I memorized and translated the second verse of “Les anthropophages” (The Cannibals) by Serge Gainsbourg. There are two verses left to nail down.
I weighed 89.6 kilos before breakfast.
I played my Martin during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune early in every song.
After rehearsal I got ready and rode my Surly up to Yonge and St. Clair to get a haircut from Amy. It was in anticipation of the ride that I only drank two glasses of water instead of three during song practice because I didn’t want to feel like I had to pee en route. I brought a bottle of water to drink while waiting for Amy to finish with the old guy who had hardly any hair. I assume she just pretended to snip, clip and buzz his non-quaff for an extra fifteen minutes to make him feel better. I was lucky because Amy had considered calling in sick today as she had a cramp in her stomach. She thinks it might be the beginnings of menopause.
After the haircut I rode down Yonge to Isabella to meet Brian Haddon for lunch at The Artful Dodger. We had to stand and wait for the server to set up the patio. We were disappointed that they’ve stopped selling Creemore draft there. They didn’t even have an alternative amber lager so we settled on sharing a pitcher of Amsterdam Blonde. He had a bacon burger with fries and I had the peameal BLT with fries. Lunch was on me this time. My sandwich was good, on fresh, crusty bread. But the Dodger is less attractive without Creemore on tap.
I told him I’ve been watching Wednesday with my daughter Astrid and recommended it, so he might check it out. I told him I’d also watched a bit of the 60s gothic horror soap opera Dark Shadows. He told me about a Canadian supernatural soap opera called Strange Paradise that he used to skip school to watch. I never saw it but it sounds interesting.
We’re going to get together for lunch in Parkdale in July, probably at The Mezz.
Before going home I went to The Park Agency printing place a few doors up from my place and got some photos of Brian and I from 30 years ago digitized. It cost $5.60 for 20 pictures that were emailed to me. They’re not as a crisp as the originals.
It was after 17:00 when I got home and normally too late for a siesta but I knew I’d be out of it otherwise so I slept for an hour.
I weighed 90.55 kilos at 19:15.
I worked on getting caught up in my journal but was still a day behind at suppertime.
I roasted a pork sirloin and had the tip of it with a potato and gravy while watching season 8, episode 18 of The Carol Burnett Show.
During the audience warmup someone asks Carol how the reaction has been to the Mama’s Family sketches. She says people like them because everybody knows people like that.
Someone asks Carol’s favourite game show and she says Password but she also loves Jeopardy, which she says got canceled, and she said that’s horrible because it was the smartest game show on TV. It was off the air for about three years from around that time. They had The All New Jeopardy from 1978 to 1979 and then it was off until Alex Trebek turned it into an institution with his hosting starting in 1984.
Carol introduces a new dance team but it’s really a skit song and dance featuring Rock Hudson and Nancy Walker. He sings “Mine” by George and Ira Gershwin from the 1933 musical Let em Eat Cake. He sings while Nancy dances around and against him. Then she sings and he dances, then they sing together. There are some humourous dance moves playing off their big difference in height.
They do parodies of the year’s TV commercials starting with Harvey playing superstar quarterback Joe Namath in pantyhose. It’s a parody of the Beautymist ad in which Joe is shown slowly from the feet up. He says, “If Beautymist can make my legs look good, think what they can do for yours. The joke in the parody is that they make Harvey’s Joe look so good he has to shower separately from the other players to avoid being raped I guess.
There’s a parody of the EZ-Off oven cleaner ad in which women are relaxing and they tell the camera, “I’m cleaning my oven”. In the parody, Nancy Walker is shown lounging in a nightgown and says “I’m cleaning my oven” but then we see she has her feet in the oven and she’s scrubbing it with them.
Rock Hudson parodies the old Parkay margarine ad in which the lid of the tub moves like it’s speaking and says “Butter!” In the parody Rock keeps saying “Margarine” while the tub argues “Butter”. Finally Vicki enters the kitchen and shouts, “I can’t stand this constant bickering!” Then she shoots Rock. He says, “I’ve been shot!” but the tub argues, “Stabbed”.
The next parody shows Rock using a roll of toilet paper as a pillow to show it’s soft enough to sleep on. Carol calls from the bathroom for him to bring it back.
There is a parody of the 70s Geritol ad in which the husband lists all the tasks his wife performs throughout the day and says he doesn’t know how she does it. In this case Rock says, “She drives the kids to school, cooks the dinners, does all the housework, shovels coal, skins buffalo, does her own dental work, and holds a full time job as a spot welder. She still takes care of herself and takes Geritone once a day. Then his wife (played by Nancy) staggers up to him and can barely stand from fatigue. Rock says, “Maybe you outta take it twice a day”.
Harvey plays a ventriloquist who tells his dummy he’s breaking up with him because he gets all the laughs and he wants to prove he can make it on his own. He leaves but comes back for the dummy.
There’s a parody of the movie When My Baby Smiles at Me (based on the Broadway play Burlesque). Carol and Rock play a husband and wife song and dance team Bunny and Skip. He drinks and plays around but she puts up with it because he’s her guy. Harvey plays Clive Chips the famous producer. He comes to Bunny and says he wants to cast her in his new London show but he doesn’t want Skip. She says she refuses to leave her husband just to become a superstar and the toast of London. She’s faithful to Skip despite his cheating because you can’t let little surface things destroy a marriage. Skip returns from carousing and then suddenly Mona Moran (played by Nancy) steps into their dressing room. She says she is a millionaire who backs Broadway shows and wants to make Skip a star, but Bunny’s not part of the deal. Skip doesn’t hesitate and leaves with her. Bunny is crying but tells her friend Flossie (Vicki) that as long as he’s happy she’s happy. Skip stars in a show called Playboy. He tells Mona he feels empty without Bunny. Mona’s in love with Skip too but accepts defeat and stands on a chair to get a kiss for the road. While they are kissing Bunny walks in. He’s about to explain but the music plays for his next song so he says he’ll be right back. Bunny and Carol are alone in the dressing room and Mona does a pretty good song and dance while arguing that Skip is a good for nothing bum and she should forget him. Bunny and leaves and Skip returns, wondering where she is. Seconds later someone hands Skip a notice that Bunny is suing for divorce. He starts drinking. Bunny is now going to marry Clive although she doesn’t love him. She sings a song about needing to be submissive because she’s a woman. Skip comes to congratulate her. She asks how he is. He says everything’s swell but he gets a hole in his sock once in a while, darn it. He gets Bunny to sing their old song together but she starts crying in the middle. Clive asks her to finish the song so she does. Skip leaves and does his show but does it drunk and does the next show even more inebriated. He loses Broadway and has to return to vaudeville where he’s even more sloshed and finally collapses on stage. The impresario tells him he’s all washed up and it would take a miracle to save him. That’s when Bunny walks in. She tells the theatre owner to have the orchestra play their old song and she takes Skip onstage in a rolling chair. In the middle of the song she tells him she never married Clive. He starts to sober up and they finish the number. It looks like they’re back together but Mona comes out and asks him to star in her new Broadway show and he’s says, “Let’s go!” She finishes the number with Clive.
Nancy Walker made her stage debut as part of her parents’ vaudeville act when she was 10 months old. She decided she wanted to be an actor at the age of 10. In 1937 at the age of 15 she appeared on the radio programs Coast to Coast on a Bus and Our Barn. She made her Broadway debut in Best Foot Forward in 1941. She made her film debut in Best Foot Forward in 1943. She originated the Broadway roles of Hildy in On the Town in 1944, Yetta in Barefoot Boy with Cheek in 1947, and Lily in Look Ma I’m Dancin in 1948. She was nominated for Tony Awards for Phoenix 55 and Do Re Mi. Her 1959 album I Hate Men featured a collection of show tunes. She became well known as Rosie the waiter in the Bounty commercials in the 1970s and 80s. She played Emily the housekeeper on Family Affair. She played Mildred the maid in 32 episodes of McMillan and Wife. She played Rhoda’s mother in 41 episodes of Rhoda. She played Sara Bower in 46 episodes of True Colours. She starred in the short-lived Nancy Walker Show in 1976. She starred in the short-lived Happy Days spin-off Blansky’s Beauties in 1977. She co-starred in the sitcom Mama’s Boy in 1987. She was nominated for 7 Emmy Awards. She directed some episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda and Alice. She directed the 1980 film Can’t Stop the Music. She co-starred in Murder by Death in 1976.
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