who came to Hollywood and made a fortune building sets for movies; he died in his pool because the contractors did not understand the difference between a yard and a meter. Litsky stands to leave, but the room starts to spin, and Litsky loses consciousness, vaguely hearing Eve take his bag.

Marcus Benton watches a young boy with a straw hat and makeshift fishing pole from the window of his office in Building Two of Selznick International Pictures, where he works as David Selznick’s lawyer. Marcus defended Selznick in court in his native Arkansas, after which Selznick created a replica of Marcus’s Arkansas office in California. As Marcus watches Eve stop to talk with the boy, he reflects on the file the company prepared on Eve: She grew up in New York City and left after a failed engagement to a banker. When Eve enters, she is wearing the boy’s straw hat and holding his fishing pole. Marcus concludes that Eve actually grew up in the Midwest. They introduce themselves, and Marcus explains the studio’s gratitude for Eve’s interference with Litsky. Eve and Marcus joke about Marcus’s upbringing in Arkansas. Olivia is contracted to Jack Warner, but, for Gone with the Wind, she is working with Selznick’s studio, which has an obligation to protect Olivia’s reputation. Marcus implies that Eve should help them protect Olivia.

Selznick interrupts the meeting. He tells Eve that every person involved in making movies can help or hurt the production, adding that he is glad to have Eve on his team. Selznick leaves, and Marcus offers Eve an unnamed sum of money to work for Selznick’s studio for a year as Olivia’s guardian. Eve is unsure—she only intends to stay in Los Angeles for another few weeks. Marcus encourages Eve to think about his offer and regrets boasting about the studio’s large profits, but feels Eve is sincere when she says it was nice to meet him.

Before Eve meets Marcus Benton, Billy suggests going to Chester’s Café—the last item on her list of things to do in Los Angeles. Eve reflects on her early distaste for lists, such as the Ten Commandments and the lists of ladylike restrictions provided by her mother (the name of novel Rules of Civility refers to one such list, first created by a teenage George Washington). However, on the train to Los Angeles, Eve began a list of all the places in the world she wants to visit, like the Taj Mahal and the Pyramids, which encouraged her to see lists as an opportunity.

An older couple arrives at Chester’s, reminding Eve of her Aunt Polly and Uncle Jake. Aunt Polly loved the ceremony of afternoon tea at three o’clock and Jesus; when Eve turned 15, Polly had her take over the responsibility of arranging the tea. Uncle Jake overused the phrase “if I had a nickel fer” (307); Eve upset the family by asking Jake what he would do with all his nickels. Eve tells Billy the coffee is good. Billy asks if she is going back to New York, and she asks if Billy is going back to Texas. Eve plans to see the world. Billy is staying in Los Angeles as a stuntman—he’s found his niche as a heel-hooker, falling off horses and being dragged by his heel in movies.

After the meeting with Marcus, Eve is uncomfortable with Selznick’s desire to control Olivia. Eve finds Olivia pacing in the Beverly Hills Hotel lobby. Olivia shows Eve two pictures of Olivia naked, accompanied by a letter demanding money. Olivia panics, and Eve is angry. Eve tells Olivia they will have dinner as planned, to celebrate Olivia getting a role in a new movie with Errol Flynn. Eve promises to handle the photos, calls Marcus, and accepts the job as Olivia’s guardian.