Chita Rivera

            On Wednesday morning I continued to edit “Ballade de la chnoufe” by Boris Vian to prepare it for publication on my Christian’s Translations blog. I might have it finished tomorrow.

            I continued translating “Chaussures noires et pompes funèbres” (Black Dress Shoes and Funeral Parlours) by Gainsbourg.

            I weighed 88.65 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since April 17. 

            I had to delay starting song practice at 10:00 because I had an 11:00 appointment with the denturist at Family Dentistry on Queen. I was sitting on the side of the chair so I could get my denture out of my backpack to show him. He said he’d look at it after I “sit properly”. He said my flexible denture can’t be adjusted. We discussed getting a denture made that would cover all my missing teeth. I agreed to go with that but then he told me that the denture would be metal because the Canadian Dental Plan doesn’t cover acrylic ones. I decided not to get the dentures and to just wait for the implant. When I looked it up later it seems he was wrong that the federal plan doesn’t cover acrylic dentures. I’m not going back to that guy. It looks like I won’t be shooting any song practice videos this summer as I’d hoped to do, not with a gap in the front of my teeth. I assume I’ll have the implant by next summer. 

            I did my song practice ninety minutes later than usual and was done just before lunch. 

            I weighed 90.04 before lunch. I had saltines with peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar with a glass of iced tea. 

            I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back stopped at Freshco where I bought six bags of grapes and price matched them with The Real Canadian Superstore’s cost of $3.95 a kilo. 

            I weighed 88.95 kilos at 18:30. That’s the easiest I’ve been on the scale in the evening since April 21. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:33. 

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity and then extracted to my hard drive side 2 of the recording of the Christian and the Lions concert at Lee’s Palace on October 6, 1995. Tom Smarda played Stratocaster, Steve Lowe played acoustic guitar, Arjan played bass, and Barzin Hosseini played drums. On side 2 there were my songs “Thin Red Line”, “Sixteen Tons of Dogma”, and “Angeline”. Tomorrow I’ll digitize side 1 of a Christian and the Lions rehearsal tape. 

            I deleted several images from my hard drive. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with cherry tomato sauce, tomato pesto, chopped hot Italian sausage and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore lager while watching season 4, episode 22 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            During the audience warmup a 13 year old girl gives Carol a Charwoman hand puppet that she made.

            Someone asks about Carol’s ear-pulling gesture. She says it used to signal hello to her grandmother but now it’s for her kids. She says her left ear is slightly longer since she’s been doing it. 

            A boy asks Carol her favourite sport and she says Paul Newman. 

            The Carol and Sis sketch has Carol heating TV dinners for supper and Roger is very disappointed. He wonders what took up her time since she obviously didn’t go to the beauty parlour. Then the doorbell rings and Carol tells Roger that bell just saved his life. It’s Roger’s accountant Howard (played by Bob Newhart) and he’s come by to get their tax returns signed. He says his wife is waiting in the car and they didn’t know he was married. Roger says to bring her in and then Roger and Carol discuss what kind of a woman a nerd like Howard would get. But it turns out that Blanche is tall, blonde and gorgeous. She also waits on Howard hand and foot, makes all of his clothes, is a master chef, and is about to become a lawyer. They have to leave because their new waterbed is being delivered. After they leave, Roger absent mindedly calls Carol “Blanche” and he’ll be sleeping on the couch tonight. 

            Chita Rivera dances with the male members of the Ernie Flatt Dancers to a recording of Blood, Sweat, and Tears performing “Lucretia MacEvil” by David Clayton Thomas from 1970. Chita portrays Lucretia as a literal spider woman with the dance beginning high on a giant web. At the end there are several men caught in the web and others dead on the floor. 

            The next skit is an almost exact re-enactment of a skit from season 2, episode 25 in which Harvey wakes up with a hangover. There’s a knock and in walks Carol as Alice Portnoy the Fireside Girl collecting money. Bit by bit she reveals information she knows about him along with photographic evidence that results in him donating more and more money to her can. 

            The final skits and numbers are part of their salutes to Hollywood film studios. This time it’s MGM. 

            Carol and Harvey re-enact the famous scene in Ninotchka in which Greta Garbo laughs on screen for the first time. 

            Then there is a parody of Blackboard Jungle in which Bob Newhart plays the teacher and tells the students to put their bullets to the front of the room. They open fire at him. 

            Carol, Vicki and Chita do the Charleston and sing a song that mimics that era. Then they sing “The Varsity Drag” by Ray Henderson, Buddy de Sylva, and Lew Brown from the 1927 musical Good News. 

            There’s a parody of the scene from Gone With the Wind when Rhett Butler carries Scarlet O’Hara up the stairs “to make a woman of her”. Her dress keeps getting in his face but after three tries he gets her up but then she lets him know that her bedroom is downstairs. 

            There is a parody of the 1936 film Rose Marie, set in a fort in the frontiers of Canada. Harvey plays a Mountie named Sergeant Strongheart, Lyle plays a French Canadian trapper. The ordered brides arrive. Carol plays Rose Marie a disguised French princess and Vicki plays her lady in waiting. Bob Newhart plays the Marquis de Fop who pursues Marie Rose. Vicki is carried off by Lyle and Strongheart comes to Rose Marie’s rescue. Chita plays a First Nations woman who intervenes by shooting an arrow at them because she’s in love with Strongheart. Fop arrives looking for Marie. She disguises herself as a Mountie. Strongheart is confused because he is attracted to this guy. But Fop recognizes her. Strongheart steps in his way and so Fop challenges him to a duel, long notes at three paces. Marie hits Strongbow with a pin in the ass to make him sing longer and he wins. Chita offers herself to Fop. 

            Carol reveals that her sister Chrissie stood in as one of the crowd, sang a bit, and even learned some dance steps. 

            Chita Rivera trained as a ballerina from age 11 and received a scholarship to the School of American Ballet. Her first professional performance was at 17 in Call Me Madam after she had accompanied a friend to the audition and ended up winning the part. She became a star after appearing as Anita in the original production of West Side Story on Broadway. She played Rosie in the original Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie. She won a Tony for The Rink and another for Kiss of the Spider Woman (originating the part of the title character). She had six more nominations for Bye Bye Birdie, Chicago (originating the role of Velma). Bring Back Birdie, Merlin, Jerry’s Girls, and Nine the Musical. She made her TV debut on The Maurice Chevalier Show in 1956. She appeared three times on The Ed Sullivan Show. She played Connie Richardson on The New Dick Van Dyke Show. Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom and she was the first Hispanic woman to receive the Kennedy Centre Honour.

April 30, 1996: I decided to start presenting featured performers at my writers open stage

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday night as always I went to host my Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy writers open stage in the Art Bar of the Gladstone Hotel. But besides my co-host Raven, nobody showed up. Raven and I spent some time in the empty room trying to figure out a solution to this problem. I finally decided and she agreed that we would start having featured performers because then they would invite their friends to come to see them read and we would have an audience that would potentially come back. But when choosing features I didn’t want to be elitist like the other reading series and bring in renowned authors. I wanted to keep it within the family and so we established the rule that to be invited to be a featured poet one must have performed at the Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy at least twice before.

Totie Fields

            On Tuesday morning I continued to edit “Ballade de la chnoufe” by Boris Vian to prepare it for publication on my Christian’s Translations blog. I might have it finished tomorrow. 

            I finished editing “Dessous mon pull” by Serge Gainsbourg and my translation “Underneath My Blouse” in my Christian’s Translations blog and posted it on Facebook. I started translating “Chaussures noires et pompes funèbres” (Black Shoes and Funeral Parlours) by Gainsbourg. It’s not the song of the same name that he wrote for Zizi Jeanmaire to sing, which I can’t find, but rather some notes towards a planned film project that was never realized. 

            I weighed 89 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune during all but one song. 

            Around midday I cleaned the blue paint from two more bathroom wall tiles where it had overlapped when I painted the trim above them a few weeks ago. The main cleanup of splattered paint will be done later but right now I’m just cleaning the northeast corner before mounting the wire rack there after painting it blue. I still have to clean two or three tiles on the northern side of that corner before I paint the rack. 

            I weighed 90.3 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 89.75 kilos at 17:55. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:46. 

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity and then extracted to my hard drive side one of a Christian and the Lions concert at Lee’s Palace on October 6, 1995. Tom Smarda played Stratocaster, Steve Lowe played acoustic guitar, Arjan played bass, and Barzin Hosseini played drums. We started with Instructions for Electroshock Therapy but I think Steve refused to play on it. We all did “Megaphor”, “Calendar Girl”, “Me and Gravity”, “Tropic of Ulcer”, and “The Next State of Grace”. This was the first tape in a while that digitized cleanly with a line-in and with no distortion. Tomorrow I’ll record side 2. 

            I deleted 35 images from my hard drive. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last piece of pork tenderloin while watching season 4, episode 21 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            During the audience warmup someone says they want to kiss the beautiful Carol Burnett. The cameraman shouts, “She’s not here!” She lets the guy come up and kiss her. I doubt if that would be allowed these days. 

            A woman asks what kind of soap do they use to clean the floor. Carol says that’s a little personal.

            Totie Fields comes out and a guy from her old neighbourhood asks when she’s coming back. She says she hasn’t been there in 20 years and asks him to turn off her gas. 

            A guy from Winnipeg tells Totie that Winnipeggers appreciate her visits and he introduces his wife who’s a great grandmother. 

            The first skit features the Old Folks starring Harvey and Carol as Burt and Mollie. Mollie has a cold and has asked the handsome Dr. Winslow to drop by, which makes Burt jealous. Winslow gives her some penicillin pills. She stands and pretends to faint so she can fall against him. He carries her to the bedroom. 

            Ken Berry does a song and dance starting with “Racing with the Clock” by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross from The Pajama Game in 1954. The scene is an army barracks and he’s a sergeant coaxing the men to get ready for inspection. The dancing is all done in tap. The captain leaves and women come out of the lockers to dance with the men. The captain comes back and tears off Ken’s stripes, then walks off with the women. But another woman appears in Ken’s locker and he goes inside. 

            There is a parody of the Dinah Shore Show with Carol doing a pretty good impersonation of Dinah. Vickie plays her first guest who is attractive but dumb. She’s done love scenes with Hollywood’s most attractive men but she’s looking forward to her first movie. Totie plays a guest who wrote a book called How To Be A Desirable Woman. She demonstrates and several men carry her off. 

            In the Carol and Sis sketch a college buddy of Roger’s has just gone through a painful breakup and is easily triggered to start crying. Barry tells Carol it was nice of them to have him over and asks if they had other plans. She says they were supposed to have dinner with their neighbours but they broke the engagement. Hearing “broke the engagement” makes Barry start weeping again. They have drinks and Barry compliments Carol on the glasses and asks where she bought them. She says they were a wedding present and he bursts into tears again. 

            Carol reads some exaggerations about her that fifth graders wrote for an English class assignment. 

            Carol sings “Make a Rainbow” by Portia Nelson. 

            In the soap opera As the Stomach Turns, Marian and Estelle are having coffee. Estelle is crying and tells Marian she’s a werewolf. She breaks into stores, homes, and restaurants and eats all the food. Marian’s daughter comes by with another baby. She’s been accepted into one of the First Nations and they named her Running Dear. Marian says, “Next time run a little faster dear”. Marian puts the baby into the umbrella case as usual. Rabbi Feldman comes by after his golf game followed by his golf partner Father Galuchi. 

            The final song and dance is to “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” by Jerry Herman from the 1964 musical Hello Dolly. 

            Totie Fields started singing in Boston clubs while still in high school. She spent several years as a successful nightclub performer before Ed Sullivan booked her for his show. She returned many times and made multiple appearances on the Mike Douglas Show, Merv Griffin, and Johnny Carson. She was a panelist many times on Hollywood Squares. She wrote a humorous diet book called I Think I’ll Start Monday. She developed a blood clot at the age of 49 and her leg was amputated. This was followed by breast cancer and a mastectomy. She died of a heart attack while recovering.

April 29, 1996: I posed at an art school art club more than one of those or both

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday I probably posed at some art school or art club or more than one of those or both.

Violette Verdy

            On Monday morning I continued to edit “Ballade de la chnoufe” by Boris Vian to prepare it for publication on my Christian’s Translations blog. 

            I almost finished editing “Dessous mon pull” by Serge Gainsbourg and my translation “Underneath My Blouse” in my Christian’s Translations blog and should have them posted tomorrow. 

            I weighed 89.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Kramer electric for the last of two sessions. 

            I created a few more photo folders in my SSD. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back stopped at Freshco to buy grapes. Most of them were too soft but I got five bags of relatively firm ones and price matched them with the Real Canadian Superstore’s cost of $3.95 a kilo. 

            I weighed 89.55 kilos at 18:10, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since last Monday.

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:50. 

            I tried again to digitize the cassette tape of a Christian and the Lions concert at the El Mocambo for Elvis Mondays or Sedated Sundays. I’ve been struggling with this one for the last week. I had been able to get a green flashing light in my audio interface and a waveform in Audacity for the first half but the signal disappeared in the middle of my song “The Next State of Grace”. Yesterday I was able to get a waveform again after fast forwarding the tape to the end and rewinding it to the beginning, but today that didn’t work. I tried that twice and restarted the computer four times but it still didn’t work. Finally I just put a microphone to the speaker, connected the mic cable to the audio interface with the gain turned up and that worked. The next tape I’ll be digitizing seems to get a signal when it plays and so it will probably record with a line-in rather than the mic. I’ll try it tomorrow. 

            I created another folder in my SSD and deleted forty some photos from my hard drive. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast pork tenderloin while watching season 4, episode 19 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            The first skit features the Old Folks starring Harvey and Carol as Burt and Molly. Burt is wearing Hai Karate cologne today because it’s the 16th of the month and the attractive Nurse Sweeney is coming over to give them their monthly physical. Molly says she’s not jealous but she just doesn’t want Burt to make a fool of himself. But it turns out that the handsome Dr. Winslow comes instead and now Molly makes a fool of herself and Burt is jealous. After he leaves they argue but then as usual they sing a love song to each other. It’s probably called “It’s You” but it doesn’t pop up in a search. 

            Ballet dancers Edward Villella and Violette Verdy dance a pas de deux from Don Quixote. 

            In the Carol and Sis sketch Carol is hiring a maid from Ireland. According the picture the agency sent them Marie Murphy is 19 years old and very pretty. Roger leaves work early so he can be there when she arrives. But (played by Martha Raye) she turns out to be in her fifties and also lied about her ability to cook and clean. When Carol tries to demonstrate the vacuum cleaner she jumps in terror into Roger’s arms because she’s never seen one before. In the end she changes her accent and reveals she’s from the Bronx. 

            Carol and Martha sing “Let Me Sing and I’m Happy” by Irving Berlin from 1929; “Back in Your Own Backyard” by Al Jolson, Billy Rose, and Dave Dreyer from 1928; “The Other Man’s Grass is Always Greener” by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent from 1967; and “I Got Plenty of Nothin” by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, and Dubose Heyward from the 1935 musical Porgy and Bess. 

            In the George and Zelda skit, George is still married to the nagging and overbearing Zelda who he married while drunk and didn’t know her. Now he escapes that bitter reality by watching bullfighting movies. He fantasizes that he is a great bullfighter and that a gorgeous flamenco dancer played by Vicki is throwing herself at him. They agree to meet after his fight but after she leaves, Zelda invades his dream and nags him some more. She makes him feel small before his fight and then accidentally kills him with his sword. 

            Carol’s Charwoman mops up on the stage set of Swan Lake and the dancers appear. She ends up dancing with them in their swan costume but wearing her boots. She then sings a song that is probably titled “Where Do I Go From Here” but I can’t find it. 

            Violette Verdy started training at the age of 8 in 1942 while France was occupied by Germany. She began her career in Roland Petit’s Ballet des Champs Elysées in 1945. She became one of the leading ballerinas of the 20th Century. From 1958 to 1977 she was a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet. The “Emeralds” section of George Balanchine’s ballet Jewels was created for her. She starred in the film Ballerina. She was also a gifted choreographer. She was a professor of Dance at Indiana University for 20 years. In 1973 she was named a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; thirty-five years later she was honored with the knight of France's Legion of Honour.

April 28, 1996: My daughter and I went to the playground

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday my daughter and I went to the playground on Dundas before I took her back to Scarborough.

Julie Budd

            On Sunday morning I continued to edit “Ballade de la chnoufe” by Boris Vian to prepare it for publication on my Christian’s Translations blog. 

            I ran through singing and playing “Dessous mon pull” by Serge Gainsbourg and my translation “Underneath My Blouse”. I uploaded them to my Christian’s Translations blog and began preparing them for publication. I might have them posted tomorrow. 

            I played my Kramer electric during song practice for the first of two sessions and it stayed in tune most of the time. 

            Around midday I cleaned my warm mist humidifier. I didn’t need one for most of the day. 

            I weighed 90.45 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with peanut butter, cream cheese, and five-year-old cheddar with a glass of iced tea. 

            I took a siesta and thought I got up at 16:00 but after brushing my teeth it was 16:49 so I must have gotten up at 16:30. 

            I took a bike ride downtown and back.

            I weighed 89.95 kilos at 18:20. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:42. 

            In Audacity I returned to the project I started last week of recording from a cassette tape of a Christian and the Lions concert at the El Mocambo. I had successfully recorded the first few songs but halfway through my song “The Next State of Grace” the waveform had disappeared. This time it still wouldn’t work despite two restarts. The problem wasn’t with Audacity or my audio interface because when I switched to the radio it recorded and when I switched to another tape it also showed a waveform. I typed in the problem in a search engine and AI suggested I put tape over the holes at the top edge of the tape. That didn’t help but another suggestion was that the tape might be sticking within the shell and the tape might be too stiff to turn freely. It was suggested that I fast forward the tape all the way, then rewind it all the way. That worked, but it was too late to record by the time the problem was fixed. I’ll try it again tomorrow. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with cherry tomato sauce (I didn’t really notice much of a difference. Maybe they’re a little more tart), tomato pesto, chopped hot Italian salami, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching season 4, episode 14 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            The opening segment is a song and dance number by several drunken Santa Clauses with handbells. They sing “Elegance” by Jerry Herman from the 1964 musical Hello Dolly. 

            During the audience warmup someone asks Carol about her visit with President Nixon. That happened a year before in 1969. She said he invited her into the Oval Office and she was alone with him there. She couldn’t think of anything to say to him but, “How ya been?” 

            A teenager says his teacher Al Johnson knew Carol in high school. She says she remembers Al and he was cute. 

            Steve Lawrence sings “Let There Be Peace on Earth” by Jill Jackson Miller and Sy Miller from 1955. 

            In the Carol and Sis sketch, Carol, Roger, and Chrissie are going away for the weekend. Carol is just waiting for Roger to come home from work so they can leave for the airport. Roger comes home with Mr. Gordon, one of the vice presidents at company where Roger works. Gordon immediately proves himself to be accident prone as he breaks a brand new lamp. Roger shocks Carol when he informs her that Gordon is going to be staying in their house while they’re away because Roger is bucking for a promotion and a raise. Gordon comes out of the bathroom holding the towel rack that he just broke. He then sits in and breaks Carol’s 200 year old antique chair. He sits on the couch where he spills his drink. He lights a big cigar and then goes into the bedroom to make a phone call. He comes out and later Carol smells smoke because Gordon set her bed on fire with his cigar. 

            Sixteen year old Julie Budd sings “Where is Love” from the 1960 musical Oliver by Lionel Bart. Her singing is reminiscent of a young Barbara Streisand. 

            The final skit is a parody of the 1939 movie Golden Boy. Harvey plays Papa Goldman, who is an organ grinder who talks in a bad Italian accent. Carol plays the girl next door whose name is Girl Next Door. Girl Next Door comes to see Papa’s son Joey but he’s not home yet. Papa shows her that he bought a new violin for Joey. She wonders how he could afford it since he only makes 6 cents a week as an organ grinder. He says he had to sell Mama Goldman. Joey comes home from his violin lesson with torn clothes and a broken violin. He says some guys called him a sissy and broke his violin. Papa gives him his present and he is very happy. When he finds out Papa sold Mama to get the violin he is especially grateful. But then a sleazy fight manager comes in and says he saw Joey beat up those three punks and promises him a lot of money if he becomes world champion. Goldman Boy wins his first fights and builds a reputation. Girl Next Door follows him around but then he hooks up with a rich, blonde playgirl played by Vickie. Girl Next Door tells Joey that his father is dying of a broken heart and wants to die in Italy. Joey points out that he’s not even Italian. Joey is going to fight the world champion but he’s been living too richly and now he is grossly overweight. He loses the fight and the rich girl leaves him but Papa and Girl Next Door are still there for him. Papa gives him his violin and he tries to play but he’s horrible. Girl Next Door takes it from him and breaks it over his head, then she and Papa leave him. 

            In the end everybody is dressed up as if for A Christmas Carol. They must have done a skit for the audience that wasn’t filmed. 

            Julie Budd won a talent contest at the age of 12 in the Catskills and was spotted by Herb Bernstein who became her mentor. She made her TV debut at the age of 14 on The Merv Griffin Show and received a standing ovation. She appeared 40 more times on Merv’s show. She performed on many other shows as well and became the youngest opening act for Frank Sinatra. She was compared to a young Barbara Streisand and many thought she was Barbara’s sister. Unlike Barbara she never took much of an interest in acting. She sang the theme song from the movie Living Free. She teaches master classes in singing.

April 27, 1996: I picked up my daughter from her mother's place

Thirty years ago today 

            On Saturday I picked up my daughter from her mother’s place in Scarborough and she spent the weekend at my place.

Joe Hamilton

            On Saturday morning I continued to edit “Ballade de la chnoufe” by Boris Vian to prepare it for publication on my Christian’s Translations blog. 

            I finished working out the chords for “Dessous mon pull” (Under My Sweater) by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it in French and English and then upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication. 

            I weighed 88.75 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice and it stayed in tune about half the time over all. 

            At around midday I rode to No Frills where most of the grapes were too squishy but I found two bags that were okay. I also bought two packs of raspberries, some bananas, two packs of five-year-old cheddar, a pack of chicken drumsticks, deodorant, tomato pesto, a jug of pickling vinegar, a jug of iced tea, a jug of orange juice, a container of skyr, and a bag of Miss Vicki’s potato chips. Winta the cashier asked if I was going to do a price match and I told her I would if they price matched The Real Canadian Super Store, where the grapes are really cheap this week. 

            I noticed that there is an Under New management sign up at Popeyes downstairs and that there are carpenters in there fixing up the place. It looks like my landlord sold the equipment that he’d confiscated from the previous owners that he evicted to a new franchise owner. Maybe Raja himself decided to buy the franchise, but on second though he’s too cheap. He’d rather just rake in the rent. 

            I weighed 90.05 kilos at 14:25.

            I took a siesta at 15:00 and didn’t wake up until 16:50. By the time I’d brushed my teeth and gotten dressed it was too late for a bike ride but I did go over to the liquor store to buy a six pack of Creemore. 

            I weighed 90 kilos at 17:35. 

            I spent some time on my journal and finally got caught up just before supper. I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, chopped hot Italian salami, and five year old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching season 4, episode 11 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            Instead of the usual audience warmup the show begins with a US Thanksgiving themed song and dance number with everyone dressed as Pilgrims. Carol drops the roast turkey in the end. 

            In the first sketch Paul Lynd as Mr. Hetterfield is selling a couple (played by Carol and Harvey) a home owners insurance policy that will cost over $700 a year. Hetterfield insists on being called Horus and says All Heart Insurance makes everyone part of the family. He is so nice that they sign. A month later there is a fire and although the structure of the house is intact the inside is blackened and they lose everything. Horus barely remembers them and insists on being called Mr. Hetterfield. He’s not even convinced there as a fire but eventually offers them $63. Carol exclaims “You’re crazy!” Horus says, “You signed this policy and you’re calling me crazy?” Suddenly cameras arrive and someone from All Heart hands them a cheque for full coverage. It doesn’t seem like a very funny resolution. 

            Dyan Cannon sings “Until It’s Time for You to Go” by Buffy Sainte Marie. She’s not a great singer.

            In the second sketch the theatrical married couple of Funt and Mundane played by Harvey and Carol have been performing in the play Elegant Rapture for a year. Just before their final show they gather the lighting man, the prop man, and the sound effects man to tell them that they are the worst in the business and to demand that they shape up for the last performance. But of course, because of this insult, during the play the three technicians sabotage the props, the lighting, and the sound to make their last performance a disaster. 

            Don Crichton and Shirley Kirkes perform a dance together to the tune of “More” by Riz Ortolani and Nino Oliviero. 

            In the soap opera parody As the Stomach Turns Marian is saying goodbye to the swimming pool maintenance man. She tells him to start coming by four times a week instead of three because she’s getting a pool. He says it’ll be the first one on his route. Marian returns to having coffee with Louise whose 94 year old husband has just died a day after their wedding. All he left her were a few brief memories and $700 million. Louise says she has this terrible compulsion to give away her money. Marian is sure she can help. Louise says she is trying to buy love. Marian asks why she doesn’t see a psychiatrist and Louise answers because it costs $50 an hour. Louise tells Marian she’s worth her weight in gold and Marian says she weighs 194. “You don’t look it”. “My girdle is killing me”. The doorbell rings and it’s Marian’s long lost daughter with another baby. She ran away and joined the circus. The father is the half man-half woman. The baby’s name is Irving Elizabeth. She leaves the baby with Marian and says she has a date with the sword swallower. “Does he love you?” “No, he’s stuck on himself”. Before she leaves Louise gives her $500 to buy a joke book. Marian tells Louise that her late husband had two sons, Billy and Buzzy. The twins arrive played by Harvey Korman and Paul Lynd with Harvey hilariously imitating Lynd’s voice. They want to have Louise committed because she’s been giving money away. They offer Marian $50,000 to sign a paper saying Louise is coocoo. Marian tells Louise, “Write to me” as she goes to sign. But Louise tells the twins she’s willing to share and so they run to her calling her “Mumsy”. Marian says “Palsies” but Buzzy says, “Get lost Peggy this is family!” They start to leave together but Louise stops and says she owes something to Marian. She gives her a dime for the coffee. The announcer asks if Marian’s daughter will marry the tattooed man just because she likes to read in bed? 

            In the finale, Carol’s character the Charwoman mops up in a toy factory with a lot of life sized dolls and human sized anthropomorphic stuffed animals. She finds some magic glasses that cause her to see them all come to life. She dances with them but then accidentally breaks the glasses. She sits down on her bucket and sings, “Try to Remember” from the 1965 musical The Fantasticks by Tom Jones and Ralph Schmidt. 

            The executive producer and the writer of the theme music of The Carol Burnett Show was Joe Hamilton, who was also married to Carol from 1963 until 1984. He started his show business career when he joined the already popular singing group The Skylarks and they sang back-up on many TV variety shows of the early 50s, such as Dinah Shore. He became the producer of the Garry Moore Show, The Entertainers, The Tim Conway Show, and Mama’s Family. He was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards and won 3.

April 26, 1996: Brian and I rehearsed for our feature at Fat Albert's

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I rehearsed with Brian Haddon for our upcoming feature at Fat Albert’s. Later I went downtown to perform on the Spit Fridays open stage in the back room of the Cameron.

Cass Elliot

            On Friday morning I continued to edit “Ballade de la chnoufe” by Boris Vian to prepare it for publication on my Christian’s Translations blog. 

            I worked out the chords for the first half of the chorus of “Dessous mon pull” (Under My Sweater) by Serge Gainsbourg.  

            I weighed 88.85 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio for the first of two sessions. 

            Around midday I started cleaning the blue paint from the wall tiles below the blue trim that separates the pinkish purple wall paint from the tiles. Not wanting to remove any paint from the trim I needed something to precisely take the paint from the edge and found that toilet paper, alcohol and my fingernail worked best after breaking up the paint a bit with a wooden skewer dipped in alcohol. I got three and a half tiles done and it makes the trim look a lot better. I’d been thinking that where the trim meets the wall it’s uneven but when the lower part is straightened out it makes the top look straighter. 

            I weighed 89.7 kilos before lunch.

            I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 89.4 kilos at 18:25. 

            I was still a day behind in my journal and so I worked on getting caught up. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast pork tenderloin while watching season 4, episode 8 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            In the first skit George (played by Harvey) wakes up with a hangover after the annual office party at his place of work and doesn’t remember anything that happened. He hears a woman gargling in the bathroom and then an extremely nerdy and unattractive woman played by Carol comes out of the bathroom. She says her name is Zelda and she works in accounting. She informs him to his horror that they are married now and she’s quitting her job to be a full time housewife for him in his bachelor apartment. She plans to throw out all of his furniture and decorations since she’s the one who’ll have to live with them while he’s working. He grabs the phone book to look for a lawyer but she takes it from him and rips it in half. Her mother arrives to live with them and she’s just like Zelda. He’s told he’ll be sleeping on a cot from now on. 

            Cass Elliot sings “The Good Times Are Comin” by John Barry and Hal David. 

            Next Carol and Cass play a couple of wallflowers at a dance. Harvey and Lyle approach them to ask if they are dancing the next dance. They smile and say “no”. But then the guys say, would you mind watching our coats for us? The girls then sing “Nobody’s Heart Belongs to Me by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Then Carol, Vickie and Cass sing “Tell Us Where the Good Times Are” by Bob Merrill from 1953. They follow this with “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell, with images of pollution shown on the screen. Carol had just started on an anti-pollution campaign around this time.

            In the next skit Carol plays Hester Williams, a parody of swimming movie star Esther Williams. The location is Acapulco and she comes to the hacienda of billionaire playboy Antonio (played by Ricardo Montalban). When she walks she strokes her arms as if she’s swimming. When she sits on the couch she holds her nose as if she’s diving under water. When she shakes her head you can hear water sloshing. Carol parodies Esther Williams’s limited acting abilities. He kisses her and she says she has so awakened passion in her that now all she can do is swim it off. She throws off her dress revealing a one piece bathing suit and goes to swim in his pool. This is the first Carol Burnett skit that’s been done outdoors. She starts singing “You’d Be So Easy to Love” by Cole Porter and dives into the pool. She continues the song while swimming and sometimes gurgling. She ends the song by diving out of the pool and back onto his patio. She walks back in to his home and her hair’s not wet at all. Now she wants to leave and they sing “Baby It’s Cold Outside” together. It’s by Frank Loesser and was popularized in the film Neptune’s Daughter starring Esther Williams. 

            In the final sketch Carol’s character the Charwoman is mopping up at a circus. She meets a ragged clown who gives her a dead long stemmed rose. He silently indicates that he is going to juggle three balls while balancing a feather on his nose. But he drops a ball right away and while bending forward to pick it up the feather is clearly glued to his nose. He sweeps the spotlight into a small circle then picks it up and hands it to her. She puts it in her pocket. She gives him her bucket to sit on and then sits on the floor beside him. She sings “It’s Only a Paper Moon” by Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg and Billy Rose from 1933. Then she sings “Look for the Silver Lining” by Jerome Kern and B.G. De Sylva from 1919. 

            At the end she thanks “the world’s greatest clown”, Emmett Kelly. 

            Cass Elliot performed in a summer stock production of The Boyfriend during her senior year in high school and made her decide to pursue show business over college. She competed with Barbara Streisand for the role of Miss Marmelstein in “I Can Get it for You Wholesale”. In 1963 she formed folk trio called The Triumvirate with Tim Rose and John Brown. They changed their name to The Big 3 when John Brown was replaced by James Hendricks. They performed on The Tonight Show, Hootenanny, and The Danny Kaye Show. Rose left they were joined by Canadians Denny Doherty and Zal Yanovsky. They changed their name to the Mugwumps. Her vocal range improved by three notes after she was hit in the head by some copper tubing while walking through a construction site. Doherty joined John Phillips and Michele Phillips as The New Journeymen. When Cass joined them they became The Mamas and the Papas. From 1965 to 1968 the Mamas and Papas was a supergroup with a string of hits. Cass went solo in 1968 with Dream a Little Dream of Me. She appeared on the Tonight Show 13 times and guest hosted once. She featured on the first episode of Midnight Special. She released five solo albums. She recorded an album with Dave Mason. In the early 70s she made appearances on all the popular TV variety shows. She co-starred in the movie Pufnstuf. She was so upset when the IRS told her she owed them $10,000 she paid it all in pennies. But it cost her an extra $3000 to deliver the coins and then they threatened her with contempt and she had to pay to have the pennies removed. In 1974 after several sellout shows at the London Palladium she went to a string of parties and luncheons to celebrate but in the end died of a heart attack at the age of 33. She was not a big fan of rock music and preferred classical, jazz, and showtunes. She said her biggest let down was being in a pop group that turned out to be like everything it was supposed to be against. A movie about Cass Elliot starring Jessica Gunning is in production.

April 25, 1996: I either posed for the art college or a high school

Thirty years ago today 

            On Thursday I probably either posed for the art college or for a high school with an art program.

Jim Bailey

            On Thursday morning I finished running through singing and playing “Ballad of a Dealer”, my translation of “Ballade de la chnoufe” by Boris Vian. I uploaded the song to my Christian’s Translations blog and began preparing it for publication. 

            I worked out the chords for the first verse of “Dessous mon pull” (Under My Sweater) by Serge Gainsbourg. All the other verses should have the same chords so tomorrow I’ll work them out for the chorus.

            I weighed 89.8 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since March 4. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice for the last of two sessions and it went out of tune most of the time. 

            I was a day behind in my journal again and worked on getting caught up. 

            I weighed 90.45 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back stopped at Freshco where I bought six bags of grapes but spent a lot of time picking through all of the grapes, removing the soft ones and putting the firmest ones from some bags into others. I also got a pack of raspberries, some bananas, a pack of pork souvlaki, a pack of honey garlic sausages, a big tin of Full City Dark coffee (I usually buy the smaller packs of the same brand because they seem to be fresher but the tin was $3 off with a Scene card so I thought I’d try it), shaving gel, Sensodyne toothpaste, and two-in-one shampoo-conditioner. I did a price match on the grapes with the real Canadian Superstore price of $3.95 a kilo but it took some time because my cashier Isabella got confused. They’re only supposed to price match on a limit of four items and I’d always thought it was just a count but it turns out that the computer does the counting of how many of the price match are weighed. So technically they can just pile up all the bags of grapes on the scale and the computer would read it as one item. She had to ask her supervisor if it was okay and she said it was fine to do that. Isabella said she’s scared of the people in charge. She weighed three bags and then another three. 

            I weighed 90.05 kilos at 18:50. March 7 was the last evening I pushed the scale that far. 

            In the morning I got a notice from YouTube that a video I’d uploaded on September 25, 2010 had been removed because it was hate speech. This was an audio of a poem by and recited by the late William Baker called “Requiem for a Queer” that was recorded during my first 20,000 Poets Under the League poetry slam in July of 1996. They said that I could appeal and I did but there was no comment window for me to explain why it wasn’t hate speech. When I got home there was an email telling me that the review confirmed that it was hate speech. It’s bizarre that a poem by a gay man that sheds a light on violent hatred towards queers would be considered hate speech. Here is the poem: 

Requiem for a Queer 

It’s a saxophone blues night 

The skies relieve themselves

into the steambath of the day 

Grimy streetlights encourage shadows 

and down the block Stiletto Heels 

click signature on the nightsweat of the streets 

There are no neighbours in this neighbourhood 

Just ethnic rivalries that stretch

across the alleyways like Monday clotheslines

Squalid stairwells filled with smells of drying piss

lead up into the emptiness of overcrowded rooms

Stiletto Hells now stops to pose and light a cigarette 

Windows gape encrusted with despair 

and radios ricochet invasively 

The alley walls serve well the spraypaint generation 

“Suck” this

“Fuck” that 

“Mary gives great head” 

“Fags should die”

Stiletto heels moves on with flair 

and from a darkened doorway 

the orange glow from deeply sucked in heady smoke

invites Stiletto Heels to hesitate 

A shadowed arm springs out and grabs his neck 

A startled cry escapes cut short by a single bullet to the head 

Stiletto slowly slips off toppled heels 

a rag-doll folding in the gutter 

as up above a radio signing off plays 

“God Save the Queen” 

 William Baker, May, 1996 

            I was still behind on my journal at suppertime. 

            I roasted two pork tenderloins and had half of one with a potato and gravy while watching season 4, episode 5 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            During the audience warmup someone asks Carol what the most embarrassing question she’s been asked. She says, “Whether or not I’ve had a sex change”. 

            A guy asked how long she’s had a driver’s license. She says it’s been about five years because she never got one until she came out to LA. She wonders why he asked and he says, “I’ve seen you drive”. 

            She introduces a couple of people in the audience: Jim Bailey, who she said she saw in Vegas and who was absolutely brilliant. She said he’ll knock everybody out when he’s a guest on her show. She doesn’t mention that he’s a female impersonator. The other person is Jackie Joseph who she says hosts a show in LA and is nuts and a hoot. I remembers her from Little Shop of Horrors. She was also the wife of Ken Berry at that time. 

            The first skit features the Old Folks Burt and Molly played by Harvey and Carol. They are on vacation in Florida. Argue at first and then sing a song together, this time, “My Best Beau” but it doesn’t sound like the one by Jerry Herman from Mame. 

            Ken Berry sings and tap dances to “Mr. Bojangles”, by Jerry Jeff Walker but he literally whitewashed the song as he plays out the lyrics as if he was the famous black dancer Bill Bojangles Robinson, right down to dancing with a child made up to look like a young Shirley Temple who he famously danced with. The version Berry does leaves out the references to meeting Bojangles in jail and him dancing across the cell. They also wrote a couple of extra verses just for this performance. I didn’t realize until looking it up that the person Jerry Jeff met in jail was not Bill Robinson but a white guy who named himself after him. 

            The second skit features Carol as hyper efficient legal secretary Miss Farnham who serves faithfully and is probably in love with the lawyer Mr. Bradley, played by Harvey. He insists that she take a two week vacation because she hasn’t had one in eleven years. She interviews some temporary replacements but they are too good looking so she tells one she’s too short and the other she’s too tall. Then a woman named Myra Blitzer with thick glasses and wearing a lot of very conservative and modest clothing comes in (played by Nanette Fabray) and since she doesn’t look like competition she hires her right away. Then Myra takes off her hat, her glasses, her coat, and her long skirt to reveal a mini skirt underneath and she turns out to be dangerously hot. But Miss Farnham doesn’t notice before Mr. Bradley does and he’s very happy with the choice. Farnham tries to push Myra out the window but misses and falls. 

            Carol shares some artwork from the students of a local Grade 1 class who were asked, “Who is Carol Burnett?” Samples are: “Carol Burnett is a teenager with harder math papers”; Carol Burnett is a dentist who brushes your teeth”; “Carol Burnett is a skinny movie star”; “Carol Burnett is a Negro who plays Julia”; “Carol Burnett is a thin, happy nurse”; “Carol Burnett is a fat nurse and mother”; and “Carol Burnett is on TV and she is young and pretty”. 

            Carol sings a song about nice people still being around. 

            In the next skit Carol plays a flight attendant, Lyle Waggoner plays the hot pilot, Ken Berry plays a priest, Nanette Fabray plays a painted lady, Harvey Korman plays a brilliant brain surgeon turned drunk, and Vickie Lawrence and Don Crichton as the constantly necking honeymooners. Madame Nanette was a successful businesswoman at the age of 12. The priest is reading the Good Book, which is a biography of Danny Thomas. The plane is flying backwards and sometimes upside down in a storm. The flight attendant tells the captain to avoid turbulence because she’s pregnant. The pilot, the co-pilot, and the navigator all say, “Oh no!” at once. Nanette asks Carol that if anything happens to her look up the kid she sent though military school who’s now a general at the Pentagon. He never knew she was his mother. She gives Carol an envelope to give him containing $640,000 (which would be like more than $5 million now). Tell him she was a checkout girl at a supermarket. The co-pilot points out to the captain that #2 engine is on fire. He says, “Good. Maybe it’ll melt the ice on the wing”. They’re flying at sea level but the captain is able to get them up to 5 centimeters. Carol tells the priest she’s pregnant and he marries her to the flight crew. Suddenly all the engines are working and the doctor’s hands have stopped shaking. Carol asks the honeymooners if they are happy. Vickie stops kissing to say, “I certainly am! Aren’t you George?” He says, “George? My name is Stanley!” She suddenly exclaims, “I’m on the wrong plane!” and leaves. 

            In the final song and dance skit it’s the end of the US Civil War. Carol and Nanette are two southern belle sisters arguing over which of them the Colonel is coming home to. The Colonel asks Carol to marry him. Nanette is very upset but Carol says Nanette's been teched in the head ever since Grant took Richmond instead of her. They dance and have a tug of war with the Colonel. He decides he’s not going to marry either of them because he’s a coward. 

            Jim Bailey started performing as a young teen on The Children’s Hour. He studied opera at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. His Broadway debut was in Fly Blackbird in 1962. In 1964 he started mimicking famous female celebrities both visually and with his voice. Judy Garland and Phyllis Diller loved his impersonations of them and became friends and mentors. After his performance on the Ed Sullivan Show he became internationally famous. He brought female impersonation into the mainstream. He performed for the queen in 1973 and for the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1992. He appeared six times on The Tonight Show. He appeared at Carnegie Hall 9 times and the London Palladium 17 times. One of his Carnegie performances was recorded and became a hit record. Performing as Judy Garland he and Liza Minelli recreated in Las Vegas the famous Judy and Liza concert.

April 24, 1996: Brian Haddon and I rehearsed

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday I rehearsed with Brian Haddon for our upcoming gigs at Fat Albert’s and the Art Bar reading series.

Gail Parent

            On Wednesday morning my left ear was extremely plugged. 

            I ran through singing and playing verses 12 to 18 of “Ballad of a Dealer”, my translation of “Ballade de la chnoufe” by Boris Vian. There are only two more verses to run through and I’ll have that done tomorrow. I’ll also probably have time to upload the song to my Christian’s Translations blog to begin preparing it for publication. 

            I searched for the chords for “Dessous mon pull” (Under My Sweater) by Serge Gainsbourg but no one has posted them. I worked them out for the intro and the first two and a half lines. I tried again to flush out my left ear and dislodged a little bit of wax. It felt a touch clearer afterwards. I weighed 89.15 kilos before breakfast. I played my Martin acoustic for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune for all but a couple of songs.  

            Around the time when I do song practice every day there’s a large man in an electric wheelchair who rides up Dunn Avenue not on the sidewalk but on the road as if his chair was a car. He is totally unconcerned about the cars he is holding up behind him. Dunn is a one way street going north and this morning the man in the wheelchair had gone up to Queen to get his coffee and then he went south, driving towards the oncoming cars and toasting them with his takeout coffee cup. He played chicken with a car and just sat there until the vehicle finally swerved around him. 

            I spent several minutes trying to flush out my left ear with my rubber syringe but it didn’t feel like anything was coming out or that the water was going in very far. 

            Around midday I opened up the “Blue Bliss” paint and did some touch-ups. Everything is pretty much fixed now except a small area between the blue doorframe and pinkish purple wall where I curved the line a bit. It’s barely noticeable and so I won’t try to correct it with the wall paint unless I break it out to do anything major later on. So now technically the bathroom is painted but I still have to clean up where paint got onto the wall tiles, the floor tiles, the sink, and the bathtub. I also have to paint the bathroom wire rack blue and mount it on the wall; paint the lazy Susan pink; and paint the bathroom mirror frame blue and pink before mounting it. 

            I weighed 90.75 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since March. 

            I took a siesta at 14:30 and planned to get up at 16:00 but I slept an extra 15 minutes. I had an appointment with my dentist for 17:00 and rushed to get ready. I got there with twenty minutes to spare but they were ready for me right away so I guess someone before me canceled. Dr. Singh fixed the corner of my front filling and said if it comes off again he’ll remove the entire filling and start fresh. I brought my denture with me to see if he could adjust it so it fits because since I got the bone graft the gap is smaller. He tried to shave it down but it was still cutting into my gum so they gave me an appointment with the denturist for next week. 

            It was too late for a bike ride downtown but not for a ride to Ossington and Bloor so I went there and stopped at Freshco on the way home where I bought five bags of grapes and price matched them to the Food Basics price of $6.59 a kilo. 

            I weighed 90 kilos at 18:25. March 7 was the last evening when I was that hard on the scale. I was about a day behind on my journal and so I worked on getting caught up. 

            I made pizza on a slice of seven grain sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, the last of my ham chopped, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching season 3, episode 27 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            During the audience warmup Carol demonstrates her exercise routine and has a middle aged man from the audience come up to do sit-ups with her. 

            In the first skit Carol and Harvey play their very poor characters Stella and Harry with their fifteen years old juvenile delinquent biker son Brewster played by Lyle and their 11 year old slutty daughter Dulcie played by Vickie. Harry always comes home from not looking for a job with a six pack. Stella says, “Mother warned me you were a good for nothing bum”. He says, “You and your mother!”. “She says, “Not my mother, you’re mother”. They have to fill out their tax return. He starts reading the form and concludes that if he was smart enough to understand it he’d have an income. He puts his occupation down as a freelance executive. Their income was 52 welfare cheques, unemployment insurance, and food stamps. Harry asks Brewster if he had any income last years and he says he stole some hubcaps, swiped a motorsickle, looted a couple of TV sets, and picked some pockets. Brewster says he’s going to his sex education class. Stella says for him to pay attention but he says he’s the teacher. Dulcie says she earned $2000 babysitting. Stella asked who she babysat for and she lists, “Tony, Rocko, Joey, Max, Eddy…” Stella interrupts and says “They don’t have any babies”. Dulcie says it’s easier that way. Dulcie’s leaving and Stella asks what time she’s coming home. She says, “9:00 in the morning”. Stella says, “Good, You know I don’t like you out when it’s dark”. With the kids gone they decide to delay doing their income tax, go up to the roof and make another tax deduction. 

            This is the season finale and so there are no special guests. 

            A dance number features Tony Rizzi on guitar and the Earnie Flatt Dancers. They are kind of dressed for flamenco dancing but what they do is pretty modern with some Spanish dance stylizations.

            In the second skit Fillmore and Pamela Cartwright are going to be featured in the magazine Home Beautiful. Lee Henderson the photographer arrives and comments that he has never seen a more immaculate interior design. The Cartwrights have contributed equally and Fillmore explains that their tastes blend so perfectly that there is not a jarring note in the entire room. Lee goes to get his equipment and then Fillmore thinks that maybe one item is out of place. It’s the ashtray that Pamela bought in Copenhagen. He puts it in a drawer out of sight but Pamela takes it back out. They begin to argue gently as they go back and forth until finally Fillmore simply tosses the ashtray out the window. She responds by throwing out his Thai vase. He smashes her Venetian stemware and she says that was dreadfully middle class of him. He tears down her drapes, then she takes a knife to his imported silk sofa. He smashed her coffee table, she breaks his Grecian urn, he destroys her jade figurines, she totals his Stradivarius violin, and this continues back and forth until the apartment is a disaster area. Then Lee returns and Fillmore and Pamela are ready to happily toast each other for the camera. 

            There is a skit in which there is a similar dance routine to ones of the great 1930s musicals, with the couple in a elegant crowded restaurant who begin dancing dramatically and no one thinks it’s odd as they leap over the furniture. Lyle and Vickie perform such a scene together. Then the same scene is done with an ordinary nerdy couple, Myrna and Walter played by Carol and Harvey. Then to Myrna’s embarrassment and everyone else’s annoyance Walter starts singing “Cheek to Cheek” by Irving Berlin. Then he grabs her and starts spinning her around to her horror, causing chaos in the restaurant until a cop arrives and arrests them. 

            Clive Kensington played by Harvey is a famous actor performing in a hit play that’s been running for two years. A man played by Lyle comes to Clive’s dressing room and says it’s an honour because “This is the first time in two years you’ve spoken to me”. Clive says “You can’t expect me to have the time to speak to all the little people. What do you do?” “I’m the director”. The director informs Clive that his leading lady is ill and being replaced by a “friend” of the producer. Sabrina Hackmeister (played by Carol with blonde hair, large fake breasts and a ditzy manner) come in to greet Clive. On stage they play lovers Franklin and Sylvia. Sylvia is wearing a very tight gold gown and when she walks she bumps and grinds across the floor like a stripper. She has trouble sitting down in the dress. Franklin confesses he owes money to the mob and they’re going to kill him. The hitman arrives and shoots him so he can have his dramatic death scene. He’s trying to impress a movie producer who’s in the audience. She’s holding him and accidentally pulls his toupee off. 

            The Charwoman skit is slightly different than usual. She is cleaning up on the Carol Burnett stage with several familiar sets, such as the “Carol and Sis” set, “The Old Folks” set, and the “As the Stomach Turns” set. She remembers the announcer saying that Marian received an obscene phone call and was so upset that she hung up within ten minutes. She goes through the autograph book that Carol’s guests sign at the end. She sings her theme song, “I’m so glad we had this time together” by Carol’s husband Joe Hamilton but there are extra verses. The end does not have the gathered cast waving goodbye and swaying together but just Carol singing the song and then leaving the empty theatre. 

            One of the writers for The Carol Burnett Show was Gail Parent who worked on 133 episodes. She started as part of a writing team with Kenny Solms. Carol Burnett was her big break. In 1972 her novel Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York became a best seller. It was made into a movie starring Jeannie Berlin in 1975 for which she and Solms wrote the screenplay. She and Solms wrote the Broadway musical Lorelei. She co-created The Tim Conway Show and Mary Hartman Mary Hartman. She wrote the screenplay for The Main Event and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. She was also a writer for The Smothers Brothers, Rhoda, and Tracey Takes On. She wrote 12 episodes of The Golden Girls. As a writer she was nominated for 14 Emmys and won two.