Howie came back to the motor inn in a state. I asked him, “Well, come on, then, what’s happened?” and he muttered a series of profanities—some terrible racial language as well, I’m afraid—and he said that hell would freeze before he’d see Opal in his lineup. He ordered me to pack my things and said that we were leaving the next morning, that we were going back to Chicago to sign this other girl who he liked and that was that. As you can imagine, I panicked.
