Well, dear readers, despite only four hours of sleepless sleep, yesterday was a very productive day from almost start to finish. I was up after four hours of sleep, maybe not even four, but of course I’d slept thirteen hours the day and night before, so there’s that. I had lots of e-mails to answer, which I did. I ordered a turkey sandwich and sweet and sour cabbage soup for food and had that as soon as it arrived. Very good. That was productive for my stomach. I talked to AFTRA and they stopped payment on the check and will send out another today, and they sent me all the forms to do direct deposit, so I’ll fill those out and get ‘em back to them. That was productive. Then I had a really nice conversation with a nice gent in the UK – we talked about doing a project here a couple of years ago, then we both got busy and he contacted me the other day and wants to now make it happen by the end of this year. So would I, so we’ll see if we can do that. That was productive. Doug and I e-mailed back and forth and he’s sick as a dog but working on our stuff. I’ve told him that I’d like it live by Wednesday. That will be hopefully productive. I wrote to a few people I want on the Applause team – that was productive although I haven’t heard back from them yet. Then I took a little nappy poo but only for about ninety minutes, if that. Once back up, I got my new car registration and tags, so that was good and I’ll put the new tag on today. Then I got the third blurb and now we have everything we need to complete the packaging and we can use the third blurb on the pre-order page, too, so we won’t have to add anything later. I never published the second blurb, so here are the two you haven’t seen – on the back of the jacket, Dick Lochte’s blurb will lead, followed by Bill Fitzhugh, followed by notes historian and author, David Del Valle. Here’s Dick’s blurb:

“In amnesia thrillers, memory-blanked narrators usually wake up in seedy urban hotel rooms. Not in Bruce Kimmel’s world. His empty-minded hero finds himself in the garage of an unfamiliar family home in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. Even more impressive, while keeping the action mainly in this nominally peaceful vicinity, the author is skillful enough to rev up a full amount of propulsive suspense with sinister SUVs, suspiciously kind strangers, unruly kids and fast-food waitresses, sympathetic and snarky. It’s a bravura example of a unique kind of mystery, neighborhood noir.”

   —Dick Lochte, author of The Neon Smile

And here’s David’s blurb:

“What would you do if you suddenly woke up and you didn’t know who you were, where you were, or what you were doing there? That is the dilemma facing Person Unknown in this fast-moving chess-game of a mystery by Bruce Kimmel – a one-man band of talent. In this wonderfully told story, Person Unknown must be his own detective, but what do you detect if you can’t remember anything? As the great detective, Mr. Holmes, might observe – it’s a two-pipe problem. So, what are you waiting for? Light up!”

   —David Del Valle, noted Hollywood historian and author

Aren’t those lovely blurbs? I had some ice cream and that did not sit well in the tummy, so I popped some damn Pepcid, which helped. The I had a very nice telephonic conversation with our very own Rodzinski. After that, THAT’S when I had my ninety-minute nappy poo, not earlier as mentioned earlier when it was earlier and I mentioned it. Who am I, Preview Harvey all of a sudden? Oh, in case I haven’t mentioned it, we’re doing an audio book on Preview Harvey – Robert Yacko is doing the narration. He’s got a very good handle on it. Then I got an Amazon Fresh order. One of the items was a box of Milk Duds. I opened it and got a few out – they looked a little, I don’t know, weird, but I popped one in the old maw, and it was like a brick, so I spit it out instantly and got a refund. There’s no sell by date on the box, but I think it’s more than a year old. I made myself and egg sandwich and if you’ve ever tried to make yourself an egg sandwich when you’re an actual human, you know how difficult that can be. It was okay, not great.

Then someone on a Sam Peckinpah Facebook page made a nice post about Randolph Scott in Ride the High Country. I responed, basically saying that as much as I love Scott in that movie, it’s Joel McCrea who really shines and is moving. And how it remains my favorite Peckinpah movie and how much I disagree with Peckinpah that George Bassman’s wonderful score is terrible – but that was Sam – couldn’t stay out of his own way. He famously wrote Jerry Fielding a very nasty letter about The Wild Bunch score – but in the end he knew enough to finally shut up because he realized how much it helped the film. Anyway, I went into the release history of Ride the High Country – MGM’s idiotic decision to release it as the bottom half of a double bill with a completely inappropriate top feature, namely the not so hot Boys’ Night Out, with James Garner and Kim Novak. So, basically no one saw it, including me. But that was July 4, 1962, and I was practically living at the Chinese Theater seeing West Side Story and at the Fine Arts seeing The Miracle Worker, and also to a lesser extent, the Wilshire seeing Birdman of Alcatraz. Want to know what the other options were if you were a movie or playgoer? Try this on for size: El Cid, which was in its final eight days of the roadshow run at the Carthay Circle, which is where I saw it – my first time in that glorious place.

The Road to Hong Kong was at the Picwood, and I did go to see that there. Hatari was at the Egyptian in Hollywood, and I did see that there. Lolita was at the Beverly, but that was eighteen and older only – I thought about trying to say I was eighteen, but in July of 1962 I was fourteen and looked ten, so that wasn’t going to work. On stage, Les Poupees des Paris, an adult puppet show, was playing at P.J.’s on Sunset and Crecent Heights.

If I wasn’t so busy movie hopping, I could have seen the national tour of Mary, Mary at the Biltmore, starring Theresa Wright, Scott McKay, and Tom Helmore. If I wasn’t so busy, I could have seen Miss Anna Maria Alberghetti in Carnival, co-starring Ed Ames at the Philharmonic Auditorium. I could have seen Call Me by My Rightful Name, directed by some guy named Richard Donner. So, what WAS I seeing onstage that week when I wasn’t movie hopping? I was seeing Miss Anna Maria Alberghetti’s sister, Carla, in West Side Story at the Moulin Rouge, later the Aquarius Theater, which also starred original cast members Larry Kert and Chita Rivera – restaged by Chita’s hubby and original Jet (and movie Jet) Tony Mordente, and featuring the original Bernardo, Ken LeRoy, along with many of the folks from the movie, including Tucker Smith and David Winters and several of the  Sharks and Jets. I was also still regularly seeing Under the Yum Yum Tree at the Ivar – with Del Moore and Bill Bixby. At the Hollywood Bowl it was an evening with Jule Styne with guests Tony Bennett and Shirley Jones. At the Greek Theater, Danny Kaye was about to open. It was a time, I tell you, and if I could go back and see Mary, Mary and Carnival wouldn’t that be loverly? And then it was time to write these here notes.

Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, hopefully Doug will have made some progress, hopefully I’ll hear back from the people I need to hear back from, I’ll get AFTRA the paperwork they need, I’ll continue casting the recording, I’ll do whatever needs doing, and then I have a dinner thing at six-fifteen, after which I shall return.

The rest of the week is more of that – getting the new book and CD up for pre-orders, hopefully by tomorrow, getting the book files to the publisher as soon as Doug sends me the final files I’m missing, which is all the dust jacket stuff, and lots of other stuff.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, hopefully will get a progress update from Doug, hopefully hear back from folks, get forms to AFTRA, continue casting the recording, do whatever needs doing, then have a dinner thing and then return home. Today’s topic of discussion: What did you think of all that stuff that one could go to in 1962 and do you think we will ever have a time like that again? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a productively productive day.