Spencer Tracy_ A Biography - James C. Curtis [119]
When Sturges was finally told he could come in and sign his contract, a legal holiday was declared in California. Three days later, on March 4, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt entered the White House, and the following day he issued a presidential proclamation declaring a mandatory four-day bank holiday. No checks could be signed or cashed, and no pictures could be funded. The same day, as a financial pall settled over the entire country, the major studios, with no actors’ union—no equivalent of Equity—to oppose them, began instituting a mandatory 50 percent reduction in salary for all contract players. George Bagnall, the Fox studio treasurer, induced Tracy—who could ill afford it—to accept the cut for an eight-week period beginning March 6.3
When it looked as if the negotiations with Sturges had irreparably stalled, Sol Wurtzel stepped in and asked that Tracy be assigned to The American, a picture based on the life of Anton Cermak, the first foreign-born mayor of Chicago. Admitting it was a plum part, Tracy nevertheless asked to be let out of the assignment, convinced its similarity to The Power and the Glory would freeze him out of the latter picture should it subsequently get made. Fortunately, Sturges’ contract was finally signed on March 15, and production began eight days later. “The schedule calls for thirty-three days,” Sturges wrote his father on March 27, “but it will probably take a little longer than that. It should be finished by the first of May. We have an excellent cast, an excellent director, an excellent cameraman, and an excellent film editor (cutter). If your son is any good at all as an author, we should have an excellent picture.”
It was about this time that Louise began talking to Spence about starting a school for the deaf in Los Angeles. A checkup in January had shown that John’s leg had gone back considerably during his time at Clarke and that the food there had tied his stomach in knots. He was put on daily treatments and a strict diet, but Louise thought there must be a better answer. “I felt we might start in a very modest sort of way, say with three or four children. These should not be hard to find, especially as we were willing to finance the venture, and, for the time being, a tuition fee could be waived. I mentally began to turn our den and patio into school room and play yard. All we needed was one good teacher and some children.”
Louise mentioned the idea to John’s teacher, Mrs. Payzant, who was plainly appalled by it. The public school system, however overtaxed, needed every student it could get. A loss of even a few would trigger a drop in funding that could result in a teacher losing her job. Louise went to the department of handicapped children at the Board of Education, but they couldn’t release any names, nor could they offer any suggestions. Next she tried doctors, talking to Dr. Dietrich, who was their pediatrician, and Dr. Dennis, their family practitioner, both of whom thought her plan quite reasonable, even if they knew of no children who were deaf. She wrote a letter about what she wanted to do, which she thought she could mail to all physicians in the county of Los Angeles, but the head of the medical association didn’t think it would do any good. She talked to other physicians and otologists, all of whom assured her they personally knew of no deaf children.
Finally, she called the mother of a deaf girl she knew had been going to Wright Oral. This woman belonged to a prominent Los Angeles family of considerable means, and Louise asked if