14 The Chocolate Clown Corpse (21 page)

One of the most intriguing bits of chocolate trivia comes from St. Louis folklore.

An old story there claims that the custom of placing chocolates on the pillows of hotel rooms was instigated by Cary Grant while staying at an elegant St. Louis hotel. It seems he used the chocolates to tempt a woman into visiting his room.

Aw, c’mon! Cary Grant didn’t need chocolates to get a lady friend to come to his room. The movie queens of the 1940s were pounding at the door, begging to get in. And Cary would have at least provided his own chocolates.

I confess to a weakness for the leading men of my childhood—Cary Grant among them—and I think lots of women, young and old, feel the same way. I recall once finding my sixteen-year-old daughter sighing over an old movie starring Clark Gable. Clark Gable had been the screen idol of her grandmother’s generation! But the guy still had it, forty years later.

The inspiration for Joe Woodyard is Gregory Peck. Joe is less scrawny than Mr. Peck—and is just as
good-looking.