First of all, Kobal really is the patron of comedians and Entertainment Director in Hell. At least, according to those who keep up on such things.
As for Adramelech’s human appearance, which he finally takes on towards the end of the chapter, I wanted him to be very dapper and well-dressed. Sadly, I know nothing about such things and so searched on Google for “best dressed men.” The one I finally settled on was this:
In the first draft of this story, when joking around with Fielding about being married, Adramelech turns into Kim Basinger. Then I realised that Adramelech would have no reason to know about Kim’s poster, so I searched my mind for another actress. On a whim I decided to go back to actresses from previous eras, and my first thought, of course, was the radiant Lillian Gish.
But somehow it didn’t seem right to throw such a classic woman into a quick joke revolving almost entirely around sex appeal.
Then I thought of Tuesday Weld. Not that Miss Weld wasn’t classy, but being more modern, I felt she wouldn’t mind as much appearing, once again, as a sex symbol.
I suppose, having been a faithful viewer of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis I must have seen Tuesday Weld in her role as Thalia Menninger, the girl Dobie was infatuated with. But I really only noticed her years later upon seeing Pretty Poison, in which she co-starred with Anthony Perkins.
Tuesday, of course, wasn’t her real name, which was Susan Ker Weld, but her little sister had trouble saying “Susan,” saying “Tu-tu” instead. This eventually morphed into “Tuesday.”
Her father died when she was young, and she went into modelling and acting to support her family. Her career had its ups and downs, and while she gained much acclaim, she also acting in such cinematic classics as Sex Kittens Go to College (Tag line: “You’ve never seen such a student body!”)
In that film she acted alongside another attractive woman named Mijanou Bardot, little sister to Bridgette.
Tuesday Weld. Sigh. You sure know how to pick ’em. She was married to Pinchas Zukerman, the musical director and conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. They divorced in 1998. Maybe she didn’t want to move to Ottawa.
Pinchas was one of my favourite violinists back when I was still playing. He did a magnificent rendering of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major (which I always refer to as The Violin Concerto, because nothing else equals it). I worked on that piece for months until I could play it. Good? No. But I could play it. Except for one note that is below the open G — never could figure out how anyone could play that. I especially enjoyed the combination of Pinchas and Itzhak Perlman.