FATTO KLEEST: He is everything
his name would lead you to believe. He is about 35, tall, heavy set and
somewhat careless about his attire. He works in a grocery. Fatto is at once
sweet, gullible, angry, funny. He is a happy sorehead, a big cry-baby and a
self-appointed guardian of philosophy and logic,
over which he has no control or the slightest understanding.
LEW BRINDLE: A small, ineffectual
man. Truly the most reasonable of the four friends but the least likely to be
heard. He is hardly noticed and seldom listened to. He goes along with things with
very little complaint only because experience has taught him that such will be
the eventual case, so why fight it.
OBEE ZWICK: He is a man who looks
as though he just missed being a jockey. His moves are quick. He is intense; a
dreamer. He claims logic and rationality yet he is the last one to accept reality.
He is always searching, looking, hoping for something that will change their
dull existences for the better.
HAROLD SELBAR: The eternal
adolescent. His chronology is flirting with 20 years. He is awkward, uncertain of
himself; torn between boyhood and impending manhood. He is essentially bright
and has all the necessary instincts and traits to move on into manhood. He is
slightly clumsy, agile, attractive, dull, ubiquitous, fading-but never
impulsive.
TANGO EDDIE FRECKER: A dance
teacher, somewhat on the seedy side. He has never really made it and has learned
to accept it. Yet he takes great pride in his work. He is perhaps a trifle limp
in the glove but does not make a great display of it. He is a nice guy.
MR. GOTTLIEB: A little Jewish
tailor, kind of counterpart of Mr. Geppetto. He is bent with his years and his troubles
and there is a wry delivery to everything he says.Yet there is a sweetness to
him and a strange gentleness.
MISS PROSE: A spinster
schoolteacher, about 50. Very sweet, very quiet. Prim and proper, yet knowing
and understanding. She is very empathetic because of her own unfulfilled life.
She likes people and concerns herself with their problems. A nice lady.
MR. WONG: A Chinese gentleman of
indeterminate age. Still torn between two cultures, he strives to be
Americanized. He is good-natured, ever-smiling and ever-helpful. Another nice
man.
IRIS MUNGER: A very plain, yet
sweet young girl about Harold's age. She is shy and unsure of herself. Every
step is taken as though she expected to step upon a bear trap. She is very
feminine, and somewhere about her is a quiet, undiscovered sexiness. Though too
young to have done so, she has seemingly accepted the prospects of a very dull future.