Read Online Angels All Over Town by Luanne Rice - Free Book Online

faced us in chairs. My father could not forget Chance Schutz. “When I think of that guy, what a lot of gall—telling Una he’d call her. That puke. You know what’s on his mind, don’t you?”
    “James, he wants to offer her a part,” my mother said, looking past me as she spoke. My mother, during those years, had a difficult time focusing on anyone.
    “A part, yes, but on a
soap
opera! What a lot of cheap trash. Una’s a trained stage actress. She could be another Katharine Cornell. You stay away from that troublemaker, Una.”
    “Television is a perfectly viable medium,” I said loftily, the way I said almost everything that year.
    “Sure, television’s okay. Television’s
fine
. But not a soap opera. I’d be ashamed to tell people my daughter was on a soap opera. That would really make me sick.” My father sipped his seltzer water. He almost never drank when the family was together.
    “Una would be
great
in soap operas,” Lily said.
    “Don’t let me hear you say that,” my father warned sternly.
    Because it was a celebration, my father ordered for everyone: rack of lamb, baby green beans, and Pommard. I can remember every bite I took. Lily and Margo kept finishing their water because they liked the looks of the young waiter who came to refill their glasses.
    Later I drove with them in a cab back to the Westbury. In the lobby my father and I said goodbye. He hugged me, and I smelled his characteristic odor of wool, sweat, and stale cigarettes. “Sweetheart, you know I only want you to be happy,” he said. “You know that, don’t you?”
    “Sure I do.”
    “That’s why it’s important that you don’t talk to that jerk. You don’t really want to be on soap operas, do you?”
    “Not really.”
    “I mean, you didn’t go to the finest drama school in the nation in order to spend the rest of your life crying over this or that. You’re the best damn actress I’ve ever seen.”
    “Thank you, Dad,” I said, and I meant it.
    He kissed me and gave me money for a cab. When I arrived at my apartment on West Seventy-fourth Street, I didn’t wait for Chance Schutz to call me. I found his card and called him.
    “Ah, hello, Miss Cavan. Family obligations all squared away?” he said the instant he heard me speak.
    His quick recognition shocked and flattered me. “How did you know it was me?”
    “You have a distinctive, may I say, lilt to your voice. Very pretty. A very pretty voice.”
    “Thank you.”
    “You are calling about my offer, are you not?”
    “Yes.”
    “Wonderful. I am prepared to offer you a part on
Beyond the Bridge
. A part that will lead to a starring role.”
    I held the smooth black receiver and listened to this man promise to change my life. He was going to make me a star. Adrenaline stung my veins. “A starring role?” I repeated dully.
    Chance Schutz laughed. “You think about it. It’s a bit much to consider all at once. You come by my office and I will give you more details. You come by tomorrow, how’s that?”
    I had dance, singing, and playwriting classes the next day, but I told him of course I’d be there. He took me to lunch at the Russian Tea Room. I ate blini with Malassol caviar and listened to his ideas. He had seen me act in previous Juilliard productions and had snuck into several rehearsals. For the part of Delilah Grant, he wanted a new actress, one who had my “chiseled features” and a gentle way about her. Delilah was to be a victim; she would be misunderstood by her stepmother and sisters, taken advantage of by the men in her life, and frequently placed in mortal danger. But as her character expanded she would find reservoirs of inner strength. She would turn the tables, and in five years Chance Schutz saw Delilah becoming one of the show’s two main characters.
    He didn’t need to tell me that Rachel Moore, Kurtz Drago, Corey Levinson, and Cecile Van Vliet had stepped from
Beyond
the Bridge
into major stage and screen roles. Yes, it was a