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Sherm?” asked Jack Benny.
    â€œRespectability,” said Billingsley. “Well, gents, I’ve got to move. Uh . . . if any of you feel a need for a first-class, clean young girl for the night, just say the word.”
    As they left the club, Jack shook his head. “Maybe I should’ve taken Billingsley up on that offer—so the trip to New York wouldn’t have been a total loss.”
F our
    I N MID- A PRIL H ERB CAME INTO J ACK’S OFFICE, GRINNING HAP pily. “Looka this,” he said. He handed Jack a copy of Variety. A headline read: BENNY TO BE STAR COMIC ON CANADA DRY HOUR ANOTHER VAUDEVILLIAN IN THE LITTLE BOX.
    Jack glanced through the story. “I don’t care, Herb. The man is not funny. He’s simply not funny. The show’ll be a bust.”
    â€œWhatta ya bet?”
    â€œâ€˜A funny thing happened . . . on the way to the theater.’ Not funny, Herb. I especially don’t like a comic who starts a routine by telling you it’s going to be funny. I—”
    He was interrupted by a ringing telephone. He picked it up.
    â€œSomething . . . ?” Herb asked.
    â€œI’m going to be a daddy. I have to get out of here and over to the hospital.”
    Kimberly gave birth to a boy. Even though he was named for his father, he was named John, not Jack. John Wolcott Lear.

FOUR

One
    1933
    J ACK AND K IMBERLY LOVED THE HOUSE ON C HESTNUT Street, but its modest size imposed too many limitations on them. Their ability to entertain was severely hampered by the bathroom facilities: one bathroom on the second floor and a toilet closet off the kitchen. Cecily, the nanny, occupied all the servant quarters the house afforded. Kimberly had hired a maid and a cook, but neither of them could live in, so she was deprived of maid service after early evening, when she had to let the girl leave for her home in Southie. Also, the house had no garage.
    In the fall of 1933 a much larger house, facing Louisburg Square, became available. Jack reviewed their financial situation and decided he could buy it. He sold the Chestnut Street house for $67,500, making a profit of $7,500 on his investment. Refusing to deal with real estate agents, Jack insisted on dealing directly with the seller, and he bought the new house for $135,000.
    This house was neither as old nor as elegant as their first house, but it would better suit their needs. From the foyer guests entered a living room or could turn right into a library. There was a formal dining room, and the kitchen was large and fully equipped. There was also a small handsome guest bathroom on the first floor.
    Four bedrooms occupied the second floor. The master bedroom opened on a sitting room and on a bathroom. An additional bath served the other bedrooms. On the third floor there were three small bedrooms for servants, a little parlor for them, and their own bathroom.
    The bathroom off the master bedroom had an immense clawfooted tub. Jack liked to joke that it was so big he was afraid he might drown in it. The bathroom’s most interesting feature, which both Jack and Kimberly showed off to their close friends, was a marble-walled shower room big enough for five people to shower together if they were so inclined. The nickel-plated shower head, as big around as a dinner plate, was so high above that a person standing in the shower couldn’t reach it. Three of the walls of the shower room were surrounded by nickel-plated pipes perforated with tiny holes, forming what was called a needle shower. A bather using the needle shower was stung by tiny streams of water under high pressure, which stimulated almost to the point of pain. A bidet on a hinged pipe swung out and would emit a stream upward.
    The first night they spent in the new house, Jack and Kimberly showered in the shower room. After that, they decided to forgo tub baths and instead took showers, most of the time together.
    Two weeks after they moved