Switched to Remember WENN while eating lunch and getting organized. Mackie Bloom is thrilled to take over the manager's office for a day when Betty's out, to the point where it goes to his head. His ego deflates quickly when gangster Palermo Racine (Phillip Bosco) turns up at the station trying to find him. Seems he was "A Star In Stripes Forever" and has a sketchy past with Racine that includes jail time. Racine's ready to blackmail him, until the others make use of their This Is Your Life-style show to make sure Mackie's secrets stay private.
"A Girl Like Maple" is fed up with being treated like a tomboy and loose women by pretty much everyone at the station. She falls for a handsome Governor (Boyd Gaines) while doing a prestigious show, but is afraid to let him hear her real Brooklyn accent and think she isn't a cultured lady. The others try to help her by showing off their own accents for the politician, to the annoyance of Hilary. It takes a big date for Maple to realize that what's important isn't what she sounds like. It's the big heart she has inside.
Called Uber soon as the episode ended. I had a really, really hard time getting a ride. I had to switch to a more-expensive car just to get one that would get me to the Thomas Sharp School even remotely on time. Took them 7 minutes to come. Thankfully, I was only five minutes late.
As it turned out, we didn't have nearly as big of a group as we have the last few days. There were only five kids in my group, and 19 kindergartners and pre-schoolers overall. I did have a little trouble with the kids at the bathroom. Two of the boys took so long, I let them go back with the head teacher and her group. Other than that, it was pretty much the same as it has been the last few days. The kids just colored until she broke out the music and let them dance. There were four left by the time we returned to the cafeteria, and one went home at the same time I was leaving.
(And yes, I got the bag I left yesterday. The school's lost and found is thankfully in their cafeteria. It was right on top of the pile.)
Thankfully, I had fewer problems getting a ride home, despite it being the height of rush hour. The Uber driver arrived in 9 minutes. Though he went around a few ice-congested streets, there were otherwise no problems getting home.
Went straight into Match Game Syndicated when I got in. The first week finished off the 1979 season with Holly Halstrom, Bill Daily giving strange answers, and Debralee Scott and Bart Braverman flirting and fighting with each other. At one point, Deb got so fed up with Bart throwing cards at her head, she went to pound him...before he grabbed her for a kiss! "I love it when we make up!" she said with a grin. Holly stuck around for the 1980 season opener. Charles returned, along with Gary Burghoff, Dick Martin, and Joyce Bulifant.
Finished the night with some traditional operettas and older musical comedies. Roberta and The Vagabond King is one of those two-for-one operetta and musical CDs Decca released about 20 years ago. Roberta is the longer one, featuring almost the entire score. Paula Laurence joins Alfred Drake for a hilarious "Let's Begin" and goes solo for "I'll Be Hard to Handle." Broadway star Drake joins Kitty Carlisle for "The Touch of Your Hand" and the standard "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" and gets the goofy Don't Ask Me Not to Sing" with the chorus.
Drake sticks around for The Vagabond King. This time, he's joined by opera star Mimi Benzell for "Only a Rose" and "Tomorrow." He gets the rousing "Song of the Vagabonds" with the male chorus. She sounds gorgeous on "Some Day." Frances Bible sings the "Hugette Waltz."
My CD copy of Rose-Marie, another Rudolf Friml operetta of the 1920's, came from the Media Theater in Media, Pennsylvania. Once again, we get almost the entire score, even the comic numbers that usually get cut from movie versions like "Hard Boiled Herman" and "Why Shouldn't We?" Honestly, the guy playing Herman and the lady doing his girlfriend Lady Jane are trying too hard (her fake New York accent is appalling), but Rose-Marie and Jim aren't too bad. Their "Indian Love Call" is as passionate as one could wish. "Pretty Things" and "Door of My Dreams" also come across well here.
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