Marion Ross

            On Sunday the heat wave had broken and although it was comfortable to wear shorts with all the windows open there was no need to turn the fan on and I wasn’t sweating.

            I tried to track down the lyrics to “Il est rigolo mon gigolo” by Serge Gainsbourg but no one seems to have posted them. I tried to write them down while listening to the video by Régine but I couldn’t accurately make it all out. The title means “He’s funny my gigolo” so I guess a title by me might be “My Gigolo’s a Giggle” but I’ll put that on hold until I can find the lyrics or discern them better.

            I had an avocado, cheese, tomato and sausage sandwich for lunch.

            I spent a lot of the day catching up on my journal.

            I did my afternoon exercises and then took a bike ride to Dovercourt and Dundas, went south to Queen and then home. Either the leather in my sandals is stretching or my feet are shrinking. I had to put another hole in the strap of my left sandal.

            For dinner I had the other half of the pizza I’d made the night before with a beer and watched an episode of The Untouchables.

            This story was about Dutch Schultz and begins with him selling protection to businesses and torturing those that don’t pay. In this case one of the victims was blinded but this was slightly fictionalized as in reality it was a rival gangster that was blinded after being kidnapped. Schultz is frustrated by the rise of Lucky Luciano. The feds raid a secret warehouse and get hold of Schultz’s financial records. Schultz’s lawyer successfully argues that Schultz could not receive a fair trial in New York City and so the trial is moved to upstate New York. In the weeks leading up to the trial Dutch ingratiates himself with the town of Clearview. He gives to charities and donates money to schools. According to this version he blackmails someone on the jury but there's no record of that having happened. The result is that Schultz is acquitted. But when he returns to New York he finds that Lucky Luciano’s operation has grown. Schultz has no choice but to offer Luciano a partnership. A meeting is arranged but Luciano says he’s looked at Schultz’s bank records and knows he’s bankrupt. It would be worthless to go 50-50 when he can just take over. Schultz has his man pull a machine gun but he's already been paid off and shoots Schultz instead. >

            Dutch's wife Vera was played by Marion Ross who became a star of Happy Days as Richie Cunningham's mother.