By 1929, the old vaudeville theaters are being transformed into picture houses. Some of the owners hold out, but they are doomed; and some try to serve two gods, but they, too, are doomed.
Alexander Pantages, King Greek himself, is charged with raping Eunice Pringle in the broom closet of one of his theaters. Eunice Pringle is seventeen years old and wishes to be a dancer. Alexander Pantages, who has never learned to read or write but is now worth $30 million, is sixty-two years old and wishes to retain control of his theater empire in the face of pressure to sell from Joseph Kennedy and RKO.
Alexander Pantages is sentenced to fifty years in prison for the rape of Eunice Pringle. Alexander Pantages is acquitted on appeal, but Alexander Pantages is ruined.
Joseph Kennedy and RKO get their theaters.
He likes Alexander Pantages, who gave Mae and him a berth on his circuit, and would regale him with tales of fucking Klondike Kate Rockwell during the Yukon Gold Rush, when Alexander Pantages was a younger, more agile man. He finds it difficult to picture the aging Alexander Pantages raping Eunice Pringle in a broom closet.
Perhaps, it is suggested, Joseph Kennedy and RKO wanted those theaters very badly indeed.
By 1929 he is a father, and a star. He has a beautiful wife. He has a St. Bernard dog named Lady. He has a big house on North Bedford Drive.
And he is fucking Alyce Ardell.