Another time (extracts part 2):
SEVERAL MONTHS later, Miss Dietrich and Miss Bankhead were at it again:
“Now I have to introduce one of the most divine, glamorous women in the world. This woman, despite the fact that she’s a grandmother, gets more wolf whistles than anyone I know. So here she is ... Whistler’s Grandmother!”
“Tallulah, I wish you’d stop referring to me as a grandmother. You’re overdoing it.”
“Don’t talk to me about overdoing it, talk to your daughter!”
“By the way, Tallulah, I had a letter from what was once the wonderful city of Paris, before you got there.”
“Oh, Paris, what a time I had.”
“Did you buy any new gowns? — that one you’re wearing intrigues me.”
“Oh, it’s the new color, ‘battleship grey.’”
“Battleship grey? That’s lovely. But isn’t it a bit tight around the boiler room?”
“Not at all, it’s just my size, 12.”
“What size is that?”
“12”
“What size?"
“I told you twice, 12!”
“Oh, twice twelve. That is more your size.”
“Marlene, I’m going to make a statement, and I want you to answer, true or false. Will you do that?”
“Of course.”
“That figure you have, it’s not all yours.”
“False.”
“Yeah, that’s just what I thought. Now, don’t make any more cracks about my gown. I paid a pretty penny for it. The prices; I was soaked in every shop in Paris.”
“Yes, I heard you were soaked all over Paris.”
“Oh, now let’s stop. Marlene, whatever happened to that divine man you used to go out with, what was his name, Jesse?”
“Oh, we split up.”
“Really darling, for good?”
“No, only temporarily. He got married.”
“Marlene, don’t you find that the man problem gets tougher every year?”
“You’re so right Tallulah. You know I wouldn’t admit this to anyone else, but one day last week, I actually had lunch alone.”
“Nooooo?” Well, if you think that’s bad, and as long as you opened up to me, one day a month ago I had breakfast alone!!”
“Well, it’s really a shame. Men seem to be disappearing. In a few years they’ll be extinct.”
“They sure do.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that Tallulah. They are all probably hanging out in the back room somewhere, and personally I want to see what the boys in the back room will have.”
“Well, that's really sneaky. We've been talking here all this time, and it's just been a way to work in a music cue. All, right Marlene, go see what the boys in the back room will have.”
