Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - GGACP Classic: Beach Blanket Movies!

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

GGACP ushers in the official start of the summer season with this mini-episode celebration of AIP's "Beach Party" movies of the 1960s -- and the legendary and soon-to-be-legendary performers (Boris Ka...rloff, Buster Keaton, Paul Lynde, Don Rickles) who appeared in them (not to mention series star and "Amazing Colossal Podcast" guest Frankie Avalon). Also in this episode: Little Stevie Wonder! Remembering Harvey Lembeck! The expertise of Eddie Deezen! “The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini”! And Annette Funicello exposes her navel! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:41 Try the new creamy parmesan and bacon Quarter P pounder today and discover how words are so unnecessary for a limited time only at participating McDonald's restaurants in Canada. TV comics, movie stars, hit singles and some toys. Trivia and dirty jokes, an evening with the boys. Once is never good enough for something so fantastic So here's another Gilbert and Franks Here's another Gilbert and Franks Here's another Gilbert and Franks
Starting point is 00:01:17 Colossal classic Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried and I'm here with my co-host Frank Santopadre and believe it or not we're at Nutmeg And I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. And believe it or not, we're at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Verderosa, or soon to be homeless, Frank Verderosa. TMI. Yes. And this is an episode of Gilbert and Frank's amazing, colossal obsession. You don't even have to correct him anymore. Yeah. He's so good.
Starting point is 00:02:12 Pretty good. Took him 350. Yeah. Get up to speed. Who else is here with us? And also, our old Southern Blue singer, Asteriskless. He's Asterisk-less? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:27 That's about all I have left. I don't know if it's because he had a poor family or that a disease he had as a child. But no matter what he writes, if it needs an asterisk, he can't put it in there. What have we had so far? He's skinless, legless. Knuckleless, I thought was a nice one. Knuckleless was good. Boneless.
Starting point is 00:02:49 You were boneless at one point. Boneless chicken breast. Eyebrowless. Yeah. So I'd just like to say to homeless Frank Verterosa, if he wants to join me at my spot on 53rd Street, that'd be fine. Half cup, we'll travel. You have achieved even more celebrity on this show.
Starting point is 00:03:08 I have? Yes, through the Raybone alias. I got a tweet from Harold Itzkowitz. Harold Itzkowitz. Yeah. We like Harold. Harold's a regular fan. He sent a photo of the armless, legless, black midget from Freaks.
Starting point is 00:03:27 And he said something like a rare old photo of Ray Bones. Yes. Are you getting a lot of extra Twitter traffic? Are you getting a lot of extra? I'm getting a lot of things I can't disclose. Really? The problem is Gilbert demands 20% of everything I do. Well.
Starting point is 00:03:48 Oh, and one other thing. Yes? Before I forget, I hope I could find it quickly. Oh, that won't happen. Oh, no. That's what these phones are horrible. You're going into your Twitter? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:01 No, I put it aside purposely. Uh-huh. So, okay. I think we're almost there. That's all right. All right. Take your time. Wait, wait. Oh, wait, wait, wait.
Starting point is 00:04:12 It's not like we're on the air or anything. So, Frank, how are you? I'm good. Nice shirt. Talk amongst yourselves, okay? Summer plans, Raybone? Yeah, yeah, going to the beach, relaxing, relaxing summer. Here it is good a guy
Starting point is 00:04:26 named sam the sins fan oh yeah i know sam the sense fan yes these are all twitter followers yeah he tweeted for goodness sake the man talks about jerking off to Jane Fonda and imitated Paul Williams' fucking Shirley Temple. How is Real Gilbert's Amazing Colossal Podcast not first on the list of podcasts? I agree. Yes. It's hard to fault that logic. We'll do a tweet.
Starting point is 00:05:06 I think we're too intellectual on time, Gene. Over the viewer and listener's heads. We'll do a tweet episode. We'll catch up with all these people. A lot of stuff has happened. Yes. Yes, and the Sid and Marty episode has smash hit. Very.
Starting point is 00:05:22 You know, I'm always surprised. I know you are. You think six people are going to listen every time we pull one up. But Sid and Marty and Tim Matheson was very well received.
Starting point is 00:05:31 So we've been on a good, a good roll. Goody for us. Always, always surprised. If you weren't bringing the show down, we'd be going places.
Starting point is 00:05:41 Now this week, we let Ray Bone pick an episode idea. So it's an old blues singer that he lived with. Yeah. Well, you know, we sometimes, we rack our brains to come up with mini episode ideas. And Raybone said, how about, what did you say to me? Beach Blanket Movies. Beach Blanket Movies.
Starting point is 00:06:00 Yes. It's summer. We're in the middle of summer. It made all the sense in the world. Good time to do it. Now, I warn you, if you're going to be digging up your beach blanket movies to watch, remember, some of these girls are dead and the rest are in their 90s. We just lost Deanna Lund, who I believe is in Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
Starting point is 00:06:25 Vincent Price or one of those wow yeah so yeah some of them are still around well we had on Frankie Avalon
Starting point is 00:06:34 Frankie Avalon was here Annette was gone yeah sadly but yeah it makes all the sense in the world for us to do these so
Starting point is 00:06:42 Annette was boy that she lived so long with MS. I thought that was awful. The poor thing. She would have been perfect for the show. I mean, a lot of these people are gone. We'll talk about some of them.
Starting point is 00:06:55 It would be very interesting to see who's still alive. Is Dick Dale still around? We have to look that up. Maybe. Dick Dale, king of surf music. Anyway, what did you find, Paul? Start us off. Well, here's the amazing thing.
Starting point is 00:07:05 I do want one aside before we get going. Yeah. When I was a little guy, about six or seven, I had a terrible crush on Annette. Uh-huh. And so bad that I would crawl under a chair to watch the Mickey Mouse Club so my parents wouldn't see me blushing. That's beautiful. And the thing is To this day When I see a beautiful woman
Starting point is 00:07:26 I often crawl under a chair Uh huh Seems to be Wow So we can get on with the show Like kind of like You haven't grown Since then
Starting point is 00:07:36 Well I'm hoping By confessing to you guys Yes This will be a breakthrough for me It's kind of like When Bob Costas crawled Under the chair At the front of his car
Starting point is 00:07:42 Yeah Because Gilbert was Ending his career. So where do we start? I mean, I know there's seven considered to be the official.
Starting point is 00:07:53 Seven official Beach Party movies and we get this on the web from an article at Mental Floss written by of all people
Starting point is 00:08:01 Eddie Deason. How about that? Wow! A recent former podcast. former podcast i found the same article and another one eddie deason came on the show another hit he was fantastic yeah he was very funny yeah i didn't did not know that eddie was a beach party movie aficionado well also but apparently he is sort of a reporter here he's cataloging this whole thing and uh yeah and he only considers these seven to be the official ones. These are the official ones, so there's lots more
Starting point is 00:08:28 than this, of course, but these were all done by American International Pictures. That's right. And most of them, this is somebody who was new to me, but probably not to you guys, most were directed by William Asher. Yeah, William Asher was married to Elizabeth Montgomery. He considers that his best show, Bewitched. He was the EP of Bewitched. Bewitched, yes. But he worked a long time.
Starting point is 00:08:50 And he did 110 of 179 episodes of I Love Lucy. William Asher. He was prolific, William Asher. Yeah, yeah. Did a lot of stuff. Even directed into the 80s. Hey, do I say, is Oh God one of my things? Oh God, yes. Yeah, yeah yes that's what you're saying
Starting point is 00:09:08 oh god yes okay so everybody can do your crack pipe now take your head yeah william asher yeah william asher was still directing he directed bill macy oh in charles groden's movie movers and shakers a very uh an elderly williamher, but he had a very long career. Yeah. Yeah. So the seven, we've kept the suspense long enough here. 1963, number one was Beach Party. Beach Party.
Starting point is 00:09:35 Okay, the first official movie with the first official stars, Frankie Avalon and Ed Funicello. Right. A lot of Italians involved here, Frank. Mm-hmm. Yeah, Frankie Avalone. A lot of Italians involved here, Frank. Mm-hmm. Yeah, Frankie Avalone.
Starting point is 00:09:58 And the big word with, I mean, the big thing with Annette Funicello was she started out as a little cutesy little baby and then all of a sudden. Yep. Out they came. Yeah. Yep. That's what she was known for, filling the sweater. She also, so there was a Hollywood lore about how Walt Disney had said she could not show her navel. Yeah, that's famous. In any of the movies.
Starting point is 00:10:13 Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, like they didn't let Barbara Eden in. Yeah, that's right. Same issue. Same issue. Disney was afraid it would ruin. Well, the controversy, this is a question for a future podcast.
Starting point is 00:10:27 But she could show her cunt. That was interesting. In the contrast. Well, Disney was a funny guy. Unpredictable. Really? So it was like two or three movies in. Nine minutes for this one to go into the
Starting point is 00:10:45 into the gutter he had the same contract for James Dean I didn't know that yes no for what's his name Russell
Starting point is 00:10:58 who? Barbara Goldie Hawn's husband Kurt Russell Kurt Russell there you go he's husband. Kurt Russell. Kurt Russell. There you go. He said, make sure Kurt Russell's dick is always showing.
Starting point is 00:11:13 I think this is flawed history. I don't believe that. That was Walt's last word. I didn't realize that. Annette said that that was not true. Really? But that she, out of respect for Mr. Disney, did not show her navel until the last couple of movies.
Starting point is 00:11:28 Because she finally thought, I can't stand it anymore. The fans have got to see my navel. Harvey Lem... Maury Amsterdam and Vincent Price turn up in that first one. Yeah. In Beach Party. Some of the actors in these things are amazing. We'll see as we go through them. And Frankie Avalon always played a character
Starting point is 00:11:45 named Frankie. Yeah. Oh. That's fun. But Annette was usually either Dee Dee or Dolores. Interesting. These are deep cultural roots.
Starting point is 00:11:56 Well, let's knock them out year by year. Frankie Avalon's a guinea. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Frankie Avalon is still trying to recover from your Cesar Romero interrogation. And is his name something. Frankie Avalon is still trying to recover from your Cesar Romero interrogation.
Starting point is 00:12:07 Is his name something like Frankie Avalone? I just said it, Avalone. Yes. And I didn't come across, I don't think, a single Jewish actor. We'll have to look hard. We'll look hard. Robert Q. Lewis is in Ski Party, but I don't count that one. I think in one of the beach movies starts Theodore McKellar.
Starting point is 00:12:30 Yeah, Fibers Finkel is a lifeguard. Fibers Finkel. Let's plow through these. So Beach Party was the first one in 64. Beach Party was 63. Oh, 63, right, 63. And we can't really plow through year by year because in 1964 there were three of them right these guys were cranking them out muscle beach party muscle beach party was
Starting point is 00:12:49 the second one that was the one with don rickles correct yeah that's right right and uh and pajama party was the next one right same but basically the same story boy meets girl there's some minor issue you know what i remember about don rickles in that that's so weird is it's like has part of his stand-up in there he's supposed to be a tough coach yeah big drag these yeah of these muscle men and then for some reason there's a scene in a nightclub where he's walking around with the mic going, hey, what do you do, lady? And it's out of nowhere. The rumor is that Rickles turned up in the Beach movies because his agent, Jack Gilardi, was married to Annette. Oh!
Starting point is 00:13:37 Which is fun trivia. Yeah. But I digress, Paul. Keep going. Yeah, so Muscle Beach Party was also famous for the official big screen debut of Stevie Wonder little Stevie Wonder oh that's right you ain't stumping me buddy so there's a scene there where he's doing his thing and he's got the harmonica that's right he looks great he must be what Peter Lorre's in that one Peter Lorre that that old looking round Peter Lorre. Yes.
Starting point is 00:14:10 The eyes are really practically, you can't see him. Yep, yep, yep. You could do maybe, what would Peter Lorre say to Annette on the beach? Yeah, well, by then his voice had gone from dead to... You know who else turns up in the second one? You know who else turns up in the second one? You know who else is in Muscle Beach Party? In it,
Starting point is 00:14:30 I want to see your cunt. That's not the one Boris Karloff. Keep it clean. We're doing the beach movies. We're not even showing Naples for guests. No belly buttons.
Starting point is 00:14:43 No drink. No smoke. They never mentioned Vietnam. No belly buttons. No drink. No smoke. They never mentioned Vietnam. Oh, my God. That's right. Was Muscle Beach Party the one with Boris Karloff? No. No.
Starting point is 00:14:52 No. Buddy Hackett and Peter Lorre turned up at Muscle Beach Party. Yeah. And then there was Bikini Beach. Bikini Beach. Right. Right. That's the third one.
Starting point is 00:15:01 Which had a... And Rickles comes back. And Frankie had a doppelganger. So one Frankie was Frankie, the other Frankie was a rock musician. Yeah, it's just sort of a nutty professor thing. That's right. And he was called the Potato Bug. Correct.
Starting point is 00:15:13 And Eddie Deason says, get it, Beatles, Potato Bug? Yeah. Get the gag. Oh, yeah. So this was the level of humor. This was good Frankie and sort of wise-ass, tough guy, rock star, buddy love Frankie. I kind of remember that. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:29 And then Bikini Beach was, you already mentioned him, I think, before we got on the mic, Harvey Lembeck as Eric Von Zipper. Eric Von Zipper. Yeah. Well, he's in them from the beginning. Yeah. Yeah. From the first one, from Beach Party. Yeah, but I think Bikini Beach was the first time
Starting point is 00:15:45 he was actually called Eric Von Zipper. Oh, he's playing different character? Maybe. Oh, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:15:49 See, you know, now there's someone to brush up on my beach movies. Who would have been the ideal guest for the show?
Starting point is 00:15:55 Yeah. I'll tell you who's around, his son, Michael Lembeck. Oh, okay. Who did a lot of stuff. Captain Cool and the Kongs.
Starting point is 00:16:01 Oh, okay. For Sid and Marty. Okay. Track him down. But who else turns up in Bikini Beach, Paul? I don't know. Mr. Karloff.
Starting point is 00:16:12 Oh, that's the one with Boris. Yeah. Yeah. William Henry Pratt. Yeah. Yeah. They were just throwing these old actors into these things at that point. Some of these guys.
Starting point is 00:16:20 Buster Keaton's in one of them. He's in the next one. Yeah. Yeah. these guys buster keaton's in one he's in the next one yeah and uh vincent price's some of these people were doing movie doing movies for aip like horror movies and stuff and they were all those in the studio with all those poe movies right they were hanging around right and by poe i mean like raybone he was really poe well karloe. Well, Karloff turns up. He comes from a Poe family.
Starting point is 00:16:48 Karloff shows up in Bikini Beach with Keenan Wynn. Oh. And Timothy Carey. Oh, wow. So there you go. Or, oh, God, yes. Oh, God, yes. Oh, God, yes.
Starting point is 00:17:01 And what was the next one, Paul? Pajama Party? Pajama Party 1964.ajama Party, 1964. We're still in 1964. I mean, these guys were amazing. Yeah, they cranked them out. Keenan Wynn. Boy, what an ideal guest he would have made.
Starting point is 00:17:13 His son is in show business, too. Tracy Keenan Wynn. Wow. Yeah, we could find him. He's a writer. He used to write for Star Trek. That's like, so this is like a legacy. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:23 These guys are around. We could do a whole month of sons and daughters of people that we never got on the show. We got a lot on the show already, too. I think Mark Hudson,
Starting point is 00:17:33 the Hudson brothers, turned out to be related to Kenan Wynn and Ed Wynn by extension. Do you remember this? I vaguely, yeah. I think that Ed Wynn was their great uncle.
Starting point is 00:17:41 Okay. And Kenan Wynn was their uncle. Yeah. Okay. I have to verify that, but I think that's what Mark told us when he was here.
Starting point is 00:17:48 All right, Paul, plow through, buddy. So 1965, probably the best and most classic Beach Party movie, Beach Blanket Bingo. Yeah. Well, that's the one everybody talks about. And even described as being sometimes quite touching,
Starting point is 00:18:04 which is hard to imagine. They've gone a long way from Beach Party. I love the way the music cues just show up. Thank you, Frankie. And then, like, in the 80s, they brought them back together. Back to the beach. Yeah. We asked Frankie about that one. We to the beach. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:26 We asked Frankie about that one. We talked about that. Who else shows up in Beach Blanket Bingo? Paul? What if they won? Beach Blanket. What if they won? And you get a car.
Starting point is 00:18:36 And you get a car. Okay. So we talked about Rickles. We talked about Buster Keaton. Yeah, Keaton. Well, Keaton's in Pajama Party. One of our favorites. I don't know who you're talking about. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:43 Paul Lynde. Paul Lynde shows up in Beach Blanket Bingo. And you should see his navel. I'm looking down this list. I can't find anyone who's alive. Yeah. Deborah Wally might be alive. Well, this was 50 years ago when these things were happening.
Starting point is 00:18:59 I know. It's amazing. Well, Frankie's obviously with us still. Yeah. Paul Lynn, Buster Keaton, Timothy Carey, and Earl Wilson, the columnist. Oh, wow. Earl's Pearls also shows up in Beach Blanket Bingo. See, that's obviously a case of, well, he'll definitely write it in his column.
Starting point is 00:19:17 Of course. Yeah. It was like payola in a way. Dorothy Kilgallen, by the way, is in Pajama Party. Oh, my God. This may have been a pattern. And Terry way, is in Pajama Party. Oh, my God. This may have been a pattern. And Terry Garr shows up in Pajama Party as one of the dancers on the beach. Jeez.
Starting point is 00:19:32 Yeah. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast after this. Paul? Number six. Yeah. Now, this sounds like a title Gilbert would have dreamed of. How to stuff a wild bikini. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:52 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How they got away with that title? It's got Gilbert's fingerprints all over it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:58 Yeah. And who shows up in that one, pray tell? We got one Mr. Dwayne Hickman. Yes. Oh. He's around, Dwayne Hickman. Oh, okay. We lost Tab Hunter, but we should find Dwayne Hickman.
Starting point is 00:20:11 And Eddie Deason says, sadly, Hickman can't fill Frankie's shoes. Oh, Frankie would love to hear that. That is tragic. Yeah. He would love to hear that. Brian Donlevy shows up in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini and Mickey Rooney. Wow. Mickey Rooney. Wow. Mickey Rooney.
Starting point is 00:20:25 Yeah. He said he was paid well, hung out with a lot of fun kids, and got to listen to rock and roll all day. Throwing everybody but the kitchen sink into these things. Also, he had just declared bankruptcy, so he was in a position to make any movie that anybody wanted to make. By the way, we neglected to mention Maury Amsterdam, who's in the first one. Oh. Who's in Beach Party.
Starting point is 00:20:45 Now, Eddie, he gives a seven. I don't know if he had trouble filling out seven or what happened. I don't know. I have to call Eddie. Number seven is weird. Did you get number seven? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ghost in Invisible Bikini, 1966.
Starting point is 00:20:58 Right. Which is interesting among Beach Party movies because it features no Frankie, no Annette, no surfing, and God help us, no beaches. But Nancy Sinatra. But Nancy Sinatra. And Basil Rathbone. Nancy Sinatra who was going to be in it. Wasn't this what? No, I think she's in it. So I'm going to take a guess that this was Basil Rathbone also after a couple of divorces. And well, and Arcoff and Nicholson had him hanging around.
Starting point is 00:21:27 Oh, that's right. James Nicholson, not Jack Nicholson, the AIP guy. So they throw them in. They had Keith, you know. And it was probably one of those things like with Roger Corman. Hey, he owes us an hour. Hell, Elsa Lanchester turns up in the fourth one. Oh.
Starting point is 00:21:43 In Pajama Party. So you've got the Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein and Vincent Price and Peter Lorre. So that's one of the reasons it's worth pulling these out of mothballs and watching them. Because it's just great to see these people. It's a great historical artifact. Nancy Sinatra is not in... Yeah, she's in The Ghost and the Visitor. That must have been her. Booch are made for walking. Nancy Sinatra is not in... Yeah, she's in The Ghost and the... That must have been...
Starting point is 00:22:05 I got something. Booch are made for walking. Nancy Sinatra. Here's what I was thinking of. She... There was an issue with Beach Blanket Bingo. Okay? She was supposed to be meant to play the role that was played by Linda Evans.
Starting point is 00:22:20 But there was a kidnapping in the script, and Frank Sinatra Jr. had just been kidnapped. That's right. That's good trivia. Yeah, so she didn't want to do it, given the circumstances. Yeah, Gilbert mentions these boots are made for walking, which was actually recorded two months before she turned up in the ghost in the invisible bikini. Now, this puzzles me. Now, so this was Invisible Bikini, and so Nancy wouldn't do it because she had to be kidnapped.
Starting point is 00:22:51 Right. So let me check exactly here. No, she's in it. Yeah, but she wouldn't do that kidnapping plot. Beach Blanket Bingo is the one. Yeah, right. She's in the other one. There you go.
Starting point is 00:23:00 This one, her brother had recently been taken as part of a much publicized kidnapping in lake tahoe she reportedly backed out of the movie over not wanting to act out that plot point yeah that would blame her yeah no that would have been pretty i'm puzzled as to why eddie and i'll defer to eddie he's obviously uh an expert a scholar a scholar for the beach blanket movies we actually should have called him and just put him on the phone for this. Yeah. But I don't know why he doesn't consider Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, which was made by AIP and also made a year earlier, why he doesn't consider that because Frankie and Annette are in that one. Yeah. Annette has a cameo.
Starting point is 00:23:38 So why doesn't he consider that to be one of the seven? There are at least a couple of dozen other Beach Blanket movies. There are all kinds of them. Well, there's Fireball 500 and Thunder Alley that were also made of the seven. There are at least a couple of dozen other Beach Blanket movies. There are all kinds of them. Well, there's Fireball 500 and Thunder Alley that were also made by AIP. Frank, do you have that clip and the one we talked about that came after these Beach Party movies? What do you got, Frank?
Starting point is 00:24:06 Got it? Oh, this is Elvis and Clambake. Elvis and Clambake. Right. But that's a whole other world of beach movies. That's right. That's right. But that's just an example of the many other things that are out there. And now here's the thing.
Starting point is 00:24:21 Just today, and this wouldn't count exactly as a beach movie by any stretch, but close enough. I had been watching some movie I hadn't seen before called Lisa with Stephen Boyd and Dolores Hart. And who is now a nun. She is. We had her on The View a few years ago. We got to get her. She wrote a book. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:48 She wrote a book about how she went from Elvis to a nunnery. Yeah, two Elvis movies. Yeah, she's in Loving You and I think King Creole. Yeah, and so she's in a nunnery. Yeah, which is where I'm going after this podcast. And I was watching Lisa because once I found out she plays an Auschwitz survivor, it's too much. But she was in Where the Boys Are. That's right.
Starting point is 00:25:14 Which was, and funny you mention that because that's another Beach movie. Where the Boys Are was 1960, so it's a predecessor. Is that a clip you can find, Frank? The Connie Francis song, right? Well, you know, even before AIP decided to start making beach blanket movies, Columbia made Gidget. They made Gidget Goes Hawaiian. There were two movies written by this guy, Lou Russoff,
Starting point is 00:25:36 who wound up writing for AIP, went up writing the beach movies, Hot Rod Gang and The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow. You know these, Gil? Those titles sound very familiar. Mad Gang, and The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow. You know these, Gil? I like those titles. They sound very familiar. And there was a Gidget imitator that MGM knocked out called Love and a Goldfish Bowl. Which is a great title. Or that may have been from Paramount.
Starting point is 00:25:57 But anyway, there were the Gidget movies. There was Clambake. There were more than one Elvis Beach movie. There's Fun in Alcapulco. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's Fun in Alcapulco. Right. A bunch of them. It's really a tough category to say, well, this one doesn't quite.
Starting point is 00:26:13 Do you consider Saving Private Ryan to be a beach movie? Yes. Eddie Deason was terrific in that. It was so much fun to start doing the research on these and find this Mental Floss article and look down and see that Eddie wrote it. And, you know, he knows a lot. Eddie knows a lot about Hollywood history.
Starting point is 00:26:35 That's one of the things that made him such a great guest. We just kind of turned him loose. So I got a funny thing, if you're interested, if we got time, from MeTV, the cable channel, eight things you never knew about the Beach Party movies. Okay. Okay. You guys probably, I'm confident you guys know.
Starting point is 00:26:49 I think you already told us a few. One was the Nancy Sinatra thing. Let's see here. We've got. Wasn't Fabian supposed to be in Frankie's part? Fabian was initially intended to play Frankie Avalon's role. The heartthrob of the 1950s, Fabian Forte. I'm not sure. Fabian Forte.
Starting point is 00:27:08 Yeah, he's still around. Made girls faint. And unfortunately he was under contract to 20th Century Fox. Right. So that was the end of that. Maybe Fabian would be fun for us. That would be. Now, they say, and I mean, I imagine it's a composite
Starting point is 00:27:23 of a few people, not just Fabian. But, you know, that movie, The Idol Maker. Sure. Yeah, the Ray Sharkey. Yeah, it's a good movie. Most people say it's Fabian. Yeah. You talked to Frankie about that movie.
Starting point is 00:27:39 Yes. I think. Yeah, well, because Fabian was one of the ones that was really manufactured. Yes. Yeah. I think the story was that the producer, The Idol Maker, whose name I think. Yeah, well, because Fabian was one of the ones that was really manufactured. Yes. Yeah. I think the story was that the producer, the idol maker, whose name I can't remember, the character that Sharky plays, was driving around and saw him sitting on a stoop. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:54 Saw him in his neighborhood and just decided that he had the face of a teen idol. Yeah. I think that was the story that Frankie told us. Yeah, and sure enough, when they put him on album covers, every girl was nuts about him. Yeah, and we talked about him with Alan Arkish last night because he turns up in Get Crazy. But before we run out of time, let's get to these. Never sang or anything. So you mentioned Lou Russoff or Russoff.
Starting point is 00:28:18 Yeah, Lou Russoff. So he was commissioned by AAP to write a Beach Party script. And it turns out other screenwriters, he was unable to finish it. Other screenwriters came in to rework it and the reason they came in to do that and take no credit was that Rousseff died of brain cancer
Starting point is 00:28:36 at the age of 51. Well, Arkoff had a heart after all. There you go. It seemed like time to bring the podcast down. Yeah, thanks. Usually it's Gilbert's job to bring up a brain tumor. So who had the brain tumor again? Lou Rousseau.
Starting point is 00:28:51 Lou Rousseau who wrote a bunch of the movies. Yeah. Yeah. And so his colleagues and friends came in and gave him a fitting send-off. Yeah. I mean, I'll tell you, it's fun to see these. I mean, it's kind of sad to see Old Buster. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:06 But, you know, just to see Laurie and Elsa Lanchester and Karloff, I mean, they're worth looking at. Yes. If you can get past that these actors are far, far past their prime. Yes, yeah. It's fun to see them. And Rickles and Harvey Lembeck as Eric Von Zipper. Yes. A lot of fun. Yes.
Starting point is 00:29:25 And Paul Lind is fun. So Beach Blanket Bingo is pretty good. It's a good summer watch. That reminds me of that movie The Finks or something. The Finks. Oh, my God. Gino sent me that. We have to do a whole episode on The Finks.
Starting point is 00:29:39 Yeah. P-H-Y-N-X. Yeah. Leo Garcia, Hunts Hall. They all show up in there. Johnny Weissmuller. Yeah. And they look, they all, if you were to say each one had been dead for five years.
Starting point is 00:29:53 They all look like they were in post-abomin. You go, okay, yeah, I believe it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll do a whole episode on that. One or two more. I don't know why the hell this is in here, but something about a movie called Ski Party. Well, Ski Party wasn't set at the beach, but it was an AAIP party movie. Mountain Party.
Starting point is 00:30:12 Purist Eddie Deason does not include it. So you know this, but we could try this on Gilbert. Yeah, go quick. Who played the Ski Patrol in Ski Party? Oh, don't know. It was typecasting, I'd say. Yeah. James Brown andcasting, I'd say. Yeah. James Brown and the Fabulous Flames.
Starting point is 00:30:28 Oh, God. That would be my first guess. Yeah. Well, you know, another reason to watch these things is to see early James Brown and the music. This is Little Stevie Wonder on the beach. Dick Dale. And another one of those.
Starting point is 00:30:44 Oh, yeah, and Clambake. Elvis is backed up by Dick Dale's band. Yeah, Dick Dale. Dick Dale might still be alive. It's funny. Like in the movie, That Thing You Do. Love that picture. They show that the group is put into a beach movie at one point. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:59 Yeah. So the only other postscript on Ski Party is this is a piece of hollywood lore that we will if anybody could answer it would be this podcast apparently the only time james brown ripped his pants while doing his famous there you go also sat on his balls that's what i got that's all i got that's when James Brown was the original Mr. Belvedere I'm not I'm not gonna let us out of here
Starting point is 00:31:29 without telling I mentioned Fireball Jake Marty Kogan I mentioned Fireball 500 which had Fabian and Chill Wills
Starting point is 00:31:38 oh but before we wrap I do have to mention this is after all the amazing Colossal podcast. There was one beach movie, Eddie Deason does not consider this to be one of the seven, called Sergeant Deadhead.
Starting point is 00:31:54 And who was in that? Buster Keaton, Eve Arden, and Cesar Romero. Oh. So there you go. Okay. It was set at the outside of an orange grove. Yes, yes. So what's her name was it?
Starting point is 00:32:09 What's that woman who was known for her orange juice commercial? Oh, Anita Bryant. It was produced by Anita Bryant. A lot of product placement from Minute Maid. If any of our listeners have seen all the Beach movies, or even most of the beach movies, we invite you to tweet us or write us on Facebook. Some of the cast in these things. Did we mention Ride the Wild Surf?
Starting point is 00:32:34 No, that's not. That is not official. That's not AIP, is it? No, but look at the cast. Barbara Eden, Shelley Fabre, and Tab Hunter. Yeah, we just lost Tab. There you go. But Shelley Fabre and Barbara Eden would be great gets for this show.
Starting point is 00:32:47 So I'm going to try again. We tried with Barbara Eden and didn't have any luck, but we'll try again. And we should apologize to all of you before you get angry. We made an attempt early on to get Tab Hunter. We did make an attempt to get Tab Hunter, and there were geographical challenges. But that's one I'm really kicking myself about. I think he would have been a wonderful guest for us
Starting point is 00:33:07 but we can't get everybody. We try like crazy. We do have Ray Bones so what else do you want? Yes. This was a fun idea. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:33:17 I would, if I had some free time on my hands this summer, I would sit and put some of these in. Yeah. Yeah. Just to see the faces.
Starting point is 00:33:24 I think we can do at least two or three more minis on beach blanket movies. Yeah, the non-AIP ones. Yeah, it would be fun to come back. Hopefully, we're going to have an Elvis-related guest in the fall, so we'll talk about Elvis movies. Frankie, you got some beach blanket to take us out?
Starting point is 00:33:41 What do you got? Anything? Wait till you hear it. It's going to be awesome. Great! Gil? Yes, I'm Gilbert Gottfried and I'm here with Frank Santopadre and asterisk
Starting point is 00:33:58 Liz Raybone and this has been another edition. He's wearing asterisk Liz Chaps. I can't even say asterisk. Of the beach blanket edition of Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Obsession. Good idea for a summer show, Paul. Thank you. You're welcome.
Starting point is 00:34:17 Take my hat off to you. See you next time. Beach blanket, there you go. Beach blanket, there you go. That's the name of the game. next time. Beach blanket bingo, beach blanket bingo, beach blanket bingo, that's the name of the game. game. When a lad just meets a lassie, and he asks for a kiss, then he finds a lassie sassy. Right blanket, wrong man. Beach blanket, bingo. Beach blanket, bingo. Beach blanket, bingo. That's the name of the game. Play the game like you should do now, that's the start of the fun! When you find the girl for you now, bingo! You've won!
Starting point is 00:35:36 Beach blanket, bingo! Beach blanket, bingo! Beach blanket, bingo! That's the name of the, that's the name ofingo! That's the name of a... That's the name of a... That's the name of a... Ding! Bingo! I'm going to go.

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