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She was the darling of the American musical comedy stage, the absolute darling. She played in “Sally” and she played in “Sunny.” She's the girl who sang, “Who stole my heart away?” She was a knockout. When Donald brought her to the Plaza, of course, you'd get about three steps with Marilyn before somebody cut in. Then Donald, however, began selling us Plaza credits for fifty cents on the dollar. We'd get ten dollars in credit and Donald would get five dollars in cash. It was a wonderful deal all around for everybody except Donald's mother.

Then Donald suddenly decided he wanted to go into the publishing business, and he went to see Liveright. Horace as usual needed money, so he made Friede the sort of offer that he had made me many years before.

Were you still there?

Oh, no. I was with Donald Klopfer.

Did Friede then come to you?

He came to me as a friend, yes. I advised him, “Don't give him any money, but if you get a job there, you'll have a lot of fun and you'll learn a lot about the publishing business. You'll learn more there than anywhere else because everything is run in such a haphazard way.” I said, “You'll have a wonderful time.”

Meet a lot of people.