“Listen, Betsy,” said Rosalind Shore, “Mom says you’re all right with Cairo Cotton and Levant Tobacco behind you.”
“The main thing,” remarked Coltfoot, “is to begin in a businesslike way. Don’t start off staggering under a load of overheads, Betsy. Don’t let them take expensive offices. The people who’ll use ’em would have to sit in a Mills Hotel if you didn’t provide a loafing place for them.
“And don’t spill money down the coal hole for a plant. When you need a studio, hire it for the length of time you expect to use it. Hire everything. Spend your money on the people who’ll bring it back to you, not on human objects d’art and period furniture.”
“I know,” said Betsy, “but I can’t control those things, can I?”
Annan said: “Perhaps you can. You know, socially, some of the people who are putting up the money. Harry Sneyd has to account to them. He’s handling you and you can handle him.”
“You can see to it,” said Coltfoot, “that Levant Tobacco isn’t used to pension a bunch of bums and dumb-bells. You can see to it that the money is spent where it ought to be spent. Your people have got real money. You can’t buy a good story for nothing; you can’t buy a good director or a good camera-man for nothing. Those are the people to pay.”
Rosalind nodded: “And low pedal on art-directors and carpenters,” she added. “I’m not so sure that I need all I get. Scenery is on the toboggan, sister Bettina. You don’t want expensive sets. Neither does your audience. It wants you. And it wants your story. So don’t let your bunch start rebuilding devastated France in your back yard when a corner in a hall bed-room will do.... It will always do if the story and the acting go over. I don’t have to tell you that, either.”
“No interior ever made a picture,” agreed Annan, “and no exterior ever saved one. But I’d go as far as I liked on the scenery that you don’t have to pay God for.”
Miss Blythe laughed: “Are you going to do a story for me, Barry?” she asked. “You promised—when you were in love with me.”
“I am yet. But your people don’t like sob-stuff any better than does Rosalind’s audience.”