But McAllister didn't know where Jonas was, either.
As David put down the telephone, a faint feeling of frustration ran through him.
It was like working in a vacuum.
Everywhere you turned, there was nothing. All you did was try and make deals. Deals. Piled one on top of the other like a pyramid that had no end. You traded with Fox, Loew's, RKO, Paramount, Warner. You played their theaters, they played yours. All you could do was stand on one foot, then on the other.
He wondered why Jonas took that attitude toward them. He wasn't like that with his other interests.
Cord Aircraft was rapidly becoming one of the giants of the industry. Intercontinental Airlines was already the largest commercial line in the country. And Cord Explosives and Cord Plastics were successfully competing against Du Pont.
But when it came to the picture company, they were just keeping alive.
Sooner or later, Jonas would have to face up to it. Either he wanted to stay in this business or he'd have to get out.
You had to keep pushing forward. That was the dynamics of action in the picture business.
If you stopped pushing, you were dead.
And David had done all the pushing he could on his own.
He'd proved that the company could be kept alive.
But if they were ever going to make it for real, they'd have to come up with something really big.
Deals or pictures – he didn't care which.
Actually, he preferred deals.
They were safer and much less risky than big-budget pictures.
Disney, Goldwyn and Bonner were all looking for new distribution outlets.
And they all came up with big pictures, which grossed big and, best of all, were completely financed by themselves.
He was still waiting for replies to the feelers he'd put out to Goldwyn and Disney.
He'd already had one meeting with Maurice Bonner.
But the approval for any such deal had to come from Jonas. It could come from no one else. Bonner wanted the same kind of setup that Hal Wallis had at Warner's, or Zanuck had over at Twentieth Century-Fox – over-all executive supervision of the program, personal production of his own four major projects each year, stock and options in the company. It was a stiff price to pay but that was what you paid if you wanted the best. Skouras hadn't hesitated when he wanted Zanuck. One man like that could add twenty million to your gross. It was the difference between existing and reaching for the brass ring. But meanwhile, where was Jonas? Jonas held the one key that could unlock the golden door.
"There's a Mr. Irving Schwartz calling," his secretary said on the intercom.
David frowned. "What does he want?
I don't know any Irving Schwartz."
"He says he knows you, Mr. Woolf. He told me to say Needlenose."
"Needlenose!" David exclaimed. He laughed. "Why didn't he say so the first time?
Put him on." The switch clicked as the girl transferred the call. "Needlenose!" David said. "How the hell are you?"
Needlenose laughed softly.
"O.K. And you, Davy?"
"Fine. I've been working like a dog, though."
"I know," Needlenose said. "I been hearin' lots of good things about you.
Makes a guy feel good when he sees one of his friends from the old neighborhood make it big."
"Not so big.
It's still nothing but a job."
This was beginning to sound like a touch.
He figured rapidly how much old friends were worth. Fifty or a hundred? "It's an important job, though." "Enough about me," David said, eager to change the subject. "What about you?
What are you doing out here?"
"I'm doin' O.K. I'm livin' out here now.
I got a house up in Coldwater Canyon."
David almost whistled.
His old friend was doing all right.
Houses up there started at seventy-five grand.
At least it wasn't a touch. "That's great," he said. "But it's a hell of a long way from Rivington Street."
"It sure is.
I’d like to see you, Davy boy."
"I’d like to see you, too," David said. "But I’m so god-damned tied up here."
Needlenose's voice was still quiet, but insistent. "I know you are, Davy," he said. "If I didn't think it was important, I wouldn't bother you."
David thought for a moment. Now that it wasn't a touch, what could it be that was so important?
"Tell you what," he said. "Why don't you come out to the studio?
We can have lunch here, then I'll show you around."