The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: A Writer in Early Hollywood

11 The Maases Go to Europe

Chapter 11 THE MAASES Go TO EUROPE OUR DECISION AT THE END OF JUNE 1928 to go to Europe was a sudden one. Father had a younger brother in London. Uncle James. a bachelor and very. very rich (having invested heavily in African diamond mines). had been completely indifferent to the existence of his American relatives until this Frederica Alexandrina decided to change that. I wrote to him. and a lively correspondence ensued that lasted almost a year-until his solicitors in London informed us of his death and that he had willed the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars to father and me. The money would be forthcoming when the estate was settled. Ernest and I did not have to go abroad to collect the money. but it was a perfect excuse for us to take the European holiday we had been dreaming about. Why worry about new assignments or writing contracts ? What we both needed was a change. A seasoned pro like Waldemar Young. who knew the ropes. did not take long vacations from the scene of celluloid action. He knew better. But the Maases? They had yet to learn the ABCs of the Hollywood scene; in fact. constituted as they were. they never would learn. And they would eventually have to pay the piper. We planned our itinerary carefully. We would take at least two months off. We would go to France first and then to Belgium. We would reach Germany by way of the Rhine. landing in Frankfurt. Then by 152 The Maases Go to Europe 153 train we would go to Berlin, Nuremberg, Munich. From Munich, we would go to Switzerland-Zurich, Lucerne, Lausanne, Geneva-and then back to France. Finally, we would cross the channel to London where we would collect the "booty." In those days, one crossed the big Atlantic by ship, and we were confident that Ernest's brother Irving, in the Fox Foreign Department, could book us passage. To our dismay, there were no openings on any line sailing out of New York harbor. The best we could do was to go to Canada and sail from Quebec. Since we were determined to go, we took the train to Canada, where we boarded the chalk-white, freshly painted Montnairn. She was a trophy that Great Britain had acquired from Germany-she had been the Prince Friedrich Wilhelm. We discovered this original name on the copper faucets in our cabin. After two and a half heavenly days, the Montnairn slipped out of the calm waters of the St. Lawrence and into the cold, treacherous Atlantic. The rest of the voyage was especially rough and bitterly cold. The ship slowly inched its way through a channel of towering icebergs. It was eerie. Our breath was steamy in the cold air. The captain was on watch night and day. Foghorns blasted incessantly. In our stateroom we could hear the groans and feel the agony of the sturdy "little" ship as she plowed through the treacherous waters. Rumor had it that the ship carried the wrong kind of cargo, which shifted instead of rolled (or was it the other way around?). It mattered little to the seasickMaases. Finally. we entered warmer and safer waters. leaving the icebergs behind . What a relief it was to see the green and yellow mustard fields of the French countryside! At last Cherbourg! Terra Firma! We had new and. of course, too much luggage: an expensive hand trunk. a museum piece now. but considered very "in" then; two valises each. one made of genuine crocodile and weighing a ton empty; and several smaller bags. To our mortification. we watched our luggage receive its official baptism as the ship handlers tossed it indifferently from the ship to the dock below. It was dark when the train from Cherbourg finally puffed into the Gare du Nord in Paris. We taxied to the Hotel Laetitia, which Riza and Joe von Sternberg had touted so highly. It was named after the mother of Napoleon Bonaparte. I can still see the big "L" embroidered on the purple satin bedspreads on the twin beds and emblazoned on 154 The Shocking Miss Pilgrim .almost everything-including the bidet. which was a complete mystery to us Americans. After we had washed and unpacked a little, we repaired to the dining room downstairs. It was empty at that late hour. We dined regally with the waiters and...