OF CHEAT AND CHARMER

A novel by the playwright-actor-director is centered around the figure of Myron Myros, of Greek descent, who is the ""brilliant bastard"" of Hollywood pictures, and who, from one peak in his life, goes to his death. His partnership with Chief Lester and Herman Fried is marked with mutual distrust and, more than once, with dislike; his doctor's warnings about his health are disregarded when he takes over the direction of their current film; he is uninterested in his wife's interest in a new play. When the Chief needles him into a heart attack, he turns to Red, once his mistress, and effects an escape from the hospital. His activities, to outsmart his partners, bring on a coronary and, in the months that follow, his attention is given to his wife's play, joining her in Boston to work on its New York opening. He gets Red to join him when the play heads for New York and, with word of its great success, dies in her arms. The inside, the backstage of films and theatre are given professional and knowledgeable detail with characters that round out the picture for that all-devouring audience.