Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Los ^Angeles — -from an Empty House such nights we were delayed on the road instead of one, my asthma becoming such a nightly nuisance that I could sleep only propped up on a suit-case in lieu of a bolster. Yet an odd obstinacy prevented us from seeking more comfortable lodgings. We were due to dine and sleep in the palace of a millionairess at Santa Barbara, but could do no more than limp up to breakfast instead, leaving, to the ire of the dignified butler, our ten-year-old car, covered with three days' dust, before the noble front door. He would, I think, have sent us to the servants' entrance. At last, with a lecture recital to give on the same evening, we rolled into Los Angeles at four in the afternoon. The only thing that had kept us going was soap. On the Cresta Pass, just before reaching San Louis Obispo, the car had stuck once more. This time it was not due to red-hot cylinders nor to fused piston rings. By the use of gravity I turned the car round, meaning to run down the hill to the nearest garage, when, lo, the engine started once more ! I faced up hill again, the engine stalled ; I turned down hill again, it started. Here was mystery, but we were able to climb the hill full speed backward. Clearly we could not back up every hill between San Louis Obispo and Los Angeles without causing undue excitement, so after a little detective work among the machinery I found a crack in the top of the vacuum tank. On steep hills the petrol was sucked up no longer. Soap, rather damp and squidgy soap, cured the trouble, though at intervals, as in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard, I had to leap out of the car, swing up the hood and repeat the poultice as before. Chewing-gum, well masticated, we found later was a much more permanent plug. Lying advertisements lured us to the camp -ground in Los Angeles. However uncomfortable these wayside campgrounds might be, we were promised a palatial one in Los Angeles, including bathrooms and cabins with kitchens. But [15]