Read Online The Deer Park by Norman Mailer - Free Book Online Page B

bounding away to the phone, the gown flapping against his calves while he called over his shoulder, “Come in. Be with you in a minute, fellows.” He was talking in a high-pitched easy voice to somebody in New York, holding the receiver in his left hand while with his right he was neatly mixing drinks for us, not only carrying on his business conversation but opening a big smile across his face at the introduction to me. A little under medium height, with short turned-up features, he looked like a clown, for he had a large round head on a round body and almost no neck at all.
    The drinks made, he passed them over with a wink, and his right hand free again, he began to tickle his thin hair, discovering a bald spot on his head and then patting it into hiding again, only to leave his head for his belly which he prodded gingerly as if to find out whether it concealed an ache. He certainly had a lot of energy; I had the idea it would be rare to see him doing one thing at a time.
    Eitel sat down with a bored look and smiled at the producer’s calisthenics. When the call was done, Munshin bounced to his feet and advanced on Eitel with an outstretched palm, a grin on his face. “
Charley!
” he said, as if Eitel had just come into the room and he was surprised to see him. “You look great. How have you been?” Munshin asked, his free hand covering their handclasp. “I’ve been hearing great things about you.”
    “Stop it, Collie,” Eitel laughed, “there’s nothing you can steal from me.”
    “Steal? Lover, I just want to steal your company.” He clamped a bear-hug on Eitel’s neck. “You look great,” he repeated. “I’ve been hearing wonderful things about your script. I want to read it when it’s done.”
    “What for?” Eitel asked.
    “I want to buy it.” He said this as if nothing was in the way of buying anything from Eitel.
    “The only way I’ll let you buy it is blind.”
    “I’ll buy it blind. If it’s from you, Charley, I’ll buy it blind.”
    “You wouldn’t buy Shakespeare blind.”
    “You think I’m kidding,” Munshin said in a sad voice.
    “Stop it, Collie,” Eitel said again.
    As he talked, Munshin kept on touching Eitel, pinching his elbow, patting his shoulder, jabbing his ribs. “Charley, don’t show your script to anybody. Just work on it. Don’t worry about your situation.”
    “Get your greedy little hands off me. You know I’m going to make the picture by myself.”
    “That’s your style, Charley,” Munshin said with a profound nod. “That’s the way you always should work.”
    He told us a joke, passed a bit of gossip, and kept his hands on Eitel’s body in a set of movements which called up the picture of a fat house detective searching a drunk. Then Eitel walked away from him, and we all sat down and looked at each other. After a short silence, Munshin announced, “I’ve thought of a great movie to make.”
    “What is it?” I asked, for Eitel only made a face. The producer gave the name of a famous French novel. “That author knows everything about sex,” Munshin said. “I’ll never be able to think I’m in love again.”
    “Why don’t you do the life of the Marquis de Sade?” Eitel drawled.
    “You think I wouldn’t if I could find a gimmick?”
    “Collie,” Eitel said, “sit down and tell me the story you really have.”
    “I don’t have a thing. I’m open to suggestion. I’m tired of making the same old stuff. Every man has an artistic desire in this business.”
    “He’s absolutely unscrupulous,” Eitel said with pride. Collie grinned. He cocked his head to the side with the cunning look of a dog who is being scolded.
    “You’re a born exaggerator,” Munshin said.
    “You can’t stop Collie.”
    “I love you.”
    Munshin poured another drink for us. Like a baby, his upper lip was covered with perspiration. “Well, how
are
things?” he said.
    “Just fine, Collie. How are things with you?” Eitel asked in a flat voice. I knew