Grey Skies in Mourning

© 2010 Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Chapter Seven

A little over a month had passed since Nikki had left Kab Langly’s office with Charlene van PugPug leading her. In that time the mare had learned a great deal more about the business of Hollywood and its studios. For example, unlike what she had thought the studio’s almost never financed their own projects. That was done by unseen business men in New York, almost all of which were Jewish for some odd reason. Like many business people Nikki had a distrust of Jewish bankers, a distrust ingrained within her from childhood. A distrust which had little to do with the religion, but the culture of those minks.

Today they were traveling West of Hollywood, far West with her vixen contact while the mare was busy working out the legal ways to reach her goal, becoming involved or trying to counter the local underworld would be a death sentence even for her so she was being above board legally, thus not attracting the crime bosses attention. Not yet at least.

Charlene’s last project had been completed so she was free until the final Petunia’s Perils serial ramped up. Currently the actress was guiding the big rented Packard down state highways until they arrived at a place called Moreno Valley. Once there the vixen pulled over in front of the standard welcome sign, slowly getting out of the rented car to her bodies complaint. They had left Hollywood well before morning and it was near noon now so carefully stretching she watched as a light traffic of mainly farm and ranch vehicles passed by, many drivers leaving the echos of wolf whistles behind them.

“Ahn yah dragged me out here fer what” the black furred mare asked from her side of the vehicle. Irritated she had lapsed into her false accent for a moment. She too was stretching, but her body was mainly blocked from public view. Not that it mattered as the mare was wearing quite conservative clothing today, she had been warned that it would be a long day after all.

“As I already explained Nikki” Charlene answered. “Some two thousand three hundred and eleven times up to today. Republic Studio’s is landlocked, they cannot expand. Taxes have eaten heavily into the studios finances and in truth, it is my belief that Republic has stagnated, or is nearly so. So I have taken three days of my free time to, as you say drag you out into nowhere to show you a possible future. This valley.”

A heavy droning sound caught both women’s attention, where Charlene searched the skies Nikki looked almost instantly in the correct direction, knowing to lead the sound to spot the aircraft.

“March Field” Charlene explained as she too finally spotted the formation. “Army Air Corps training field, I thought that you would find that a plus.”

“Stearman 73 Trainer” Nikki reported, her accent vanishing as her mood improved. “1935 model. Those pilots are still learning formation flying.” She lowered her eyes, turning to face the woman who had driven her here. “We both know that I am not a spy, so why?”

“The Lotus Group now owns thirty seven percent of outstanding common stock for Republic Studios” Charlene answered. “More than any other single group, so much more that Yade himself called me into his office last Monday to find out what I knew, being as I have been to Spontoon more than once. He was surprised to learn that the only company that exists on Spontoon with the name lotus in it is a Sapphic bar that is barely making ends meet.” She gave the mare a friendly smile. “He has sent his best detective to Spontoon to investigate, it will be interesting to see his reaction when his private eye discovers that those women’s only interest in movies is to watch them.”

“And?” Nikki asked.

“New York is pulling the plug on Yades finances. Not completely, but they have tightened the collar. Haster’s boy has finally cost the studio too much for no return and the fact that the boy is still trying to join two guilds just so he can complete his morass of a movie has given them real concern.” She shrugged, “Men with money are either very careful with their investments, or they are not men with money very long. Mr. Yade always turned a good profit but these last two years he seems to have lost his touch. In my opinion his mind is going.”

Nikki laughed, “So you are a medical doctor now?’ she asked. “I hadn’t noticed. What do you base this on.”

“Conversations with his private doctor” the vixen answered. “And reading his medical report, Yade has Syphilis, he has had it since he was a teenager and his only saving grace is that every woman he has taken, he has used protection. Even his wife.”

“So the buck isn’t a complete monster” Nikki noted. “He does care, if even so little. So who gave him this illness, a street walker?”

“His older sister” Charlene said, watching the flicker of emotions that passed over her companions face. If she hadn’t already experienced the mares hard side she would have feared for her own life at that moment. “I don’t have the details other than apparently it was she who was the aggressor. I don’t want to know the details Nikki, not about something that dark.”

“That is best” the mare agreed, her face calming. “So then if Yade is losing his grip on reality and the money men are pulling their backing, where does that leave us?”

“In a fix’ the vixen admitted with a sigh. “A big fix, one I think only you and your friends can get us out of. If the studio defaults it gets sold piecemeal, Common Stock owners like the Lotus Group end up with at the best almost nothing. Yade could be faking his illness because if the studio goes belly up he gets away with all his money scott free, since on paper he’s only an officer of the company. I would sell out if I were you and pick up what I can at the auctions, but Republic as a going concern isn’t going to concern anyone much longer. The Hay’s Convention has pretty much gutted Yade’s standard fare even with Kab Langly’s excellent leadership. Honestly Nikki, if it hadn’t been for Mr. Langly the studio would have closed its doors this month.”

“And that special Petunia’s Perils serial you have been working on?” the mare asked.

Charlene smiled, something that Nikki had come to enjoy. Charlene as a broken slave would never have smiled like that, Charlene as a woman though, ‘If I wasn’t married and she wasn’t promised’ the Filypino mare admitted to herself. This vixen was a great asset, she was smart, educated and knew who was worth the pay that they received. Without her and the people she knew this mission would have failed before it started.

“There are currently six projects nearing completion at Republic” the vixen answered. “Except for the Perils filming, which starts Monday, Haster’s whelp has tied up too much talent and resources for any more to start until his epic is completed. Once that is complete even if it is a blockbuster, which no serial has ever been, unless that epic is a success the studio will be bankrupt.”

Nikki leaned against the Packard, her weight causing the machine to list slightly to starboard. “You and the money man you brought me have been suggesting that the Lotus Group pull out of Republic before we lose any more money, but even if we do what happens? I’m a business woman Charlene, but I’m a small business woman. I can see what I want but at this level I cannot see how to get there without more money than I have.”

Charlene nodded, pointing down at the town below them. “Grevillea Ave was just paved Nikki, that is because March Field was re-opened and brought in money. Sunnymead, Moreno, and Edgemont all unincorporated. That means no really strong local laws, you can buy enough land to make your own laws by incorporating as a town, not just a studio.” She eased her weight onto the Packard’s left fender, getting into her prepared pitch.

“They lost their water back in the late 1880's so it is dryland farming now. Lately, what with all the Okies wandering around squatting land prices have dipped. You could buy thirteen thousand acres for what you have in Republic right now and that counts the loss you will take selling out. Take the remainder of your money and build a beginning studio, a few sound stages, basic administration buildings and start a back lot. Lay out a town designed for filming and populate it with your extras. Money is thin Nikki, very thin. You offer an extra a small home with his lifetime contract and he or she will leap at it. Incorporate into a town, make your own laws and you’re set. A Studio needs a police force, fire department and hospital anyway, expanding it to your town and your towns taxes pay for everything. Coal mines have been doing this for years after all, but I seriously advise not getting into the script business.”

“Script business?” Nikki asked, thinking that the vixen was talking about writing. “Why not? We have to have scripts.”

Charlene laughed, continuing to ignore the passing mens comments, many rather crude as they were military men. “Money Nikki. In the east the coal mines have their own towns, their own stores. Men are paid in Company Script, completely useless outside of the mining town. I think it is because that keeps the miners from walking away, their money is worthless outside the company store and the company can charge what they want to, bleeding their workers dry. So what is the occasional actor, stuntman, carpenter and such leave, there are thousands like them looking for work.”

“Buy buying that much land... An acre is how much” Nikki asked.

Charlene pulled a little book out of her skirt pocket, flipping through its pages. “One six hundred and fortieth of a square mile, so you buy 640 acres you own a square mile of land” the vixen answered. 43,560 square feet, a square acre is um... 208 feet 9 inches on a side. So you buy say uh.. Twenty plus square miles of land. That will keep the following studios like Mammoth or DAKKA away from your front door.”

Nikki fell silent, thinking over what her companion was telling her. It wasn’t what had been planned, what had been planned was to take over an existing studio and revamp it. Unfortunately the politics involved in Hollywood was making that very difficult. “How long to become a viable studio” the mare abruptly asked.

“Don’t expect to make a profit the first three years” Charlene answered calmly. “Take your financing from Spontoon and Rain Island, stay away from the New York money men. Mr. Langly has over a thousand scripts ‘on spec’, offer him five dollars a script for one’s I’ll give you a list of. He will counter with twenty-five. Meet around eight dollars and he will take it. That is a hundred scripts for eight hundred dollars, a hell of a lot less than what Republic has in them but that kind of money Langly and Yade will see as free, they are never going to use them and Langly has already written them off or I wouldn’t list them.”

Nikki was a bit overwhelmed at the moment. “And how are we going to pay for all this? You are talkin at least a million.”

“We talk to the three who have already bailed out of Republic” Charlene answered. “We offer them fifteen percent each, straight up preferred stock and Board seats. That puts fifty-five percent of the controlling stock in your hands and as these men need money you buy them out a little at a time. By ‘46 Spontoon will own the studio outright. Don’t worry about them backstabbing you, I found someone who has the goods on all three plus Haster. We support Haster’s mission to murder Republic at the same time by pulling our money out. We fail, you sell me and get some of your money back.”

Nikki shook her head, this wasn’t the kind of business she was used to. This was knife fighting in the dark with a mask over your ears and eyes. “Deal” she finally decided. “Now lets see this land you are so proud of.”