{"id":"01KG6FHT9QMP83ND2S0B30B914","cid":"bafkreihvp3ak7uzf3jili7iadz2ogysth44wylsbmyw5pjf4tlrr5ukxkm","type":"file","properties":{"cid":"bafkreiczhrrkiujjmo67pppqpygwn2yoop3glbkrwafscm73tmk3c4y5xa","content_type":"image/jpeg","filename":"Rye_page_0068.jpg","height":2400,"key":"pdf-page-1769744163165-e9n3vf1h9vp","label":"Rye_page_0068.jpg","page_number":68,"pdf_type":"born_digital","size":852113,"text":"but I couldn't get too interested in them. For one thing, they kept drinking tea or some\ngoddam thing all through the play. Every time you saw them, some butler was shoving\nsome tea in front of them, or the wife was pouring it for somebody. And everybody kept\ncoming in and going out all the time--you got dizzy watching people sit down and stand\nup. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were the old couple, and they were very good, but I\ndidn't like them much. They were different, though, I'll say that. They didn't act like\npeople and they didn't act like actors. It's hard to explain. They acted more like they knew\nthey were celebrities and all. I mean they were good, but they were too good. When one\nof them got finished making a speech, the other one said something very fast right after it.\nIt was supposed to be like people really talking and interrupting each other and all. The\ntrouble was, it was too much like people talking and interrupting each other. They acted a\nlittle bit the way old Ernie, down in the Village, plays the piano. If you do something too\ngood, then, after a while, if you don't watch it, you start showing off. And then you're not\nas good any more. But anyway, they were the only ones in the show--the Lunts, I mean--\nthat looked like they had any real brains. I have to admit it.\nAt the end of the first act we went out with all the other jerks for a cigarette. What\na deal that was. You never saw so many phonies in all your life, everybody smoking their\nears off and talking about the play so that everybody could hear and know how sharp they\nwere. Some dopey movie actor was standing near us, having a cigarette. I don't know his\nname, but he always plays the part of a guy in a war movie that gets yellow before it's\ntime to go over the top. He was with some gorgeous blonde, and the two of them were\ntrying to be very blasé and all, like as if he didn't even know people were looking at him.\nModest as hell. I got a big bang out of it. Old Sally didn't talk much, except to rave about\nthe Lunts, because she was busy rubbering and being charming. Then all of a sudden, she\nsaw some jerk she knew on the other side of the lobby. Some guy in one of those very\ndark gray flannel suits and one of those checkered vests. Strictly Ivy League. Big deal.\nHe was standing next to the wall, smoking himself to death and looking bored as hell.\nOld Sally kept saying, \"I know that boy from somewhere.\" She always knew somebody,\nany place you took her, or thought she did. She kept saying that till I got bored as hell,\nand I said to her, \"Why don't you go on over and give him a big soul kiss, if you know\nhim? He'll enjoy it.\" She got sore when I said that. Finally, though, the jerk noticed her\nand came over and said hello. You should've seen the way they said hello. You'd have\nthought they hadn't seen each other in twenty years. You'd have thought they'd taken\nbaths in the same bathtub or something when they were little kids. Old buddyroos. It was\nnauseating. The funny part was, they probably met each other just once, at some phony\nparty. Finally, when they were all done slobbering around, old Sally introduced us. His\nname was George something--I don't even remember--and he went to Andover. Big, big\ndeal. You should've seen him when old Sally asked him how he liked the play. He was\nthe kind of a phony that have to give themselves room when they answer somebody's\nquestion. He stepped back, and stepped right on the lady's foot behind him. He probably\nbroke every toe in her body. He said the play itself was no masterpiece, but that the\nLunts, of course, were absolute angels. Angels. For Chrissake. Angels. That killed me.\nThen he and old Sally started talking about a lot of people they both knew. It was the\nphoniest conversation you ever heard in your life. They both kept thinking of places as\nfast as they could, then they'd think of somebody that lived there and mention their name.\nI was all set to puke when it was time to go sit down again. I really was. And then, when","text_extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:36:03.165Z","text_extracted_by":"pdf-processor","text_has_content":true,"text_source":"born_digital","uploaded":true,"width":1855},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFHMJM2J9JHQAQM1Q9SKBJWF","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KFF1K6A8V452X8SQKY55DD16","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6FHT9SXE8MTA7H65B7183M","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6FHSKFBNEJBMJA0HVPH65Z","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KG6FM4V0QJ74TQ0ZD794WKMG","peer_label":"Rye_page_0068_medium.jpg","peer_type":"file","predicate":"has_derivative"},{"peer":"01KG6FM8QN2W3DMH2W6HYRQS9S","peer_label":"Rye_page_0068_thumb.jpg","peer_type":"file","predicate":"has_derivative"},{"peer":"01KG6FT59BXAZ3C5HRJ6SW8F58","predicate":"has_assembly"}],"ver":6,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:36:05.175Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:40:41.771Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFFC4A8W8939TXGEXCK439ZK"}}