The Man Who Carried Cash. Julie Chadwick

she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

      By the next year, the two had grown close — Saul now regularly consulted her advertising expertise on everything from Johnny’s press kit, which she designed with her colleague Jerry Davies, to his new stationery that featured flashy gold embossing and a JRC logo in the shape of a crown — but at times she had doubts about her dynamic, intoxicating new boyfriend. Though he respected her intelligence enough to take her advice, he was also pushy and impossible to disagree with. Unyielding, even. It seemed at times that if she said black, he’d say white — just for the sake of it. And no amount of arguing would convince him otherwise. When she needed to leave at the end of a date, he’d always convince her to stay. Just one more show; just ten more minutes. Sometimes it seemed attentive, but at other times it felt oppressive. And then there was that trip to Mexico.

      At the end of October she had won a trip to Mexico through a promotion with a local theatre company. Saul immediately assumed his inclusion on the journey as her plus-one, but it then provided a unique dilemma for Barbara. Only newly dating, she was reluctant to involve herself in a scandal by travelling alone with a man who was not yet her husband. It just wasn’t done. Saul suggested a variety of excuses, people she could say she was going with, including his mother or a girlfriend, but the possibility of lying made Barbara even more uncomfortable. The prize included a double hotel room, so eventually she caved, and with the explanation that they were soon to be married, managed to clear it with the hotel and at least arrange separate rooms. Incensed, Saul then refused to pay for his own room, which she found ridiculous.

      The obnoxious behaviour continued once they arrived. Saul soon made his acquaintance with the local pool boy, and over the next few days he delighted in challenging him to a round of competitive poolside push-ups. Exasperated, Barbara filled her days with walks on the beach, often to escape his company (though she was loath to admit it) and clear her head. Typically, the two spent their evenings dining together at the local restaurant, after which they would arrange to borrow a jeep from the head server.

      One evening, after the two had gone on a tour of the local area together, they returned to find Barbara had received a letter from the head server, proposing marriage. Flattered but confused, she demurred with the explanation that Saul was her fiancé and they would soon be married. “Married? I thought you were his secretary,” the head server wrote back.

      Barbara was floored. Had he told everyone she was his secretary? And neglected to inform her? There was no risk of scandal at this point. Was he embarrassed to be with her? She felt as though she were under water. It was clear she was already in over her head with this man, whose powerful personality easily overwhelmed Barbara’s sensitive, empathic nature. Naturally a giving person, she had begun to notice a predatory quality in the way Saul operated, and it made her uneasy. Though she already knew she was on unequal footing with him, there was one person who seemed, strangely, a match for Saul Holiff. A man who also saturated the air of a room when he entered it — and that was his new client, Johnny Cash.

      When Saul had first told her of his agreement to become Cash’s manager, Barbara was concerned. The scandal of Jerry Lee Lewis’s marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin was all over the news. What kind of people are these, exactly? she had wondered, with a sense of both curiosity and caution.

      She would find out soon enough.30

      Johnny Cash and fans, backstage in London, Ontario, 1962.

      Though Saul had taken up residence in Hollywood to keep a close eye on the comings and goings at their Ventura-based office, he retained a small bachelor apartment on King Street in London to serve as his Canadian base. It was here that Barbara first encountered Johnny at the end of a ten-day tour through Ontario, earlier that year. After their final show in Sault Ste. Marie, Saul had asked Barbara to be on hand at his flat that evening to help serve drinks and snacks to the entourage while he showed off his new hi-fi stereo system.

      The apartment was so tiny that his primary sink was the one in the bathroom, so Barbara had decided she would wash the limited dish supply in there as she went along. Excusing herself, she had just about finished a sinkful when, from the corner of her eye, she saw Johnny enter the bathroom. For a moment she had figured he’d mistakenly barged in, and kept washing. The door was slowly pushed behind him until it clicked. She stared at the dish in her hands and kept the cloth moving across its surface. What do I do? She glanced at him.

      “Hi,” she offered, hands still immersed in the water.

      She began to re-rinse the dishes. Johnny had remained in front of the door, an awkward expression on his face, and began to chatter. Something about his gun collection. Barbara had stared past her reflection at him and tried to focus on his words, but there were few topics less interesting to her than guns. Is he trying to test me? See if I’ll throw herself at him like all the other girls? She pulled out the plug. Maybe he wants to create the impression that he’d had another conquest. And with Saul’s girlfriend, no less. Nice try.

      She held her breath and willed him to stay where he was. Years earlier, it had seemed his track “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” always came on the radio right when she arrived to work. It was uncanny. At the time she had found the song strangely compelling, not least because of the sheer originality of his voice and style. It was unlike anything she had ever heard before. However, by this point Cash was little more than a name, another client upon whom she and her colleague Gerry Davis expended a fair amount of creative energy to design press kits and fancy letterhead. And now that the body had been linked to the name, she needed it to move out of the way.

      Gathering up the dishes, she had turned with the stack in her hands. To her relief, the knob turned behind him and he released the door.31

      5

      CARNEGIE HALL AND JUNE CARTER

      Saul was in a great mood. Determined that 1962 would be their big year to build on the momentum set in motion during the preceding months, he felt it was off to a fine start, indeed. In less than six weeks he had three significant performances lined up that were all crucial to his broader career plans for Johnny. June had promptly responded to his letter, and revealed that under the airy, affectionate Southern persona she was in fact a tough negotiator.