Chapter 10
'Old Man' Simons was the founding father of Mutual of Hartford, an insurance company which had grown to a billion dollar concern. He built it up from scratch, with the sweat of his hands, and he gave all of his strength and power to the management of the company. When he had to make it into a public corporation he was a little sad. He had always had in mind to keep it a small, family concern.
But things moved too quickly, and they got out of control. The company grew too big too soon. There was no choice but to go public. On that day, when the first shares were traded on the stock market in New York City, Simons cried like a baby. It was a truly shocking blow to him.
He never really recovered from it. This was then followed by several tragic events which completely destroyed him. His wife Greatchen, to whom he had been married for over thirty five years, along with his son Winston, perished in an air accident. This was the final blow which pushed him into senility. He lost his former stiff, priggish attitude, and started acting like a child entering his adolescence.
As far as business was concerned, he still remained the same stern taskmaster that he had always been. Everything had to be just right. He wouldn't stand for any errors. After all, he didn't make his millions by committing mistakes. In business one has to be letter-perfect.
But as far as his social life was concerned, it seemed that Simon's had become completely senile. Whereas, before he had led a stoical, abstemious existence (people would call him 'Uncle Scrooge') he now seemed to have abandoned himself in the pursuit of carnal pleasures. He was the rage of the gossip columnists. They were always reporting how he was seen in the presence of others, such as this or that actress. At one time he was arrested when the police broke up a sex orgy at his home. Marijuana with LSD and other hallucinatory drugs were confiscated.
He had no trouble being released. When you have over three hundred million dollars, you generally can buy almost anything. Simon's stuff business compatriots were afraid that the 'Old Man' was losing his mind. They were absolutely scandalized by his wild shenanigans.
Simon's only laughed. If they didn't like the way he acted, they could 'go and fuck themselves'. He was a free man, living in a free country, and he could therefore do as he pleased.
"You can't take it with you," he would say, and, I'll be damned if I'm going to leave my hard-earned money to the U.S. government The way I figure it, they get too much of my money already. In one year, I pay more money in taxes than most people earn in a whole lifetime."
Though this kind of behavior was frowned upon by the society to which Simon belonged, he no longer cared. He was a man trying to fill the last years of his life with the greatest amounts of pleasure. Somehow, he sensed that he didn't have much longer.
"I've been such a fool," he once said to John, when the two of them were having lunch at Lenny's. "All my life I've tried to be respectable. I was always concerned about what my neighbors would say. I never did anything that was in the least bit exciting. And now, as I look back at the way I conducted my life, I can see that it was a waste."
Determined to correct his past mistakes, Simon's married a young, seventeen-year-old girl. Together they went to the wildest parties, and conducted themselves in the most outrageous fashion. At the wedding of Walter Bixby the third, the son of the famous real estate czar, 'Old Man' Simons dressed in jeans, an old blue work shirt, and a Indian Headdress around his head. Marianne, his teenage bride, came in white hip-hugger pants and a sheer black see-thru blouse. Neither of them wore any shoes.
It was an absolute scandal. All of the other guests were dressed to the hilt Formal gowns and tie 'n tails. They couldn't believe their eyes when they saw the old man. Several of the guests left the ceremony in protest of the lewd performance. Simon's and his wife stayed till the very end, and had a jolly good time.
At that wedding, in fact, Marianne, who had been a topless go-go dancer at the Pink Pussy Kat in Los Angeles, performed one of her specialty numbers. No one had the courage, or nerve to stop her. She was Simon's wife, and he approved of her activities.
After the couple had been married, all the lights at the Bixby home were dimmed, at the 'Old Man's' request Marianne, a tall, lean girl, with skin as white as alabaster, and a head of flaming red hair, leapt onto a table, and went into her act. The nubile young maid, strutted across the table like a wild philly. She belonged to a new breed of woman She was no longer ashamed or afraid of her sexuality. She flaunted it, like a whore.
"Come and eat me," she seemed to be saying as she stalked across her improvised stage.
She was a free woman, devoted to the sensual excitement of her body. She was embarrassed by nothing, least of all by her body. She had no compunction about being seen nude. In fact, she reaped much enjoyment when lusting eyes stared at her nakedness. Hers was a lush body, a beautiful exciting body, and it was loaded with all of the secrets which men seek after. Hers was an enticing body, a body which glowed like a silver orb, radiating its own light Marianne was the personification of sexuality. She was sin and lust and she was proud and arrogant.
The people at the party watched nervously, as Marianne went into her masturbatory act. With both of her hands she began to rub between her thighs, gyrating nervously to the music which was being playing in the background. Men nibbled at their nails. Women were fascinated. Everyone was watching as the lean, supple dancer moved across her stage.
With a violent motion, she ripped off her blouse, throwing it to the voyeurs below. She began to manipulate her nipples manually. She very carefully rubbed her breasts, sighing and groaning with hot passion. Everyone was watching, gaping, with tongues hanging from their mouths. Men were quickly aroused. Cocks began to erect. Hearts were pounding faster. Blood was rushing through nervous veins. No one in the room was quite sure as to what a proper response would be.
Simons was in back of the crowd, puffing contentedly on his cigar, amused by the whole affair. No one was quite sure who called the police. But when they burst into the private Bixby mansion, everyone was shocked and horrified. They arrested Marianne for a 'lewd and lascivious performance'. Simon's quickly called several of his friends and the charge was immediately dropped.
But the reverberations of that evening rocked the very foundations of Connecticut society. They all blamed that 'nasty girl Marianne' for what had happened.