Myra-Breckinridge-Gore-Vidal

allowing any agents or professional people to come to theJune exercises but of course if I really kept them away I'dgo out of business, so we all have to suffer through the JuneLetdown which is immediately followed by the Buck LonerJuly Spectacular which is a series of awards based closelyon the actual Academy Awards, with many Oscars (orBucks as the kids call them) to be given out by some reallifecelebrity on the order of Bobby Darin and that, let metell you, sure as hell makes up for June." "Yes, but sooneror later they will have to go out into the world..." "Why?" Thequestion was straightforward. "As long as they scrounge upenough money to pay the tuition they can stay here for life.Look at Irving Amadeus. He came here fourteen years agoas a student to become a singing star on the order of PaulRobeson and he is with us still, on the staff now as aninvaluable teacher with over three hundred recordings to hiscredit. If that isn't as good as being a real star I don't knowwhat is!" This curiously hateful philosophy has made BuckLoner rich. But then, to be honest, all that I care about at themoment is my share of his wealth. That and MaryAnn'scareer which she does not take seriously. "Only one star inthe family," she keeps quoting Rusty. To which I invariablyreply, "You're the star. He's the garage mechanic." I havenow got Mary-Ann to the point where she will at leastaudition for an agent before June, and that means I muststart making the rounds myself, trying to find the bestperson to handle her. Although her voice has a classic tonelike Jeanette MacDonald (and so of no use in the currentmarket), she also has a second more jazzy voice not unlike