I Shudder by Paul Rudnick

Author:Paul Rudnick [Rudnick, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
Published: 2009-09-15T07:00:00+00:00

I Hit Hamlet

The ad in the Times real estate listings said “medieval duplex,” which was tantalizing, unless “medieval” referred to the plumbing. I was apartment hunting, so I arranged to meet the broker at a brownstone just off Washington Square. The apartment was four steep flights up, and the walls of the final landing were a rough stucco, with an oddly shaped, high niche, for a candle or a skull, just outside a rounded, rough-hewn door with elaborate ornamental hinges.

The apartment consisted of the full, narrow top floor, and I was smitten. The theatrical plasterwork continued throughout, and there was a bay window with a window seat, flanked by additional portholes of thick, leaded, Mediterranean blue stained glass, all overlooking the leafy corner of Washington Square Park where fanatics play chess. There was a micro-kitchen, one tiny closet, and a cramped, 1970s-vintage bathroom, but none of this mattered, thanks to a vaulted skylight, a fireplace, assorted archways, and a hidden winding staircase. The stairs led to the roof, where I found a deck, with a six-foot-high, sun-bleached oak ship’s wheel, leaning against the outer wall of a hobbit-scale, one-room cottage, with a beamed ceiling. The broker was delightfully old-school and chatty, and she mentioned that the apartment had once been the home of John Barrymore.

Here’s how long ago this was: I didn’t fearfully snap up the place on contact but told the broker that I’d phone her the next morning. That night, I called my agent, Helen Merrill, and told her about the apartment. She remarked, in her German accent, “Perhaps you vill find my hairpins.” It seemed that Helen, thirty years earlier, had conducted an adulterous affair on the premises with Barrymore’s son-in-law, an erstwhile actor married to the troubled Diana Barrymore, whose mother was a poetess aptly named Michael Strange. Helen recalled the apartment, if not the son-in-law, in fond detail, and the karma became overwhelming. The next day I met with Winston Kulok, the charming and affable owner of the town house, who occupied the first two floors with his family, and the lease on the Barrymore place was mine.

As I settled in, I researched my new home. Barrymore had taken up residence in 1917, just before he began performing his legendary Hamlet uptown. His film career at that point was limited to locally shot silent movies, including an early take on Moby-Dick, which may have been the source of the ship’s wheel. Barrymore had remodeled the apartment as a gothic retreat, christening it the Alchemist’s Corner. He had installed all the false beams, monastery-inspired ironwork, and stained glass, which made his lair resemble a stage set for an Agatha Christie whodunit in summer stock. The rooftop had been his masterpiece, and had at one time included a garden, with cedar trees, a slate walkway, and a reflecting pool. Tons of soil had to be hoisted up by pulley, and eventually caused a collapse into the rooms below. Of Barrymore’s vision, only the cottage remained; he’d likened it to a roost overlooking the spires of Paris.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.