Wendell Corey

            On Thanksgiving Monday morning I wasn’t quite able to memorize the fourth verse of “La vague à lames” (The Bladed Wave) by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I should have it nailed down and maybe even the rest of the song. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the last of four sessions. I audio and video recorded the session for the 44th of 45 days. I went through “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” and it wasn’t bad but I decided that since this was my last day of recording with the acoustic guitar I’d go through it again. Both times a motorcycle went by but I think the second time was better than the first. It was relatively quiet outside because of the holiday early on but then at 10:00 a guy with a very loud power washer started cleaning the building of the Elaine Fleck Gallery and the Capital Espresso. He was still doing it two hours later. It probably ruined anything I recorded after he started. I was pretty sure it was against the law to make that kind of noise on a holiday. But when I looked it up on the city website it looks like what he’s doing is okay since it’s after 9:00. 

            I weighed 87.85 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since last Monday, though not as heavy. 

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

            I weighed 86.10 kilos at 18:25. That’s the lightest I’ve been in the evening since August 22. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:30. 

            I started a Movie Maker project for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues”. This is the only one of my songs recorded by Christian and the Lions that has no concert video to use as the infrastructure of the music video. So I have to create a video that does not have me in it. I copied the song to the audio timeline and then I closed Movie Maker. I have no overall plan but I have an idea of how to begin. I spent about half an hour collecting images of rainbows and I got twenty two. Tomorrow I’ll see what kind of rainbow videos I can find. I might manipulate some of images to create a rainbow wave form and animate it for the intro. 

            I uploaded today’s song practice videos and I’ll convert the big one to AVI overnight. Tomorrow I’ll record the last video for this year’s project. Tomorrow night I’ll start reviewing all 45 sessions song by song to find out which song recordings are good enough to upload to YouTube. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last chicken leg with a beer while watching season 1, episodes 9 and 10 of Branded. 

            These stories are parts two and three of a three part story. 

            US President Ulysses S. Grant needs McCord for an undercover operation because although McCord doesn’t hate the army he has reasons to that will help him to pose convincingly as a traitor. Outposts, border stations and civilian properties are being raided from across the Mexican border by a Mexican gang. The army can’t pursue them across the border without violating the US treaty with Mexico. The plan is for McCord to infiltrate them and convince them to hit the payroll at Fort Perry. McCord arrives in a small town in Mexico near the border and goes into a cantina where two men pick a fight with him. After beating them McCord says he wants to talk with their head man. Why would he assume that these ruffians are members of the gang he wants to infiltrate? Chances are if they are part of a criminal organization they wouldn’t behave so chaotically. Someone knocks McCord out from behind and when he wakes up he is in the presence of someone higher up in the gang named Emil Brissac. He tells Brissac he’s familiar with US army garrisons and he knows the pattern their gang is using for their raids. He predicts correctly that their next target will be Fort Ryder. He says he can tell them which fort to hit that will net them the greatest profit but he needs a long term contract with their real head man. The next day McCord meets General Arriola (played by Cesar Romero) and advises him to do the unexpected by raiding Fort Perry. There is a large shipment of silver being held there for one day. If Arriola’s men disguise themselves as US cavalry they can enter the fort without firing a shot. The general agrees to the deal. McCord trains half the gang to behave as cavalry soldiers. The other half will chase the disguised gang members into the fort and then will retreat luring the soldiers from the fort away as they give chase. That will free up McCord and the disguised bandits to steal the silver. The night before they leave, Crispo, the man McCord fought earlier, led a raid across the border and killed several members of the US cavalry. He brings back the uniforms to use for disguises. McCord sees that one of the uniforms was that of Colonel Snow, who was supposed to be McCord’s contact at Fort Perry and would have warned the fort of the plan. McCord has no choice but to go through with the mission anyway. The next morning they head out.

            At the beginning of part 3 the marauders led by McCord reach Fort Perry. The ones in uniform pretend they are being chased by the bandits and so the fort opens its gate for them. Several fort soldiers give chase while McCord, Brissac and Crispo go to where the silver is being held. Meanwhile however one of the soldiers tells the fort commander Major Whitcomb that he recognized the man disguised as a colonel to be Jason McCord. Brissac and Crispo are about to steal the silver when McCord pulls a gun on them. But then Whitcomb has McCord placed under arrest. He doesn’t believe that he’s on a mission and he says he’ll face a firing squad tomorrow. On top of McCord’s alleged crimes the major resents McCord because while the major fought his way to the top, McCord was a West Point graduate and had everything handed to him. Whitcomb wants McCord to tell him who is in charge of the gang but McCord doesn’t think the major is competent to have that information. Later McCord tries to escape and makes it just outside the gates before he is recaptured. The next morning McCord is placed before the firing squad. McCord makes one last request, then the shots are heard. Afterward Whitcomb goes to see Brissac and Crispo and asks if McCord had been their leader. Crispo says he was a spy, then we see McCord is not dead as Whitcomb calls to him. McCord is freed and heads back to Washington.

            Whitcomb was played by Wendell Corey, who started acting in summer stock. He joined the Federal Theatre Project during the Depression. He made his Broadway debut in Comes the Revelation in 1942. He became a Broadway star when he played one of the lead roles in Dream Girl in 1945. This led to him being signed to Paramount Pictures. His film debut was in Desert Fury in 1947. He co-starred in The File on Thelma Jordon, No Sad Songs For Me, and Rear Window. He starred in the TV drama series Harbor Command. He starred in the TV sitcom Peck’s Bad Girl in 1959. He was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1961 to 1963. As a Republican he was elected to the Santa Monica city council in 1965. He ran for congress in 1966 but didn’t win.