The Tender Trap

By Max Shulman & Robert Paul Smith

Charlie Y. Reader is a 35-year-old theatrical agent in New York City, living a seemingly idyllic life as a bachelor. Numerous women – among them Poppy, Helen, and Jessica – come and go, cleaning and cooking for him. Charlie's best friend since school, Joe McCall, who has a wife named Ethel and children in Indianapolis, comes to New York for a stay at Charlie's apartment, claiming that the excitement is gone from his 11-year marriage and that he wants to leave his wife. Joe envies and is amazed by Charlie's parade of girlfriends, while Charlie professes admiration for Joe's married life and family. At an audition, Charlie meets singer-actress Julie Gillis. She has her life planned to a tight schedule, determined to marry and retire from performing to a life of child-rearing by 22. Although at first she wards off Charlie's advances, she comes to see him as the ideal man for her plans. Julie demands that Charlie stop seeing other women. Charlie balks, but he begins to fall in love with her. Joe starts keeping company with Sylvia Crewes, a sophisticated classical musician and a typically neglected lover of Charlie's. Sylvia is approaching 33 and desires marriage as much as the younger Julie does.

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