Henry Hunter

            On Saturday morning I continued to work out the chords for “Hey Mister Zippo” by Serge Gainsbourg. But as with the song before last the only audio available for the song is an excerpt from the middle provided by Apple Music and so I can’t stop the track and replay a section over and over. I have to work out the chords in patches as the excerpt moves along. I’ll probably have it done in a day or two.

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions. 

            I weighed 87.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I tried the experiment of taking my bike trailer to No Frills. I unhitched it when I locked my bike and took it into the supermarket. I set one of the tall two wheeled baskets on top of it while I shopped. All the grapes were too soft. I bought a watermelon, three mangoes, bananas, ground chicken, three bags of milk, a bag of naan, a jug of iced tea, two bags of Miss Vickie’s chips, and two containers of skyr. Packing my groceries into the bag and attaching it to the trailer with bungee cords was a hassle. There is a set of straps that came with the trailer but I couldn’t see how the bag of groceries could really be secured by them. I made it home but had to stop a few times and adjust the position of things in the bag because it was bulking at the bottom and rubbing against the wheel of the trailer. The experiment with this kind of bag was a failure because it took me more than half an hour longer than usual to get my stuff home. I need to get some kind of tall thin bag or more preferably a tall basket to strap onto the trailer beforehand in order to make shopping for groceries with the trailer worthwhile. 

            I weighed 87.8 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of raspberry lemonade.

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown. I turned south on Spadina because it looked like there was a protest ahead on Bloor. I went across to St George and south to Harbord and then east to Queens Park where I saw what I assumed was the pro Palestine encampment. I went south to College and then east to Yonge. Then I turned around and went west on College to Spadina where I stopped at Urbane Cyclist to ask about bag accessories for my trailer. I didn’t want to order the market bag that attaches to the trailer because I didn’t want to be obligated to buy it if I didn’t like it on seeing it. He said they’d contact me when they get it in stock. 

            I went down Spadina to Dundas and turned west. I stopped at the African Drum shop where there was a workshop going on. I waited about twenty minutes while Seiku led a group of six women in a drum circle. When they were finished and Seiku saw me he asked if I wanted to play. I reminded him about the little yellow drum that I’d left there to be repaired and he said he forgot to fix it. He said he’d do it tonight or tomorrow. I’ll try again next week. 

            I met my upstairs neighbour David on the stairs as I was carrying my bike up. He was on his way to work but came in to see my trailer and my new camera. 

            I weighed 86.5 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:09. 

            In the Movie Maker project for the electric version of “Joanna Dancing” I copied what I’d synchronized into a new project called “2023-09-03 Song Practice B” just in case I need it for another song. Then back in “Joanna Dancing (Electric)” I cut out all the other songs. I adjusted the audio so there is just a touch from the camera microphone, then I added the effect of the video showing only the edges so it looks like an animated drawing. I published the movie and tomorrow I’ll upload it to YouTube. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Angeline” I continued to edit the copy of the 1926 silent film The Torrent starring Greta Garbo. I have forty some minutes of the movie left to go through. I watched the movie as I cut out any parts that don’t show Greta miming as if she were singing. 

            Greta’s character Leonora leaves for Paris to seek her fortune but her love Rafael, on orders from his mother, does not come to say goodbye. Years pass and Leonora becomes the famous opera singer La Brunna. She goes to see a minstrel show and hears a black banjo player sing of home and suddenly she is homesick. She returns to Spain with her entourage and her pets. She happily reunites with her mother and her old singing teacher Cupido. Rafael is running for congress and she shows up at his rally. When he sees her he stops his speech. She throws him an orange blossom and laughs. Rafael comes to see Leonorra and before she enters the room he hears a La Brunna record but then she steps forward singing and he sees that she is La Brunna. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the first two episodes of the second season of Bewitched. 

            In the season premier Samantha and Darren are on their way out to celebrate their first wedding anniversary when they hear a crash. Aunt Clara has literally just dropped in to congratulate them on their anniversary and to give them presents. She gives Darrin a golf cap but it is too small. Clara casts a spell to change the size of the cap but instead changes Darrin’s head to fit the cap. Unfortunately it is the head and body of a chimpanzee. When a witch casts a spell the words are very important but Clara has forgotten the words she used and so not even Samantha can change Darrin back. Darrin is still conscious inside the ape’s body and can write Samantha notes. Samantha has to call Darrin’s boss Larry to tell him Darrin can’t come to work because he has laryngitis. Samantha’s mother Endora appears and Samantha asks her to look after Darrin while she goes out. Then Larry comes by to get Darrin to brief him on one of their advertizing campaigns. When Endora tells Darrin his boss is there he runs out the window. Then the neighbour Gladys Kravitz finds Darrin and takes him into her house. Her husband Abner calls the zoo. Samantha comes home to find Clara there but not Darrin or Endora. Samantha informs Clara that she just found out from the doctor that she is pregnant. Clara has brought her book of spells so she can figure out what incantation she used on Darrin and which one she needs to turn him back. Samantha learns that Darrin is in the zoo and so she goes there to find him in a cage and not getting along with the other chimps. Clara appears with the spell but she gets it wrong again and turns Darrin into a seal. Samantha looks at the book and takes over, changing Darrin back. Darrin is very angry until he finds out that Samantha is pregnant. 

            At the beginning of the second story Darrin is waiting on Samantha hand and foot and refuses to allow her to lift a finger. But later at work, Larry tells him that pregnant mothers shouldn’t be pampered. We learned in the middle of last season that Larry’s wife Louise was pregnant but it was not mentioned in any subsequent episodes. We hear now that Larry became a father a few months ago. He says Louise played a round of golf the day before she went into labour. Darrin is now convinced not to coddle Samantha, but when he comes home and tells her he's going to take a nap until dinner is ready she tells him he can make his own dinner. Endora decides to teach Darrin a lesson by causing him to experience all of Samantha’s symptoms. He has an upset stomach in the morning, his back aches, he has strange food cravings and he becomes extremely emotional at work to the point of crying. He goes to the doctor who says that if Darrin was a woman he’d say she was pregnant. Darrin realizes a spell was cast on him by Endora and now he thinks he is pregnant. Samantha comes to the bar where Darrin is drowning his sorrows and assures him that he is only experiencing symptoms rather than actual pregnancy. He begins to pamper Samantha again because now he has empathy. After they leave the bar Endora appears there next to a man who overheard Darrin. He says he’s had five kids and has one on the way and it’s a snap. Endora zaps him and suddenly he has a backache. He says he’s supposed to go bowling but she says, “I wouldn’t advise it in your condition”. The guy in the bar was played by Dort Clark. 

            The doctor was played by Henry Hunter, who studied under Helen Hayes at the Theatre Guild School in New York. He worked in theatre and joined a Chautauqua troupe for which he played lead, was stage manager and drove the truck. He then acted for three seasons in His Majesty’s Theatre and the Orpheum Theatre in Montreal where he married Dorothy Black. When he was down and out in Chicago he was hired by an old friend from New York who now worked in radio. He was acting in ten radio programs a week in Chicago before moving to Hollywood. His first feature film was a starring role in Parole. He starred in Yellowstone. He co-starred in Love Letters of a Star. He had lead roles in several radio programs in Hollywood and then went back to Chicago to become a production director for NBC radio. They sent him back to Hollywood to direct several programs. Starting in the 1950s he returned to acting, but on television.