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Billy lived in a Wilshire mid-rise near Westwood. His apartment on the 12 F floor opened onto the south and the view beyond, the city. On the west interior wall away from the afternoon sun were displayed his 19th Century Impressionists, leaving no wall space unused. His favorite was in the dimmed TV room adjacent, it was a 5'x7' Fernando Botero. He said it would not be in the forthcoming auction. As I recall it was Botero bloated figures somewhat drunk with color. He had placed the Eames chaise lounge in the angled position to best view the lit image. He himself did not sit in this chair but offered it to me instead. He said, "I don't like it much, even though it had been designed for me." He and Charles Eames had been bunk mates on a film project and Charles was familiar with his back ailment as far as back as that. On another occasion, I had to use the guest bath and he said that it was down the hall. As I search for the door, I noticed angled along the floor and the baseboard, 3 framed Egon Schiele nudes, watercolors. There was so much but so little wall. The Schieles reminded me of 1959 when I had saved $4000. This was an enormous amount of money then. To give some relative sense of comparison, a 356-C sunroof Porsche then was $3250 US in Hambourg. The current custom models are now about $100,000. More than anything else, I wanted a Schiele. I had entree to the Albertina in Vienna, courtesy of Jim Elliot, then a Curator of the L.A. County Museum. I had seen the arc of his graphics in progression. They introduced me to a dealer. I held his watercolor Schiele in my hands. But the price was $1000 more. I didn't have it. Some time later I bought the Porsche. We owned that car for 17 years until it was stolen from our Appian Way house.

In my Toyota pick-up truck, on our way to his furniture stash at Lyon Storage at Temple and Beverly, Billy replayed for me from memory some lines he had written for Ninotchka. He had written it some 57 years before. He wanted to know if I would laugh at the right places - I have this chair in black.

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