Ruth Buzzi

            On Friday morning I worked out the chords for the first three lines of the chorus of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian, which is over half the chorus of the adaptation by Michel Fedrizzi. 

            I finished importing to Movie Maker all 251 images for my photo-video of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. I started synchronizing the pictures of Zizi Jeanmaire with the rhythm of the instrumental intro. 

            I weighed 87.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice for the last of two sessions and it went out of tune during all but one song. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of playing my electric guitars.

            Around midday I finished painting the first coat of “blue bliss” on the bathroom door. Tuesday and Wednesday I might finish the second coat for the door frame and door. Then I want to paint the bathroom rack the same colour and mount it on the wall. 

            I weighed 88.4 kilos before lunch. 

            I had two avocadoes mashed with chopped cucumber and plantain chips. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back and for the first time since my fast I was able to make it there and home without having to stop to pee. 

            I weighed 87.55 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:45. 

            I recorded side 2 of the cassette tape that I couldn’t digitize with a line-in. As I did with side 1 I was able to successfully record it by putting a mic against the speaker. I think I’ll try to re-digitize the tape I recorded before that one because it didn’t really come through very well. 

            I sautéed garlic, a chopped scallion, and some chopped ginger. I added mushrooms, frozen broad beans, and two cups of broth. I had a bowl and a half while watching season 1, episode 25 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            During the audience warm-up a man with a beard and mustache asks Carol if he can kiss her and she lets him. 

            The first sketch comes from Carol’s biography. A friend of Chrissie’s named Gretchen comes over to study but she is obsessed with Carol’s husband Roger and does nothing but gaze at him. He finally discourages her by exaggerating his age and pretending he has several age related health problems. 

            Jack Jones sings “I Can’t Get Started With You” by Vernon Duke and Ira Gershwin from Ziegfeld Follies 1936. and “Cause I Got So Much Lovin in Me” by Pearl Bender and Gloria Shayne (Shayne also wrote “Do You Hear What I Hear?”). 

            Harvey Korman interviews a drunk matador played by Tim Conway who is about to enter the arena. 

            Carol and Tim play two strangers stranded on a desert island. They find a bottle with a note and it’s addressed to her. 

            They do condensed versions of three bad movies: 

            Carol plays a Tarzan type wild woman who can only be tamed with a kiss. 

            Tim plays a gangster on the run trying to take shelter in the church of his priest brother. He says, “Mother Superior always liked you best”. 

            In a parody of an Italian film a man catches his woman with another man and he is so mortified that he goes home to his wife. 

            Carol sings “Nobody” by Bert Williams and Alex Rogers. 

            Carol and Jack sing a medley of cowboy type songs while the dancers do a western themed routine. The songs are “Wha Hoo” by Cliff Friend, “San Antonio Rose” by Bob Wills, “Bye Bye Love” by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, and “I’m an Old Cowhand” by Johnny Mercer. 

            Gretchen was played by Ruth Buzzi, who started as a head cheerleader. Her first professional show business gig was touring with Rudy Vallee’s show. She enrolled in the Pasadena Playhouse for the performing Arts and graduated with Honours. She formed a comedy team with Dom DeLuis in which she played the assistant of an incompetent magician and they had several guest spots on popular variety shows. She made her TV debut on the Gary Moore Show in 1964. She was in the original Broadway production of Sweet Charity. She was a regular on the last season of the Entertainers. She was a regular on the Steve Allen Comedy Hour. She was a popular castmember of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In and was the only woman to appear in every episode. She won a Golden Globe and had five Emmy nominations. She played Margie Peterson on That Girl. She co-starred in the sitcom The Lost Saucer. She co-starred in the Canadian comedy series You Can’t Do That on Television and the spin-off Whatever Turns You On. She appeared 8 times on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. She played Ruthie on Sesame Street. She played Nurse Kravitz on the soap opera Passions. She co-starred in The Villain, Chu Chu and the Philly Flash, and The Being, She appeared 16 times on The Dean Martin Show. Her voice was in 16 episodes of Baggy Pants and the Nitwits. She was the voice of Mama Bear on the Berenstain Bears. She was the voice of Nose Marie on Pound Puppies. She was a ventriloquist. She was friends with Canadian singer Anne Murray.