Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini-Ep #93: Born in 1916 (Happy Birthday, Kirk Douglas!)
Episode Date: January 5, 2017Each week, comedian Gilbert Gottfried and comedy writer Frank Santopadre share their admiration for lesser-known films, underappreciated TV shows and underrated performers -- discussing, dissecting an...d (occasionally) defending their handpicked guilty pleasures and buried treasures. This week: Sterling Hayden! "The Story of Mankind"! Gene Hackman dodges a bullet! And Snow White serenades Gilbert! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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This episode is brought to you by FX's The Bear on Disney+. In Season 3, Carmi and his crew are aiming for the ultimate restaurant accolade, a Michelin
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All new episodes of FX's The Bear are streaming June 27, only on Disney+. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried.
See, what you don't realize out there is this is about the fifth time we've done this.
Of course, we fucked it up like 20 times already.
Of course, we fucked it up like 20 times already.
And I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, and this is Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Obsessions.
It is.
When you do that loud hi, it reminds me we had Penn Jillette on the show. And every time you went hi, you went hi!
You went high.
He went, high!
We're here at Nutmeg with our trusty engineer, Frank Verderosa,
and our less trusty researcher, Paul Rayburn.
I'm giving you shit like him.
Yeah.
Is that what he touched here?
Two against one.
Yeah.
We love Paul to death.
Hey, I'm going to do a little Jay Leno moment here and set you up.
You know, I read somewhere.
Gorilla.
It was in 1947.
Did you – was some film that you were involved in receiving an honor?
It's on the list.
Yes.
It hasn't been nominated just yet, but it's on the list. There was a story in the New York Times about this guy,
Ron Suskind, a writer, who had a son who was autistic. And he could, and the autism was getting worse. He was sinking deeper and deeper into it. And he couldn't have any kind of communication with his son.
But the son would watch Disney films all the time. And one day, the father came into his son's room
and he saw a puppet of my character, Iago the Parrot from Aladdin. He put it on and started imitating my voice and his son turned around like an old friend had shown up.
And he said, you know, what's it like being you?
And he said, I'm not happy.
I'm sad.
I don't have friends.
And that was like the beginning.
My voice was the beginning of the communication.
So this film, Life Animated, goes into that whole story.
And it's on the list of films to be nominated for an Oscar?
Yeah, yeah.
For Best Documentary.
For Best Documentary.
Best Documentary.
Okay, great.
It's up there.
Haven't seen it yet.
We had it on The View.
And you were on with the boy.
Oh, yes.
And with Ron.
So looking forward to seeing the film.
So congratulations prematurely.
Yes.
Prematurely is something I'm used to.
Keep your personal life out of the booth.
Now here's an odd topic.
We've talked a lot about 1966 and 50 years.
This year, we did a lot about 1966.
We did one hit, Wonders of 1966.
It was a great year in pop culture history.
And, you know, oh, 66 people did hear, right?
We did it.
We did that one.
That one they heard.
Yeah, that one the audio survived.
72, 73, and 74.
Those decades are gone as far as this podcast is concerned.
Yeah, well, we can always bring them back again if you've got another couple of songs left in you.
But we talked about one hit, Wonders of 66.
We did the top box office films from 66.
We did TV debuts in 66.
And I was looking around, and I thought, what do we do for one of these mini-episodes?
And I saw that Kirk Douglas was going to turn 100 this week, born in 1916.
And Paul and I were emailing back and forth, and I said, what about born in 1916?
Well, you know, it's particularly appropriate because 100 is, I believe, the average age of our guests.
Right.
So that works out.
That's our younger guests.
That works out.
So instead of 50 years, I thought we'd talk about 100 years ago.
Yes.
And I went to IMDb and I said, okay, so who was born in 1960?
Because we had done a Gleason episode about Jackie being 100.
Jackie would have been 100 this year, born in 1916.
And it was quite impressive.
I can't see or hear, and I'm peeing all over myself.
Oh, that's going in the act.
Yes.
Incontinent Jackie Gleason will now be in the Gilbert.
I'm not incontinent. I am a continent.
He's quick.
He's quick.
Here's some names of people who've come up on the show.
Yes.
Who were born in 1916.
Who had they been, Kirk Douglas, had they been as durable as Kirk Douglas.
Or Olivia de Havilland, who turned 100.
Still alive.
Who turned 100 on July 1st, and she's still with us.
Wow.
But here's one of your favorite actors, born in Philly in 1916 from Fail Safe, MASH, and
12 Angry Men, Edward Binns.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We've talked about him.
He's come up.
And he was in Night Moves with Gene Hackman.
Correct.
A movie you've talked about on this show. Oh, yeah.
One of Sidney Lumet's favorites.
Oh, really? Turns out, well, Fail Safe and 12 Angry
Men. I think he's in a couple other Sidney Lumets.
So, Edward Binns would have been
100. Bill Melendez,
who was the producer of A Charlie Brown
Christmas. Oh! Because we talked about
an episode about The Grinch.
And we were talking about Charlie Brown Christmas.
Here's somebody who's come up on
the show repeatedly.
Born in Passaic, New Jersey, the creator
of It's About Time
and the
Brady Bunch and
Gilligan's Island who we discussed at
length when we had Don Wells here and that's
Sherwood Schwartz. Oh, wow.
Born in 1916.
Passaic, New Jersey. Passaic, New Jersey, a local boy. And this one. This is a story. I saw
Sherwood Schwartz on some interview thing, you know, special about the Brady Bunch.
And they said he and Robert Reed always hated. Oh, there was a lot of tension, yeah. And then they went into Robert Reed.
He died of AIDS.
And everyone showed up at the funeral, and the cast and crew,
and they were all talking about how they were devastated by his death.
And the only one who didn't show up was Sherwood Schwartz.
I didn't know that.
And so the interviewer said to Sherwood Schwartz, he goes, weren't you sad when Robert Reed died?
And Sherwood Schwartz said, of course I was sad.
When word gets out that he died of AIDS, that can kill you in syndication.
Oh, my God.
He really said that on camera.
And they kept it.
Well, I'm sorry I brought it up.
This is like when we did the Paul Lynn tribute episode, and you spent 30 minutes maligning him.
Oh, yes.
Wow.
I hate those Jews.
Here's one you can look up, Paul.
And this is an actor who's come up on the show repeatedly when we had Stephen Webber here.
And he came up again with Hal Linden.
And that's the late, great Phil Leeds.
Oh, yes.
L-E-E-D-S, Paul.
He was in Ghost?
Yep.
Yep.
They describe him on IMDb as one of those for whom the phrase character actor was invented.
And they describe him as a slight wizened man with a rubbery face, bulging eyes, and a Durante-like nose.
He excelled at playing weaselly little snitches.
Yeah.
A little like Alicia Cooke.
Oh, exactly.
He excelled in those kind of roles.
And he was the judge on Ally McBeal.
Indeed.
It was a lot of parts.
He was Hank Kingsley's 1,000-year-old agent on the Larry Sanders show.
But I'd love to hear some more of his credits, Phil Leeds.
So we'll move on past him as Paul looks him up.
Richard Fleischer, the director of Soylent Green, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,
and Tora Tora T Tora, Tora.
Oh, wow.
Born in Brooklyn.
We've had a lot of guests on this show who are local.
Yeah.
A lot of locals.
Hal Linden.
Oh, yeah.
And Dominic Iannese and Larry Storch and Tony Orlando and the list goes on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right, here's some more.
Now, this one you have a personal connection to.
Oh, God.
Okay.
This was a fateful day in our personal history. Yes.
When I met you, when I ran into you in the street on Ventura Boulevard.
You know where I'm going with this.
Oh, yeah.
We went to the nostalgia convention.
And I didn't know who the fuck you were.
That's right. I didn't remember the fuck you are. That's right.
I didn't remember having worked with you.
That's right.
Yeah.
Well, that was true until about 12 weeks into this show.
Yes.
We had worked together on a show called Caroline's Comedy Hour, and I pulled up.
I saw Gilbert walking down Ventura Boulevard because he doesn't drive, and you never had a driver's license.
And you were wandering aimlessly, and I pulled over, and I said, listen, I'm going to this autograph show.
And you just got in the car.
It was basically like a pedophile.
Yeah.
Or like when Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped.
Yes.
Yeah, I could have just taken you anywhere.
I said Don Knotts and Pat Harrington Jr. were going to be in there, and he got in the car
before I finished the sentence.
What'd you find on Phil Leeds?
Phil Leeds, I think he's done a lot of movies that
only you two will know. Okay, hit us.
So he was in Rosemary. Did you mention Rosemary's Baby?
I did not. Rosemary's Baby.
Don't Drink the Water. Juan
Tan Tan, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood.
Of course! That's come up before.
We've done that one. And Don't Drink the Water
was with Jackie Gleason. Written by Woody Allen.
Is that right?
History of the World, Part 1.
We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's
amazing, colossal podcast after this.
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That's the sound of fried chicken with a spicy history.
Thornton Prince was a ladies' man.
To get revenge, his girlfriend hid spices in his fried chicken.
He loved it so much, he opened Prince's Hot Chicken.
Hot chicken in the window.
This is one of many sounds in Tennessee with a story to tell.
To hear them in person, plan your trip at
tnvacation.com. Tennessee sounds perfect. And now back to the show. Now this should be,
this sounds like it's up Gilbert's alley. Frankenstein's great aunt Tilly. I ring a bell.
Gil, did you miss that one? No, but it sounds good.
But yeah, you took me to this autograph signing.
I took you to the autograph signing and you walked in and you were immediately accosted by whom?
Oh, I was at the table with Cruella DeVille.
Yes.
And Snow White.
Right, Snow White.
Who was in the Snow White costume.
Yes, yes. They both. Who was in the Snow White costume. Yes.
Yes.
They both looked a thousand at the time.
Right.
And they were in their costumes.
Snow White. I get introduced and someone said, oh, this is Gilbert Gottfried.
You know, he's also a Disney character as you are.
And she grabs my arm with her fingernails in my arm and starts
singing,
One day my prince
will come.
She sang the whole thing.
And yes, I thought she'd sing one line.
Then she sings the next line.
Then she sings the next line.
She does the entire song
and ends it with,
And who are you again?
Who is it we know who insists on singing every verse of a song?
There's somebody we know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
And now he's shaming her.
He's song shaming the late Adriana Casalotti.
Yes.
Yes.
Who was the voice of Snow White, personally cast by Walt Disney when she was 18 years old.
Don't give up on us, baby.
Don't make the wrong seem right.
The future isn't just one night.
That's a non sequitur.
I was trying to figure out what David Soule had to do with Adriana Casalotti,
and then I realized you were going off what Paul said previously.
Keep up with it.
She died in 1997.
Now, that had to be, I'll tell you when it was.
It was 96 that I picked you up.
Wow.
Because I had just moved back to L.A. the second time after we did Caroline's Comedy Hour in New York.
So she had to die a year later.
Wow.
She was at death's door.
So I killed her.
You killed Adriana Casalotti.
Oh, and I remember at that same autograph signing convention, I was walking around and
as I walked past one table, I hear, it's that loud mouth fucking Jew.
And I go, what?
And I hear again, the loud mouth fucking Jew. And I go, what? And I hear again, the loudmouth fucking Jew.
And I turn around, and it's Howard Morris.
And he was dressed as Ernest T. Best.
Yes, from like the way he used to dress in Andy Griffith.
People would come to these shows in the costumes.
Pat Harrington was there dressed as Schneider.
And Norman Fell was there. I Schneider and Norman Fell was there.
I sat down and spoke to Norman.
And the highlight of my life to that point
was introducing Gilbert Gottfried
to Adam West. Oh, yeah. Because I had
worked with Adam before.
That was memorable. So, according to this,
she was in It's a Wonderful Life and The Wizard
of Oz. I don't know.
I don't know her from
either one, from either film, but she had a personal Gilbert Gottfried experience.
Born in New York, New York.
We talked about him on the show.
He died at the age of 75 in 1991, Irwin Allen.
Oh, king of the disaster.
The master of disaster.
Yeah.
Not only the movies that people know, like The Swarm, which we talked about with Lee Grant.
Yes.
And The Poseidon Adventure and Beyond The Poseidon Adventure.
Towering Inferno.
And The Towering Inferno.
And The Day The World Ended.
That was the working title.
They released it as When Time Ran Out.
Oh, yes.
With Jackie Bissett and Paul Newman.
And Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. And the TV. I was going to say, he had a TV career. Yeah. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
And, well, the TV, I was going to say, he had a TV career.
Yeah.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
Oh, man, my God.
Didn't he create history of the story of mankind?
The guy that cast the Marx Brothers and separated them.
Separately.
Yes.
One bit had Groucho, later on
a bit had Chico, later on a bit
had... insane.
I remember Harper was Sir Isaac Newton.
Oh, yes. And I think...
I can't remember. Could you look that up?
It was not Groucho.
Lost in Space was also one of the ones.
Yeah, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants,
The Time Tunnel. And Lost in Space
we had on Billy Mummy.
That's right.
Yeah.
And James Darin agreed to do the show.
We could talk about The Time Tunnel.
Oh, yes, Time Tunnel.
Next year we'll call it James Darin.
Look up the movie he's talking about.
It's called The Story of Mankind.
And that was the one.
That's an Irwin Allen?
That was the Irwin Allen.
And it had a few other celebrities.
Ronald Coleman's in it.
Oh, yes.
One of the worst movies ever.
This is a backhanded tribute episode.
Another one of these.
Groucho is...
I think he's Peter Minuit.
Peter Minuit.
Yeah.
And he's talking to this Indian girl who I think was one of his ex-wives.
That sounds right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Minuit or Minuit.
The fellow who sold Manhattan to the Indians. It sounds right. Yeah. Minuit or Minuit. The fellow who sold Manhattan
to the Indians. It was
a terrible movie. Or bought Manhattan from the Indians.
I'm looking for that, but
are you familiar with Beyond the Poseidon Adventure?
Well, sure. Of course. With Carl
Malden and Sally Field
and Michael Caine. See Around Us.
Yeah. And I think Gene Hackman
was in that, too. It's funny you bring up Gene Hackman,
too, because wasn't Gene Hackman up for the Robert Reed part? Yes. In Brady Bunch? Yes, And I think Gene Hackman was in that. It's funny you bring up Gene Hackman, too, because wasn't Gene Hackman up for the Robert Reed part?
Yes. And I think what Sherwood Schwartz wanted Gene Hackman.
Can you imagine? He Gene Hackman would be like a joke name.
Yes. Yes. Well, it's like Sandra Bullock went up for Baywatch.
Oh, yeah.
Had she gotten that.
She also did, if I recall, she did the Baby Boom pilot based on the Diane Keaton movie.
Oh, yeah.
And she was also in Working Girl.
That's the one I'm thinking of, Working Girl.
Who was she in Working Girl?
They did a pilot. They did a pilot based on the movie. Based on the one I'm thinking of, Working Girl. Who was she in Working Girl? They did a pilot.
They did a pilot based on the movie.
Based on the movie.
Yeah.
I thought it was Baby Boom, but I think you're right.
I think it was Working Girl.
The road not taken.
Irwin Allen.
I would encourage the listeners to look at Irwin Allen on IMDb because the posters of these movies are spectacular.
Oh, they were wonderful.
They used to have all the little faces along the bottom.
Oh, yes. They're they were wonderful. They used to have all the little faces along the bottom. Oh, yes.
They're just terrific here.
Yeah.
Yeah, we did an episode about Irwin Allen,
but we're going to do another one where we focus on the disaster film.
And those Irwin Allen movies, they were like, it was kind of like Love Boat.
They would find these people that you swore were dead.
That's right.
Right.
Gloria Swanson is in.
Fred Astaire is in one.
Yeah.
Fred McMurray turns up in The Swarm.
Fred Astaire is in The Towering Inferno.
It was Lee Grant who said, you do one for yourself and then you do one for them.
You do the bees.
We love Lee.
Here's an actor, David White.
Did you know that name?
Oh, that name sounds.
He was in The Apartment.
He was in The Sweet Smell of Success.
But he was famous for playing Larry
Tate on Bewitched. Oh,
my God! Darren's boss.
Oh, my God! What is it, David? David White.
Remember this actor? The white hair?
Of course, but I never... And a stache?
I mean, he's one of those.
I think on his tombstone
it should have just said said Mr. Tate.
Best known for playing Larry Tate.
Larry Tate, born in 1916.
Here's one I know you know.
We've talked about him, too.
Born in Staten Island.
Died young.
Died at the age of 58.
In Rebel Without a Cause.
But famous for playing the chief on Get Smart, Ed Platt.
Oh, wow.
Or Edward Platt.
Yes.
Right, Rebel Without a Cause.
Yes.
A local boy, a New Yorker, Staten Island.
We talked about him with Barbara Felden.
Yeah, and everybody agreed he was like an underrated comic actor.
Yeah.
Leonard Stern remembered Platt as the juvenile officer in Rebel Without a Cause and wanted him specifically for the role of the chief.
I got another one.
North by Northwest.
He was in North by Northwest.
Correct.
Correct.
Dinah Shore.
Born in 1916.
Jew.
There you go.
Her real name was Frances Fanny Rose Shore.
Born in Winchester, Tennessee.
How many Jews are from Tennessee?
None that live to a ripe old age.
Here's one for you, Gil, and maybe you met her in your travels.
She was known as the Big Mouth.
Oh, she was married to that weird guy.
Yeah, well, she was married seven times.
Martha Ray.
Martha Ray.
Yeah.
Wow.
No stumping you.
She had that real psycho, obviously gay husband.
She's also in the Finks.
Oh, jeez.
Which I'd like to say we just brought up to Rich Little, who's listed in IMDb as being in the finks,
and he had no recollection whatsoever.
Blissfully.
He put that one out of his mind.
Martha Ray was married seven times.
She also worked with Chaplin.
She's in Monsieur Verdoux.
Wow.
Yeah.
Good stuff.
Here's one.
What if I asked you the actress who provided the voice of the demon in The Exorcist?
Oh, she was a popular, oh, Mercedes Rue?
Mercedes McCambridge.
McCambridge.
Yeah, yeah, from Johnny Guitar and Giant.
And at the time, I think she was an alcoholic, I think.
And she had like already a gravelly voice.
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
I did not know that.
She was great as the voice of the possessed Reagan.
Yes.
In The Exorcist.
Look up, tell us what you can find about Mercedes McCambridge, Mr. Rayburn.
As I move through
this illustrious list of people
born in 1916.
The author, he was born
in Wales, not known for
this, not famous for this, but the screenwriter
of You Only Live Twice, he just
came up on the show, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Oh, wow. Roald Dahl.
Born in 1916. Roald Dahl. I don't even know how it's pronounced. Oh, wow. Roald Dahl. Now, Roald Dahl.
I don't even know how it's pronounced.
He was Welsh.
Roald Dahl.
I heard he hated the Jews.
Really?
Yeah.
Now, why would that be?
So, it's perfect revenge that Gene Wilder played one of his most famous.
I don't think he was happy with that picture.
played one of his most famous... I don't think he was happy with that picture.
I think that the scribe...
What I read about him today
was that the screenwriter of Willy Wonka
took liberties with his story.
We just watched the Johnny Depp-Willy Wonka
the other night.
Yeah.
Boy, he's a weird character in that.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, the first one...
He's like Michael Jackson in that.
He really is strange.
He's talking like that.
He's got lipstick on and he's, you know.
Yeah.
You think that one is more, is that one more faithful to the story, to the source material?
You know, I don't remember the details of the story.
We'll have to know.
It's a Tim Burton movie.
I know.
It's pretty maligned.
But it's not my favorite Tim Burton movie by a long shot.
Roald Dahl had an interesting life.
He was a flying ace in the Royal Air Force.
Oh.
And almost died when his plane crashed.
Wow.
And was married to Patricia Neal.
Oh, geez.
Did you know that?
The famous actress from The Face on the Crowd?
And the subject was roses.
Very good.
Jack Albertson and Martin Sheen.
Very good.
No stumping you today, Godfrey.
Oh, we've got to get Martin Sheen on the show.
We have to get Martin Sheen.
I think he'd do it.
Yeah.
Ever work with him?
No.
Oh, I was on The Tonight Show once with him.
Okay.
And I worked with Charlie.
You didn't piss him off like you did with Jeff Bridges and Harrison Ford, did you?
Is he in New York or L.A.?
Martin Sheen, I think he lives in Los Angeles. But what a career. And you can talk to him about the incident. Is he in New York or L.A.? Is he?
Martin Sheen.
I think he lives in Los Angeles.
But what a career.
And you can talk to him about the incident.
Oh, that's right.
Which you love.
Here's another famous actor. I worked with Charlie Sheen.
Okay.
Maybe Charlie will do the show.
That'll be a train wreck.
I worked with Charlie once.
I actually liked him.
Here's an actor, a leading man, an Italian
leading man,
Summertime with Katharine Hepburn,
South Pacific,
Rossano Brazzi. Oh my god!
One of my peeps. Born in
1916.
He's not Jewish. No.
Gilbert will yell out the Jews.
The Jews!
I got a big finish for that.
Yeah.
Peter Finch.
Oh, yes.
Oscar winner for network.
Howard Beale, born in 1916.
Would have been 100.
Died young at the age of 60.
How about Hal Smith?
Otis the Drunk.
Oh, my God!
From the Andy Griffith Show.
And the mayor of Borracho in My Beloved Great Race.
And then they had, like, one of these Andy Griffith's reunion TV movies.
Yep.
But in there, Otis has stopped drinking.
They sobered him up.
Well, they did the same thing to Barney on The Simpsons.
By season six or seven, he's on the wagon.
Yeah. I think they got complaints. Yeah, he's on the wagon. Yeah.
I think they got complaints.
Yeah, maybe because
so many kids watch it.
I think times changed
and the funny drunk
was no longer in vogue.
Yeah, well...
Was no longer PC.
A lot has changed
for The Simpsons,
which has been on the air
for 50 or 60 years.
Yeah.
But Barney cleaned his act up.
You remember Barney the Drunk?
Yes, of course.
Homer's bar fly friend, Barney Gumbel.
Hal Smith also did a million voices.
Very, very versatile actor.
Van Johnson, speaking of the cane mutiny.
Oh, my God, yes.
Van Johnson lived to the ripe old age of 92.
Why do I sound like Carson?
92.
Born in this magical year, 1916.
Now, one of my favorite actors, Gilbert, and one of your favorites,
a local guy from Upper Montclair, New Jersey.
I'll give you the films.
The Killing, The Asphalt Jungle, Godfather.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
He was around during the Blacklist
You bet, he was almost cast as Quint
Yes, yes
But he was deemed too risky
Oh God, I have his name
Our listeners are yelling at their devices
Give me his initials
S-H
Oh God What's the name of the planetarium in New York City? I know. Give me his initials. S-H.
Oh, God.
What's the name of the planetarium in New York City?
Oh, Hayden.
Yeah.
Oh, God.
Fuck, this is horrible.
Silver Sterling Hayden.
Sterling Hayden.
That's right. Sterling Hayden. A fascinating man. Yeah. Sterling Walter Hayden. Sterling Hayden. That's right. Sterling Hayden, a fascinating man.
Yeah.
Sterling Walter Hayden.
See, I think his connection, he actually became a friendly witness.
Did that happen?
Yeah.
I didn't know that.
I think so.
I didn't know that.
Because, I mean, he's terrific as McCluskey in The Godfather.
Great.
That scene in the restaurant.
Okay.
You can cut that part out now, Frankie.
Sterling Hayden, born in 1916.
In the interest of time, I'm going to move this along.
Betty Grable.
Oh, wow.
Also died young.
She was married to the band leader, Harry James, and also married to Uncle Fester, Jackie Coogan.
Oh, my God.
That's right.
And the story goes that she had her legs insured, right, by Lloyds of London.
That's right.
Betty Grable.
She was a hero in World War II.
I heard a story that Betty Grable, when she was really old and she was either in a hospital or a nursing home.
She was wearing one of those hospital gowns that folds open in the back.
And and the the nurse started pulling on the gown to hold it together.
And no, no, I think Betty. No, she was walking in the gown and the gown was opening up and Betty
Grable was wanting to pull the gown together in the back.
And the nurse said, it's okay.
No one's looking.
And she goes, they used to.
Oh, that's sad.
Yeah.
Where'd you hear that story?
I hear all my stories.
So, you're, I have a-
What, the Greek coffee shop?
Yes, yes.
And then Betty Grable, then shit on a glass cocktail.
All right.
All right, I have a-
Yeah.
I have a-
What do you got?
A couple of, she did 42 movies in the 1930s and 1940s, gross, which grossed more than
$100 million.
She was a big star.
She set a record of 12 consecutive years in the top 10 of box office stars.
Wow.
Yeah.
Betty Grable, more than just good legs.
Yeah.
I'm going to wind down here.
Evelyn Keyes, you know that actress.
Evelyn Keyes.
She was in Here Comes Mr. Jordan.
Oh, okay.
She was Sue Ellen in Gone with the Wind.
Yeah.
Scarlett's sister.
Married to John Huston, Artie Shaw, and Charles Vidor, the director.
Gleason we've talked about.
We did a whole episode about Jackie.
Born in Bushwick, right here in Brooklyn.
Another actor who's come up on this show, Mark Hudson's uncle, Keenan Wynn.
Oh, my God.
Oh, that's right.
Dr. Strangelove and the Patsy, and he's in the devil's reign.
Yeah.
Which will make you happy.
Three generations.
Father was Ed Wynn.
Yeah.
Of course, the perfect fool.
Keenan Wynn and his son, Tracy Keenan Wynn, was a screenwriter who wrote The Drowning Pool and The Longest Yard.
Wow.
And The Deep.
So there you go.
Talented family.
Love him in The Great Race, which I will keep bringing up.
People often forget Son of Flubber as one of his masterworks. That's right.
Thank you, Paul.
Son of Flubber.
Keenan Wynn had a long career.
I just recently watched Keenan Wynn, and I've seen this movie a billion times before with Charles Bronson and the mechanic.
He's in the mechanic.
I was going to list that one.
Glenn Ford, a Canadian.
310 to Yuma.
Gilda, the big heat.
Died at 90 in 2006.
Legendary actor.
Gwilym Samuel Newton Ford.
Olivia de Havilland, still with us.
Wow.
As we said, amazing.
And not only did she live to 100, she spent 90 of those years not speaking to her sister.
Oh, that's right.
Or close to it.
She had a famous feud with Joan Fontaine.
Yeah.
Or apparently started in childhood.
Still with us.
Wrapping it up, Michael Gow.
You know that actor?
Oh, the English actor.
He was in a lot of those Hammer films.
In the Horror of Dracula.
Yeah.
And, uh, and, uh, yeah, a lot of films.
Famous for Man in the White Suit.
And then he was in Batman.
He played, he played Alfred the Butler in Batman late in his life.
You know that actor.
Yep.
Uh, died at 94.
Uh, last two, two superstars.
Uh, a star of one of your favorite movies, The Boys from Brazil.
Oh, yes.
Mr. Peck.
Oh, Gregory Peck.
Gregory Peck.
Died at 87.
Made 53 features.
Had a great career.
Oh, yeah.
Duel in the Sun and The Omen and, of course, To Kill a Mockingbird and Moby Dick.
And last but not least, we talked about it, Kirk Douglas.
Look up Kirk Douglas' real name, by the way, Paul.
He's got a great name.
Kirk Douglas.
It's something like that.
Kirk Douglas will be recording this on Wednesday the 7th,
and Kirk Douglas will be 100 two days from now.
I read a story.
I think it's in Kirk Douglas' book, The Ragman's Son.
Uh-huh.
And he says he was, you know, he was fucking every starlet out there.
And he was going out with some, like, hot-looking girl.
And he said all evening she kept talking about the Jews and making these anti-Semitic remarks.
And then later on, of course, he's having sex with her.
And in the middle of having sex, Kurt Douglas yells out, you're fucking a Jew.
That's a lovely.
Wow, that is heartwarming.
I think I heard that on the Dinah Shore show.
Well, I wanted to save it for Christmas.
That's beautiful.
We won't be getting Kirk now.
The name he was born with?
Yeah, hit me.
So, like Glenn Ford, sometimes their stage names are similar to him.
Kirk Douglas was Isur Danilovich.
I love that.
Why didn't he keep that?
It's so easy to spell.
Or at least Isser Douglas.
What a life, what a career.
And in one of your favorites, which has come up on this show, Billy Wilders.
Oh, an ace in the hole.
Ace in the hole.
Also known as the big carnival.
Yeah.
Very good movie.
I'm recommending Kirk Douglas movies.
I recommend Detective Story and The Bad and the Beautiful and the list goes on.
And Kirk Douglas.
Gunfire at the OK Corral.
He fought for years to get One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest made into a movie.
Correct.
As a starring vehicle for him.
And nobody would make it.
No.
But it stayed in the family and Michael Douglas eventually produced it and Jack Nicholson won the Oscar.
And for a while, Kirk and Michael weren't talking.
I know that.
Well, I know there was a lot of, there was a rivalry.
Yeah.
But listen, the man is 100.
How about some props?
And the idea he's 100 and has had like a major stroke.
Yeah.
Like 15 years ago.
Yeah.
And still going. Yeah. So that's Yeah, like 15 years ago. Yeah, and still going.
Yeah.
So that's 1916, 100 years ago.
Well, boys, I think that about wraps it up.
Boys, boys.
Any other depressing anecdotes you'd like to tell about people and their dotage?
If we go much longer, we'll be approaching 100 years old ourselves.
We'll be joining them.
Yeah, we'll be joining them.
Thank you, Paul.
Thank you, Frank.
This has been
Gilbert and Frank's
Amazing Colossal Obsession.
Happy birthday,
Mr. Douglas.
Mr. Douglas!
Mr. Douglas!
Colossal Obsessions.