The Royalscope Fe-As-Ko

Set in Hollywood in 1915, this zany western, Platt's fifth novel and the sequel to The Four Arrows Fe-As-Ko (1991), is a story ""'bout being who you ain't and becoming what you are."" Royal Leckner is a wealthy, homespun cattle rancher from Walla Walla, with a headstrong wife, an equally stubborn teenage daughter and two cantankerous young sons. Life on the ranch is fine until his wife and daughter go on a spree in San Francisco, where a slick con artist turns their heads toward Hollywood. Before Royal knows it, he is the principal investor in a motion picture company. To Royal, ""flickers"" are just a passing fad that have seduced his womenfolk and stolen his money, so he and his boys head to Hollywood to set things right. When he arrives in Tinseltown, however, he is mistaken for William S. Hart, the famous cowboy movie actor. Doors open thanks to the mistaken identity and Royal decides to play along. From one rapid-fire gag to the next, the plot hits targets left and right, including Pancho Villa, German spies and the luminaries of early filmdom. Royal sums up this hilarious tale best: ""who needed moving pictures when real life was as farcical as this?"" (May) FYI: The Four Arrows Fe-As-Ko has been made into the feature film Promise the Moon, to be released in 1997. Another novel by Platt, The Cornerstone, is also being filmed.