"Café Society" A Novel by Robert Kail
- CAFE SOCIETY contains stories by Jerry Arosa, a New York society bandleader comparable to Peter Duchin, as well as stories by his music publisher and recording executive associate, Herbie Wein. Jerry is a Harvard educated Tex-Mex whose father was a famous bandleader, and whose uncle was Governor of Texas. He is an observer, a bit of a drifter, a good friend to have. He's not terribly clever or talented, but his heart is in the right place.
- Herbie is a schemer, a devious plotter who will insert himself into anything that's hot and hollow. A New York slum kid, he works his way up through the music business to become an executive of some importance on the West Coast. His boastful reports of his prowess are intended to be amusing.
- In alternate chapters, these two also tell of THE ACTRESS--a model whose vagina is injured by a movie producer in an accident like that of the Fatty Arbuckle case, or La Belle Otero. Another bandleader blackmails the producer and they go to Hollywood where she becomes a movie star and the bandleader, a producer.
- A friend of Jerry's is THE SCULPTRESS. She becomes one of the greatest artists of our times through sublimating the pain she feels from a tragedy that is recounted here.
- Another friend is THE CHAMPION, a former Olympic swimmer and movie starlet who now runs a nudist camp in Florida. Jerry is unhappy to find that she has become a masochistic lesbian.
- Near the end, a new voice is heard. The pompous, malaproping, blackmailing movie producer mentioned above writes a self-serving 4000 word report to his stockholders outlining his career and incidentally commenting, from his own standpoint, on the other characters. This is a Hollywood put-on reminiscent of Moss Hart's "Once in a Lifetime".
- Herbie has an affair with the actress, has a heart attack, and dictates his memoirs into a recorder. While the sculptress is rather saintly, and the old movie producer despicable, there are no real heroes or villains in this opera. These people, with all their faults and foibles, cope with life as best they can, and by their own variegated standards, they mean well. For all of them, there is still hope of happiness.
This book will be available soon from crossroadspub.com
