YOU CAN LOOK FORWARD TO FRED EPHRAIM'S THE CO-OP
SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE 2009.

THE CO-OP

The Regency co-op on Fifth Avenue is a bastion of upper class, New York City’s privilege society, and is the backdrop for this tale of tangled and provocative relationships. From the outside, the Regency has always been a model of peace and upper crust civility, but on the inside, this quiet co-op is brimming with intrigues, for instance, there’s Albert, the doorman’s not too secret affair with the co-op boards president’s wife, for one. And then, there’s the sultry Mrs. Sarah Patterson’s sexual penchant for Puerto Rican delivery boys. In fact, there’s one scandal or sordid situation after another revealed in this modern day Payton Place on Fifth Avenue. And not to go unmentioned, there’s the big fraternal secret relationship between two of the Regency’s most prominent men, known only by the equally secretive Mildred Smith and Gladys Lawrence, the dowager mistresses that inhabit the most prized multimillion dollar triplex penthouse in this most exclusive building, and who together control the majority of votes on the co-op board. They and all of this chaos are coolly hidden behind the granite walls of this grand and staid Fifth Avenue façade.

From the distance things are going just fine at the Regency that is until, John Smith, the new board president surreptitiously removes the now famous Blue Eyed Falcon’s nest from the thirteenth floor façade over hanging the edge of the building. This disturbing incident is publicly and vehemently castigated in angry protests and demonstrations by bird watchers and sympathizers that have stood for years across the street on the shoulders of Central Park, where they daily ogled, photographed and wrote about the family of Peregrine Falcons nesting above them all. It is then that things start to get very interesting, as the energy and excitement in the building starts to heat up. First, the snooty Smith led co-op board rejects a Russian Boron’s 2 million dollars over the asking price offer, for Mrs. Tinkerton’s, the former Hollywood Starlet’s sumptuous duplex apartment. It turns out that this Russian is in fact, a somewhat shady character, but the board didn’t at the time of their vote know this, because there had been no interview, no background check or personal contact with him except through the offer made to Mrs. Tinkerton.

Infuriated by the rejection, the Bogus Baron Romanovsky—the ridiculous name he calls himself—confronts Mrs. Tinkerton. It is from their meeting that Romanovsky decides to apply a little additional persuasion to the situation; this happens when he surprises John Smith, on the street outside of his office and literally takes him for a ride in his Rolls Royce along the palisades in New Jersey. The ride, and their ensuing one-sided conversation leads John Smith to a dramatic change of heart, and that results in the sale of the Tinkerton’s co-op apartment to the Russian and his band of thugs. What is not known by anyone at the time is that the Russian has designs on buying out the entire building to house his criminal cronies, and their nefarious activities in this sedate and very legitimate climate. He wants to start by obtaining the Baronial Triplex Penthouse that sits on top of his not too shabby duplex below. The triplex happens to be owned by John Smith’s dowager mother Mildred and her companion Gladys who is also Albert the doorman’s mother. Secretly, Romanovsky plots to get rid of the two spinsters, as they have refused his offer to purchase their home, but the plan is accidentally found out about, when the Gladys and Mildred, attending a soiree at the Baron’s duplex home below, accidentally stumble in on the Russian’s planning session.

As the story in all of it intricacies and intrigues begins to find its end, John replaces the Blue Eyed Falcon’s nest at the insistence of Mildred and Gladys, who get back to secretly feeding the birds, and all the various intrigues and secrets reach there equally compelling ends and conclusions.

back to top