Spencer Tracy_ A Biography - James C. Curtis [140]
Aubrey’s newfound zeal for responsibility trips him up in a heartbeat. He butts into real estate negotiations at the Road and ends up costing them a small fortune. After he’s been fired, he’s walking a sandwich sign around town when he learns his brother-in-law is ready to accept an outright payment of $5,000 for an invention. (“Why Joe, you must be crazy. Five-thousand for an invention that must be worth millions? Why, they can’t do that to you!”) He takes it upon himself to go see the lawyer involved and demands $100,000 against 50 percent of the net profits. Shown the door, he’s convinced he’s queered the deal and that Joe is going to kill him for it.
Aubrey goes home to Amy, comes clean, tells her everything. He’s a whipped dog by the time Joe comes in, happy as a lark. After thinking about it, the lawyers had called him with their best offer: $50,000 and 20 percent of the profits. As Joe is excitedly relating it all, Aubrey is peering over Amy’s shoulder, timidly at first, and the transformation from Jekyll to Hyde was never more adroitly handled. Wordlessly, the chastened Aubrey, eyes downcast, becomes the Aubrey of old, at once smug and self-satisfied, his tongue rolling extravagantly in his mouth. It’s a magnificent shot, both horrifying and hilarious, screen acting at its finest. As Joe shows him the check, Aubrey regards it dismissively. “Joesy,” he says, “I think you coulda done better.”
Tracy lay low during the filming of The Show-Off, keeping his name out of the columns. The film finished on Friday, February 16. Two days later he and Loretta turned heads when they showed up for Mass together at Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. That evening he was nominated by the membership of the Screen Actors Guild to serve on one of two NRA code administration committees, more than a thousand votes being cast at the Hollywood Women’s Club to fill a total of fourteen slots.
“I am still married to Louise,” he told Walter Ramsey, who was writing his life story for Modern Screen. “There has been no divorce action started. At the present time, there is only one thing of paramount importance, my children, and a bad second best, my screen work. No matter how Louise and I solve our problem, we have mutually agreed that neither of us shall be sidetracked from the children. At the moment, they are staying with my mother. Louise is away on a much-needed rest. Naturally, their custody will remain with their mother, where it should be. But the fact that we have parted with the greatest friendliness means that their home will always be open to me, and, I hope, their hearts.” He characterized talk of an engagement between himself and Loretta Young as being in “very poor taste.” He paused, then slowly added: “This is really a strange time in my life to be giving my life story. At present, things are muddled and uncertain.”
His name once again in the papers, Tracy’s fan mail surged, as it usually did when he was considered news. One letter, in pencil, looked not unlike countless others written him and scores of other contract players, the spelling poor, the syntax shaky. It arrived at the house on Holmby, however, and for that reason alone it received special attention. Inspired, perhaps, by the subject matter of his picture The Mad Game, it bore a Los Angeles postmark and read as follows:
Feb. 20, 1934
Spencer Tracy
this is to let you know you and your friend are covered. By Rattlesnake. Pete Are Silverton I am give you a