May 3, 2024 • 16 mins
George Noory and famed television producer George Schlatter, the creator of Laugh-In and Real People, discuss his career in Hollywood, his friendships with Frank Sinatra and Don Rickles, and the importance of comedy in defusing the tensions in modern society.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
And welcome back to Coast to Coast George nor with
you along with George Schlatter and Georgia's website is linked
up at Coast to coastam dot com. He's also got
some programs on YouTube and his book is called Still
Laughing Now. I love that cover picture of you on
the book, George. It's so cool. You had a great time.
You had fun.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I have had a great time. I'm having a great time.
By the way, to listen to your show tomorrow. I'm
sending in a subscription because I want to join Coast
to Coast. I think you guys are great.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
We'd be honored to have you listening in as a
member to the book.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Started out to see the book that it became another
book and now it's a paperback book. But it was
a celebration of the people I've known and the things
I've done because I feel it life is now so
seriously the presidential situation we're in, we needed something that
would relieve the tension, and so we wrote to just
my funny memories, and it's doing very very well. That
(01:01):
you know, I'm really glad it did as well because
it was the risk because people said, you're going to
write a book about comedy, though, you know. So it
turned out pretty well and I'm proud of it, sure did.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
What do you think of television today with all these
different venues You've got YouTube, bits like Samazon, You've got
all of them.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, it's it's I'm a little disappointed because I think
we could be doing more and I think there's funny
people out there who can learn from what's been going
on before. But I think we should do more, more
adventures and more funny people there, and I think we
should focus more on that because we need we need
(01:40):
to do something to break this tension, because we are
in trouble. If you look at the news, it's getting
worse and worse and worse, you know, and they focus
on the ugly side. They shouldn't. There's all kinds of
funny things and funny people. I want to see more
of that.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
What would you say is the funniest comedian you've ever heard?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Oh? Probably will be Robin Williams. Uh boy, he was
in San Francisco, barefoot was I brought him in, dressed
him up and we put him on the New Laughing
and he exploded, and he's gone on to have a
brilliant career. But that mind is wonderful. Uh, But we
(02:18):
need to we need to encourage more of those people,
more political comics, because politics needs gumor as all you
have to do is look at the presidential race now,
you know. But very very lucky, we've we had a
lot of them and and uh fortunately, uh there's more
(02:41):
of them coming up. Laughing affected a number of young
comedians who now will try things. It doesn't have to
be dirty, it doesn't have to do language, doesn't have
to be of scene. He's gonna be funny with straight
language and straight subjects, but just enjoying the experience. And
that's what we tried to do.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
How did you come up with the concept for real people.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
It was the fact that there were so many people
out there that were funnier than the people that are
on television. So we started collecting these people and so
we put them all together, and they were concerned about
that celebrating because it wasn't a show about guest stars.
It was a show about people who did strange and wonderful,
funny things. And the real people went on and had
(03:26):
an enormous impact, almost as much impact as laughing, because
real people started a whole trend towards celebrating and presenting
just not not big stars, just puny people.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
You moved on to ABC after a while. What made
you make that move?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Colin NBC? See, I've been fired more than any producer
in television.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Really.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Everything everything we ever did kind of broke the moles
a little bit. I had one show called turn On
that was canceled after fifteen minutes. Guy wanted to keep
Peyton Place on the air, and so he called all
the stations that said, we have to cancel this, but
turn On we remained one of my proudest accomplishments. It
was a show. It was so fast and so bright
(04:15):
and so outrageous, but it was canceled after fifteen minutes
of an insurance that I'd never run it before. So
it's somewhere in the museum. But that's one of the
things I'm the proudest though. But there were more. We
did an updated burlesque show, and we did a show
with Jonathan Winners. And my whole career, my whole success,
(04:36):
my whole enjoy has come from adventure and from taking
chances in breaking molds, and so it's worked. They've been very,
very lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yo, you've done a great job. You knew Sinatra, didn't you.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Oh? I had great fun with Sonata. Sinatra was an
adventure The only secret was Sinata. I could make him laugh,
but you better be sure it's going to be funny.
But he was a poor adventurer, all of electricity and
energy and outrage. And I had a lot of fun
with mister Sinatra. And but sometimes we were very we
(05:13):
flew very close to the flame. But he he did
a lot of stuff for me. And he was a
wonderful guy and a good friend.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Who was a tough guy, wasn't.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
He he Well, yeah, yes he was. He was. You
had to be careful, you know. And if you could
make him laugh, you got buy with anything. And that
was my secret with him. I could make him laugh.
But the Sinatra, we had funny with him, and with
Dean and with Sammy and Sammy Davis was another one
we had a lot of fun with.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
They were very talents.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
They were just well they but it was it was
they all were susceptible and eager for new ideas and
new their approaches, and again again the feeling of adventure
and taking chances. Well, I married wonderful girl. The name
was jolian Brand. She did all the yearning Kovec shows
and so she has put up with me for sixty
(06:06):
five years. So that's a big, big element in my
success has been the support of Jolane.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
That's great. Yeah. The rat Pack came to Saint Louis
back in nineteen sixty five, yep. And they sing at
the Peabody Opera House at the time, and they would
they would always have a great skip. They'd have fun.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Was up in Saint Louis. I lived living in Webster Groves.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
That's right, not too far from.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
One of my first jobs in the Saint Louis Municipal Opera.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
And you sang there, didn't you?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I did. I did, And I was the youngest. I
was the youngest member of the chorus, and I had
learned a lot in Saint Louis. It's pretty hot there sometimes,
but it was a real adventure. I've had a long
and very spotty, unusual, bizarre career, including working in at
the chorus boy in Saint Louis and as bouncer in
(07:00):
Vegas and whatever. But when I'm married Jolie and the
story rented I had been a bouncer at Zero's and
she hated hearing that, and so they released the story
that I had been an executive in charge of emergency departures.
I love it, and that got rid of the bouncer label.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Belt out a few lines for me. You can still sing.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Oh no, no, I don't do that. At the recommendation
of a number of people, I gave up that career,
gave talking and doing jokes. The thing is what I
really think we need. We need laughter because when you
look at the political scene today, you realize how bizarre
this is. You have this man running around doing interviews,
(07:44):
calling the president all kinds of names, and nobody's answering him.
So hillmer is our answer. Humor will be the great leveler,
I think. So That's where I'm focused.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
We need to laugh.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
We have to. It's the you know, it breaks the
break that coil, and you've got to be careful what
you laugh at, but not too careful. You guys take
a lot of chances what you do on there.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I love the show you created, the American comedy Awards
group tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Well, it was the fact that we had awards celebrated writers, directed, producers, singers, dancing,
and musicians, but the comic would always be hired to
introduce the show and then they forget about them. So
I said, let's devote the entire show to the people
who've made us laugh. And we did, and it's been
on the air for a long time. It was very,
very successful because comedy is a necessary ingredient in our environment.
(08:42):
And if you look at the political scene right now.
I watched the news tonight and the entire show is
about this wacko presidential candidate we have, and the riots
on UCLA, on the campuses and all of that. All
of that is so tense, angry and so unhappy. You
(09:02):
need comedy. You need that person who walks in and
tells the emperor that he's not wearing any clothes. And
so my life, my career, my family, my security has
all come from my looking sideways of life and making
people laugh and making myself laugh.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
What do you think of this?
Speaker 3 (09:22):
I haven't told you anything funny tonight, but we'll see
if i's how long I stay on.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, we got you for another hour after this, George,
what did you I can do that? What do you
think of a Saturday Night Live?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
But arong? Michael rooksm me as a writer. I brought
him down from Canada and the best politician in the world.
And I'm not but Lorlanki and he's not a great writer,
but he is a great politician. And that shows amazing
the success they've had. I'm not a big fan because
it's the same show over and over and over again.
And all my success has been in not doing the
(09:58):
same thing over and over over again. And they said
some wonderful people on Saturday Night Live, and I wish him.
Web has been on for what fifty years or something?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Oh my god, yeah, something like that.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
So we need another new form. We need another I'm
thinking about doing a comedy telethon and collecting all of
these people that are around who are funny, and they
need a window and we get half to be where
we are politically and economically, socially, environmentally, we need to laugh.
(10:30):
And I'm not making anything. I'm not too amusing right now,
but I will be tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
What'd you think of Don Rickles?
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I love Rickles. I love Don Rickles and he was.
I introduced him to Sinatra and he was terrified because
at that point he was Don Rickles, but he wasn't
the Don Rickles that we knew. But he went into
the Slave Brothers and I took Frank and Deceive and
Don whipped on Frank timidly, but Frank loved it, and
(11:00):
that kind of launched him. Don. Don was really a
nice man. He was not the angry I mean I
used to on stage.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I met him like a couple of years before you
passed on, when he was doing his shows in Vegas,
and yeah, one of the kind. I just met Wayne
Newton a couple of months ago. He's still a great talent.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Wayne. Oh god, Wayne, I didn't want to Wayne's Force shows.
He's a great talent and a nice man. You know.
I've been lucky because I've had experiences with all of
those guys, from from Robert Maryland and and to Robin
Williams and Sammy Davis, all of those. My career has
(11:42):
been so spotted and so varied, with so many ups
and downs. There were a lot of downs in there,
you know, But I survived it, and I've had a
good time, and I'm having a good time with you,
and I'm gonna I'm going to subscribe to Coast to
Coast Now, all.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Right, George, what got you to Hollywood? First place?
Speaker 3 (12:02):
I came to Hollywood to go to the road show.
There's a song. I got a foot infection. I wound
up out here with no money and no job, and
I got a job. As I say, as I say greet,
it was a boucher, and some of my early adventures
(12:23):
led me to a career. I could handle disturbances, and
that led to opened a lott of doors to different
places and things and jobs to eventually when I met
Joe Inn and decided to go straight. And then I
walked into NBC, who had nothing to put on opposite
Lucy and gunsmoke, and I said, let's try this. And
(12:44):
I had all of these people, Goldie and Lily and
Judy and Hardie Johnson, and we came in with this
collection of young character people and they didn't know what
the hell that was. Because you must have realized this
many years ago, that show was a really you're an adventure.
We didn't know what to do or what to say,
or what to say, and again it was a hit
(13:06):
before anybody could figure out that they ought to cancel it.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You knew Ronald Reagan, did you?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yeah, Well, Wasssman called me and asked me. He said
he wanted me to book Ronald Reagan at the Frontry Hotel.
I was booking the Frontier Heart. I said, he doesn't
do anything, and Lotchman said, it's not my problem. I
want him to work Vegas. So I booked him into
Vegas and it was the act he did with a
group of people was just terrible. So I booked a
(13:33):
Markian family who were an act with five chimpanzees to
open the show, and they couldn't cut their act lod shorter.
So I wound up one night because they so ran
too long, had him do the first fifteen minutes of
the act in the hallway and then opened the door
and let him out on stage. Well, one night they
(13:53):
got loose on stage and absolutely throw the police apart,
and the owner of the hood instead of him, just
do that, which meant that Reagan had to cut his act.
So Ronald Reagan never forgave me for booking booking him
into Vegas with the five girls.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
He was funny, you know, he was a straight actor,
wasn't he Oh, he was straight.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
He was a nice man. I liked her a lot,
but he was a nice man. Not a great president,
but you know, uh, we've got a great president. Now.
He's just quiet, and all I see is Trump, pump pump.
What the hell are we doing with Trump? Somebody's going
to stand up and say that man is an accident
looking for a place to happen. But I don't want
(14:35):
to get into that. I'll get you canceled too. Yeah,
don't do that, won't, but you won't do it. I
don't do a lot of political stuff on your show,
which is kind of good.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, yeah, I let the daytime talk show hosts do
a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Well, right now we kind of need it. Sumber may
be our only way out of the mess that we're in.
You know, you realize that the violence on campus is
why what the hell are they epis tight about UCLA.
They shouldn't have you know, riots, and so they should
have parties. So we were in a difficult place right now,
but this will be over pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
It's one of the strangest times, George I can recall
in a long, long time.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Well, it's it's strange because you know, You've got a
nice man as president. He's nice. He's kind of boring,
but he's a lovely man.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Do you know.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Him personally, Biden?
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, a little bit, but he comes along with this animal,
you know, and uh, unfortunately, he has had a lot
of impact and he dominates. He dominated the entire news
cycle today and he's not that interesting, you know. So
I don't want to go on that because I wind
up getting deported. I'll get another tax rep. But he's dangerous,
(15:51):
you know.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one a m. Eastern and go to Coast to coastam
dot com for more
Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
And welcome back to Coast to Coast George nor with
you along with George Schlatter and Georgia's website is linked
up at Coast to coastam dot com. He's also got
some programs on YouTube and his book is called Still
Laughing Now. I love that cover picture of you on
the book, George. It's so cool. You had a great time.
You had fun.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I have had a great time. I'm having a great time.
By the way, to listen to your show tomorrow. I'm
sending in a subscription because I want to join Coast
to Coast. I think you guys are great.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
We'd be honored to have you listening in as a
member to the book.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Started out to see the book that it became another
book and now it's a paperback book. But it was
a celebration of the people I've known and the things
I've done because I feel it life is now so
seriously the presidential situation we're in, we needed something that
would relieve the tension, and so we wrote to just
my funny memories, and it's doing very very well. That
(01:01):
you know, I'm really glad it did as well because
it was the risk because people said, you're going to
write a book about comedy, though, you know. So it
turned out pretty well and I'm proud of it, sure did.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
What do you think of television today with all these
different venues You've got YouTube, bits like Samazon, You've got
all of them.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, it's it's I'm a little disappointed because I think
we could be doing more and I think there's funny
people out there who can learn from what's been going
on before. But I think we should do more, more
adventures and more funny people there, and I think we
should focus more on that because we need we need
(01:40):
to do something to break this tension, because we are
in trouble. If you look at the news, it's getting
worse and worse and worse, you know, and they focus
on the ugly side. They shouldn't. There's all kinds of
funny things and funny people. I want to see more
of that.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
What would you say is the funniest comedian you've ever heard?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Oh? Probably will be Robin Williams. Uh boy, he was
in San Francisco, barefoot was I brought him in, dressed
him up and we put him on the New Laughing
and he exploded, and he's gone on to have a
brilliant career. But that mind is wonderful. Uh, But we
(02:18):
need to we need to encourage more of those people,
more political comics, because politics needs gumor as all you
have to do is look at the presidential race now,
you know. But very very lucky, we've we had a
lot of them and and uh fortunately, uh there's more
(02:41):
of them coming up. Laughing affected a number of young
comedians who now will try things. It doesn't have to
be dirty, it doesn't have to do language, doesn't have
to be of scene. He's gonna be funny with straight
language and straight subjects, but just enjoying the experience. And
that's what we tried to do.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
How did you come up with the concept for real people.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
It was the fact that there were so many people
out there that were funnier than the people that are
on television. So we started collecting these people and so
we put them all together, and they were concerned about
that celebrating because it wasn't a show about guest stars.
It was a show about people who did strange and wonderful,
funny things. And the real people went on and had
(03:26):
an enormous impact, almost as much impact as laughing, because
real people started a whole trend towards celebrating and presenting
just not not big stars, just puny people.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
You moved on to ABC after a while. What made
you make that move?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Colin NBC? See, I've been fired more than any producer
in television.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Really.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Everything everything we ever did kind of broke the moles
a little bit. I had one show called turn On
that was canceled after fifteen minutes. Guy wanted to keep
Peyton Place on the air, and so he called all
the stations that said, we have to cancel this, but
turn On we remained one of my proudest accomplishments. It
was a show. It was so fast and so bright
(04:15):
and so outrageous, but it was canceled after fifteen minutes
of an insurance that I'd never run it before. So
it's somewhere in the museum. But that's one of the
things I'm the proudest though. But there were more. We
did an updated burlesque show, and we did a show
with Jonathan Winners. And my whole career, my whole success,
(04:36):
my whole enjoy has come from adventure and from taking
chances in breaking molds, and so it's worked. They've been very,
very lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yo, you've done a great job. You knew Sinatra, didn't you.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Oh? I had great fun with Sonata. Sinatra was an
adventure The only secret was Sinata. I could make him laugh,
but you better be sure it's going to be funny.
But he was a poor adventurer, all of electricity and
energy and outrage. And I had a lot of fun
with mister Sinatra. And but sometimes we were very we
(05:13):
flew very close to the flame. But he he did
a lot of stuff for me. And he was a
wonderful guy and a good friend.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Who was a tough guy, wasn't.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
He he Well, yeah, yes he was. He was. You
had to be careful, you know. And if you could
make him laugh, you got buy with anything. And that
was my secret with him. I could make him laugh.
But the Sinatra, we had funny with him, and with
Dean and with Sammy and Sammy Davis was another one
we had a lot of fun with.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
They were very talents.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
They were just well they but it was it was
they all were susceptible and eager for new ideas and
new their approaches, and again again the feeling of adventure
and taking chances. Well, I married wonderful girl. The name
was jolian Brand. She did all the yearning Kovec shows
and so she has put up with me for sixty
(06:06):
five years. So that's a big, big element in my
success has been the support of Jolane.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
That's great. Yeah. The rat Pack came to Saint Louis
back in nineteen sixty five, yep. And they sing at
the Peabody Opera House at the time, and they would
they would always have a great skip. They'd have fun.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Was up in Saint Louis. I lived living in Webster Groves.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
That's right, not too far from.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
One of my first jobs in the Saint Louis Municipal Opera.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
And you sang there, didn't you?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I did. I did, And I was the youngest. I
was the youngest member of the chorus, and I had
learned a lot in Saint Louis. It's pretty hot there sometimes,
but it was a real adventure. I've had a long
and very spotty, unusual, bizarre career, including working in at
the chorus boy in Saint Louis and as bouncer in
(07:00):
Vegas and whatever. But when I'm married Jolie and the
story rented I had been a bouncer at Zero's and
she hated hearing that, and so they released the story
that I had been an executive in charge of emergency departures.
I love it, and that got rid of the bouncer label.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Belt out a few lines for me. You can still sing.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Oh no, no, I don't do that. At the recommendation
of a number of people, I gave up that career,
gave talking and doing jokes. The thing is what I
really think we need. We need laughter because when you
look at the political scene today, you realize how bizarre
this is. You have this man running around doing interviews,
(07:44):
calling the president all kinds of names, and nobody's answering him.
So hillmer is our answer. Humor will be the great leveler,
I think. So That's where I'm focused.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
We need to laugh.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
We have to. It's the you know, it breaks the
break that coil, and you've got to be careful what
you laugh at, but not too careful. You guys take
a lot of chances what you do on there.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I love the show you created, the American comedy Awards
group tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Well, it was the fact that we had awards celebrated writers, directed, producers, singers, dancing,
and musicians, but the comic would always be hired to
introduce the show and then they forget about them. So
I said, let's devote the entire show to the people
who've made us laugh. And we did, and it's been
on the air for a long time. It was very,
very successful because comedy is a necessary ingredient in our environment.
(08:42):
And if you look at the political scene right now.
I watched the news tonight and the entire show is
about this wacko presidential candidate we have, and the riots
on UCLA, on the campuses and all of that. All
of that is so tense, angry and so unhappy. You
(09:02):
need comedy. You need that person who walks in and
tells the emperor that he's not wearing any clothes. And
so my life, my career, my family, my security has
all come from my looking sideways of life and making
people laugh and making myself laugh.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
What do you think of this?
Speaker 3 (09:22):
I haven't told you anything funny tonight, but we'll see
if i's how long I stay on.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, we got you for another hour after this, George,
what did you I can do that? What do you
think of a Saturday Night Live?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
But arong? Michael rooksm me as a writer. I brought
him down from Canada and the best politician in the world.
And I'm not but Lorlanki and he's not a great writer,
but he is a great politician. And that shows amazing
the success they've had. I'm not a big fan because
it's the same show over and over and over again.
And all my success has been in not doing the
(09:58):
same thing over and over over again. And they said
some wonderful people on Saturday Night Live, and I wish him.
Web has been on for what fifty years or something?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Oh my god, yeah, something like that.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
So we need another new form. We need another I'm
thinking about doing a comedy telethon and collecting all of
these people that are around who are funny, and they
need a window and we get half to be where
we are politically and economically, socially, environmentally, we need to laugh.
(10:30):
And I'm not making anything. I'm not too amusing right now,
but I will be tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
What'd you think of Don Rickles?
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I love Rickles. I love Don Rickles and he was.
I introduced him to Sinatra and he was terrified because
at that point he was Don Rickles, but he wasn't
the Don Rickles that we knew. But he went into
the Slave Brothers and I took Frank and Deceive and
Don whipped on Frank timidly, but Frank loved it, and
(11:00):
that kind of launched him. Don. Don was really a
nice man. He was not the angry I mean I
used to on stage.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I met him like a couple of years before you
passed on, when he was doing his shows in Vegas,
and yeah, one of the kind. I just met Wayne
Newton a couple of months ago. He's still a great talent.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Wayne. Oh god, Wayne, I didn't want to Wayne's Force shows.
He's a great talent and a nice man. You know.
I've been lucky because I've had experiences with all of
those guys, from from Robert Maryland and and to Robin
Williams and Sammy Davis, all of those. My career has
(11:42):
been so spotted and so varied, with so many ups
and downs. There were a lot of downs in there,
you know, But I survived it, and I've had a
good time, and I'm having a good time with you,
and I'm gonna I'm going to subscribe to Coast to
Coast Now, all.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Right, George, what got you to Hollywood? First place?
Speaker 3 (12:02):
I came to Hollywood to go to the road show.
There's a song. I got a foot infection. I wound
up out here with no money and no job, and
I got a job. As I say, as I say greet,
it was a boucher, and some of my early adventures
(12:23):
led me to a career. I could handle disturbances, and
that led to opened a lott of doors to different
places and things and jobs to eventually when I met
Joe Inn and decided to go straight. And then I
walked into NBC, who had nothing to put on opposite
Lucy and gunsmoke, and I said, let's try this. And
(12:44):
I had all of these people, Goldie and Lily and
Judy and Hardie Johnson, and we came in with this
collection of young character people and they didn't know what
the hell that was. Because you must have realized this
many years ago, that show was a really you're an adventure.
We didn't know what to do or what to say,
or what to say, and again it was a hit
(13:06):
before anybody could figure out that they ought to cancel it.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You knew Ronald Reagan, did you?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yeah, Well, Wasssman called me and asked me. He said
he wanted me to book Ronald Reagan at the Frontry Hotel.
I was booking the Frontier Heart. I said, he doesn't
do anything, and Lotchman said, it's not my problem. I
want him to work Vegas. So I booked him into
Vegas and it was the act he did with a
group of people was just terrible. So I booked a
(13:33):
Markian family who were an act with five chimpanzees to
open the show, and they couldn't cut their act lod shorter.
So I wound up one night because they so ran
too long, had him do the first fifteen minutes of
the act in the hallway and then opened the door
and let him out on stage. Well, one night they
(13:53):
got loose on stage and absolutely throw the police apart,
and the owner of the hood instead of him, just
do that, which meant that Reagan had to cut his act.
So Ronald Reagan never forgave me for booking booking him
into Vegas with the five girls.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
He was funny, you know, he was a straight actor,
wasn't he Oh, he was straight.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
He was a nice man. I liked her a lot,
but he was a nice man. Not a great president,
but you know, uh, we've got a great president. Now.
He's just quiet, and all I see is Trump, pump pump.
What the hell are we doing with Trump? Somebody's going
to stand up and say that man is an accident
looking for a place to happen. But I don't want
(14:35):
to get into that. I'll get you canceled too. Yeah,
don't do that, won't, but you won't do it. I
don't do a lot of political stuff on your show,
which is kind of good.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, yeah, I let the daytime talk show hosts do
a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Well, right now we kind of need it. Sumber may
be our only way out of the mess that we're in.
You know, you realize that the violence on campus is
why what the hell are they epis tight about UCLA.
They shouldn't have you know, riots, and so they should
have parties. So we were in a difficult place right now,
but this will be over pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
It's one of the strangest times, George I can recall
in a long, long time.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Well, it's it's strange because you know, You've got a
nice man as president. He's nice. He's kind of boring,
but he's a lovely man.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Do you know.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Him personally, Biden?
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, a little bit, but he comes along with this animal,
you know, and uh, unfortunately, he has had a lot
of impact and he dominates. He dominated the entire news
cycle today and he's not that interesting, you know. So
I don't want to go on that because I wind
up getting deported. I'll get another tax rep. But he's dangerous,
(15:51):
you know.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one a m. Eastern and go to Coast to coastam
dot com for more
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