Free David Niven by Michael Munn

Now Spence was a man of charm and wit and a good friend if he liked you, but when he was drunk he could be a dangerous enemy.
    Unfortunately he didn’t like me, not at first, so we weren’t going to be good friends in a hurry. One evening he became quite drunk and was convinced I was flirting with Loretta – which I probably was. I’m a terrible flirt. I see a pretty girl and away I go, even if I don’t intend to actually follow it up.
    He’d come over to collect her from her house, and she was with me in the house by the pool where I lived with all my worldly belongings which I carted from England to Canada to New York and finally to Hollywood. And they had grown on the way because you pick so much up, like presents from friends and odd souvenirs you simply can’t resist. Among these souvenirs was a war lance I’d been given in New York by an Indian who was one of the jockeys in our indoor horse racing business.
    Spence didn’t like the way we were talking and laughing, or how she would hold my hand or pat it. I think I was in love with her, and when her eyes locked onto mine it was impossible for me to look away. Well, Spence had put away a few and although not blindly drunk, he was past the point of being polite. He picked up the lance and came at me with it. I ran outside with him in hot pursuit, and Loretta was yelling at him to stop being so damn silly. I tried to stand my ground for only a second, and as he came charging at me with the lance aimed right at me, I side stepped and he ran straight into the pool.
    He disappeared under the surface. Loretta and I got on our hands and knees and peered into the water where we could see him but he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to come up for air. ‘Maybe he’s drowned,’ I said.
    Loretta said, ‘Do something.’
    I said, ‘Like what?’
    She said, ‘Jump in and save him.’
    I said, ‘It might have slipped your mind but he was trying to kill me.’
    She said, ‘You can’t just let him drown.’
    I said, ‘Oh, very well,’ and I took off my shoes and was about to take off my trousers when he gently bobbed to the surface like a buoy, blinked several times and then blew out a spout of water from his mouth and began laughing.
    Of course, Loretta was very relieved, and I was delighted I didn’t have to dive in after him as I was convinced he would just try and pull me under with him and we’d both drown. He climbed out of the pool and also managed to retrieve the lance, and when he stood up, he held it out to me and said, ‘This is yours, I believe. You really must be more careful with that, it could hurt someone.’
    After that I avoided being alone with Loretta for a long time in case he came back. But I needn’t have worried. Their affair didn’t last long, and the next year she was involved with Clark Gable.
    Now Gable was the most handsome man in Hollywood, and so I knew I had no chance against him, and so I gave up on Loretta. Fortunately there were hundreds of young starlets and would be starlets around and I was never at a loss for female company.
    In 1979 I told David I was going to be speaking to Loretta, primarily for a tribute I was writing about John Wayne who had just died, and he said, ‘Give her all my love,’ so I did, to which she replied, ‘David’s one of my oldest and dearest friends. I knew him when he first came out to Hollywood. He came to stay with me and my family. I think he was rather overwhelmed by it all. He was like a little boy with eyes like saucers.’
    â€˜Because of the girls?’ I asked.
    â€˜Oh yes, them too, but I mean the sights and sounds of Hollywood. It was a wonderful place back then, like a small community. Not sprawling and overgrown and overcrowded like it is today. The air was clean, the sun was warm and shone virtually all day, every day, and he thought it was like a playground.’
    When