| Notes |
| ● |
As usual, the cameraman was Guy Littlemore and the sound recordist
was Simon Burles, but the helicopter was flown by local pilot Mike (instead
of Keith Thompson). |
| 1 |
Flying west along the Mississippi River (‘Ol’ Man River’ in
the 1936 musical ‘Showboat’, rolls west) Suzi passes Luling (after lulling)
and lands at the Destrehan Plantation (Des Trehan’s pad). Inside the house she
looks for the master bedroom (the Master’s sleeper) where she finds the clue
attached to a ‘rolling pin’ (Nora Batty’s weapon from the long-running TV situation
comedy show ‘Last Of The Summer Wine’) on the bedhead. [The ‘rolling pin’ is
detachable and used to smooth any creases in the bed-linen].
Nora Batty’s name was mis-spelled in the clue. The reference to her weapon
was potentially misleading because she was also notorious for wielding a sweeping-brush
as well as a rolling pin. |
| 2 |
Nat and Michael direct Suzi to Mardi Gras World (‘Mardi Gras’
is French for ‘Fat Tuesday’) near Algiers Point (composer Saint-Sans died in
Algiers) of New Orleans (nicknamed ‘The Big Easy’). Entering a large warehouse,
she finds two King Kong carnival floats (Fay Wray starred in the 1933 film ‘King
Kong’). She looks at the first (female) Kong, before finding the clue on the
foot of the second (male) Kong. Simon the soundman makes a rare appearance as
Suzi is leaving the warehouse. |
| 3 |
‘Do you wanna come too, too, too?’ is a line from the children’s
song ‘Daddy’s taking us to the zoo tomorrow’ (‘We’re going to the zoo, zoo,
zoo / Do you wanna come too, too, too?’) and John James Audubon was an ornithologist
and bird artist. Nat and Michael tell Suzi to fly to the John James Audubon
Park, which contains a Louisiana swamp exhibit (La Swamp: ‘La’ being the abbreviation
for Louisiana). She lands, crosses the railroad track, enters the zoo and finds
two electric golf carts waiting (Get Carter). Suzi climbs aboard the rear cart,
and driver Mark takes her through the park to the swamp. When she arrives, she
finds an alligator skull and a tank of live baby alligators (make it snappy
little one) on a table. The clue in the jaw of the skull.
Nat and Michael initially think that ‘John James’ refers to a river boat
of that name which is moored nearby. However this turns out to be an unplanned
red-herring that the clue setter had not intended! |
| 4 |
Nat and Michael tell Suzi to fly to New Orleans’s French Quarter
(Dans le quartier) and go to Jackson Square (Andrew Jackson, 1767–1845, known
as ‘Old Hickory’, was the 7th President of the United States and won the Battle
of New Orleans against the British in 1815: a square is a type of quadrilateral).
The helicopter lands in a park some distance away and Suzi starts running alongside
a railway line towards the square, during which time Simon the soundman makes
a second unscheduled appearance, prompting Suzi to tease him about it: “Look!
Simon’s trying to get in shot again. You prima donna!”. She has problems finding
the square because she is expecting Michael and Nat to give her directions,
rather than asking passers-by herself. “There’s a man on a horse,” she says
when she finally arrives and sees the statue in the centre of the square. “It’s
just like Wolverhampton town centre”. On the other side of the square she finds
a jazz band performing. The clue is under the top hat (a piece of monopoly)
of the singer (Singer invented the sewing machine, Phat is the name of this
singer). |
| 5 |
Near St Louis Cathedral (Aviator Charles Lindbergh flew ‘Spirit
of St Louis’) is the Cabildo Museum (cab’ll do). “Boat-race is Cockney rhyming
slang for face,” says Dermot (boat-race, guv’nor). With seconds to go, Suzi
enters the museum, and Nat and Michael tell her to look for the face of Napoleon
(Boney = Napoleon Bonaparte), but the time runs out. The treasure is on Napoleon’s
Death Mask on the second floor. |
