From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [116]
“Sagas,” Prew said. “They call them sagas.
“The ones that star Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn,” Maggio said. “Those.”
“All the regular cowboys got to be musicians now,” Prew said. “Musicians first and cowboys second. Because they’re not Westerns anymore, they’re Musicals,” he said, suddenly surprisedly realizing sadly that he had watched and been a part of a phase of America that was dying just as surely as the Plains Indians Wars that gave it birth had died, had watched and been a part of it all this time, without ever knowing it for what it was, or that it was dying.
“You mean Gene Autry,” Maggio said. “Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger.
“I read Gene Autry was a Eagle Scout when he was a kid,” Readall Treadwell said.
“I believe that,” Maggio said. “My hometown, the ony ones ever got to be Eagle Scouts was the preachers’ sons and the schoolteachers’ sons. I was a Second Class onct myself, till they kicked me out of the Troop for gettin in a fight with the Assistant Scout Master.”
“Gene Autry cant play Come to Jesus in whole notes,” Prew said, argumentatively. “Neither one of them can. You cant commercialize that kind of music without killing it.”
“Dont look at me,” Maggio said. “I dont like them either. You cant commercialize anything without killing it. Look at the radio.”
“But those guys,” Prew said irritably, because this was a thing of great importance to him, and because he was trying hard to explain it, to find the word for this that always made him angry, “those guys. They’re imitation,” he said, finally, lamely.
“That Roy Rogers,” Maggio grinned. “I was makin a Jewgirl lived on West 84th Street when I work at Gimbel’s. Use to go up there and take her to the Schuyler Theater on 84th and Amsterdam.”
He stopped dealing and began to laugh to himself. “Well, one night there was a bill of a Roy Rogers show outside, you know? how they put them in the frames on the wall behind the chicken wire? And there was a little bitty Jewboy standin lookin at it. Thats all Jewish up around in there, see?
“‘You like Roy Rogers?’ I ask him.
“‘Sure, man,’ he says. ‘Don’t you?’
“‘Yes, man,’ I told him. ‘Roy Rogers and his horsetrigger. Ony I aint never found out whats a horsetrigger yet.’
“‘A what?’ he says.
“‘A horsetrigger,’ I told him. ‘I know whats a hairtrigger, but what is a horsetrigger?’
“‘Trigger’s the name of his horse, you jerk,’ he says, disgusted as hell. ‘You know what horses are. They’re them animals they ride in the pitcher. Horsetrigger,’ he says. ‘Where the hell you learn about cowboys? I bet you aint even a ’Muricun, but a goddam Wop or immigrunt or sothin.’
“Then he turnt around and stalked off a little ways so nobody would think he was with me,” Maggio said, laughing, looking at the others brightly, wanting to be sure they got it. “I never cracked a smile,” he explained, “or said a word.”
“I bet he still thinks you’re a Gestapo spy,” Prew, who liked the kind of humor himself, laughed.
“John Wayne was another good one,” Readall Treadwell said, almost a hunger in his voice, when they stopped laughing.
“Not any more,” Maggio said. “He’s graduated into Adventure. Give him five more years he’ll move up into Drama.”
“Thats the same way Gary Cooper started,” Readall Treadwell said. “He really use to be a real cowboy once.”
“You cant compare Gary Cooper to John Wayne,” Maggio protested.
“I aint comparing them. All I said was they both started out in Westerns. You cant compare none of them to Gary Cooper.”
“I guess not,” Maggio said. “I hope not. Gary Cooper goes deeper than just plain adventure. If theys anybody shows all the things this country stands for its Gary Cooper.”
“Thats what Hedda Hopper says,” Readall Treadwell nodded.
“Hedda Hopper, my ass,” Maggio said heatedly. “If I like Gary Cooper its my business. And its in spite of Hedda Hopper, not because of Hedda Hopper. Even my old daddy likes Gary Cooper. He go to see him every time he’s on, even if its raining, and he cant speak ten words a English.”
“All right,” Readall Treadwell said, good naturedly