It is not the same studio to which he returns. When first he worked for Hal Roach, he did so outdoors, on a single primitive stage. At night he helped to carry the furniture inside in case of bad weather. But Snub Pollard and Jimmy Parrott and Harold Lloyd have made Hal Roach wealthy. The Hal E. Roach Studios now sit on nineteen acres in Culver City, and Hal Roach has investors willing and eager to back his pictures.
The lot reminds him of the Selig Zoo Studios. He can hear the howling of monkeys and the shrieking of birds, because Hal Roach keeps a collection of animals for use in his pictures.
There was an act on the vaudeville circuit called Rhinelander’s Pigs. The pigs stank out any theater in which they played. No one wanted to follow Rhinelander’s Pigs. The pigs toyed with a ball, balanced on a seesaw, formed a pyramid. Any time the pigs appeared reluctant to perform, Rhinelander would take out a long knife to sharpen on a whetstone, which was the cue for the pigs to do whatever it was they were supposed to be doing. Eventually, he supposes, the pigs, through age or the vagaries of public taste, outlived their usefulness, at which point they were taken to the slaughterhouse, where another man stood, sharpening a knife on a whetstone.
He wonders if the pigs tried to perform tricks before they died, in the belief that it might save them.
Rumor has it that one of the ostriches in Hal Roach’s zoo is the same bird that put Billie Ritchie in the grave.
Billie Ritchie worked with Fred Karno. Billie Ritchie’s gags involved tramps and drunks.
Chaplin was watching Billie Ritchie very carefully.
Anyway, the ostrich kicked Billie Ritchie so hard and so often that Billie Ritchie got cancer and died. This is how hard the ostrich kicked Billie Ritchie. The fate of Billie Ritchie concerns him, because one of the pictures Hal Roach has lined up for his slate is called Roughest Africa, and features more animals than the Bronx Zoo. One scene is set to involve him being chased across Santa Catalina Island by an ostrich.
He initiates some inquiries, and is told that this ostrich is not the same one that kicked cancer into Billie Ritchie.
That, he is assured, was another ostrich entirely.
Jimmy Parrott makes one-reel pictures for Hal Roach under the name Paul Parrott, while Jimmy’s brother, Charley Parrott, directs Snub Pollard comedies and acts as director general of the studios. Charley Parrott is also taking care of a new series for Hal Roach, to be called Our Gang.
He knows of Charley Parrott from the vaudeville circuit, but Jimmy Parrott is familiar to him only from the screen. Studio gossip has it that Jimmy Parrott was a hard kid in his teens, and ran with a street gang in Baltimore. Charley Parrott saved his brother by bringing him out to California and giving him work. It was not entirely an act of charity. Jimmy Parrott is a good comedian. Not original, not like Harold Lloyd, but solid. Charley Parrott guides Jimmy Parrott. Charley Parrott’s instincts are better than solid. And Charley Parrott can act. Charley Parrott is subtle. He watches Charley Parrott going through set-ups and lines with his cast and thinks that Charley Parrott should be in front of the camera, not behind it.
But Jimmy Parrott is the reason why he is here, the reason Hal Roach has given him a second chance. Jimmy Parrott is an epileptic, and his fits are getting in the way of his acting. Hal Roach requires product, epilepsy or not, so another performer is required to take the pressure off Jimmy Parrott and ensure that Hal Roach can fill screens every week.
His deal with Hal Roach is for twelve and a half percent of the take. It’s not great, but Hal Roach can guarantee distribution and a profile. Still, he has worked too hard to allow himself to be shortchanged now. He argues for a better cut, and fails.
He will spend his career arguing for a better cut, and failing.
He tries to detail his grievances to Mae, but Mae no longer listens to his complaints as she once did. Mae wants to know her part in the Hal Roach deal. He has his own series, and twelve and a half percent of something, but she has nothing. Mae cannot go back to vaudeville without him—and would not, she says, even if she could—but what is she to do instead? He must ask Hal Roach to give her work.
And he does, but Hal Roach is not Broncho Billy Anderson. Hal Roach needs him, but not so badly that Hal Roach wants to piss money away by giving it to the woman who shares this new star’s bed. Nevertheless, Hal Roach has a wife, Marguerite, and understands how a woman’s unhappiness can prey on a man’s mind. Hal Roach agrees to give Mae a role in Under Two Jags, the first picture of the contract.
Mae plays a dancer, and dances well, but the female lead is Katherine Grant, and Mae has sixteen years, one marriage, and one child on Katherine Grant. Mae has years of half-empty theaters, miserable dressing rooms, and cold lodgings on Katherine Grant. One year earlier, Katherine Grant was crowned Miss Los Angeles, and went on to compete in the Miss America pageant. It does not matter that nudie pictures of her subsequently appeared, and attempts were made to extort money in return for the plates. The problem vanished, because Katherine Grant had signed a five-year contract with Hal Roach Studios.
Mae watches her common-law husband act alongside Katherine Grant, and understands that it is the beginning of the end for her.
When he returns home that evening, he finds Mae weeping.
She weeps, and she cannot stop.