Chicago, giorno 9

Ben Hecht in un disegno di Herman Rosse

Ecco come Ben Hecht entra al Chicago Daily Journal, a 16 anni, nel 1910. Arriva a Chicago e incontra uno zio con un gran naso rosso, Manny Moyses, che lo porta dal direttore del giornale, anche lui dotato di un naso paonazzo.

"Can you write poetry?" the other red nose demanded.

"He can write anything," my genie uncle answered recklessly.

"I'm giving a party," Mr. Eastman confided, "and I want a poem written about a bull who is nibbling some God-damn grass in a pasture and swallows a God-damn bumblebee by mistake. The bee goes down his throat into his stomach and after two days of hardship comes out of his ass in a big load of bull shit. Mad as hell, this God-damn bumblebee crawls out, dusts himself off, jumps on the bull, and stings the be-Jesus out of him. I want that written in a poem. Think you can do it, Mr. Hecht?"

"Give him a pencil," Uncle Moyses answered proudly.

"I want a moral on the end," Mr. Eastman explained, "about not keeping a good man down."

In un'ora BH scrive la poesia, in sei versi, e ottiene il lavoro.