“But Reginald, darling, it is time I must leave … I shall always feel a strong attachment to you al. But for me, it has been simply midsummer madness!”
Payne sat, enraptured, as Rosalind Russell got stuck on the back of Coral Browne’s costume. The play-within-the-movie had everyone in the audience laughing (both on-screen and at the Pantages) .. Payne most of all. He’d saved up the money for weeks to come in from Pasadena on the trolley.
Ever since reading Patrick Dennis’s madcap novel and hearing all about Rosalind Russell’s Broadway triumph, he’d been waiting for the Warner Brothers Cinerama masterpiece. And here it was, with the rhinestones and martinis all the way. Payne had sat wide-eyed, his shoulders not even resting on the seat, ever since Auntie Mame came trotting down the stairs and shook the monkey’s hand.
After the last fade-out when Auntie Mame heads off to India with Patrick’s son Michael, Payne headed out of the theater.
“Excuse me,” a young man with an attractive dimple said to Payne. “I couldn’t help but notice your excitement. What did you think of Roz?”
“The best thing she’s done since ‘The Women.’ Simply fabulous, darling, simply fabulous!”
“Spoken just like Auntie Mame!” the other man said. Payne couldn’t help but notice the violet eyes, just like Elizabeth Taylor’s. But he looked more like a cross between Monty Clift and Rock Hudson. “Would you care to walk over to Johnny Rocket’s?”
“I’m so sorry, I have to catch the return to Pasadena,” Payne said. But Auntie Mame was the treasure that kept on giving. “On the other hand, I have plenty of time.”
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