Screen Drama
Preview “Trust”, an original screenplay about J. P. Morgan, Belle da Costa Greene, and the financial Panic of 1907.
“TRUST”
By
Joseph Erbal Konrad
©2025. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Characters
Morgan, his family, and inner circle
John Pierpont Morgan
70, leading financier in America, founder of numerous large combinations including U.S. Steel, General Electric, International Harvester. Morgan can be brutal, charming, even childlike, but his immense strength of will never recedes from view. Ruthless, confident, his greatest achievements are behind him, but now, as he looks to his final years, he wonders if his legacy is worth the pain he has caused.
Louisa Satterlee
41, Morgan’s daughter who lives with her husband at 37 East 36th Street. Louisa is humorous and sympathetic, but also savvy and capable of detachment.
Herbert Satterlee
44, her husband. Herbert has become a trusted support to his father-in-law, of whom he is a bit in awe.
Belle da Costa Greene
28, Morgan’s librarian and confidante. She hides the fact that she is black behind her exotic self-chosen name and stylish dress that make her seem foreign. Morgan trusts her totally, and it is intimated they once had a flirtation.
Louis Sherry
53, caterer, restauranteur, hotelier. He owns the legendary Sherry’s restaurant, the premier eatery of the “400” of the upper crust of Gilded Age New York. He is Morgan’s personal caterer and a trusted confidante of Morgan and Belle.
The Trio & Co.
James Stillman
57, President of National City Bank, which he has built into the largest in the US. He is described as a cold fish. One of few men who can comport himself as an equal in a room with Morgan.
George Fischer (“Fish”) Baker
67, President of the First National Bank, a longtime ally and partner of Morgan. His financial empire helped finance Morgan’s deals. Baker is one of the few people whom Morgan treats as an equal, though if push comes to shove Baker always defers to Morgan. Baker helped organize U.S. Steel and sits on its finance committee.
George Perkins
45, Morgan’s lieutenant, arrogant, smart, sometimes indiscreet, well-intentioned but sometimes a prima donna. A partner at JP Morgan & Co., he is interested in progressive politics.
Judge Elbert H. Gary
63, President and one of the founders with Morgan of U.S. Steel, the first $1B corporation in the world.
Henry C. Frick
58, longtime associate of Morgan, who helped put together U.S. Steel and still sits on its finance committee. Frick was a notorious union-buster who once survived a violent assassination attempt.
Lewis Cass Ledyard
56, personal counsel to Morgan, his firm is also employed by the Moore & Schley brokerage house. Shrewd, cold, insightful.
The Malefactors
Fritz Augustus Heinz
38. Founder of United Copper. Handsome, charismatic, sly, he has made his fortune in Montana and moved to New York to enter the financial game. He buttresses his brothers’ brokerage firm across the hall. He has plans to corner the stock in his own company.
Otto Heinz
His brother, who owns a own brokerage firm which is intimately entangled with Fritz’s affairs.
Charles W. Morse
50, head of Mercantile National Bank, rapacious, an all-around manipulator and financier to Fritz’s plan to corner his own company.
Charles Barney
Head of the prestigious Knickerbocker Trust, Barney has had a long partnership with Morse. When their ties become public, the taint will bring down the Knickerbocker.
The Bankers
Oakleigh Thorne
41, head of the Trust Company of America, a brilliant jack of all trades whose career has spanned industries and is a champion pigeon shooter.
A. Foster Higgins
77. Barney’s successor, with a tendency to run at the mouth and say imprudent things.
William A. Nash
67, Head of the New York Clearing House
Edward Healy
20s, a staffer at the Clearing House
The Analysts
Benjamin Strong
35, promising young trust analyst at Banker’s Trust, known to Henry P. Davison who helped select him to be one of the analysts who triaged the trusts.
Willard “Ed” King
50, President of Columbia Trust. Straight-laced, taciturn, sensible, reliable.
Henry Pomeroy Davison
40, sharp features, brilliant, self-made. A vice-president at First National Bank, a protégé of George Baker, at 36 he helped found Bankers Trust. Along with Strong, one of the chief analysts selected by Morgan to help triage the trusts.
The Citizenry
Ted and Sally McGill
Young immigrant couple from Scotland, living in desperate poverty in a tenement.
William and Anna
Young middle class couple, four years married. They have emerged from poverty into the lower middle class but feel the precariousness of their situation acutely.
The Widow
60s, a wealthy woman who married money and remembers her past poverty; grandmother to Edward Healy at the Clearing House.
Sam Ventry and Robert Cole
30s. Young brokers who have recently opened their own shop, their fortunes are at the mercy of giant players over whom they have no influence. Ventry’s gambit to save his firm will service justice on Heinz and Morse but will set off a catastrophe.
The Administration and Others
Theodore Roosevelt
48, President of the United States. Ebullient, active, socially conscious, but admittedly out-to-sea when it comes to matters of economics, TR is a man bursting with energy who during the crisis finds himself in an unaccustomed position: he must defer to others, including Morgan, a man he hates.
George B. Cortelyou
45, Secretary of the Treasury. Genteel, soft-edged, but with brains and willpower, he is already an experienced government hand
William Loeb
45, Presidential Secretary. Loeb is dedicated and effective functionary, but without imagination.
Elihu Root
62, Secretary of State. Elder statesman, trust counselor to the president, Root radiates reassurance without pretending to know what he doesn’t know.
Ransom H. Thomas
President of the New York Stock Exchange
Treatment
In the twilight of his life, ruthless tycoon J. P. Morgan seeks redemption as he and his team race against time in a financial crisis that could destroy the American financial system – and his legacy.
1907. The Gilded Age, with all its achievements and all its excesses, has peaked and is now an increasingly sour memory. Guided for forty years by the iron hand of J.P. Morgan, America’s economy has matured. Rail, coal, steel, and finance have come to dominate, and Theodore Roosevelt is battling the giants of industry to break up the enormous industrial monopolies known as trusts.
However, in an age without a central bank, there are no institutions to guard against the American economy being thrown into chaos. Morgan himself, a tower of strength and self-confidence, is the central bank of the United States. In a crisis, nobody thinks of going to anyone else.
But Morgan is aging. His greatest days seem behind him, as he focuses increasingly on his art collecting and his new house. He is more preoccupied with his mortality than with high finance as growing stresses tear at the world he himself has shaped.
The financial crisis breaks in October 1907 as Morgan is attending a church conference. Fritz Heinz of United Copper tries to corner his own company’s stock using money borrowed from reckless trust-banker Charles Morse. But small-time broker Sam Ventry, desperate to save his firm, spreads vicious rumors about Heinz at the Waldorf Bar, causing some shareholders to panic and sell at a lower price. United Copper goes into a death spiral, collapsing from 60 to 10 in a day, vaporizing the trust-banks’ investment in the process. When words leaks out, the bank runs begin.
Torn away from the convention, Morgan hurries back to New York as panic spreads to one institution after another.
Foremost among the endangered banks is the venerable Knickerbocker Trust, housing the fortunes of New York’s upper crust and aspiring middle class. For impoverished immigrants Ted and Sally, the chance to get paid a heretofore inconceivable $10 per day to hold a place in line overnight for wealthy depositors is a chance at a new life. For the elderly Widow, fear of poverty causes her to do things no ordinary blueblood would normally do: she hires Ted off the street, gambling on his honesty to save her fortune. And for William and Anna, who by sheer happenstance find themselves at the fabled Sherry’s Restaurant when a comically catastrophic board meeting of the Knickerbocker Trust Bank is held there, it will lead to tragedy: the Knick collapses before they get their savings out.
Aided by a circle of both loyal friends and rivals who know that only his strength of willpower can save them, Morgan manages the response to the crisis from his own magnificent home and personal offices. As crisis after crisis envelopes the New York City of 1907, he forms The Trio with his friend and long-time business ally George Baker, and his sometime rival James Stillman. Baker tends to support Morgan in all things, but is capable of skepticism and speaking honestly to Morgan if needed. Stillman is another matter. Cold, prickly, and one of the few men who does not owe his fortune to Morgan, Stillman is a hard-eyed cynic. During the crisis, he joins The Trio, but he sees himself as a co-equal, and Morgan knows it.
The Trio is aided by a wider circle of allies. George Perkins is Morgan’s deputy whose loose lips will spawn a whole new bank run. Benjamin Strong is a young analyst who will be called on to make decisions that affect the fate of the country.
And above all else there is Belle da Costa Greene, Morgan’s librarian and art collector. He relies in her implicitly, trusts her completely, and eventually we learn that she was briefly a paramour of Morgan’s. But she is not who she presents herself to be: Belle is an African-American woman passing as white in the highest reaches of society, and Morgan, who admires and respects her, is oblivious to her secret – or is he?
As the crisis roars to its climax, the panic literally spreads from one bank to the bank next door, culminating in the near-death experience of the Trust Company of America (TCA). Young analyst Benjamin Strong, called to make a split-second decision that will determine the fate of the TCA, declares it solvent, and a minute-by-minute race ensues to prevent the bank from failing.
Finally, as Morgan is running out of options, a fabled lawyer approaches him with a stroke of genius: a financial deal that will at last steady the markets and alleviate the panic. In the end, it will take a midnight train-run to the White House and a last-minute decision from Roosevelt himself to approve a giant trust deal that makes or breaks the country.
At the center of it all is the towering, glowering presence of Morgan himself. His legacy is on the line. But he has made many enemies. Will the President, his rivals, the people – even his friends – trust him enough to let him save them?
“Trust”, Act 1.
FADE IN:
Complete darkness. A voice speaks.
HEINZE
Just close your eyes and say it into the dark.
BARNEY
We’re going to be so goddamn rich.
Four men at a table. CHARLES BARNEY, 56, opens his eyes. With him are Fritz HEINZE, his brother OTTO, and CHUCK MORSE. On the table: whiskey glasses, half-smoked cigars.
HEINZE
(38, very handsome, exuding charisma. Subtitle: F.A. “Fritz” Heinze, Founder, United Copper)
Feels good, doesn’t it?
BARNEY
(now visible: 56, full perfect beard, handsome, but somehow insecure, tentative. Subtitle: Charles T. Barney, President, Knickerbocker Trust. )
We’ll need money. Lots of money. Will it work?
MORSE
(Subtitle: Charles W. Morse, President, Mercantile National Bank )
-- oh, yes, at least twenty million –
BARNEY
Twenty!
HEINZE
We’ll need twenty million. Otto’ll get it to market.
OTTO
(mid-30s. Subtitle: Otto Heinze, President Heinze & Co. Brokerage House)
Oh, oh yes, my people can do it.
HEINZE
You, Chuck?
MORSE
(Takes a slug of whiskey.)
The way I see it. There’s four-hundred fifty thousand shares. We need to buy north of four hundred to corner it.
BARNEY
What if you run out of cash before you get enough?
HEINZE
This is America, Charles. There’s always more money. And Chuck runs thirteen banks: T’s where they keep it.
OTTO
And the short sellers?
MORSE
(with supreme contempt)
The shorts?
HEINZE
They’re the ones we’re going to bend over and ream till their eyes bleed.
MORSE
When you have some shares, why not lend it out? That way you can screw ‘em coming and going.
HEINZE
We started two days ago.
MORSE
(sipping his whiskey)
You are all in for this, aren’t you?
HEINZE
We’re even buying back the shares they borrowed from us.
MORSE
A triple. Brilliant!
HEINZE
When do we go in for the kill?
MORSE
No time like the present. Good timing too. Cat’s away.
He thrusts out his empty glass and Otto refills it.
OTTO
I wonder: how many company presidents try to corner their own stock?
HEINZE shrugs.
MORSE
What are you trying to prove, Fritz? You made a fortune founding United Copper.
HEINZE
For the same you reason you cornered ice in this town, Chuck. The fun of it. How about it, Charles? Is the Knickerbocker Trust all-in?
BARNEY
Try and keep me out.
The lights go down on the three main plotters, Fritz, Morse, Barney, with Otto on the margins.
DISSOLVE TO:
Total darkness, with only the muffled sound of a train on rail tracks gradually becoming clearer.
BELLE (V.O.)
We are chasing history, Mr. Morgan. Now, cornered, she’s turning on us.
MORGAN
Belle!
Morgan awakens in the darkness, eyes visible, his famous nose faintly outlined, but not the garish redness of it. The light becomes slightly brighter, orange morning sunlight coming through venetian blinds and curtains of an ornate railway car bedroom. The door opens and a servant enters off screen.
SERVANT
Good morning Mr. Morgan. Two hours to Richmond. We took on some cables for you in Baltimore. And you have a message from Miss Greene.
EXT. NEW YORK CITY – MORNING
Caption: Tuesday, 8 October, 1907. A sweeping view of NEW YORK CITY. A turbulent fall sky, parts blue and sunny, parts roiling with dark cloud. The camera centers on East 36th Street at Madison Avenue, home of the Satterlees: Herbert and his wife Louisa, daughter of John Pierpont Morgan, whose immense, presently empty house is next door to theirs.
INT: SATTERLEE BREAKFAST ROOM – MORNING
(Subtitle: Home of Herbert and Louisa Satterlee)
HERBERT,44, and LOUISA, 41, at breakfast. Herbert is looking at the newspaper. A 6 year-old girl runs by, playing with a small silky dog.
HERBERT
Still no word? Mabel!
LOUISA
(cheerfully picking at her fruit)
Silent as the tomb. That means he’s enjoying himself.
HERBERT
At a church convention?
LOUISA
Grapes. It appeals to the little boy in him. He likes play-acting at being normal every few years.
HERBERT
Louisa, nobody ever called your father normal. Why doesn’t he settle down and enjoy life more? He’s semi-retired. He’s earnt it. Mabel! Does he like Richmond? Rutherford place suit him?
CUT TO:
EXT. MANSION – DAY. A stately southern house with workmen swarming around it.
LOUISA (V.O.)
I should hope so. They recarpeted it and put in a whole new bath just for him.
HERBERT (V.O.)
And Rutherford just agreed to rent it and let him make such intrusive alterations?
LOUISA (V.O.)
I doubt it even occurred to Daddy to ask him, Herbert. And Sherry has been with him the whole time. He’s well taken care of.
CUT TO:
INT. AN ORNATE RAILWAY CAR GALLEY – DAY
Louis SHERRY, 53, debonair, supervises the galley car being stocked by a number of busy men.
SHERRY
Take the perishables back to the ice car right now. I’ll be there shortly to inspect the wine.
CUT TO:
INT: SATTERLEE BREAKFAST ROOM – MORNING
HERBERT
What he’d do without Sherry and Miss Greene, I can’t imagine.
CUT TO:
INT – LONDON RESTAURANT DINING ROOM
BELLE GREENE, 28, the only one woman at a table of men, her hat bedecked with a fascinator, laughing. Young, magnetic, beautiful, exotic, she is the center of all their attention.
HERBERT (V.O.)
She in touch with him, by the way?
MAN
Please promise you won’t bid against me at the auction, Miss Greene. I couldn’t bear having to contest with you.
BELLE
I promise I won’t be bidding against you.
CUT TO:
INT. RAILWAY CAR -- MORNING
MORGAN, 70, seen in profile in bed, opening a letter.
BELLE (V.O.)
Mr. Morgan, I am pleased to say I have won the Caxtons for you, though not without some drama. A competitor begged me not to bid against him. Not having the heart to tell him I had that very day already arranged a direct private sale to you which took the books off the auction block, I agreed in all truthfulness.
Morgan shakes with laughter.
CUT TO:
INT: SATTERLEE BREAKFAST ROOM – MORNING
HERBERT
Sherry. That poor man. Three weeks of tending to your father and a gaggle of Episcopal bishops.
CUT TO:
INT. ELABORATE TRAIN PASSENGER CAR – DAY
A luxurious parlor car of a train moving at a fast clip. Morgan, head down and facing away, sits near the rear playing solitaire. A half-dozen bishops in low conversation, leaving him alone.
LOUISA (V.O.)
He likes ferrying them around. It makes him feel needed. I’m sure by now he’s having a relaxing time.
BISHOP 1
… And that’s why in the East our churches are always on the best downtown blocks. In colonial times we simply got there first. The latecomers like the papists are always on the less select corners further out, to say nothing of the Jews.
BISHOP 2
Having prime real estate didn’t stop us getting disestablished, even here in Virginia. Seventeen ninety-six.
MORGAN
(not looking up, face still unseen)
Seventeen eighty-six, and it was by Thomas Jefferson.
HERBERT (V.O.)
What do you think he does at these things?
CUT TO:
INT. EPISOCPAL CHURCH IN RICHMOND – DAY
Morgan, still from behind. One side of the nave is filled with laymen, the other with prelates, all listening to the speaker.
LOUISA (V.O.)
Oh, he listens to the debates and lectures during the day…
SPEAKER (O.C.)
Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free, so that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens …
LOUISA (V.O.)
… and he relaxes in the evenings.
CUT TO:
EXT. PORCH – EVENING
Morgan on the Rutherford porch. Locals on the sidewalk on Grace Street look up the driveway as, face unseen, he reads another letter.
BELLE (O.C.)
Dear Mr. Morgan, our bid for the ceiling of Cardinal Gigli’s palace in Lucca is progressing…
ONLOOKER 1
Is that him?
ONLOOKER 2
Of course it is. Look at that nose! That’s Morgan.
Morgan turns sharply and glowers at the gawkers, his nose grotesquely red and swollen. A child lets out a little scream.
CUT TO:
INT: SATTERLEE BREAKFAST ROOM – MORNING
HERBERT
(still reading the newspaper)
Damn!
LOUISA
Roosevelt again?
CUT TO:
EXT. WHITE HOUSE – DAY.
ROOSEVELT, 49, is speaking to a clutch of reporters.
ROOSEVELT
The responsibility for the present economic palpitations lies primarily and overwhelmingly upon the railway and corporation people, that is, the manipulators of stocks who have been guilty of such scandalous irregularities during the last few years. Not one word of mine, not one act, administrative or legislative, is responsible, directly or indirectly, in any degree whatsoever for the present situation.
CUT TO:
INT: SATTERLEE BREAKFAST ROOM – MORNING
HERBERT
I tell you it’s deliberate. He means to impoverish our class.
LOUISA
By making Union Pacific drop twenty-five points in a day? My father is J.P. Morgan. Do you think I don’t know about such things?
HERBERT
The Augusta Chronicle is calling Roosevelt our chief panic maker. And E.H. Harriman says…
CUT TO:
EXT. URBAN SETTING – DAY
HARRIMAN
(to reporters)
I would hate to tell you where I think you ought to go for an explanation of all this. But here is a hint. It’s a house. And it’s white.
CUT TO:
INT: SATTERLEE BREAKFAST ROOM – MORNING
HERBERT
And listen to this!
CUT TO:
EXT. TRAIN STATION – DAY
Roosevelt is talking to press men.
ROOSEVELT
It may well be that the determination of the government to punish certain malefactors of great wealth has been responsible for something of the troubles, at least, to the extent of having caused these men to bring about as much financial stress as they can in order to discredit the policy of the government.
CUT TO:
INT: SATTERLEE BREAKFAST ROOM – MORNING
HERBERT
Oooh, that wretched man! How can he be so popular?
LOUISA
Herbert, people in this country wonder if those who run it give them any thought. Roosevelt does, and that’s something.
HERBERT
Well I hope your father stays away from the papers while he’s in Richmond. He’ll be spared some heartburn.
CUT TO:
INT. EPISOCPAL CHURCH IN RICHMOND – DAY
Morgan, now seen from the front, sits in a crowd of extremely well-dressed men in the nave. He looks pleasantly disinterested.
BISHOP (O.C.)
“Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds: Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?”
Morgan becomes attentive, then somber, then reddens, then glares.
BISHOP (O.C.)
I ask you to think, gentlemen, how these prescient words bear upon our country today. Who are the shepherds, and who the flock? How do our great men acquit themselves before the dread judgment seat? It is common knowledge that our banks lent the Empire of Japan fifty millions of dollars to pay for their war with Russia. And while our land of plenty struggles with the painful issues of poverty and labor unrest, we get word from our financial capital of yet another extravaganza mounted by the gilded class.
CUT TO:
INT. SHERRY’S RESTAURANT – NIGHT --
A grand ballroom, supervised by Sherry, mirrored, filled with people in 18th century French aristocratic garb. An orchestra plays as a lavishly and somewhat scantily period-clad woman is lowered into the center of the room on a trapeze.
BISHOP (O.S.)
This time, they recreated the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra engaged for music, Mr. Hazen Hyde as King Louis the Fifteenth, and Miss Elsie de Wolfe as Madame du Barry. This, in a city where there still operate, on the island of Manhattan alone, twenty orphanages.
CUT TO:
INT. EPISOCPAL CHURCH IN RICHMOND – DAY
Morgan starts to rise, his face scarlet, but we are spared his wrath.
CUT TO:
INT: SATTERLEE BREAKFAST ROOM – MORNING
HERBERT
Well there’s this at any rate: Roosevelt is going to hunt bear in Louisiana. Maybe we’ll get lucky. Maybe one of them will get him instead.
LOUISA
Oh, Herbert.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. SHERRY’S RESTAURANT – 4th FLOOR - NIGHT
Caption: Thursday, 10 October, 1907. Well-heeled men and women at an event: “ANNUAL CHARITY BENEFIT”. At the front, a prominent table. A reservation sign on it reads “MORGAN & GUESTS”. Sitting are James STILLMAN (57), George PERKINS (45), George BAKER (67), Elbert GARY (63) and Henry FRICK (58), with their wives. An empty chair suggests Morgan, but he has not come; he never comes.
STILLMAN
A pretty sight, isn’t it? All this vacuous arrogance stuffed into one room.
At the “BANKERS TRUST” table further back Benjamin STRONG, 35, and his wife KATHERINE, 20. He is young, professional, she, very pretty. Strong has clearly married above his station. Also at the table are Henry Pomeroy DAVISON (40), his boss, along with other men and their wives. Back up front…
BARNEY
Now we’ve all heard how President Roosevelt calls the giant industrial combinations ‘trusts’. [Laughter]. But there is another kind of trust entirely. Our kind.
In the Middle Ages, when a knight went off on crusade, he chose someone whom he trusted to look after his affairs. And to this man he gave the keys to his castle, his strongbox, and possibly also his lady’s chastity belt. [Laughter] His property — lands, cattle, chattel, and all — were thus said to be held in trust, and in this way our ancient vocation of trust banking was born.
We are now a respected profession, enshrined in law, so trusted that our legal reserve requirement remains a sensible and mere three percent, while the regular commercial banks [Laughter] are only trusted to such an extent that their reserve requirement is — twenty-five percent! [Laughter]. Our poor, dear brethren [Loud laughter].
STILLMAN
(to Perkins)
How on God’s Earth did that man end up being keynote speaker?
STRONG
(at his table)
Try to smile, Kate. We need to look happy. Don’t you like the fish?
KATHERINE
This corset is going to kill me.
STRONG
Well at least it won’t be the fish.
KATHERINE
Oh shut up. Do we have to be here? Can’t you just make a donation?
STRONG
There’s no substitute for being seen, as your own papa will tell you. Getting noticed by Morgan helped make his career.
KATHERINE
Speaking of names and faces. Time to practice. Who is this prattling on?
STRONG
That’s Charles Barney, president of Knickerbocker Trust, tonight’s lucky chairman of the charity bazaar dinner. If you look close enough you’ll spot grease on his palm.
KATHERINE
Don’t like him much.
STRONG
Not personally. Too flashy.
KATHERINE
Is Morgan coming? I haven’t spotted his nose.
STRONG
He’s away. But he’s sent his deputies. Him I’d dearly like to meet – when I’m ready.
KATHERINE
You’ll like him. He’s friend of daddy’s. Who’s that one?
STRONG
(momentarily annoyed)
Oakleigh Thorne, from Trust Company of America. Also, a champion pigeon shooter.
KATHERINE
Ewwww. And him?
STRONG
Charles Morse, head of Mercantile National Bank. Him I do know of. If he ever comes to leave his calling card, count the silver. I don’t see his lover Heinze here tonight. And that’s George Boldt.
KATHERINE
Waldorf-Astoria Boldt?
STRONG
Yip. Originally German. Came here as a boy and made good. Very good. Now he’s dabbling in trust banking. And over there is Lewis Cass Ledyard. Now there’s a machine. Counsel to Morgan and a dozen others. How he keeps their affairs straight I can’t imagine.
KATHERINE
(glancing at the Morgan table)
And them?
STRONG
George Perkins, Morgan’s right arm. Helps run the whole Morgan empire. He’s said to secretly admire Roosevelt’s policies – so secret he can’t keep mum about it. Davison calls him Gabby George. And next to him, Henry Frick.
KATHERINE
The man who got shot?
STRONG
None other. Defiantly alive. Helped make U.S. Steel, the biggest trust of all. That quiet one next him is George Fisher Baker of First National. He helped finance most of the big ‘Morganizations’.
KATHERINE
Who’s that last one? Now he looks interesting.
Stillman, motionless but intensely alert.
STRONG
That, my sweet, is the talk of the evening. James Stillman. President of National City Bank, biggest in the country. Closest thing Morgan has to an equal, and no friend to him. Recently got overheard calling Morgan a “back number”, like an outdated issue of a magazine.
KATHERINE
What did he say to that?
STRONG
Apparently nothing. Invited him here, tonight – peace offering, maybe – and then doesn’t show up. That’s real power, to not care what people think of him. Have some more fish. And don’t choke.
Katherine glares at him, then laughing jabs her fork into the fish.
CUT TO:
INT. THE LIBRARY – DAY
Our first glimpse of Morgan’s new Library. BELLE, 28, dressed with panache, gives instructions to staff, uses a magnifying glass to examine a binding, reviews a ledger. As the day ends, she goes to the doors and looks back at the empty room, now filling up.
CUT TO:
EXT. THE MORGAN HOUSE – TWILIGHT
Belle, toting a stylish bag, exits the Morgan House, boards an “UPTOWN” trolley. She sits and watches the city change. At 40th Street she takes off her hat and puts it in the bag. A man reads a newspaper: “BANK STOCKS PLUNGE, RAILROAD SHARES DERAILED”. At 50th her gloves come off.
PASSENGER 1
(middle-aged woman)
Another bank failed... I feel liking hiding my money under the mattress.
At 90th Street a shawl comes out from her bag that covers her jewelry. By the time they reach her stop on 115th Street she looks quite plain. She alights and goes to a 5-floor building. Inside, from behind, we see a woman’s head in silhouette observing Belle as she enters.
CUT TO:
INT. STAIRWELL – NIGHT
Belle ascends the stairs and comes to a landing. A friendly, plump white woman, middle aged and wearing a ludicrous hat that reminds us how superior Belle’s taste is, is unlocking her door.
CARSTAIRS
Why good evening, Miss Greene.
BELLE
Hello, Mrs. Carstairs.
Belle turns to find her apartment door already open. Her mother GENEVIEVE, 58, a prim, dour woman, awaits her with a stone-like expression. She momentarily lights up when she sees her neighbor Carstairs.
GENEVIEVE
Good evening, Mrs. Carstairs.
CARSTAIRS
Good evening, Mrs. Greene.
CUT TO:
INT. A SMALL MIDDLE CLASS APARTMENT – NIGHT
On the walls are pictures of flowers and landscapes, but no family pictures anywhere. An upright piano in a place of honor in the corner looks almost like a shrine.
BELLE
Hello Mama. My, something smells good.
GENEVIEVE
How was your day?
BELLE
It went well.
BELLE
(handing her some money)
For next month’s rent.
CUT TO:
Genevieve, Belle, and her brother RUSSELL (late 20s) at dinner, dressed somewhat formally. Belle is laughing with her brother.
RUSSELL
So. How is Mr. Morgan?
BELLE
Like working for lightning. He’s – he’s quite disorienting. His family, though [she scoffs] they bore me to extinction. That daughter of his....
GENEVIEVE
Russell, how is work at the office of civil engineering?
RUSSELL
I’ve settled in. My colleagues are friendly enough. Though my boss-man is some-
GENEVIEVE
(sternly)
Your what?
RUSSELL
My -- supervisor -- is sometimes a bit trying. Oh, a colleague has a son who might want to take up piano lessons with you.
GENEVIEVE
Certainly not. We can’t have a child of some stranger snooping around in our home.
RUSSELL
But Mama [emphasis on first syllable; he sees her expression and corrects himself] – Mamá: we could use the money --
GENEVIEVE
(looking at him intensely)
No.
CUT TO:
INT. PARLOR – NIGHT
Russell and Belle drink lemonades in two cozy armchairs. They catch a sound of their mother moving about the apartment and fall silent till they know she is gone.
RUSSELL
(quietly, to avoid their mother)
Belle. I saw Papa. He was coming through town on his way back from Harvard. Somehow he knew about my job and stopped by my office.
BELLE
When was this?
RUSSELL
Last week.
BELLE
Does Mama know?
RUSSELL
No, and don’t say a word. We had lunch. We spoke for a long time. He has -- endured trials. He learned about your name somehow – Belle Marian Greener. [Pause] He said -- he thought he was doing what was right, Belle. What was necessary, for our people. That no Democratic administration was ever going to appoint one of ours to the diplomatic corps, and when the Republicans offered...
BELLE
So that’s how he ended up in Russia. Then?
RUSSELL
He left when the war broke out. Got to San Francisco, just in time for the quake. Oh, he came through it fine, but he lost most of his things in the fire.
BELLE
And now?
RUSSELL
Chicago. He wants to explore improved relations with his children.
BELLE
Spoken like a diplomat.
RUSSELL
It’s just… Belle, he says he only finally left after Mama left him and took us with her, and we started passing. Now he says we flee from his legacy.
BELLE
Oh Russell, don’t you say that. I do not flee from him. Papa is ever with me, teaching me always to ask: what would Daddy do? And then I do the opposite.
RUSSELL
Now I think that’s a little unkind.
BELLE
Has it occurred to you I didn’t want always to be known as the daughter of Richard T. Greener? That I want to define myself?
RUSSELL
We both know who defined us, Belle, and it wasn’t Papa. Who took us further and further away from our people?
BELLE
I’ve chosen my people, Russell. People who respect me for my knowledge.
RUSSELL
But would they still if they knew you were a negress?
Genevieve enters the room and they instantly fall silent.
GENEVIEVE
Go to bed Russell.
He looks at Belle and leaves, kissing their mother on the cheek.
GENEVIEVE
And say your prayers.
RUSSELL
Good night Mamá.
GENEVIEVE
(sitting where Russell sat)
Belle, I am worried.
BELLE
Mamá I just had one serious conversation. Must we have another?
GENEVIEVE
Why? What was he saying to you?
BELLE
It doesn’t matter. What is it?
GENEVIEVE
It’s important. This man you work for. You think I don’t hear how you talk about him. He’s made quite an impression upon you. And I am not sure it is all for the good. We have to keep our heads down, child. Oh, you look like Plain Pauline when you come in the door each night, but I know how you present yourself downtown, like some Gibson Girl, with your hats and fascinators and baubles. Does he know?
BELLE
(chirpily)
Nope.
GENEVIEVE
You shouldn’t draw such attention to yourself, Belle.
BELLE
I can get farther if people know and accept that I’m different from the outset. That I’m smart. I don’t hear you complaining about the money.
GENEVIEVE
We all contribute to this household in our own ways.
BELLE
Well this is my way and it’s going swimmingly. Why are you so concerned?
GENEVIEVE
Because I wonder if you have forgotten what God has given you. You have been schooled to ambition and excellence. But success requires tact. And I worry that you will behave recklessly. Has this man trifled with you?
BELLE
He’s getting too old for that.
ENEVIEVE
That is an evasion. Belle, do not have an affair with that man.
BELLE
We already tried. Oh don’t gape, Mama [her guard down, she accents the 1st syllable]. It lasted about a week and then something strange happened. We realized we felt more like a father and daughter. Now we laugh about it.
GENEVIEVE
You are paralyzing my nerves with these words, really you are. But God, who sees into all hearts, discerns the grateful child from the prodigal. Russell is a grateful boy --
BELLE
Don’t even try that, Mama. I know the scripture as well as you. The rejoicing was greater over the prodigal. I know exactly what I’ve been blessed with: a brain. I curate books and art, and I am very good at it. I have found my place. Listen. I believe in God, and there is not a day goes by I don’t thank Him for you, and for Russell and Ethel and Theodora and all those we love. But I make my own choices now, and color be damned.
GENEVIEVE
Not in this country.
CUT TO:
EXT. THE GREENE’S APARTMENT BUILDING – MORNING
Belle leaves, gets on the “DOWNTOWN” trolley. As they progress, her shawl comes off, her gloves go back on, then a different hat, very stylish. When she arrives in front of the Morgan residence she is resplendent.
CUT TO:
INT. MORGAN HEADQUARTERS: PERKINS’S OFFICE - MORNING
23 Wall Street, around the corner from the Stock Market and catty-corner from the august edifice of the Trust Company of America. In the executive suite, Perkins and Stillman are at ease in Perkins’ office.
PERKINS
Well, Mr. Stillman, we hope you enjoyed being Mr. Morgan’s guest at the dinner.
STILLMAN
The conversation was adequate.
PERKINS
Honestly, James, you don’t always need to be such a cold duck. The chief admires you, you know. He’s sorry he had to be away and couldn’t join us.
STILLMAN
Horseshit. He’s much happier with his bishops. But I’m gratified. And no offense was intended when I called him a “back number”.
PERKINS
[laughs] Don’t fret. He knows it’s not business. It’s just personal.
STILLMAN
What does his crystal ball tell him about this market upset?
PERKINS
If the General knows, he isn’t telling me. I think he’s confident, else he wouldn’t have gone away. But I admit something is off.
LOWRY
(O.S. in the outer office)
Holy Hannah.
PERKINS
Lowry. Now what?
LOWRY (25), young, earnest, appears. He glances at Stillman and looks to Perkins for a hint of whether he can discuss the matter in front of a competitor.
PERKINS
Public or private?
LOWRY
Public, sir.
PERKINS
Let’s hear it.
LOWRY
The numbers are in from Union Pacific’s bond float. Out of seventy-five million in bonds offered for sale, they had takers for just -- four million.
PERKINS
What?! Now what’s that about?
STILLMAN
Well, I’ll tell you what I see over at my bank. First, we have the usual fall money crunch. The late summer crops are coming in and all the farm banks in the Midwest are short on cash. That’s why all their correspondent accounts at my bank are now dry teets. Second, your railroad mergers needed financing and they cost a fortune. And third, the whole world lent big to the Japs and the Czar so they could all kill each other. Add in the cost of rebuilding San Francisco, and I think it’s safe to say the plug in the bathtub has been yanked. There just isn’t enough money to run this economy, and somewhere something is going to go bang.
PERKINS
Well how are your reserves?
STILLMAN
(with majestic disdain)
My reserves are fine. I think most of the commercial banks are fine, though I fret about anything tied to that swindler Morse.
PERKINS
Lowry! Let the General know about Union Pacific. Send it now.
CUT TO:
INT. RUTHERFORD DINING ROOM – EVENING
Another telegram is given to Morgan as Bishop LAWRENCE, 50s, sits nearby. “UNION PACIFIC FLOAT RAISES 4M OF 75M OFFERED”.
LAWRENCE
Mr. Morgan, you seem to have bad news.
Morgan shoots a devastating glare at the man, then stares down at the table, his mind elsewhere.
STILLMAN (O.S.)
It’s the trust banks I worry about, with that low reserve requirement.
CUT TO:
INT. MORGAN HEADQUARTERS: PERKINS’S OFFICE – DAY
STILLMAN
Half those jackanapes we saw last night shouldn’t be allowed to run an ice cream stand. If one of the big ones fails…. To be honest, sometimes I think it could all go boom.
PERKINS
All of what?
STILLMAN
All of it, at once. The whole system. Even the banks have banks now. Something doesn’t feel right. There’s something loose, some sense of -- Now I must bid you good day, Perkins. Undoubtedly you have matters to attend to. As do I.
PERKINS
You really think someone will do something stupid?
STILLMAN
It’s human nature, George. Someone is probably hard at work on it this very instant.
CUT TO:
INT. – 42 BROADWAY OFFICE BUILDING: HEINZE’S OFFICE – DAY
Caption: Monday, 14 October, 1907. A garishly lavish office. Fritz HEINZE (38), sits at a desk with a brass nameplate: “F. AUGUSTUS HEINZE, PRESIDENT UNITED COPPER CO.” Nearby, lazily smoking a cigar, is Charles W. MORSE (50), head of Mercantile National Bank and once the ‘Ice King of New York’. Fritz’s brother OTTO (early 30s), enters.
HEINZ
Otto. How goes it, brother of mine?
OTTO
It’s started. It’s on the move.
CUT TO:
Across the hall: another office: “OTTO HEINZE & COMPANY, BROKERS”. Within, a bustling madhouse of office workers, telephones, and a stock ticker. The tape reads: “UC 39-1/8”. A CLERK is calling out numbers.
CLERK
United Copper thirty-nine and an eighth!
CUT TO:
INT. – OFFICE BUILDING: HEINZE’S OFFICE – DAY
MORSE smokes languidly.
CUT TO:
INT. – TICKER TAPE CLOSEUP – DAY
The tape reads “UC 42-1/2”
CUT TO:
INT. – OFFICE BUILDING: HEINZE’S OFFICE – DAY
MORSE
Forty-four. Pour it on.
CUT TO:
INT. – TICKER TAPE CLOSEUP – DAY
The tape reads “UC 45”.
CUT TO:
EXT. – NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE – DAY
Freelance TRADERS on the Curb in front of the New York Stock Exchange are CLAMORING, shouting, gesturing. Market MAKER 1, calling the trades, shouts:
MAKER 1
Five hundred United Copper offered at 46!
VOICE (O.C.)
Done!
CUT TO:
INT. – TICKER TAPE CLOSEUP – DAY
The tape reads “UC 46”
CUT TO:
INT. – NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE -- DAY
A blizzard of paper on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. At a trading station, the market-makers in the center are surrounded by screaming men.
MAKER 2
Seven hundred United Copper offered at 48!
VOICE (O.S.)
UC at 48, done!
CUT TO:
INT. – OFFICE BUILDING: HEINZE’S OFFICE – DAY
OTTO
We’re past three-hundred thousand shares and climbing.
HEINZE
(gleeful)
This is amazing.
CUT TO:
INT. – TICKER TAPE CLOSEUP – DAY
The tape reads “UC 50”
CUT TO:
INT. – OFFICE BUILDING: HEINZE’S OFFICE – DAY
OTTO
It’s hit fifty and we now own almost four hundred thousand shares. We’ll be out of cash soon enough but we’ve got what we need.
MORSE
(mischievously)
Try to nudge it up a little more.
CUT TO:
INT. – NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE FLOOR – DAY
The floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The closing bell rings. There is an audible roar of exhausted relief and disbelief.
CUT TO:
INT. – OFFICE BUILDING: HEINZE’S OFFICE – DAY
Otto holds the last ticker tape reading: “UC 52”.
OTTO
Last trade of the day was at fifty-two. We’ve got four hundred thousand. And the rest of the market isn’t liquid enough to mean anything. United Copper is yours. You can control the price at will. [To his brother] Mr. President.
Heinze and Morse almost explode with delight.
HEINZE
Thrilling. Tomorrow we’ll sheer a few sheep. I’m hungry. Who feels like a steak dinner at Delmonico’s? My dime.
CUT TO:
The New York Tribune headline: “UNITED COPPER BOOMING”. The sub-header adds “CURB MARKET SENSATION MAY SURPASS PRICE OF AMALGAMATED COPPER”.
CUT TO:
INT. – COLE & VENTRY BROKERS – MORNING
Caption: Tuesday, 15 October, 1907. A small, modest brokerage office. The two principals, Sam VENTRY and Robert COLE, speak to their little staff. The difference from the frenzy of Otto Heinze’s shop is palpable; this is a team, a family.
VENTRY
It’s official. The Heinzes just called in the shares.
A wave of agitation sweeps across the room.
COLE
How much do we owe now?
VENTRY
Too much. Miss Clagg, what’s the latest on United Copper?
CLAGG
It opened at fifty-two. Last trade was – sixty.
STAFFER 1
This is impossible. The Heinzes must be out of cash by now. Why’s it still going up?
COLE
Momentum maybe.
STAFFER 2
We borrowed shares from Heinze because we were certain the price would drop at some point –
VENTRY
It will.
STAFFER 2
– and we sold them. Now the Heinzes want their shares back and we’ve got to buy replacements or pay in cash. What do we do?
COLE
It’s a short squeeze.
VENTRY
There has to be a way to beat them.
CLAGG
But the whole street knows they’ve cornered United Copper. They can set any price they want.
VENTRY
No. Yes! The whole street knows. Yes! Listen. The most dangerous thing someone can know is something that’s not so. What if word gets out that the corner has failed?
COLE
Has it?
VENTRY
Does it matter? People just need to think it has. What if there’s bad news? Someone somewhere will panic and sell at a lower price. How much cash can we get?
COLE
No more than a few hundred thousand.
VENTRY
Get it. I don’t care how. Now I want all of you to start buying United Copper in three hours, do you hear? One o’clock. Curbside.
COLE
Where are you going?
VENTRY
I have an incredible thirst.
CUT TO:
INT. WALDORF BAR – DAY
A clock reads noon. COLLINS, late 20s, ebullient, with several other young men in a buoyant mood, enters for some lunch-time drinks. VENTRY is stealthily present amongst the standup customers. He approaches them and taps Collins on the shoulder.
VENTRY
Is that Ben Collins?
COLLINS
Sam. Sam Ventry!
VENTRY
It’s been a while.
COLLINS
Indeed! How’s the ‘Mrs’?
VENTRY
Fine, fine, at home hard at work on our second.
COLLINS
I say! And the joint venture with Cole? Or should I say joint ventry?
VENTRY
Clever man. It goes well.
COLLINS
Even with all this upset?
VENTRY
Especially in all this upset.
COLLINS
What brings you here today?
VENTRY
Just a little escape for an hour.
COLLINS
You want to join us for some beers before we go back?
VENTRY
You know what? I would love to wet my whistle. Say. You’re still with Moore and Schley?
COLLINS
Absolutely. No better place.
The others murmur cheerfully in agreement, including COLLINS’S FRIEND standing close to him in the crowd around the bar.
VENTRY
Say. I must ask. Do you know anyone who can spot me some spare shares of United Copper? I want to sell short.
COLLINS
Short? But it’s been on a streak.
VENTRY
Well, yes. But with today’s news…
COLLINS
News?
VENTRY
You mean you… Well, I can’t say. It wouldn’t be right. It’s Fritz Heinze. Dead. Shot himself in the head this morning. Some sort of bad news got to him. That’s going to knock some apples out of the tree, and, well, a man’s got to eat. It would be improper not to take advantage.
CUT TO:
EXT. – NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE – DAY
Freelance TRADERS on the Curb in front of the New York Stock Exchange are again clamoring, shouting, gesturing, but now the tone is very different. Collins’s FRIEND is in the crowd.
COLLINS’S FRIEND
Five hundred United Copper offered at 59!
The crowd quietens for a moment, realizing the price has gone down, then erupts into new life.
VENTRY (O.S.)
Otto Heinze? He won’t be able to do much from jail. What, you didn’t know? Some lady friend of his from Butte blabbed about the corner and he beat her up in full public view at Sherry’s last night. Police hauled him away.
CUT TO:
INT. – NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE FLOOR – DAY
The floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A madhouse around the same trading station as the day before.
VENTRY (O.S.)
New is about to break of a giant new copper lode in South America. The bottom’s going to fall clear out of copper.
CUT TO:
INT. THE WALDORF BAR – DAY
VENTRY is speaking to a different group of young men, all of them attentive and on edge.
VENTRY
Heinze? Police can’t find him, and they with a warrant for him. Something about a girl, and a certain kind of doctor. Fled the country, I heard.
CUT TO:
INT. – NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE FLOOR – DAY
The floor of the New York Stock Exchange, at the same trading station.
MAKER 2
United Copper offered at –
CROWD
Sell! Sell!
VENTRY (O.S.)
Fritz Heinze is in the hospital. His horse threw him on his head this morning on his daily ride in Central Park. Broke his neck, poor devil. United Copper is simply sunk without him.
CUT TO:
INT. – OFFICE BUILDING: HEINZE’S OFFICE – DAY
Otto stands in front of his brother and Morse. Heinze has a ticker tape fragment in his hands. He stares at it in disbelief.
HEINZE
This is impossible. We’ve called in shares from twenty short brokers. Kuhn Loeb. Barney. Shearson. And they’re all covering their debts without a squawk. Someone is selling! The price is down fifteen points since lunch. Who the Hell has enough to sell? Who would want to?
MORSE
Otto. You said you had this cornered.
OTTO
I don’t understand. We own over four hundred thousand out of four-fifty. We should be in control.
HEINZE
This is a disaster. We borrowed to pay for these shares! I was going to bankrupt some dwarfs – now I might go belly-up myself!
MORSE
(quietly but insistently)
Fritz. Fritz.
HEINZ
I say, Charles… What have you got?
MORSE
Fritz. Have you lost my depositors’ money?
OTTO
(blurting out)
Well not all of it.
MORSE
(voice rising)
Fritz. How are you going to pay me back?
HEINZE
We will, uh, need a bridge loan to tide us over while we retrench.
MORSE
Not another cent.
HEINZE
Charles. You control thirteen banks. I’m on several of your boards. Don’t tell me you don’t have enough!
MORSE
Not enough to cover my own reserves and also make another loan to you. And speaking of those banks, I’d better go tend to them. This is not going to be good.
HEINZE
You went into this with us, Charles! I financed you when you cornered ice in this town. Now you must help me, you must! You’re pals with Barney at the Knickerbocker. Can you get us a loan?
MORSE
Piss on that. You pulled me into this Fritz –
HEINZE
Only because you were greedy enough –
MORSE
YOU pulled me into this. I am an innocent victim here.
OTTO
Oh, he’s already practicing for his trial.
MORSE
You two: find a way to pay me back. I don’t care what you have to do, but you get me back my depositors’ money. [To OTTO] And if you shut your doors – I’ll – I’ll –
Unable even to speak further, MORSE exits.
HEINZE
Why that goddamn toad.
CUT TO:
INT. – TICKER TAPE CLOSEUP – DAY
The tape reads “UC 10”.
CUT TO:
INT. – COLE & VENTRY BROKERS – AFTERNOON
COLE enters and walks up to VENTRY.
VENTRY
How was the Curb trading? Did we get them?
COLE
We got them.
VENTRY
Do we still have any money left?
COLE
About ten cents, but yes. We did it. We repaid the shares. We’re solvent. What made it drop?
VENTRY
It’s a mystery.
DISSOLVE TO
INT. NATIONAL CLEARING HOUSE – LATE AFTERNOON
Three men in starched collars in an ornate office. One is NASH, 67, head of the New York Clearing House, along with a COLLEAGUE and Eddie HEALY, both in their 30s. A male secretary places an old-style phone on the desk.
NASH
This is Nash here. Good evening Mr. Morse.
MORSE (O.S.)
This is Morse. I’m sorry to bother you with this. The Mercantile National needs a loan to meet its reserve requirements tonight. This, uh, need, might continue for a few days. But no more.
NASH
This is rather a surprise, Mr. Morse. How much is needed?
MORSE (O.S.)
(after a long pause)
About four million.
NASH
One moment please while I confer with my colleagues.
Nash covers the receiver.
COLLEAGUE
That little turd.
HEALY
We don’t know the background of this. His bank is a member. We should service it.
COLLEAGUE
We don’t have to if they’re not solvent. It’s about time some justice was done to Charles W. Morse, Ice King of New York. It’s time for the stiletto.
NASH
Gentlemen, we are bankers, not Italians. I think we can safely decide this without fear of contradiction by anyone on the oversight committee.
HEALY
Let’s cover them for the night and see what happens tomorrow. If he comes back to us, we clean house.
NASH
Morse, this is Nash. We will cover you for the night. Oh, the usual call rate will apply, of course…
MORSE (O.S.)
Oh, of course. That’s of no concern.
NASH
And Morse: we will talk more about this tomorrow.
MORSE (O.S.)
Naturally. Whatever you wish. Thank you. Thank you very much.
NASH
Good-bye.
MORSE (O.S.)
(meek as a lamb)
Good-bye.
NASH
If this is more than a temporary crisis, he’ll have to come begging again tomorrow.
COLLEAGUE
(at the window, looking at the Knickerbocker)
I say!
NASH
Now what?
COLLEAGUE
(looking across the street)
Bit of a jump in foot traffic for this time of day.
HEALY
What’s the urgency at the Knickerbocker?
COLLEAGUE
Maybe Charles Barney being the Knick’s president is what’s urgent. He’s joined to Morse like Chang was to Eng. The stench of rotten bedfellows, maybe?
NASH
Keep an eye on it.
CUT TO:
INT. – HALLWAY OF HEINZE OFFICE BUILDING
A door: “OTTO HEINZE & COMPANY, BROKERS”. A stream of silent men exits, some carrying little boxes of possessions. The lock is heard to click. The lights go out and the shape behind the doors, clearly OTTO, vanishes into darkness.
CUT TO:
INT. BARNEY’S HOUSE – NIGHT
A luxurious hallway. The door opens and Barney enters, hollow-eyed. He slowly walks upstairs, zombie-like, entering a well-appointed study with a large desk facing away from tall windows. He stares out the window. His wife LILY, prim, frigid, enters.
LILY
What’s happened?
BARNEY
It doesn’t concern you.
He turns and is staring at the desk. She notices it.
LILY
Charles…
BARNEY
The corner failed.
LILY
Are we still rich? Charles… are we still rich?
BARNEY
Yes, yes. But – My name will be ruined. And as to your social ambitions --
LILY screams.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. MORGAN OFFICES – MORNING
Caption: Thursday, 17 October, 1907. PERKINS sits at his large desk poring over papers. Nearby at his own desk is LOWRY.
LOWRY
(receiving a note)
Holy Hannah.
PERKINS
Now what is it?
LOWRY
Otto Heinze and Company went belly up.
PERKINS
God damn you, Heinze. Send a cable to the General.
CUT TO:
EXT. BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA. A PUBLIC SPACE – MORNING
Caption: Friday, 18 October, 1907. ROOSEVELT, surrounded by a friendly crowd. Some reporters trailing him.
ROOSEVELT
This visit to Louisiana is going swimmingly. We got three bears, six deer, one wild turkey, twelve squirrels, one duck, one opossum, and one wildcat. We at them all, except the wildcat. The possum was absolutely the best dish we had – excepting the bear liver, of course.
REPORTER
And what about the situation in New York?
ROOSEVELT
New York?
CUT TO:
INT. WIDOW’S DINING ROOM – NIGHT
The WIDOW, 70s, is sitting at the end of a long table. There was someone at the other end once. Now, she still has wealth, but must look after herself. She is reading a trashy novel and drinking wine over her dinner. The sliding door to the dining room opens.
MAID
I’m sorry to interrupt you so soon, ma’am, but Mr. Healy is here.
HEALY from the Clearing House enters in casual evening clothes.
WIDOW
Eddie!
HEALY
Gramma.
WIDOW
How lovely to see you. Will you eat?
HEALY
No, thank you, dear Gramma, I’m on my way out and felt I had to see you. I can’t stay long.
WIDOW
Well what is it? Are you all right?
HEALY
All is well, trust me. But I need to tell you something, and it must be in the strictest confidence.
WIDOW
Finally!
HEALY
No, no that. It’s something else. It’s about the Knick.
WIDOW
The – what?
HEALY
When you sold Grampa’s gold shares you put your savings in the Knickerbocker. Well, there are rumblings about it.
WIDOW
What does that mean?
HEALY
There are rumors that the president of the Knick is a little too close to the men who caused this United Copper fiasco.
WIDOW
The united what?
HEALY
You don’t read the papers much, do you? It’s too complicated to explain. Listen. I want you to go to the Knick on Monday morning and take out all your savings and put it in a safe place.
WIDOW
Eddie, what are you saying?
HEALY
It may be nothing, but I am asking you to trust me, Gramma. Would you please do as I ask, just to be safe?
WIDOW
Why of course, Eddie.
HEALY
Now see here, I have to go. And remember, not a word to anyone. I shouldn’t be discussing this. Please, just do as I ask. Good night, Gramma.
WIDOW
What, here and gone like a whirlwind?
HEALY
I must go. Sleep well. I love you.
He kisses her on the cheek and starts to leave.
WIDOW
After that, sleep well?
He shrugs and leaves. She goes to the table, downs the glass of wine at one gulp, and looks at the empty end of the table.
WIDOW
What would you do?
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. A WORKING CLASS HOME IN A TENEMENT BLOCK IN MANHATTAN. – MORNING.
Caption: Saturday, 19 October, 1907. A squalid apartment. SALLY, 20s, a pretty woman with a harried face, sees her husband TED, also 20s, tying a thin tie around his neck in front of a rusted mirror.
SALLY
(Scottish accent)
Why are you all gussied up? Ted?
TED
(Scottish accent)
I need to look trustworthy, darling.
SALLY
Where are you going?
TED
To find work.
SALLY
Dressed like that, on a Saturday?
TED
I need you to pack me some sandwiches and a canteen of small-beer. A mate of mine says I can earn ten dollars today and ten again tomorrow.
SALLY
Ten! Doing what?
TED
Standing in line in front of the Knickerbocker.
SALLY
Have you gone doolally or what-not?
TED
People are saying the Knickerbocker is in hock. The rich people are lining up to get their deposits out starting Monday, but they need someone to keep their place for them and I heard they’re paying ten dollars a day.
SALLY
Tomato or liverwurst?
CUT TO:
EXT. KNICKERBOCKER TRUST COMPANY – MORNING
A grand banking palace at 5th Avenue and 34th Street across from the Waldorf. Ted arrives, looks around, then walks up and gets in line. The Widow emerges from a carriage.
TED
Do you need a man in line for Monday? Here am I!
WIDOW
Young man, what is your name?
TED
Ted McGill, ma’am.
WIDOW
Ted McGill, will you keep this place for me until nine-thirty o’clock on Monday morning?
TED
For ten dollars per day I will, ma’am.
WIDOW
I’ll check in on you regularly and I shall pay you in installments.
TED
No ma’am. Pay me at the end. I’m good for it.
WIDOW
And so am I.
She spits in her palm and holds out her hand in a shockingly unladylike gesture. He does the same and they shake on it.
WIDOW
(handing him her umbrella)
Here. It’s like to rain.
