Free Hold the Roses by Rose Marie Page A

you, Mr. Abbot, and thank you for your
generous offer. You have no idea how much this means to me, But I'm
going to do the new Milton Berle show, Spring in Brazil.
    He said, "Oh! I'm too late. Well, if you change your mind, let me
know. One show is called Billion Dollar Baby and the other is Christopher
Columbus with Willie Howard."
    Mitzi Green ended up doing Billion Dollar Baby. It was a two-year
smash. The Chris Columbus show never saw the light of day.
    When the Capitol run was over, I started rehearsals for Spring in
Brazil with Milton Berle. Phil Rapp, who wrote most of the Danny Kaye
movies, wrote the script, and Robert Wright and Chet Forrest wrote the
lyrics and music. They had just won awards for Song ofNorway. Lee Schubert
and Monte Prosner were the producers. How could it go wrong? Milton
did a show called The Ziegfeld Follies. It was just all right, but he kept it
going for two years.

    How could it go wrong? Easy. Milton and I got along great. He almost talked in shorthand to me because he knew I knew what he meant.
He taught me so much! Things were going well. Bobby came to rehearsals
a lot, he met Berle and the two of them hit it off.
    By now my father knew something was up with Bobby. Our names
were in the columns as a new couple. You know, "We hear wedding bells,"
and so on. I knew this was bothering my father.
    One night Bobby picked me up after rehearsal. I called home and
told my mother that Bobby and I were going to dinner and maybe a movie,
so I would be a little late.
    She asked, "Is Bobby going to bring you home?"
    I said, "Yes, we'll take the Orange/Black bus and he will walk me to
the house." (It was only about two blocks away from the bus stop.)
    We had dinner, saw a movie; by the time we were finished, it was
11:30. I knew we'd never get home at midnight. Sure enough, by the time
we got off the bus, it was 12:15. We raced up the block. I knocked on the
door.
    My father answered and I said good-bye to Bobby as I ran into the
house. My father started in: "Is this the big romance? What the hell is
going on? It's 12:20-only whores come home at that time. Where were
you?" Whack! He slapped me right across the face.
    I said, "I called mother and told her we'd be a little late."
    "Who is this son of a bitch you're going out with? A musician who's
all doped up?" Whack! I started screaming.
    My brother came down the stairs and grabbed my father's hands. He
said, "Cut it out, Dad, what's the matter with you?" I was running around
the kitchen table and crying.
    My father said, "You embarrassed me in front of the office. They
made fun of the fact that you had a guy and what was I going to do when
you leave. I'd have to get a job. What kind of shit is that?"
    I tried talking to him, but it was impossible. My brother was holding
on to him and I just ran up to my room. My mother was standing up
there, scared stiff. I just looked at her and locked the door. Well, the yelling
and screaming continued between my mother and father. My brother was
trying to stop everything. It was quite a night.
    The next day, I got up early and went into the city. I called Bobby
and met him at Uncle Joe's. We went out for a bite to eat, and I told him
everything that happened the night before.

    He said, "I heard it all-from a block away. I started to walk up the
hill to come back and beat the shit out of your father, but then everything
got quiet. I didn't want to start anything again, so I took the bus and went
back to Schrib's. I'm sorry, honey. I didn't know what to do."
    I told Bobby, "It's better that you left, because he would have started
all over again. I'm going to talk to my mother tonight and explain everything, that as soon as you get out of the army, we're going to get married
and go to California. What can they do?"
    He said, "I know your mother understands, but your father is another story."
    I said, "Don't worry, I'll straighten it out."
    Little did I know I could never convince