FIVE SUMMER STORIES : The Veterinarian's Daughter

"Is Lewis going to be in the movie?"

"Absolutely. You like Lewis, don't you?"

"Hi, Lewis," Carla said, leaning down and speaking directly into the horse's ear. It made Lewis shake his mane.

"Do you remember the last test you did?"

"Which one?"

"With Brandon Holt. For your father. Do you remember?"

"I think."

"It was the scene in the house. Where he can't find his bag and he thinks you know where it is."

"That's the one we do all the time."

"But the last time you did it was with Brandon Holt. The tall man who played the piano."

"He was nice."

"Would you like to be in the movie with him?"

"OK."

"It's a big decision, Carla. Are you sure?"

"I don't know. Ask my dad."

"I'm asking you."

"Is he going to get the part?"

"Possibly. It's important to know if you're comfortable with him."

"Are we going to start pretty soon?"

"Just as soon as we cast Dr. George. What do you think?"

"I have to ask Lewis." She leaned over again into the horse's mane and said, "Is the piano guy OK to be Dr. George?" Lewis shook his mane again, reacting to her breath in his ear. Carla sat back up on the horse and smiled. "Lewis says OK."

And so Brandon Holt, after two decades of character work, became a star.

WHEN MAURY KELMAN'S SCRIPT WAS FINALLY APPROVED and put through the typing pool, a reading with the cast was arranged. The director was Bill Brady, a studio staff man who had worked on other movies with Maury and the technicians assigned to the film.

They sat at a long table set up on Stage 8, where the movie's main interior had been built. It was Dr. George's living room, with beamed ceilings, a vast stone fireplace and bookshelves filled with leather-bound classics and books about animals. A painting of Dr. George's late wife--serene and saintly, a gentle-looking woman who had been given Carla's features--hung above the fireplace, keeping a benign eye on her family. Bill Brady sat at the head of the table with Maury on his left. Carla sat next to Brandon Holt, and the other actors arranged themselves around the table. Doughnuts, fruit and an urn of coffee had been provided by the commissary.

Claire hadn't told Milton, Carla's father, about the reading in order to keep him away. As far as Claire was concerned, Milton had become a real pain, and the less anybody at the studio saw of him, the better things would be. Carla didn't seem concerned that her parents weren't there, which was just fine with Claire. The only thing Carla asked about was if Lewis the horse was going to be at the reading. When one of the other actors laughed, Carla said, "He has a bigger part than you." No one else laughed at Lewis.

Carla could read well enough for her age, but she had always learned her lines with her mother's help. This time she turned to Brandon Holt, who was glad to assist her. At first, when she stumbled, Bill Brady looked nervous, so Claire intervened. "Say it for her, then she'll repeat it." Bill nodded, and when Carla had difficulty, she'd listen to Brandon, then repeat what he had said. When she had to figure out the words, she spoke in the same sing-song voice that all children use when they're learning to read. It terrified the adults until she put down the script and repeated what she had just read in the voice of the veterinarian's daughter. As long as she didn't have to struggle with the reading, her voice was simple and unaffected, direct and always clear. By the third time she had done it, Maury Kelman muttered, "Damndest thing I ever saw."

The story Maury had contrived had to be a tale that was interesting and compelling on its own and one that could also serve as the basis for a continuing series. Dr. George was a rural veterinarian, a recent widower, with a little daughter named Georgine. Dr. George had always wanted a son, and now that there were just the two of them, little Georgine had to prove to her dad that she was just as good as a boy. In the first story and all the others that would follow, father and daughter would argue about Georgine's ability to assist Dr. George on his rounds of the farms in their area. Each time, little Georgine would prove her mettle as father and daughter worked to help birth a calf or mend a broken wing. At the end of every movie, Dr. George regretted that he ever doubted her.