B00C4I7LJE EBOK Read Online Free Page B

is the big time!
    It was nearly five o’clock by the time we left the studio, and I was glad that Phyllis required only one day of shooting. Between trying to figure out what was going on and staying out of everybody’s way, I was exhausted, although I hadn’t done a lick of work. I did have several more pages filled with “Phyllis Diller,” though. Phyllis glanced at them and told me I was ready to start signing things.
    The next day, Maria and I packed for the trip to Pittsburgh. “Here’s the briefcase. I put in a new shorthand notebook, pens, the contract for the club, Phyllis’s address book, autographed pictures, and Phyllis Diller postcards.” It seemed excessive to me, but what did I know?
    “On this side,” Maria continued, “is the expanded schedule. It lists all the interviews, contact numbers, rehearsal and show times. Now let me show you the office bag.” I couldn’t imagine we’d need anything more, but apparently we did.
    Maria had packed the office bag with staplers and staple removers, Scotch tape, boxes of paper clips, dozens of pens in different colors, scratch pads, pencils, a pencil sharpener, an extra ribbon for my typewriter (“just in case,” she said), several large, yellow legal pads, and anything else necessary to set up an instant office any place on the planet. It also had two dozen of Phyllis’s new book, Housekeeping Hints .
    “The office bag you can check,” Maria told me.
    Well, thank heaven for that. In addition to the briefcase and my purse, I would also have to carry my electric portable typewriter. I felt like a porter. Is this the glamour Mr. B talked about?
    Maria handed me the petty-cash purse. Just then Karen came up from the wardrobe room. “Well, we got the costumes done,” she said.
    “What were you doing with the costumes?”
    “Accessorizing.”
    “Like how?”
    “You know, picking out the gloves, the boots, the headdress that goes with each dress.”
    I hadn’t thought about it, but of course there would be different gloves and shoes for every costume. Finding and choosing just the right pair of gloves or headdress would take time. No wonder Karen was so fussy about everything being in its proper place.
    Eyeing the petty-cash purse she said, “We need to go to the bank and get some money. Two hundred should do it. Here, write a check.”
    “Why do we need two hundred dollars?” I asked.
    “Money for tips, taxis, and if Phyllis wants us to buy something.”
    I wrote a check for $200, signed Phyllis’s name, and Karen took me to the local bank where Phyllis had her account. Karen introduced me to the tellers and the vice president. No one questioned the signature on the check.
    Back at the house I made last-minute calls to the limousine service in Los Angeles confirming the limo and “baggage wagon” for 7:45 A.M. Phyllis’s travel agent called to confirm the limo at the airport in Pittsburgh. He also said a passenger service representative from the airline would be at the airports in L.A. and Pittsburgh, and assured me he’d made hotel reservations for Karen and me. Phyllis and Warde were staying in an apartment that Phyllis owned.
    The next morning my dad drove me to the house so I wouldn’t have to leave my car parked in Phyllis’s driveway while we were away. Until I had a steady job and income, I did not want to start looking for my own place. My parents and I had a good relationship, and after seeing me only once in those nearly five years I’d been overseas, they were delighted to have me at home. We all knew it was temporary, but for the time being it was pretty comfortable. I sure didn’t expect my father to drive me to Phyllis’s every time we went out of town, but he liked to know where I would be working. Even though I was twenty-eight years old, I was still his “little girl.”
    When we arrived, Karen was stacking luggage on the front porch. “Are you early, or am I late?” I asked as I jumped out of the car.
    “Early. Good