Jewell Lain

            On Saturday morning I copied the proper lyrics for “La Robe de Papier” (The Paper Dress) by Serge Gainsbourg. I had previously tried to transcribe them while listening to the song but when I do that what I get is usually only marginally correct. Tomorrow I’ll start memorizing the song, which shouldn’t take long because there are only ten lines. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of playing my Kramer electric. 

            I weighed 87.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I rode down to No Frills where I bought five bags of red grapes, a pack of Ontario strawberries, some bananas, a small whole chicken , mouthwash, hair conditioner, sandwich bags, tomato pesto, a jug of iced tea, a jug of orange juice, a large container of 0% skyr, a small container of 4% skyr, a bag of Miss Vickie’s original chips and another of the apple wood smoke flavour. 

            I weighed 86.95 kilos at 14:05. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of iced tea.

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

            I weighed 86.7 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up with my journal at 18:34. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the Christian and the Lions studio recording of Brian Haddon’s song “The Ballad of My Chest Cavity” I finished editing the animation of the liver. I copied two clips of the liver and pasted them into the main timeline just before the beginning of the line, “At night my liver goes to the beach…” That moved the concert video behind the studio audio and so I cut out the part that show me scratching my nose and that lined them up again for “…to lie upon the sand”. But the video and audio seem out of sync again for “Where the beach is soft as eiderdown…” I’ll find out tomorrow where the video is ahead or behind at that point. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara sauce, basil pesto, a chopped slice of back bacon, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episode 20 of The Bill Cosby Show. 

            Chet’s colleague Bob has been smoking three packs of cigarettes a day for 20 years and now he intends to quit because he learned his 15 year old son has started smoking. He smokes his last cigarette in front of Chet and says it’s going to be easier than he thought. He wakes Chet up at 2:00 and tells him it’s going to be harder than he thought. He wants Chet to help him quit and so he moves in with him. He has his first breakfast without a cigarette and is so overwhelmed by the taste that he eats Chet’s breakfast as well. Chet will be throwing a party in a few days and the real test for Bob will be all the smokers. He helps Chet unpack his groceries and finds a carton of cigarettes, which Chet says he bought for his smoking guests at the party. Bob is very upset and asks Chet to hide the carton. Later he begs Chet to tell him where he hid the carton. Chet tells him he’s locking him in the house and Bob rips Chet’s shirt. Chet still won’t tell him and Bob tears his shirt even more. Chet tells him where the carton is and now Bob is mad that he told him. He’s about to light a cigarette when Chet says, “Your child should see you now!” and he stops. They go to a movie and there’s a guy smoking next to Bob. Just before the party Bob is panicking and so Chet says he’s going to hypnotize him. He plans to make Bob susceptible to any command and then he will replace Bob’s urge for a cigarette with one for potato chips. At the party Chet is carrying around a bowl of potato chips. Bob tells him to keep an eye on him and so Chet begins to silently follow him. A woman tells Chet she must have the painting above his mantle and Chet takes it down and hands it to her. Bob tells the woman’s husband about Chet’s helping him quit smoking. The husband says, “I’d like to see you stop my wife from smoking” and Chet reaches out and grabs her cigarette from her. Bob says, “If you put a lit cigarette in my mouth right now I wouldn’t smoke it”. Chet puts the woman’s cigarette in Bob’s mouth. Bob takes it out and tells Chet he’s a genius. After the party Bob tells Chet to go to sleep while he cleans up. Chet throws himself on the couch and goes to sleep. Then a guest returns to say his wife forgot her purse. Bob tells Chet to wake up and he’s no longer hypnotized. He’s forgotten the last few hours and thinks the party hasn’t started yet. 

            The woman was played by Jewell Lain, who took ballet lessons as a child and made her acting debut at the age of 8 in “Five Little Peppers and How They Grew”. After high school she enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Art. She became a Conover Model and was awarded the title “Miss Television Film”. She debuted on the New York stage opposite Steve McQueen. She was a regular on Playhouse on Broadway. She moved to LA in 1955. She dated Cary Grant for a year and a half. Her film debut was in Death of a Scoundrel. She was a Wampas Baby Star of 1956. She co-starred in Suicide Battalion. In 1968 she married her lawyer and gave up acting. She divorced him in 1974 and found it difficult to find work again as an actor.