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job,” I said.
    â€œWell, I can tell you one thing,” she said. “If it runs over twenty weeks, I want fifty a week for as long as it takes. That’s if I decide to take the job, which I haven’t decided I’ll take it yet.”
    â€œWell, take your time,” Ben said.
    â€œWho’s going to be in this picture with me?” she asked.
    â€œWe haven’t found a leading man yet,” I said.
    â€œHow much will you be paying him?”
    â€œAll we can afford is five hundred dollars.”
    â€œMmm,” she said. “So that’s fifteen hundred for both of us, right?”
    â€œThat’s right.”
    â€œAnd you guys expect to make millions on this picture, right?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThen I want a percentage,” she said. “I want twenty-five percent of the profits.”
    â€œNo,” Ben said. “That’s out of the question.”
    â€œJust a minute, Ben,” I said.
    â€œOut of the question,” he said.
    â€œAnd also I want script approval.”
    â€œNo script approval,” Solly said.
    â€œOkay, I’ll forget about script approval, but I still want twenty-five percent.”
    â€œMake it five,” I said.
    â€œMake it ten,” she said.
    â€œBoys?” I said.
    Solly and Ben looked at each other.
    â€œThis is highway robbery,” Ben said. “There must be a thousand young actresses in this city . . .”
    â€œBen,” Solly said, “I want this girl for the part. She’s perfect for the part.”
    â€œDo you know what ten percent of a million dollars is?” Ben asked.
    â€œYes, it’s one hundred thousand dollars,” Solly said, “and I’m willing to give her that if she turns out to be only half as good as I think she’ll be.”
    â€œI think she’ll be very good, too, Ben,” I said.
    â€œI was hoping for a redhead,” Ben said.
    â€œWhat do you say?”
    â€œAll right, all right,” Ben said. “Give her the ten percent.”
    â€œHave we got a deal?” I asked her.
    â€œWe’ve got a deal,” she said, and grinned.
    Powdered sugar was clinging to her lips.
    We had budgeted ourselves very carefully because it simply wouldn’t have paid to undertake the project if it was going to come to too much of a weekly investment for the three of us individually. You have to remember that whereas this dream of ours had been taking shape over a long period of time, during which we’d had many meetings and discussions, we nevertheless knew very little about the movie business, and were a little bit afraid we wouldn’t be able to make the thing work. Ben, for example, though he had naturally taken a lot of photographs in his lifetime,both still and motion picture, made his real living as an accountant, and naturally had a lot to learn. Solly worked as a short-order cook in a delicatessen downtown, and had written his beautiful screenplay at night and on Sundays. And I personally was a lingerie salesman for Benjamin Brothers Apparel, but this doesn’t necessarily mean I did not have a feel for directing; I have always been very good with people, there are those who say I am maybe too sensitive when it comes to personal relationships.
    What I’m trying to explain is that the project was a risky one for three amateurs, and we all knew it would require a great deal of concentration and energy to bring it off and make our dream come true. And also, it couldn’t cost us too much because then the economics of it would have been self-defeating, if you know what I mean. We were paying the girl fifty dollars a week, and we were planning to pay her leading man twenty-five dollars a week, and also we had rented a big empty loft for another fifty dollars a week, which came to a bottom line cost of positively one hundred and twenty-five dollars a week, which was maybe not expensive for what we had in mind, but which was a