From a series of columns published in January 1927 by the German tabloid B. Z. am Mittag, about his experiences as a paid nightclub dancer. The columns are included in Billy Wilder on Assignment, a collection of the filmmaker’s writing, which will be published in April by Princeton University Press.

1.

“This is our new dancer,” said Herr Isin.

The woman behind the desk fixes her gaze on me, sharp like a military doctor. Then she says, in a thick Czech accent: “Put down coat here.”

In the ballroom. Packed. Cigarette haze. Preened ladies from age twenty to…