Richard Bakalyan

            On Sunday morning I forgot as usual about the time change but I decided not to get up at the new 5:00 but to get up at the old 5:00 which is the new 6:00. I did all my morning stuff as if the time hadn’t changed and I’ll change the alarm in the afternoon. 

            Canada has already passed a bill that if the US gets rid of the stupid time changes then Canada will as well. It’s the one thing Drumpf could do that wouldn’t piss anybody off and maybe that’s why he won’t change it. He wants to keep the tension up by pissing off a significant portion of the population. 

            I memorized the second verse of “Sacha Distel and Jean-Pierre Cassel’s Song and Dance” by Serge Gainsbourg. There’s no point memorizing the scat parts between the verses since they could be done differently every time. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the last of four sessions. 

            I weighed 86.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            At midday I had planned on taking an early bike ride and to check out Flying Books to see if I could get them to order my book. But I hadn’t figured in the time change and decided that I had to get caught up with that extra hour sometime today and it seemed impractical to go out riding at lunchtime. I changed the time on my alarm clock. 

            I weighed 87.45 kilos before lunch, which is the most I’ve weighed in the early afternoon since February 19. I had saltines with natural peanut butter and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. I find the new bicycle’s seat uncomfortable and am considering getting a wider one like I have on the old Raleigh. On the way up Brock another cyclist was out in the middle to pass me when a car behind him started honking. The cyclist called out, “A beer! A beer! Ya gotta give me a beer to pass!” 

            I weighed 86.75 kilos at 18:15. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:15. 

            I watched the rest of The Blackboard Jungle. It’s really not a bad film. It’s well shot and and it has some good acting. I downloaded it from YouTube and tomorrow I’ll convert it to WMV. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my Gibson electric performances of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” on September 29 and 30. On September 29 the take at 27:15 was okay until the E flat. On September 30 the take at 21:30 didn’t sound bad until the E flat.

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara sauce, lots of parmesan and a sliced potato. I had it with a beer while watching the antepenultimate episode of the Batman TV series. 

            People are reporting UFO sightings all over Gotham and some are even claiming to have come in contact with little green men. Commissioner Gordon decides to call Batman. A Professor Greenleaf (who wears only green) comes to see Barbara Gordon at the library and tells her about an imminent invasion from Mars. Then she sees a little green man sneaking around the shelves and mischievously knocking books to the floor. Barbara screams as if she’s not really the brave Batgirl. Meanwhile Joker is in his abandoned launching pad factory hideout showing his gang the plans for a flying saucer that he drew in prison. He’s the one who’s been using his private grapevine to plant the rumours of a space invasion. At Gordon’s office Batman interviews a Mrs. Green (who also only wears green) about her claim to have met a little green man from Mars. He tells her “It is the duty of every citizen of Gotham City to report meeting a man from Mars in a public park, penal code section 32, subsection 14”. After Green leaves, Barbara comes running in all flustered, saying she barely got out of the library alive because of the little green man from Mars scampering all over the place. Meanwhile the little green man is in a the Batmobile and appears to be tampering with the vehicle. He sneaks away just before Batman and Robin get in to drive away. We learn from Joker that Greenleaf and Green are siblings and they both work for Joker. He says his saucer can be assembled in a matter of hours as soon as they steal the beryllium, one of the lightest metals in the world, from the Wayne Foundation. Then Joker’s little green man Verdigris arrives to tell Joker he planted a time bomb in the Batmobile that is set to go off at midnight. Batman remembers that Mrs. Green used to be the frontman for a bunko artist who was blackmailing greengrocers. This confirms Batman’s suspicions that the alien invasion is a hoax. The Bat Computer somehow has the information that Joker is building a flying saucer. He and Robin conclude that he would probably make it out of beryllium. Alfred reminds them that there is an abundant supply in the Metals Research wing of the Wayne Foundation. Batman sends Alfred ahead to the Wayne Foundation to check on security. Batman calls Gordon to tell him and Barbara happens to be in his office at the time. She immediately heads home to change to Batgirl. At almost midnight Batman and Robin get into the Batmobile to head for the Wayne Foundation but before they can leave the bomb goes off, devastating the Batcave. Meanwhile both Batgirl and Alfred have been captured by the Joker. Eight hours later Batman and Robin return to consciousness in the wreckage of the Batcave. They don’t know if Alfred has tried to reach them because every receiving device is broken. The Batphone is also dead. Batgirl is strapped to a rocket. Joker says he’s thrilled many a woman but this will be the first time he’s sent one into orbit. The fuse is lit but it fizzles. Batgirl says the automatic fuse extinguisher in her utility belt won’t let him put her into orbit. Joker decides to just take Batgirl with them in the flying saucer but why doesn’t he just remove her utility belt if that’s all that’s stopping the rocket? Batman has rigged up a generator to get the communication equipment working. Alfred has been trying for hours and finally gets through. The Joker’s saucer is launched and goes into orbit. Joker tells the pilot Verdigris to activate the supersonic decelerating contra-rotating turbines because they are getting too close to the sun. Meanwhile Batman and Robin are in the Batcopter and Alfred contacts them. He says he managed to put some homing beryl in the beryllium that the saucer is made of and it should cause the ship to head back to the launching pad. Joker begins to communicate his ultimatum to the world when he loses control of the saucer. It returns to where they started and they leave the ship only to be greeted by Batman and Robin. The big final fight takes place and Batgirl joins in but is subdued fairly quickly. She used to be more interesting to watch in fight scenes but they seem to want her to be a helpless girl lately. The Joker is defeated and the cops arrive to arrest him and his gang. Later Batman hears from Gordon that Dr. Cassandra and her husband Cabala are robbing the Mope Diamond from Spiffany’s jewellery store while taking their invisibility pills. 

            Verdigris was played by Richard Bakalyan, whose mother was from Nova Scotia. He was a delinquent for a while in his teens and was on probation for a year at the age of 15. His film debut was in Atilla. He co-starred in The Delinquents. His TV debut was on Luke and the Tenderfoot in 1955. He co-starred in The Cool and the Crazy and was arrested during filming because the cops thought he really was a gangster. He was a regular on The Bobby Darrin Show. He was a lifetime member of the Academy. He died the same day as Leonard Nimoy. The city garbage truck stopped in front of my place and before emptying the bin the driver did a little dance. I assume he was listening to music.

March 10, 1995: I found a place with cable and watched my band again

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I started eating only salads. I went to pose at the Etobicoke Art Group and was late to get picked up at Islington Station because I got off at the wrong stop. I found a place with cable TV and watched the video of my band again on TV Ontario.

Victoria Vetri

            On Saturday morning I memorized the first verse of “Sacha Distel and Jean-Pierre Cassel’s Dance”, a TV skit written for them by Serge Gainsbourg to perform together on a television show in 1963. Distel was a singer and Cassel was a dancer and so the skit involves each trying to teach the other their particular skill. Each verse is divided by Distel scat singing. It will probably take a few days for me to get it all nailed down in my head. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since last Saturday. 

            Around midday I went down to No Frills where I bought five bags of green grapes, two packs of raspberries, they had whole chickens on sale but they looked old so I didn’t get one, Sensodyne toothpaste, low sugar iced tea, a jug of orange juice, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s applewood smoked chips. Hanan the cashier asked if I was going to do a price match on the chips. I wasn’t aware that anyone had a cheaper price. She said it was cheaper at Freshco and offered to do the price match for me. I was pretty sure that the sale on grapes at Freshco was only for red grapes but she said it was for both and so I didn’t argue. Later I checked and saw I was right but it was nice of her to give me a deal. 

            I locked my bike in front of my building next to another bike while I hauled the groceries upstairs in my trailer. When I went back for my bike, the other bike was gone and mine was leaning lopsided away from the post. Later when I was going to hang it up I saw my front wheel was loose. I took it over to Metro Cycle and the guy showed me that the lever had been pulled to remove my front wheel. I guess either the other guy’s bike had gotten caught on it and pulled it loose or someone had actually tried to take off the wheel.

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before lunch. That’s the least I’ve tipped the scales in the early afternoon since February 9. 

            I took a siesta at 15:30 and didn’t wake up until 17:30. 

            I weighed 86.35 kilos at 17:50. I weighed the same in the evening on February 12. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            I watched another half hour of The Blackboard Jungle and I think I can harvest some clips from it to fit into the video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues”. But maybe only for the lines, “Mom and dad want baby’s freedom, the child wants mom and dad’s”. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my acoustic performances of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” on September 27 and 28. On September 27 the take at 36:00 was okay but the guitar was out of tune at the end. On September 28 the take at 25:00 was not bad. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara sauce, parmesan, a sliced potato, and the last of my five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 3, episode 23 of Batman. 

            King Tut is a locked-in patient at the Mount Ararat Psychiatric Hospital. We find him in a session with his psychiatrist and telling him about his childhood when he finds the doctor has fallen asleep. Tut lifts his key and escapes. Later Tut has already formed a gang and they are robbing the Rosetta Stone Company of only $47,000, even though there is more. Tut says there is no need to be a pig about it. Batman is notified and later we see him and Robin in Commissioner Gordon’s office, with Barbara Gordon there as well. Batman laments that Tut didn’t have a little more time to be rehabilitated. Barbara says, “As John Greenleaf Whittier said, ‘For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, “It might have been”’”. Robin says it’s from Maud Muller, stanza 53. Batman leaves to interview Rosetta. Gordon says he wants to move to the suburbs but doesn’t have time to look for a place. Barbara says she’ll do some looking for him. Meanwhile Tut has his hideout at his girlfriend Florence of Arabia’s belly dancing studio. Tut tells his gang he wants to acquire Nilanium, which is the hardest metal in the world (although it doesn’t exist in our world). The only modern place it exists is under Wayne Manor. He plans on using the $47,000 he stole to buy a plot of land directly adjacent to Wayne Manor. He will tunnel down and sideways under Wayne Manor to mine the Nilanium and use it to build indestructible machines and buildings. He goes to the unscrupulous real estate broker Manny the Mesopotamian who happens to have the listing on that very property. Meanwhile Batman figures that Tut plans to buy something that costs exactly $47,000. He asks the Bat Computer and the answer is the property that Tut mentioned, which Bruce Wayne is selling. But since Wayne is selling it for $48,000, Batman thinks the computer needs oiling (I should try oiling my computer to see if it runs more smoothly). At the same time Barbara has gone to ask Manny about any properties he might have for sale and learns about the plot that Tut is buying. As she is leaving, Tut and his entourage are arriving and Barbara eavesdrops on their transaction as Tut pays $47,000 for the property next to Wayne Manor. Barbara as Batgirl calls Bruce Wayne to inform him of the purchase. The Bat computer surprises Batman with the information that Wayne manor is sitting on a priceless reserve of Nilanium. It also tells him that Tut’s tunnel is heading straight for the Batcave. He has to stop Tut before the tunnel is complete and so he calls Gordon’s office to tell Batgirl to meet him at the mine entrance. Batman says there are too many people near the secret Batmobile entrance and so he and Robin need to run the mile in three minutes. Robin comments that would be a world record but Batman says breaking world records is part of crime fighting. Tut learns that the tunnel is up against a hard barrier behind which is a cave. Tut is about to head down to blast through when he is confronted by Batman and Robin, and seconds later Batgirl, who Tut calls the “Dynamic Duenna”. A duenna is a governess or chaperone. Tut and his gang escape into the tunnel and climb into a mine cart which rolls down to the bottom of the shaft. Batman tells Batgirl to wait at the entrance as he and Robin pursue Tut, their reason being they don’t want her to learn their secret. The mine cart crashes through the wall and Tut finds himself in the Batcave, realizing that Batman and Robin must be Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. Tut discovered Batman’s secret in a previous story but must have switched back to the personality of Professor William Omaha McElroy, which would have made him forget everything that Tut had learned. Batman and Robin confront Tut and a big fight takes place in the Batcave as Batman participates in destroying his own equipment. After his gang starts getting the worst of it, Tut heads up the tunnel. Batman produces a can of Batnesia to erase Tut’s gang’s memories, including that of Florence. It sounds fucked up and unethical to chemically erase people’s memories. They chase Tut to the mine entrance where Batgirl waits with Gordon and O’Hara. Tut is about to blab Batman’s secret when there is a partial cave-in and Tut is hit over the head, returning to the consciousness of Professor McElroy and forgetting anything Tut might have learned. Batman says Tut caused the cave-in by raising his voice three decibels above high C. There’s no such thing since decibels measure volume and C is a pitch. Later a flying saucer is sighted over Gotham. Inside are Joker and his gang. 

            Florence was played by Victoria Vetri who was credited as Angela Doria. She started acting and modeling in her teens. Her film debut was in The Pigeon That Took Rome and her TV debut was on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, both in 1962. She was Playboy’s Miss September, 1967 and then the Playmate of the Year 1968 (The title came with the gift of a pink AMC Javelin that she called “Angela”). She appears in Rosemary’s Baby when Mia Farrow’s character asks if she is Victoria Vetri and she says she is Teri Gionoffrio, while she is credited as Angela Dorio. She was friends with Sharon Tate and had been invited to her house the night she was murdered but was not feeling well so she didn’t go. She starred in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. In 1980 she was attacked during a home invasion and suffered a broken nose and broken ribs. In September 2011 she was sentenced to nine years in prison for shooting her husband in the back for cheating on her. She was released on parole in April 2018 at the age of 73.

March 9, 1995: I posed for day school and night school

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday I posed at Northern Secondary School all day and at night I modeled for a sculpture class at Central Technical School.

Barry Dennen

            On Friday morning I finished working out the chords to “Cha cha cha des chauves” (Cha Cha of the Bald) by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through singing and playing it in French and English and then uploaded it to my Christian’s Translations blog. It didn’t take long to prepare it for publication and to publish it. Then I posted the lyrics on Facebook. I continued to search for more songs that I didn’t translate in my Gainsbourg project. There was nothing I didn’t complete from the 1961 and 1962 files but the last song in the 1963 file is “Distel and Cassel’s Dance”. No lyrics for that have been posted because it was just a skit Gainsbourg wrote for a TV show, but Cy Strom was kind enough to transcribe it for me so I could translate it. I never did work out the chords and so memorizing that and working out the chords will be my next task. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the second session of four. It’s still going out of tune. As soon as I can turn the humidifiers off I’m going to try to find a luthier to fix it. 

            I weighed 86.3 kilos before breakfast. Around midday I brought the stepladder in from the deck and filled the rest of the parts of the bathroom wall that are too high to reach with a chair. Next I’ve got to buy another bucket of drywall compound. I also need to get a new set of doorknobs or handles for the bathroom door. 

            I weighed 86.5 kilos before lunch, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since February 22. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown. I stopped at Doug Miller Books to ask if they would order my book but they only sell second hand. The guy was quite friendly though and wished me luck. On the way home I stopped at Freshco to buy the toilet paper that I forgot yesterday. While I was there I grabbed another five bags of their super cheap red grapes. 

            I weighed 86.55 at 18:30.   

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:30. 

            I continued to search for generation gap films of the 50s and 60s but nothing grabbed me. Finally I just searched for, found, and started watching “The Blackboard Jungle”. I viewed the first half an hour and I think it has stuff I can use for my “Seven Shades of Blues” video. 

            I had a potato and steamed peas with gravy while watching season 3, episode 22 of Batman.

            This is continued from the previous story. Shame and his gang are holding Batgirl hostage after dosing her with fear gas. Frontier Fanny, the mother of Shame’s girl Calamity Jan is in police custody. Shame robs a gun store for ammunition to prepare for the great train robbery. Jan suddenly realizes that her mother is missing. She eventually convinces Shame to swap Batgirl for her. He sends Chief Standing Pat to Commissioner Gordon’s office to arrange for the exchange. Last time Pat only spoke in smoke signals while puffing a cigar but now he speaks in that stereotypical pidgin English of the pre-socially conscious scripted cinematic First Nations person. Gordon refuses the deal but Batman argues Batgirl’s value and says they’ll accept the terms. Pat says to bring Fanny to the Central American pavilion at the Gotham World’s Fair. A time is set for the switch but Shame plans to get there early and bushwack Batman and Robin. But as the heroes arrive with Fanny in the face of the drawn guns of Shame and his gang, Batman throws a chemical bomb that changes the chemical property of metal to make it twenty times heavier. This causes Shame and his gang to drop their guns. The big group fight begins and while her captors are distracted, Batgirl cuts herself free to join in the battle. But as his gang is losing, Shame shoots some piñatas that are hanging above Batman, Batgirl and Robin down onto their heads, stunning them long enough for Shame and his gang to get away. Later Batgirl tells Batman that Shame plans a train robbery and so they have to figure out which train he means. Batman remembers that today is the day the government ships all the old money out of town by train to be burned. Meanwhile Shame and his gang board the Money Train and spray fear gas at those in charge of the money. They steal all the money and get away before Batman, Batgirl and Robin arrive. Batman distributes bravery tablets to the fear gas victims. Back at the Batcave Batman programs a Bat drone to write a message across the sky calling Shame a coward and challenging him to a one on one fight with no weapons on Neptune Avenue in the deserted tenement district at high noon. In an alley adjacent to Neptune Avenue, Shame’s gang is hidden and waiting to shoot Batman when he and Shame are five meters apart. Shame steps onto the street and begins hurling insults at Batman. He tells Batman he’s too grim. Batman thanks him for the constructive criticism. Shame says, “Your mother wears army boots”. Batman admits she does and finds them quite comfortable. The gang gets ready to shoot at Batman but behind them Robin and Batgirl are hidden, against Batman’s wishes, because they suspected an ambush. Batgirl ropes Jan and Fanny while Robin lassos Fred and Pat, leaving Shame on his own against Batman. When Shame realizes this he pulls a gun from his hat, but Batman knocks it from his hand. Shame begins to beg for his life but then attacks Batman when his guard is down. Batman wins the fight and then turns to the fourth wall to preach to us that good always triumphs over evil. That’s some horseshit right there. Later we see King Tut escaping from prison. 

            Fred was played by Barry Dennen in his television debut. After graduating from UCLA he went to New York where he studied in acting workshops and performed in cabarets while living with his platonic girlfriend Barbara Streisand. He created and directed a nightclub act featuring Barbara that launched her career. In 1968 he moved to England for 15 years. There he created the role of the Emcee in the original West End production of Cabaret. He won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He played Pontius Pilot on the original recording of Jesus Christ Superstar with Deep Purple singer Ian Gillin as Jesus. A year later he played the same role in the Broadway production. Two years after that he reprised his performance in the film version. In 1970 he made his film debut when he co-starred in The Juggler of Notre Dame. On television he played a clone of Hitler in an episode of Wonder Woman. He co-starred in The Dark Crystal. In 1997 he published his memoir My Life With Barbara.

March 8, 1995: I performed at Fat Albert's open stage

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday I posed for a full day at Northern Secondary School. In the evening I went to the Fat Albert’s open stage to perform.

Dorothy Kirsten

            On Thursday morning I memorized the fourth verse of “Le petit Lauriston”. There’s one long verse left to learn. 

            I worked out the chords to all but the last line of “Cha cha cha des chauves” (Cha Cha of the Bald) by Serge Gainsbourg from 1960. I should have it finished tomorrow and will also probably have it published on my Christian’s Translations blog with even some time to search for the next song I missed in my Gainsbourg translation project. 

            I weighed 87.15 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I called She Said Boom to ask them to order my book. I learned that they don’t order books. Although they sell new and used records they only sell used books. I didn’t know that. I think years ago I had my chapbook “Adventures in Standing Still” for sale there on consignment. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos before lunch. 

            I took a siesta at 14:30 and woke up at 16:18. It was just after 17:00 when I got away for my bike ride. Even though I was late I decided I needed the exercise of going downtown. I stopped at Freshco on the way back where the red grapes were super cheap but only some of them were firm. I got several small bags. I also bought a pack of raspberries, roasted red pepper hummus, roasted onion hummus, Full City Dark coffee, a jar of salsa, a bag of frozen peas, a bag of frozen lima beans, and some coconut based ice cream. It was time consuming trying to find products that are not made in the US. I was fooled by the Old El Paso salsa because it was labeled as a “Mexican” product but when I looked it up on line later I saw that it’s made in the States. I forgot to buy toilet paper so I’ll have to use paper towels until I go back there tomorrow evening. 

            I weighed 86.6 kilos at 19:13. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 20:35, but it was too late to work on any projects before supper. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last grilled chicken leg while watching season 3, episode 21 of Batman. 

            Calamity Jan and her mother Frontier Fanny are visiting Shame in prison to tell him that they’ve planned his escape. Jan instructs him to be by the left wall at 17:15. Shame and Jan kiss through the wire and it’s the first time we’ve seen lips meet on this series. The Riddler has come close to kissing his molls, even in the very first episode with Jull St John, but there have always been interruptions. Maybe it was allowed for Shame and Jan to kiss because Cliff Robertson and Dina Merrill were really married. So later at the promised time a tank knocks a hole in the wall and Shame runs through it. Jan and Fanny are driving the red tank and they all escape while the guards’ bullets have no effect. They got the tank from Mad Man Otto’s Used Tank Lot. Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon are having fondue in Barbara Gordon’s apartment when the commissioner gets word of the escape. He calls Batman and so Bruce signals the Batcave for the Bat answering machine to be turned on. All Batman usually says is “Yes commissioner?” and “We’ll be right there’ so the machine makes sense. Bruce leaves with Gordon because he says it wouldn’t be appropriate to be alone with Barbara without a chaperone. He’s been alone with women sans chaperone before. In Gordon’s office he is told there is a horse for him in the outer office. But it turns out to be a saw horse with an attached message for Batman. Shame writes that he’s going to rob the Gotham city stage at 20:45 that night and he’ll steal a rock and a roll. Barbara arrives and reads the note just before Batman and Robin leave to feed the clues to the Bat Computer. Shame and his gang are holed up in Gotham’s Central Park stables. Jan has hired two henchmen. One is dressed like a Mexican bandito and his full name is Fernando Ricardo Enrique Dominguez but they just call him Fred. He talks in a condescending upper crust English accent. The other is dressed as an exaggerated version of a Great Plains First Nations chief with a ridiculously long trailing feathered war bonnet that gets caught in closing doors. His name is Chief Standing Pat and he communicates with smoke signals that he makes while puffing a cigar. Shame tries to explain his caper in a clumsy and ineffectual way. Fred says, “Your lucidity is only surpassed by your remarkable command and penchant for gibberish”. Shame thinks it’s a compliment and thanks him. Shame starts kissing Jan but her mother tells him he can’t get closer than two feet until a marriage is arranged. Meanwhile Batman figures out that a rock and a roll are a diamond and a bankroll but he hasn’t solved the clue of the Gotham City Stage. Batgirl calls from Gordon’s office to tell him she’s figured out the stage clue but not the rock and the roll. Batman says, “We obviously need each other”. She gives him a street corner for them to meet then heads out on her Batgirl Cycle. She meets Batman and Robin and tells them the stage is the opera house stage where The Girl of the Golden West is running. Robin says Leonora Sotto Voce the world’s top soprano always wears her 283 karat diamond pendant. Batman says Fortissimo Fra Divolo always carries a roll of $20,000 in cash onstage for good luck. Meanwhile at the Gotham City Opera House, Shame and his gang enter through the stage door and are confronted by the stage doorman, who is 17 but all stage doormen are called “Pop”. That’s apparently true or used to be anyway. Pop is knocked out and Shame and his gang go back stage. Leonora and Fortissimo are arguing onstage about who is the star of the show when Shame and his gang approach them with guns drawn. The singers are robbed and then Batman, Batgirl and Robin arrive. Suddenly two members of Shame’s gang that we’ve never seen before appear. This happens quite often just before a fight scene. The stupidest thing about these fights is that the crooks always stand close together and watch as either a swinging Batman kicks them all over or an object is thrown that knocks them all over even though they all have plenty of time to get out of the way. The gang is defeated but then Jan and Fanny enter with aerosol cans that spray the heroes with Fear Gas. Now Batman, Batgirl and Robin are cowering in terror and begging Shame not to hurt them. Batman grabs Batgirl to use her as a shield. Shame decides to take Batgirl as a hostage. Batman and Robin cling to each other and are glad Shame took the girl. Later, somehow Batman and Robin make it to the Batcave though it doesn’t make sense they could drive the Batmobile in their present emotional state. Alfred gives them the antidote to the fear gas. When they recover, Batman deduces that Shame would be at the Central Park Stables. Shame and his gang leave with Batgirl for part two of their caper but on the way out Fanny is hit on the head by the horseshoe above the door. When Batman and Robin get there they find Fanny and revive her. She says if anything happens to her Batgirl will be killed. This story is continued next time. 

            Leonora Sotto Voce was played by Dorothy Kirsten, who studied piano as a child. She left school at 16 to work for the Singer Sewing Machine company, while taking singing lessons. She wanted to be a Broadway singer and dancer but became an opera star instead. She was one of the few opera singers that could sing jazz standards as well. She sang on the radio before debuting as an opera singer at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. She sang regularly on the radio with Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Perry Como. She was the first opera star to appear on the cover of Life Magazine. Naming it after her husband she founded the John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation to find a cure. Her autobiography was entitled “A Time to Sing”.