Frank Faylen

            I woke up tired on Thursday and was low in energy all through yoga. I perked up as usual during song practise but when that was over I felt tired again.

            In the evening I did the last half of my two-part pose for Artists 25. The recently deceased Tom Phillips was still a big topic of conversation because his family has yet to agree on a time and place for a memorial. This seems to delay any memorial that his art world friends would put on because they would want his cousin Lisa to be there, since Tom put her in charge of his artwork.

            Artists 25 is still looking for a third director so they can continue as a corporation.

            There were a few more people there for the full session this time than on the previous Thursday.

            Little things made me feel Tom’s absence, like when I break from a pose, stretch and give a little groan, it would normally have evoked a knowing smile and a nod from Tom, along with the comment, “Riiight!” Plus, he would be the first one to notice if my hand position on returning to the pose after a break was off by a fraction.

            Both Roseanne and Peter were nice enough to comment that they always do good drawings when I’m the model. Roseanne offered the unlikely explanation that it’s because of my “good soul”.

            When I got home I had a late dinner of a burger patty I’d cooked earler, plus some frenchfries and gravy.

            I watched two episodes of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

            In the first, Thalia (Tuesday Weld) agrees to go to the dance with Dobie if he pays for a taxi and gets her blue formal cleaned. He finds a cut-rate shop to do it and Thalia decides to promote the shop to other students in exchange for a commission. Everybody gives their formal clothes to the shop before the dance but it turns out to be a scam and the owners run off with the clothes to sell. But Thalia, Dobie and Maynard spot the crooks later and catch them.

            In the second, Dobie’s mother decides that she and his father, Herbert should start attending the Students and Parents Betterment League but they show up on a night when they are planning a talent show. Herbert gets sucked into working as a stagehand but the night of the show all of the acts are terrible. Herbert decides to save the show and pulls Mrs Adams to perform with him in a last minute dance act, which turns out to save the Show. This story seems to have just been written to show off the fact that Frank Faylen and Jean Byron could dance.

            From the start of the Dobie Gillis series, Frank Faylen stole every scene he was in and showed himself to be the most talented comedic actor in the cast. One could tell that he was an old Vaudevillian right away, and he was in Vaudeville as a child. He was also Regis Philbin’s father-in-law.