I Hate Actors!

I was at a garage sale the other day when I spotted a book, I Hate Actors by Ben Hecht.  Ben Hecht is the author of Gaily, Gaily and Front Page/His Girl Friday. I'd never heard of the book before.  The $3 asking price was more than I.  They accepted $1 and I was on my way.

There's actually more to the story of course.  I was driving east on Northern Blvd when traffic came to a halt.  I never got to see what caused the problem.  If I were enterprising I would have parked the van and taken my trusty camera in search of an answer.

Diverted through Roslyn side streets I came out on Glen Cove Road.  (Guinea Woods Road, the original name of Glen Cove Road, was changed in a fit of cultural correctness decades ago.  Natives still say "Guinea Woods" to flaunt their primacy.)  I was just about to forget about the estate sale when I noticed the sign across the road said Lakeville Estates.  The turnoff from Glen Cove Road into the area with the estate sale was Lakeville Drive and sure enough I was headed in the right direction.

Not much of interest there other than the book and the book case.  The room looks pretty much as depicted.  Hect's book sans dust jacket was located in the area outlined in red.

 

What is interesting is that the book case rests on a platform.  Below the light line that runs underneath the red box is a set of small cabinets.  To get to the book shelves you have to go up the steps on the right.

I'm not tall.  It was an odd feeling to be staring eye to binder with the books on the top of the bookcase. 

The novel is written from the perspective of a screen writer brought in to rescue a Hollywood travesty, "Sons of Destiny".  Because Hecht was known for his command of the language, especially the vernacular, I was struck by not recognizing several terms:

• "billingsgate and tears" (p  24) - Billingsgate was a fish market in London and represented course language
• "brilliant didoes" (p 27) - "didoes" is defined as a mischievous or capricious act, usually cut didoes.  The original citation with origin unknown is 1807.  Odd I thought because the immediate association would be with Dido, the ancient queen who killed herself after being jilted by Aeneas.   Hardly a prank.  (A late friend used the same spelling, but procounced it Dee-Doh as it was a condensation of her first two names, Diane Dorothea.)  
• "false Tarquin" - Merriam-Webster.com was no help.  My attempt to to submit my citation was frustrated I because I could not authenticate against Facebook, Yahoo, or AOL.  Their loss, but not yours:

  I was trying to understand the phrase, "false Tarquin" (p 84) in Ben Hecht's novel, "I Hate Actors", Crown Publishers, 1944.  "Go on," the Tweed ace nodded, like false Tarquin, "just tell the truth."

  The reference is probably to Tarquin the Proud, the last legendary King of Rome, a vile person if his wikipedia entry is to be believed.  His rape of Lucretia is probably reflected in the context of the story where a woman who bore a child out of wedlock by a recently deceased actor is providing the true alibi for a suspect for whom a false alibi has already been provided.
  
  Had I not been so alienated from popular culture I might have thought the reference was to Tarquin Anthony "Quinn" Blackwood, a character in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles.  Saved by my naiveté.