Episode 3

More than 90 years after Mazie Phillips - the proprietress of famed New York City movie theatre, the Venice - began her diary, it is discovered by a documentarian in search of a good story.

So who was Mazie Phillips? Diary extracts, interwoven with voices from past and present, paint a picture of her adventurous life - played out during the Jazz Age, when romance and booze were aplenty. But the Great Depression looms.

Episode 3 (of 10)
Nance's kids are starving. But when Mazie and new friend, Sister Tee, try to help there are tragic consequences.

Written by Jami Attenberg - author of a story collection, Instant Love, and three novels, The Kept Man, The Melting Season, and The Middlesteins, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. She has also contributed essays and criticism to The New York Times, Real Simple, Elle, The Washington Post, and many other publications. Jami lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Readers:
Mazie Phillips.......Samantha Spiro
Other parts..........Kerry Shale and Teresa Gallagher

Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
Produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.