"By 7:00 I was safely at the George Bernard Shaw, or, as I called it, the Home for Wayward Actresses. It was a rooming house at West 10th Street and Hudson in the Village that had once been a popular hotel for seamen and remained a fine example of Civil War architecture, since the current owner was too cheap to bring it up to 20th-century standards. Some starlet who married well financially endowed the joint at the turn of the century and made it possible for mugs like me to enjoy a cheap roof over our heads provided we followed her career path."