The Epstein brothers, their writers for Warner Brothers, are out for the night with their wives in a

fabulously successful restaurant once upon a time called SerIROS. This is 1942 Hollywood. The war is

underway and the good guys are losing. However these two writers have in mind two ideas simultaneously of putting Sydney Grain Street and Peter

Lorry into a new movie that will be called Casablanca. This is one scene of many joyful scenes in a new book, a novel, work of

fiction, based upon all these events. Season of the Gods, I welcome the author Robert Mattson.

Robert, this is wonderful. Thank you very much. The Epstein's, who are the Epstein's as

they sit down at the table with Sydney Green Street, whom we all know as Mr

Gutman of Maltese Falcon, and Peter Lorry, who we know is Joel Cairo. They sit down with them and they have in mind casting them. What at

that moment is the Epstein Vision? What is Kazablanca at that moment, and how is it that Green Street and

Lori judge whether they will or will not say yes. Good evening to you.

Well good evening to you and thank you for having me, John.

So the Epstein's at this point are in their early 30s, they're twin brothers from New York

City, from the Lower East Side of New York City.

So they're rough characters.

And they have been given the assignment, which they lobbied for when other writers

at Warner Brothers didn't want it to turn this stage play everybody

comes to Rick's into a movie and so they are trying to just establish who the characters

are at this point and they see Green Street and

Lori sitting with their wives and it occurs to them because they have a very similar

intellect. So it occurs to them for together all of a sudden, hey, we could

get them in our picture because they had just been on the lot with Lori and Green Street

for the making of the Maltese Falcon.

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