Sidney Sheldon - The Other Side of Me

It took five days to get to Sacramento, and when we arrived I said goodbye to Vera and Carmel, and spent the night in a cheap hotel. Early the following morning I took a bus to San Francisco, where I changed to another bus, to Los Angeles.

I arrived in Los Angeles with one suitcase and fifty dollars in my pocket. I bought a copy of the Los Angeles Times at the bus station and turned to the want ads to look for rooms to rent.

The one that instantly appealed to me was an ad for a boarding house that had rooms for four-fifty a week, breakfast included. It was in the Hollywood area, a few blocks from the famed Sunset Boulevard.

It turned out to be a charming, old-fashioned house in a lovely residential area on a quiet street, at 1928 Carmen Street.

When I rang the doorbell, the door was opened by a small, pleasant-faced woman who appeared to be in her forties.

‘Hello. Can I help you?’

‘Yes. My name is Sidney Sheldon. I’m looking for a place to stay for a few days.’

‘I’m Grace Seidel. Come in.’

I picked up my suitcase and walked into the hall. The house had obviously been converted from a sprawling family residence to a boarding house. There was a large living room, a dining room, a breakfast room, and a kitchen. There were twelve bedrooms, most of them occupied, and four communal bathrooms.

I said, ‘I understand that the rent is four-fifty a week, and that includes breakfast.’

Grace Seidel contemplated my rumpled suit and my worn shirt, and said, ‘If you press me, I could make it four dollars a week.’

I looked at her and desperately wanted to say, ‘I’ll pay the four-fifty.’ But the little money I had left was not going to last very long. I swallowed my pride and said, ‘I’m pressing.’

She gave me a warm smile. ‘That’s fine. I’ll show you to your room.’

The room was small but neat and attractively furnished, and I was very pleased with it.

I turned to Grace. ‘This is great,’ I said.

‘Good. I’ll give you a key to the front door. One of our rules is that you’re not allowed to bring any women in here.’

‘No problem,’ I said.

‘Let me introduce you to some of the other boarders.’

She took me into the living room where several of the boarders were gathered. I met four writers, a prop man, three actors, a director, and a singer. As time went on, I learned that they were all wannabes, unemployed, pursuing wonderful dreams that would never come true.

Gracie had a well-mannered twelve-year-old son, Billy. His dream was to become a fireman. It was probably the only dream in the boarding house that would come true.

I phoned Natalie and Otto to tell them that I had arrived safely.

‘Remember,’ Otto said, ‘if you don’t find a job in three weeks, we want you back here.’

No problem .

That night, Gracie’s boarders sat around the large living room, telling their war stories.

‘This is a tough business, Sheldon. Every studio has a gate and inside the gate the producers are screaming for talent. They’re yelling that they desperately need actors and directors and writers. But if you’re standing outside the gate, they won’t even let you in. The gates are closed to outsiders.’

Maybe , I thought. But every day someone manages to get through .

I learned that there was no Hollywood, as I had imagined it. Columbia Pictures, Paramount, and RKO were located in Hollywood, but Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Selznick International Studios were in Culver City. Universal Studios was in Universal City, Disney Studios was in Silverlake, Twentieth Century-Fox was in Century City, and Republic Studios was in Studio City.

Grace had thoughtfully subscribed to Variety , the show business trade paper, and it was left in the living room like a bible for all of us to look at, to see what jobs were available and which pictures were being produced. I picked it up and looked at the date. I had twenty-one days to find a job, and the clock was running. I knew that somehow I had to find a way to get through those studio gates.

The following morning, while we were having breakfast, the telephone rang. Answering the telephone was almost an Olympic event. Everyone raced to be the first to pick it up because—since none of us could afford any kind of social life—the phone call had to be about a job.

The actor who picked up the phone listened a moment, turned to Grace and said, ‘It’s for you.’

There were sighs of disappointment. Each boarder had hoped that it was a job for him. That phone was the lifeline to their futures.

I bought a tourist’s guide to Los Angeles, and since Columbia Pictures was the closest to Gracie’s boarding house I decided to start there. The studio was on Gower Street, just off Sunset. There was no gate in front of Columbia.

I walked in the front door. An elderly guard was seated behind a desk, working on a report. He looked up as I came in.

‘Can I help you?’

‘Yes,’ I said confidently. ‘My name is Sidney Sheldon. I want to be a writer. Who do I see?’

He studied me a moment. ‘Do you have an appointment?’

‘No, but—’

‘Then you don’t see anybody.’

‘There must be someone I—’

‘Not without an appointment,’ he said firmly. He went back to his report.

Apparently the studio did not need a gate.

I spent the next two weeks making the rounds of all the studios. Unlike New York, Los Angeles was widely spread out. It was not a city for walking. Streetcars ran down the center of Santa Monica Boulevard and buses were on all the main streets. I soon became familiar with their routes and schedules.

While every studio looked different, the guards were all the same. In fact, I began to feel that they were all the same man.

I want to be a writer .

Who do I see?

Do you have an appointment?

No.

You don’t see anybody .

Hollywood was a cabaret, and I was hungry. But I was outside looking in, and all the doors were locked.

I was running out of my short supply of funds, but worse than that, I was running out of time.

When I was not haunting the studios, I was in my room, working on stories on my old battered portable typewriter.

One day, Gracie made an unwelcome announcement. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘but from now on there will be no more breakfasts.’

No one had to ask why. Most of us were behind in our rent and she could no longer afford to keep carrying us.

I woke up the next morning, starving and broke. I had no money for breakfast. I was trying to work on a story, but could not concentrate. I was too hungry. Finally, I gave up. I went into the kitchen. Gracie was there, cleaning the stove.

She saw me and turned around. ‘Yes, Sidney?’

I was stammering. ‘Gracie, I—I know the new rule about—about no breakfast, but I was wondering if—if I could just have a bite to eat this morning. I’m sure that in the next few days—’

She looked at me and said, sharply, ‘Why don’t you go back to your room?’

I felt crushed. I walked back to my room and sat in front of my typewriter, humiliated that I had embarrassed both of us. I tried to go back to the story, but it was no use. All I could think of was that I was hungry and broke and desperate.

Fifteen minutes later there was a knock at the door. I walked over and opened it. Gracie stood there, holding a tray, and on it was a large glass of orange juice, a steaming pot of coffee, and a plate of bacon and eggs with toast. ‘Eat it while it’s hot,’ she said.

That may have been the best meal I ever had. Certainly the most memorable.

When I returned to the boarding house one afternoon, after another futile day making the rounds of the studios, there was a letter from Otto. In it was a bus ticket to Chicago. It was the most depressing piece of paper I had ever seen. His note read: We will expect you home next week. Love, Dad .