He Wrote What He Knew About! (Midwestern Writers W/O)
Written: Nov 18 '03 (Updated Nov 18 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Recognizable characters, good descriptions and dialogue
Cons: Not a book I would have chosen to read
The Bottom Line: A good solid read about a gambling man.
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| ed_grover's Full Review: Any Number Can Play Books |
This is an entry in LoisLane05's Midwestern Writers W/O. It runs through the end of November and is open to everyone so please check out the rules here and submit something.
I've been trying without much luck to get the names of Edward Harris Heth (my writer for this Write-off) and Glenway Wescott added to the Wisconsin Writer's Wall at the main branch of Milwaukee's Public Library. I'd like to see their names added to those of Edna Ferber, Zona Gale, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Carl Sandburg, Laura Ingals Wilder and Thornton Wilder. Thorny is the only queer one up there as far as I know and I think he needs some friends to keep him company. I'll keep making my submissions until Milwaukee and the Midwest are able to pay tribute to these two gay men.
I met Edward Harris Heth shortly after my father died in 1951. At the time I was just getting over the fact that I wasn't the only queer person in the world. I was barely twenty and newly out to myself. A friend of the family took me over to Ed's house in the nearby countryside one weekend with the possibility of my joining his Wednesday evening writing class . . . or if that failed, maybe taking pottery lessons from his partner, Bill. I had no idea that this meeting was arranged with my mother's full approval; she knew more about her queer son than he thought she did and felt I should meet some "nice" people.
My first meeting was strictly a social call to meet two gay men. Ed and Bill, who were in their mid-thirties, were the first gay male couple I would meet; I had no idea queer people lived and made lives together, but I would meet many more couples as time passed. We had drinks on the front terrace of his brand new house in the Welsh Hills of Southeast Wisconsin and it wasn't long before the stories were flying.
I had no idea who he was other than that he was gay and was a local writer who was said to have made it Big Time. His only claim to fame, as far as I knew, was that he had written a semi-biographical novel called Any Number Can Play. He wrote the story about his relationship with his father who was a professional gambler in Milwaukee during the era of our National Alcohol Prohibition (1920-1933).
The terrace where we enjoyed our drinks was built partially because Ed sold the screen rights of his book to MGM in 1946-47. It was made into a movie of the same name starring Clark Gable, Alexis Smith, Audrey Totter and lots of other MGM stars for their Silver Anniversary (a review of the movie is coming up). Ed told me stories about the glamour of Hollywood and of the movie stars and directors he'd met at numerous parties. I sat there and absorbed it all.
I agreed to try and write something for his class, but what I really wanted to get involved in was the pottery studio in the basement of the rambling house perched on the top of a hill in the Welsh Hills of Southeastern Wisconsin. I came back the next Wednesday with Albert, dropped of my story and headed downstairs to learn about pottery. I could hear Ed, Albert and his all-women class reading my story; every once in a while there were shrieks of laughter.
Later when I went upstairs, I was told, "Dear boy, you really have to know what you're writing about before you write it." It seems I had attempted a heterosexual seduction of some sort and failed miserably. I was writing about something I had never experienced . . . and still haven't. The critique was all done with great kindness and several more drinks. I was told not to take it so hard, and then Ed added, "Maybe when you have some more experience you can try again, but for now you'd better stick to learning pottery with Bill. Now, tell me about yourself and your paintings."
That started a friendship that was to last for many years and I ended up doing some drawings for a country calendar Ed published locally just before his newest book, a cookbook, appeared in the bookstores. I have a paperback edition of the cookbook in the kitchen that's splattered with this and that sauce, and a nearly pristine, signed first edition on the bookshelf in my hallway. That's the total sum of my Edward Harris Heth collection; I never read any of his books and I never got very far with making pottery making, either. There were a few strange ashtrays and a slab vase that followed me around for years, but that was about it.
Through Ed, I met everyone there was to know in any of the creative fields in Milwaukee and its environs. I was soon on my way to New York City to make my own way just as Ed had done many years before; I arrived with a pocket full of letters of introduction to some of the top creative people in Manhattan. That sure made life a lot easier.
Ed's previous novels were "Some We Loved," "Told With A Drum" and "Light Over Ruby Street." His later efforts were based on his life in the country. They included a cookbook called The Wisconsin Country Cookbook and Journal and two novels: "If You Lived Here" and "My Life on Earth." Ed died in the mid-1960s.
The Book:
I must admit I never read the book or saw the movie until a few weeks ago when I checked them both out of our public library. As I settled in to read I could easily recognize his conversational style. It was the same wonderful descriptive tone he used as we sat around the big kitchen table, on one of the many terraces or in the living room overlooking the long meadow at the back of the house.
There are three parts to the book: Part One is an introduction to the characters and to "The Big Place," a former mansion turned into a posh gambling establishment. We meet the various gambling types (good and bad) who work for Charlie King in his honest gambling establishment. Heth never mentions Milwaukee by name, but you can tell that this is the city he was writing about, especially when Charlie King, drives 90-miles to Chicago and back to secretly see a doctor. The news wasn't good: he has serious heart problems and the doctor wants him to get out of the gambling business forever; he should retire and go fishing up north.
We read about Charlie's beginnings as a bartender yearning to be a "gentleman gambler" like Ben Sneller who seemed to have it all; he had the cars, the clothes and the women on each arm, and Charlie wanted all that. He also wanted a happy home life and the one he had was fine. There was love and a baby on the way but they were poor, poor, poor and Charlie spent all his money on gambling.
One night as Charlie was waiting for his kid to be born, he loaned Sneller his bar tending salary and went home to his wife and new baby with nothing but a diamond stickpin that he had been given for collateral. Ben lost the money, Charlie kept the stickpin. Later they got into a poker game and Ben lost $7,000 on a single bet that allowed Charlie to win everything and become the club owner and a success he always wanted to be. Ben Sneller committed suicide. Of all the vices out there I'm happy to say that gambling is one of the ones that never bit me.
I could easily picture the surroundings of the gambling house as many of our fine mansions were relegated to other occupations than family homes in their lifetimes. I could visualize the tiny flat on the south side that his parents started out in and the comfortable house in the suburbs they ended up in. As I grew up I heard stories of a fancy private club called Kitty Kelly's where there was bootleg booze, gambling, and a bordello full women. The place described in the book had no women available (I'd hate to even refer to them as courtesans and the NaughtWordFilter won't let me use the word that should be used, but I'm sure you know what I mean).
Part Two is called "The Long Night" and it's involved with a night at the gaming tables. The story goes back and forth between his early life, his success at gambling, his son's distaste for his father's profession and Charlie's final resolution of his problems. There are not only some payoffs to the cops involved, but we read about some fast shuffling of the dice and cards and the exposure of a dealer who's caught cheating. We go to the suburbs for some recriminations and sad memories from Charlie's long-suffering wife, Lon.
We travel along to a fancy Country Club dance where his son refuses to accept a flaming dessert his father had ordered to impress everyone. The class bullies start a fight and everyone gets arrested. The son refuses to be bailed out of the police station by his father. When mama shows up she takes the kid to the gambling house for a showdown where he has his eyes opened as to what kind of man his father really is as he almost loses his business and his life. This is the longest section with seven chapters
Part Three is called "Fishing Weather" and has two chapters with the resolution of Charlie Kings gambling problems, the reunification of his family and what happens to the gambling place. It's all tied up nice and neat, but we never seem to go on the much-talked about fishing trip.
I know for sure that the fishing is from his family memories because he mentions it in two other books, the calendar and the cookbook. This book was also published under the name of "The Big Game." I found copies of it offered all over the Internet, where it's classified as a mystery. I sure don’t agree with that, it's the story of a middle-aged Mid-western gambler who comes to terms with his health, his lifestyle and his family.
How much of this book was from Ed's personal life, things he knew about or experienced, I don't know, but I enjoyed the book because I knew the author. Other than that I found it wasn't about a subject I would have chosen to read about. Sorry Ed, but thanks for your advice on writing, I use it all the time. (Harper Brothers, New York, NO ISBN).
Ed Grover - 2003
Recommended:
Yes
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ed_grover
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Member: Ed Grover
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Reviews written: 332
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