Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini #164: Remembering Chuck McCann
Episode Date: May 17, 2018This week: "Cool McCool"! Rootie Kazootie! Stan Laurel comes to America! "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter"! And Chuck founds The Sons of the Desert! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...dchoices
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Hi, this is... Hi.
Hello.
Hi.
This is Gilbert Gottfried,
and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing...
Ah, fuck me.
This is Gilbert and Frank's amazing colossal obsessions.
And I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopatre.
And old black shoeless raybone.
Oh, my God.
Hey, you blues guitarist.
You may have noticed that portraits of me are taking over our social media feed here.
Did you see that?
Did you see the guy that made you into Gene Rayburn?
Yeah, there was that one, but there was also one with a guitar and a blind lemon rainbow or something.
I have trouble understanding you with that strong southern accent.
Well, I got the blues, baby. I have trouble understanding you with that strong southern accent of yours.
I got the blues, baby.
Yeah, that Cajun accent is very hard.
You've become something of a celebrity, Paul, thanks to this show.
The way that when they dressed me up in that suit, I thought, you know, that's pretty much.
You're a minor internet celebrity.
Yeah, I mean, what could one dream of?
Minor internet celebrity.
Yeah, I mean, what could one dream of?
So.
Yes.
Gil, a little quick housekeeping for this mini episode.
Wait, wait.
Okay, what do you got?
You're a little loud.
I'm a little loud?
On mine.
All right, I'll lower.
Okay.
Hang on.
Is that better?
Yeah.
Is mine, mine's okay? Yeah. Is mine okay?
Yeah.
Yes. Yeah.
Okay.
Now I can't hear a goddamn thing.
Don't blame the microphone, Sid.
You wanted to.
Sid and Marty.
Yes.
To be continued, Sid and Marty Croft will be coming up on an upcoming episode.
And Gilbert and I have been thoroughly enjoying the research.
Oh, yeah.
And we'll tell you why soon when they come up.
Just a couple of quick things before we start what we're actually going to talk about for this mini.
But you wanted me to read something from a fan.
Yes.
This is from a guy named Neil Holmes.
He wrote something very nice to us about the mini episode, one of the mini episodes.
I don't know how I missed part one of the Mr. Kelly's episode last week, but listening to both today was the high point of my day, and I'm grateful.
Not to put any pressure on you two, but you guys are really the keepers of the flame in so many areas of our cultural history and deserving of great praise and gratitude.
Isn't that nice?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Keepers of the Flame.
Keepers of the Flame is exactly right.
That's exactly like what we wanted this show to be.
A history project.
Yeah.
Yeah.
To keep these people's name alive, to keep their memories alive.
You know, there are several dozen graduate students studying the show.
Yes.
I get emails from the most interesting people and all over the show. Yes. I get emails
from the most interesting people
and all over the world.
Japan, Australia,
the UK, Ireland,
the people,
you know,
I didn't know
who this person was,
but thanks for,
so much for
That's the fun.
That's the fun.
Somebody I never heard of
and I turn out to be great.
Yeah.
Jackie Martling,
I ran into Jackie
at Chiller Fest.
Jackie Martling, I ran into Jackie at Chiller Fest.
A hooker! A hooker! And a drunk!
He loves you.
I walked into the... I took my wife... A midget and a blind girl!
Ha ha ha!
Is that Jackie or the Jackie Puppet?
Billy West.
Jackie grabs me at Chiller Fest and he says, holy shit, Tony Sandler.
He said, I had to drive 50 miles out of my way to finish the episode.
Oh, wow.
He loved the Tony Sandler episode.
That was a great one.
That was a history project, the episode. Oh, wow. He loved the Tony Sandler episode. That was a great one. That was a history project,
that episode.
And I talked to Tony
on the phone
and he was just so grateful
to do the show.
Says,
send Gilbert my love.
Ah.
Gilbert.
Yeah.
Gilbert.
What the funniest thing about
with him,
it was so European.
Oh, yeah.
Because he would talk to us and he'd go,
Frank, Gilbert.
Yes, he kept referring to us by
name.
But he was old school show business. He wouldn't trash
anybody. No. Until we turned the
mics off. Yes.
We got the truth
on a few people. And when we
asked about Jerry Lewis, he just
didn't say anything.
To us, he did.
But Tony is very grateful to have done the show.
He said he heard from people in Belgium.
Wow.
He heard from other people in London who got the show on iTunes.
Ah.
And he said his phone was ringing for days, and he was so grateful.
See, that's one of those things that we'll hear back from people.
We'll get tweets and stuff from people we've interviewed and say,
I can't believe the amount of attention I'm getting.
Yes, it's flattering.
He also invited my wife and I to stay with his sister in Provence, which was very nice.
Take him up on that.
For the summer, which I just may take him up on.
I just wanted to say at this con, the Chiller Fest, I also saw Ed Begley.
I had not met Ed.
Oh, yeah.
So I wanted to go and kiss the ring.
I had not met Eddie Deason.
Oh.
So I went and I got a big hug from Eddie.
He stopped what he was doing
ran out from behind the table and hugged me
our friendly Grant was there
she sends you her love, she adores you
I don't know what she sees
in you but there you have it
our pal Steve Weber
was there
and Jackie
and I booked two guests
one that I told you about and one that I can't mention.
A rabbi and a hooker.
Go for it.
No, not Jackie.
Yes.
I also want to thank my friend Greg Rezar, who helped me out a lot that day and helped me with the bookings,
and my friend John Fodiatis, who put up with it for an entire day and is us helped me with the bookings and my friend john fotiadis um who put
up with it for an entire day and is still talking about it and our friend stewart hirsch who helps
put that oh oh yeah stewart hirsch and uh and matt beckhoff who helped book that show and i also want
to thank an artist named martinus von t who sent us some wonderful artwork that i showed you for
some reason you were colored green in the art. Did you see this art?
I'm not sure. I'm going to show it to you.
He sent an acrylic painting.
It's absolutely wonderful. Gilbert looked
like Shrek. Yeah.
It was a really great caricature of
Gilbert. He's in South Africa.
I got a package postmarked South Africa.
I had no idea what it was. There was
another photo, because I
always talk about being turned down for a role because they wanted Billy Barty.
Sure, which you'll have to tell Sid and Marty.
Yeah.
Because they worked with him a lot.
And someone put this photo together of me with my eyes closed like I'm sleeping angrily and Dara's there with Billy
Barty.
That was Steve Hanna.
That was our favorite artist, Steve Hanna.
Very funny. Wasn't that great?
The things that this show has spawned
are rather disturbing.
Spawn is the right word.
Yes.
Two other quick things.
I did want to thank
our friend Gary Girani
who came here
and did two wonderful episodes
about Topps Trading Cards
and brought us
all those great books.
And Twilight Zone
and Outer Limits.
And Twilight Zone
and Outer Limits
and the new Blu-ray.
The new Blu-ray edition
of the Outer Limits
has Gary's commentaries on them.
So get those.
And here's the surprise, Gil.
This is fun. One of our fans named David West commentaries on them. So get those. And here's the surprise, Gil.
This is fun.
One of our fans named David West writes me on Facebook,
and he writes,
Frank, I wanted to pass this along to you.
I was in an autograph show,
and I had the honor of meeting
the great Bruce Dern.
Wow.
One of our former guests.
One of our former guests.
I arrived at his table
to get a picture and autograph.
The show had just opened its doors,
and there was no line at the booth.
After we said hello, he asked me to sit so we could take a photo together,
and I mentioned how much I enjoyed him on the podcast.
He stopped what he was doing, looked at me, and said,
that interview was one of the most pleasant surprises of the last 40 years.
I'll tell you something, that Gilbert is one smart motherfucker.
That's awesome.
And those guys really did their homework on me i proceeded to tell him how much you guys are like
that with all of your guests and he said he would love to hear more stories if i wanted to tell more
and then he said i would gladly do another episode if they wanted me back oh well and there's a
picture of bruce oh with with dav. So we have to get Bruce.
Well, Bruce Stern, if you're listening, you have an open invitation.
Oh, we got to get him back.
Won't that be fun?
He was one of my favorite people of the many, many people who've talked about the craft of acting.
Absolutely.
And what makes things work.
He was incredibly insightful.
Absolutely.
And I don't know how old Bruce Stern is now.
He's probably in his late 70s or early 80s. I got it. I'll have he's been working for years. And I mean, he was talking to us about how he just wants to get better as an actor.
Oh, yeah.
It's wonderful.
He's pure.
Yeah.
And he's one of these actors that I thought, holy shit, we're talking to Bruce Dern.
I know.
Well, that was a turning point.
I've said it many times for the show in terms of booking.
Yeah. That we could land Bruce Dern. I know. Well, that was a turning point. I've said it many times for the show in terms of booking. Yeah.
That we could land Bruce Dern.
And to have Bruce Dern say,
that Gilbert,
he's a funny motherfucker.
Isn't that great?
What do you got, Paul?
Get a born 1936.
1936.
What does that make him?
That would make him 82.
That's right.
Yeah. Yeah. Nice work. You does that make him? It would make him 82. That's right. Yeah.
Yeah.
Nice work.
You have your own theme music now.
Every time I come up.
It's like the Joker and the Riddler and the Penguin all had their own theme when they did the Batman series.
The shark and Jaws.
Oh, the shark.
Yeah.
Now you have your own accompaniment.
Quickly, I want to mention some people.
We've been hanging on to this for a couple of weeks because we had many episode guests.
Some people we lost in the month of April.
Hey, did we ever talk about losing Marty Allen?
We did talk about Marty Allen.
We did.
Okay, good.
Yes, we did.
And we'll get more of that in Memoriam Show at the end of the year.
Milos Forman died, the great director of scott and larry's
people versus larry flint and also man in the moon but amadeus and cuckoo's nest and the great
czech director and hair a good movie that a lot of people don't talk about yeah and i would also
urge people to see his uh two movies that he made, lesser movies or lesser known movies, Fireman's
Ball and Taking Off with former podcast guest Buck Henry.
Oh, wow.
You know these movies, Paul?
I don't know.
See them both of a great director.
Would have been fun on this show.
I think he was a talker.
Yeah.
R. Lee Ermey from Full Metal Jacket.
Oh, that's, yeah, the sergeant.
And Mississippi Burning and, yeah Burning and many other things.
And I heard he was just called in to Full Metal Jacket to coach.
I believe he was, a consultant.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then they heard him and said, fuck it.
Why don't we just get him?
That's the story.
Kubrick liked what he was doing.
Vern Troyer.
Oh, yeah.
Passed at 49, mini me.
Did you ever work with him? No. Did you ever spend any time Troyer. Oh, yeah. Passed at 49, mini me. Did you ever work with him?
No.
Or spend any time with him?
Oh, wait.
I did.
I did.
I was on an episode of Hollywood Squares.
With Vern Troyer?
Yeah.
There you go.
And they said he also, he had like a drinking problem.
I guess he had some demons.
And he was suicidal.
Yeah.
So, Gilbert, you would say it was a little upsetting.
Here's somebody you definitely worked with.
Harry Anderson from Night Court passed away.
Oh, that's right.
Yeah.
Judge Harry.
Yeah.
Nice guy?
Yeah.
I remember.
65, too young.
I did Night Court about three times.
And then a couple of years ago, I was walking down the street and I ran into him.
We had a nice short talk.
A very beloved guy from all I know.
I never had the pleasure of meeting him.
Very friendly guy.
My friend Chris Cluess, who wrote for Night Court, loved him.
Mitzi Shore.
Oh, yes. Passed away., loved him. Mitzi Shore passed away.
I know you knew Mitzi.
Yeah.
And every single comic will do a Mitzi Shore imitation.
Every one of them.
For sure.
She ruled the comedy store with an iron hand.
And I think, like, I remember I was already in all the New York clubs,
and I went out there to L.A., and I auditioned one time, and they had some guy there, and he didn't pass me.
Uh-huh.
And then another time, I'm pretty sure I was just hanging out there, and Bob Wall was on stage, and he saw me, and we knew each other from New York, and he said, hey, come up.
Oh, Robert Wool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I went up there.
And afterwards, Mitzi said, come back to the club whenever you want.
You pass.
There you go.
Praise from Caesar.
Yes.
A club that was I believe started
By her husband
Sammy Shore
And Rudy DeLuca
Oh that's right
We have to get on the show
Former partner
Writing partner
Of Barry
The former podcast guest
Barry Levinson
And
It's all so incestuous
It's all connected
Barry Levinson
Rudy DeLuca
And Craig T. Nelson
Craig T. Nelson
Used to be in a comedy
They sure were They sure were.
They sure were.
We talked about it with Barry.
My wife hears this stuff, and she says, you've got to get a giant piece of oak tag, or do people still say oak tag, or poster board, and make a flow chart of how all the guests connect.
Like those things in the murder shows where the cops have the yarn going from one connection.
All the guests connect up.
You could connect so many of our guests
by so few steps.
Here's somebody who passed away,
Susan Ansbach from Five Easy Pieces.
Yes.
And Play It Again Sam
and The Landlord
and a movie I like with Richard Dreyfuss,
The Big Fix.
I know you're a Five Easy Pieces fan.
Oh, yeah.
And she didn't work much after the 80s.
Yeah.
Like a lot of actresses that
that made a big mark in the 70s kind of faded fast here's somebody paul and i were talking
five easy pieces they had that famous scene with uh nicholson arguing with yeah oh sure this is
great on a chicken salad sandwich and she, you want me to hold the chicken?
I want you to hold the chicken between your legs.
I love it.
I love it.
Michael Anderson died.
You know who he was?
98, he was the director of Logan's Run,
Orca the Killer Whale with Richard Harris,
the Quiller Memorandum with George Siegel.
And Around the World in 80 Days with David Niven.
He was 98.
Around the World in 80 Days with everybody.
Everybody.
Kenton Floss.
Kenton Floss.
Bo Derek was in Orca.
Bo Derek's in Orca.
She is in Charlotte Rampling.
And if you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself.
To see Orca? Yeah. It's pretty bad. And if you haven't seen it, you owe it to your- To Skywalker?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's pretty bad.
And somebody that Paul and I were talking about on the phone, Bob Dorough, who was 94.
He's a jazz guy.
He's a jazz guy, yeah.
And relevant to this show because he wrote the songs from Grammar Rock and Multiplication Rock.
Yeah.
Like Three is a Magic Number.
He did a real offbeat Christmas song with Miles Davis.
Yes.
Merry Xmas, you know.
Yes.
And he worked with Blossom Deary.
Yeah, Blossom Deary.
But he wrote Beloved to Us because he wrote Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function?
Conjunction Junction.
And lolly, lolly, lolly, get your adverbs here.
Three is a magic number yes it is
it's a magic there you go a tribute to bob burrow moment of silence yeah you know these you know
these from from schoolhouse rock gilbert did your kids do schoolhouse rock no oh okay well i get uh
they missing out they are missing out my daughter's teacher plays them schoolhouse rock no oh okay well i get uh they missing out they are missing out my daughter's
teacher plays them schoolhouse rock and this song is how she learned her three times tables so there
you go wow she sings it in her head and then there you go you're not talking about school of rock
we're talking no no schoolhouse rock bob durow died at 94 and this is a fun one don bustani
this is danny duraney who's been on this show and a publicist who's friend of the show.
You remember Danny?
He was the guy that was here, and he talked about catching Betty Garrett when she fell off a ladder.
Oh, yeah.
Saved her life.
And Danny's a friend of the show.
He helped us book lots of people, Liliana Douglas.
Anyway, this was his cousin, and he said, you should get my cousin Don on the show.
It didn't work out for whatever reason.
He turned out to be the Don from the infamous Casey Kasem meltdown.
Is Don on the phone?
Oh, wow.
He was the creator of American Top 40.
We'll have to.
With Casey Kasem.
We'll have to play that on the show.
That's a famous clip.
See if we can find that and we'll go and we'll have Frank.
The countdown will begin.
Oh, there it is.
We'll go out on that.
We'll go out on the radio station you grew up with.
You know the famous meltdown with the Snuckles the dog?
But my favorite part of it is he says, is Don on the phone?
Where were the pictures I was supposed to see?
Well, that's Danny Duraney's cousin.
I think we should do a mini episode on all of those.
On the meltdowns.
On the meltdowns.
Yeah.
You've got the Orson Welles. Yeah, we should do it. Chabner. We should do a mini episode on all of those. On the meltdowns. On the meltdowns. Yeah. You've got the Orson Welles.
Yeah, we should do it.
We should do it.
Jack Palance.
Oh, there's a bunch of them.
A bunch of them.
Yeah.
Casey.
Of course, Paul Anka.
Which we talked about with Billy West.
Yeah.
And Buddy Rich.
Paul Anka and Buddy Rich.
We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this.
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So let's get to Chuck McCann.
Oh, okay.
Who we lost, who was a friend of this show. But I should say, oh, the midget.
Vern Troyer?
Vern Troyer.
Did you have to say midget?
Yeah.
Vern Troyer. A little person. Did he have to say midget? Yeah. Vern Troyer. A little person.
And I went out to dinner together, and when the waitress came over with the check, he said,
I'm sorry, I'm a little short today.
It took you 15 minutes?
That's what you came up with?
We have a strange way of picturing i've been a bad influence so gilbert he now comes back with a joke 15 minutes after we talked about the guy that's the paul research timing and and that's
like us during an interview we'll go okay and and you, he'll be talking about how he wants to,
someone will talk about how they want to be remembered when they die.
And we'll go, okay, now you started off.
Well, we tried to do a tribute episode to Paul Lynn on his 90th birthday.
You spent the entire episode slandering the man.
It was the strangest tribute episode.
Left-handed tribute.
I hope that Chuck McCann fares better in this.
We love Chuck.
Chuck was an early episode.
Yes.
And I went back and listened to it, and it's really sweet.
It's on Stitcher if you guys want to find it and worth finding.
Brooklyn Kid, born in 1934.
Charles John Thomas McCannann a real irishman
so we got to get him up on social media because i i looked at him when you mentioned it and started
and it's he's like like so many people have been on the show you might not know the name you might
not know what he did but the face is unforgettable you've seen the face everywhere oh people know
chuck mccann sure and and where the general public would know Chuck McCann from years ago are those Wright Guard commercials.
With Bill Fiore.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Bill Fiore, he would have been an ideal guest for us.
You like that, huh?
Yeah.
These obscure guys that are known to just you and me and about four other people.
Like his own family does know.
Let me explain.
Yes, Bill Fiore was the sort of hound dog looking guy.
A little bit of a Gino Conforti type, as we've mentioned.
And he was the guy on the other side of the medicine chest.
And Chuck McCann opens his, hi, guy.
And that was Bill Fiore.
Always played depressed.
Yes.
He always looked like like the loser almost
like a male louise lasser yes that makes any sense and and and like downtrodden and he was in the
swimmer yes he is in the swimmer yes very good uh who was he in the swimmer i don't know when they
go to the swimming pool the public pool right run into him there, and there's people like Burt Lancaster owes money to.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And they're there, and they're going, oh, gee, Mr. Merrill, going to the public pool, huh?
I think Chuck did one of those right guard spots in Groucho's on the other side of the medicine chest.
Yes, yes.
And he talked about working with him.
And he said in the interview that Groucho, I lived like a block away.
They went back to Chuck's office and sat there screening old movies for hours and hours and hours.
Chuck's also in the infamous Turn On, the George Slaughter show that was canceled before it got from the East Coast to the West Coast.
We've talked about that show. I think it was canceled during it got from the East Coast to the West Coast. We've talked about that show.
I think it was canceled during the first commercial break.
It was hovering over Oklahoma somewhere.
Chuck canceled while hovering over Scranton.
Chuck and his pal Tim Conway were in that.
But Chuck worked his way up in kids' TV.
He was on Captain Kangaroo, on Rudy Cazuti early in his career.
He's on the Vaughn Meter album.
He's on First Family.
Did you know that?
No.
Doing voices.
And he did a lot of voices.
He was the original Sonny the Cuckoo Bird.
Yes.
Before Larry Kenny.
Yes.
Who sat in that chair.
Succeeded him.
He did Cool McCool, Bob Kane's show.
He was a secret agent. Of course, Far Out Space Nuts with Bob Denver. That's, Bob Kane's show. He was a secret agent.
Of course, Far Out Space Nuts with Bob Denver.
That's a Sid and Marty show.
There's another connection.
And I was watching that yesterday, and it has him and, yeah.
You were watching Far Out Space Nuts?
Yeah.
Oh, you were doing Sid and Marty research.
Yeah.
So him and Bob Denver are janitors at nasa and he goes okay we got our lunch
and the machine goes launch and that is the that's the premise yeah yeah now they're in outer space
i don't think that one lasted very long. Shockingly.
There's another one with Jim Neighbors.
A space one?
Yeah, not far out space nuts.
Oh, God.
The Lost Saucer?
There's one with Jim Neighbors and Ruth Buzzy.
Wow.
Does this mean anything to you?
No.
Okay.
I just the classic line of Jim Napers.
I'm sorry I said this. Of Dolly Parton while his boyfriend said he wanted to fuck Dolly Parton.
And he goes, you're going to fuck that cunt in the pussy?
you're going to fuck that cunt in the pussy?
And then think you're going to fuck me in the ass?
The Chuck McCann episode has taken an ugly turn.
What do you have?
The Lost Saucer is right.
Yeah, the Lost Saucer. ABC never tells.
September 6, 1975.
How many episodes? September 2, 1975. How many episodes?
September 2, 1976.
Number of episodes, 16.
That's not bad.
That's too bad.
I'm not even sure Far Out Space Nuts made it that far.
We better put one of these up on social media, too,
because neighbors in a silver metallic suit is not to be missed.
Here's some more cool shit about Chuck.
He was one of the founding members, you know this,
of the Sons of the Desert, of the Laurel and Hardy
tribute organization.
Now, did Chuck McCann
then buy up
all the rights to?
I don't know.
But, you know,
Mark Evanier will know
and he's coming in
in a couple of weeks.
So we'll ask him stuff
about Chuck.
They were close.
A former podcast guest
was one of the co-founders
of Sons of the Desert.
Do you know who?
Ooh.
With Chuck and an artist named Al Kilgore,
who I knew. That's another story for another day. That's when we interviewed Edgar Kennedy. No, no, no. The other founding
member, one of the other founding members of Sons of the Desert was Orson Bean.
Oh! Who was on this show. How about that?
Orson Bean, both Orson Bean and Dick Van Dyke
told us that they were friends
and in their early days would go to the zoo together
to watch a monkey who jerked off.
You know, we have more weird monkey content on this show.
The chimps, the cunnilingus chimps from Sunset Boulevard.
The sequel to the marquee chimps.
They were very famous.
Yeah, I knew you were going to go there.
They were very famous on the Ed Sullivan show.
The cunnilingus chimps.
You've got me thinking like you.
It was the Nairobi Trio and the Cunnilingus Chimps.
The Nairobi Trio.
Wasn't it Steve Allen?
No, that was Ernie Kovacs.
Ernie Kovacs.
I think the Cunnilingus Chimps were part of the British Invasion.
I didn't know that.
I knew everything about the British Invasion.
They came to America with the Dave Clark Five.
We've done stories about chimps ripping people's faces off,
the chimp that bit Danny Bonaduce.
We've talked to Joe Dante about monkeys in the mail.
This show has a strange recurring simian.
Also, another connection to Chuck on a podcast guest,
he's in Norman Lear's All That Glitters,
which was a soap, kind of a primetime soap.
Oh, okay.
A spoof.
And very good on The Projectionist, which is a movie we've talked about, which our listeners
need to see.
With Rodney Dangerfield.
With a young Rodney Dangerfield.
We want to recommend that.
And The Heart is a Lonely Hunter with Alan Arkin.
Yes.
Where he played the deaf mutant.
He really showed acting range.
He was a good actor.
Yeah.
He was a good, serious actor.
He did a lot of stuff i remember from his show uh like when i was a kid watching him and he would he would come
out they played the little orphan annie song and he'd dance and he put the little white out his
eyes yes yeah and and he they played the dick tracy song like Dick Tracy, he had a bulldog jaw.
Dick Tracy, he is the arm of the law.
Dick Tracy, better do what he say.
Crime doesn't never pay.
That's stuff he remembers.
This reminds me of Here Comes the Fox, Gilbert.
After the Fox.
Did you grow up with Chuck McKay? He grew up in New York. Where'd you grow new york but you grow up in the no no michigan michigan so you don't know chuck
you don't know i knew soupy sales but yeah yeah well i think chuck became national at some point
didn't he yeah did he not uh listen going back and listening to the episode we did was was funny
because you busted his balls for the entire episode you kept saying i don't want to talk to you i was i at one point about nine minutes in he says am i talking too much and you wouldn't let
the guy you wouldn't cut the guy a break uh you just roasted him um but he told us some great
stuff you asked him the first time he got on stage and it was fifth grade he got up and did an
impression of arthur godfrey famous anti-semite because the kids love you know the fifth graders love arthur godfrey
i believe you pointed that out to us um i hate those jews he told us that great story about
chaplain and stan laurel coming to amer America and leaving their shoes outside in the hallway at night.
Do you remember this story?
Yes.
Because they used to do it in the UK.
They would shine your shoes.
They would collect the hotel guest shoes and return them.
Yeah.
Shined up in the morning.
And they assumed they checked into some fleabag hotel in New York, Chaplin and Stan Laurel.
And they put their shoes out and their shoes were gone.
And Stan Laurel had to walk around Manhattan in slippers and he had these curled up toes on the slippers that were like like elf shoes yeah and he was humiliated that's a funny story he knew
Keaton well he knew Stan Laurel well he befriended those guys while we were talking to him on the
episode he said what he says at one point i'm
looking at buster keaton's chair i have it in my office i have the oh yeah the chair that buster
used to come and sit in and uh uh just great stuff he was very touched i think to be talking to us
um and he's in the aristocrats oh that's right yes yes he's in the aristocrats um at the end it got sentimental
because we were saying you influenced entire generations and billy crystal who's a big fan
had told him that too and he said i never knew it guys i never knew it i really never understood the
the depth of my impact oh which was which was so sweet and i tell you, oh, he's still alive.
Okay.
But Will Jordan, former podcast guest.
And great, great mimic.
Love Will.
He hasn't been feeling well.
Yes.
And Darren and I went to visit him in like this nursing home. Jackie went too.
at him yes and like this jackie jackie went to and and will jordan he was lying there in the bed and his voice is very weak and we said something to him and and he said to me uh like i said
something like well thanks for letting me come over and uh visit you and he goes, and this was something that made me both very happy
and very sad at the same level.
He said very weakly, he goes, he goes, no, you know, Gilbert,
no one has ever treated me with as much dignity as you have.
How about that? And it filled as you have. How about that?
And it filled me with warmth.
How about that?
That I made him feel that good, but also terrible at the same time.
And clearly he doesn't know you very well.
Yeah.
Well, I talked to Jackie about, Jackie went to see Will
and they moved him out of that facility.
He's doing a little bit better.
Oh, good.
He has some friends taking care of him now.
Oh, that's good.
But if our listeners who hear this want to get a note to Will or want to post anything on the Listener Society or on my page or on Facebook, on the podcast page, we'll get it to Will.
One of our great guests.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What's great is you get Chuck McCann
saying the F word
by the end of the episode.
You're pushing and pushing.
And finally, Chuck says,
you know, guys,
I was really grateful to do this,
but you kind of fucked up my Sunday.
Well, did he also say that?
You know it was Tuesday.
Nobody has treated me
with such respect.
He did not.
He did not.
But I'm sorry we didn't get to say goodbye to Chuck or have him back a second time.
I know.
Because there was more to cover.
But we get overwhelmed and there's so many people to talk to with this show.
And Marion Ross came on and said, fuck.
Yeah, you seem to bring that out in people.
That must be that dignity thing.
Yeah.
That's all anybody can talk about with the
marion ross episode yes was that she said uh he got her to say fuck because it's mrs c i think
twice yeah yeah yeah you got four or five out of chuck mccann my childhood is forever sullied
anyway the great chuck mccann uh a big loss and another one of our podcast guests that,
you know, going back to what we said at the beginning of the show and keeping this history
alive just to get to talk to those guys, I lose sight of it, you know, 200 episodes and you get
buried in them after a while. It's so much work. And I went back and I listened to Chuck and I
thought, man, this is sweet. This is a real, we really made him happy. Yes.
You know?
And for us to be able to do that for people that we grew up on, you know, who entertained us, it's a little chance to give back.
And it's kind of like that, I always think about that line from Death of a Salesman.
Mm-hmm.
Like, attention
must be paid. Attention must be paid.
So, I'm quoting
Arthur Miller. This show
is heady. The literary depths
we reach here are incredible.
From the cunnilingus chimps to Arthur Miller.
That's rage.
And another Arthur Miller quote,
hey, I just
fucked Marilyn Monroe. The better Miller quote. Hey, I just fucked Marilyn Monroe.
The better known quote.
That's on WikiQuote.
The girl from Some Like It Hot sucked my dick.
See, he has a moment.
It's tender.
It's real.
It's sweet.
It's gone. It's gone. It's gone. He ruins moment. It's tender. Right. It's real. It's sweet. It's gone.
It's gone.
It's gone.
He ruins it.
It's gone.
You want to take us out there?
Mr. Dignity?
That's the name of your next CD.
Mr. Dignity.
We avoided slandering Chuck McCann.
We didn't do badly.
We're not done yet.
We let Chuck off the hook.
Have you at last, sir, no dignity?
Oh, he's doing Joseph Welch.
The show has a historical component.
There's everything on this podcast.
Yeah, what more could you want?
What more could you ask for the price of Stitcher?
This has been, and I should mention,
it was recorded at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Furtarosa.
Who's celebrating a birthday.
A happy birthday to engineer Frank.
This has been a very sentimental and dignified episode of Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Sessions.
Amazing colossal stations.
This Sunday afternoon at 1, right here on the radio station you grew up with,
Music Radio 138.
Oh, fuck.
What the hell's going on here?
Oh, geez, well, isn't this the last hour?
We got another hour to do?
Geez, I thought we were almost finished.
Good golly, Miss Molly.
This is fucking ponderous, man.
Ponderous, man. Ponderous.
Fucking ponderous. Hi, this is Casey Kasem. American Top
40 has moved to a new time.
I hope you'll join me this Saturday morning
and every Saturday morning at 2.
Now, we're up to our
long-distance dedication. There it is.
And this one is about kids and pets
and a situation that we can all
understand, whether we have kids or pets or neither.
It's from a man in Cincinnati, Ohio.
And here's what he writes.
Dear Casey, this may seem to be a strange dedication request, but I'm quite sincere and it'll mean a lot if you play it.
Recently, there was a death in our family.
He was a little dog named Snuggles, but he was most certainly a part of...
Let's start again
I'm coming out of the record
Play the record, okay
Please
See, when you come out of those up-tempo
Goddamn numbers, man
It's impossible to make those transitions
And then you gotta go into somebody dying
You know, they do this to me all the time
I don't know what the hell they do it for,
but God damn it, if we can't come out of a slow record,
I don't understand it.
Is Don on the phone?
Okay, I want a God damn concerted effort
to come out of a record that isn't a fucking up-tempo record
every time I do a God damn death dedication.
Now, make it, and I also want to know
what happened to the pictures I was supposed to see this week.
This is the last God damn time I want somebody to use his fucking brain
to not come out of a goddamn record that's up-tempo,
and I got to talk about a fucking dog dying.