May 9, 2025 • 52 mins
When Scott Schwartz was just an outgoing kid from New Jersey attending film club with his dad, he never imagined he'd soon be shooting a chocolate drink commercial with Yogi Berra, launching a career that would place him alongside some of comedy's greatest legends.
Scott takes us behind the curtain of his remarkable journey working with Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason on "The Toy" – revealing how these comedy giants became personal mentors. "Pryor taught me about timing and being a storyteller," Scott shares, describing a friendship that lasted from their first meeting until Pryor's passing in 2005. Meanwhile, Gleason patiently taught the young actor how to shoot pool during production breaks, impressed by questions about old Hollywood that few 13-year-olds would know.
The conversation turns to "A Christmas Story" and the fascinating evolution of a modest film into an American institution. Scott reveals the brutal conditions behind filming the iconic flagpole scene ("between 20 and 24 below zero for nearly 12 hours") and how director Bob Clark encouraged his improvisation. Most surprisingly, we learn how the film sat relatively undiscovered for over a decade before Ted Turner happened to watch it with Jane Fonda, sparking the now-famous 24-hour Christmas marathon that reaches over 50 million homes annually.
Beyond acting, Scott shares his entrepreneurial ventures in the memorabilia world, including pioneering celebrity trading card collections that united his passion for collectibles with his entertainment connections. His stories provide a captivating glimpse into filmmaking's golden era when practical effects, genuine performances, and authentic storytelling could create timeless classics without massive budgets.
Whether you're a film buff, holiday movie enthusiast, or simply appreciate great storytelling, Scott's candid reflections on his unexpected journey through Hollywood invite you to see familiar classics through fresh eyes. Follow Scott on Facebook at "Scott Schwartz Actor" and watch for his upcoming book next September.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
so we were talking the other day you said you had
family in michigan, right?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
yeah, I got family in uh west bloomfield.
Okay, they're not that far fromOrchard Lake and 15 Mile.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Okay, I know it very well my brother and I live on
West Bloomfield Stage Deli.
Yep, I know it.
Do you ever get out this way?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Not much anymore.
My uncle, who was there past,and his girlfriend.
She spent some time there,sometimes down in Florida.
My other sort of cousins bymarriage, but not really
whatever.
My uncle dated the woman for 40years.
It's what it was when it was.
(00:57):
So they're in Southfield andBeverly Hills.
I'm friends with the golds thatown the American jewelry and
the loan over on eight mile andGreenfield.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I used to watch the show.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Actually I got.
I have my, my star David.
I got there.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Oh really, yeah, they .
They have another shop over inPontiac too.
That's a fun place, right.
What have you been up to?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Nothing Like everybody else just getting up
and breathing every day.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Right, trying to make it through quarantine.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Well, we really don't have quarantine, but you know,
it's just, you can't go out.
You can go out to dinner, butyou got to sit outside, you know
, and it's not the same thing.
And you know, I mean, thank God, I mean I have enough friends
that are not what's the term Iwant to use overly crazy about
this thing.
Right, so it's like we go outyeah, I mean we sort of social
distance, you know, we sitacross from each other.
(01:49):
It's like, okay, fine, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah.
So at least I have a couple offriends places that I go over
and see them or they we meet upand see me.
So that it's not that.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, that's the thing.
If it would do that here, itwouldn't be that bad, but
they're not doing that.
You can't even eat inside, ohreally, yeah, no, there's no
eating inside at all.
Oh wow, I didn't know that.
And I'm not in LA County either.
Oh no, but it's a statewidething, right?
I mean, I feel the countiesthat are north of me, I mean
they have like 15 cases, fourcases.
(02:27):
They're under the samerestrictions and I'm like why,
what are you doing?
You know, but it's juststupidity run amok right now.
So you know, they do all thatstuff, but it's OK if you want
to go out and protest.
Really, seriously.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Right, there's really no difference, really.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Seriously Right, there's really no difference.
It makes no sense.
No, there is a big differencebetween sitting in a restaurant
with 15 people or standingoutside with 5,000.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, yeah, but yeah, it's crazy.
It's crazy times right now.
You betcha, so we'll jump intoit, okay.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So where did you grow up?
I grew up in central New Jersey.
We were about 45, 50 minutesfrom New York.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Okay.
So how'd you get your startinto acting?
Is it something you always?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
wanted to do.
No, no, no, I was attending afilm club with my dad.
It was really for older peopleto watch older movies, but I but
I was a fan, like my dad, offilm and whatever.
And one of the guys there saidlisten, I mean I knew him a
couple of years and he's likehey, you're, you're, you have a
good look.
I give very outgoing, I thinkyou'd be good at this.
So I ended up doing a uh youwho?
(03:40):
Chocolate drink commercial withYogi Berra.
It was my first commercial Idid down in Miami Beach for a
couple of days and then cameback and he's like you're great,
you got to keep doing this.
So he got me with a castingagent and then a couple of
regular agents and I signed withthem and we were off and
running.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
How was that working with Yogi?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
He was fun.
I mean, I was a kid, what?
What's gonna be mean to me?
No, of course not.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
right, an eight-year-old kid you know, and
I was a, yankee fan.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
You know I want to talk to him more about, you know
, mantle and lou gehrig than Idid about, you know, yogi
barrett right, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Um, so you got that.
Did you do other commercials,or was that the only commercial?
Oh no, I did.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I did over 100 commercials.
I did over 100 voiceovers.
I did oh no, I did over 100commercials.
I did over 100 voiceovers.
I mean I did all that stuff.
Then I did Off-Broadway, Then Idid Broadway and then I got
into the films later on.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Okay, so your first movie you did was the Toy.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
How was the experience on that movie?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Oh, priceless, as they say.
Right, you know, to be workingwith not only Jackie Gleason and
Richard Pryor but Ray Stark andRichard Donner and Ned Beatty
and you know, uh, wilfred HydeWhite, the Butler, and I mean
the cast, the crew, everybody itwas.
It was a dynamite experience.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, it's a bunch of heavy hitters in that movie, uh
, and I actually just oh god, atotal non-pc group of people,
which was great right, Iactually just re-watched the
movie today because it's been awhile, but uh, I watched it with
my son and, uh, he's fine, howold is?
he, he's, yeah, see, he's alittle bit young to kind of
(05:24):
understand it, but he couldunderstand the fun parts of it
the pinball machines and all thegames he loved your bedroom
yeah, he loved it and uh, yeahand uh, I told him, uh, because
I told him I was like I'm gonnabe interviewing uh the kid later
and he got like so excited hethought thought it was the
(05:45):
coolest thing, but he alsothought like it was still you as
a kid, of course, but he wasvery excited and uh, he's, he
liked the movie.
He sat there and watched itwith me, so that was good.
It's definitely a definitely agreat movie.
I mean, like I said, like acomed comedic genius Having a
bad hair day, Sorry buddy, oh,you're good.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I had to brush mine before I tried it, just doesn't
want to go today.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
No.
Yeah, it goes all right, we allhave bad hair days, though, so
what was the auditioning likefor that movie?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Eight or nine auditions I had.
I mean, the first one is whatthey call a cattle call, when
they just bring everybody in andthey take your polaroid and
then what's your name and youragent and how old are you?
Thanks for coming in.
That's literally all that itwas.
And this you go from 400 to 200to 100 to 50 to 12 and, and you
know, you read dialogue at somepoint.
And then I had a screen test inLA.
(06:49):
They flew me and my dad out toLos Angeles and did the screen
test and was lucky enough to getit Awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Did you get to audition with Richard Pryor and
Gleason?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
No, no, I was supposed to actually audition
with Richard, but he was stuckin Atlanta with divorce number
five, I believe four or five.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
And uh.
So I ended up actuallyauditioning with, uh, the the
thin jive guy from airplane noshit, it was Norman Gibbs.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, that's awesome.
How was that that I?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
ended up auditioning.
That was great.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
He was fun yeah, I bet seems like a fun guy.
Yeah, definitely great in themovie airplane.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
So I was hysterical.
I mean the whole thing it's.
I mean I always say it's partof the reason why I got the toy
was they wanted a kid who was aloose wheel.
They wanted somebody who couldbe fun and he brought out a
different part of my personalityjust by him being there,
because I was such a big fan ofthe film and we were doing jive
(07:54):
talk and all kinds of stuff andit, they saw that that I could
adjust to pretty much anythingright.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
So where did you guys actually film the toy?
Where was it filmed at?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Baton Rouge, louisiana, really.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah, all right Good location.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Oh, it was great down there.
I mean, those people weredynamite, Were they?
You know?
Oh, the Everybody from thenobodies who they just hired
that were locals to thesheriffbodies who they just
hired, that were locals to thesheriff's department, who was
they're actually in the film inthe police scene and the jail um
, they were all just really nicepeople.
(08:34):
I'm still friends with themreally.
Yeah, I'm still friends withthe guys that were the sheriffs
and the, the kid who was whatthey call my stand-in, which is
when they're doing lighting andstuff.
They don't want to have the,the actor, stand there, so they
have somebody else that theyhire and you know, just same
height and build, basicallyRight, and uh, yeah, he's a
(08:54):
teacher down there in in BatonRouge.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Oh good for him, yeah , yeah.
So uh, working with RichardPryor man uh, it's gotta be a
dream for a lot of people.
So, uh, working with RichardPryor man uh, it's gotta be a
dream for a lot of people.
Um, he's easily probably one ofmy top three favorite comedians
of all time.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
So, uh, as as as funny as he was was as great as
a person as he was, he was greatto me.
He knew I wanted to learn he, Iwas a fan like anybody else.
Know, uh, I knew stir crazy.
I knew silver streak uh, liveon the sunset strip was coming
out, right, I think, as we beganshooting and I went to see it.
(09:35):
Um, but he opened himself up tome because that was my
personality.
I was inquisitive, I askedquestions, I was fun, you know,
maybe some of it had to do withthe fact that he and I were
supposed to have a good rapportin the film, but at the same
time, your personality has toclick, you know, with the other
(09:59):
person and ours clicked.
You know, we talked many, manythings beside movie making.
Yeah, you know life, and wetalked about, you know, old
hollywood and we talked aboutcomedy and I mean, he taught me
about timing and being astoryteller and you know he, he
was, you know, by far thebiggest influence on me in, in
(10:24):
how I am and how I live my life,other than, you know, I don't,
I'm not the crazy drug guy orwhatever, but that's probably
because of him right, you know.
I mean I'm 14 years old and hewas like before we finished the
film and he's like hey, you know, you gotta have a lot of
questions about things in yourlife, just just call me.
I've done everything.
Just just ask, you know.
And I had his phone number andthen I did call him several
(10:45):
times and he always talked to meand we we had a good rapport
from the day I met him until theday he passed that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
So, uh, you were able to learn a lot from him.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Tons can't pay for that cannot pay for that
education that I got well fromboth of them.
Yeah, you know I got a lot fromprior, but I got stuff from
gleason too.
I mean, you know, we we talkedabout different things again,
not necessarily the movie itself.
You know, he taught me how toshoot pool.
I was I well, number one is I'ma smoky and a bandit junkie.
(11:14):
I love the honeymooners and Ilove the hustler.
So one day, uh, we were shootingthe party scene and uh, we're
on the motorcycle and all thatstuff.
We had a lot of downtime andhe's like kid you ever shoot
pool?
No, come on, I'll show you howto do it.
And he took me in the room withwhat they call an apple box,
(11:35):
like a box they have apples in,right, he took me in there,
taught me how to shoot pool, andit wasn't a one time thing.
We went in there seven, eight,ten times.
But I mean the knowledge thathe had and he was willing to
share because I was willing toask the questions.
How many 13, 14-year-old kidsare going to ask him about
(11:56):
George M Cohan and Al Jolson?
Not a lot, not a lot.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
That's cool.
Well, I mean, that's a greatstory.
Like to be able to tell peopleyou learned how to play pool
from jackie gleason.
Oh yeah, like I couldn'timagine.
Um, yeah, that'd be so cool.
Um, how long did it take youguys to shoot that movie?
Four months, four months,mm-hmm, not bad.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It would have been a little bit less.
Richard had to go into thehospital for a couple of weeks
with exhaustion.
It was the first big film hehad done, after you know,
burning himself up, and so wehad a couple of weeks of him not
being there and we ended upshooting a lot more of the party
scene than you really see inthe end result of the film.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Okay, Was that you actually riding the dirt bike in
that scene?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Both, both.
They taught me how to ride aYamaha 60.
Nice, so I did get to ride thebike and I was riding the cars
and all that stuff, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
It looked like you on it when they were seeing shots
of it, but you never know.
Some of it, yes, some of it, no, right.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
That's cool.
Yeah, I was talking to somebodyelse not that long ago and they
said, did you actually throwthe pie into Fancy's face or
whatever?
And I said, yeah, actually,what was that like pie into
fancy's face or whatever?
And I said, yeah, actually, youknow, because they did it.
Well, they did it with thestunt man, you know.
They did it with my double umbobby porter is his name, he was
(13:34):
.
He goes all the way back likeplanet of the apes, you know,
with heston um and they, youknow, but they only had far
shots and they wanted to do somecloser shots and they were like
, can you do this?
I said, sure, you know.
So we kind of rehearsed itwithout the pie.
You know, I just had one handoff the bar and one hand on the
handlebar, you know, and they'relike, okay, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
So we did it, it worked, that's cool, uh any
crazy stories from the set oh,just fun stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
You know, prior, just , there was no filter on anybody
.
This is a different time andera when we shot this.
You know right, like I said,there's no pc, there's no
worrying about nothing, gleasonsmoking chain smoking.
I mean, I smoke, you know, andI blame it on him because I sat
there at 13, 14 years old.
I just he would sit me on hislap and I'd be right there and
(14:26):
he would be smoking chainsmoking.
You know, can't do that now?
Yeah, definitely frowned uponnowadays, uh you know, prior
telling me, you know what womenhe wanted to be with and who he
enjoyed, and all that.
And I didn't know, mostly, whatthe hell he was saying.
I mean, I was two years frompuberty, a year and a half from
puberty, whatever.
And he's telling me, oh, thisand I'm going, oh, that sounds
(14:47):
good, yeah, it sounds good.
I don't know what the hell hewas saying, but it was.
It was great, it was aneducation.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Right, no one better to learn it from than prior,
though, oh no, there was nobodylike him.
Yeah, that's that's crazy.
That's that's crazy, that'sthat's cool that you were able
to work with him and, uh,gleason, I bet they were amazing
on set and just fun to be withagain.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
You know two totally different personalities right
now.
Uh, although the one thing theydid have in common was when
they were off the set, theywould either be in their trailer
, they'd be sitting in theirchairs and they would be quiet,
you know, just peaceful.
You know, Gleason would justkind of sit there and have a
cigarette and an iced tea andjust kind of chill out.
(15:33):
And Richard would sit there andhe'd be reading books and
underlining things andhighlighting things.
He was very studious, love tolearn, you know, which is sort
of again, that's something I gotfrom him, you know being, you
know, not really in school.
I was not an overly studiouskid in school.
I mean, if I carried a B minusC plus average, I was good.
(15:53):
You know, I was the same way.
But he he just shared enoughthings with me of how life to
live your live, to live yourlife.
You know, over the over thecourse of the years, that that
we were friends.
I was friends with him, youknow, from 82 until 2005.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Oh, really, up until his death.
Yeah, yeah.
So after the toy beforeChristmas story, you actually
did Kidco right, co right.
Yes, you filmed that, filmedfirst.
Yeah, yeah, um what was that?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
what was?
Speaker 1 (16:29):
that I never watched that movie.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I didn't see that see now, that's a movie to show
your kid yeah, I actually triedto look for it today because
it's on dvd.
It is out there on dvd, yeahI'll have to go look for it.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
But uh like I have a fire stick and I looked
everywhere for it and I couldn'tfind it.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, probably not.
So it probably runs in cyclesand right now it's not.
But, um, I mean it was.
It was a great learningexperience.
But it was one of those thingswhere the toy was coming out
toward the end of shooting ofKidco and I wanted to be able to
(17:08):
do publicity and anything elseand I was feeling I don't want
to say sowing my oats, becausethat's completely backwards I
felt really good about me andwhat I could do in my job and
even though I'd only done onemovie but it was a big movie and
mentally I was ready to tackledoing Kidco, you know, 10, 12
(17:34):
hours every day, 14 hoursSundays, whatever it was you
know for for eight weeks.
You know, they had a 10 weekshooting schedule and we knocked
it out in eight weeks, really,you know, which almost never
happens, you know right, I, I, Isat with the producer and the
director and I said, hey, twoproducers, deb, um frankie
(17:56):
blondes and um david niven jrand our director, and I said,
hey, we got to get this done.
They thought I was crazy, youknow right, I mean the fast
story.
Of course the fast story was Icalled the meeting which, hey,
we got to get this done.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
They thought I was crazy, right.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I mean the fast story , of course.
The fast story was I called themeeting, which is what happened
.
They all sat there and theythrew me out of the room at
first.
Then they called me back andthey were like, okay, you think
you can get this done faster,which never happens but okay,
what do you want to do first?
Never expecting me to say giveme the shooting schedule,
because I looked at it andthere's stuff we can move around
(18:27):
.
Why are we in the same placetwo weeks apart?
Let's just put it together,knock it out.
You know, which added a lot ofdaily work for me, you know, and
everybody else for that matter.
But they were like, okay,because they knew, if they got
(18:50):
it done eight days earlier, howmuch money they're saving, you
know.
So they let me go, they let medo what I, what I needed to do
to get done, what I needed toget done.
And we actually wrappedshooting kidco the day the toy
opened in the theaters.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Oh really yeah so you were able to make it oh yeah,
oh yeah, we made it.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
You know, it's one of those great, good and horrible
days december 10th, it was greatbecause, uh, we finished the
film kid co on december 10th.
It was good because the toyopened in the theaters on
december 10th.
And it wasn't good becauserichardryor passed away on
December 10th.
Oh yeah so.
(19:28):
But now, kidco, kidco, I had a.
I had a again a really goodtime.
I worked hard because I waspushing everybody else as much
as I was pushing myself to getit done when we needed to get it
done and it worked, and thatwas actually based on a true
(19:49):
story.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I read correct.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
The Cessna family.
The Cessna family.
Okay, what was?
Speaker 1 (19:56):
the backstory of it.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Well, it's Dickie Cessna and his three sisters,
nene, betty and June, and he wasa hustler.
He ran keno games in school, hedid bingo stuff, I mean you
know anything, to try and getmoney.
That's the kind of what thatwas the motivation he had as a
businessman, even as a youngster, and he started this.
He came up with the idea tostart the fertilizer company.
(20:19):
His father had a horse farm.
His father had a horse farm, sohe took the manure from the
horses with hay and oats and fedthem and combined it and made
it into fertilizer and hestarted servicing his community.
Even as a kid he was workingdeals and, of course, naturally
the person who, the guy in thetown who was already doing that,
(20:41):
was pissed and they notifiedthe authorities.
Hey, this guy, this kid, isdoing this with his sisters.
They don't have permits to doit.
So the state of californiastepped in and they took the
kids to court and while they didwin, the state won, but the
kids, more or less their lawyer,which was really dicky, who was
(21:03):
, you know, all 12, 13 years oldhe said fine, we'll plead
guilty, but we want our permitsso we can keep doing this.
He got his deal and they'remultimillionaires, nice Did you
get to meet them.
Yeah, yeah, they did come I didhave a couple of pictures with
them.
Yeah, I got them somewhere.
God, I haven't seen them inforever.
(21:23):
You know I haven't seen thepictures in forever, but you
know nice people yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Would you say that was your favorite movie?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
It's my most proud film because the amount of work
that I did and what I did Reallythe effort you put into it.
Yeah, yeah, I mean the most funwas the toy and the most cold
was a Christmas story.
You know I was right.
I mean I did it.
I worked six weeks.
I worked one day a week.
You know I I considered it likea working vacation, because
(21:55):
that's really what it was.
I had to do three hours ofschool in the in the morning,
and then I would eat lunch andthen the rest of the day was
mine.
So it was like a vacation forme.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Right.
So jumping into A ChristmasStory which, no, I'm not the
only one, but it is my favoriteChristmas movie of all time.
Thank you, I've loved thatmovie since I was a kid.
Christmas, when I was 13, mysister and brother-in-law got me
a BB gun because I wanted a BBgun from the movie.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Listen, I take a little bit of credit, a little
bit.
It's an ensemble film.
Bob Clark did an incredible jobcasting the film.
Everybody did good jobs andthat's due to Bob and know and
gene shepherd's writing.
I mean, really that's what thatis.
Melinda dylan was great anddarryl mcgavin was great.
(22:53):
The kids are great, you know.
It was just great casting, eventhe teacher, miss shield.
So I still love the death.
She's still my friend.
Um, she was fantastic.
You know everybody, just they.
They did a great job whichturns into a great film right
and uh.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Most of the actors weren't even big name big names
in the industry now, melindadylan is the biggest name in the
film.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
She gets top credit because of close encounters, you
know.
You know, mm-hmm, you know,that's there you go, you know.
So I mean there's no big need.
You know, darren McGavin was acharacter actor, fantastic
character actor, but he reallywas.
I mean, yes, he was Kolchek theNight Stalker, you know, but
the more things that he did,like the Natural, you know,
(23:41):
robert Redford, he's a characteractor, he's a great supporting
actor, like Ned Beatty.
Same kind of thing, greatsupporting actors.
No special effects, no bigmovie stars, nothing that should
ever lead to it becoming towhat happened, other than the
material we had, the script wehad and bob clark's directing
(24:04):
and editing right and uh, mepersonally.
I think that's probably whatmade it so successful, you know
well, I mean, it sits on videofrom the, from you know the
beginning of 84, middle of 84,it sits on home video for 12
years, right?
you know, I think they showed iton on, you know, maybe the hbo
(24:27):
or whatever it was back then,showtime or cinemax, whatever it
was back then.
I know we had hbo I don'tremember what else we had um,
and it sat there but it had thisfan base that people loved this
thing and the vhs's.
They moved and people said, oh,you've seen this here.
Take my vhs copy here.
Go watch this.
You know, take the video, youknow um, I actually think I had
(24:49):
it on vhs too I have it on vhs,I have it on laser disc, I have
it on dvd or whatever blu-ray.
I got them all but I have theblu-ray now.
Yeah, I mean, it's again.
Fate lends a hand in certainthings in life and that's just
what happens.
Ted Turner was buying the MGMfilm library, or a big part of
(25:11):
it, for Turner classic movies,tbs, tnt and he had never seen
Christmas story.
Never saw it.
The story that I got fromsomebody at Turner was basically
his secretary said here, yougot to watch this.
And he handed him the VHS copy.
He watched it with Jane Fondain his office and said oh my God
(25:32):
, what a wonderful movie, right.
And then six months later theydecided to put it on.
As you know, a marathon Now.
They had tried it with Wizardof Oz the first year.
They did OK.
A marathon Now.
They had tried it with Wizardof Oz the first year.
They did okay.
Second year and that was theend of that.
It's a Wonderful Life.
The first year did okay.
The second year and that wasthe end of that.
They had so little into AChristmas Story, dollar wise,
(25:53):
they only paid $250,000 for thefilm.
Oh, really, yeah, it was justone of the films in the package.
That was the agreed upon pricefor any movie.
So he buys it and they knew ifthey run it one year, if they
run it the second year, they'realready in the profit.
Well, the first year it didgood.
In the second year the numberswent up.
All right, let's try it again.
Let's see what happens.
(26:14):
And the numbers go up and okay,and now it's.
You know, we're in the 20s,gonna be the 24th year of the
marathon.
You know, now it's it touches inthe vicinity of between 48 and
54 million homes every year inthe united states.
Sometime, during the marathon,they turn it on yeah because
(26:37):
people have christmas storyparties, I mean.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
It's just, there's all kinds of fun stuff people do
I, I love god, like I havesleep pants from the movie.
I've actually have a shirt thatI got down in Cleveland at the
museum.
I went down with me and mybuddy went to work tour down
there at a rock and roll hall offame and our last day there I
(27:01):
was like I'm in Cleveland man, Igot to check out the house.
It's like my favorite movie,Christmas movie.
I got to go.
So I actually bought a T-shirtthere of the scene of you
sticking your tongue to theflagpole.
Well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
I probably get a penny from out of that shirt or
something like that at the endof the day.
I don't know, not even a penny,so you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
End of the day, I don't know, not even a penny.
It's summer, so you're welcome,thank you.
But but yeah, I love that movie.
It's one of my favorite scenestoo is you get your tongue stuck
to the, to the flagpole acombination of things.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
The script says flick , sticks tongue to pole, that's
all that it says.
There's no written dialogue, no, so we, we get out there and
Bob and I had talked about it.
He's like listen, just do whatyou feel comfortable doing, just
do what you think would happen,just run with it, go, okay.
And I came up with all thatshtick and all that stuff that I
(27:56):
said and it was all me, youknow, and we did a couple times.
And then Bob says that was good, I like that, I, we did a
(28:26):
couple of times.
And then Bob says that was good, I like that, I like that, but
give me more, you know, just gooverboard, you know.
Ok, so I did it way overboard.
Now we cut the take.
He goes no, no, your way wasbetter, do.
It's just one little scene, butit kind of took on a life of
its own because bob just kind oflet me run, run with it and I
did and it worked right, it'sdefinitely a great scene yeah, I
mean there's.
There's tens of thousands ofmovies made every year all over
the world, you know, and they,and, as we say, they throw them
up on the wall and very fewstick, you know right, and of
(28:49):
the three films that I did atthat time, two of them stuck,
you know which is amazing so, umcoming off of uh, the toy and
kid co, did you, did youaudition for Flick or did you go
in as auditioning for Ralphie?
I didn't go in auditioning foranybody.
(29:10):
This was the easiest, greatestaudition in the history of
mankind.
It's December, I want to say itwas around the 20th.
It was just before Christmas.
My agent got the call.
The director wanted to see me.
He had just seen the toy in thetheaters.
He wanted to meet with me.
(29:32):
Okay, we go in, bob and I talkfor a few minutes.
He goes, and it was about 2.30in the afternoon he goes.
You know he looks at his watch.
You know I missed lunch.
You want to go downstairs andhave a hot dog watch.
You know I missed lunch.
You want to go downstairs andhave a hot dog?
You're asking a kid inmanhattan, does he want to have
a hot dog?
Of course let's go have a hotdog.
All right, we went downstairsme, him and my dad went
downstairs, had a hot dog.
(29:52):
We talked for a little bit,came back upstairs.
He says scott, was great tomeet you.
Thanks for coming in.
I said did you want me to readanything?
Nope, nope, you can do anything.
I'm not worried about that.
Okay, left.
My agent's office was sevenblocks away.
He walked up to her office.
I walked in.
She goes what did you do?
(30:13):
I said nothing.
She said no, no, what did youdo?
I said, well, I walked in, wetalked, we went and had a hot
dog.
We came back he said thanks,and that was it.
She goes.
Well, whatever you did, you didit right.
You got the movie, that was it,wow they just offered it to you
I basically left the office andbefore I mean we're talking, you
know seven, eight minute walkand he had already called and
(30:35):
got the film that's crazy, didthey?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
then?
Did they tell you what part itwas for?
Speaker 2 (30:42):
No.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Oh really.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
No, I mean, that's again one of those funny things.
They send me a script.
Okay, it doesn't say flick, itdoesn't say anything.
I did the lead in the toy.
I did the lead in Kidco.
I'm figuring I'm going to beRalphie.
So I study Ralphie for a month.
You know, over the holidays,going into the new year, I study
(31:09):
Ralphie.
We go up to Toronto to do youknow, wardrobe and you got to
put everything on, you knowwhatever.
And we have the read through,which is just everybody sitting
at a big table, you know, andyou just read your part and Bob
goes this is going to be so muchfun, this is going to be great.
Ok, peter, you're Ralphie Zach,you're Scott Farkas.
Yano, you're Grover Dill, scott, you're Flick RD, you're
Schwartz.
And I went in my head.
I went Flick.
Huh, I turned around, I lookedat my father.
(31:30):
He said Mommy.
So now I'm flipping through thescript and I counted the lines.
First thing I always did in thescript is I counted my lines
just to see how many I had.
I got 16 lines.
But I'm supposed to work forfive weeks.
So I grabbed a little postienote, wrote on it 16 lines, five
weeks vacation, yeah no.
(31:54):
And we ended up actuallyshooting the tongue on the flag
Tongue on the flagpole scene.
We actually shot it twice.
It was one of my first days ofshooting and about 10 days later
bob comes to me he says I gotgood news and bad news.
The good news is you're goingto be with us for an extra three
or four days.
The bad news is theyunderdeveloped the film we have
(32:17):
to go do.
They're shooting on 35 yeah,that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
So you had to redo the tape.
Oh yeah, redo the whole thingright.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Not just that one look, I mean the whole scene,
even from when, um, they lookdown from the school window when
I'm out there all by myself.
We have I, all of it.
We had to reshoot.
Really yeah, how many takes didthat take?
The first time was 12 and ahalf hours to do it, and the
second time we cut it down to 11and a half hours.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Oh, that's crazy.
I don't know if I could do it.
I hate the cold and I live inMichigan.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Oh, it was between 20 and 24 below zero.
That sounds horrible.
It was.
I mean.
You know, if you want thehonest answer, it was horrific.
You know, we had the old 40style leather gloves.
They were just leather, there'sno lining in them.
And we had the hand warmers.
(33:24):
You know, you just shake themup and you stick them in the
glove and they tape the glove,okay, fine.
Well, they're only good for 40minutes, 45 minutes, and we just
they couldn't always just stop.
So I mean, there were timeswhen it was an hour and a half
an hour, 45 minutes, of havingthat thing on and your hand is
basically frostbitten.
You know we had batteryoperated socks.
(33:44):
You know how to be, how to bewarm in the feet and in the legs
.
You know, and I mean I hadthree t-shirts on a sweater,
then then wardrobe, and you know, then the, the regular shirt
they wanted me to wear, and thenthe jacket.
Over that it was just, it wasbrutal.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
I bet Um did you like .
Did you guys think it'd be suchsuch a big hit?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
that it was no, I mean again it was low budget.
Yeah, it's low budget, it's not.
It wasn't ultra low budget, butit was lower budget.
The budget was it ended upbeing $4 million, or $4.5
million because Bob Clark gaveback his directing fee.
Million or four and a halfmillion because bob clark gave
back his directing fee.
He wanted five.
They wouldn't give it to himand he gave him back, you know,
(34:38):
most of his all directing fee toto actually get the budget for
the film.
Um, but no, I mean, you knowmyself, I didn't think about it.
Oh, it's going to be a big hit.
That's not not what you think.
You know, you're just doing amovie and you see what happens.
Right, you know.
So that's it.
You know what happened,happened, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Right.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
The marathon starts in 96, which is 13 years later,
and there's not a toy on theshelf until 2003.
It's seven years later that thereal merchandising of the film
started.
There were leg lamps beforethat, but they weren't Christmas
(35:19):
story leg lamps.
And then in 2003, that's whenthe marketing started, 20 years
after the film was made.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah, do you have one of those leg lamps?
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Oh, I got a leg lamp.
I got a lunchbox, Monopolyboards, action figures, party
favors, the plates and cups andnapkins and all this crap and
dominoes, and God, what else isit?
Band-aids, you know?
Whatever, the hell Listen, it'sall marketing.
You know the Hallmark ornaments.
Sometimes I have one sittinghere.
(35:53):
I don't think I do at themoment, no, but you know yeah, I
definitely want to get one ofthe leg lamps.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I don't know if my wife will let me put it up or
not, but okay, get one for yourdesk.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Just get a 20 inch and flop it on your desk I
should.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I do have a.
I have a shot glass of the leg,though, and a cookie cutter, so
I can make Christmas cookiesthere.
You go With them, and I got acouple drinking glasses too.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
So, yeah, definitely one of my favorite movies of all
time, so like getting to talkto you, is up there for me no,
thank you, and I I enjoyspeaking to you, know most
people, and especially somebodywho is almost from an area where
I have family.
You know I mean right, youstill know some of the things
(36:44):
that that are you have there andI know them because I've spent
time in the area.
You know the mike high cleanersand papa romanos it's good pizza
stage deli on orchard lake roadand you got uh, the franklin
racket club in south field thatI used to go to with my uncle
okay so I spent some time there,there's no question, people
(37:08):
really, uh, selma blair, youknow the actress, she's from the
area, you know, right.
And uh, we started chit-chatting.
I got a chance to meet her, westarted chit-chatting.
I said, you know, you'repractically, you know, you were
neighbors with my family, youknow, you look less than three
miles away, really.
I said, yeah, you know, and itwas like, uh, 12 mile and middle
(37:30):
belt.
She's like wait a minute, Iknow 12 mile and middle belt.
She's like wait a minute, Iknow 12 mile and middle belt.
And I said, yeah, I said theSouthfield towers, the apartment
tower.
She's like yeah, I said myuncle lived there for 20 years,
you know.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
He was like oh my God , we talked about the plaza deli
on Southfield road.
She's like how do you, how doyou know?
It's the same thing.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
so right, so, uh, so how much you.
You did quite a bit of moreacting after that, right, you
have more stuff on your belt,right?
Speaker 2 (38:02):
well, yeah, I mean I did more commercials and I did
abc uh uh, several uh abc uhafter school specials.
You know, tv movie of the weeks, stuff like that.
You know, okay, I movie of theweeks, stuff like that.
You know I started to hitpuberty and your face changes
and your voice changes and youknow it's tough to play 12 when
you sound 17.
(38:23):
You know, and I was always onthe short side so it was like I
had to play younger but I didn'tsound younger.
So you know, I mean, listen, ifI had finished Kidco and gone
out to California for a pilotseason TV pilot season I'm sure
I would have been on something,but that wasn't what was meant
(38:45):
to be.
My family didn't have the meansto do it and I don't really
mean the money, because theycould use my money to do it, but
who the hell is going to bethere with me?
You know, running me around.
So that's not what happens.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I went back to jersey and you just continue life okay
, um, from what I looked up, yougot involved in doing like
celebrity trading cards of somesort.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yeah, yeah I was always a a baseball card guy
since 1975.
Tops was my first packs that Iever opened and all that stuff.
And because, again, I had donemovies, so I had money and I
could do what I wanted, you know, as I got a little bit older.
So I bought cards, went to theNational Sports Card Convention,
started meeting people from allthe companies et cetera, et
(39:28):
cetera.
And I was out in California and, uh, I actually approached
upper deck, the card company,first, about doing a celebrity
line of trading cards, right,and they didn't get it.
They sort of got it, but theydidn't get it.
So they actually ended up doingum, it was for 2007, spectrum
(39:50):
baseball, and in there they had,uh, was, I think, like per case
?
You got like two celebrityautographs in a case or whatever
the hell it was, and maybe itwas one per box.
I don't remember exactly whatthe hell it was.
I have to look at a box again.
But then I was talking with thesalesman from the Donruss
company, donruss Trading Cards,and he's like listen, I love the
(40:13):
concept and I love the idea.
You have to put together apresentation, come to the trade
conference and do a presentation.
I think I can sell this to thecompany, I think it'd be great.
I went, I did, I said and thiswas not a dig at anybody,
(40:34):
anybody.
But this is kind of how Iexplained.
I said how many dan marino's,emmett smith's, tim raines, cal
ripken, jr autographs do youneed?
You're going to keep doing thesame thing every?
I said why not do somethingthat's not been done?
Movies, television, celebritieswhy not?
You know it's americana.
This is what this is little.
Did I know that the productwould end up being called
Americana?
But they're like you know, howmany celebrities do you know?
(40:57):
And I said anybody.
I get to almost anybody youknow.
You just pick up the phone, youknow are there.
Did I have friends that I couldget?
Instant, quick?
Yes, of course, and they askedme different people and who I
could get.
Okay, and at the end of thepresentation the CEO of the
company went absolutely got todo it, let's go.
And that started the line oftrading cards Americana, which
(41:21):
they did in 07, 08, 09.
I think it was 07, 08, 09.
And then we also did anotherline called Celebrity Cuts,
which was the higher end version, where they had bought like a
Marilyn Monroe dress and a JudyGarland dress and they put them
into trading cards.
But I got a lot of theautographs for the trading card
(41:42):
companies.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Are those still around, oh sure, oh yeah,
they're still being made andstuff.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
No, well, there's an offshoot Leaf Trading Card
Company out of texas.
Um, they do a line called popcentury, okay and uh, so they
still do the celebrity tradingcards.
And again, that was an offshoot.
And the guy that owned thecompany, you know, in the
beginning first thing was hey,scotty, you know, help me get in
(42:09):
with some of these people.
I got the money to do it, let'sgo.
And so I helped him and he'sbeen doing it now for a decade
or so.
Actually, I think it comes outthe new one for 2020, I think
comes out next month.
But you can still findeverything online somewhere,
whether it's Dave Adams, whichis a large card distribution
(42:32):
company they're out of Buffalo,new York.
Yeah, I think it's Dave andAdams card world.
You can find that through them,um, or you go to eBay, you know
, if you want to do that too,you know right?
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to keep a lookout
for some and, uh, buy some up.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Oh yeah, no, I mean I listen to blast.
I mean Buy some up?
Oh yeah, no, I mean listen, Ihad a blast.
I mean I've always been just akid from Jersey who got lucky
and did movies, okay fine, butat the end of the day, like you,
justin, I'm a fan.
So it's like you know, I metCarrie Fisher Great, okay.
So I knew the person thatrepresented her, so I called
(43:10):
them up this is what I'm doingCalled Carrie, absolutely, she'd
love to Great.
I go to her house.
I sat in her bedroom while shesat there and signed all the
autographs and I'm telling herwhat I need and all this kind of
stuff.
And I'm sitting there and I'mgoing oh my God, this is
Princess Leia, I'm sitting withPrincess Leia.
This is insane.
You know all the people fromMarried with Children.
(43:32):
I knew I was friends with them,so we created a four autograph
card with all four of them on it.
You know Ernest Borgnine, kurtRussell, goldie Hawn.
You know people that I.
You know I didn't know I wasgoing to meet them, but I did,
you know and I did it for thecompany and it's great because
it makes friendships and it'sit's great.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
Right, so um, I also read uh, you run a sports
memorabilia shop with your dad.
It's his I don't?
Speaker 2 (44:03):
that's.
That's very old news.
It's, I mean, it's his story.
I don't have anything to dowith it at this point, you know,
okay, but he's still my thinghe does.
Oh, he still has it.
He's been doing it since 87.
You know, 33 years.
All right, does the shop outtowards you guys in california?
(44:24):
Yeah, yeah, okay, simi valley,california, sports and movie
stuff 4 000 square feet, over amillion different items well, I
like to collect things, so I mayhave to look up that shop too.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Not online, no.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
My dad's 81 years old today.
Actually it's his birthday.
He's 81 today and he doesn't doanything online Can barely turn
on a computer.
He has a flip phone.
Wow, he does not have, you know, any kind of a smartphone of
any kind so that people say, oh,can you send me a picture of it
?
he can't right, that's just nothow he's built.
(44:59):
He's built for people to walkin the store.
You know, you call him on thephone.
Do you have a poster of this?
Or do you have a lobby card, ordo you have photos from and he
can describe him?
If you want it, you pay theprice, he ships it to you you
know, okay, well, maybe if Iever make it out to california,
I'll definitely it's a littlewarmer there's no question.
(45:19):
You know, in the right, thewinter months you want to come
to some place a little bitwarmer.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
It is, oh yeah, for sure so what are you up to
nowadays?
Speaker 2 (45:30):
uh, I mean, I still do stuff from time to time.
You know, even with the covid,I did a thing um called the
quarantine bunch.
That's on, uh, I think it's onyoutube.
You know, we did like seven,six or seven episodes and it's
got other child actors in it.
It's kind of all about beingquarantined and what was going
on.
You know, we were kind of justit's.
It was kind of like the bradybunch kind of thing, where you
(45:51):
can see us all and all thatGotcha and it's on YouTube.
Yeah, the Quarantine Bunch, itwas a fun thing with Keith
Coogan and Todd Bridges andAaron Murphy and oh God, judy
Norton, who was the voice ofJudy Jetson, melissa Disney, who
(46:12):
just did the voiceover stufflast year for the Academy Awards
.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
God, jeremy Miller from Growing Pains.
Okay, it was just a fun thingfor a bunch of people that were
friends just to do something,but I mean I'm working on other
stuff uh, to to possibly go intoproduction pretty soon, because
if we do it it's not going tobe in la.
We're not going to shoot here,so you go someplace where covet
(46:40):
is not nearly as bad, right youknow?
And you can do many, many morethings very cool.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Well, looking forward to that, definitely going to
have to watch the quarantinetapes you know, late February.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
uh, the guy that is doing this stuff for me, he's in
San Francisco.
They locked up man thebeginning of March and that was
(47:22):
it.
You know, Wow, so my book willbe out next September.
You know, I'm sure you'll besending me an email.
Hey, I want you to come on theshow.
I read your book, Okay.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Um probably will.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
So, uh, you know I do have a social media page.
People can follow me.
Scott Schwartz, actor, is my.
Is that page on Facebook?
Speaker 1 (47:42):
All right, perfect.
Well, scott, truly greatly.
I appreciate you coming on theshow.
Like I said, I'm a huge fan ofyours, love your, loved your
movies.
So it's no problem.
I appreciate you coming on theshow.
Like I said, I'm a huge fan ofyours, loved your movies.
Thank you, justin, no problem,it was a great honor being able
to talk to you today.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Listen, it was a pleasure Listen.
Just you and your family.
Stay safe, stay healthy, do theright things.
You know everybody.
I mean, realistically, that'sall we need to do.
Just don't be stupid.
Just don't be stupid.
Just do the right things youknow, and whatever that may be I
mean wearing a mask and allthis stuff there is no such
(48:23):
thing as the new normal.
That's BS.
We have to do it for a littleshort time while this thing is
really, you know, doing whatit's doing.
Sometime in the near future itwon't be here anymore, like SARS
and A1N1 and all the other crap.
Just hang in there.
Enjoy life every day, enjoyyour family, enjoy your friends.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
You know this ain't the end of the world.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
folks, We'll be fine.
Yeah, we'll get through it.
Oh yeah, it's not easy, trust me.
There are days, man, I'm usedto going and running, and my
(49:12):
friend I go over two, threenights a week and I put the
parmesan cheese in the littlecups for him.
Nice, that's what I do.
Yeah, now I'm definitelyoverqualified, but it's not a,
it's not like a real job.
I don't get paid, I'm not onthe payroll.
I want a couple slice of pizza,I want a you know chicken parm
or I want a salad.
(49:32):
I eat what I want, you know,but I help my friend out, right,
it gives me.
It gives me a purpose andsomething to do when there's
just no other purpose of doinganything.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Right now you know I am not much you can do.
Yeah, I'm going up to uh justnorth of minneapolis.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
I'm going up to just north of Minneapolis.
I'm going next month just for alittle card show thing and to
visit a friend Again somethingto do.
I'm going to go in Tennessee toa friend of mine's card shop.
Do an appearance there inOctober, where?
Speaker 1 (50:07):
in Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
Oh boy, I don't have it written down because that's
where I'm actually from.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
I was born and raised in Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
I'm doing one thing West Tennessee and I'm doing one
thing East Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
I'm from the Smoky Mountains, Pigeon Forge,
Gatlinburg.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Knoxville and what's Knoxville and what's near
Knoxville.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
Knoxville, Maryville, Seymour.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
What I'm doing, I think, east of there.
Knoxville is on the east sideof Tennessee, right, correct?
So I'm going to be east of that, like 50 miles, I think Doing
the Great Smoky Mountain ComicExpo.
Okay, you can look that up.
I think that's what is thegreat smoky mountain comic expo
I know what it is I'm doing thatuh cool in october.
(51:03):
And then the other guy has thecard shop or memorabilia store
in the western part of the state.
They're like 400 miles apart,you know yeah, yeah, west, west
tennessee's like memphis areaand all that, and then eastern
it's even it's even west of thatoh really it's far enough from
memphis that I'm not driving tojerry lawler's house to go and
(51:23):
say, hi, that's how far away itis okay, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
Um, maybe I can make it down for the Comic Expo.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Yeah, I believe it's the Great Smoky Mountain Expo,
If you find it.
If you can't find it for somereason, let me know, but I'm
pretty sure it's the Great SmokyMountain Comic Expo.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
Okay, Sounds good.
All right Again.
Thank you so much.
Had a great talk with you.
It's a very enjoyable for me.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
You got it, justin, listen.
Like I said, just do all theright things, you'll be fine.
Your family be good, stayhealthy and be well and we'll
talk sometime in the future.
Who knows, you may come overthe show.
Right Sounds good.
You got it.
Take care of yourself.
Speaker 1 (52:11):
You too, scott.
Thank you, you got it.
Bye bye, bye bye.
so we were talking the other day you said you had
family in michigan, right?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
yeah, I got family in uh west bloomfield.
Okay, they're not that far fromOrchard Lake and 15 Mile.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Okay, I know it very well my brother and I live on
West Bloomfield Stage Deli.
Yep, I know it.
Do you ever get out this way?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Not much anymore.
My uncle, who was there past,and his girlfriend.
She spent some time there,sometimes down in Florida.
My other sort of cousins bymarriage, but not really
whatever.
My uncle dated the woman for 40years.
It's what it was when it was.
(00:57):
So they're in Southfield andBeverly Hills.
I'm friends with the golds thatown the American jewelry and
the loan over on eight mile andGreenfield.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I used to watch the show.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Actually I got.
I have my, my star David.
I got there.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Oh really, yeah, they .
They have another shop over inPontiac too.
That's a fun place, right.
What have you been up to?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Nothing Like everybody else just getting up
and breathing every day.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Right, trying to make it through quarantine.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Well, we really don't have quarantine, but you know,
it's just, you can't go out.
You can go out to dinner, butyou got to sit outside, you know
, and it's not the same thing.
And you know, I mean, thank God, I mean I have enough friends
that are not what's the term Iwant to use overly crazy about
this thing.
Right, so it's like we go outyeah, I mean we sort of social
distance, you know, we sitacross from each other.
(01:49):
It's like, okay, fine, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah.
So at least I have a couple offriends places that I go over
and see them or they we meet upand see me.
So that it's not that.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, that's the thing.
If it would do that here, itwouldn't be that bad, but
they're not doing that.
You can't even eat inside, ohreally, yeah, no, there's no
eating inside at all.
Oh wow, I didn't know that.
And I'm not in LA County either.
Oh no, but it's a statewidething, right?
I mean, I feel the countiesthat are north of me, I mean
they have like 15 cases, fourcases.
(02:27):
They're under the samerestrictions and I'm like why,
what are you doing?
You know, but it's juststupidity run amok right now.
So you know, they do all thatstuff, but it's OK if you want
to go out and protest.
Really, seriously.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Right, there's really no difference, really.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Seriously Right, there's really no difference.
It makes no sense.
No, there is a big differencebetween sitting in a restaurant
with 15 people or standingoutside with 5,000.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, yeah, but yeah, it's crazy.
It's crazy times right now.
You betcha, so we'll jump intoit, okay.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So where did you grow up?
I grew up in central New Jersey.
We were about 45, 50 minutesfrom New York.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Okay.
So how'd you get your startinto acting?
Is it something you always?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
wanted to do.
No, no, no, I was attending afilm club with my dad.
It was really for older peopleto watch older movies, but I but
I was a fan, like my dad, offilm and whatever.
And one of the guys there saidlisten, I mean I knew him a
couple of years and he's likehey, you're, you're, you have a
good look.
I give very outgoing, I thinkyou'd be good at this.
So I ended up doing a uh youwho?
(03:40):
Chocolate drink commercial withYogi Berra.
It was my first commercial Idid down in Miami Beach for a
couple of days and then cameback and he's like you're great,
you got to keep doing this.
So he got me with a castingagent and then a couple of
regular agents and I signed withthem and we were off and
running.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
How was that working with Yogi?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
He was fun.
I mean, I was a kid, what?
What's gonna be mean to me?
No, of course not.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
right, an eight-year-old kid you know, and
I was a, yankee fan.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
You know I want to talk to him more about, you know
, mantle and lou gehrig than Idid about, you know, yogi
barrett right, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Um, so you got that.
Did you do other commercials,or was that the only commercial?
Oh no, I did.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I did over 100 commercials.
I did over 100 voiceovers.
I did oh no, I did over 100commercials.
I did over 100 voiceovers.
I mean I did all that stuff.
Then I did Off-Broadway, Then Idid Broadway and then I got
into the films later on.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Okay, so your first movie you did was the Toy.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
How was the experience on that movie?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Oh, priceless, as they say.
Right, you know, to be workingwith not only Jackie Gleason and
Richard Pryor but Ray Stark andRichard Donner and Ned Beatty
and you know, uh, wilfred HydeWhite, the Butler, and I mean
the cast, the crew, everybody itwas.
It was a dynamite experience.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, it's a bunch of heavy hitters in that movie, uh
, and I actually just oh god, atotal non-pc group of people,
which was great right, Iactually just re-watched the
movie today because it's been awhile, but uh, I watched it with
my son and, uh, he's fine, howold is?
he, he's, yeah, see, he's alittle bit young to kind of
(05:24):
understand it, but he couldunderstand the fun parts of it
the pinball machines and all thegames he loved your bedroom
yeah, he loved it and uh, yeahand uh, I told him, uh, because
I told him I was like I'm gonnabe interviewing uh the kid later
and he got like so excited hethought thought it was the
(05:45):
coolest thing, but he alsothought like it was still you as
a kid, of course, but he wasvery excited and uh, he's, he
liked the movie.
He sat there and watched itwith me, so that was good.
It's definitely a definitely agreat movie.
I mean, like I said, like acomed comedic genius Having a
bad hair day, Sorry buddy, oh,you're good.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I had to brush mine before I tried it, just doesn't
want to go today.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
No.
Yeah, it goes all right, we allhave bad hair days, though, so
what was the auditioning likefor that movie?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Eight or nine auditions I had.
I mean, the first one is whatthey call a cattle call, when
they just bring everybody in andthey take your polaroid and
then what's your name and youragent and how old are you?
Thanks for coming in.
That's literally all that itwas.
And this you go from 400 to 200to 100 to 50 to 12 and, and you
know, you read dialogue at somepoint.
And then I had a screen test inLA.
(06:49):
They flew me and my dad out toLos Angeles and did the screen
test and was lucky enough to getit Awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Did you get to audition with Richard Pryor and
Gleason?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
No, no, I was supposed to actually audition
with Richard, but he was stuckin Atlanta with divorce number
five, I believe four or five.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
And uh.
So I ended up actuallyauditioning with, uh, the the
thin jive guy from airplane noshit, it was Norman Gibbs.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, that's awesome.
How was that that I?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
ended up auditioning.
That was great.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
He was fun yeah, I bet seems like a fun guy.
Yeah, definitely great in themovie airplane.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
So I was hysterical.
I mean the whole thing it's.
I mean I always say it's partof the reason why I got the toy
was they wanted a kid who was aloose wheel.
They wanted somebody who couldbe fun and he brought out a
different part of my personalityjust by him being there,
because I was such a big fan ofthe film and we were doing jive
(07:54):
talk and all kinds of stuff andit, they saw that that I could
adjust to pretty much anythingright.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
So where did you guys actually film the toy?
Where was it filmed at?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Baton Rouge, louisiana, really.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah, all right Good location.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Oh, it was great down there.
I mean, those people weredynamite, Were they?
You know?
Oh, the Everybody from thenobodies who they just hired
that were locals to thesheriffbodies who they just
hired, that were locals to thesheriff's department, who was
they're actually in the film inthe police scene and the jail um
, they were all just really nicepeople.
(08:34):
I'm still friends with themreally.
Yeah, I'm still friends withthe guys that were the sheriffs
and the, the kid who was whatthey call my stand-in, which is
when they're doing lighting andstuff.
They don't want to have the,the actor, stand there, so they
have somebody else that theyhire and you know, just same
height and build, basicallyRight, and uh, yeah, he's a
(08:54):
teacher down there in in BatonRouge.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Oh good for him, yeah , yeah.
So uh, working with RichardPryor man uh, it's gotta be a
dream for a lot of people.
So, uh, working with RichardPryor man uh, it's gotta be a
dream for a lot of people.
Um, he's easily probably one ofmy top three favorite comedians
of all time.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
So, uh, as as as funny as he was was as great as
a person as he was, he was greatto me.
He knew I wanted to learn he, Iwas a fan like anybody else.
Know, uh, I knew stir crazy.
I knew silver streak uh, liveon the sunset strip was coming
out, right, I think, as we beganshooting and I went to see it.
(09:35):
Um, but he opened himself up tome because that was my
personality.
I was inquisitive, I askedquestions, I was fun, you know,
maybe some of it had to do withthe fact that he and I were
supposed to have a good rapportin the film, but at the same
time, your personality has toclick, you know, with the other
(09:59):
person and ours clicked.
You know, we talked many, manythings beside movie making.
Yeah, you know life, and wetalked about, you know, old
hollywood and we talked aboutcomedy and I mean, he taught me
about timing and being astoryteller and you know he, he
was, you know, by far thebiggest influence on me in, in
(10:24):
how I am and how I live my life,other than, you know, I don't,
I'm not the crazy drug guy orwhatever, but that's probably
because of him right, you know.
I mean I'm 14 years old and hewas like before we finished the
film and he's like hey, you know, you gotta have a lot of
questions about things in yourlife, just just call me.
I've done everything.
Just just ask, you know.
And I had his phone number andthen I did call him several
(10:45):
times and he always talked to meand we we had a good rapport
from the day I met him until theday he passed that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
So, uh, you were able to learn a lot from him.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Tons can't pay for that cannot pay for that
education that I got well fromboth of them.
Yeah, you know I got a lot fromprior, but I got stuff from
gleason too.
I mean, you know, we we talkedabout different things again,
not necessarily the movie itself.
You know, he taught me how toshoot pool.
I was I well, number one is I'ma smoky and a bandit junkie.
(11:14):
I love the honeymooners and Ilove the hustler.
So one day, uh, we were shootingthe party scene and uh, we're
on the motorcycle and all thatstuff.
We had a lot of downtime andhe's like kid you ever shoot
pool?
No, come on, I'll show you howto do it.
And he took me in the room withwhat they call an apple box,
(11:35):
like a box they have apples in,right, he took me in there,
taught me how to shoot pool, andit wasn't a one time thing.
We went in there seven, eight,ten times.
But I mean the knowledge thathe had and he was willing to
share because I was willing toask the questions.
How many 13, 14-year-old kidsare going to ask him about
(11:56):
George M Cohan and Al Jolson?
Not a lot, not a lot.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
That's cool.
Well, I mean, that's a greatstory.
Like to be able to tell peopleyou learned how to play pool
from jackie gleason.
Oh yeah, like I couldn'timagine.
Um, yeah, that'd be so cool.
Um, how long did it take youguys to shoot that movie?
Four months, four months,mm-hmm, not bad.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It would have been a little bit less.
Richard had to go into thehospital for a couple of weeks
with exhaustion.
It was the first big film hehad done, after you know,
burning himself up, and so wehad a couple of weeks of him not
being there and we ended upshooting a lot more of the party
scene than you really see inthe end result of the film.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Okay, Was that you actually riding the dirt bike in
that scene?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Both, both.
They taught me how to ride aYamaha 60.
Nice, so I did get to ride thebike and I was riding the cars
and all that stuff, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
It looked like you on it when they were seeing shots
of it, but you never know.
Some of it, yes, some of it, no, right.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
That's cool.
Yeah, I was talking to somebodyelse not that long ago and they
said, did you actually throwthe pie into Fancy's face or
whatever?
And I said, yeah, actually,what was that like pie into
fancy's face or whatever?
And I said, yeah, actually, youknow, because they did it.
Well, they did it with thestunt man, you know.
They did it with my double umbobby porter is his name, he was
(13:34):
.
He goes all the way back likeplanet of the apes, you know,
with heston um and they, youknow, but they only had far
shots and they wanted to do somecloser shots and they were like
, can you do this?
I said, sure, you know.
So we kind of rehearsed itwithout the pie.
You know, I just had one handoff the bar and one hand on the
handlebar, you know, and they'relike, okay, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
So we did it, it worked, that's cool, uh any
crazy stories from the set oh,just fun stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
You know, prior, just , there was no filter on anybody
.
This is a different time andera when we shot this.
You know right, like I said,there's no pc, there's no
worrying about nothing, gleasonsmoking chain smoking.
I mean, I smoke, you know, andI blame it on him because I sat
there at 13, 14 years old.
I just he would sit me on hislap and I'd be right there and
(14:26):
he would be smoking chainsmoking.
You know, can't do that now?
Yeah, definitely frowned uponnowadays, uh you know, prior
telling me, you know what womenhe wanted to be with and who he
enjoyed, and all that.
And I didn't know, mostly, whatthe hell he was saying.
I mean, I was two years frompuberty, a year and a half from
puberty, whatever.
And he's telling me, oh, thisand I'm going, oh, that sounds
(14:47):
good, yeah, it sounds good.
I don't know what the hell hewas saying, but it was.
It was great, it was aneducation.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Right, no one better to learn it from than prior,
though, oh no, there was nobodylike him.
Yeah, that's that's crazy.
That's that's crazy, that'sthat's cool that you were able
to work with him and, uh,gleason, I bet they were amazing
on set and just fun to be withagain.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
You know two totally different personalities right
now.
Uh, although the one thing theydid have in common was when
they were off the set, theywould either be in their trailer
, they'd be sitting in theirchairs and they would be quiet,
you know, just peaceful.
You know, Gleason would justkind of sit there and have a
cigarette and an iced tea andjust kind of chill out.
(15:33):
And Richard would sit there andhe'd be reading books and
underlining things andhighlighting things.
He was very studious, love tolearn, you know, which is sort
of again, that's something I gotfrom him, you know being, you
know, not really in school.
I was not an overly studiouskid in school.
I mean, if I carried a B minusC plus average, I was good.
(15:53):
You know, I was the same way.
But he he just shared enoughthings with me of how life to
live your live, to live yourlife.
You know, over the over thecourse of the years, that that
we were friends.
I was friends with him, youknow, from 82 until 2005.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Oh, really, up until his death.
Yeah, yeah.
So after the toy beforeChristmas story, you actually
did Kidco right, co right.
Yes, you filmed that, filmedfirst.
Yeah, yeah, um what was that?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
what was?
Speaker 1 (16:29):
that I never watched that movie.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I didn't see that see now, that's a movie to show
your kid yeah, I actually triedto look for it today because
it's on dvd.
It is out there on dvd, yeahI'll have to go look for it.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
But uh like I have a fire stick and I looked
everywhere for it and I couldn'tfind it.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, probably not.
So it probably runs in cyclesand right now it's not.
But, um, I mean it was.
It was a great learningexperience.
But it was one of those thingswhere the toy was coming out
toward the end of shooting ofKidco and I wanted to be able to
(17:08):
do publicity and anything elseand I was feeling I don't want
to say sowing my oats, becausethat's completely backwards I
felt really good about me andwhat I could do in my job and
even though I'd only done onemovie but it was a big movie and
mentally I was ready to tackledoing Kidco, you know, 10, 12
(17:34):
hours every day, 14 hoursSundays, whatever it was you
know for for eight weeks.
You know, they had a 10 weekshooting schedule and we knocked
it out in eight weeks, really,you know, which almost never
happens, you know right, I, I, Isat with the producer and the
director and I said, hey, twoproducers, deb, um frankie
(17:56):
blondes and um david niven jrand our director, and I said,
hey, we got to get this done.
They thought I was crazy, youknow right, I mean the fast
story.
Of course the fast story was Icalled the meeting which, hey,
we got to get this done.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
They thought I was crazy, right.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I mean the fast story , of course.
The fast story was I called themeeting, which is what happened
.
They all sat there and theythrew me out of the room at
first.
Then they called me back andthey were like, okay, you think
you can get this done faster,which never happens but okay,
what do you want to do first?
Never expecting me to say giveme the shooting schedule,
because I looked at it andthere's stuff we can move around
(18:27):
.
Why are we in the same placetwo weeks apart?
Let's just put it together,knock it out.
You know, which added a lot ofdaily work for me, you know, and
everybody else for that matter.
But they were like, okay,because they knew, if they got
(18:50):
it done eight days earlier, howmuch money they're saving, you
know.
So they let me go, they let medo what I, what I needed to do
to get done, what I needed toget done.
And we actually wrappedshooting kidco the day the toy
opened in the theaters.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Oh really yeah so you were able to make it oh yeah,
oh yeah, we made it.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
You know, it's one of those great, good and horrible
days december 10th, it was greatbecause, uh, we finished the
film kid co on december 10th.
It was good because the toyopened in the theaters on
december 10th.
And it wasn't good becauserichardryor passed away on
December 10th.
Oh yeah so.
(19:28):
But now, kidco, kidco, I had a.
I had a again a really goodtime.
I worked hard because I waspushing everybody else as much
as I was pushing myself to getit done when we needed to get it
done and it worked, and thatwas actually based on a true
(19:49):
story.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I read correct.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
The Cessna family.
The Cessna family.
Okay, what was?
Speaker 1 (19:56):
the backstory of it.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Well, it's Dickie Cessna and his three sisters,
nene, betty and June, and he wasa hustler.
He ran keno games in school, hedid bingo stuff, I mean you
know anything, to try and getmoney.
That's the kind of what thatwas the motivation he had as a
businessman, even as a youngster, and he started this.
He came up with the idea tostart the fertilizer company.
(20:19):
His father had a horse farm.
His father had a horse farm, sohe took the manure from the
horses with hay and oats and fedthem and combined it and made
it into fertilizer and hestarted servicing his community.
Even as a kid he was workingdeals and, of course, naturally
the person who, the guy in thetown who was already doing that,
(20:41):
was pissed and they notifiedthe authorities.
Hey, this guy, this kid, isdoing this with his sisters.
They don't have permits to doit.
So the state of californiastepped in and they took the
kids to court and while they didwin, the state won, but the
kids, more or less their lawyer,which was really dicky, who was
(21:03):
, you know, all 12, 13 years oldhe said fine, we'll plead
guilty, but we want our permitsso we can keep doing this.
He got his deal and they'remultimillionaires, nice Did you
get to meet them.
Yeah, yeah, they did come I didhave a couple of pictures with
them.
Yeah, I got them somewhere.
God, I haven't seen them inforever.
(21:23):
You know I haven't seen thepictures in forever, but you
know nice people yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Would you say that was your favorite movie?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
It's my most proud film because the amount of work
that I did and what I did Reallythe effort you put into it.
Yeah, yeah, I mean the most funwas the toy and the most cold
was a Christmas story.
You know I was right.
I mean I did it.
I worked six weeks.
I worked one day a week.
You know I I considered it likea working vacation, because
(21:55):
that's really what it was.
I had to do three hours ofschool in the in the morning,
and then I would eat lunch andthen the rest of the day was
mine.
So it was like a vacation forme.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Right.
So jumping into A ChristmasStory which, no, I'm not the
only one, but it is my favoriteChristmas movie of all time.
Thank you, I've loved thatmovie since I was a kid.
Christmas, when I was 13, mysister and brother-in-law got me
a BB gun because I wanted a BBgun from the movie.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Listen, I take a little bit of credit, a little
bit.
It's an ensemble film.
Bob Clark did an incredible jobcasting the film.
Everybody did good jobs andthat's due to Bob and know and
gene shepherd's writing.
I mean, really that's what thatis.
Melinda dylan was great anddarryl mcgavin was great.
(22:53):
The kids are great, you know.
It was just great casting, eventhe teacher, miss shield.
So I still love the death.
She's still my friend.
Um, she was fantastic.
You know everybody, just they.
They did a great job whichturns into a great film right
and uh.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Most of the actors weren't even big name big names
in the industry now, melindadylan is the biggest name in the
film.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
She gets top credit because of close encounters, you
know.
You know, mm-hmm, you know,that's there you go, you know.
So I mean there's no big need.
You know, darren McGavin was acharacter actor, fantastic
character actor, but he reallywas.
I mean, yes, he was Kolchek theNight Stalker, you know, but
the more things that he did,like the Natural, you know,
(23:41):
robert Redford, he's a characteractor, he's a great supporting
actor, like Ned Beatty.
Same kind of thing, greatsupporting actors.
No special effects, no bigmovie stars, nothing that should
ever lead to it becoming towhat happened, other than the
material we had, the script wehad and bob clark's directing
(24:04):
and editing right and uh, mepersonally.
I think that's probably whatmade it so successful, you know
well, I mean, it sits on videofrom the, from you know the
beginning of 84, middle of 84,it sits on home video for 12
years, right?
you know, I think they showed iton on, you know, maybe the hbo
(24:27):
or whatever it was back then,showtime or cinemax, whatever it
was back then.
I know we had hbo I don'tremember what else we had um,
and it sat there but it had thisfan base that people loved this
thing and the vhs's.
They moved and people said, oh,you've seen this here.
Take my vhs copy here.
Go watch this.
You know, take the video, youknow um, I actually think I had
(24:49):
it on vhs too I have it on vhs,I have it on laser disc, I have
it on dvd or whatever blu-ray.
I got them all but I have theblu-ray now.
Yeah, I mean, it's again.
Fate lends a hand in certainthings in life and that's just
what happens.
Ted Turner was buying the MGMfilm library, or a big part of
(25:11):
it, for Turner classic movies,tbs, tnt and he had never seen
Christmas story.
Never saw it.
The story that I got fromsomebody at Turner was basically
his secretary said here, yougot to watch this.
And he handed him the VHS copy.
He watched it with Jane Fondain his office and said oh my God
(25:32):
, what a wonderful movie, right.
And then six months later theydecided to put it on.
As you know, a marathon Now.
They had tried it with Wizardof Oz the first year.
They did OK.
A marathon Now.
They had tried it with Wizardof Oz the first year.
They did okay.
Second year and that was theend of that.
It's a Wonderful Life.
The first year did okay.
The second year and that wasthe end of that.
They had so little into AChristmas Story, dollar wise,
(25:53):
they only paid $250,000 for thefilm.
Oh, really, yeah, it was justone of the films in the package.
That was the agreed upon pricefor any movie.
So he buys it and they knew ifthey run it one year, if they
run it the second year, they'realready in the profit.
Well, the first year it didgood.
In the second year the numberswent up.
All right, let's try it again.
Let's see what happens.
(26:14):
And the numbers go up and okay,and now it's.
You know, we're in the 20s,gonna be the 24th year of the
marathon.
You know, now it's it touches inthe vicinity of between 48 and
54 million homes every year inthe united states.
Sometime, during the marathon,they turn it on yeah because
(26:37):
people have christmas storyparties, I mean.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
It's just, there's all kinds of fun stuff people do
I, I love god, like I havesleep pants from the movie.
I've actually have a shirt thatI got down in Cleveland at the
museum.
I went down with me and mybuddy went to work tour down
there at a rock and roll hall offame and our last day there I
(27:01):
was like I'm in Cleveland man, Igot to check out the house.
It's like my favorite movie,Christmas movie.
I got to go.
So I actually bought a T-shirtthere of the scene of you
sticking your tongue to theflagpole.
Well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
I probably get a penny from out of that shirt or
something like that at the endof the day.
I don't know, not even a penny,so you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
End of the day, I don't know, not even a penny.
It's summer, so you're welcome,thank you.
But but yeah, I love that movie.
It's one of my favorite scenestoo is you get your tongue stuck
to the, to the flagpole acombination of things.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
The script says flick , sticks tongue to pole, that's
all that it says.
There's no written dialogue, no, so we, we get out there and
Bob and I had talked about it.
He's like listen, just do whatyou feel comfortable doing, just
do what you think would happen,just run with it, go, okay.
And I came up with all thatshtick and all that stuff that I
(27:56):
said and it was all me, youknow, and we did a couple times.
And then Bob says that was good, I like that, I, we did a
(28:26):
couple of times.
And then Bob says that was good, I like that, I like that, but
give me more, you know, just gooverboard, you know.
Ok, so I did it way overboard.
Now we cut the take.
He goes no, no, your way wasbetter, do.
It's just one little scene, butit kind of took on a life of
its own because bob just kind oflet me run, run with it and I
did and it worked right, it'sdefinitely a great scene yeah, I
mean there's.
There's tens of thousands ofmovies made every year all over
the world, you know, and they,and, as we say, they throw them
up on the wall and very fewstick, you know right, and of
(28:49):
the three films that I did atthat time, two of them stuck,
you know which is amazing so, umcoming off of uh, the toy and
kid co, did you, did youaudition for Flick or did you go
in as auditioning for Ralphie?
I didn't go in auditioning foranybody.
(29:10):
This was the easiest, greatestaudition in the history of
mankind.
It's December, I want to say itwas around the 20th.
It was just before Christmas.
My agent got the call.
The director wanted to see me.
He had just seen the toy in thetheaters.
He wanted to meet with me.
(29:32):
Okay, we go in, bob and I talkfor a few minutes.
He goes, and it was about 2.30in the afternoon he goes.
You know he looks at his watch.
You know I missed lunch.
You want to go downstairs andhave a hot dog watch.
You know I missed lunch.
You want to go downstairs andhave a hot dog?
You're asking a kid inmanhattan, does he want to have
a hot dog?
Of course let's go have a hotdog.
All right, we went downstairsme, him and my dad went
downstairs, had a hot dog.
(29:52):
We talked for a little bit,came back upstairs.
He says scott, was great tomeet you.
Thanks for coming in.
I said did you want me to readanything?
Nope, nope, you can do anything.
I'm not worried about that.
Okay, left.
My agent's office was sevenblocks away.
He walked up to her office.
I walked in.
She goes what did you do?
(30:13):
I said nothing.
She said no, no, what did youdo?
I said, well, I walked in, wetalked, we went and had a hot
dog.
We came back he said thanks,and that was it.
She goes.
Well, whatever you did, you didit right.
You got the movie, that was it,wow they just offered it to you
I basically left the office andbefore I mean we're talking, you
know seven, eight minute walkand he had already called and
(30:35):
got the film that's crazy, didthey?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
then?
Did they tell you what part itwas for?
Speaker 2 (30:42):
No.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Oh really.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
No, I mean, that's again one of those funny things.
They send me a script.
Okay, it doesn't say flick, itdoesn't say anything.
I did the lead in the toy.
I did the lead in Kidco.
I'm figuring I'm going to beRalphie.
So I study Ralphie for a month.
You know, over the holidays,going into the new year, I study
(31:09):
Ralphie.
We go up to Toronto to do youknow, wardrobe and you got to
put everything on, you knowwhatever.
And we have the read through,which is just everybody sitting
at a big table, you know, andyou just read your part and Bob
goes this is going to be so muchfun, this is going to be great.
Ok, peter, you're Ralphie Zach,you're Scott Farkas.
Yano, you're Grover Dill, scott, you're Flick RD, you're
Schwartz.
And I went in my head.
I went Flick.
Huh, I turned around, I lookedat my father.
(31:30):
He said Mommy.
So now I'm flipping through thescript and I counted the lines.
First thing I always did in thescript is I counted my lines
just to see how many I had.
I got 16 lines.
But I'm supposed to work forfive weeks.
So I grabbed a little postienote, wrote on it 16 lines, five
weeks vacation, yeah no.
(31:54):
And we ended up actuallyshooting the tongue on the flag
Tongue on the flagpole scene.
We actually shot it twice.
It was one of my first days ofshooting and about 10 days later
bob comes to me he says I gotgood news and bad news.
The good news is you're goingto be with us for an extra three
or four days.
The bad news is theyunderdeveloped the film we have
(32:17):
to go do.
They're shooting on 35 yeah,that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
So you had to redo the tape.
Oh yeah, redo the whole thingright.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Not just that one look, I mean the whole scene,
even from when, um, they lookdown from the school window when
I'm out there all by myself.
We have I, all of it.
We had to reshoot.
Really yeah, how many takes didthat take?
The first time was 12 and ahalf hours to do it, and the
second time we cut it down to 11and a half hours.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Oh, that's crazy.
I don't know if I could do it.
I hate the cold and I live inMichigan.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Oh, it was between 20 and 24 below zero.
That sounds horrible.
It was.
I mean.
You know, if you want thehonest answer, it was horrific.
You know, we had the old 40style leather gloves.
They were just leather, there'sno lining in them.
And we had the hand warmers.
(33:24):
You know, you just shake themup and you stick them in the
glove and they tape the glove,okay, fine.
Well, they're only good for 40minutes, 45 minutes, and we just
they couldn't always just stop.
So I mean, there were timeswhen it was an hour and a half
an hour, 45 minutes, of havingthat thing on and your hand is
basically frostbitten.
You know we had batteryoperated socks.
(33:44):
You know how to be, how to bewarm in the feet and in the legs
.
You know, and I mean I hadthree t-shirts on a sweater,
then then wardrobe, and you know, then the, the regular shirt
they wanted me to wear, and thenthe jacket.
Over that it was just, it wasbrutal.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
I bet Um did you like .
Did you guys think it'd be suchsuch a big hit?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
that it was no, I mean again it was low budget.
Yeah, it's low budget, it's not.
It wasn't ultra low budget, butit was lower budget.
The budget was it ended upbeing $4 million, or $4.5
million because Bob Clark gaveback his directing fee.
Million or four and a halfmillion because bob clark gave
back his directing fee.
He wanted five.
They wouldn't give it to himand he gave him back, you know,
(34:38):
most of his all directing fee toto actually get the budget for
the film.
Um, but no, I mean, you knowmyself, I didn't think about it.
Oh, it's going to be a big hit.
That's not not what you think.
You know, you're just doing amovie and you see what happens.
Right, you know.
So that's it.
You know what happened,happened, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Right.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
The marathon starts in 96, which is 13 years later,
and there's not a toy on theshelf until 2003.
It's seven years later that thereal merchandising of the film
started.
There were leg lamps beforethat, but they weren't Christmas
(35:19):
story leg lamps.
And then in 2003, that's whenthe marketing started, 20 years
after the film was made.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah, do you have one of those leg lamps?
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Oh, I got a leg lamp.
I got a lunchbox, Monopolyboards, action figures, party
favors, the plates and cups andnapkins and all this crap and
dominoes, and God, what else isit?
Band-aids, you know?
Whatever, the hell Listen, it'sall marketing.
You know the Hallmark ornaments.
Sometimes I have one sittinghere.
(35:53):
I don't think I do at themoment, no, but you know yeah, I
definitely want to get one ofthe leg lamps.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I don't know if my wife will let me put it up or
not, but okay, get one for yourdesk.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Just get a 20 inch and flop it on your desk I
should.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I do have a.
I have a shot glass of the leg,though, and a cookie cutter, so
I can make Christmas cookiesthere.
You go With them, and I got acouple drinking glasses too.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
So, yeah, definitely one of my favorite movies of all
time, so like getting to talkto you, is up there for me no,
thank you, and I I enjoyspeaking to you, know most
people, and especially somebodywho is almost from an area where
I have family.
You know I mean right, youstill know some of the things
(36:44):
that that are you have there andI know them because I've spent
time in the area.
You know the mike high cleanersand papa romanos it's good pizza
stage deli on orchard lake roadand you got uh, the franklin
racket club in south field thatI used to go to with my uncle
okay so I spent some time there,there's no question, people
(37:08):
really, uh, selma blair, youknow the actress, she's from the
area, you know, right.
And uh, we started chit-chatting.
I got a chance to meet her, westarted chit-chatting.
I said, you know, you'repractically, you know, you were
neighbors with my family, youknow, you look less than three
miles away, really.
I said, yeah, you know, and itwas like, uh, 12 mile and middle
(37:30):
belt.
She's like wait a minute, Iknow 12 mile and middle belt.
She's like wait a minute, Iknow 12 mile and middle belt.
And I said, yeah, I said theSouthfield towers, the apartment
tower.
She's like yeah, I said myuncle lived there for 20 years,
you know.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
He was like oh my God , we talked about the plaza deli
on Southfield road.
She's like how do you, how doyou know?
It's the same thing.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
so right, so, uh, so how much you.
You did quite a bit of moreacting after that, right, you
have more stuff on your belt,right?
Speaker 2 (38:02):
well, yeah, I mean I did more commercials and I did
abc uh uh, several uh abc uhafter school specials.
You know, tv movie of the weeks, stuff like that.
You know, okay, I movie of theweeks, stuff like that.
You know I started to hitpuberty and your face changes
and your voice changes and youknow it's tough to play 12 when
you sound 17.
(38:23):
You know, and I was always onthe short side so it was like I
had to play younger but I didn'tsound younger.
So you know, I mean, listen, ifI had finished Kidco and gone
out to California for a pilotseason TV pilot season I'm sure
I would have been on something,but that wasn't what was meant
(38:45):
to be.
My family didn't have the meansto do it and I don't really
mean the money, because theycould use my money to do it, but
who the hell is going to bethere with me?
You know, running me around.
So that's not what happens.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I went back to jersey and you just continue life okay
, um, from what I looked up, yougot involved in doing like
celebrity trading cards of somesort.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yeah, yeah I was always a a baseball card guy
since 1975.
Tops was my first packs that Iever opened and all that stuff.
And because, again, I had donemovies, so I had money and I
could do what I wanted, you know, as I got a little bit older.
So I bought cards, went to theNational Sports Card Convention,
started meeting people from allthe companies et cetera, et
(39:28):
cetera.
And I was out in California and, uh, I actually approached
upper deck, the card company,first, about doing a celebrity
line of trading cards, right,and they didn't get it.
They sort of got it, but theydidn't get it.
So they actually ended up doingum, it was for 2007, spectrum
(39:50):
baseball, and in there they had,uh, was, I think, like per case
?
You got like two celebrityautographs in a case or whatever
the hell it was, and maybe itwas one per box.
I don't remember exactly whatthe hell it was.
I have to look at a box again.
But then I was talking with thesalesman from the Donruss
company, donruss Trading Cards,and he's like listen, I love the
(40:13):
concept and I love the idea.
You have to put together apresentation, come to the trade
conference and do a presentation.
I think I can sell this to thecompany, I think it'd be great.
I went, I did, I said and thiswas not a dig at anybody,
(40:34):
anybody.
But this is kind of how Iexplained.
I said how many dan marino's,emmett smith's, tim raines, cal
ripken, jr autographs do youneed?
You're going to keep doing thesame thing every?
I said why not do somethingthat's not been done?
Movies, television, celebritieswhy not?
You know it's americana.
This is what this is little.
Did I know that the productwould end up being called
Americana?
But they're like you know, howmany celebrities do you know?
(40:57):
And I said anybody.
I get to almost anybody youknow.
You just pick up the phone, youknow are there.
Did I have friends that I couldget?
Instant, quick?
Yes, of course, and they askedme different people and who I
could get.
Okay, and at the end of thepresentation the CEO of the
company went absolutely got todo it, let's go.
And that started the line oftrading cards Americana, which
(41:21):
they did in 07, 08, 09.
I think it was 07, 08, 09.
And then we also did anotherline called Celebrity Cuts,
which was the higher end version, where they had bought like a
Marilyn Monroe dress and a JudyGarland dress and they put them
into trading cards.
But I got a lot of theautographs for the trading card
(41:42):
companies.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Are those still around, oh sure, oh yeah,
they're still being made andstuff.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
No, well, there's an offshoot Leaf Trading Card
Company out of texas.
Um, they do a line called popcentury, okay and uh, so they
still do the celebrity tradingcards.
And again, that was an offshoot.
And the guy that owned thecompany, you know, in the
beginning first thing was hey,scotty, you know, help me get in
(42:09):
with some of these people.
I got the money to do it, let'sgo.
And so I helped him and he'sbeen doing it now for a decade
or so.
Actually, I think it comes outthe new one for 2020, I think
comes out next month.
But you can still findeverything online somewhere,
whether it's Dave Adams, whichis a large card distribution
(42:32):
company they're out of Buffalo,new York.
Yeah, I think it's Dave andAdams card world.
You can find that through them,um, or you go to eBay, you know
, if you want to do that too,you know right?
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to keep a lookout
for some and, uh, buy some up.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Oh yeah, no, I mean I listen to blast.
I mean Buy some up?
Oh yeah, no, I mean listen, Ihad a blast.
I mean I've always been just akid from Jersey who got lucky
and did movies, okay fine, butat the end of the day, like you,
justin, I'm a fan.
So it's like you know, I metCarrie Fisher Great, okay.
So I knew the person thatrepresented her, so I called
(43:10):
them up this is what I'm doingCalled Carrie, absolutely, she'd
love to Great.
I go to her house.
I sat in her bedroom while shesat there and signed all the
autographs and I'm telling herwhat I need and all this kind of
stuff.
And I'm sitting there and I'mgoing oh my God, this is
Princess Leia, I'm sitting withPrincess Leia.
This is insane.
You know all the people fromMarried with Children.
(43:32):
I knew I was friends with them,so we created a four autograph
card with all four of them on it.
You know Ernest Borgnine, kurtRussell, goldie Hawn.
You know people that I.
You know I didn't know I wasgoing to meet them, but I did,
you know and I did it for thecompany and it's great because
it makes friendships and it'sit's great.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
Right, so um, I also read uh, you run a sports
memorabilia shop with your dad.
It's his I don't?
Speaker 2 (44:03):
that's.
That's very old news.
It's, I mean, it's his story.
I don't have anything to dowith it at this point, you know,
okay, but he's still my thinghe does.
Oh, he still has it.
He's been doing it since 87.
You know, 33 years.
All right, does the shop outtowards you guys in california?
(44:24):
Yeah, yeah, okay, simi valley,california, sports and movie
stuff 4 000 square feet, over amillion different items well, I
like to collect things, so I mayhave to look up that shop too.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Not online, no.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
My dad's 81 years old today.
Actually it's his birthday.
He's 81 today and he doesn't doanything online Can barely turn
on a computer.
He has a flip phone.
Wow, he does not have, you know, any kind of a smartphone of
any kind so that people say, oh,can you send me a picture of it
?
he can't right, that's just nothow he's built.
(44:59):
He's built for people to walkin the store.
You know, you call him on thephone.
Do you have a poster of this?
Or do you have a lobby card, ordo you have photos from and he
can describe him?
If you want it, you pay theprice, he ships it to you you
know, okay, well, maybe if Iever make it out to california,
I'll definitely it's a littlewarmer there's no question.
(45:19):
You know, in the right, thewinter months you want to come
to some place a little bitwarmer.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
It is, oh yeah, for sure so what are you up to
nowadays?
Speaker 2 (45:30):
uh, I mean, I still do stuff from time to time.
You know, even with the covid,I did a thing um called the
quarantine bunch.
That's on, uh, I think it's onyoutube.
You know, we did like seven,six or seven episodes and it's
got other child actors in it.
It's kind of all about beingquarantined and what was going
on.
You know, we were kind of justit's.
It was kind of like the bradybunch kind of thing, where you
(45:51):
can see us all and all thatGotcha and it's on YouTube.
Yeah, the Quarantine Bunch, itwas a fun thing with Keith
Coogan and Todd Bridges andAaron Murphy and oh God, judy
Norton, who was the voice ofJudy Jetson, melissa Disney, who
(46:12):
just did the voiceover stufflast year for the Academy Awards
.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
God, jeremy Miller from Growing Pains.
Okay, it was just a fun thingfor a bunch of people that were
friends just to do something,but I mean I'm working on other
stuff uh, to to possibly go intoproduction pretty soon, because
if we do it it's not going tobe in la.
We're not going to shoot here,so you go someplace where covet
(46:40):
is not nearly as bad, right youknow?
And you can do many, many morethings very cool.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Well, looking forward to that, definitely going to
have to watch the quarantinetapes you know, late February.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
uh, the guy that is doing this stuff for me, he's in
San Francisco.
They locked up man thebeginning of March and that was
(47:22):
it.
You know, Wow, so my book willbe out next September.
You know, I'm sure you'll besending me an email.
Hey, I want you to come on theshow.
I read your book, Okay.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Um probably will.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
So, uh, you know I do have a social media page.
People can follow me.
Scott Schwartz, actor, is my.
Is that page on Facebook?
Speaker 1 (47:42):
All right, perfect.
Well, scott, truly greatly.
I appreciate you coming on theshow.
Like I said, I'm a huge fan ofyours, love your, loved your
movies.
So it's no problem.
I appreciate you coming on theshow.
Like I said, I'm a huge fan ofyours, loved your movies.
Thank you, justin, no problem,it was a great honor being able
to talk to you today.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Listen, it was a pleasure Listen.
Just you and your family.
Stay safe, stay healthy, do theright things.
You know everybody.
I mean, realistically, that'sall we need to do.
Just don't be stupid.
Just don't be stupid.
Just do the right things youknow, and whatever that may be I
mean wearing a mask and allthis stuff there is no such
(48:23):
thing as the new normal.
That's BS.
We have to do it for a littleshort time while this thing is
really, you know, doing whatit's doing.
Sometime in the near future itwon't be here anymore, like SARS
and A1N1 and all the other crap.
Just hang in there.
Enjoy life every day, enjoyyour family, enjoy your friends.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
You know this ain't the end of the world.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
folks, We'll be fine.
Yeah, we'll get through it.
Oh yeah, it's not easy, trust me.
There are days, man, I'm usedto going and running, and my
(49:12):
friend I go over two, threenights a week and I put the
parmesan cheese in the littlecups for him.
Nice, that's what I do.
Yeah, now I'm definitelyoverqualified, but it's not a,
it's not like a real job.
I don't get paid, I'm not onthe payroll.
I want a couple slice of pizza,I want a you know chicken parm
or I want a salad.
(49:32):
I eat what I want, you know,but I help my friend out, right,
it gives me.
It gives me a purpose andsomething to do when there's
just no other purpose of doinganything.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Right now you know I am not much you can do.
Yeah, I'm going up to uh justnorth of minneapolis.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
I'm going up to just north of Minneapolis.
I'm going next month just for alittle card show thing and to
visit a friend Again somethingto do.
I'm going to go in Tennessee toa friend of mine's card shop.
Do an appearance there inOctober, where?
Speaker 1 (50:07):
in Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
Oh boy, I don't have it written down because that's
where I'm actually from.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
I was born and raised in Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
I'm doing one thing West Tennessee and I'm doing one
thing East Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
I'm from the Smoky Mountains, Pigeon Forge,
Gatlinburg.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Knoxville and what's Knoxville and what's near
Knoxville.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
Knoxville, Maryville, Seymour.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
What I'm doing, I think, east of there.
Knoxville is on the east sideof Tennessee, right, correct?
So I'm going to be east of that, like 50 miles, I think Doing
the Great Smoky Mountain ComicExpo.
Okay, you can look that up.
I think that's what is thegreat smoky mountain comic expo
I know what it is I'm doing thatuh cool in october.
(51:03):
And then the other guy has thecard shop or memorabilia store
in the western part of the state.
They're like 400 miles apart,you know yeah, yeah, west, west
tennessee's like memphis areaand all that, and then eastern
it's even it's even west of thatoh really it's far enough from
memphis that I'm not driving tojerry lawler's house to go and
(51:23):
say, hi, that's how far away itis okay, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
Um, maybe I can make it down for the Comic Expo.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Yeah, I believe it's the Great Smoky Mountain Expo,
If you find it.
If you can't find it for somereason, let me know, but I'm
pretty sure it's the Great SmokyMountain Comic Expo.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
Okay, Sounds good.
All right Again.
Thank you so much.
Had a great talk with you.
It's a very enjoyable for me.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
You got it, justin, listen.
Like I said, just do all theright things, you'll be fine.
Your family be good, stayhealthy and be well and we'll
talk sometime in the future.
Who knows, you may come overthe show.
Right Sounds good.
You got it.
Take care of yourself.
Speaker 1 (52:11):
You too, scott.
Thank you, you got it.
Bye bye, bye bye.
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