Johnny Duncan

            On Sunday morning I posted “Song and Dance” my translation of “Distel et Cassel’s Song and Dance” by Serge Gainsbourg from 1963. Tomorrow I’ll search for any more songs that I didn’t translate yet in my Gainsbourg project. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing my Martin acoustic guitar. Maybe next week I’ll be able to get it fixed. 

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I put on some clothes I wouldn’t normally wear in public. I brought in the step ladder and sanded the north east quarter of the bathroom ceiling. I sanded off most of the drywall compound that I’d put up there except for where the walls meet the ceiling. Any patches that I’d filled where there was older paint surrounded by newer old paint pretty much all came off. There are some areas I’ll have to fill again. It’ll probably be May before I’ve finished sanding the bathroom and return to filling. Maybe it’ll be ready to paint by summertime. 

            I weighed 86.45 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 85.9 kilos at 18:13. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:18. 

            I downloaded the silent Buster Keaton film, The Three Ages and converted it to WMV. I imported it to Movie Maker and copied it to the end of the timeline of my Seven Shades of Blues project. I cut out everything but the one minute segment set in ancient Rome in which a woman flirts with Buster but when he tries to kiss her it turns into a Greco-Roman wrestling match that she wins. 

            I reviewed the song practice video of my electric performance of “Laisse tomber les filles” on September 1. In the take that went from the end of part C to the beginning of part D, I fumbled through without trying to do a smooth take. Of my performance of “Leave the Naïve Alone”, the take at 51:15 was okay but the Gibson sounded rattly. 

            I had a lettuce, cucumber, scallion, tomato, and avocado salad with balsamic vinaigrette while watching episodes 6 and 7 of the 1949 Batman serial. 

            In part 6, during a fight between Batman and the Wizard’s men, Vicki Vale has gotten knocked off the pier. Batman jumps in to save her but gasoline has been leaking into the water from bullet holes in barrels and Nolan tosses a lit kerosene lamp in so that Batman and Vicki are surrounded by floating flames. It doesn’t stop them from climbing out onto the dock. When Wizard’s men see them they start coming back to attack again but Robin starts a siren in Bruce Wayne’s car that scares them away. Batman and Robin have taken one of Wizard’s men, Mack Lacey prisoner. Batman takes a picture of him before turning him in to the police. Then Batman disguises himself as Mack and uses his Harbour Club membership card to get in. The Wizard’s men are all there and Nolan wants to know what happened to him. He says he was captured by Batman but got away from Robin. Nolan says they need two men at headquarters to help the Wizard convert the remote control machine to the new X90 power. They go to hideout B while Robin follows. When Batman learns there is an alarm set off by a bump in the road he lights a cigarette and then tosses it out the window. Robin, who is still driving as Dick Grayson sees the cigarette and parks the car. He changes to Robin and approaches the cabin that Batman and the Wizard’s men have entered. The men listen to Barry Brown’s broadcast and hear him disclose that Mack Lacey is in custody. Nolan confronts the Batman’s fake Lacey. Robin is watching through the window and shines a Bat Signal on the wall. Nolan leaves one man to guard “Mack” and he and the rest go outside to investigate. They capture Robin while Batman knocks his guard down. He heads for the door just as Nolan comes in with Robin. Nolan asks him who he really is. He says he’s a friend of Mack’s. Nolan doesn’t believe him but gives him a chance to prove him himself. He puts Robin against the wall and tells the disguised Batman to shoot him. Batman doesn’t hesitate. He fires one shot and Robin goes down. But when the men go to see if Robin is still alive the unscathed sidekick begins to fight while Batman shoots out the lights. In the confusion Batman and Robin get away to drive away in the Bruce mobile. Robin tells Bruce it was good shooting to hit his small belt buckle at that distance. Robin says they can’t follow them because he sabotaged their car. Nolan radios the Wizard who says he’s replacing him because of his bungling. He tells Holt to keep Nolan under guard until he can get rid of him. Batman sees the Bat Signal and stops at a gas station to call Commissioner Gordon. Gordon tells him that Mack talked and gave the police the location of the next caper. It’s on Marine Street on the waterfront. When Batman and Robin get there they spot three of Wizard’s men outside a warehouse. The men see them and duck inside. Batman and Robin follow but see no one inside. They go through a door into a storage room only to have the door locked behind them. Then carbon dioxide is pumped into the room and eventually they collapse. That’s the cliffhanger. 

            In part 7, Batman pulls two glass tubes from his utility belt and hands one to Robin for him to breath through. He then pulls a sizeable acetylene torch from his belt as well. That must make it hard to walk let alone fight. He cuts a hole in the door and they escape. Barry Brown announces that Batman and Robin are dead. Bruce and Dick are visiting Gordon when Barry Brown walks in. Gordon tells him if it was up to him he’d be behind bars. The Wizard sends a threat to the railroads demanding an unspecified sum or he will stop every train from leaving or entering Gotham. He will demonstrate his power for five minutes. Meanwhile we see Professor Hammel once again struggling from his wheelchair to an electronic chair that temporarily revives his ability to walk. As usual he grabs his leather gloves and leaves through a secret door in his large fireplace. When he does that we always next see The Wizard entering his cavern headquarters. He turns some dials and flips some switches and then all the trains stop for five minutes. Barry Brown announces that Winslow Harrison, the president of the Associated Railroads will personally investigate the train stoppages. He refuses to be blackmailed. Batman and Robin go to where Harrison is scheduled to travel. A car is following them and Batman stops it. The driver is Vicki Vale and she asks if Bruce Wayne knows Batman is driving his car. Batman says of course he does. Batman takes her car keys so she can’t follow them any further. He tells her Bruce will pick her up later, then he leaves her there. But Vicki smiles and digs out another set of keys from her purse. Meanwhile at another cabin hideout, the Wizard’s men see Harrison’s car passing. Wizard stops the car by remote control and his men approach with guns drawn. They start taking Harrison to the cabin but his chauffeur really knows how to fight and is holding his own against two men. Batman and Robin arrive. Robin goes to help the chauffeur while Batman goes to help Harrison. Batman jumps Harrison’s abductors and knocks them out. He escorts Harrison to the cabin, but the thug guarding the shack activates and hides a device, then leaves through the back door. He meets the other men and they cover the cabin with their guns to make sure Batman and Harrison don’t leave. Suddenly the clock starts ticking quickly and the hands on Harrison’s watch are spinning. The curtains and paper in the room begin to spontaneously combust. Then the cabin explodes and that’s the cliffhanger. 

            Robin was played by Johnny Duncan, who had a natural talent for dancing. He ran a dance school and taught local kids how to tap dance. An agent helped him get to Hollywood where he got early roles playing juveniles in movies that featured the East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys. He also appeared in a lot of films as a swing dancer. His first movie appearance was in The Arizona Wildcat in 1939. He taught Lana Turner how to jitterbug. He rode motorbikes with Lee Marvin and Clark Gable. He appeared in Plan 9 From Outer Space and The Wild One. His last film appearance was in Spartacus in 1960. He would still show up at comic book conventions to sign photos even up until just before he died at the age if 92.