The House That Shadows Built (1928)

ZUKOR PLOTS HIS FUTURE 143 careless yet ossified methods of the moving-picture producers. There came a dramatic moment when William A, Brady discovered how much Zukor had learned. Brady says now, “Broadway got me for a while.” He had been paying more attention to the stock market than to the business of producing plays. One or two failures — and then came a crisis. Down the Great White Way ran the report that Bill Brady had gone broke. Creditors heard the whisperings and pressed in upon him. Brady, buckling down to his own business at last, struck a hasty balance between assets and liabilities and found himself cornered. There seemed no way out except bankruptcy. Enter now this unconsidered hanger-on of the Brady offices. “It looks bad, Billy,” said Adolph Zukor. “It looks rotten,” said Brady, “but how do you know?” “Tve got eyes, haven’t I.?” replied Adolph Zukor. “Well, it isn’t so bad as it looks. You’ve been neglecting this business, and certain people have taken advantage of you.” Half of that night they sat in the office with the books. And as they talked, wonder grew in Brady. This partner in his little Fourteenth Street side-show knew more about the Brady business — all of it — than Brady knew himself. There was, for example, one pressing debt of