The self-enchanted : Mae Murray : image of an era (1959)

fruit, vegetables and cottage cheese. Her food must be kept light, egg yolks whipped in a glass of orange juice, grated vegetables with lemon and honey ; proteins and minerals would keep her fresh and elastic. Mae was at the theatre from ten in the morning until twelve at night, sometimes one; but David was waiting and she'd emerge like a butterfly from the drab, darkened backstage area. They went to night clubs, David ordered magnums of champagne and talked passionately across the table. They'd get to bed very late, and he constantly wakened her in the night. "David, if you love me, let me sleep. I do five shows tomorrow. "You deny my manhood P He imposed his will on her, but it couldn't go on. Mae had to insist on separate rooms so that she could rest, but David was always at the door deploring his lost manhood. She explained over and over, she must be at the theatre at ten, if he adored her he certainly should understand. Outside the door he wept and raved. Something had come between them. Didn't she know he was a man, no sissy dancer but a man ? In Europe he could have a dozen women at his feet. "David, this tour will soon be over and we can be together as we were. We'll again want the same things at the same time." "A wife is for her husband at all times," he insisted. When he went back to California, he phoned constantly to declare his love. It was the sound of his voice that kept Mae going, week after week through the cross-country tour. Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City, Memphis. In Salt Lake City it was so hot that she slept in an open car at the top of the pass. They brought hundred-pound chunks of ice backstage and played fans on the stage so that she could go out and dance in a theatre that was like an incinerator. Back at the Hippodrome in New York, two months later, it was so cold she bundled up between shows in her ermine coat. David and the baby met her in French Lick between tours. 202