Santa Monica, California

April 1962

“Good evening,” Bob Hope said, “and welcome to Judgment at Santa Monica.” He wore a white tie and tails and received a steady stream of polite laughter.

Sitting on the aisle in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in a rented tux, Charlie wondered whether the laughs were real or just a sign of relief that the interminable opening—national anthem, orchestral overtures, and a stem-winder by the chairman of the Academy—had ended. Charlie fidgeted.

“Yes,” Hope said, “here we are at Santa Monica for the real West Side Story.” More rote ha-has.

Margaret, in an aqua dress she’d borrowed from Evans, allowed herself a moment to stargaze. Having already said hello to Sinatra, Martin, Davis, and Lawford, who had seats in the first few rows, she spotted Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Warren Beatty and his girlfriend, Natalie Wood, Audrey Hepburn…

“In the lobby before the show everyone was shaking hands and smiling,” Hope continued. “And in a few minutes the suspense will be over, we’ll all know who to hate.”

Ha-ha-ha-ha. Margaret pushed out an obviously fake laugh, amusing Charlie, who adored her occasional displays of discreet subversiveness. He knew that in a different situation, one less anxious, Margaret might commit to this fake laugh for the entire Hope routine just to please Charlie (and fend off her own boredom). Hope had quickly descended into tiresome inside jokes about studio bosses and pictures in perpetual turnaround and complaints about not being nominated for an award for his first feature film, The Big Broadcast of 1938.

“There’s Fontaine,” Margaret noted, back to business, pointing to the nattily dressed flack as he strode purposefully from the front of the auditorium toward them.

Apparently the man who had reached out to Fontaine that morning had also told him to be by his office phone at five p.m. to be notified on how the quid pro quo would go down. Presumably, Fontaine was about to share that information.

When Fontaine had told them that the handoff of the secret file in exchange for Sheryl Ann would take place at the Oscars, Charlie and Margaret were stunned. But Fontaine—who seemed to have a vague idea of what was going on—argued it made a certain kind of sense. Crowds and cameras could guarantee a layer of security.