Post by Lesli on Nov 11, 2011 22:24:39 GMT -8
RUBY JUNE WIXOM
Ruby June Wixom was born in the hot summer of 1907. Ruby June was, through and through, a product of the indolent 20’s. She used to be a flapper, with short hair and skirts that revealed entirely too much leg. Miss Wixom was the first of her friends to bob her hair; her short, copper curls were soignée and painstakingly manicured. She made it look easy. Ruby June turned her nose up at the thought of marriage. She had a string of louche (albeit rich) boyfriends, but they all knew marriage was out of the question. “This is a new era,” she once said with a cigarette between her fingers, “and a new era calls for a new breed of woman.”
She was an actress, after all.
She was prettier than she was smart. Ruby June supposed that was why her charming face found its way into movie houses across the nation. Still, she was good at her job. Miss Wixom’s clear, porcelain skin captured the light perfectly, and her green eyes were sultry and expressive. She had a heart shaped face with a small, pointed chin. That was fashionable at the time, just as her arched eyes which were painstakingly plucked to perfection were.
Ruby June was in her first film in 1926. Then, she epitomized the young and care-free youth. She was a favorite at the picture shows. Her name on a poster was a sure guarantee to draw crowds. Miss Wixom gained a fortune for herself, and spent it going to parties, drinking, and, like most other socialites, investing it in stocks.
It was a game, for Ruby June and the rest of the speculators. The ladies would wear their knee length evening dresses with dainty cigarettes in their gloved hands while the men smoked cigars and kept flasks of hard liquor in their suit pockets. They would all stand over the tickertape and debate over whether it was better to invest in Standard China or Nalco. Eventually, they would all decide to invest in both. They had the money. What else would you do with it?
She can still remember the fateful day in October of 1929 like it was just last week. Ruby June, and the rest of city’s population, rushed to the shareshouse only to find that it was too late. Their money was gone. It was all over.
In her anger Ruby June pulled out a chunk of her copper hair and threw a stiletto at her apartment wall, making a hole. Nearly all of her saving were lost. She still had her reputation of being Ruby June Wixom, the dashingly carefree girl of the twenties, but had no money to back it up. Furthermore, producers were hesitant to produce any more films, leaving Ruby June unemployed.
In desperation, Miss Wixom made the move from Hollywood to New York, to try her hand at Broadway. Perhaps she would have more luck on the other side of the country.
She was still the famous Ruby June. That hadn't changed. People loved her before and, by golly, she was determined to keep it that way. With what money she had that wasn’t in her bank or invested, Ruby June rented a small apartment in the nice part of town, and set out to meet desperate people like herself, who had an entire fortune run between their fingertips in the space of a week. Not the old-money folk—they never liked her—but those who were given a taste of what it was like to be truly wealthy. She knew she would make friends there, even if she was unable to dress or act as extravagantly as she had before. Ruby June was charismatic in her naive little way. A sweet smile, a fluttering of her long eyelashes, and a mumbling of nonsense was all she needed to do to win affection. Besides, there was little more than fluff between her pretty ears. Men liked that in her, especially if she had a sip or two of rouge.