duce in a forthcoming operetta. Little Harry Hayes, the polysyllabic lyric writer, whose contagious and sometimes salacious verses were epidemic in the smarter salons of New York and London, bounced in to recite lines he had just written for a new edition of a Cochran revue.
The success of '"Sweeter Than Sweet" caused enterprising press agents to invite the cast to after-theatre parties at resorts in Greenwich Village, on Broadway, and in Harlem. On such occasions, Howard would be the star guest, who, because of his fame was required to play tunes of his own composition.
On Broadway near Fifty-third Street, Derek Bland operated the Club Gayety. Derek was an Icelandic adventurer who had arrived on Broadway ten years before, after a youth spent in Labrador whalers, Brazilian coffee freighters, in American newspaper city rooms and in one or two unimportant jails. He loved women. After a few seasons as press agent for a circuit of vaudeville theatres, his passion for delicately fashioned, extremely young girls, landed him a job as entrepreneur of a Broadway night resort. He undressed his ingenues to the point where decency drifted into shadow and then paraded them before after-theatre amusement seekers.
One night he entertained the "Sweeter Than Sweet" company. Derek presented his non-paying guests of the company to his paying patrons with barbed wisecracks. He dubbed Ken the "sky-rocketing male Pavlowa" and Howard, who presided at the head of a long table, the "American Noel Coward."
Little "Ga-ga" Myra Malloy sat at Ken's elbow drinking gin and ginger ale, giggling with shimmering, ticklish in-
