Harold J. Stone

            On Friday morning I published on my Christian’s Translations blog “That I Love You Now Tell Him”, my translation of “Dis-lui toi que je t'aime” by Serge Gainsbourg. I also posted the lyrics on Facebook. There are twelve Gainsbourg songs left in my project to translate his entire works from 1958 until his death in 1991. I started memorizing his song “L'amour en soi” (Essential Romance). 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the third of four sessions. I audio and video recorded the session as I have since September 1 and will until October 15. I got through “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” without any major mistakes but before I was done my guitar was out of tune. I spent a long time on “Vomit of the Star Eater” and when I finally made it to the third verse and fumbled I decided not to start again. 

            I weighed 87.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I weighed 88.55 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 87.85 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:20. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Me and Gravity” I boiled down the 1922 film “Sky High” to 5.5 minutes. I kept all the parts that could possibly relate to my line “It’s the kind of place you leave. I only need a few seconds and so I’ll narrow it down further tomorrow. 

            I uploaded today’s song practice videos. I converted the September 25 video from MP4 to AVI. I’ll start September 26 overnight and should be caught up on Sunday. After that I’ll only need to convert one a day. I finished reviewing the September 10 video and did the first 35 minutes of September 11.

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken drumstick while watching episode 19 of The Big Valley.

            Victoria Barkley is substituting for the regular school teacher Miss Keller because she was sick today. The session is finished and she has just gotten into her carriage when she is surrounded by a gang on horseback. She is warned not to yell by the one who gets into the wagon beside her. He takes the reins as one of the men on horseback points a gun at her and quotes scripture. After some time they reach the top of a hill and send the wagon down to be wrecked at the bottom. Victoria has to ride horseback from this point. Meanwhile her sons have heard of her abduction and with the sheriff have formed a posse. One of the students described the men and it appears to have been the Sam Beldon gang. Since the Barkleys are the richest family in the valley they assume there will soon be a ransom note. The gang arrives at a cabin and Victoria meets Beldon. She asks how much he’s asking for ransom and he says if he wanted ransom he wouldn’t have kidnapped a small town schoolteacher. At that point Victoria realizes Beldon and his gang think that she is Miss Keller the schoolteacher. She keeps the advantage of letting them believe that. She is surprised to learn that the reason she was abducted is because Beldon wants her to teach him to read and write. He has a first grade reader and the next day she begins the lessons of teaching him the alphabet and simple phrases such as “A is for apple”. As they get to know each other he reveals that his wife caught a fever and died a year ago. She’s buried in his place in the high country. Sam leaves to bust one of his men out of jail and Victoria is left under guard. But someone recognizes Sam’s gang in town and things go awry. They lose more men in the shootout, including Preacher, and Julio is brought back severely wounded. Some of the men feel too many things have gone wrong lately and decide to leave. Sam reveals to Victoria the reason he wants to learn to read and write. From a chest he pulls out a grave marker that he carved. He says he wants to be able to write his wife’s tribute on the marker. Doctor Briggs is brought to treat Julio and he recognizes Victoria but she introduces herself to him as Miss Keller so he will play along. Briggs says the bullet is too deep to be removed there but it could be done in town. They are going to kill Briggs but Victoria pulls a derringer she got from his bag and makes Beldon promise he’ll let him go. He does but releases him without his horse or his boots. The Barkley sons find Briggs collapsed but he is able to lead them back to Beldon’s hideout. Julio dies. The sons arrive and Sam’s man Will grabs Victoria for a shield. Sam shoots him and then has a standoff with the posse before getting shot dead. Victoria leaves his schoolbook on his grave.

            Sam was played by Harold J. Stone, who was born to actors in the Yiddish theatre and grew up on stage. He attained a BA from the University of Buffalo Medical School but instead of pursuing that career returned to the family profession. He started out on radio. His Broadway debut was in The World We Make in 1939. His film debut was in The Blue Dahlia. He played Frank Nitti in The St. Valentines Day Massacre. He co-starred in Somebody Up There Likes Me. He was best friends with Jerry Lewis and co-starred in three of his films, including The Big Mouth. He co-starred in the short-lived sitcom The Hartmans. He played Jake Goldberg on The Goldbergs, Hamilton Greeley on My World and Welcome to It, and Sam Steinberg on Bridget Loves Bernie. He co-starred in the series Grand Jury. He was nominated for an Emmy for his performance in an episode of The Nurses.