Mother's Day Special with Ellen Travolta & Molly Allen - Episode 11 - Leslie's Lowedown on Life

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Leslie Low.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Welcome to Leslie's Lowdown on Life.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
And welcome everybody to Leslie's Lowdown on Live. And I'll
just start with Happy Mother's Day. And what better way
to start with two incredible women A great mother daughter duo,
I mean unbelievable. You guys are like superstars in this area.
So we've got the beautiful Molly Alan, which gosh, I've
known forever in her incredible mother, Ellen Travolta.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
You guys, thank you so much for being here today.

Speaker 5 (00:41):
Thank you, thank you for asking us.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
Oh my gosh, it is such an honor, it really is.

Speaker 5 (00:46):
I'm very honored to be here with my daughter. I
think she's a tops.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
You're right, she is the top.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
But I said a few minutes ago, apple doesn't fall
far from the tree you so.

Speaker 6 (00:56):
I may sing something, sure you would like that? Well,
you're the top anyway, Thank you very much for having.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Thank you so much for being here.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
And I am as nervous meeting you as I was
meeting your daughter years ago, just because she was so spectacular, right,
and she's such a huge presence.

Speaker 7 (01:17):
And really a bad attitude, not very nice, just so
I heard when I met you I said, you are
what you are?

Speaker 1 (01:26):
You? What are you doing?

Speaker 4 (01:28):
Why are you in my space?

Speaker 3 (01:31):
But I was I was super nervous to meet Molly
back in the day, just because she was so like,
she's Molly Yellen and yeah and now yeah Ellen Travolta.
I mean you might know the name Travolta. Of course
we know that Uncle John is Molly's uncle. But he's
your brother, my baby brother. He's your baby brother and
your big sister. You've got four siblings.

Speaker 6 (01:53):
There are six of us, Okay, I'm the oldest, and Sammy, Margaret, Annie,
Joey and Johnny.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
And how many are in the acting field?

Speaker 5 (02:03):
Everyone is in the industry.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
I love that.

Speaker 6 (02:05):
You know, my brother Sammy did a lot of location scout.
He worked in the office with John, but he worked
for John. One of the brother brother in law's. Anyone
that we're with, for the most part, is in the industry.
First a d You know, it goes right from in
front to behind the cameras.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
But this started years ago when you guys were kids.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Because I and tell me if I read this right,
but your mom was a huge theater buffalve the theater
and really encouraged you guys to be a part of it.

Speaker 6 (02:35):
My mother I remember telling her that my friend Cedric
was going to be a doctor and she said, well,
it's not as good as an actor.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
She was lovely, She really wasn't current.

Speaker 6 (02:48):
She didn't realize, you know, the difficulties of the business.
But she was an actor in her own right in
a I know, in a small town. We lived in Englewood,
New Jersey, which is right across the bridge from Mentan,
and my growing up was going to see her do
plays and having the cast over. So I was indoctrinated

(03:09):
very young into the theatrical world. But she had too
many children to pursue it, and when she was growing
up it was frowned upon.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Really, Yeah, isn't that interesting? So Okay, you're from Jersey.
Travolta though Italian.

Speaker 4 (03:27):
Right, Italian but part of Italy. Are you from Sicily?

Speaker 1 (03:31):
I love that. My family's from Colabria. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
So my maid name is Scalic or Scalisi. Yeah, and
they kind of settled in the Boston area and then
kind of, you know, filtered out from there, so Jersey.
You know a lot of Italians in Jersey and New York. Yes, yes, yes,
I love that. Okay, So tell me about what it
was like growing up in the Travolta home, because again,

(03:55):
everybody's in the industry.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
So how did you all get there and what drove you? Well?

Speaker 5 (04:02):
I started when I was about a year and a half.

Speaker 6 (04:05):
My first memory, I was in a playpen and I
was doing something and everybody reacted. Kidding, I do remember that,
But all my life I remember getting a lot of attention.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
I was an only child for four years. I was obnoxious.

Speaker 6 (04:23):
I was Ellen Marie and I ran out all adults
at me, and then came the babies. And I remember
my mother told me the day Sammy came home from
the hospital. I came home from school and he was
this thing, was on a couch, picked him up by
his feet, dangling, and said, what are we going to
do about this?

Speaker 4 (04:44):
And Sammy has never been right? I don't know, never
been anyway.

Speaker 6 (04:53):
You know, my grandma lived. This is old school of
the grandma's living with everybody. But I my mother wanted
me to be in show business.

Speaker 7 (05:02):
She really did, which is so rare because you wanted
anything but that for us. Yeah, I think I think
ignorance was bliss. I think that it was a different time,
first of all than when we were kids. But the romantic,
the romantic part of it, she wanted that for you.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
All.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
She know about the business absolutely.

Speaker 6 (05:23):
I went to Carnegie Mellon and uh what in my class,
and I had a lot of beemen going on to
do great things. Nobody's parents wanted them there except mine.
I was on a scholarship because we had no money,
so I had to go have a scholarship to get there.
So she was on her own track. She thought that
show business and acting was and I could sing, and

(05:46):
I could dance, and I have so many stories about
being young and being encouraged. But you know, it's interesting,
and we can have another talk about this at another time.
But it is sometimes when you are so encouraged and
there's so much expectation put on you, you get a little
afraid that you're gonna let people down.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
Yep, I understand that one.

Speaker 6 (06:07):
So being the oldest by the time Johnny came along,
she didn't care anymore. No one had any expectation on Johnny.

Speaker 7 (06:14):
You know.

Speaker 6 (06:16):
Anyway, in our house we were my mother read us
plays at nighttime before we went to bed. That we
got plays.

Speaker 5 (06:24):
She we went to see her in theater.

Speaker 6 (06:26):
My grandmother lived with us, so she had a lot
of freedom, and all the kids we would how we
played was we made up stories and we we had
shows all the time.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
I was going to ask you that were you one
of the families that because we used to do this.
You set up the stage in the backyard with a
you know, laundry line, and then you got the sheets
and then you open the curtains and see the whole thing.

Speaker 6 (06:47):
That we had that and we had my dad built
in our basement, built an area that had a curtain
come across, so it was like a real It wasn't
a rise, but it was a curtain that opened up
and we all played dress up. We played plays, and
everybody follow So I was the first one. And when
I got out of school, I started in New York.
I'm going to make this brief because you want to

(07:09):
go beyond anyway, I was the leader of the band.
So when I was the first one to ever make
money in the business. So I saw I was on
the road and this is you know, nineteen sixty one
ethel Merman Gypsy. I mean I was doing shows and
my father thought I was I made more money. I

(07:29):
think The most my father ever made was one hundred
and twenty five dollars a week. And if they changed
tires and the name of the business was Trouble to
Tire Exchange and if they changed tires, you got money
for doing that. And I think on the road I
got one hundred and seventy five. My father couldn't believe it.
He was I sent money home for dancing lessons. Doesn't

(07:50):
mean I was a millionaire. Yeah, you were the primarily, Yeah,
And then it went on and on and the others followed.
And I had different times of my life where I
was theater, then I became in television, then back to theater.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
And that was what I wanted to ask you, was like,
so how did it all start for you? What was
that first original gig that you got?

Speaker 1 (08:15):
Oh on TV?

Speaker 5 (08:16):
And I mean, well, I came out of country and
I started working. I did show.

Speaker 6 (08:21):
I did the role of Sharla Mala, which is way more. Yeah,
it's better to say than to do, you know. But
you know, the kids visited me, they came and I
just they all love they I did. I paid for
their dancing lessons. They're singing lessons. I sent money home

(08:41):
for shoes and and.

Speaker 5 (08:42):
Little my little. They all fell into and it was
all theater, Johnny. Everybody started in the theater.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
But you were with ethel Merman sixty one.

Speaker 7 (08:51):
So that was one of the big touring with ethel
Merman and Gipsy with a big deal.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
Yes, that is a thing that was going and doing
a Broadway show.

Speaker 6 (08:59):
That was a big deal. And then I came back
and did other shows. I just I mean, everything was
shows on the road, back home, travel back again. And
then I got married, and then later on when my
marriage ended, I went into television. My agent had moved
to la and I came in the heyday of Sidcom.

(09:22):
They wanted people with theater experience and I hadn't. I
hadn't worked in when you kids were a littless tenures.
I went back a few times and didn't show.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
So we're missing a big part. I don't all about me.
It's going to be about you, but also funny about you.

Speaker 7 (09:41):
So when we lived in Chicago when I was little,
and then my dad went on a photo shoot to
Wyoming and decided he wanted to be a cowboy. So
mom was an actress and he's running a nightclub. All
this suff he's a high fashion photographer. We moved to
the middle of nowhere, Wyoming. Well she adapts, She's now
going to direct and produce the pageant, the local.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
Right for the Miss America, for the Miss County.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Mister.

Speaker 7 (10:05):
Yeah, so in in Wyoming. And then then we moved
to Palm Springs. Sort of a happy medium because my
grandparents had property there. My dad could do ranching and photography,
and then she had You did funky Flippers. Weren't you
were a witch in a commercial that aired a lot
in Palm Springs.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
It's gonna air a lot. Yeah yeah, And we were.

Speaker 7 (10:24):
All in a Super Savers commercial, right, but they filmed
on our ranch. Yeah, So you did little things before
we went to La.

Speaker 5 (10:30):
My favorite thing was about Desert Hot Springs. Oh, I
got fifty dollars a week, and I would I gutsy,
I did a lot of I'd go to a corner
bar downtown in Desert Hot Springs and with the microphone
and a camera, and all of a sudden, I'd see
some guy and I thought, well.

Speaker 6 (10:47):
Wait a minute, he's not married to her. I know
them from Pta.

Speaker 5 (10:54):
I thought, we can't air this because this is going
to ruin a family so much, so very very careful
then and I did an interview with the Post Office
so boring. What do you ask? And I but I
did a minute.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
But I was created.

Speaker 6 (11:11):
Yes, if I was somewhere where there wasn't you know,
anything to do, I made it up.

Speaker 4 (11:16):
I just would.

Speaker 5 (11:17):
I just started it.

Speaker 4 (11:18):
I just do it.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
You were a creator before there were creators. Yeah, you
started this whole thing.

Speaker 5 (11:24):
Thanks Molly for the fill in you did.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
Yeah, that was good villain.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
I was wondering, was it a jump from Jersey to
New York to LA But no, there's a big chunk
in between Wyoming.

Speaker 5 (11:36):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (11:38):
I got married at twenty four or twenty five and
divorced at thirty seven, I think. And that's when my
television career. Everything before then was theater, and I would
get calls from people I went to Muni opera in
places that they had worked with me years before, and

(11:59):
then they call and take can you come back?

Speaker 5 (12:01):
So I would do it.

Speaker 6 (12:02):
Maybe it was ten years before when I go back
and I do the show because I was in that
age range where it didn't matter. Twenty five thirty five, right,
they all everybody looked the same. So then, but then
when my marriage broke up, that's when we went to
LA and my wonderful agent who has now passed, Marty Gage,
was the best age and he was in New York,
La London. So when he moved to LA and I

(12:27):
was then he right away and it was just I
never stopped because I was a new face.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
Well let's talk about that because happy days Joni loves
Chauci right Charles in church.

Speaker 6 (12:40):
But they were always Yeah, those were were but we started.
I did a lot of other ones, like what.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Was the one Monday at a time?

Speaker 4 (12:47):
No, those were guest shots. What was the other series
making it?

Speaker 5 (12:50):
Making it? Do you remember that?

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Making number in eighty six or number six?

Speaker 5 (12:54):
Number?

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Do?

Speaker 1 (12:56):
I get pilots? And it would be especially around Christmas time.

Speaker 7 (12:58):
I think this one's going to go, and it was
like it's going to be a big Christmas and then
they get the call it's canceled.

Speaker 6 (13:06):
I Marty Martin, it's everyone is talking about it.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
It's so good and he said, Booby, when they call
and they pick it up, that's when it's good. Yeah,
that's when it's a go.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
That's when you sell it.

Speaker 5 (13:18):
That's when you celebrate.

Speaker 4 (13:19):
So how did you.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
Juggle, Like, how did you do the balancing act? Because
it is a balancing act, so I want to know
from both of you, like how was that being a
mom and balancing, you know, doing all the shows and
going to Did you have to audition or did they.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
Know I had the audition?

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (13:36):
Yeah, but I did it while they went to school.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Okay, they did it.

Speaker 7 (13:40):
Especially when you were doing sitcoms. That was it was
almost our schedule. So we had like when we were
too young to stay home alone, we had somebody who
would meet us after school and spend like two hours
with us. And on tape night, somebody would stay with
us or we go to the taping. But it was
really similar. It wasn't like when somebody does an hour
long show where they have twelve or fourteen hour days.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
It was it was really it never felt like you
were gone there.

Speaker 6 (14:02):
No, I'd be home at four o'clock, yeah, four thirty,
which have done tape day.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Which is so nice.

Speaker 5 (14:08):
Yeah, it's the best in my opinion, it's the best
of all world, all of it.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (14:15):
Film, you know, if you do a low budget film
at least it moves along quickly. If you did a
big film, like like Johnny's big films. Oh you do
it two pages a day? You know where you when
you soap opera you do forty pages. I mean, you
know you're a move and along. Ye, you really are
so I I but I love sitcom because you had

(14:36):
a live audience. They let you know what was funny.
You know, they led you in the right direction. And
I just love that. And of course I would keep
going when they'd say cut stage, you keep going.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yeah, you don't stop it.

Speaker 6 (14:51):
You know you do it so I at first they
say Ellen, it's you're off, it's finished.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
We say, still see me.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
It was a live body.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
And she would feel like, yeah, you got to build
those spaces. You don't want any you know, silent spaces
out there, so you got to keep it going.

Speaker 4 (15:16):
So what was it like having all intervoltas your mom?

Speaker 7 (15:19):
It was fabulous, It was well it was I mean,
you know, there it's your mom. So you don't look
at them like I don't think of her as an
actress that she was just our mom and she was fun.
So it was always an adventure and even if a
show was getting canceled or whatever, it was always fun.
Now having other people how they thought about it being

(15:42):
my mom that was It was challenging to have John
Travolta and Ellen Travolta, and then my brother Tom, who
was the cutest kid in school and also an actor,
all of that, and then you're this chunky, little pimple
faced girl trying to make friends and you're thinking, do
they really want to be my friend or do they
want to So I sort of glommed onto my best
friend and then we were there all the time, and

(16:04):
my mom was our mom, and she was hilarious and
would make us laugh so hard. I always I gravitated
to my family because I didn't school was a tricky
to navigate when we moved to La especially our second house.
Everybody already knew and John was a giant star at
the time. He was at the top of his career,
and it was really difficult to navigate.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Somebody would then and Mom was on TV.

Speaker 7 (16:25):
So having a famous family in general is tricky, but
the rewards way outweigh the downside of it, because you
pick your close friends and then you just hang out
with your great family all the time, and so we did.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
So Mom made everything fun. It was fun. Everything was fun.

Speaker 6 (16:41):
Yeah, I didn't have babies to have to deal with them.
You know, I didn't work when my kids were little.

Speaker 5 (16:46):
What were you nine?

Speaker 6 (16:47):
And Thomas tells, yeah, so they were you know, they
were they they weren't alone. They weren't they weren't left alone.
I had to have someone in there. But it wasn't
like having a nanny. I never had a nanny or
a person that took care of them. I was always Yeah,
they are a.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
Couple of people. We tormented and they loved crying, but
mostly we all do that.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
Mostly didn't know I can't do it.

Speaker 6 (17:11):
Yeah, but tell Leslie and I always loved this at
because I was a single woman for a while till
I met Jack. But even after Jack, we they tell
him about how much you what you saw to my
brothers and sisters?

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Oh what I thought of me? What do you mean
that they were? What you had?

Speaker 4 (17:29):
How much your memories? Oh well, your.

Speaker 7 (17:31):
Family, Well, everybody kind of migraded to La So growing
up we had a lot of time with our aunts
and uncles, and I'd spend summers with my aunt and
uncle Margaret Jim in Chicago. And then Johnny was like
a I mean we didn't have his own kids, and
he was so close to Mom that when he was
in la he was at our house a lot, and
so he we he practiced on us before he had

(17:53):
his own kids, and so we were all very very close.
But the laughter, I mean, nobody asked me about grades.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
Ever.

Speaker 7 (17:59):
It was so, what does your teacher sound like? So
can you do a good imitation of your teacher?

Speaker 1 (18:05):
Is that good?

Speaker 7 (18:05):
And then and then and then friends and everybody. So
that was really our currency was could we make our
family laugh? Not how are your grades? I don't think
anybody and our family ever asked me how school was going.

Speaker 5 (18:17):
No, they probably didn't, which is I have a little
shame on that.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
A little bit.

Speaker 4 (18:21):
It worked out because I never you know.

Speaker 6 (18:23):
And all of our friends were in the business. Everybody
remembered Tom's don't you know, like a dentist. Anyone that
isn't they've played dentist.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
I mean, that's close enough the dentist.

Speaker 7 (18:35):
That was the other thing is that so I didn't
I wasn't interested in the film industry at all, and
partly because not because like Mom and Jack Bannon stepfather extraordinaire,
the late grade, they were very not show busy. Mom
was working because she needed to work. It wasn't about
it was like, what do I know how to do?
I gotta support my kids. I'm just going to go
to work. It was never a career that like she

(18:56):
had to sit and talk and oh, it wasn't this
call and this call. It was, yeah, I went to
the call anyway, what's for dinner? Who's having a birthday?
You want to go to the mall? It was very
that was a secondary thing for her. But they'd have
friends over and I Am not kidding you. I would
be like, if they don't stop talking about themselves in
their careers, I am going to scream. And it was
all that very inside Hollywood. Yeah, I had a call

(19:17):
back and this and that and dropping names and I'd
be like, and I'd lock out of the room. But
are nobody even john No, none of it. None of
us are like that. The whole family down.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
To earth.

Speaker 6 (19:32):
And yeah, Johnny is an exceptional He's.

Speaker 3 (19:38):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
When when you meet him, you expect.

Speaker 6 (19:41):
Movie stars to have a certain facadey, he doesn't have one.
He's just high and he's right there and you think
that there's no one else in the world but him
and you. He makes you feel that way. He's you know,
he's disarmingly simple down the movie start.

Speaker 7 (20:00):
And also he'll know more about you after your encounter
than you learned about him, because he'll really want to know.
He's like definitely interested in you know. He said, oh,
so you're Italian too, what kind of.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Food do you like? I mean, like he infantly would
just yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:15):
You know, that's that's what he's thinking.

Speaker 6 (20:17):
All everybody, we've just been together over the holidays, uh,
when we all went to Florida, brothers and sisters.

Speaker 5 (20:25):
And our children and their partners.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (20:29):
And then we want on another adventure that I don't
know we're talking.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
About that yet.

Speaker 7 (20:33):
We're not talking about the time this is aired. Oh
I'm just gonna have a family family project. That's talked
about it on our show. We talked about the whole
time we were gone.

Speaker 4 (20:47):
That's right, we did, yeah when I was with Dave. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
we're talking about right, you do know about that. Yeah.
But the thing that that.

Speaker 6 (20:59):
Is, I'll just I just want to say this about
it that he wrote a book thirty years ago called
One Way Night Propeller Jaunted Okay, about his life.

Speaker 5 (21:12):
Through eight year old eyes traveling.

Speaker 6 (21:14):
I'm not going to say any more than that about
it all we are all in and he wrote it.
He now thirty years later he wrote the screenplay. He
wrote it, produced it and directed it. Wow, and it
was just so quite an experience. It was a family
affair and we are we're at the TWA hotel.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Which is so cool.

Speaker 4 (21:36):
And it was like, let's have a drink.

Speaker 5 (21:38):
Oh, I got one more scene.

Speaker 4 (21:39):
Okay, when you're finished, have a drink.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Fun to go.

Speaker 7 (21:44):
And I was sitting in the van watching she had
to do a scene in a car, an old car,
fifties car seven. Her driving questionable. We have concerns, I know,
I know, And you say that nothing. We we have
you the body, I say, you think I love.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
I've seen things.

Speaker 7 (22:08):
When you drive behind her, it is it's harrowing and
and it's it's forty five on the highway, sixty through
the neighborhood like bizarrow time.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
So but anyway, my brother and I tease her a lot.

Speaker 7 (22:21):
And so now she's driving this vintage car and the
owner guy I mean there, and John's in a van
watching on the screen and I'm in the van with
him watching him give directions.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Now, so when I leave this, I leave to.

Speaker 7 (22:35):
Go get a drink because it's late and it's cold
and she's shooting.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
I find out after she had to drive the thing.

Speaker 7 (22:41):
Well, nobody consulted us on this, and she said, don't
tell my kids, don't tell them.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
Don't tell Molly.

Speaker 6 (22:46):
Time I'm driving, I'm going to be good. You pushed
it into gear rather than foot gear. But I learned
on a truck, I learned how to drive anything. But
but being directed over it was very funny because the
guy who's car it was and now we're pushing in
my ear, we're pushing the button in, we're letting the

(23:07):
foot off. Yeah, and now on the break, not once,
but and we were this is just pulling up to
park in a car. But they didn't think I'd ever
have to drive it, and when I did, everybody paniced it.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
How'd you do though?

Speaker 1 (23:25):
I did?

Speaker 4 (23:26):
Great?

Speaker 7 (23:26):
Okay, Well, yeah, the thing that weird So our whole
family's at the TWA hotel, which is really a place
you spend the night, and I'm obsessed with it. I
went on purpose. It was a bucket list thing years ago.
But now we're there for four or five nights. You
can't go anywhere, really, I mean you to get into
the city from JFK is a lot and there's nothing
around there, so we're just kind of there. But it
became so much fun because you're going to the gym.

(23:48):
You say, hey, Joey, Hey, Wendy, Hey, okay, I will
meet you dinner. O get Tommy. Are you gonna have dinner?
What are we gonna do? And it was like it
became our place. And there was this round bar in
the center and then a beautiful rest. So at the
end of the days we would show up, but we're
there all these times. Well, her scene doesn't happen until
the last last at nine am flight the next.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
Day and she it's cold.

Speaker 7 (24:13):
And she's out there and this you know thing, and
it was just the way it happened. But I felt
bad because we were all done, you know everybody else.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah the bar.

Speaker 6 (24:28):
For me my age to have the last shot of
the day. Yeah, I mean, and you know they say nine,
well it's nine thirty.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (24:34):
It was, yeah, but it was a tiny scene. It
was fine in the car and cold, but it was fun.
But we I looked and there were a bunch of
people having like ice cream in that area, and.

Speaker 5 (24:45):
Then there was some then there was a bar there
and another restaurant there. It's quite a place.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
But after you talking about it, I did all the searching.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
It looks amazing.

Speaker 4 (24:56):
It's really it's really fun.

Speaker 6 (24:57):
And then the pool is a hot tub. It's a
hot pool. And then you can watch the airplanes. If
we did that one day, we watched the airplanes land
and we could have you could eat up there and
everything too.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
That's amazing. Yeah, and it's in our room.

Speaker 7 (25:11):
Too, you know, it's Florida ceiling glass and quiet. So
I just sat there watching airplanes all day. And then
you take the shades down at night, and then of
course then because otherwise people can see end.

Speaker 6 (25:23):
And then it's the Connie Right constellation. There's a constellation
outside of the hotel. The you for cocktails. Warning if
you go there for cocktails. I was with a friend
and I looked to the girl and I said, well,
how many shots do you put in a cocktail?

Speaker 5 (25:40):
Should one? And my friend said I want to double?
And so I do too.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
One hundred dollars oh for two drinks.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
Oh oh, I thought you were going to say they
make them strong, but there's two huge.

Speaker 6 (25:54):
There's two shots in a drink right, I know about drinking.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
She taught me her handed down fairy.

Speaker 5 (26:03):
Well.

Speaker 7 (26:03):
She used to say she was going to send me
a drinking school because I wasn't really a drinker, so
sent me to drinking.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
That it took. It was one schooling that took.

Speaker 5 (26:12):
It took.

Speaker 7 (26:12):
But we know our cocktails. But see then I would
have the old fashions and they were eighteen dollars, which
was more manageable.

Speaker 4 (26:17):
But that was twenty one hund books for two drinks. Okay,
thank you for the heads up.

Speaker 6 (26:25):
But that yeah, that and it wasn't any I guess
inside you get the same. But I remember, I will
never forget that because it was so expenseful. Well we
were where were we in France? We were the hand
Film Festival at the.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Hotel the Cap you know, the famous.

Speaker 6 (26:40):
Hotel Calf And I said, tomow you know before John,
because he takes care of everything.

Speaker 5 (26:44):
I said, I'm going to buy you a drink right now.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
And you said, well we had do we have a champagne?

Speaker 1 (26:50):
We had Billini's selina or whatever.

Speaker 5 (26:52):
It was, ninety dollars for two, I said, and that will.

Speaker 4 (26:56):
Be the end.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
He said, You know what, second thought, John can come yes,
it'll be fine.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
I hope you enjoyed your one drink.

Speaker 7 (27:02):
That last time we went to the local story. As
the driver like, could you take us to a little story.
We bought some wine and stuff to put in our
RL thousand. It was probably two thousand dollars a night room.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
I don't know. It's that famous place.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
You know that.

Speaker 6 (27:16):
Yeah, but you know, no matter what people I think,
you go back to your whatever you were raised and
we didn't have anything. I always think as a wage journey,
I always think of my daddy's pocketbook.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
It just that's how I think. So all I can
think Daddy could never afford.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
This for two martinis.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
Yeah, my gosh, this whole sur for a week.

Speaker 5 (27:41):
He's only got twenty five dollars.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
Left, which was good. I mean, it's good that you
think that way. I always think it is because you're
so successive and.

Speaker 6 (27:50):
Don't don't don't have expectations on other people's pocketbooks and
rights and places or shared. I just think it's it's
a good thing to be aware of.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
Yes, I want to know how exciting it was, though,
to watch your family work like you've got a part,
your daughter has a part, your son has a part yourn.

Speaker 4 (28:11):
There's the hindoor girl.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Were you on the day? No, we called in another day.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
She's got to get he's told her breath back in Florida.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
Oh well, we're going to put her back on. Maybe
when Dave's out of town. I'll got a good family on.

Speaker 4 (28:24):
That's a good idea.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
You should do a family show. Family and our family
is so hilarious.

Speaker 7 (28:30):
Joey is, He's and his wife Wendy, everybody, everyone's my
brother and I are doing our scene and and it
was with the main people and we're we played ticket takers.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
And I have one line.

Speaker 7 (28:43):
I think I did it for you. Oh se youre
an actress. And then Tommy says, good luck in Hollywood.
So that's our whole thing behind. You would have thought
with John and my mom, the way they were watching
and glowing and telling that we were doing, you know,
some sort of Broadway production of Hamlet or something that,
you know, it was like the pride and that's our family.

(29:04):
If we got out of bed the right way. There
was a minor celebration just because we were so wonderful.

Speaker 6 (29:11):
But see, but as someone said, and it is very true,
this was a documentary issue.

Speaker 5 (29:19):
In that so many of us.

Speaker 6 (29:22):
There's only a couple of people in the family that
were never in the industry or never performed, that were
in it but became extras.

Speaker 5 (29:30):
I think in that whole cast there are two people.

Speaker 6 (29:33):
He had to pick them up in Kansas City, picked
up an actor who played a pilot and a woman
actress who played a stewardess. Other than that extras holding
the bags. So if we screened that, it'll be, oh,
we'll never hear the show. But it was such a

(29:55):
it was compelling in that it was now documented and
that all the members of our family at this time
are participating in this to help and support John.

Speaker 7 (30:09):
And I think she said we all did a good
job too, and that was what he was happy with.
First of all, we were all nice, and everybody on
the set said, this is the nicest set we've ever
worked on, because we're all family and none of us
are going to be a holes.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
No, and.

Speaker 7 (30:23):
No. And he sets the tone, which is which is
humble and kind and and professional and prepared and all
of that and and fun and light, and so that
trickled all the way down.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
His daughter, isn't it too?

Speaker 7 (30:36):
And everybody isn't it, yes, everybody, but he set that
tone so we could really relax and have fun. And
then he was so good at he was so proud
of us and so good at telling us all, you know,
which it's kind of scary, it's intimidating. I don't do
film stuff usually. You know, it's and it's a big responsibility.

Speaker 4 (30:57):
It is a big responsibility.

Speaker 6 (30:59):
But you certainly and I've done lots of films, lots
of television over the years, and whoever is in charge,
the rest of the cast takes the tone from them.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
If he's a jerk, you gotta find all a lot
of jerks I could see that mean or testy or
that you know, have fits and everything.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
It'll just pass right, it does.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
It kind of feeds off and everybody'd be telling I think.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
That's it with any workplace.

Speaker 7 (31:28):
In this building so much because it trickles down everybody
who works here is it trickles down and they're all
happy and kind and it is like a family.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
It's like a family of that energy.

Speaker 5 (31:41):
Yeah, you know, it's a nice It makes it a
huge difference.

Speaker 4 (31:45):
So this had to start like from your parents then,
because that's a learned that's a learned trait to treat
people with respect and to be humble, especially to be
where you guys are, and I say all of you
as a family, what an incredible empire you guys have felt.
So that started from the bass right there.

Speaker 6 (32:02):
Well, I think that that is true. But you know,
one never knows how fame will treat how you reacted.

Speaker 5 (32:12):
John was baby.

Speaker 6 (32:14):
He was twenty two, yeah, twenty two when he did Cotter,
and then twenty three Grease or twenty I mean he
was under twenty five years old and at that point
the biggest star in the world.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
How did that feel when when John exploded the way
he did?

Speaker 1 (32:29):
How that feel?

Speaker 5 (32:30):
You know?

Speaker 1 (32:30):
I ain't his big sister. It came and here was
the thing. I remember.

Speaker 4 (32:34):
It was Saturday Night Fever.

Speaker 5 (32:36):
It was that summer, and we were going to go
see it. And I had heard the music on the
radio and didn't put it together at all, not at all.
I said, well, I know these songs, I said, I've
heard them together. Didn't realize then his nomination for an
Academy Award, but Grease blew it out of the water,
because then you had kids. I was just so proud

(32:58):
of him. He was my little brother.

Speaker 6 (33:00):
But you know, at some point if there's ever a
documentary done, I don't know how the boys felt.

Speaker 5 (33:06):
They love him, but I don't know. That's a different thing.
And he was the baby. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (33:12):
I know how I felt being the oldest girl.

Speaker 5 (33:15):
But what if I, you know what, I became a
John Travolta. I don't know where.

Speaker 6 (33:22):
Well, it depends on where you are in life, how
you feel about what you're doing with your life. All
those things come into play with how you reap. And
I'm very protective of him, but incredibly proud, but really
just kind.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
Of say this, what is just kind of happened like
you can't remember?

Speaker 4 (33:43):
Yeah, and that's the thing, and I don't remember before.

Speaker 7 (33:46):
But also he was I'm not going to say geeky
because that's not the way I called him cool, adjacent,
cool ad.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Jason, my friend. You guys were so mean, and I said, well,
here's cool.

Speaker 6 (34:00):
There.

Speaker 4 (34:02):
My brother Joey was cool. Yeah, Joey was whoa.

Speaker 5 (34:07):
He struck and he did. Tony just wandered in. But wow,
when you saw Hione screen, oh Mad, I thought, wow,
he had that thing he had that day he had
Cotter was funny, a little bit. But when he did
Saturday Night Fever and gre Holy.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Did you know he could dance like that? Who paid
for the last?

Speaker 4 (34:26):
So well, there we go, that's right, you did.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
Also moved.

Speaker 7 (34:30):
Also her best investment ever, she bought him his first
airplane ticket.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Ever, how much was it?

Speaker 6 (34:36):
Twenty five dollars round trip from Newark to Philly, twenty
minute flight, flew there, had a hot dog, and flew back. However,
when he goes all around the world talking about aviation,
he tells.

Speaker 4 (34:49):
That he tells us because I was the first one
to give him.

Speaker 5 (34:53):
Well this is cute. You don't know this, so I'll
tell you this. Molly knows it.

Speaker 6 (34:56):
He was three years old when I got on a
plane to go to Pittsburgh to audition for a Carnegie
Mellon And when I came back, I gave.

Speaker 7 (35:03):
Him the little the airplanes had a little what you
call it a oh Leslie used to be a flight attennans.

Speaker 4 (35:08):
Y know.

Speaker 6 (35:10):
The tickets, Oh yeah, okay? And I came home, I
gave him the You always had the receipt, so he
kept it.

Speaker 4 (35:17):
He kept it.

Speaker 5 (35:18):
Anyone that anyone in the family knew that flew.

Speaker 6 (35:22):
They gave those to John, and as he grew up,
my mother would take him downtown to the travel agency.

Speaker 5 (35:28):
And they'd give him that out of out of uh
the way.

Speaker 6 (35:32):
They weren't prominent anymore, big thick books where you major
flights from. So he had all his tickets and he
had this book and he would make flights up and
do all of this. So I was just coming home
from Gypsy. It was nineteen sixty one, and I thought,
you know, it's time John had a real trip. So
I said, I'm going to buy him ticket and we're

(35:55):
going to go. So I did that's I think it
was twenty five dollars for both of us. Anyway, when
he opened it, I could tell he thought it was
another one of the He said, oh thanks.

Speaker 5 (36:09):
I said, we're going.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
His little face, Oh my god.

Speaker 5 (36:15):
So the winter January nineteen sixty two, we got on
a plane and flew to Philadelphia and then flew back.
But the thing he mentioned then, I didn't realize it
well at that time. He said.

Speaker 6 (36:29):
When when that happened, it meant everything was possible. It
was tangible, if he could fly, that he could be
a pilot, that he could do anything that he.

Speaker 5 (36:39):
Wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
UD you know, that was amazing.

Speaker 6 (36:42):
That was and you know what always this is my
clothing line. He relies us all over the world. That
trip cost me twenty five dollars. It was the best
twenty five dollars investment I ever.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Made, I guess.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
And you guys all love to fly.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
Oh she's number one though, Yeah, she's his best plane friend.

Speaker 7 (37:03):
Yeah. I had all the schedules at home too. Sometimes
we just talk on the phone. I'd say, well, you know,
we could go too, if we wanted to go to
New York. Here, okay, twa, if we wanted to go
to New York, how would we go? I had all
the schedules as well. But when she was working so
much and he wanted us to travel, he wasn't married,
he didn't have kids. He would call and ask for
me or for my brother and myself, and so because

(37:24):
she couldn't go, she was working, and so she'd send us.
And so I spent hours and hours and hours on
airplanes with him. Back when he had smaller planes. You
had to land every three hours to get fuel, you know,
and everything in between.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
And then he named an airplane after me. You have
your own airplane. Not anymore.

Speaker 7 (37:41):
It was the Molly Clipper. For a while it was
the Hawker Sidley. It was a really beautiful plane. I
love the very eighties colors in it. It was like,
you know, the cream blue kind of colors. But when
I met Lisa Marie Presley, I thought it would be
fun to tell her that story because her father named
a plane after her, and that's why John did it

(38:01):
for me. And then when I told her that, she
didn't think that was interesting or funny, and she kind
of blew me off and I and it was witnessed
by Scarlett Johanson, who went, how'd that work out for
you anyway?

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Garlett talking about someone?

Speaker 6 (38:15):
Garlett Johansson's first time I met her, they were doing
a film, and I said, I said, have heard so
much about you? And she said, I haven't heard anything
about you, not a word, And it just took.

Speaker 5 (38:28):
Me so aback.

Speaker 4 (38:30):
She's got a great, very silly I've heard about Margaret,
but about you.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
She said, I heard I was going to love you.
I'm not so sure. I don't know. She goes, I
don't know.

Speaker 7 (38:44):
Yeah, but she did witness me tell that story too,
and it was so awkward and she just was laughing.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
Yeah. She at Lisa Marie is an acquired taste.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
I think he was.

Speaker 7 (38:54):
She was and she Johnny adored her though, I mean
they were they were very good friends. But but yeah,
that was one of our we had a lot of
He had a birthday party. It was his fiftieth birthday
party that Kelly threw for him, and there were more
celebrities than there were us. It was at a place
in Cabo, the One and Only Pomea Opening everywhere you turned,
like the while we were waiting for john It was

(39:16):
dan Nyackroyd and Robin Williams who were entertaining us in
the courtyard while we were waiting Oprah barbar stridsand and
Natalie Cole like every Tom, Tom Cruise, Sevester Stallone, Robin
Wright and Sean Pett like everywhere you turned.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
And then they were like.

Speaker 7 (39:37):
With it, just like it was just part of your world.
But once you start talking to them, it all just
seems fine. But you know, like I and Johnny's so
great too, because I really wanted to meet Tom Cruise
because I love top Gun. And he made it a
point he said, and he now this is my niece
and and and then it was like underwhelm. Yeah, he

(39:58):
was nice, but then no, then what's well, I made
this big deal?

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Now what?

Speaker 1 (40:02):
And I smiled and he smiled and I said, okay, okay, hi, okay,
where are you going? Thank you for that.

Speaker 6 (40:08):
But some people are just more comfortable. There's Barberoustreisen. The
night of that party, she sang happy birthday. Do you remember,
like Meril Monroe saying it years ago? So I went
over and I said, I said, you just I said
it was lovely.

Speaker 5 (40:23):
You sounded I was off key.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (40:25):
I didn't. It didn't sound right to me. I just
felt so odd it didn't.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
And you were like an hour later again, I said,
I'm not kidding about that time. I wasn't.

Speaker 5 (40:36):
I wasn't in good I wasn't in good voice.

Speaker 4 (40:37):
I don't know what it was, but I wasn't doing
it the way I wanted it to do.

Speaker 5 (40:41):
She would not accept it, she would.

Speaker 4 (40:43):
Not take that compliment.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
She wouldn't do She was self critical of herself, which
is amazing to me because you would think, yeah, she
terribly insecure.

Speaker 6 (40:53):
Yeah, someone I asked me about I have a story
about my mother that I loved. When because I told you,
we didn't have very much money. And I was in
junior high and I wanted a new dress to wear
to a dance. And I said, Mom, do you think
I could have a new dress with your personality?

Speaker 4 (41:08):
You don't need one.

Speaker 6 (41:10):
She said, you just put a little flower here, you
dress it up, you dress it down. I believe that
no one ever said that to Jane Fonda.

Speaker 4 (41:18):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (41:18):
She never was encouraged. All of her face work, everything
was out of self doubt. She would tell you that
if she was sitting here.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
That's I mean.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
I never was pretty enough, never was in good shape enough.

Speaker 4 (41:31):
Always had to do more, had to do more, had
to do more.

Speaker 3 (41:34):
It's so interesting when you really step back and look
at that, because you think that Jane Fonda is Jane
Fonda has everything in the world beautiful, but then she
has something like.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
The rest of us.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
Right.

Speaker 6 (41:46):
Yeah, that's an addiction, because she would she wished that
she could just have gracefully gotten older.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
Yeah, but it wasn't. It just made her too miserable.
It's too hard, it was too much hard hand.

Speaker 5 (41:58):
She couldn't handle it.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
It's her identity. Yeah, it was how she looked.

Speaker 3 (42:01):
Everything was about that. You guys have the most beautiful relationship.
Has it always been like this?

Speaker 7 (42:10):
I would say between ten and a half and twelve
it was iffy, and then between like nineteen twenty twenty
one it was my really when I was making my
worst boyd decisions, there was a point when I but
but mostly, yes, mostly it's been great.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
But you know, you test boundaries and stuff.

Speaker 6 (42:30):
Absolutely, and I don't think there's ever a point with well,
I don't know with a teenage girl or Tina that
you don't kind of question choices a little bit.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
You know.

Speaker 7 (42:39):
That's that I think the teenager about, you know, I mean,
you gotta make bad decisions.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
Yeah, but no, I think we've I'm I'm glad that jo.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
I remember one day.

Speaker 4 (42:50):
Molly said to me, I'm so glad you didn't die
when I was nineteen.

Speaker 5 (42:53):
I don't like you that much.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
It would have been a shame.

Speaker 7 (42:56):
I would have missed all these great years right and
what did get true and all the gifts.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
That was the thing.

Speaker 5 (43:02):
It was.

Speaker 7 (43:02):
She would want me stay home from school, She say,
you have to go to school today. If she wasn't working,
and I'd say, well, I don't know, she'd say, we'll
go to the mall.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
By a treat, and so I would just miss school.

Speaker 7 (43:15):
You were like, no, let's say, really, I got to
stay home for Luke and Laura's wedding, oh, which we
didn't know enough about soup propers then to know that
they were going to hold the Friday over to Monday.
There was no way that the so then I had
to stay home Monday too.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
You would have her quarters.

Speaker 5 (43:30):
Back then, it was a.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Long weekend of being sick.

Speaker 7 (43:32):
Yeah, right, very ill. Yeah, it was unconventional, but we've
always had fun. And then when I was younger and well,
when Stacey and I were my best friend, I really
didn't have a lot of friends, but I had really
good close friends and we were at the house all
the time. I mean we that's where we hung out,
that we wanted to be with mom and Jack. And
then she would say, I love you girls, but I'm

(43:52):
not taking you to the mall today. And then we'd say, well,
isn't that cute. You tried to say no. You heard
yourself say no, and you practice that yes, and now
can we just please go to the mall?

Speaker 1 (44:02):
And then she'd go get her keys and we go.

Speaker 4 (44:06):
Good for you.

Speaker 5 (44:07):
The word I remember the first one I said no
to Mollie and she said, you're kidding.

Speaker 4 (44:14):
I just wanted to hear yourself say that, right.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
For you?

Speaker 1 (44:20):
Good job?

Speaker 4 (44:21):
What is the what is the most important lesson you've
learned from your mom? What is the best thing that
you've learned from your mom?

Speaker 7 (44:29):
Gosh, I don't listen to her very often, start to
say she calls me impetuous because I do whatever I
want all the time. I'd see being positive, keep going.
I think my mom and air machines. I think that
we keep plowing through and it's not Our life is
not without trauma or drama. Not trauma, drama and you know,

(44:53):
challenging people around us. But I think for the most part,
the two of us, we just keep moving. We talked
to each other, we complain to each other, we talk
about it, and then we just keep going. And I
learned that lesson first. I learned always I was always
going to support myself. And even though I've been married
three times, you'd think I would have married to have
the supported.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
But I supported them. I didn't.

Speaker 7 (45:14):
But but I mean I always knew I was going
to support myself. That was a really important thing. I
never thought of that somebody else would take care of me,
so to be independent. And you've taught me good money skills.
I mean, I think investing and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
And then just.

Speaker 7 (45:30):
I just think moving forward. You just we don't dwell
on a lot. We forgive and forget. We don't hold
grudges never. I mean we say we're I'm telling them
this and this, and then well you know, they did
come back in a while.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
So we're very quick too, which I think is healthy.

Speaker 7 (45:47):
Actually we can take an advantage of but I think
it's better, it's healthier.

Speaker 6 (45:52):
Yeah, I think we're both humanitarians. Will obviously with your
five O one C three and everything that you do,
I think that's very I think it's important to think
about community and what.

Speaker 5 (46:03):
You do and and the support system that helps you
get done what you need to get done.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
With that said, he moved to Courtelaine. He moved to Courtlaine.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
And then was it the nineties, Yes, I came in
eighty nine. Okay, what brought you to Courtelaine, Idaho?

Speaker 5 (46:26):
It was it was brother the Baldwin Brothers.

Speaker 6 (46:29):
I was doing Charles in charge and Daniel guests and
on the Thursdays to tape on Thursday nights and he
came and he said, I just came back from the
most beautiful place. His father had taken a ninety nine
dollars and ninety nine cent bus trip across the United
States when he came through court Alaine went home to
New York. He was a professor at a Long Island college.

(46:52):
He said, when I die, I want to be buried there.
And he died a young man. But they had to
get their their schedule so they could all be here,
and they had just come back, and I said we
should go.

Speaker 4 (47:04):
We went.

Speaker 5 (47:04):
The next week was a high high agus week. We
went up there.

Speaker 6 (47:08):
We fell in love with it, and then we planned
to move there in eighty nine ninety. We never moved
there till ninety four, and my.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Brother and I had already moved up here in the meantime.

Speaker 7 (47:21):
He told us about it, and then so we came
up and bought places. But then Tommy moved back to
LA and I moved to Florida and then on to
Tennessee and then back to LA for a while.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
But yeah, we were already gone.

Speaker 5 (47:31):
Yeah, they came up.

Speaker 6 (47:32):
We told they came to visit us, and then they
both ended up thinking we were going to sell our
house right away, excuse me and be there.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
But we weren't. There was a bigger earth.

Speaker 4 (47:45):
They were gone inside. Yeah, the big earthquake everything?

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Which one was that then?

Speaker 5 (47:50):
Ninety four?

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Okay, yes, the earthquake was in ninety four.

Speaker 5 (47:53):
Yeah, January of ninety four. I just started general hospital and.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
I was living in Florida. Yep.

Speaker 7 (47:59):
I missed the N Francisco earth quake by a year,
and I missed that one by a couple of years.
I'm watching the Baldwins. It's a you know that you
know everything that happened to Daniel Baldwin, I mean to
Alec Baldwin right well, in the whole thing, he's he
was filming a documentary while he's about to go to
trial and all of that stuff. But he mentions his dad,

(48:20):
and he mentions his family, and I'm wondering if it's
going to come up the Quarterlaining connection. It doesn't sound
like he had a very happy upbringing. It sounded like
he wanted to treate it home because he said his home.
He made some kind of reference that it wasn't a
happy Oh wow.

Speaker 6 (48:38):
I thought the opposite was one girl, four boys. Stephen
Daniel Alec and I don't remember the other one one
morning a girl not funny. I got the impression only from.

Speaker 5 (48:53):
Maybe Dan.

Speaker 6 (48:55):
I don't know that that was that they were together,
but you know, you don't know till some and decided to,
you know, to say that.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Huh, but a happy little thing that somebody just mentions.

Speaker 4 (49:06):
And I know, mentioned the place and says it's gorgeous.
So you tried it.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
Out and it's here you are.

Speaker 6 (49:12):
And then Dennis Franz was up here a little after
us are the same and I said, Dennis, how did you.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
Daniel Balden?

Speaker 6 (49:20):
I said, you're kidding, I said, denn Daniel Baldwin should
be a realtor's you.

Speaker 4 (49:27):
Know, he should be part owner of like ging resorts
and all of that.

Speaker 5 (49:31):
And you've been here for since, and I com we've
kept a house down there, and uh, I commuted that
we had Santa Barbitue did and when we moved up,
I don't remember now, but we got rid of we
did keep a home there so we could commute and forth.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Yeah, because you're still working.

Speaker 5 (49:49):
So I was still working, but well I wasn't.

Speaker 6 (49:52):
I did that and I did a few things, but
then I started U Theater theater again, and that was fun,
and I go back and do a little something.

Speaker 5 (50:02):
But I really enjoyed doing I really enjoyed doing theater anyways,
both Jack and I.

Speaker 4 (50:08):
Yes, and I believe that I saw you and Jack
and hello Dolly, Yes you did?

Speaker 2 (50:14):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (50:14):
And which time did you do it twice or no?

Speaker 5 (50:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (50:17):
The first time was sixty two or sixty two, sixty
ninety No, ninety nine or ninety eight or two thousand
and then it.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
Was a little later than that, So that's one that
I would think too, okay.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
And I played Jack's Levenentes. Yes, yes, remember I say
they should girl? You set up with what's it? Wore
the fat suit?

Speaker 4 (50:39):
Yeah, yea, yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Yeah, it was so fun during that.

Speaker 7 (50:44):
I'll tell a story about so being on stage with
almost every show I ever did at Quarterline Summer Theater,
either Mom or Jack or both of them were in
it except for like one. But when I would share
a stage with my mom and have a scene, she
would be very u She would want to make sure
I got all the laughs that I possibly could. She
was very supportive. And so we were doing Maime and
I played Gloria upson and I had this line that

(51:06):
was a series of three lines that would build, build, build,
and then the big laugh. And so I'm on stage
with her and she's listening to me, and I can
tell she's enjoying, and I say the first one ha
ha ha ha, and the second one ha ha ha,
the third one, big big laugh, and she holds and
she waits till the very last person, at the very

(51:26):
last stopped laughing. And then she said her lying and
then she delivers a line waiting, and everybody's done laughing
at my baby.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
And now I would go because people would do that.
Actors will cut off your laughter. Oh no, they'll do that.

Speaker 7 (51:42):
They'll step on your laughs and start sometimes accidentally because
they don't know what's going to get a laugh. Sometimes
they do it on purpose. And it's kind of a
crappy trick to do. But it was fun doing summer theater.

Speaker 4 (51:52):
I did.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
I think I did nine shows or ten.

Speaker 7 (51:55):
You guys did a lot together. We did a lot together,
Best Little Whorehouse and text. This was what brought me up.
And my mom assured the director that I could sing,
Oh she's fine, and I Party Christmas.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
I had the big song the big song.

Speaker 4 (52:10):
No she sung, She's fine, Yes, Hi did I get there?

Speaker 5 (52:14):
And she was fine.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
She did a great job, figured it out.

Speaker 7 (52:17):
But that was the first one, and then back from Aime,
and then then I got the job with the guys
in the Stay.

Speaker 4 (52:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (52:22):
So then we've all been here since ninety eight. Yeah,
And I was working with KXL Y on a grease
project to raise money for the theater. So I knew
Dave and Ken not well, because I remember.

Speaker 5 (52:36):
When they went.

Speaker 4 (52:37):
It was was ready to do the movie and these
guys come out and I'm think, who are they?

Speaker 5 (52:42):
What are they?

Speaker 4 (52:42):
What are they doing? I had no idea, really, and
I turned I said, hello.

Speaker 6 (52:48):
Are they going to be doing this to somebody? I
forget what was Diana or something? And they were wonderful.
But we teamed up and they brought in Kaniki. We
brought a lot of people and.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
This is in they say that the hotel. I think
back when the last was that.

Speaker 5 (53:06):
Ninety seven. So I knew them.

Speaker 6 (53:07):
So I'm set up an appointment for her to meet
Diana and I said no because I all my shows
were ABC.

Speaker 5 (53:15):
So she went and started off as a elf.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
No, no, an el producer. Well, no, they were they
were out.

Speaker 7 (53:25):
Doing Christmas elf, yes, and so then I yeah, And
then they wanted me to be their producer, which I did.
Do you know what I found? I was looking through
old stuff. Do you remember the paper it was here,
it was like the planet, the local Planet or whatever.
I found an article and it was when I was
on Start at ninety six nine, and it was telling
the story of how I started working with the Breakfast Boys.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
But I'm you know, thirty thirty two, I think, or
thirty three at the time.

Speaker 7 (53:50):
So it's like this picture for this a full article,
like and me and another kikid Kiki somebody she used
to be radio personality here. Yes, But anyway, I was
telling the story about they wanted me to be the producer.
I didn't have any money, so I didn't think I
could do that, and they had explained that I, that's not.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
What producers do and radio it's different. That's what producers
doing radio. And I just knew about show business.

Speaker 7 (54:13):
And I brought my headshot to the radio interview and
it was way before we had webcams or anything, and
they were looking at my headshot like what why, thank you? Yeah,
thank you for the lovely photo that doesn't really look
a whole lot like you anyway.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
But I was used to the show business. Yeah, you know.

Speaker 5 (54:29):
But then she moved up. It was interesting her and
then later Tommy came.

Speaker 6 (54:33):
But we got also very involved because Molly was writing
and I produced one the show with the two with
the two, Shaky Ground. I produced that, So we we've
done things together. And then the Christmas show Molly was
in four or five or whatever Christmas Show. So yeah,
we've we've done a lot together, collaborated.

Speaker 5 (54:55):
Yeah, and that's fun.

Speaker 4 (54:57):
I I love that. That was a lot of fun.

Speaker 5 (55:00):
I love producing it. Shaky Ground.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
Do you guys all live here now? Does tom live
here now too? So you guys all live here? Which
is so great?

Speaker 6 (55:08):
And Margaret and Mark right and her family and then
Kelly Quinnette that's her, her son and wife and all
the grandchildren and the great grandchildren live.

Speaker 5 (55:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (55:19):
Do you have kind of a compound over there in Quarterlane?

Speaker 5 (55:22):
Yeah, I guess I do, perfect. Yeah, But my my
grandson and his girlfriend, Justine, they'd been there, what they
were building a house up above and it's finished in
the last and the other last week they moved out,
and it was odd they're a little log house, a
little log cabin next to my house, and it was
a weird thing. It was another change.

Speaker 6 (55:44):
When you get to be of a certain age, the
consistencies are less and when you I go to Macy's
and they're closing, that's hard for me. Yes, it's one
more non constant things. Yes, And sometimes when someone's like
a real pain in the neck, I think, well, at
least it's a consistency's you know, it's consistent. But so

(56:08):
many things have changed over the years that are not
there anymore, and I'm seeing it less and less, So
I look for consistencies.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
What's been the biggest change for you in uh, the
industry as a whole, But what do you see as
the biggest change?

Speaker 1 (56:25):
From when you started to know you can't.

Speaker 6 (56:28):
Drop by you can't in New York, you made the rounds,
You had your pictures, and you went to all the
agents and left your picture hoping that the secretary would
like you and she show it to somebody.

Speaker 5 (56:40):
I mean, that was the biggest change. I don't think
LA was ever like that.

Speaker 6 (56:43):
But by the time I came to LA, you know,
I was established, I had an agent. I still had
to have interviews. Now they do none. Everything is on
tape and I was watching.

Speaker 5 (56:55):
An AI thing.

Speaker 6 (56:57):
There's a great way to get in trouble with casting.
You you send a picture, you send a scene. How
do they they don't know, they're just looking at your scene.
You get there and you're awful, But you were very
good on that. You know so many things that you
can get caught, especially now with it was something where
somebody made something into somebody else. I can't think of

(57:19):
what it was, and I thought, Wow, if this is
the trend, you're going to be in big trouble when
the reality.

Speaker 7 (57:26):
Well in that COVID that really I think they really
realized that there's no need. The good thing is that
it's expanded. And like John and I were talking about
this when he was young coming up. There five guys
that would be on all the auditions, Eric Ostrata, Richard Gear,
John and a couple other people. When my brother was
going on auditions, it was taught. It was Brad Pitt,
George Clooney, my brother.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
That group of people.

Speaker 7 (57:48):
Now it's not you don't, it's everybody in the whole
world is auditioning every it's it's open casting.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
You don't have to move to la You don't have
to do any of that. You just have to have
a computer.

Speaker 7 (57:59):
I just got a thing for an audition for a
movie in Seattle, and they want me to do a
you know, a video thing and then they'll fly in whoever.
But I think that you would be cast without them
ever meeting you in person. I think it would all
just be videos, which is a video auditions. Well, they
bring you in if they like if that's a big
it's a big industrial you know. So there was no

(58:22):
part in there that it's set. It said, this is
what we'd pay for this, this and this. But it's like,
I yeah, in the big movie, yes, But I think
for commercials and all that stuff, it's like it's just
as all done over zoom and video now.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
Which is so interesting because I feel like, and tell
me if I'm wrong. Movies and TV shows a lot
of it is based on like chemistry, isn't it.

Speaker 5 (58:42):
Well, the minute you open the door to go in
that room, that's your audition.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
You're there.

Speaker 6 (58:47):
And a lot of times you get I remember doing
a bit not meaning to a chair flipped and how
I did it?

Speaker 3 (58:53):
I walked.

Speaker 5 (58:54):
By the time I got home, I gotten the point,
I got the pause.

Speaker 6 (58:57):
It was something I did in person, right, So I
don't know what the future will be like for But
if I were up and coming, I mean I was
a kid, I wouldn't I guess New York. But in
order to get an agent, you need to be seen.
In order them to see you.

Speaker 4 (59:12):
Need to have an agent.

Speaker 5 (59:13):
I mean, it just it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
It's a different world.

Speaker 5 (59:16):
It's a very different world than when I came up.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
What is the advice that you would give to somebody
who is trying to get into the business now.

Speaker 6 (59:24):
I would say, as my husband would say, only do
it if you can't not make sure that you have
the passion, and then you need to get in touch
with people that are in the interesting Now go you
go online. You can find things out about it. But
I would just say go for it, but try to

(59:45):
find out anything that you can before you make that movie,
because you still need to be in La or Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Well, no, not so much so that you can make
your own film.

Speaker 7 (59:57):
Like my partner and I, Steve, we've made short films
and they've gone through all the film festivals and stuff
we did right here in Spokane. So you could make
it happen for yourself a little bit more if you.

Speaker 6 (01:00:07):
Write, Yeah, the thing with actors they do watch things
is that you have to get someone to watch it.
You know, you have to get an agent to watch it,
to take you to have you be a client, because
it's that agent's word. But I would say, if I
were an agent today, I'd want to see that person.

Speaker 4 (01:00:24):
I would never take them over a tape. I want
to see them and what they were like.

Speaker 6 (01:00:28):
And I think when you get to that point, usually
you know, you learn a lot by going there and
hanging out with the other young people, which is something's
missed today. There were places you'd hang out and you'd
go and you'd find out what was going on, what
was coming up. That doesn't exist anymore, not in New
York and not in Los Angeles. So it's ella said

(01:00:49):
that there's nowhere to go to hang you know.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
And I think I think it's like a lot of
the social media because now everybody just kind of hangs
out on social media, so there's no such thing as
like real relationships.

Speaker 4 (01:01:02):
So Mber, weised to go to the bars and hang
out and meet.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
People and coffee, go to coffee, go to dinner, parties
in each other's houses, and.

Speaker 6 (01:01:09):
You'd find out about open calls, right, you'd find out
you'd call your agent, and so I you know, I
really you know, if I knew someone personally, I could
probably make some calls and find out. But I even
ask Ella and Edward about it, and there's somewhat established
they do have agents.

Speaker 5 (01:01:26):
But it's very, very different, Wild Wild West.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
It is the Wildlist.

Speaker 7 (01:01:32):
It is the wild well West as far as getting
things put on platforms and doing things, and it's not
at all influencers.

Speaker 6 (01:01:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
Yeah, everything is like quick scroll and how quickly you
can get information and products.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
It's all, yeah, how quickly you can do that?

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
Okay, So let's do a little something before I let
you incredible women go. I want to know how well
you know your mom? Okay, because you know we're doing
this for Mother's Day. So how how while does Molly
know her mom? What's her favorite color?

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
Green?

Speaker 4 (01:02:05):
It's a pretty fast movie. What's her favorite movie?

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Pretty woman?

Speaker 4 (01:02:10):
Favorite food? Oh, that's a good that's a good one.

Speaker 7 (01:02:14):
I think a nice slice of pizza, like a good
slice of pizza New York type pizza. I mean, she'll
eat sushi like is a nice steak, really good rare
medium rare steak.

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
But I don't know. I think of a slice of pizza,
a hot dog, a good hot dog. Oh yeah, go
got it?

Speaker 4 (01:02:30):
Yeah, okay. Best way to relax? How do you get
mom to relax?

Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
Slap you?

Speaker 7 (01:02:43):
She'll just settle down and relax. I'd say that like tonight,
or well, we'll go out to dinner, we'll do stuff.
I say, we we sit and have a little bit
of a cocktail when we get home and relax. Sometimes
spa stuff, but you know, a nice cocktail cockcao is nice?

Speaker 5 (01:02:59):
Or just did I like?

Speaker 6 (01:03:01):
I like Molly's so much. Besides, I love her. She
just an amazing woman. I like her company, and she
does know me, probably better than anybody. And uh so
it was an open flow of conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
I was just going to ask you, what is the
one thing that you want your kids to know? How
do you feel about them? Oh, do you have a
couple hours write it down.

Speaker 5 (01:03:28):
I love my children, they are They're really everything to me.
And I love my grandchildren and my great grandchildren. My
children are two great human beings.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
And why you do that?

Speaker 5 (01:03:46):
Mollie, Uh, Mollie is exceptional exceptional. I just think she's
monumentally exceptional. I just think she's a fine woman an
all in all areas of her life.

Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
You make me cry.

Speaker 4 (01:04:02):
I love to hear moms talk.

Speaker 5 (01:04:03):
About their Yeah she's great, you read everything.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Yeah, you did good, mama, Thank you, you did good.
Thank you and you've got a great mama. Oh, I
know what, I know. She's going to buy us dinner.

Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
She told me, you.

Speaker 7 (01:04:20):
Know Ken Hopkins and Trisha Hawaii, And she goes, well,
maybe you should take me instead of Ken.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
I've had for a few dinners out and I'll buy
it treats while I'm there. Thanked. It'll be a lot
cheaper for your fydo with you just sold gotcha, Kens.
You have to split everything with him. I just got
it covered.

Speaker 4 (01:04:42):
Oh you guys, thank you so much for taking the
time to be with me.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
Today and just it was a pleasure.

Speaker 5 (01:04:48):
It went fast.

Speaker 4 (01:04:49):
It goes fast.

Speaker 3 (01:04:50):
It goes fast when you're talking to incredible people who
have incredible things to say, who have done incredible things.

Speaker 4 (01:04:57):
Thank you, Thank you, and you continue you success.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:05:02):
All right, you guys, thank you so much. I'm I'm chiery.
Look what you've done. Go make the rest of your days,
the best of your days, M. M.

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Mother's Day Special with Ellen Travolta & Molly Allen - Episode 11

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Mother's Day Special with Ellen Travolta & Molly Allen - Episode 11