Buy Me Blue Ribbons
by Sumner Locke Elliott

THE STORY: Jordan Sable, at 18, is a forgotten child movie idol, attempting a comeback via the stage.

Against the advice of his agent and friend, Liz Kendall, he buys a swashbuckling verse play about pirates in which he plans to star on Broadway, hires a top producer and a female star and embarks on a colossal publicity campaign to launch himself in the play.

He is abetted in this by Daisy, his mother, an overwhelming and dizzy woman who was once a Ziegfeld girl.

His father, a hosiery tycoon, has always opposed Jordan's career, and the parents have divorced over this disagreement.

During a hilarious rehearsal scene, Jordan is found totally inadequate as the pirate chief and is forced out of his own production, his hated rival replacing him and scoring a hit, which leads to a Hollywood contract.

Jordan, penitent and defeated, vows he will retire forever, but Liz talks him into starting again, at the bottom, and he accepts a small bit in a revival of Hamlet,“ having learned his lesson that one cannot ”buy” success.