July 13, 1996: My daughter spent the weekend at my new place

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday I brought my daughter True to my new place at 428 Queen Street West and she met Marjorie and Andrew. She was okay with spending the weekend there.

Florenz Ziegfeld

            On Saturday morning there were slightly fewer bedbugs, I guess because I didn’t steam the baseboards last night and so they weren’t forced out of hiding. 

            I worked out the chords for the first two lines of the chorus of “La complainte de Bonnot” by Boris Vian. There are still four lines to go. 

            I uploaded “Ça” (That), the parody of the Serge Gainsbourg song “Je t’aime. Moi non plus (I Love You. Neither Do I)” to my Christian’s Translations blog and began preparing it for publication. I should have that done tomorrow. 

            I weighed 89.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin during song practice for the first of two sessions and as usual it was always out of tune. 

            Around midday I rode down to No Frills where I bought 7 bags of cherries, a pack of Canadian strawberries, some bananas, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, a strawberry rhubarb pie, dental floss, peppercorns, a jug of lemonade, a jug of orange juice, and a bag of frozen potato wedges. I did a price match on the cherries to Freshco’s price but Freshco changed the price on the flyer. Five minutes earlier I looked at the flyer and it said $4.34 a kilo but when I showed the cashier it read as $5.49 a kilo. That was still cheaper than No Frills but I’d never seen it change like that before. 

            I weighed 89.7 kilos at 14:35. I had peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar on saltines with a glass of lemonade. 

            I took a siesta at 15:06 and slept until 16:47. By the time I’d brushed my teeth it was too late for a bike ride. 

            I weighed 89.8 kilos at 17:20. 

            I worked on getting caught up in my journal. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with rosée tomato sauce, tomato pesto, wedge fries, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore lager while watching season 10, episode 12 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            During the audience warmup someone says she comes to Hollywood on vacation to see the stars but wants to know where Carol goes. Carol says she does the same thing but she was raised a block away from Hollywood Boulevard and one never sees the stars there. Someone comments that you see them at the unemployment office. 

            A man asks what Carol does with all her old clothes and she asks if he’s asking for himself. He nods. She says she repeats a lot of clothes but with slight changes like for instance a different jacket. He says he’ll take it second hand. She says, “You don’t look like the type”. 

            Someone asks Carol if she has a middle name. She says it’s her mother’s maiden name: Creighton. 

            Someone asks how one becomes one of Burnett’s Bums. She says, “You’ve seen the jacket? You have to be in the crew… or a few other things.” Apparently in 1978 they gave special jackets for the crew with Burnett’s Bums written on the back. 

            The first sketch is a Mama’s family story. Mama’s sister May has died and Mama, Eunice, and Ed are in the attic going through her stuff. Ed wants to get to the bowling alley before they run out of his shoe size. Mama finds a family picture showing everyone including Eunice and her sister Ellen. Mama comments on how cute Ellen was and Eunice is jealous. Ellen calls from downstairs but Eunice was not informed she was coming. Mama urges Eunice to try to get along with her sister. Ellen arrives (played again by Betty White). She asks Ed how the plumbing business is going. He reminds her he’s in hardware but she says whenever she sees him she always thinks of septic tanks. Eunice finds a picture she drew of her pet rabbit Fluffy and she reminisces about how much she loved it. Mama tells her she didn’t take care of him, his cage was a disgrace and one could smell it all over the neighbourhood. Eunice recounts how she came home from school one day and Fluffy was gone. Ellen finds an old Andrews Sisters record and Eunice reminisces about how they used to pretend to be the Andrews Sisters singing the 1938 song “Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood Mama?)” by Leonard Ware and Sidney Bechet. Mama finds a lamp and passes it to Eunice. Then Ellen grabs it because she recognizes it as a Tiffany lamp. Mama says she can have it but now Eunice is upset. Ellen says to let Mama decide. Mama says she gave it to Ellen and that’s the way May would have wanted it. Mama hands Eunice a crappy desk lamp and says, “Now you’re even”. Ed says he can fix it and there are a few other things like a scale and a fan that he can fix and sell at his hardware store. Mama says if he does they can split the profits. Ed doesn’t like that deal. Eunice says Ed couldn’t get 25 cents for them in his store and can barely sell the new stuff he has. Ellen finds a box of china she decides to take as well for her bridge club parties. Eunice tells her, “You’ve got a closet full of china while I don’t have one dish without a crack”. Ellen asks Eunice who she entertains in the cracker box she lives in. Eunice says, “Lay off our house! We know we live in a dump!” Ellen tells Eunice that the day her rabbit disappeared it wasn’t fried chicken they had for supper. Ed threatens to punch Ellen while Eunice shouts “Murderer!” at Mama. Ellen says she has to leave but Eunice grabs the Tiffany lamp from her and smashes it. Then she deliberately sits on the china and breaks the set. Ellen tells Eunice they’re gonna put her away one day and she’ll be more than happy to sign the papers. Ellen leaves and Eunice is now determined to go through everything with a fine toothed comb to find something to keep. When Mama protests, Eunice says, “Shut up rabbit killer!” 

            The second sketch location is a class of 1932 reunion at Waxahatchie University. The long table is set with name cards and the dining room is empty until Carol arrives as an elderly woman with bad eyesight. She finds her place at one end of the table and sits down. Another elderly woman (played by Betty) walks in and recognizes Carol as Leticia. Leticia recognizes the voice and it’s Fanny. Fanny’s seat is at the opposite end and she is hard of hearing. When they realize they are the only ones who showed up they decide to sit together. They take off their coats to show they are wearing their cheerleaders uniforms. They’ve also brought their pom-poms and they so a cheer. They sing the 1975 song “Ready to Begin Again (Manya’s Song) by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. 

            Carol and Tim are sitting at a bar but are not together. She asks for his help because she found out that she has a counterfeit $20 and doesn’t know what to do. He says she could turn it into the police but they won’t give her another $20 in exchange and so she’ll lose $20. He advises her to just pass it on to someone else. He orders another drink for Carol and gives the bartender (played by Harvey) the $20. But before he can make change a cop comes in and sits at the bar. Tim quickly takes the $20 back from Harvey and pays for Carol’s drink with change. He tells Carol to take the $20 but she says she doesn’t want it. The cop asks what’s going on and Tim says he was trying to give the lady $20. The cop misunderstands and says we have laws against that and so he’ll have to arrest her. Tim says he was giving her the $20 because he owed it to her. Carol says she gave him the $20 to get four $5s. The cop asks Tim if that’s true and he’s on the spot so he gives Carol the four $5s. The cop leaves and Tim asks for his $5s back but she says no. She reminds him that he told her to pass the fake $20 on to somebody. While they are arguing Harvey comes and asks what’s wrong. Tim says she gave him a $20 for four $5s. Harvey asks what’s wrong with the $20. He recognizes the $20 that Tim at first gave him and picks it up. He sees that it’s counterfeit and asks to see the four $5s he gave Carol. She shows them to Harvey and he says they’re phony as well. Tim gives him another $37 to square things and Harvey tells him to get out. He leaves and then we see that Harvey and Carol and the cop are partners and they’ve been pulling this scam all day long. They all sit down to count their take. 

            Carol says that every year from 1907 through 1931 Florenz Ziegfeld produced a new Ziegfeld Follies featuring stars like The Dolly Sisters, Fanny Brice, Will Rogers, W.C. Fields, and the Ziegfeld Girls. Tonight they do several sketches based on the Ziegfeld Follies. 

            Harvey plays the master of ceremonies in a white top hat with tails. He sings “One beautiful lady is like one beautiful tune” and as another lady descends the staircase he sings “Two beautiful ladies are like two beautiful tunes” and as each lady arrives the count increases until he sings, “If you’ve seen one beautiful lady you’ve seen them all”. 

            Betty plays a French singer in a corset and feathers named Zizi (probably after Zizi Jeanmaire). She sings in a French accent about how other women are fake but not Zizi. She says everything about Zizi belongs to her but her heart belongs to you. 

            Tim plays a well dressed but dishevelled drunk staggering on the street until he sees a mailbox and tries to mail a letter. He fumbles with it as only he can and finally puts the envelope in the mailbox but then realizes he forgot to add the stamp. he takes off his shoe and sticks it in the mailbox and since there’s gum on the sole he is able to catch the envelope and retrieve it. Then he puts on the stamp and returns it to the mailbox but knocks the bottom out of the mailbox and all the letters fall out. However he doesn’t notice as he staggers away. 

            Vicki does a Fanny Brice imitation in a bird costume. She sings about being a swallow and does a deliberately bad tap dance. In the end she lays a big egg. 

            Carol is the feature singer and sings, about taking a ride on the Moon while she’s being swung above the stage on a crescent moon and hanging on for dear life. But she falls off and when all the singers turn to show her on the moon she’s on the floor. 

            Florenz Ziegfeld managed bodybuilder Eugen Sandow as The Great Sandow at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. In 1896 he turned to theatrical management and made a star out of French singer Anna Held by promoting her in North America and featuring her in Broadway shows such as A Parisian Model. . He started the Ziegfeld Follies n New York in 1907, modelling them after Les Folies Bergere in Paris but made them less risqué. His spectaculars were a theatrical hit every year for 23 years until they were ended by the Great Depression. Through his Follies he made starts out of Will Rogers, Bert Williams, Fanny Brice, Ray Bolger, W.C. Fields and Eddy Cantor. He also produced several successful Broadway shows such as Sally and his greatest artistic achievement, Show Boat. His Ziegfeld girls were required to show a certain look and poise before they even were allowed to audition for his shows. His goal was to glorify the American girl. They performed in elaborate but revealing costumes and moved together on stage in synchronicity as one glamourous machine. The danced to the music of the top composers of the day such as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Jerome Kern. For his shows he built the 1600 seat Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. It opened in 1927 with the show Rio Rita, which ran for 500 performances. Show Boat ran for 572 performances and featured the songs “Old Man River” and “Can’t Help Lovin That Man”. He co-produced the film adaptation of his show Whoopee in 1930.

July 12, 1996: My last payday of the summer

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday it was payday and there might have been some small cheques to pick up from The Ontario College of Art and The Toronto District School Board. After that it would have been pretty dry financially. I might have busked on Bloor with Brian Haddon and then we would have performed together on the Spit Fridays open stage in the back room of the Cameron.

Alan King

            On Friday morning I guess my steaming of the baseboards the night before had flushed out more bedbugs because there were just as many as yesterday morning. I think I need to lay down diatomaceous earth after steaming to catch them when they come out. 

            I worked out the chords for the second verse of “La complainte de Bonnot” by Boris Vian. Next is the chorus and after I have those chords it should set the pattern for the song. 

            I ran through the French text while listening to the audio of “Ça” (That), the parody of the Serge Gainsbourg song “Je t’aime. Moi non plus (I Love You. Neither Do I)” to see if I’d split the two voices correctly. I made some adjustments to my translation and now it’s ready to be uploaded to my Christian’s Translations blog. 

            I weighed 89.25 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Kramer during song practice and it stayed in tune most of the time. 

            Around midday I touched up the blue bliss hued paint around the outer edges of my four floral reliefs that I’d painted pink on my future bathroom mirror frame. On Sunday I’ll do the inner edges and then hopefully the mirror will be ready to mount in the bathroom on Tuesday. 

            I weighed 91.05 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since July 1. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 90.15 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was behind on my journal and worked on getting caught up. 

            I grilled four chicken legs and had one with a potato and gravy while watching season 10, episode 11 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            During the audience warmup someone asks Carol what Rock Hudson was really like. She says he was one of the nicest people she’s ever worked with. 

            Someone asks if she’ll be teaming up with Lili Tomlin again. She says they try to get her but she’s very busy. Carol thinks Lili’s a genius. 

            In the first sketch Tim and Carol play a couple with a new baby. Tim is getting ready for work and wants breakfast but Carol has been up all night and just got the baby to sleep so she’s dead on her feet. Tim says for her to go to bed and he’ll make his own breakfast. She urges him to be very quiet so as not to wake the baby. He’s incompetent in the kitchen. plus the kitchen is falling apart. When he tries to open a cupboard it comes crashing off the wall. She comes out and shows him that the coffee was on the counter. He asks her to open a can of pears for him and she falls asleep again. He finishes opening the can and bops her in the face a few times while turning the crank, then hits her with the cupboard door. He makes a lot of noise looking for a frying pan and she shows him it’s on the stove. He gets the bacon and puts it in the pan but I guess it made his hands slippery because when he grabs one egg it flies out of his hand, another falls on the element, another flies onto the counter. A fourth one breaks open perfectly but there’s nothing inside. He says, “Must be on the pill”. Finally Carol comes out and says it will be easier for her to cook his breakfast so he can be gone sooner. He hands her the hot frying pan but he’s holding the handle and burns her hands. I guess maybe there’s an earthquake because another cupboard crashes off the wall and the baby starts crying. He says he’ll grab something on the way to work but will be home for lunch. 

            Carol introduces Alan King and says they are very old and dear friends. She asks him if he’s been sued lately. He says he’s been sued for many things he’s said on television. He says he doesn’t make up his jokes but has had to live them. They announce flights leaving every half hour for Cincinnati. “Do you know anybody that’s rushing to Cincinnati?” He mocks the slogan, “The friendly skies of United”. Are all the other airlines attacked by the Luftwaffe? He says there’s a European airline whose ad shows all the passengers dancing in the aisles. He says that’s because there’s only one toilet. There are luggage ads where the luggage is dropped out of a plan but hits the ground undamaged. They’re telling to that it’s safer to fly inside your suitcase. He says last Christmas his network gifted him with six pieces of Gucci luggage worth about $3000. He says he doesn’t think one should travel with luggage that expensive. One should just show it off to guests at home. He says everybody on an airplane is nice because they are close to their creator. But when they land at the airport they will kill each other to get at their luggage. He says he saw his Gucci luggage coming down the belt and it looked like someone had taken a knife to it. Behind it was a cardboard carton wrapped in rope and it didn’t have a scratch. he says from now on he puts his Gucci luggage inside of cardboard cartons when he flies. Alan then tackles the airline food. he says the ads show seven chefs slicing the beef Wellington but on the plane you get a diseased piece of chicken on which you can see the blackheads. He says he refuses to eat another Hawaiian nut (I guess me means macadamia nuts) because you choke on it for weeks. Inside your body it swells up to the size of hockey puck. 

            Carol comes out to move the show along but Alan protests that he doesn’t get a duet with her. He convinces her that he can sing and so they do. They bring Carol a stool and Alan asks if she’s comfortable. She asks for a stool for Mr. King and someone tosses one out to the stage. Carol gives him a piece of the music to sing and she sings an altered version of “You Say the Nicest Things” by Dick Manning and Carroll Carroll from the 1952 movie Roadhouse Nights. Alan’s parts are mostly “Yeah”. He grabs her part of the song and then they sing the rest together. 

            In the next sketch Alan plays a psychiatrist and Carol comes in as a first time patient. She tells him about a recurring dream in which she’s walking through the woods and comes upon a castle. She knocks on the door and the door opens… Alan’s phone rings. He tells the person, “The minute he gets home from school, lock him in his room”. Carol begins to tell him her dream again several times but at the same point the phone always rings and each time Alan is talking to a different person. In the second call he tells Margot that the alimony is in the mail. In the third call he tells his mistress he hasn’t been able to tell his wife about her yet. In the fourth call his daughter is calling from a commune and she’s asking for a wig because she shaved her head. In the fifth call it’s his mommy calling from the home he put her in. After he hangs up he screams that he hates his mother. He breaks down and starts telling Carol his problems and she takes his place behind the desk. 

            They do a salute to Warner Brothers. They’ve done this before but with different sketches. 

            The first sketch is a parody of the 1949 film The Fountainhead. Alan plays the architect and he’s telling Vicki that he got fired for one mistake. There are no washrooms in his entire building. 

            The second is a parody of the 1941 film They Died with Their Boots On. Harvey plays General Custer under attack with Tim by his side. Tim tells him they are outnumbered. Custer says they’ll escape in disguise. They go behind a rock and Tim comes out disguised as Custer but Custer is dressed as a Lakota warrior. 

            Carol sings the 1931 song “As Time Goes By” by Herman Hupfeld from the 1942 film Casablanca. 

            They do a parody of a famous scene from the 1935 film Ceiling Zero. Harvey, and Alan are arguing about which one of them while fly the plane to deliver the vital serum while Vicki telling them how important it is. I guess “ceiling zero” indicates the fog and zero visibility so it would be a dangerous flight. Harvey says she’s in love with Alan and so he’ll fly the plane. Alan says she’s in love with Harvey. Vicki says she loves them both but can’t decide. The two men knock each other out so Vicki takes the serum to go fly the plane. Then Harvey and Alan show they are faking and smile at each other. 

            There’s a parody of the 1946 movie Night and Day in which Harvey plays Cary Grant playing Cole Porter. Carol plays his fiancé Linda who is a nurse in a hospital and Harvey is a wounded soldier. When she sees him she is concerned that he keeps up his songwriting while he’s more concerned with recovery. She pushes him to write a song and brings a piano in. he throws in everything that’s happening around him and everything people say into the song. 

            Tim says the king of Warner Brothers musicals was choreographer Busby Berkeley. No matter how silly the song was he always had a spectacular way of producing it. Harvey plays an optometrist and Carol his assistant. The song seems to be called “Two of You” and the glasses make Harvey see two of Carol with Vicki as her double and then they see two of Harvey with Alan his double. The song is in a 1920s style. The dancers and Carol, Vicki, Harvey, and Alan tap dance while wearing glasses. There’s Busby Berkeley type choreography with the dancers making kaleidoscope patterns seen from above. The song might have been written for the sketch because it doesn’t turn up in a search. 

            Alan King played drums in a band in his teens. At 14 he competed on Major Bowe’s Amateur Hour as a singer. He didn’t win first prize but toured with the show. He dropped out of school at 15 to become a rimshot comedian in the Catskills. Then did standup in a burlesque house in Canada while fighting as a professional boxer until a fighter named King broke his nose. That’s when he took on the last name King. His nickname became “The last angry man of the suburbs”. Jerry Stiller called him the Jewish Will Rogers. He made his film debut in Hit the Deck in 1955. He often got sued by airlines and insurance companies for mentioning them negatively in his routines. He frequently appeared on Ed Sullivan and Johnny Carson (for whom he became a frequent guest host). He hoisted the Academy awards in 1972. He co-starred in The Girl He Left Behind, On the Fiddle, Bye Bye Braverman, The Anderson Tapes, Just Tell Me What You Want, Cat’s Eye, Sunshine State, and Memories of Me. He created the Laugh Well Program to send comedians into hospitals to entertain patients. he created Alan King’s Tennis Classic in Las Vegas. He said women live longer than men because they aren’t married to women. He wrote Help! I’m a Prisoner in a Chine Bakery in 1964, Is Salami and Eggs Better Than Sex?, Name Dropping, Alan King’s Great Jewish Joke Book, and Matzoh Balls for Breakfast.

July 11, 1996: After the streetcars got empty I carried some furniture to my new place

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday night after the streetcars got emptier I started making trips from my old place in Little Portugal, carrying my biggest pieces of furniture each time, to the new place at Spadina and Queen.

Johnny Mercer

            On Thursday morning when I checked for bedbugs there were still a lot more after the steaming. It’s as if the steamer itself is spawning them but I guess the heat is forcing them out from deep in the wall. 

            I worked out the chords for the first verse and the first line of the second verse of “La complainte de Bonnot” by Boris Vian. The second verse has the same chords as the first except for the end where it goes lower. 

            I ran through the French text while listening to the audio of “Ça” (That), the parody of the Serge Gainsbourg song “Je t’aime. Moi non plus (I Love You. Neither Do I)” to see if I’d split the two voices correctly. I had to split them up some more and so that changes the meaning slightly and I had to revise my translation again. I haven’t quite finished that but I will tomorrow and then I’ll check with the audio again. 

            I weighed 89.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            I worked on getting caught up in my journal. 

            I weighed 90.65 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on the way back. The cherries these days are still cheap so I got seven bags. I also bought a pack of Quebec strawberries, some bananas, a jar of natural peanut butter, a pack of Full City Dark coffee, and some 2 in 1 shampoo. When I got home I realized I’d forgotten to buy Sponge Towels so I rode back to Freshco to get a pack.

            I weighed 89.9 kilos at 18:50. 

            I was behind on my journal so I worked on getting caught up. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last two strips of finger beef while watching season 10, episode 9 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            During the audience warmup someone asks Carol why all of her gowns have pockets. She says she specifically asks Bob Mackie to give them pockets because she never knows what to do with her hands. 

            Someone asks Carol what alternative career she would have chosen. She says a school teacher for college boys. 

            In the first sketch Tim’s old man character is the counter person and the cook at a diner when Harvey sits down to order a hot dog and a chocolate milkshake. Tim keeps forgetting the order and so Harvey grabs his pad from him and writes it down. Tim asks, “What’s a hot dag?” When that’s cleared up Tim asks what he wants on it and he says he wants it plain. Tim asks if he wants a bun. Harvey asks, “What’s a hotdog without a bun?” Tim says, “A lonely weenie”. Tim pulls the hot dog out of the steamer but there are 12 of them linked and he doesn’t have the strength to break one off so he lowers 11 of them into the garbage disposal. Tim pulls the fries out of the hot grease with his bare hand but doesn’t feel burned until Harvey points it out to him. Tim is struggling with a box of buns while Harvey is holding the wiener. Harvey puts the frank in his vest pocket and takes a bun, then reaches for the hot dog but pulls out a cigar and puts it on the bun and bites into it. He blames Tim for that and abandons the idea of having a hot dog. He just asks for the chocolate shake. Tim puts a scoop in the metal cup, adds milk and chocolate. Tim asks if he wants it thick or thin and Harvey says thick. As he struggles with the scoop, Harvey is cracking up. Tim puts it under the mixer and pours in in a glass. Harvey asks why he couldn’t have been that efficient with the hot dog. Harvey takes a drink and spits it out, saying it’s horrible. Tim says it probably needs more ice cream and gets another scoop. But then Harvey looks and sees he made the shake with mashed potatoes. Tim says in that case he’ll have to charge him for the Blue Plate Special. 

            Ken Barry does a number with a group of male dancers and the scene is a patio bar where he and the other guys are harassing and inappropriately touching a waiter. Ken sings “Love Stolen” by Alfred Uhry and Robert Waldman from the 1975 musical The Robber Bridegroom. In the dance, a lot of female dancers are grabbed as if against their will. Eventually one very tall woman turns the tables on Ken.

            They do a parody of Mildred Pierce called Mildred Fierce with Carol playing the Joan Crawford part. She comes into a police station to confess to the murder of her husband. Tim takes down her confession and so she tells the story, starting from just after her first husband left her. She breaks the news to her spoiled daughter Vida (played by Vicki) who only cares about lost money. She asks her mother how a no talent klutz like her is ever gonna make any money. After three years Mildred is making money but Vida is embarrassed because she has a chain of restaurants called Mildred’s Fatburgers so she runs away. Monty Slick arrives (played by Harvey) to sell her one of his buildings for another restaurant. Vida returns and is impressed with Monty the lecherous playboy she’s heard of. She encourages her mother to marry Monty so they can be rich. Monty says he’s not interested in marriage. Vida reminds him flirtatiously they he’d also be living with her and so he agrees to marry Mildred. He embraces Mildred and kisses Vida at the same time. Returning to the present, Tim informs Mildred that they caught the real killer and Vida is brought in. Mildred continues telling the story. She is married to Monty and when she comes home from work she catches him making out with Vida. Vida tells her they are getting married and running away together. Mildred leaves but then Monty tells Vida he never said he’d marry her and won’t. Vida grabs a gun and shoots him. Mildred returns and agrees to take the blame to save Vida. Returning to the present, Mildred tell Tim that this is only Vida’s first murder and she’s sorry. Tim says he’ll let her go this time but don’t do this again. But we hear Vida being unrepentant and on the way out of the police station Mildred shoots her, then comes back to confess to Tim. 

            They do a mini-musical built on the lyrics of Johnny Mercer. Sam (played by Harvey) pretends to play piano and sings “Laura” with music by David Raksin from the 1945 musical Laura. Carol plays Laura who waits tables in a place owned by Eddy who Laura is in love with. But Eddy (played by Ken) is in love with the singer Tangerine (played by Vicki). Laura sings the 1942 song “Not Mine” with music by Victor Schertzinger. Eddy sings the 1941 song “Tangerine” also composed by Schertzinger. Eddy tells Laura he’s going to ask Tangerine to marry him but he’s nervous. She tells him what to say by singing, “Namely You” with music by gene De Paul from the 1954 musical Li’l Abner. But when Tangerine walks in he sings, “My Night to Howl” with music by Robert Emmett Dolan from the 1964 musical Foxy. Tangerine does her stage act while singing, “Any Place I Hang My Hat is My Home” with music by Harold Arlen from the 1946 musical St. Louis Woman. Laura gets Eddy to give Tangerine the ring and then she goes off to party with some customers. Eddy sings more of “Tangerine”. Sam sings the 1944 song “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” with music by Harold Arlen. Then Laura sings it to Eddy. But then Tangerine comes back. Sam sings to Laura “Namely You”. But then Eddy joins in and gives the ring to Laura. They kiss and leave together. Sam sings “Laura”, then Tangerine sits with her arm around him. 

            Johnny Mercer learned to dance from Arthur Murray. He started as a singer and songwriter for Paul Whitemena. He started writing songs for and acting in movies in 1935. He teamed up with Hoagy Carmichael in 1933 and they co-wrote “Lazybones”, which earned them each $1250 ($32, 223 today). He moved to Hollywood in 1935 to write songs for movies. He wrote the song “Hooray for Hollywood” for the movie Hollywood Hotel. He wrote the words and music to “I’m An Old Cowhand” and it was his first hit. He got his first Academy Award nomination in 1938 for “Jeepers Creepers”. The same year he co-wrote “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby”. In 1941 he started writing songs with Harold Arlen and their first hit was “Blues in the Night”. They wrote “One for My Baby”, “Come Rain or Come Shine”, and “That Old Black Magic”. , He co-founded Capital Records in 1942 for $25,000 and sold it to EMI in 1955 for $20 million. In 1946 he won his first Oscar for “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe”. In 1951 he won another Academy Award with Carmichael for “In the Cool Cool Cool of the Evening”. He wrote “Moon River”, “Days of Wine and Roses” in 1961 earning him his fourth and fifth Oscars. He wrote the horrible English version of “Les feuilles mortes” called “Autumn Leaves”. In 1965 he wrote the English lyrics for “Der Sommerwind” and it became a hit for Frank Sinatra. He wrote the lyrics for more than 1,500 songs. He was nominated for 19 Oscars and won 4. He was sometimes Judy Garland’s lover. A fan named Sadie Vimmerstedt once wrote Johnny a letter telling him that “I Wanna Be Around to Pick Up the Pieces When Somebody Breaks Your Heart” would be a great title for a song. Mercer agreed and wrote the song, which became a hit and he shared half the royalties with Sadie. He co-wrote and “Something’s Gotta Give”. I think Mercer was overrated as a lyricist. I steamed my baseboards again.

July 10, 1996: I carried my dresser to the new place

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday evening I probably performed on the Art Bar reading series open stage. After that I might have gone back to my place at 111 Sheridan Avenue and taken my dresser, carried it to the streetcar and transported it to my new place at 428 Queen Street West.