The Lady In the Red Shoes

Once again slept in. Finished The Christmas Tree Book, then wrote in my journal. Put on Match Game '77 when I got rolling and had breakfast. The week with Debralee Scott and Bill Cullen ended with some really interesting answers about what a smart dog does when Match Game comes on the TV. Richard has a far more surprising answer for "Susan ___" in the Head-to-Head! In the next episode, Marcia Wallace, Barbara Rhodes, and Avery Schriberer join in to hear a contestant discuss his pet ferret and see Gene and Richard play tic-tac-toe on Marcia Wallace's bare shoulders.

Let it run into Tattletales. Martin and Judy Milner, Bobby Van and Elaine Joyce, and Jed and Toby Allen also continue their run. This time, Toby and Jed managed to get it together long enough to win the first episode and tie in the second. 

Spent the rest of the afternoon watching The Red Shoes on YouTube. I go further into this gorgeous British film about a ballerina torn between her love for a composer and her desire to dance at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

The Red Shoes

Worked on writing for a while after that. Cora angrily confronts the man who calls himself Stephen. He finally admits that no, he's not Stephen. He's Stephen's cousin, a sorcerer who practiced the dark arts. He  offered his cousin unlimited power and the chance to rule with an iron fist over both kingdoms and attacked him when he was rejected. He says he and Cora are getting married, whether she likes it or not, and makes the hunchback vanish. He's in his fortress home, he tells her, and she'll never see him again. She's marrying him, whether she likes it or not.

Finally broke for dinner at quarter after 7. Comedian Freeman King joins bubbly Betty Kennedy for this Match Game Syndicated week. Betty gets her first chance at the Head-to-Head with "__ Georgia," while Charles rips Brett's name off the Star Wheel and Gene wonders where the "Old Philosopher" music is coming from. In the second episode, he spends way too much time explaining elevator shoes to a contestant who is just stalling for time.

Having seen Bert Convy on Tattletales earlier, I thought I'd check out some of his other appearances. He was on Murder She Wrote twice during the run of Super Password, starting with its two-part pilot episode, "The Murder of Sherlock Holmes." Shocked when the mystery novel she never intended to publish is a best seller, Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) finds herself in New York City, besieged by nasty talk show hosts of all kinds. 

A kindly publisher finally invites her to a costume party at his palatial country estate. The party takes a turn for the deadly when a man in a Sherlock Holmes costume is found dead in the pool. It's believed to be the owner of a seafood chain (Brian Keith) who had more than a few enemies, but is then discovered to be a private detective who was hired to investigate a leak in his company. When her nephew Grady is accused of the crimes, Jessica ends up playing detective herself, including following the owner's former mistress and the stage composer (Convy) who suddenly has enough money to produce an off-Broadway show. 

Convy's playing it far less congenital in a second season episode. He's Christopher Bundy, the publisher of several trashy girlie magazines. Jessica is furious when she learns one of her short stories may end up in one of his rags. His family doesn't like him any more than she does, and a publisher (Robert Stack) whose empire he may buy is even less fond of him. "Christopher Bundy - Dies on Sunday" when  he's shot in the back in his own home. Jessica has to figure out whom in the family is the culprit and save her publisher friend from being arrested for the crime.