Betty Hutton

            On Sunday morning I was going to start learning “Les frères” by Boris Vian but there doesn’t seem to be any recordings of it online. Maybe I’ll memorize it anyway as a poem and post it without chords on Christian’s Translations.

            I almost finished editing “Mon Légionnaire” by Raymond Asso on my Christian’s Translations blog and I should have it published on the blog tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing my Kramer electric guitar. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning in 73 days but it’s a kilogram heavier than I was this time last year. 

            At 10:30 I noticed I’d had another call from the U of T Faculty of Dentistry an hour before that. Every time I’ve called them I’ve gotten their answering service and assumed that they only call and never pick up. But I decided to try to get through and on the third call I made it. I have an appointment at 8:20 on March 21 for an examination and a recommended treatment plan. The consultation will cost $141 and the treatment will probably cost a few $thousand but I guess it would be worth it to save my teeth.

            Around midday I worked on editing a copy I made of “Mysticism and Materiality: Pearl and the Theology of Metaphor” by Kerilyn Harkaway-Krieger and I’ve cut it in half as I try to condense it down to its main elements for my Critical Summary. 

            I weighed 85.8 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. The temperature had bounced back up and I didn’t need long underwear this time. I stopped at Freshco to buy bananas and scallions but when I felt the red grapes they were firm and so I got five bags. I think that Pricilla put in the code for a price match on the grapes without telling me because the whole bill was $21, and that’s way lower than they would have been at the Freshco price. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos at 18:00. It’s been 54 days since I’ve been that light in the evening. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. I continued to edit “Mysticism and Materiality”. I should have it done on Tuesday and then I can focus on the Critical Summary that’s due on Friday. 

            I had the usual tomato, cucumber, avocado, and scallion salad with lemon juice for dressing and a glass of Garden Cocktail while watching season 2, episode 23 of Burke’s Law. 

            At a circus there is a clown act that pulls up in a Volkswagen at centre ring and the audience is told to count the clowns as they exit. But Zero who is always clown 13 doesn’t come out because he is dead, impaled by a spike that was triggered to shoot out from the car floor where he had been lying face down under the other clowns. Burke interviews the head clown Gogi, who says Zero lived in the same trailer as him and his wife Rena. Burke talks with Alexis Raff, the circus owner. Tim and Les search Zero’s trailer while Rena is there. Zero had over $200,000 in 17 different savings accounts. He also had a promissory note for $20,000 from Gideon Arbach. They also find in his possessions a faded membership card for the German Nazi party. Finally they find a key to the penthouse at the Beverly Palms Hotel where trapeze artist Ariella Martel is staying. Burke goes to the penthouse and lets himself in. There is a trampoline in the middle of the living room. There is a lion on the bed in the bedroom. He meets Ariella who says most hotels won’t allow pets. Zero was her husband. After he married Alexis he walked out on her and left Europe to join Raff’s circus. She stayed in Europe and became a star. Then Zero blackmailed her but I can’t figure out what he had on her. Burke asks if she killed Zero and suddenly the lion comes out of the bedroom and mauls him, although they don’t show the attack. Burke is all scratched up but he recovers quickly. Tim and Les interview Gideon, whose talent is his long nose, which he uses to balance on a ball. He explains the promissory note with a story about when he went drinking with Zero in Chicago and Gideon ended up with a blonde who turned out to be the girlfriend of a gangster. Zero knew that and blackmailed him. The lab deciphers the Nazi card and it belonged to Raff’s father. Burke has a make-up artist come in to make him look like Zero the clown aided by the tramp clown clothes he borrowed from Alexis. His plan is to go undercover at the circus and to try to get into the car act. The first person he visits is Gideon, who is appalled by Burke dressing up as Zero. Burke identifies himself and asks if he killed Zero. Gideon says his life is tied up with his nose and he wouldn’t sacrifice that to kill a clown who was blackmailing him. Then Rena runs into Burke and begins screaming, “You’re dead!” After she calms down Burke talks with her in her trailer. He guesses that Rena and Zero were having an affair and she confesses it’s true. Burke goes to see Alexis who knows he’s Burke but says he looks just like Zero. He asks about the Nazi card and she admits that it was her father’s. She says Zero found out and blackmailed her and so she just paid him. Burke tells her he needs to replace Zero in the clown act and so she arranges it and names him Slats. Burke finds Gogi getting the car ready and introduces himself as Slats. Gogi tells him to get in first. When the clowns climb out at centre ring Gogi is surprised to see Burke alive. Burke show him that Tim replaced the steel spike with a rubber one. Gogi jumps onto a popcycle (those tiny motorcycles that clowns drive) and Burke goes after him on another one. There is a chase through the circus and then out onto the streets. There are old fashioned silent movie style gags with people carrying buckets being knocked off balance and a road line highway painter being knocked face first into his paint. Gogi crashes into some boxes and barrels. Burke has a romantic evening with Arielle in the end. 

            Rena was played by Betty Hutton, who started singing professionally with local Detroit bands at the age of 13. When she was 16 she sang with Vincent Lopez’s band on the radio. She moved to New York and made it onto the Broadway stage at 19. She moved to Hollywood and was signed to Paramount. In the 1940s she was one of Paramount’s most profitable stars and was known for her energetic and animated style of acting. She once kicked Keenan Wynn into unconsciousness onstage and also knocked out some of Bob Hope’s teeth caps. Her first film at the age of 21 was The Fleet’s In. She made a few more musicals and then tried to break into comedy. She co-starred in Public Jitterbug Number One, Three Kings and a Queen, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, Happy Go Lucky, Let’s Face It, And the Angels Sing, Here Come the Waves, The Greatest Show On Earth, Spring Reunion, Duffy’s Tavern, and Let’s Dance. She starred in One For the Book, Dream Girl, Red Hot and Blue, Annie Get Your Gun, Somebody Loves Me, Incendiary Blonde, The Stork Club, and Cross My Heart. In the mid 50s she married Charles O’Curran and wanted him to direct one of her movies. Paramount didn’t like the idea so she threw a tantrum and walked away from her contract. That pretty much ended her career as a movie star. On TV she starred in The Betty Hutton Show for one season. In the 1970s she was discovered working in a soup kitchen and as a cleaner in a rectory. She later earned a Masters degree in Psychology and became an acting instructor.