THE STORY SO FAR
It’s 1928, and newly graduated speech teacher Lucia Frizzelli is hired by Dazzle Studios to help movie star Babs Tremayne overcome a stutter that’s stopping her from appearing in a ‘talkie’ with husband Jake. The studio has told the press Babs has ‘temporarily stepped back’ from roles but, in reality, Dazzle is desperate for a hit starring ‘the talking Tremaynes’. Lucia is a fan of Babs, whom she first saw as a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway. Dazzle’s offer means Lucia has to leave San Francisco and her beau, jazz trumpeter Alfredo. The studio insists she keep her ‘mission’ a secret – plus she only has five weeks to prepare Babs for a new role. Lucia arrives at the Tremaynes’ Beverly Hills mansion to discover Jake delayed telling Babs about hiring Lucia until the last minute. Now she has locked herself in her room and is demanding Lucia be sent back to San Francisco.
Lucia stared at Jake aghast, temporarily forgetting she was in awe of him.
‘I’m real sorry,’ he repeated, then frowned. ‘Unless… you could talk her round?’
‘Me? How would I do that?’
‘Go to her suite and try. Upstairs, first on the left.’
‘You mean, right now?’
‘Gotta be worth a go,’ he muttered, half to himself, then gave Lucia a rueful smile. ‘One last tilt before you head back, Miss Frizzelli. What do you think?’
Lucia thought of returning to face Miss Golding at the School of Speech and admit her failure. ‘I could try.’
