At the Oceana Apartments, he checks his wallet.
He is comfortable, but not wealthy. He has been cautious in his investments ever since the stock market crash of 1929, when he lost much of his savings. Annuities have funded his retirement, and what he does not need he gives away, although sometimes he grows weary of the endless importuning.
For the world is full of starving actors.
Ben Shipman looks after his financial affairs, and has for decades, which may explain why he is not wealthier. He thinks Ben Shipman’s negotiating strategy went something like this:
STUDIO: We’d like to offer him a new contract.
BEN SHIPMAN: Great. How much should we pay you?
But Ben Shipman is a nice man, and Ben Shipman is not a crook.
And besides, because of Ben Shipman, there is nothing left for Ben Shipman to steal.
He could live somewhere better, he knows, somewhere bigger, but he enjoys being near the sea, and he enjoys being around people. He can walk out of his apartment, if he is feeling well enough, and become part of the flow, or climb in the Mercury and go to a restaurant, but he tries to be discreet. It is not that he is in any way aloof—if that were the case, he would not be listed in the telephone book—but he is uncomfortable with his looks and his age. He remains a younger man on television, and that is how the Audience thinks of him. He does not wish to disappoint it with reality. This is why he turns down offers to appear on shows and in pictures.
And, of course, there is Babe: what is he without Babe but a reminder of all that has been lost?
He closes his wallet.