THE ORACLE

This is a cross-section of a nationally famous radio commentator who had sprung from the sports column into the hearts of 5,000,000 listeners with his inspired impracticalities and his yeasty vigor. Christopher Usher, married to Meredith, who had acquired the art of social insulation and whose father deplored his son in law, demands a bigger take when his contract comes up for renewal, and is forced to sweat it out while the sponsor remains undecided. A speaking tour bolsters, then evaporates his confidence, a stop in Washington knocks him cold, and a return to New York presents him with the loss of his shrewd, curvilinear mistress and the adamant attitude of Meredith. But Christopher wins on the business front and the bubbles start to pop again. Portrait of an inflated ego, this (near) fall of the house of Usher in etched in acid commentary of the man and his profession.