Julie Newmar

            On Thursday morning I finished memorizing "Le bonheur c'est malheureux" (Happiness is Very Sad) by Serge Gainsbourg. I looked for the chords but no one had posted them, so I worked them out for the intro. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            I worked a bit on my essay, mostly editing and revising the beginning paragraph: 

            In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre there are three crucial experiences of Jane seeing her reflection. Each of these moments has a connection with the reading of books and with death. In the first, Jane is being punished with confinement in the room where her former benefactor died. In a mirror she not only sees her own reflection but also the room that is looming large behind her. The reflected chamber appears "colder and darker" than it does with direct observation, and her own reflection looks like a supernatural figure from stories (Brontë 17-18). 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Bloor and Ossington and stopped at Freshco on the way home. I bought five bags of grapes, two packs of blueberries, one pack of blackberries, bananas, a jug of limeade, a box of spoon size shredded wheat, kettle chips, and salsa. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos at 17:20. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:57. 

            I spent about two hours further revising the introduction of my essay: 

            Jane is being punished with confinement in the room where her former benefactor died. In the large mirror she not only sees her own reflection but also the room that is looming large behind her. But for Jane the reflection that she sees is a "colder and darker" realm of existence occupied by another, supernatural version of herself that has been altered in her imagination by otherworldly figures that she recognizes from stories. Jane's familiar self appears unfamiliar in the glass because of the unnatural situation which has been imposed upon her. This produces "an uncanny feeling" of defensiveness by her true self against becoming that dark entity that she sees in the glass (Boyle). She chooses not to identify with this eerie imago and moves away from the mirror (Brontë 17-18). But now the otherworldly atmosphere of the reflected room has infiltrated the chamber and Jane becomes infected with superstition. Despite her sense of the injustice of her imprisonment she fears that the ghost of her benefactor will come to her aid and she is terrified of the implications of receiving assistance from the dark side of the mirror (Brontë 17-18). 

            Jane finds no proper reflection of herself in the others in the Reed household and so even her reflection in the mirror becomes other than herself. Jacques Lacan would say that the development of Jane's ego requires that she find herself reflected in the images of others (Hewitson). 

  

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching season 4, episode 27 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Granny is angry that Jethro is shirking his chores. Jed explains to her that Jethro is trying to meet someone of the opposite sex. Granny says, "He don't even know what sex he's opposite!"

            Meanwhile a beautiful actor from Sweden named Ulla Bergstrom is being paid $10,000 a week while she's waiting to be given a picture but the right production for her has yet to be found. Drysdale wants to send her back to Sweden until he meets her and is charmed into trying to find her what she is looking for. She wants to star in a movie that is being made about a sharecropper's daughter but her Swedish accent is an enormous roadblock. Jane suggests that she stay with the Clampetts in order to learn to talk the way they do. The Clampetts don't hesitate to take Ulla in but they misunderstand the situation. They think that Ulla is very poor and they think that the fact that her luggage is made out of alligator confirms that. 

            Jethro can't take his eyes off Ulla and now he wants to do any chores that put him near her. But he is so distracted that he saws a log and continues to saw right through a marble bench. Meanwhile Ulla records his accent to study for her part. 

            Jed and Granny have a talk with Ulla and find out she wants to be in the movies. They ask if she's ever done a movie and she says no. She worked in "The Cherry Orchard" in Stockholm. "The Cherry Orchard" is a play by Anton Chekhov but Jed and Granny think she was a farm labourer. She says that she wants to show Hollywood that a Swedish girl can be a sharecropper's daughter and make good, but Jed and Granny think she really is a Swedish sharecropper's daughter. Jed decides to call Mammoth Studios and get Mr. Chapman to give Ulla a role in a movie. Jed doesn't know that Ulla already knows Chapman. But when Jed offers Chapman a big raise if he gives Ulla a role he says he'll do it and he leaves with her. 

            Ulla was played by Julie Newmar, whose father had been a professional football player and her mother had been a dancer with the Follies. Her mother became a fashion designer under the name Chalene. Julie has an IQ of 135, she studied piano and dance from an early age and graduated from high school at the age of 15. She went to UCLA where she studied piano, philosophy and French. She became a prima ballerina for the Los Angeles Opera. She made her Broadway debut in Silk Stockings and won critical acclaim for her performance as Stupefyin Jones in L'il Abner. Everybody told her she was beautiful and smart but the compliment she always sought was to be told she was funny. Her first major film role was as Dorcas in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. She won the 1959 Tony Award for her part in The Marriage Go Round. Also in 1959 she played Miss Devlin (The Devil) in The Twilight Zone. She played Rhoda the Robot on the short-lived sitcom My Living Doll. In 1966 she was cast as Catwoman on the Batman TV series. She modified her costume, placing the belt at the hips instead of around the waist. She couldn't do the third season because of a movie commitment and so the role went to Eartha Kitt. She played Princess El'len in the Star Trek episode "Friday's Child". She has two patents for Nudemar pantyhose and another for a bra that she invented. She lives next door to Jim Belushi and once threw an egg at his house because of his noisy air conditioner. He sued her for defamation of character, spying and vandalism. She is now somewhat of a residential real estate tycoon in Los Angeles. 

            

            

           

            

           

           

           

          

            

           

           

            

            For the fourth night in a row I found no bedbugs.