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the history of this family would be the history of America. It never came to pass, because he got sicker and sicker, and he finally died, and only a few of those plays were done, and they were not ready for production. One of them is now about to open with Ingrid Bergman, and “Touch of a Poet” is part of the scheme, too. But they didn't come off, because Gene never got a chance to really write them properly. By that time he was failing. But down in Sea Island he was still quite a wonderful-looking man. He had not been married to Carlotta too long.

Now, Carlotta is a story in herself, one of the most beautiful girls in America, brought up in a strict Catholic way out in California, I believe, and then off for New York. I'm not going to trace Carlotta Monterey's personal history for you, but when I first met her she was living with Mr. Ralph Barton, a famous New Yorker illustrator. I think I told you about the time I got him to do a catalogue cover, and he sent his bill for $300. Well, when I went around to make that deal with him, the hostess at the place was Carlotta Monterey. But she pretended, when I got to Sea Island, that she had never seen me before. She knew damn well she had, and I knew damn well she had, too, but the circumstances under which we had met were not permissible for discussion.

Here's the way Gene met her: he wrote a play called “The Hairy Ape,” which was a story of a brute stoker down in the hold of a boat, and there's a society girl up on deck who is kind of mesmerized by him, you remember. Now, in the play, I think