Wednesday 9 October 2024

Richard Anderson


            On Tuesday morning I ran through singing and playing “L'amour en soi” (Love in Essence) by Serge Gainsbourg. I revised my translation of the first three verses and I need to do the same for the rest of the song as well now that I have a better sense of the rhythm and rhyme. 
            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions. I audio and video recorded the session for the thirty eighth of forty five sessions. I got through “Vomit of the Star Eater” after a few takes and “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” after one but I don’t think either of them were flawless. I did one of my best performances of “The Dying Man” but the last second was lost from video because the memory card was full. 
            I weighed 86.75 kilos before breakfast. 
            In the early afternoon I took my laundry to the Speedy Wash at Queen and Dowling. The elderly attendants left a note that they won’t be there until October 20, but most of the machines were functioning and only one other customer was there when I arrived. I had an extra big load because I washed my comforter for the first time in months. I had to really squeeze to get everything into the bags that attach to my bike trailer. I loaded my wash and went home to do the dishes. I went back to put my stuff in a dryer and then went home in the rain to finish the dishes and get a late lunch ready. It had stopped raining when I went back to squeeze my things back into the trailer bags. 
            I weighed 87.1 kilos at 16:00. I had a late lunch and a late siesta and when I got up it was too late to take a bike ride downtown. 
            I weighed 88.1 kilos at 18:30. 
            I was caught up on my journal at 20:00. 
            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Me and Gravity” I synchronized the concert video with the studio audio of my line “the way it’s meant to be”. After that the video was behind again for the line, “But even in that state of grace” and so I cut out a few bits of the video to bring it forward. Then the video of the line “Between transplants of love’s glass embrace” was dragging and so I edited out a few more pieces of the video. That pretty much synchronized them again but I’ll check tomorrow to make sure. Following this there’s only one more line before the final chorus. 
            I grilled four chicken legs and had one with a potato and gravy while watching the first season finale of The Big Valley
            In this story Audra and her brothers are on a train to Sacramento bound for the state fair when she starts feeling sharp stomach pains. A doctor named Travers happens to be on the train and so they fetch him. He has a quick look at Audra and then goes to his room to get his bag. But there is a gunman waiting for him. Travers disarms him and escapes. In the corridor is another assailant and Travers escapes him as well. Between cars one of the men catches up with him but Travers knocks him off the train. Then the other man attacks but runs away when Jarrod steps out. Travers examines Audra, gives her some laudanum and tells her brothers that she has an enflamed appendix. He uses ice to control the swelling but says she needs a hospital. However there is none before Sacramento, which is 4.5 hours away. Heath gets the conductor to cut down the time by bypassing some of the stops and that will help them make it in three hours. Jarrod asks Travers who is after him but he just says there are several that want him dead. At a water stop Travers tries to leave but Jarrod confronts him and urges him not to abandon his sister. Travers turns to go but then he hears Audra cry out in pain and he returns to her side. Travers says he has to stop giving Audra laudanum because he needs to measure the severity and repetition of pain so he can check the progress of the inflammation. Meanwhile Aaron Moyers and his son Andy are waiting with a lynch mob for the men on the train to bring Travers to them. But the one man that was left on the train sends Moyers a telegram to inform him they failed. They go after the train on horseback. Aaron and Andy board the train and enter with guns drawn the room where Audra, her brothers and Travers are. Aaron says that Travers is really Lucien Kellaher. Travers admits it and confirms that he’s the one who sacked Colbyville and burned it to the ground. Aaron says the fire killed his wife and Andy’s mother. Jarrod remembers the case and points out that Kellaher served thirteen years in prison for his crime. The brothers disarm Aaron and Andy but Aaron says he has men waiting at the watering stop. Heath goes to tell the engineer not to stop. The riders chase the train. Travers says he has to operate. He tells them that he spent ten years working in the prison hospital and after he served his time he became a doctor for small towns and mining camps. He says maybe he hasn’t yet paid for what he did in Colbyville but right now he’s going to save Audra. Travers says they have to stop the train so he can perform the surgery. Nick says the riders will catch up but Travers tells him she may die otherwise. Heath arranges for the train to go ahead and come back later and then he uncouples the car. The riders are approaching. Travers tells Moyers that he needs thirty minutes to perform the operation and after that he’ll go with him. Moyers shouts for his men to wait. The operation is a success but the brothers won’t let Moyers take Travers. Andy grabs a gun and points it at Travers and says, “This is for my mother”. But Andy breaks down and can’t bring himself to do it. His father had taught him that Kellaher was a butcher but he’s just seen him save a girl’s life. He says Kellaher is dead. Andy leaves and Aaron follows. 
            Travers was played by Richard Anderson, who started acting in high school, then did summer stock, and worked on the radio. An appearance on the TV series Lights Camera Action led to an MGM contract. His film debut was The Pearl. He played police Lieutenant Drum on the last season of Perry Mason. He co-starred in Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory. He co-starred in the TV series Bus Stop. He played police chief Untermeyer on the series Dan August. He played Buck Fallmont on Dynasty. He played Lyndon Johnson in the mini-series Hoover Versus the President. He played Oscar Goldman on both The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. He’s also the first actor to have played the same character on two different networks at the same time. He later produced TV movies of the Six Million Dollar Man series. He was the narrator on the TV series Kung Fu. From 1976 to 1982 he was the Shell Answer Man in Shell commercials.



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