Relieve your mind now of the images you have of this person. When I met her, she was a simple, eager young woman who rode a bike to the classes she was taking, a decent-hearted kid whom Hollywood brought down, legs parted. She had a thin skin and a soul that hungered for acceptance by people she might look up to. Like many girls out of that kind of experience, she sought her self-respect through the men she was able to attract. Johnny Hyde had been, at least for the time, perfect protection.

People talk of the technique of seduction as if it’s an art. In my experience it consisted of listening, paying attention, affording true sympathy, and letting some time pass; that is to say, being human and not pressing. All young actresses in that time and place were thought of as prey, to be overwhelmed and topped by the male. A genuine interest, which I did have, would produce results. I’m still surprised at how quickly women will empty the most intimate secrets of their lives into a sympathetic ear. I was good at listening, and the stories she told me, with neither malice nor regret, were amazing.

She’d married Jim, her first husband, so that she wouldn’t have to go back to the orphanage where she’d been put after the dissolution of her parents’ home. She was sixteen. She didn’t like “anything Jim did to me—except when he kissed me here” (she touched her breasts). After he was finished, Jim would fall asleep, leaving her awake and unsatisfied. She remembered taking long walks at night along the tracks where they lived in Sawtelle. A lover found her available. Fred was a musician, scrawny but able in love. She came as many as three times with him in one go. He was vulgar and coarse and scornful with her. He said she was no good for anything except fucking. He found her dress “cheap.” He told her her breasts were too big. He didn’t like to sleep in the same bed with her. He thought her beneath conversation, said she was stupid and only good for one thing, which he didn’t regard too highly. He boasted that he never had to make a pass at a woman—they all came after him.