Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini #161: Remembering Mister Kelly’s with David Marienthal and Adam Carston

Episode Date: April 26, 2018

This week: Tim & Tom! Woody Allen salutes Miles Davis! Shecky Greene throws a haymaker! Redd Foxx teams with Slappy White! And the golden age of comedy albums! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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available right away. Hi, this is Hi Hi This is Gilbert Gottfried And this is And I'm here with Frank Santopatre, and this is Gilbert and Frank's amazing, colossal obsessions. And we're here with Adam Carlston. Close. Paul Parker.

Adam Carlston. Yes! Adam Carlston. Close. Paul Parker. Adam Carsten. Yes. Adam Carsten. And, oh, Christ, David Marienthal. Very good. Nice. Take the rest of the week off. Okay.

That was beautiful. He's exhausted now. Colossal obsessions. Shall we tell them who Adam Carsten and David Marienthal are? Well, one for certain is a Jew. If you were listening last week, and if you weren't, shame on you. David and Adam are making a documentary, and they are the official historians of Mr. Kelly's, the world-famous Mr. Kelly's Supper Club. Jazz club, comedy club, all-around historic, famous, very famous entertainment venue.

And we went so long, we had so much fun, Gilbert took up so much time mispronouncing your name, that we had to come back and do a second one. So here you guys are again. Where did you leave off? I think you had a Cosby cliffhanger. Yeah, you said Bill Cosby and I think we could devote this whole episode.

Well, nobody cares about him anymore, right? He's not in the news. Just to catch our listeners up, we were talking about all the legendary performers that played at Mr. Kelly's. Barbra Streisand. Barbra Streisand and Richard Pryor and George Carlin and Woody Allen. I mean, yeah, the who's who. It is a who's who.

Cosby was one of them. You know, Cosby has been tricky for us. Maybe David can tell that story a little bit. I mean, he played the club several times. He recorded his first album there, the Grammy for comedy album. I saw a photo of Cosby. Was it with your dad? Yes.

Were the two of them holding up signs? Yes. Cosby, factually, two and a half years ago or three years ago when I started this project, had just received the Lifetime Achievement Award on national TV. Oh, the Mark Twain Prize? Right. Yes. And he had just presented that. He just received that. And as many of his acceptance speeches, he thanked, I guess, again, thanked George and Oscar Marienthal for gettingienthal for keeping him on track with his comedy career. Because when he did his first show at Mr. Kelly's, he bombed so badly he was ready to walk home.

Well, that's good history. And pack it all in. Wow. So he thanked your dad and your uncle. On several days. His autobiography on the Today Show and everything. It was all part of the lore. And yet I assume you will not approach him for the documentary.

Well, you know, David, do you want to tell your experience with that? A week after he had received this award, he was going to be in Chicago, and I wanted to interview him. So I called him through his publicist. Again, not having a showbiz background. Sure, but he would recognize the name but the publicist put me through to him and and i spoke with him and he agreed to be supportive of the project and uh then the shit hit the fan and the shit hit the fam literally

you said it right the next week but you know he was again we were talking about the comics but the history of african-amer. We did mention Godfrey. Oh, yeah. Oh, Godfrey Cambridge. Godfrey Cambridge. Oh, yeah, funny guy. Flip Wilson cut an album there. Wow.

W. Right, that's right. Dick Gregory, I know we mentioned. Yes, Dick Gregory. So Dick Gregory told me that literally he passed the baton of being the homey, family-oriented black comic onto Bill Cosby when he went to become political. No kidding. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. And if we're talking about some of the great black comedians there. Oh, you said Moms Mabley. We said in the last episode she had a cup of coffee there. Slappy White. Slappy played the club he played with steve rossi we were just talking about that after alan and rossi broke up yes

slappy white was slappy and rossi they were there at the club and i remember what i remember best and and and i think this this was the biggest laugh and it went downhill from there it was they both came out on stage and he'd go hi i'm steve rossi and slappy white would go and i'm white that was the opening bit yeah that was it opening. They were brutalized in the reviews in Chicago. I think Slappy paired with Red Fox, too, for a time. Red and White. Yeah, they played separate. I think they played within the same.

I think they were both 68 at the club. So, yeah, they were booking a lot of African-American acts through really the whole tenure. a lot of African-American acts through really the whole tenure. I think that was another thing we really want to talk about is they really gave a lot of black comics a very big spotlight to talk. And we already mentioned Cosby, Flip Wilson, guys like that recorded there. Yes. Just a great legacy there. Well, and Dick Gregory, he very specifically said, again,

a sign of the times that, you know, Chicago was segregated and still is segregated in some ways, but he would come into the club, he'd be treated fairly, he knew he was going to be treated with respect and get paid, and then he'd, you know, end up going back to the South Side.

And Cosby recorded, I started out as a child. Yes. In the club. Yeah. And Flip Wilson, you said it, as a child. Yes. In the club. Yeah. And Flip Wilson, you said it, you devil you. Yes. Yeah. And was Woody Allen, was he like really nervous back in those days?

Yeah, actually. So funny thing is we've heard from Arlene Rothberg, who is another great Kelly story, but she was the booker at the time. Rothberg, who is another great Kelly story, but she was the booker at the time. And she told us that he would do sets with his back turned to the audience. How Miles Davis of him. Well, it's funny you say that. We just interviewed Woody and he said he did it as a joke in reference to Miles Davis and he thought it was funny. Wow.

So we don't know if that's him, you know, retconning his history or he actually thought that way or what. But it's funny you mentioned that. He talked about that to us. Well, he would have famous anxiety attacks before going on. Well, and we just met this gentleman, John Dumanian. Yes, we know John Dumanian by reputation. Yes, he was great. Gilbert worked for his sister.

He worked for Capital Records. And he was, when Jack Rollins and Jaffe left Chicago after being there for Woody's first act time there, they couldn't stay in town, so they called on John to keep Woody company while he was in Chicago. And that was how they've been lifelong friends ever since. And a friendship was born. And to our listeners that don't know, you can see John Dumanian in bit parts in almost every early Woody Allen film. And Gene Dumanian produced a bunch of Woody Allen pictures. And you have a little bit of history with her?

Yes, she was the producer in my season of Saturday Night Live. Gene Dumanian, there's a connection. Which they keep buried. It is not allowed to see the light of day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. John Dumanian is the Coke, the guy that gives them the sample of Coke in Annie Hall and in many, many other.

He and Woody would go across the street on Rush Street and play pool in between sets. Right. And go to see the jazz clubs. Props, by the way. Let's not bury this, that you guys managed, and this is a miraculous achievement, to get Woody Allen, the reclusive, reluctant Woody Allen. Yeah. What did you say?

To be part of your doc. We just hustled, and we got lucky, and we just got through to him after about a year of trying. And the other story is we had that I talked to Shecky Green a year ago. Big fan of Gilbert's. People have told me that he's a notorious, difficult man. Listen to him on this podcast. He answered my calls. He loved George and Oscar.

He literally sang the praises of Mr. Kelly in his Cubs jacket. It's the club that can melt any comments. When I went over there to interview, he had lox and bagels set out for me and my partner. And I thought he was the sweetest guy in the world. These guys can be the ambassadors. You should be doing the booking for this podcast. We need a side job. They can bring you and Shecky together.

Shecky Green, I was supposed to be playing with him and some other entertainers at some Friars thing. I went on and Shecky flew into a rage. I think he tried to throw a punch at Freddie Rowland. He did. He did, in fact. And he said of me, he goes, I was in the Navy, and I never heard language like that. A little hard to believe. I guess he was quite difficult at Mr. Kelly's back in the day. I never heard language like that. A little hard to believe.

I guess he was quite difficult at Mr. Kelly's back in the day, and I think he was partying a little bit more than he does today at 90. Well, I saw the teaser that you guys are circulating, and Shecky looks like he was enjoying doing the project. We got him to sing, which is crazy if you watch the teaser. He had the story that when he was at Kelly's, he liked to go to the track most days while he was in Chicago. And he came back, and I guess he had won big, so he stopped and bought a new car, a new Mercedes, and left it with the valet back in the day. And it turns out he comes out, and the valet knew nothing about it. He gave it to somebody that was a poser for a valet back in the day and it turns out he comes out and the valet knew nothing about it

he gave it to somebody that you know was a poser for a valet and he never saw the car that's a great story yeah yeah that's a good one and didn't he like one of his famous stories shecky got really drunk when he drove in the fountain yeah he drove his car into the fountain and that's caesar's baby No, that was in Chicago. Oh, was that in Chicago? That was the same. So Shelly Berman came every single year. Did you get Shelly?

Fortunately, I talked to Sarah, his wife, who was there with him for most days, and she was an actress as well. And he was still with us, but he was affected by his own service. When we started the podcast, he was already too compromised to have on the show. But if you listen to interviews with Shelley, he always credits Mr. Collins. Right. Well, he came out of the whole Chicago Second City and Goodman Theater. He was a dramatic actor, of course.

That's right. And he decided to try comedy. He's in that Twilight Zone episode. Oh, that's right. Shelly Berman. We have a great movie that he made, A Cultural Introduction to Chicago in 1967. Wow.

Which is him doing a tour of Second City and then some of the few live footage we have of Mr. Kelly's in London House. It's in that film as well. And he narrates the whole thing. We'd love to get you guys a copy of that. We'd love to see it. I remember with that episode, they didn't have great special effects back then.

On Twilight Zone? Yeah. See if you can find them. It looked like they made up a bunch of quickly, cheaply made Shelly Berman masks. Rubber masks. You see this episode? I know, yeah. I grew up loving that.

Well, as Adam mentions, Shecky was here with us for about 12 minutes. And he kept screaming. He kept screaming into the phone, this is not the way to do this, Gilbert. It was just an interview. And I said, this is the way to do this. We weren't trying to broker a piece. We was just an interview. And I said, this is the way to do this. We weren't trying to broker a piece. We were just trying to interview him. We will return to

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at OttawaTourism.ca. And now back to the show. Woody, getting back to Woody Allen, too, and what we were talking about in the kitchen, he recorded his first album at Mr. Kelly's, which was called Woody Allen.

Yes, the self-titled. And so what people know from that famous double album, the stand-up comic album, and we were talking about the bit about his wife coming into the bathtub and sinking his boats. You know that bit? Oh, yeah. And the moose. And the moose and the Berkowitz's.

I one-shot a moose. Strapped him to the roof of my car. Recorded at Mr. Kelly's. How about that? And the bullet. Yes. The bullet in the breast pocket. Well, an interesting thing,

because I did a lot of research trying to prep for him. Man, he had a cool career between four different engagements at Kelly's. And when he played, he'd be there for three to four weeks. And that was kind of typical then and uh in 64 when he recorded that album uh louis lasser you know from mary hartman and you know his his second wife right second was playing at the other club david's father owned the happy medium so they were a couple you know in chicago at the exact same time living it up living it up so yeah he

really had a great uh history in in Chicago in the 60s. And talk about some of the other records, too, that were recorded there because they're important. Yeah. The music albums as well. Oh, well, music. I mean, Gene Krupa recorded at London House. Well, some of the great ones that we're just finding things all the time.

Billie Holiday. How about that? At Mr. Kelly's. We found two records of her, two or three cuts from hers that she recorded at Mr. Kelly's. London House, the jazz place, was recorded as part of the Armed Services Network. So they were broadcasting from the London House every week. That's great. And Ella Fitzgerald's album.

Ella Fitzgerald. Live from Mr. Kelly's and Della Reese. Sarah Vaughan. Sarah vaughn yeah they were all doing these live live records it was oscar and george designed the club to have this acoustical uh properties and evidently you know that's you know we asked woody why he wanted to record his his first album there and he basically said that jack thought this was you know the one of the best clubs in the nation and this was the the place that he needed to do it. And, of course, Chicago, again, people don't remember,

but Chicago was the center of the universe. It was truly the barely second city to New York at that point. It was the crossroads of the nation. Creativity, music, recording, advertising. I mean, it was happening. And when you were just a kid and you probably had very little idea of all of this that was happening around you because you were too young. Is that fair to say, to really appreciate something? My father was a celebrity.

Back when local celebrities really were celebrities. So, you know, people, oh, your dad owns a nightclub. And, you know, it was pretty cool. And then they used to have big parties at the house where Oscar Peterson would play the piano. Incredible. What a childhood. Les McCann would come and hang out with us in the bedroom and play with us. Neil Hefty wasn't at the house.

You remember Neil Hefty? I'm just trying to throw Gilbert a bone. God, would I have loved to have interviewed Neil Hefty. I know. I know. And you guys decided on another very funny guy to narrate the documentary, Tom Dreesen. Yeah, Tom Dreesen's, you know, been very gracious. And, you know, he's a Chicago native.

And, you know, I think it really, what we find is that guys who grew up. Tim and Tom. Yeah, Tim and Tom. You know, guys that grew up in Chicago really appreciated playing there. And, yeah, he played there with Tim Reed from WKRP in Cincinnati. And then, because I remember, Tim Reed invited Tom Dreesen on WKRP to do an episode. Yeah, they had the black and white comedy duo. do an episode. Yeah, they had a, you know, the black and white comedy duo. They were one of the,

Tom's got a great story about them being the first mixed comedy team. And they were not only playing Kelly's, but they started going to VFW halls downstate and they had some, you know, pretty dicey incidents. Yeah. I didn't mean to jump off that and give your, your, your, your dad and your uncle short shrift on that. It's important what they did, giving Black Comics a voice in the club when they did. Yeah, I mean, it was a— It's important. You know, it was somewhat a business decision, but it was also, you know, that they felt like, you know, they treated their, you know, they had very, you know,

some of the first people that welcomed African-American clients. We found an article from the 50s that said 10 downtown clubs welcomed the sepia trade. The sepia trade. That was in the Chicago Defender, which was probably the most famous black newspaper of the 20th century. And then on top of that, I've been doing research in Jet and Ebony's catalog

and their travel guide for black tourists. They would put Mr. Kelly's in London houses, basically safe places for visiting African-Americans to go to. How about that? Yeah. We ran into it. It's important. We've been doing these events at City Winery in Chicago where we, in January, we reenacted the whole Ella Fitzgerald album with six local Debra A. singers.

And it was a phenomenal hit. Rave reviews. Just really talented people. So that was a list that they could safely go in there. There wouldn't be trouble. Yeah. Well, they would have in the back of the magazine, like a travel advisory of where you could go.

And, you know, I mean, you know, we just keep finding documentation in black magazines and newspapers saying, yeah, come here. It's, you know, it's a place to go where you can be safe. Well, the best story is at this event, we ran into an elderly African-American man, big guy. And he said, well, I was there all the time. And then he said he was a Chicago policeman. I said, well, this is going to be a great story.

What was he doing there? Was he a security guard? Was he, you know, casing the joint? story. What was he doing there? Was he a security guard? Was he, you know, casing the joint? You know, it turns out once Adam got to talk to him, he was there because he was dating a white woman. And this is the place, the only place he felt he could go safe. Wow. How about that? And George put him up in front. There was no problems. And he just, Good for you, dad. A very, very, very comfortable place, a progressive place at a difficult time.

Yeah, a very progressive place, a progressive place at a difficult time, in a tumultuous period. Good for them. I want to ask you guys a little bit about somebody that you, another coup, somebody else that you got into the documentary, the great Bob Newhart. Oh, yeah. Another feather in your cap. Yeah, Bob's interesting because another Chicago native and I think another person where I think it meant something to him to be there. He actually cut his album before he really had nightclub. In Texas. Yeah.

That story's famous. But he didn't have nightclub experience necessarily. He was kind of more of a recording artist first. So he kind of credits Mr. Kelly's with being a place where he really started to be more secure as a, you know, stand up performer in in the public sphere. Well, this is the myth or legend was that my uncle and this is again somehow things, family stories get the story. But the family story is that actually Bob Newhart came into my uncle's office as an accountant. Of course, he was an accountant.

Yes. That's where he got started. Yes, indeed. And he started, you know, he was working as an accountant and he was telling jokes. And my uncle says, you're funny. You should be in comedy. And I hope that story is true you know we asked him about it and he felt like you know he remembered my uncle very well

but it was really the uh local disc jockey that got him to restart to record that phone message and they had been talking because he was going to give up dan sarka at a certain point he was he was uh disillusioned oh no he told us very clearly this album was his shot right you know he was he was uh disillusioned oh no he told us very clearly this album was his shot right you know he was a conservative guy he had a family or whatever he was giving it this album and this tour and if it didn't go anywhere he was back to the account well and the way that this is of course the button down mind bob newhart album and the way that it grew is also an interesting story because he had he went on the road he had no idea that the album was was picking up all this momentum yeah no i mean it was you know i think it was another case of they pick somebody on the rise to the top and so you

know it was another case of wow he was the hottest act uh you know winning grammy of the year i believe uh for that album outsold you know sinatra and elvis Exactly. That went to number one, that album, Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart. In the days that comedy albums used to explode, when people bought comedy albums. Well, people used to sit around and buy a comedy album and a pizza and have a party. That's all you needed. Bob Newhart said when he was on top, he kept wondering, okay, who's going to be the one to knock me out of first place? And then he saw Bill Cosby come along. He goes, okay, that's the one. How about that?

Most celebrated comedian since Attila the Hun. The record company wouldn't let him use that. That's what he wanted to put on there. But that was like he was ready to quit he gave himself a deadline yeah yeah he gave himself a deadline the interesting thing about button down mine too is the first night was was wasted because there was a woman heckling him they couldn't use they couldn't use the audio wow yeah so we were it was that was the friday night they had to throw that audio out. Wow.

And he came in on Saturday night, and that was the keeper. Well, he was just another one. It was so nice. Yeah, I saw him in the trailer. Picked up his phone, answered it, and it was really because of the respect they had for my father and uncle. I mean, as soon as they heard that Marienthal name. Tell us about Hefner's connection.

Well, Hefner, we really got to nail more of the details down. He definitely was tied to the club. Because you told me on the phone that he may have in fact been inspired to open his own. Well, you know, to start with, he would work out of the London house when he was working at Esquire. he would work out of the London house when he was working at Esquire and there's rumors there's another rumor we just don't have the proof of yet that George and Oscar

May have helped give him seed money for the first playboy yeah he was working and this is somewhat corroborated by his historian at Loyola University that he was working as a copy editor account manager or something at Esquire,

hating his job. Esquire is right across the street from Kelly's Publishing, or from London House. So he used to come in there complaining, you know, what am I going to do with my life? I hate my job. And so Oscar and George and some other Jewish businessmen were saying, what do you want to do? So I went off my own magazine.

So they all wrote him checks. So this was Kravitz. He said that, in fact, he was going around looking for small partnerships in his new magazine venture. But he was at the clubs all the time. Certainly that was somewhere that he would go. You should talk to Patty Farmer. Your family was really responsible for helping create Playboy. Exactly.

The whole thing. It was really. Sounds like they encouraged him at the very least. You know, it was this whole current that was going on in Chicago. And then we did hear another manager at the Happy Medium Theater said that he would come in and drink Diet, drink cokes all day and write copy for for playboy yeah and he'd invite employees from mr kelly's happy medium london you know whatever club he was in he would invite just the common joe who's working the lights you know we've interviewed people and they'd all go to the playboy mansion or when dick cavett stayed in town he stayed at the playboy man he was very honored that he was there was ties dick cavett

told us the story he was staying at the hotel maryland which was where all they stayed which was pretty regular hotel all of a sudden he finds his bags out front by the door he said oh my god was i fired what's going on here and the next thing he knows he says that well they're taking these bags down to the playboy mansion nice and that's what mr hefner wants you that's where he's how nice that's where he stayed for the rest of the game. What a great story. And you got Dick to be in the dock, too. And nobody ever turned down an invitation to the Playboy Mansion, I take it.

Apparently not. No, it was a nice place to hang out. Well, John Dumanian was just talking about. Him and Woody would go in between shows. And they'd go to the grotto and watch the girls swimming from the bar. Right, of course. The see-through pool. Well, now Hefner's gone, and I assume you didn't get to him.

But have you talked to anybody on the Playboy side to flesh out some of this stuff? We have some entrees to Christy Hefner. Okay. But they do have a very well-cared-for archive that we certainly would love to because the playboy penthouse after dark was, you know, every comment. Everybody was on there. That's the thing. They'd go Lenny Bruce in 58 appears at Kelly's would go. So like in go to the playboy penthouse and record an episode.

So it was like a pipeline. Whoever was in town at Kelly's often would then also go record at Hefner's show. So it was like this kind of like – I love it. They were so closely tied in a lot of ways. Yeah, because if you look at the talent on this list, a lot of these people, you associate them with that. Well, and there was an interchange because, for instance, Dick Gregory. Hefner hired him first.

Yeah, they were tight. Yeah, he always gave Hugh Hefner credit for hiring him. Yeah, I think, you know, he did, and then, you know, but then, you know, they continued to give him work at Mr. Kelly's. Yeah. Putting this show together, I always tell people, you know, and this is a history project, this podcast, as is your documentary. And one of the most enjoyable things about it is chasing the people. I always say to Dara, you know, that we should do another podcast about trying to put this podcast together and trying to dig these people up. This, for me, has been my joy with it. I've got to put this in.

Meeting people like Jackie, like Arlene. I was just going to say. I mean, like John Dumanium. I mean, my God, these are, and you guys, who would I, how would I have ever met this? But also we have over 50 interviews with two waitresses that worked there for decades, supporting their, their families as single mothers, many jazz sidemen, Jay Emrick, who owned 12 bars on Rush Street, including the one across the street. We want to create the world around us. And these people are the biggest jewels.

I mean, they really light up. Yeah. And don't you get that little feeling in your gut or the pit of your stomach, like, God, I wish I had been there. I wish I had been 25 in the prime of life when it was happening. You know, when we talk about how we missed the golden age of Vegas or the golden age of the Catskills. When you're there, you don't really know it either. So many people have said that.

They were there, and they didn't really realize what they had. We had somebody here. We had a woman, Marissa Sheinfeld, and she had a book. Well, you listen to the show. She had a book of photographs of the condition of these catskills hotels now and what they look like and they're all ghost towns and yeah it's covered with you know soil and weeds yeah and it's just heartbreaking we talked to patty farmer about the end of the playboy clubs and just all of these eras you know know, a lot of what this show is, we just talked to Tony Sandler and Willie Tyler about the golden age of Vegas.

So much of it is gone. Right. Well, this Marienthal era has been interesting in that it did happen right after the war. You know, they grew up to be, you know, two young Jewish guys were salesmen. They grew up, got to be the kings of Rush Street. Then, you know, the kings of Rush Street. Then the whole world changed. Then you couldn't do a name act for 200 people.

Of course, yeah. Vegas TV happened. Civil rights movement changed. Women's roles changed. The whole world changed. And by 1974, it was all over. It was 25 years. It's almost like a lot of that stuff ended in the 70s. Yeah.

Same thing for the golden age of the Catskills. Yeah. Yeah. It's just – and one thing like besides larger cultural trends, the business changed because once David's father died in 71, it was already sold to a different company. And they tried to keep it afloat for a few years. But the business model just wasn't working because they're trying to book big acts. And for instance, Blood, Sweat & Tears played the club for $25,000 a week. Same with Fred of Pain. And $25,000 a week for a just under 300-seat theater, I don't care how many steaks and cocktails

you sell. It's just it's not going to be fiscally possible to keep that place open. So then everything starts moving to more of the comedy club or the larger rock concert venues. And it's just maintaining the suburbs, have more venues. Of course. It's hard to maintain, I think, this kind of high-quality, classy, mid-century supper club. You know, it's funny. The flourishing of the suburbs is to blame also in some way for the death of the Catskills because people didn't have to escape the city anymore to go to the mountains. You know, it's funny how these things connect up. But you're going to get to that point in the documentary inevitably where it all ends,

which I assume would be the saddest. Well, it's interesting. There is somewhat of a continuity because Steve Lombardo, who now runs Gibson Steakhouse at the site of Mr. Kelly's, which is one of the busiest steakhouses in the country, still is a family-owned restaurant, treating their employees well, getting a lot of celebrity customers. That's nice. But in 74, there was a whole other era open

because he turned it into Sweetwater's, which was a fern bar, faces, disco was right down the street, Zorin's disco. And so this was a whole other 80s John Travolta, lights, coke, dancing era that also has documentaries made about it, right? There's two interesting things here, too. Also, how you two came together.

Obviously, this is a legacy for you. This is your family history. He, Adam, is, and how old are you, Adam? I think I'm officially the youngest guest of the show's history. I am not going to let this, yes. At 29. He's 29, and he's a podcast fan. He listens to this show and he's in his 20s.

I wanted to squeeze that in for self-promotion purposes. But it's also interesting how you two came together because you're a history student. Yeah. And you kind of found each other and now you're on this journey together. Yeah. No, this is my first job out of grad school. And it was really perfect because I grew up obsessed with this. Like I'm somebody who's an old soul.

Yeah. New coat of paint though. And you know, I grew up loving the Marx brothers and three stooges and 29 universal monster movies. I mean, wow, I can do the wolf man with you and we don't have time.

I'm sure. Oh God. So we, we had basically the same childhood yeah no i had the boomer childhood but in the 90s through cable people that we make we meet in the while making the round say well you have young people listening to the show too and we're going to bring you in as exhibit a i've been 29 year old until now our youngest guest was 78 well then you've got two young guests today. Yes.

We've been able to work with Loyola. How we got in touch was through Loyola University, and their oral history project has adopted this. Mr. Kelly's legacy is their oral history. That is wonderful. Project for their class, and I've had 12 students going out and every semester going out and doing these interviews. Fantastic. And they've written blog posts for us. Yes, and plug the website and the

blog before you run out. Well, make sure and visit us at www.misterkellys, M-I-S-T-E-R, kellyschicago.com. We have a very active Facebook page with lots of photos. You'll be able to see Mr. Kelly is on Facebook. Yeah, I update maybe every other day. I do a post about one of the either acts, like their photos or ads or anything I find from the three clubs. And I periodically share them on the Listener Society. So feel free to friend me, like us on Facebook at Mr. Kelly Chicago. I mean we're very active community-based.

We have Instagram and Twitter and Spotify as well. We have a playlist of all of the recordings on Spotify. That's great. Do something at City Winery here in the city. Well, that could be coming. As we say, we're having an event on May 21st at City Winery in Chicago where we're going to be presenting the whole Sarah Vaughan albums that she recorded at Mr. Kelly's with fantastic local cabaret singers and introducing some local high school students that have been studying Sarah Vaughan in their vocal jazz

class. And we're going to be introducing a protege from Chi Arts. That's wonderful. And I would like to say, too, besides checking us on social media, if anybody – we've really had to work from the ground up. If anybody has photos, stories, anything related because, long story short, all the documents were basically lost in fires and moving and transition of ownership. So we, we had to start from the ground up. So I'll say to our listeners,

help these guys out. If you have any history associated, any, any artifacts or photographs or anything connected with Mr. Kelly's in Chicago or anybody who played Mr. Kelly's in Chicago, or if a hundred grand laying around somewhere, Gilbert up Gilbert.

Well, you know, we can take donations of Pan Am soap if you have any. You see the documentary? Oh, yeah. I watched it on Thanksgiving. Wasn't it wonderful? The whole family loved it.

Yeah. Last question. Aside from what David said is meeting the people has been one of the most rewarding parts. Is there one little discovery that you made? Is there one little wonderful thing that you found that just kind of turned your head one day? The thing that I've become obsessed with is I love B.B. King's Live at the Cook County Gel album. Uh-huh. And had no clue that he – it's maybe considered one of the best live albums, one of the best blues albums of all time.

He recorded it while at Mr. Kelly's. albums of all time he recorded it while at mr kelly's and if you listen to the medley track halfway through the album he actually uh references mr kelly in front of all these prisoners that's pretty cool so you know i mean just finding that eureka moment where it's like oh my god he recorded one of the most impressive live albums you know while at kelly's and he actually was set up because the uh warden i think was at the uh at his show at kelly's and he actually was set up because the warden I think was at the at his show at Kelly's and set up their performance and so you know little things like that are just so exciting to find ain't showbiz history fun I love it we do it we listen we do it here every week you guys are one of the reasons you're inspirational I was in grad school listening to the podcast you are

so kind thank you favorite episode of the podcast? That's tough to call. I love anything with Steve Stolier because I love the Marx Brothers. We've become friends. Steve's fun. He knows history. I love anything with Drew Friedman because I get all the great stooge conversation and universal monster conversations. Drew will love hearing that. And the Larry Cohen

episode, which we'll be talking about before we turn the mics on. Outstanding. We love Larry Cohen. Say hi for us. I will. Please. David knows Larry and his wife Cynthia. Larry Cohen was one of those guests that when I was wrapping up the show, he had about 10 more stories.

He didn't want to go. He kept saying, I don't want to go. I don't want to leave. You're going to have to give him another show. We'll bring him back. He's great. You want to take another attempt at this? Okay. I'm going to try it without looking at the card. Here we go. Go, Gilbert.

Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried. It's amazing. Yeah. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's... That ain't the one. No! I'm Gilbert Gottfried

and this has been... And I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, and this has been, and I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, and this has been Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Obsessions. Yes. And we've been talking to Adam Carlston. You really want to put that L in there, don't you?

It's like Car and Stone. Car and Stone. Carsten. Carsten. Like Johnny Carson with a T. Oh! We've been talking to Adam Carsten. And?

And David Marienthal. Wow. You made an impression on him. That's right. That's a first. Wow. You right. Bravo. You made an impression on him. That's right. That's a first. Wow. You should really feel a sense of pride. I told you that that's my greatest thrill here, doing this whole project.

The documentary, still a title to be determined, about Mr. Kelly's, the wonderful, famous, influential club in Chicago, Long May it Wave. Thank you so much for having us, guys. And you guys were great, and thank you for coming here. Thank you. I really enjoyed it. Keep in touch with us. Absolutely. We'll see if any of our fans have anything.

And I'm one of the fans, so feel free, anybody, reach out. Love to talk to you. Thanks, Chet. Colossal Obsessions. love to talk to you thanks chad colossal obsessions and now mr kelly stakes great pleasure in presenting mercury recording artist the divine sarah vaughn The leaves of brown came tumbling down Remember in September In the rain. The sun went out just like a dying ember.

That September in the rain. In the rain To every word of love I heard You whisper The raindrops seem to play a sweet refrain Though spring is here to me It's still September That's September In the rain

The leaves of brown came tumbling down Remember In September The ground came tumbling down, remember? In September, in the rain, the word of love I heard you whisper The raindrops seem to play a sweet refrain. Though spring is here to me, it's still September. That's September in the rain. That's September in the rain