Indianapolis Times, Volume 48, Number 64, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 May 1936 — Page 15

MAY 25, 1035

Today'* Short Story ACHING HEART By Charles McGuirk

THEY come and they go In the art*. You see an actor or a Ringer or a dancer on the stage or In a night dub knocking them out of their scats with as fine a series of performances as was ever given since Thespia first donned hose and buskins or Terpsichore went Into a tap dance. You go away for a couple of months and come back and see the same performer go through the motions of the same performance. And It’s lousy! You look at them with your mouth open and you say to yourself: "How could anybody who was as good as this one was turn out to be as terrible as this one is?” tt tt VENITA D’ARCY brought up this train of thought. Venita has come and gone several times in the last 15 years, since the day she entered the field of vaudeville via the carnival route. If memory does not betray, that debut of Venita's was attended by hysteria and violence because her first audience was roused to such frenzied applause that the attention of the law was attracted to her performance and she w r as pinched for needless exposure. Naturally, Venita went straight from jail to fame and fortune which fluctuated through the years from headlines and a grand a week in vaudeville to coffee-and-cake money in the honky tonks. For, when her voice changed, it was found to be alto and with a sad quality in it that made the heart throb. She became a "blues” singer who put over her songs with a devastating swing of her hips. It wasn’t so much hips as it was art. When vaudeville waned and died before the onslaughts of the moving picture and the radio, Venita looked mflinchingly at hard times that threatened never to become any softer. u n n LOOKING at Venita when things were at their blackest, any susceptible man would feel deep sympathy and compassion while he wondered why a woman of so much beauty should be called upon to endure such financial distress. She was statuesque and—as has been said before—voluptuous. Even in the days of greatest prosperity she never weighed more than 128. She W'as a brunet with a thick cap of blackest hair, blue eyes and a rosebud mouth and the lady sure could curse! But despite all her cussing and her daily round of booking offices, Venita kept Only a few inches from the wolf and it was during this period that Sol Horowitz, "actors’ representative,” decided that something should be done for her and about her. And as Sol has often said, then and since, he was the lad who could do it. He did very well, as you may already know, from the accounts of the meteoric rise of Venita D’Arcy from the ranks of passe . .ght club Ringers to a flaming voice wlio could tear your heart out and did from the Golden Room of the La Marge Hotel and over the biggest radio networks. nun HER rise with a "natural” story and she crashed all the columns and most of the magazines. In most of her stories she appeared as an old and time-worn veteran who had been a has-been for several years and then suddenly, one night, electrified a night club audience with the brilliance and tearjerking intensity of her interpretation of her songs. She had been before the public eye for 15 years and, naturally people thought she had gone into show business at the time of Sarah Bernhardt’s first farewell tour. Really, though, she was only 15 that day the Law bundled her into the jug of a tank town immediately following her debut. And today Venita is not a day over 31. Anyhow, that professional resurrection of hers was the talk of the town for months and all through the talk she worked and kept up her average. For 10 months or so, she was acknowledged as the greatest torch singer of this decade and the saddest voice in radio. And then, one night, she came on at lhe La Marge Hotel for her act. The audience stopped talking. Some of them even stopped drinking—the perfect modern tribute to the perfect artist. The music struck up, playing a song that was sweeping the world and making it cry into its handkerchief. Venita drew herrself up to her full height. She filled her gorgeous lungs. Men’s eyes glistened with emotion, and women’s glittered with jealousy. Venita opened her rosbud mouth. And was she terrible! an m PEOPLE didn’t believe their ears. She sang that sqng and murdered it. When she finished, she waited for the terrific applause that always greeted her offerings. Anct when it came as a trickle of polite ind startled hand-clapping, sh* smiled a silly smile and shrugged and walked off. She lasted out the week because :he management thought she might oe only drunk or doped or suffering from a fractured skull or something. But she kept getting worse and worse, and finally the management paid her her last week's salary' ana offered her a substantial bonus for not working out a 10-week contract. "Certainly I'll take that much to quit sirging,” she said. "I’m tired of sing-ng. I've been singing for 15 years, and what did it get me? Oh, I shouldn't say that. It did get me something. But it wasn't what you or I would expect from singing. For 15 years it got me nothing but* bruises. It got me nothing but an aching heart. Now that it has turned around and given me something altogether different

■*Y HANDS WERE ANO S.O THE RU REFUSED TO CURT BUT NOW WITH LAVA SOAP YOU SEE MY HANDS ARE CLEAN -THREE CHRIS LOVE ME. J 1 W ANT TOWIN *lO FOR A LAVAVERSE?®i>® fl IF ** CAN USE YOURS WE'LL FILL YOUR PURSE.■ f SEND VERSE,LAVA CARTON OR ITS FACSIMILE ■ I TO LAVA SOAP, CINCINNATI (Boi IfiOl. D*.F) 1 rt other soaps CAn't^^eh^^TT/^l on ground-in pinto in a Jiffy. *■ #* VM ■ soothing oils protect tho hands. SOAP! *OEIW l I ll MMMHHMWMHBaJ

I'm glad to be through with it. To hell with singing!” Thus exited Venita from the amusement world, and her going left quite a dent. It also left a wake of speculation. Nobody knew why she had flared into the highest art and then sputtered out like a light. Nobody but Sol Horowitz. Sol was willing to tell—try and stop him! man COL. HOROWITZ always had liked Venita. That is an understatement. Sol always had worshipped Venita. He had come into show business via the office boy route just at the time she was at the first high spot in her career. He used to save nickels and dimes from his lunch money to “catch" her act, and that combination of feminine loveliness and gorgeous voice which she possessed had him walking on his heels. Sol was a natural, showman, and it didn't take him long to climb to the top. Seven years after he represented his first actress he was booking big-time acts and placing his clients to their immense advantage and his own. Venita was one of them for a couple of years until she walked out because he couldn’t get her billed at the Palace over Fannie Brice. Then she walked out on him. and he never even saw her act for years. He met her one day on Broadway when she was in the midst of her own private depression. He noticed that she looked a little threadbare and with his ready tact —the little guy has a lot of charm—he invited her to a drink. And over that drink and two more she told him her troubles. -4ie got the complete picture and asked her who was handling her act. u tt SHE told him she didn’t have an agent. She didn’t tell him, but he surmised, that no agent would handle her. He only told her he would handle her and asked to see her act. When he had heard and seen her, he shook his head. "Venita,” he said, "you've lost your zam. You don’t give it and get it like you used to. You just take a song and mumble the words. Where is your old fire?” But Venita didn’t have any of the old fire, as Sol found out after two weeks of watching her and trying to improve her act. So Sol set himself down to think of some way to give it to her. “What a dame has got to have for torch singing,” he told himself, "is fire and tears. And how is a dame going to get them when she hasn’t any? Why, she’s got to get them from heartache. She’s got to have an aching heart. Well, how is she going to get an aching heart?” He thought that one over a long time and two weeks later he approached Ed Marion, a juvenile, whom no one would ever suspect of crowding 40, but who couldn’t land a job. “Eddie,” Sol told him, "I got a funny kind of an offer to make to you. It means 50 bucks a week, but maybe you'll get sore at me?” u a a “T ISTEN, Sol,” Eddie told him, "if J-V it's murder, just furnish the weapon and point out the guy. For 50 bucks I'd do worse than that.” "Oke,” Sol said. "All I want you to do is to make a dame fall for you. Hard. You got to make her nuts about you, because if I can get her that way, she’ll be worth dough to me and to herself. Remember that if you should get cold feet, you’ll be doing it for her own good.” "I knew there was a catch in it,” Ed said sadly. "I’ll bet she’s crosseyed and has a flat feet. Who is she?” "Venita D’Arcy,” Sol told him and the agreement was sealed then and there. Eddie was an actor and it was easy to play such a part with a woman as beautiful as Venita. But, at first, Venita couldn’t see him. She would have nothing to do with him. It took him a month to get her into the frame of mind where she’d even let him buy her a drink. However, he got her that way and then, suddenly, she fell hard for him. Eddie found it more than easy to tell her how much he loved her and to kiss and fondle her. He reported his success to Sol immediately and Sol rubbed his hands. * tt tt OOD!” he said. "Now you get vJ to hell out of town. Get out tonight. Don’t tell anybody but me where you're going. And watch the papers for Venita’s name. She will be in headlines in a week.” Eddie laughed and beat it. He went to Chicago and watched the papers. You know what he found. It took less than a week. One night Venita, burning with a spurned passion and unrequited love, electrified her audience with the passion and the beauty of her singing. She was a terrific hit. She was a terrific hit but a most unhappy woman. Anybody who spent more than 10 minutes in her company came away crying. She was a walking mass of gloom with a hatred for all men and a murderous yen to slay Eddie Marion, who had set her alight and then left her. Well, that went on for the 10 months of which you already know. And then, one night, she came and pulled the first of her terrible performances. tt m HERE Sol pauses and shakes his head. "Well,” you say, "what happened? What caused her to flop?” "Why,” Sol savs, "can’t you figure? That dirty rat, Eddie Marion, the ham, who had set her down. He sneaked back after 10 months. He ruined her because he married her that night just before she put on that awful show. Never trust an actor.” THE END

OUR BOARDING HOUSE

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FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS—

f " )/ Y / ; \ -f—' ■” f-v v f v HAS THAT \ GEE,I DOWT THIKIK DONT BE RJMW!'YxJVE f uav/pV S! ™AT'S THE LAW HERE ! \ H EY K1D.... A [ NOTHING DOING/ THE CITY NUTT GOT A ) SO, MISTER. I GOT TO BLN A LICENSE / To nn \ YOU’LL HAVE TD KICK THRU WITH ) CALL YOUR CAN MAkE ME BUY A LICENSE GAVE A BATH AND FASTEN JT ID ,OR “THE CITY WILL TAkE DOG 0FF.... / \ LICENSE, BUT I’M NOT ) ,W<3 HIS .COLLAR, IF HIM AWAY FROM NOU U _7|[| CALL HIM / GALL j GONNA CHANGE HIS / • aarr t—, i] o—. a \ wwirvEcua

WASHINGTON TUBBS n

AvELL,!F YIMAGJNE APEE-WEE/ PODNER, (BETTER \HE LL GET VDID ANYgOOV\ THAT DON'T KID KNOCKIN' OUT 7 THAT'S WHAtVoMIN ’ HANDCUFP PLENTY FOR\SEARCH HIMT T i^ E J HE / A DESPERADO f\ I CALL NEf?V£../ TO. / 'IM, BOYS./SNOOTIN' I*l TOC Y..y . —— s ■— y

ALLEY OOP

VOU SEEM TERR I \ T WANT SOMETH INgT) fwE MUST fyEH -DINNY'S COVERED CHOOSEY TODAY-WEUS \ EXTRA SPECIAL' BE AN {A LOT OF 6ROUND-THIS SEEN ALL KINDS OF /THOSE WEVE SEEN AWFULLY ( PART OF TH'COUNTRY AkJIMALS AND YOU'VE J WERE EITHER TOO 7 LONG WAY >IS ALL NEW TO ME - MOO- SCENERY ONCE

BOOTS AND HER BUDDIES

TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD MEN

When they were out of range of their enemies’ missiles, Tarzan set Orando down, extracted the arrow from his leg and bound up the flesh wound with healing leaves and clean, pliant bark. Then, despite the warriors protests, Tarzan lifted him again to £> shoulder, -

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Meanwhile the little monkey Nkima had recovered from his fright. “I do not fear the wicked black men,” he boosted: “if they come after us we will kill them—won't we, master, Tarzan?” Nkima’s bravery was phenomenal—when he was re 'ote from danger, _____

With Major Hoople

OUT OUR WAY

/ GOSM/ TUIAT WAS TU WORST \ ' / CETTM HIT WAS'N \ ' / GETTIM' HIT \ / 7 U WORST LUCK- \ I BY THAT CAR-0-UOO-I-I \ I TH' WORST LUCK IS \ =EEL AWFUL BAD ABOUT TWAT I CAM ONLV TM' WAV I’VE BAWLED VOU \ GET ALL THAT WITH l OUT AM -AN’ BOSSED YOU \ ONLY OME EAR AND / V AROUND - B-WOO - I WISH ID \ ONE EVE ' / |\ BEEN KINDER. SWEETER ANJD ’ —/ \ MORE PATIENT-I WILL, PROM \ NOW ON - B-WOO - WOO - / jp c~nr ) ///f. . ( , | 111 mm 1 ~ MERGES ARE KAADE- NOT BORN

AND I FOUND \HOO-WEE! \ THAT'S TH 1 FUST BUT WHERE'S \THAT'S RIGHT. Y MAKE HIM *2I OOO IN ssoo] LOOKIT ALL TIME I EVER. /THE REST OF [ $13,000 STILL-J TALK, IKE BILLS ON'IM. [THATMONEY/SEEN MORE'NAIT? PICKET \ IS MISSIN'. / I RECKON HE'S THE GUY / THUTTY DOLLAR?)WAS ROBBED thYafpAß WHOROB6ED / 1 \IN MY LIFE. 7oF 40 THOUSANQ> ] 1 AIN'T CLEARED

HEY, OOOLA- LOOKItT ST i THOUGHT I'D SEEN ALL TW' THAT FOOTPRINT/UMM- IT LOOKS \ DIFFERENT KINDS OF CRITTERS I* Y PRETTY BIG TO J THERE ARE-BUT I'VE NEVER PIIY V l ME-WHAT KIND ) LAID EYES ON TRACKS LIKE A M£S* OF A BRUTE THESE -WHAD’YA SAY J '

/&KSO TrtE SEN AG AIM WAS CAm—a* lu CON'b\aEßl'Wi£ COWTOfcSVTOI THE. - —>

Now Orando asked Tarzan anxiously: “You do not believe I am a Leopard Man?” The Jungle Lord shook his head. “I am convinced Sobito is the chief of the Leopard Men spies in your village. He had the leopard skin hidden in your hut. He cud you Ulbus,"-

—By Edgar Rice Burroughs

“Why?” asked the mystified warrior. "He knew I would defend you,” Tarzan replied, “and thus excite the enmity of the people so that both of us would be driven away. Sobito is clever and powerful, .and ruthless, Orlando. But Sobito and 1 will m ;t again!”

COMIC PAG*

—By Williams

—By Blosser

—By Crane

—-By Hamlin

—By Martin