(Tape #2 with Harmon Wright. Recorded in his office at HWA, March 14.)
HOAG: THANK YOU FOR seeing me again.
Wright: Of course. I think all of us owe it to Artie to see his story come out. He was on his way back. That’s what makes his death such a tragedy.
Hoag: You knew him a long time.
Wright: Longer than anyone. Longer than Connie or Gabe. God, he’s been such a big part of my life for so many years. The phone calls. The tantrums. The crises. It’s hard to get used to him not being here.
Hoag: There are a few loose ends I’d like to tie up.
Wright: Fire away.
Hoag: During our last interview, Sonny and I were discussing the events that led up to Knight and Day’s breakup. According to Sonny, their feuding came to a head over The Boy in the Gray Flannel Suit.
Wright: Artie, he provoked that last fight.
Hoag: He did?
Wright: Absolutely. He wrote a picture that had no part for the guy in it, and then he told them this is the picture I want to do. They said fine, but put in a part for the tall guy. He said no, you make me do that and I’m walking. I told him, Arthur, they got you for three pictures, exclusive. You don’t make movies for Warners, you don’t make pictures for anybody. He wouldn’t listen. He drew a line and he wouldn’t cross over it.
Hoag: He told me Gabe was the one who drew that line, that Gabe demanded a musical.
Wright: That was only to save face. Gabe had never expressed any interest in doing a musical. Not until he got wind that Artie wanted to do a picture without him. I talked Gabe into at least reading the script for Gray Flannel Suit. He did, and he said it was a stupid picture—which it was—but only because Artie made it plain he didn’t want him involved in it.
Hoag: Did Sonny back down and write in a part for him?
Wright: Absolutely not.
Hoag: I see. That’s a little different than the version I heard.
Wright: Sonny Day wasn’t perfect. You ought to know that by now.
Hoag: So what happened?
Wright: The studio took Artie’s side, of course. He was the indispensable one. They gave Gabe forty-eight hours to think it over. I tried to get the two of them to talk to each other. They resisted. I said, after all you’ve meant to each other, you can at least have lunch. They met at Dave Chasen’s. They were through as partners before the entrée came.
Hoag: You’re saying they fought over this movie?
Wright: It’s like I told you before—those two fought because they were seriously sick of each other.
Hoag: Connie threw Sonny a big birthday party the night before. Gabe was there.
Wright: A lovely affair. I remember it well. That was the night Gabe showed me what kind of actor he was. He gave Artie a lovely speech. He cried. He was very moving. Genuinely. Just like the other day at the funeral. The way he broke down. You think he felt any loss from Artie’s death? No, sir. He loathed the man.
Hoag: Gabe told me he loved him.
Wright: He’s never loved anybody in his whole life. Only himself. No surprise, him going into politics. Watch him move right up. A cabinet post. Then a candidacy.
Hoag: President Knight?
Wright: Sound crazy to you?
Hoag: Actually, no. It doesn’t. Are you aware of any kind of personal conflict between Gabe and Sonny? Something that cut deeper than their professional differences?
Wright: Such as what?
Hoag: Such as an involvement between Gabe and Connie.
Wright: I don’t talk about stuff like that.
Hoag: Stuff like what?
Wright: Smut. Gossip. I’m an attorney, a businessman. What people do between the sheets is none of my business. Or of the readers of Artie’s book.
Hoag: I see.
Wright: Don’t see. Don’t see anything. Connie Morgan is one of the finest, loveliest women I’ve ever known. She’s also a client. You lift one finger to harm her or her reputation and you’ll have me for an enemy, and you won’t like it.
Hoag: I wouldn’t do anything that wasn’t in the best interests of the family. Wanda seems to feel—
Wright: Leave Wanda out of it, too. She’s had enough problems, the poor kid.
Hoag: Did Sonny mention anything to you about getting a threatening letter?
Wright: When?
Hoag: A few weeks ago.
Wright: No.
Hoag: Any idea of why someone would have sent him one?
Wright: No. No idea.
Hoag: Are you aware that he and I hit a kind of impasse shortly before his death?
Wright: I know what he told me.
Hoag: Which was?
Wright: That you stopped trusting him. That the two of you fought and you went home to New York, mad. He told me he missed you and kept wanting to call you.
Hoag: When did he tell you this?
Wright: That night. His last night.
Hoag: By phone.
Wright: No. I was there.
Hoag: You were at Sonny’s house the night of the murder?
Wright: Yes. I’m here at the office very late. It wasn’t unusual for me to stop by his place for a nightcap on my way home. See how he was doing.
Hoag: You don’t say. I don’t recall your dropping by since I’ve been here.
Wright: That’s because I didn’t want to bother you two. I know how important chemistry is between creative people.
Hoag: I see.
Wright: Artie, he wasn’t doing so well that night. He was real upset about what happened between you and him.
Hoag: Did you have any other reason for stopping by?
Wright: I don’t know what you mean.
Hoag: When I told you we intended to discuss your early career with Bugsy Siegel in the book, you seemed bothered. I wondered if perhaps you discussed it with him that night.
Wright: (silence) It came up.
Hoag: Did you ask him to leave it out?
Wright: Let’s say I pointed out that he wouldn’t exactly be giving me a shot in the arm by mentioning Benny and the old days. Especially the business about the missing money. …
Hoag: So that did happen?
Wright: Whether it did or didn’t is immaterial.
Hoag: What’s material?
Wright: My personal health and well-being. Not all of those old-timers are dead and gone. A couple I can think of are still damned powerful. And they never, ever, forgive.
Hoag: You mean after all of these years you’re still afraid you’ll be found floating facedown in your pool?
Wright: Don’t mock me. You don’t know them.
Hoag: What did Sonny say when you told him this?
Wright: He said it was very important to him that the book be honest. I understood that, but I told him I didn’t think he had to drag me into his goddamned therapy. I thought he was being selfish and inconsiderate and I told him so.
Hoag: What did he say?
Wright: He said, “It matters to me. And if it matters to me …”
Hoag: “It matters? And what did you say?
Wright: I never bullshitted Artie. I told him he was leaving me with no choice but to send a letter to his publisher’s attorney, threatening legal action if there was any mention in the book about my past or my previous associations.
Hoag: How did he react to that?
Wright: He had a drink. And then … he had another drink. Started getting ugly. Then started sobbing. The usual routine. I tried to put him to bed, but he yelled at me to get lost. So I went home.
Hoag: What time was that?
Wright: A little before one, I think.
Hoag: Just before he called me.
Wright: I wouldn’t know about that.
Hoag: Who else was there at the house?
Wright: Vic. He went to bed while I was there.
Hoag: Wanda?
Wright: She was out.
Hoag: Do the police know you were there that night?
Wright: Do I look stupid? I tell them I was there, it’ll be all over tomorrow’s papers. I’ve worked very hard to build my reputation. That’s all I need, to be linked to Artie’s murder.
Hoag: Surely there’s nothing incriminating about an old friend stopping by for a drink.
Wright: I’ve seen dozens of careers made and destroyed on nothing more than rumors. I told that Lamp nothing about it. None of his business. Artie was alive when I left. I’m telling you because we’re on the same side—Artie’s side. Sure, I know what you’re thinking about me at this very minute—rough background, prison record, buddy of Benny Siegel. He’d have no problem pulling a trigger. Wrong. I run the largest talent agency in the world. I’m a respected business leader. I don’t pull triggers. That’s the truth.
Hoag: Thank you for being so honest with me.
Wright: I never lie to a client. That’s the secret to my success. So listen, Hoag, now that Sonny’s gone and you’re carrying on, I hope you’ll see things my way.
Hoag: What way is that?
Wright: That it isn’t necessary to drag my yesterdays into this book. Who needs lawsuits, right? You know, you’re a bright, creative person. Good looking. Make a nice impression.
Hoag: I’m a helluva guy.
Wright: You’d make a helluva producer.
Hoag: I’m a writer.
Wright: Producing is writing—without a typewriter. You’ll love it. And I think you can be a big, big success at it. I’d like to take your career over. Handle you personally.
Hoag: This is a real honor.
Wright: Why not? I got packages all over both coasts. No reason not to cut you in on them. For Artie’s sake. All I have to do is pick up the phone. Or not …
Hoag: Or not?
Wright: Artie ever tell you the saying they used to have about me in the old neighborhood?
Hoag: No, he didn’t,
Wright: Then I’ll tell you, and it’s something to keep in mind if you ever want to earn another dollar in this or any other town: “Don’t mess with the Heshman.” Think it over, huh?
(end tape)