Chapter 4
I am unsure if this took me two weeks or one, but here is the next chapter. Now, not much happens in this chapter. Really, I am just introducing one of the boys. Toby Madigan, whom I am trying to make likable, but also the type that will get himself in trouble. But smarter than most think. I hope I do a good job of that.
Now I am still looking for another movie to use, but I forgot that there was no Writers Guild till 1954. So I am not really constrained, like in my other stories, so I will most likely just use something from that time.
Schainzer, I somewhat agree, maybe it is too much, but I will go with it anyway. It gives the shock needed for those in the mob to keep backing her after all, as the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the US at the time, who, even behind bars, commands great respect. She can not really escape that life. All she can do is turn it into a legal source of income that she controls with the backing of several powerful players.
Now on with the story.
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"And we are back, ladies and gentlemen. I am your host, Jack Paar, and with me tonight, the Innovator of Hollywood stunts, himself, Toby Madigan, and movie star/daredevil Alan Ladd. Before we went on break, we had been discussing the evolution of action movie scenes. Mr. Madigan, can you tell us how it all started?" Jack Paar asks.
"Jack, please, man, just call me Toby or T. Everyone else does," Toby says with a smile.
"Alright, Toby, in your own words, how did it start?" Jack asks.
Taking a moment to think it over, Toby says, "Well, if anything, it all started with the movie Shane."
Toby starts to say, but is interrupted by the audience clapping, which makes Jack, Alan, and him laugh.
Once everyone calms down, Jack says, "You were saying."
"Well, like I was saying, it all started with Shane, and I think anyone who has seen the movie remembers the famous brawl that happened between the main character, Shane, and, of course, Chris Calloway," Toby says.
"Kind of hard to forget. It caused quite a stir in Hollywood at the time. With many advocates calling it obsessively violent." Jack says.
"Ya, they had no idea what was coming down the pipeline, did they?" Toby says, and everyone laughs. Once they start calming down, Toby continues, "But really, that set the stage for what was coming next. It was the prototype, the very foundation on which my team and I built everything."
Looking over at Alan, who was at this point at the height of his acting career and known for both action scenes and his acting ability, Jack asks, "Remind me again, Alan, you actually got hurt in the movie, right?"
Nodding his head, Alen says, "That is right. I suffered a busted lip, a dislocated shoulder, several bruises, and a minor laceration from a nasty fall. Most of which were purely accidental, the man who played Chris Calloway, Jake Howard, honestly did a wonderful job taking care of me and making sure I didn't get hurt too much."
"I remember him; he was in several movies with you when you worked for Lucky Luciano Pictures, right?" Jack asks.
"That is right, he was," Alan says, sounding more than a bit sad now at the thought of his good friend.
"What happened to him?" Jack asks somewhat carelessly.
Alan takes a moment to answer that and finally says. "He passed away a few years after Shane on Omaha Beach. He was one of several cameramen that Lucky Pictures had sent to record the battle."
Jack takes a moment now, feeling like a jackass, and leans back, then says, "I am so sorry to hear that."
"You know not to take anything away from you, Alan, but Jake was really the man who made so many of our action scenes possible," Toby says, like he is remembering those wonderful times as well as how much it hurt when he didn't come home.
"What do you mean?" Jack asks.
"Well, his sheer size and experience as a boxer made him perfect for many of the action scenes we did in those early years. They may call me the Innovator of Hollywood stunts, but it took a whole team to make it possible, and he was a big part of that team." Toby says.
"Also, don't forget Toby Jake was an outstanding actor. The few roles he undertook in the short time we had him with us were phenomenal for a man with no prior acting experience. And if I am being honest, he could have been someone huge in this business. Sadly, it was not to be." Alan says, remembering his old friend, whom he honestly did believe could have been someone. A legend in the making if he had only had a little more time.
-1939-
-Toby POV-
Fuck, it was cold, I thought to myself as I woke up and got out of bed this morning. Hating with a near passion being in the middle of Godforsaken Nowhere, Montana. Now I am willing to admit that it had a lovely countryside feel about it, and the Naoki had a beautiful home, but fuck, how could they stand living out here? It was fucking early August for crying out loud, and I was already freezing my balls off. Doesn't this place know it's supposed to be hotter than the blazes of hell right now?
I now understand why Dad left New York so quickly after he got off the boat from Ireland and headed out west. No sane man would put up with this shit if he could live in a warmer climate. At least that is how I felt about it. Ruth, however, the crazy girl, seemed to love it for some odd reason. However, Ruth was always a strange girl. She didn't fit the mold, as it were, and that is why I loved her. As a sister, I mean not love as in sexual. No, that would just be fucking creepy at this point.
Don't get me wrong; I could see that Ruth was an attractive woman. A blind man could see that. It was just that we had grown too close for me to see her as anything but a sister. An annoying sister that I often wanted to choke to death with my bare hands, but a sister nonetheless. Plus, she was a fucking Dyke so I stood no chance anyway. And ya, I knew she was a lesbian. Fuck you had to be the biggest twit in the world not to see it. That is why I had such low opinions about most people. They were stupid. Ruth didn't even try to hide it, yet somehow, not even Raimondo and Samuel fully understood what she was.
Not that I cared, mind you. Sure, I can't say I was happy about it, and I prefer not to know a fag if I could help it. But this was Ruth, and I was always willing to make exceptions for the girl who saved my family. You see, my dad was an immigrant who arrived in the United States on a boat in 1908. He came to this country with dreams of making it big, owning lots of land, and being richer than God. Of course, like so many others who fled from wherever they came from, he found that it was a lot harder to do than he first thought.
Needless to say, Dad ended up bouncing around from one place to another. Till he eventually ended up in LA, where he met my mom. Then, suddenly, his dreams changed from making it big to taking care of his quickly growing family. Two older brothers and one sister later, I was born in 1919. Exactly two months before prohibition started, and like so many others, Dad saw his chance to get rich quickly one last time.
That is the thing with dreams. They never truly die. As we get older, we bury them under the weight of time and responsibility, but they never die. Seeing his shot, my Dad took it and started bootlegging early on. Leaving his job as a dockworker for fast money, and you know what, he was successful for a time. In fact, during those early years, I recall my dad coming home nearly every night with flowers or something for my mom, as well as gifts for my brothers and sisters. Those were good times. That is, till they weren't.
I can still remember it as if it were yesterday. Dad got into a fight with one of his bootlegging partners and was shot three times in the stomach. I was seven years old and didn't fully understand what had happened. Nor did I know why my dad never came home. What I did understand, however, was the struggle to survive afterward. Momma did the best she could, but without Dad, she didn't know what to do, and Dad didn't save any of the money he made, having spent most of it on gifts for Mom. She had to pawn those very gifts for food for them to eat. Till finally she had nothing left to pawn and no job to speak of, we came that close to losing their home.
That was till Mr. Siegel came around offering her a job as a cigarette girl at one of the speakeasies he ran. Now, as her son, I will never admit and even beat the shit out of anyone who dared to say otherwise, but my mom was one pretty lady. Able to turn heads just like Ruth was whenever she walked down the streets, even after giving birth to 7 kids. But that wasn't why she got the job. As far as I knew, my mom had never even been to a speakeasy before, so it never occurred to her to work in one due to her Catholic upbringing and firm belief that they were places of depravity where no decent woman would ever go.
She wouldn't have known where even to find one, let alone how to get hired at one. That is where Ruth came into play. At least I was sure that was where she came in. Up to that point, I had known her for several years, and we were good friends. Kind of, it was more like I had a massive crush on her, like nearly every other boy in the neighborhood. Anyway, I could clearly remember one day when I hadn't eaten anything for breakfast. There was nothing to eat, and Ruth, being who she was, noticed and took me to her house to have a sandwich. She didn't ask any questions; she just fed me, and the next day, Mr. Siegel came by and offered my mom a job.
You didn't have to be the most intelligent person in the world to realize what had happened, and while she never said it, I knew Ruth had called him. Most likely, she asked him to help out my family, and he did. Now, granted, Mom wasn't happy to be working at a speakeasy and often went to church to ask for forgiveness the next day, but she did what she had to do. And honestly, working at a speakeasy as a cigarette girl was much better than some of the other options—those things I didn't even want to think about.
That is when I knew I was Ruth's man for life. Because of her, my mom didn't have to be a whore or something like that to make ends meet, and because of her, I got the chance to chase my dreams. It didn't matter that she was a dyke, at least not to me. That said, it was still disappointing, seeing as Ruth was such a doll.
I thought as I got up and got dressed. Breakfast would be ready soon, and while we may have been paying the Naokis to use their land for filming, I had quickly learned that Mrs. Naoki was what the Japs called oni, or devil. She was good-looking enough, he gave her that, but fuck, the woman scared the shit out of him and ran her household with an iron fist. If you were not up in time for breakfast, you didn't get fed. Money or no money, and Ruth the bitch just loved it. Not challenging her at all, and of course, that meant we couldn't either.
Speaking of whom, she, of course, was already up looking over everything for today's take. Yesterday had been a wash, with all the rain, so today she had hoped it would be better, and we could get some good shots. So, of course, she was up already with the film crew. Their work schedule was brutal compared to everyone else, so he couldn't complain that much, if at all. That said, the question remained why the fuck was he out here when Raimondo and Samuel were back in LA?
Well, the answer was quite simple. He had no real choice in the matter; they didn't have someone to handle personnel. They couldn't afford one, and someone had to do the job, as conflict was inevitable between people. With Raimondo having to run things back home, preparing for the release, and Samuel handling what was left of the money, they couldn't afford to leave LA. So, of course, that left only me to do the job. It sucked, but I had to admit I was good at it.
I was a people person, someone Ruth called a chameleon. It was always easy for me to fit in anywhere and everywhere. Race didn't matter; I just knew what to say most of the time, and while I was a jackass, I was the type of jackass people like to hang around. That was why I was put in charge of casting. It was my job to judge the actors and find the ones that were not only a good fit for the role but could work with a woman in charge, and I think I did a pretty fucking good job.
Making my way over to a man in the props area, I stop in front of him and say, "Morning, Richie. How is it going?"
The man known as Richie looks at me, his left eye covered with an eye patch and a long gash on his neck. He doesn't say anything for a moment, then says, "Morning."
When he doesn't say anything else, I don't take offense. Richie or Richard Huston was what Ruth called the armorer. His job was to handle all the guns for the movies. Nothing and I mean nothing was to leave his site without his permission, and not even Ruth could overrule him. And for good reason, Richie was a WW1 vet who had seen action in France as a sniper. In other words, he knew guns and how to use them. How Ruth was able to find him and hire him, I didn't know, nor did I wish to know. I could make a few guesses, of course, and would no doubt be right. But I know better than to ask.
So, I did the smart thing and ignored it, instead focusing on my own job, which was to make sure everyone was good to go. "So, everything good? You need anything?"
"No," Is all he says again, and an awkward silence comes over us.
Nodding my head, I say, "Okay, well, let me know."
"Okay," Richie says and goes back to work.
Then I start to walk off towards Ruth.
"You know he doesn't like you, right?" I hear Ruth say when I get close enough to hear her.
"Really, I couldn't tell, seeing as he talks my ear off," I say as I help her pick up a camera.
Which should have been the camera crew's job, but Ruth had a habit of moving them after they were already in place, then moving them back. It was her way of making sure she had the best angles before filming. Or to work off stress. It was hard to tell which it actually was.
Ruth giggles, which is music to any man's ears, and says, "Oh, trust me, he talks. You should see him go on and on about Socrates and Aristotle. He is a real chatterbox."
"You're joking," I say to her, and she gives me a look and a smile, "You're not joking?"
I then looked over at the man who was looking my way, and a sudden feeling of fear came over me. "Now do you know that?"
"Hmmm, or it's simple, he's part of my book club at the library. Whenever it's his turn to choose a book, it's always some old dude talking about Philosophy." Ruth says with a smile.
"Is that how you know him?" I ask, thinking I was wrong, about whether he worked for Ruth's father or something.
"Well, it's where I got to know him, but I knew him long before he joined my book club," Ruth says.
Nodding my head, I say, "Ah, enough said."
Then look towards the two-story house where the Naoki family lived and where Ruff and the other ladies were staying. Spotting a young woman making her way over towards us, I can't help but smile at Naru Naoki or Naoki Naru. I had learned in traditional Jap culture that it was the first name last and the last name, first name when addressing people. Strange, but it was whatever to me. I didn't care, but would respect how they preferred to be addressed. That said, I did care about looking at the exotic Asin beauty that was Naru. Only a year younger than Rutt, and just as beautiful with long raven hair, a cute face, and, while small, a great set of tits from what I could tell. She was a woman I wanted to get to know better.
"Ruth, tell me again why the men have to stay in the barn or trailers while you get to stay in the house," I ask.
Giving a knowing smile at me, Ruth answers, "You know why. Now eyes up."
She says right when Naru arrives with a cup of coffee for Ruth. "Here is your coffee, Ruth-sama."
"Arigatou Naru-Chan," Ruth answers back with a smile that makes Naru blush just a bit.
Trying to think fast on my feet, I quickly say, "Ohayo gozaimasu Naru-Chan."
That's what I think I said, but by the funny look Naru is giving me, I clearly fucked it up somehow. Yet instead of saying something, she gives me a light bow before leaving.
When she is far away enough that I think she can't hear me, I say, "Fuck, Ruth, what did I say?"
Smiling an evil smile that I know all too well, she says, "Oh, nothing much. Just good morning, but you sounded like a complete idiot, and your pronouncement was like that of a retard."
"Damn it," I say and kick my foot in frustration.
"You know she calls you the slow one whenever we talk," Ruth says, taking great joy in pouring salt into the wound.
"Oh, come on, I am not slow. Their fucking language is just hard to speak." I say in annoyance.
Waving me off, Ruth says, "Come on, don't take it the wrong way. She actually thinks it's cute that you try."
Feeling suddenly hopeful, I turn to face Ruth and say, "Really?"
I should have known better than to get my hopes up by now. Ruth, after all, was a bitch.
Smiling even more widely, Ruth says, "Yep, like a baby trying to say its first words. Or like that, really a dumb kid that no one can understand."
Narrowing my eyes at Ruth, I say, "I fucking hate you."
"And I love you," She says before kissing me on the cheek, then takes a sip of her coffee.
Shaking my head, I turn things towards business. "So what do you think about her? Do you think we can use her down the road? Her father has been asking around to see if we are maybe hiring after all."
Ruth doesn't answer right away and says, "She has told me she has dreams of going to the big city to be a movie star or singer."
"And?" I ask.
"She is an okay singer. Pretty to look at, too, but I'm not sure if it is the right time to consider hiring someone of Japanese descent. With tensions growing in the Pacific as they are." Ruth says to me.
"Huh? Oh, right, you have been very vocal in your belief that the US and Japan will soon go to war." I say, remembering that Ruth kept up with the broader world as a whole—something few people, including me, did.
In fact, Ruth's hatred of the Nazi chancellor was no secret. It was to the point that she would have nothing to do with those who did support him and wouldn't even agree to get in a Ford because Henry Ford supported them. As for the Japs I was unsure why she was worried about them.
"Do you really think we will end up at war with them?" I ask her.
"It seems that way. The Empire of Japan has made its imperialist desires known. Something the US and other Western countries don't want them to do and will try to stop them. If they wish to fulfill their desires, they must first remove the US from the board." Ruth says, but her voice sounds unworried about it.
"You don't seem worried about it," I state to her.
"Of course I'm not. Japan, ultimately, is a small nation with limited resources. By comparison, the US is unlimited in what we can do. The cost of war would, of course, be high, but we would win in the end." Ruth says so, sure of that.
Before I can say more, we hear the bell ring signaling that breakfast is ready.
"Come on, let's go eat. We have a long day ahead of us." Ruth says and starts to walk off.
I follow, wondering about what she said.