Bill Manville Mans Up?

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October 10, 1963, Vol. VIII, No. 51

Footnote to Saloon Society

ROME…I have always enjoyed going to weddings in the past, chiefly I must admit because of the pleasure it gave me to realize they were not my own. Certainly it nearly always seemed to me that the bride and grim had the worst time of all: stiff, nervous doll-figures like the ones on the wedding cake itself, entirely dominated by the immense juggernaut weddings can become. But it was mostly the pleasure of the survivor at the funeral that put extra bubbles into the wedding champagne for me.

But now I have slain the Dragon, climbed the Glass Hill, and Generally Won the Girl; the marriage is my own. At this wedding, friends can get drunk, the relatives can fight, and who knows how many new people will bed the night, but I will have the best time of all. Jack Oakie can just keep walking on down that line; Dick Powell was right, and can smile, vindicated, in his grave. Early or late, when you see the girl, you stop.

By the way, it’ll be easy to spot me at the wedding. We’re getting married on October 20, in the Campidoglio, in Rome, and I’ll be the one wearing a sword. — Bill Manville

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