Harlem (New York, N.Y.); New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs
At that time N.T.G., who was running the old Hollywood Restaurant on
Broadway, had an agreement with Ziegfeld that the ten choicest Ziegfeld
girls could double in both shows. Iris was one of the ten, easy.
Every night, after the final curtain of the Ziegfeld show--it was
_Hot-Cha_, in which the late tempestuous Lupe Velez starred--Iris would
scamper to the Hollywood and go into the chorus there for the midnight
and two o'clock performances.
One of the owners of the Hollywood Restaurant was a very wealthy New
York real estate man. His son, Herman Amron, was manager of the club.
He fell in love with Iris and for a year or more it was one of the
torrid romances of the Street.
When Iris took a summer off to go to Europe, Herman grabbed the next
boat and followed her. When she returned, he bought her a mink coat, a
diamond ring, a diamond bracelet--and kept buying.
He loved her so much, he did what so many other unwise, over-eager men
on Broadway do. He tried to help her career. He begged talent scouts
to go to see Iris. He spoke to friends--in the movie studios. Finally
Iris came up with a contract--a year, with options each six months.
She went out to Hollywood about ten years ago and appeared first in a
George Raft picture. Herman was thrilled that he had done so much for
his beloved. But, of course, he was very lonesome, since his job kept
him here. He managed to fly out a couple of times to see her, but, as
so many other men have learned, he found fame and adulation help a girl
forget the man who isn't there.
Herman felt he was losing her. He grew desperate. He was back in New
York. Christmas was coming. He had bought her diamonds and furs and
didn't know what to send her now. He chose a beautiful, costly opal
bracelet, packed it carefully, put in an affectionate card and sent it
on to Hollywood, to Iris.
What Herman didn't know was, that among the superstitions in show
business--like not whistling in a dressing-room or wearing yellow on
opening night--opals are hoodoo 1-A.
Iris received the package. Like a girl, she opened it in a flurry of
anticipation. She took out the opal bracelet. It was beautiful and she
put it on, though she knew it was hard luck.
In the same mail was a letter from her studio--a notice that her option
wasn't taken up and in two weeks she would no longer shine at Paramount.
The two, coming at once, were more than a coincidence to Iris. She
knew that the opals had jinxed her contract. In a rage, she threw the
bracelet on the floor, broke a couple of stones, had her maid send it
back.
Two days later, still furious, she married a man who had been
proposing to her for a year. He was worth $30,000,000, but he had one
drawback--he was deaf and dumb.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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