Richard Quine

A businessman moves to Hong Kong to pursue a career as an artist and falls in love with a prostitute he hires as a model. Robert Lomax, tired of working in an office, wants to be an artist. So he moves to Hong Kong to try his hand at painting. Finding a cheap hotel, he checks in, only to find it's used by prostitutes and their "dates" they meet in the bar downstairs. Since he never picks up any of the ladies, they all want to know more about him. Eventually, he does hire one to model for him... and soon falls in love. However, since he's on a limited budget, he can't afford her exclusively, but doesn't want to "share" her with anyone else. —Brian W Martz <B.Martz@Genie.com> Approaching middle age, American Robert Lomax puts behind his job as an architect to live in Hong Kong as an artist. After finding a cheap hotel to live, he finds it's used by the local prostitutes to bring their dates. Since he never offers to have a date with any of the ladies, they all become curious. He does hire one to model for him... and falls in love. —Huggo Unable to convince himself he likes what he does for a living, disillusioned, grizzled American architect Robert Lomax puts his career on hold and leaves everything behind to have a go at painting. But as Robert sets foot on bustling, far-off Wan Chai in Hong Kong Island, a chance encounter with exotic, feisty native Suzie Wong will turn his world upside down, paving the way for an unexpected, unusual, East-meets-West relationship. And amid exciting new experiences and happy Sherry-Flip-fuelled nights, Lomax is on the verge of making an eye-opening, life-changing discovery. However, what does Suzie, the mysterious girl with the almond-shaped eyes, want from Robert, the fine gentleman in a strange land? —Nick Riganas

Jane Osgood runs a lobster business, which supports her two young children. Railroad staff inattention ruins her shipment, so with her lawyer George, Jane sues Harry Foster Malone, director of the line and the "meanest man in the world". Jane Osgood is trying to support her two young children by running a lobster business. After one of her shipments is ruined by inattention at the railroad station, Jane decides to take on Harry Foster Malone, director of the line and the "meanest man in the world". With the help of her lifelong friend - and lawyer - George Denham, Jane sues Malone for the price of her lobsters & her lost business. What she ends up with is a lot more than either of them bargained for. —April M. Cheek <Aravis2713@aol.com> Living in Cape Anne, Maine, widowed Jane Osgood is trying to support her family of two young children by starting a lobster mail order business. Things for her business start off badly when a shipment perishes due to the operation of the Eastern & Portland Railroad, newly acquired by penny-pinching Harry Foster Malone. When the E&P fails to compensate Jane adequately for their error, Jane gets into a David versus Goliath battle with the powerful Malone, who she deems the meanest man in the world. The story affects all the townsfolk and reaches a national audience, Jane having both supporters and detractors. But both Jane and Malone will do whatever they can to beat the other, both who see the fight as a matter of principle. Meanwhile, New York based reporter Larry Hall, in Cape Anne to cover the story, falls for Jane. This move does not sit well with George Denham, who is Jane's childhood friend, lawyer and wannabe suitor. —Huggo

A minority stockholder takes on the crooked board of directors at a billion dollar corporation. Laura Partridge (Judy Holliday) is a very enthusiastic small stockholder of 10 shares in International Projects, a large corporation based in New York City. She attends her first stockholders meeting ready to question the board of directors from their salaries to their operations. These are not the questions which the board expected to be asked of them, especially since they are all crooked, except for Edward McKeever (Paul Douglas), the current CEO who has resigned in order to take an advisory position at the Pentagon. Following the meeting, he bumps into Laura and offers to drive her home. On the way there, Laura displays her enthusiasm for being a stockholder, as a result, Edward takes a liking to her. With Edward in Washington, D.C., John Blessington (John Williams) and Clifford Snell (Fred Clark) establish their hold on International Projects. They see greater riches now that Edward has influence with the U.S. Senate, especially with the awarding of federal contracts; unfortunately for them, he is honest, and won't do their bidding. In the meantime, Laura continues to be a nuisance to the board. Blessington believes the only way to silence her is to give her a high-paying position with the company. The idea is for her to do absolutely nothing, but Laura has other plans. She begins to correspond with other small stockholders in the company, a problem for the board. They decide to use her influence on Edward and send her to Washington, D.C. to get contracts. Laura, now knowing their true intentions for her, has her own agenda, that is, get Edward back in charge of the company. —Kelly It is the Annual General Meeting of International Projects, a large listed company. The board of directors are a shady lot, but none of the shareholders ever question their decisions or vote against their motions--until now. Laura Partridge (Judy Holliday), a minor shareholder, starts to ask some pretty important questions--questions which the directors don't like. In the aftermath of the meeting, the directors are worried that she will form a committee of minority shareholders, and exercise some control of the company. In order to keep her quiet and in line, they offer her a job in the company, as Director of Shareholder Relations. The idea is to give her nothing to do, but Laura has other plans. —grantss Inheriting ten shares of the company's stock, struggling New York actress Laura Partridge, who has no experience with the workings of multinational corporations, decides to attend an International Projects' stockholders' meeting to understand what is happening with her money in those ten shares. She will discover that this meeting will introduce a change to the Board as company founder Edward L. McKeever is stepping down as President and Board Chair having been seconded, appointed directly by the President of the United States, to a position in procurement for the Department of Defense in Washington, DC, he necessarily having sold his company shares to avoid conflict of interest, with John T. Blessington taking over as President and Board Chair. While McKeever is an ethical and hard working man, Blessington and the rest of the Board executive are less than ethical in only looking out for their own personal interests. On the surface, Laura doesn't like what she sees especially in bloated salaries for the Board executive. In meeting after meeting, Laura is able to be enough of a thorn in the Board executives' sides that Blessington decides that the best tact in dealing with her is to hold her close by offering her a made-up executive position within the company as Director of Shareholder Relations, her responsibilities to answer any correspondence received by shareholders, such correspondence which is basically non-existent. In being on the inside, Laura, despite her naiveté, knows what she believes is best for the company and for the plethora of minor shareholders like herself, namely for McKeever to return to the company, which is the last thing Blessington and the other Board executives want in expecting McKeever to direct government contracts in International Projects' direction to line their pockets further, and in not wanting to relinquish their control of the company. Things only get more complicated when Laura and McKeever fall in love, and they learn that Blessington never had any intention of relinquishing control back to McKeever despite Blessington bestowing upon McKeever as a going away gift a master "golden key", which opens any lock at International Projects, as a symbol of he being welcomed back at any time. —Huggo

After submitting a story of her beautiful sister, a woman assumes her identity to maintain the attention of a playboy publisher. Ruth and her beautiful sister Eileen come to New York's Greenwich Village looking for "fame, fortune and a 'For Rent' sign on Barrow Street". They find an apartment (such as it is!), but fame and fortune are a lot more elusive. Ruth gets the attention of playboy publisher Bob Baker when she submits a story about her gorgeous sister Eileen. She tries to keep his attention by convincing him that she, (a "spinsterish old-maid writer") and the gorgeous, man-getting Eileen are one and the same person.

Penny Morris and Tommy Williams are both starstruck young teens but nobody seems to give them any chance to perform. Instead, they decide to put up their own show to collect money for a summer camp for the kids. Tommy Williams desperately wants to get to Broadway, but as he is only singing in a spaghetti house for tips he is a long way off. He meets Penny Morris, herself no mean singer, and through her gets the idea to promote a show to send orphaned children on a country holiday. But he is only using the kids to get on himself, which Penny soon realises. With his romance off, an engagement in Philadelphia he can't get to, and, indeed, war in Europe, life can be difficult. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26} After four months of floundering attempts to get into a Broadway show, Tommy Williams grasps the opportunity to produce a charity show to take city orphans on a trip to the country. With his new girlfriend, Penny, he and his young friends produce a musical. But Tommy lets potential success go to his head, ready to pitch his friends and his ideals. —Ray Hamel <hamel@primate.wisc.edu>