The way you look tonight, p.1
The Way You Look Tonight, page 1
part #10 of The Romantical Adventures of Whit & Eddie Series
The Way You Look Tonight
The Romantical Adventures
of Whit & Eddie
Book 10
By Frank W. Butterfield
© 2021 by Frank W. Butterfield. All rights reserved.
No part of this story may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without express written permission of the copyright holder.
This book contains explicit language and suggestive situations.
This is a work of fiction that refers to contemporary figures, locales, and events, along with many completely fictional ones. The primary characters are utterly fictional and do not resemble anyone I have ever met or known of.
Cover photograph licensed under copyright from Aleksandr Doodko / 123RF Stock Photo
Certain fictional names provided by the Fake Name Generator are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
WERA10-E-20230220
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Contents
1. In the news
2. Lunch with the fam
3. An unexpected call
4. Sorting it out in the pool
5. Packing
6. Lunch in Waco
7. At the lake
8. Cousin comes calling
9. Sandra? In a bar?
10. A luncheon wake
11. Mark has something to say
12. A night on the river
13. Will he or won't he?
14. Making plans for the day
15. Coffee at Tiffany
16. And the band played on
17. Yet another new house
18. A ruse revealed
19. Some notes about this book
20. Thank you
21. About me
22. A list of my books
1. In the news
The Hollywood Reporter
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
9:02 a.m. PDT
MGM SOLD TO MONUMENTAL
$10.1 BILLION PRICE TAG
AMAZON LEFT BEHIND
CAT BECOMES A LION
In an industry shocker, MGM Holdings has been sold (pending government approval) but not to Jeff Bezos and Amazon as had been anticipated for the last few days.
Monumental Studios, once the biggest production studio during the silent era, has announced it has acquired MGM Holdings for a price tag of $10.1 billion, $1.65 billion more than the Amazon bid of $8.45 billion.
Rachel Dworkin, President of Monumental, announced the surprise deal this morning. "This is the case of the cat that finally became a lion."
MGM has been represented by Leo the Lion since 1916. In early 2020, Monumental reclaimed its original 1909 logo—that of an ancient Egyptian cat named Pharaoh—during its rebranding following the transfer of ownership of its parent company, WilliamsJones, Inc., of San Francisco.
Dworkin added that the acquisition of the MGM catalog will allow Monumental to launch a cable channel and streaming service, something which has been in the works since 2017.
AT&T recently announced a plan to spin off its WarnerMedia division for $43 billion to Discovery. The selloff would include HBO and Warner Brothers, among other assets. Combined with the Monumental deal, the two transfers symbolize a shakeup in the entertainment industry and a continued trend towards consolidation.
With access to a deep library of Hollywood classics, blockbusters, and ongoing franchises, Monumental's streaming service will be competing not only with Amazon itself, but also with Netflix and Disney+.
Dworkin acknowledges they have a steep hill to climb but anticipates offering initial subscribers a low-cost entry into their service, perhaps as low as 99¢ per month in the US for the first year of full-access streaming.
Currently, Anchorage Capital is MGM’s top shareholder. The company has no one CEO. An "Office of the CEO" is controlled by a number of senior executives and reports to the board of directors of the firm. Michael De Luca leads film production while Mark Burnett oversees television.
Licensing and distribution make up the lion share of MGM's revenue. Based in Beverly Hills, the studio had a round of COVID-related layoffs over the past year.
Loew's Theatres owner, Marcus Loew, founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924 by merging Metro Pictures Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures.
During the golden age of cinema, MGM was considered to be the queen of the "Big 5" studios.
Among many classics, MGM produced both a silent version of Ben-Hur as well as a Technicolor film that won an Oscar. The Wizard of Oz was produced and released in 1939 along with Gone With the Wind, the highest domestic grossing film of all time when adjusted for inflation.
The advent of television and the collapse of the studio system caused the profitable company to lose money in 1957.
In 1969, MGM was purchased by Kirk Kerkorian. A seemingly endless series of sales and purchases (including two more by Kerkorian, himself) culminated in this purchase by Monumental.
Dworkin made clear today that she doubts MGM will ever be sold again. WilliamsJones, the privately held Monumental parent company, is known to have never divested itself of any acquired major asset since its founding in 1962.
In the purchase, Monumental is taking control of a library that consists of over 4,000 titles and 17,000 hours of TV programming. Properties include the James Bond, Rocky/Creed, and The Hobbit film franchises.
Monumental Studios originated in 1909 as Monumental Moving Pictures. Founded by Elijah Ferriman, its studio lot was first built at the southeast corner of Culver and Sepulveda in Culver City where it remains to this day.
Monumental was famous during the silent era for its quick production of popular movies. Unable to survive the transition to sound, the studio lot was shuttered in 1934. It remained closed for 20 years until it was purchased by Nicholas Williams in 1954 from Rafael Ferriman, the founder's son.
Since that time, Monumental Pictures (the film arm of the company) has mainly focused on producing low- to mid-budget movies aimed at the teenage and young adult audience. Several efforts from the 1950s and 1960s have since become cult classics. The most famous of these, however, was released in 1975. Burning Man Running featured a cameo of one of the studio's two co-owners at the time, Carter Jones.
Monumental Television began production in the 1960s with Beat Patrol, a show filmed entirely in San Francisco. Since then, Monumental programming has been seen on all the major networks in the US, UK, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand as well as on Netflix, Hulu, and even Amazon Prime. They've also produced a string of two-hour movies for Lifetime and The Hallmark Channel as well as a handful of reality programmers for Bravo and MTV.
Monumental is a subsidiary of WilliamsJones, Inc., which has been owned by Whitley Hall and Edward Smith since 2019.
Today's announcement was made during a hastily arranged video call with media outlets. Dworkin, who was in Daytona Beach, Florida, read a brief statement and then took questions.
2. Lunch with the fam
168 Mount Erin Pass
San Antonio, TX 78212
Saturday, July 17, 2021
11:45 a.m. CDT
I heard Whit banging around upstairs.
My mother looked over at me, "Does he always make that much noise?"
I grinned. "He's probably getting into something he shouldn't."
She looked mildly alarmed as she opened a restaurant-sized container of Miracle Whip. "Like what?"
I shrugged. "Who knows?"
We were in the kitchen. Whit and I had moved to San Antonio for the season a couple of weeks earlier. Summer training for the Matadors was in full force in Kerrville but they had the weekend off.
Whit and I had decided to invite our friends and family over for a cook-out by the pool. While my mother made cole slaw, I was cutting apart the hot dogs we'd ordered from a meat market over on Broadway. They were all strung together like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon.
From upstairs, Whit called out, "What time does everyone get here?"
I replied, "I got a text from Zoe. They're just now leaving San Marcos. She wanted to make a stop to see a friend of hers on the way down."
My mother added, "They should be here by 12:30."
Whit walked into the kitchen right then and made a beeline for where my mother was doing her magic. "How's it goin', Susan?"
"Fine. Can you get down that jar of sugar for me and see if you can find a measuring cup? "
"Sure," he replied as he walked over to the pantry. He set the sugar down next to the big pan Mother was using to make the magic happen and asked, "When will the Wonder Twins be here?"
I grinned as my mother looked up at my husband. "Whit, sweetheart, do you not like Mark and Russ? They do seem a little wooden at times, but they're just doing the job you've hired them to do."
"Plus," I added, "they're former Secret Service. And they're professionals." I looked at Whit. "Like how NFL players are different than college players, right?"
Before he could reply, my mother said, "It always comes down to football, doesn't it?"
Whit and I both laughed at that.
"Well?" asked Mother. "Do you or don't you?"
Whit shrugged as he rummaged through a drawer that definitely did not have any measuring cu
I put down my knife and sighed. "I do not have a crush on either of them."
"I have a crush on Mark," announced my mother. "He's probably the single most handsome man I've ever met." She looked up at the ceiling. "Forgive me, George Clooney."
As I laughed, Whit asked, "Have you met George Clooney?"
"No, but you have and it's your duty as my son to make sure I do before I die."
"Yes, ma'am."
My mother used the gigantic spatula she was holding in her hand to point to a cabinet with glass doors. "Whit, honey, the measuring cups are over there."
He shrugged. "Sorry, Susan. I guess I don't cook enough."
"By enough," I said, "he means ever."
"I can cook."
"Oh?" I asked, as I put a towel over the tray of hot dogs since I was finally done with that. "Care to tell me what, exactly, you can cook?"
Whit handed my mother a big glass measuring cup. "I can microwave better than most."
We all laughed at that at the same time there was a ding-dong. That meant someone was at the front door and had used the biometric reader to open the door.
"Whit? Eddie?" It was Russ.
"We're in the kitchen," announced Whit.
Russ Winston, one of our two bodyguards who also doubled as our majordomo, walked in carrying several bags of groceries. He was followed by Mark Trumble, his husband and the other of our bodyguards, and then Whit's best friend, Klotz, and Klotz's fiancé, Alex Maxwell. Klotz (whose first name was Eric) played for the Matadors and Alex worked alongside Mark and Russ helping out with our personal security. And, more and more, I was coming to realize that Alex was probably my best friend.
Russ put his bags on the far end of the island. With a grin, he said, "We found these two loitering around and thought you wouldn't mind if they joined us."
Mark and Klotz each had a cooler. They set them down by the sliding glass door that led outside to the patio and the pool.
"What's in there?" asked my mother.
"Sodas and such," said Klotz as he stretched his arms to either side. "I'm not drinking during training and, since I'm the only one who really drinks, I figured—"
Alex jumped in. "He figured he'd do what you asked. But, Eric being Eric, he can't just admit that's what he's doing."
There was an uncomfortable silence for a second or two before Mark said to me, "Do you have the hot dogs ready?"
I nodded and pointed to the tray. "They're over there."
"Where are we on the question of meatless?" asked Russ.
"That's up to Zoe," said my mother. "She said she would provide the vegetarian whatever since she and the kids are more into that than any of us here."
"I can do vegetarian," said Alex.
"You can do a lot of things," retorted Klotz.
Mark headed over to the sliding glass door. "Come on, Eric. Let's go make fire."
We all chuckled as they walked out onto the patio and headed towards the grill.
Looking at Alex, my mother asked, "Everything OK?"
He shook his head. "Not really. Now that we're getting close to the wedding, we're both kinda pissed off at no one in particular."
"So, the date is set?" asked Whit as he glanced outside.
"We're definitely on for next Saturday, the 24th." He glanced at my mother who nodded just a little.
I wondered what that was about.
Whit was still staring out the window and, when he didn't reply to Alex's answer, I said, "Well, that's good news. I'm sure Klotz's boss will make sure to let him off work to be at his own wedding." I grinned at my mother who was frowning slightly.
Alex, who knew Whit well enough to see what was going on, grinned at me and added, "Yes, I doubt the front office in Tampa will give him much trouble. Don't you agree, Whit?"
"Sure."
"And what about Coach Belichick?" I asked as Russ looked confused.
"I think Coach won't mind," said Alex. "Don't you agree, Whit?"
"Yeah."
My mother stopped what she was doing. "What in the world is going on here? Why Tampa? And who is Coach Beli-whatever?"
Russ said, "He's the head coach for the Patriots." He looked at me. "What is going on here?"
I walked over to Whit and put my arm around his waist.
He absentmindedly put his arm around my shoulders.
"Stud here is jealous. He's afraid that Mark and Klotz are gonna fall madly in love with each other and leave him in the lurch."
That got Whit's attention. He looked down at me. "What?"
I pushed him towards the door. "Just go out there and make sure they know you're the boss and that you do, in fact, secretly like Mark. Maybe he'll show you how that monster of a grill works."
Whit looked around the room, blushing a little. "Oh. Was I that obvious?"
In unison, the rest of us said, "Yes!"
"What time is it?" asked Whit as he walked back inside with Mark and Klotz right behind him. They were all grinning.
"12:15," I replied. "Zoe called. They ran into traffic at the 410/35 interchange, and she said they'll be here by 12:45 if they're lucky."
"How's the cole slaw?" asked Klotz as he walked over to where my mother was mixing in her big metal pan.
"Grab a fork and have a taste."
Mark walked over. "What's your recipe, Susan?"
I grinned as my mother blushed. "Well, Mark," she said before clearing her throat. "It's not my recipe. This was Zoe's grandmother's recipe for the cole slaw we served at Lakeview Lodge on Caddo Lake."
I knew that Mark knew all about Lakeview and Zoe's father because that was in a file somewhere. But, being polite, he asked, "Now, that's the place you ran back in the 80s, right?"
"Well, it was really Zoe's father's restaurant. But while we were married, in the 70s and 80s, I did hostessing and anything else that was needed."
"Looks like cabbage, carrots... What else?"
"You take a head of cabbage and a few carrots and put them through a grinder like this." She was pointing to a manual one that I'd found at a restaurant supply store earlier in the week. It was mounted on the counter. "Then you put all that in a big pan like this and stir in Miracle Whip and sugar. Then you add black pepper and keep on stirring. It's ridiculously easy." She was blushing again. "Some people think it's too sweet. But that was how we made it back then."
"May I?" asked Mark.
She handed him a fork. "Be my guest."
He had a bite and smiled at her. "I like it."
"Me too," said Klotz as he reached around Mark to dig in for another forkful.
While he did that, Alex looked at me. "Why have you and Whit never had a wedding?"
That seemed to come out of left field. Before I could answer, Whit said, "We did. It was in Savannah and happened in the courthouse."
My mother said, "I've been married six times and the ones in the courthouse weren't much different than the ones in the church."
I looked at her. "But you only had one in a church, right?"
She nodded. "To your daddy. But the others were just as meaningful."
Sounding slightly annoyed, Alex pressed the point, "But what I mean is... why haven't you two ever had a wedding that we could all attend?"
I looked at Whit and we both shrugged.
"Is it because you fell in love so fast?" asked Klotz.
I looked around the room. Everyone was watching me except for Russ who was pulling out the hot dog buns and putting them in a pyramid on a big serving dish I'd never seen before. It felt like they'd all been talking about this and had resolved to grill us. And, personally, I don't like to be grilled.
Whit, thankfully, took the ball. "We've never talked about it, so I can't speak for Eddie, but Susan and Klotz are the only..." He sighed and glanced at me.
"What?" asked Alex.
It was my turn. "Why is this question even on the table?"
Everyone but Whit and I laughed. And they did so a little nervously in my opinion...
My mother said, "Well, I know I've had weddings on my mind, sweetheart, and have been wondering the same thing." She looked at Klotz, who was standing next to her and eating fork after fork of cole slaw. "And I imagine Alex and Eric have been too."
