September 17, 2025 • 60 mins
In celebration of Walter Koenig's 89th birthday, let’s join Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating in Walter’s “man cave” of collectables and memorabilia. We’re also joined by executive producer Dave Tabb, a man who knows quite a lot about the joy of collections, having amassed his own impressive array himself. Together we all take a trip through Walter’s wing of wonders, and down the halcyon paths of memory lane.
Each week, we explore and celebrate the lives that the Star Trek universe has forever changed. From former and future cast and crew members to celebrities, scientists, and astronauts whose personal and professional journeys have been affected by the franchise, we sit down and dive deep with a new friend, laughing and learning from their stories. Sit back, grab a drink, and join our hosts, Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer, as we get geeky in The D-Con Chamber.
Let's get social!
📘 Facebook: The D-Con Chamber
📸 Instagram: @thedconchamber
🐦 Twitter: @thedconchamber
⏰ TikTok: @thedconchamber
🌐 Website: https://thedconchamber.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-d-con-chamber--6181422/support.
Each week, we explore and celebrate the lives that the Star Trek universe has forever changed. From former and future cast and crew members to celebrities, scientists, and astronauts whose personal and professional journeys have been affected by the franchise, we sit down and dive deep with a new friend, laughing and learning from their stories. Sit back, grab a drink, and join our hosts, Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer, as we get geeky in The D-Con Chamber.
Let's get social!
📘 Facebook: The D-Con Chamber
📸 Instagram: @thedconchamber
🐦 Twitter: @thedconchamber
⏰ TikTok: @thedconchamber
🌐 Website: https://thedconchamber.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-d-con-chamber--6181422/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, Connor here.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We just want to take a moment to thank you
so very much for tuning in and being a part
of the decon Chamber family. Your support keeps us going
and we couldn't do this without you.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
And if you love what we do and want to
help us even more, please consider joining us on Patreon.
You'll get exclusive perks, behind the scenes content, and even
opportunities to chat with us directly.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
And don't forget to check out are Awesome mergh because
who doesn't want to rep their favorite podcast in style?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Baby?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Every little bit helps, I promise you, and we're really
very very grateful for all of you who make this
show possible. So thanks for being there, and please enjoy
this episode of the Decon Chamber.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I know.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
The show has begun since your phasers, the fun you
kty full trip.
Speaker 6 (01:05):
Co with come.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It's the.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Con ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, trekkies and trekkers.
Welcome back to another episode of.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
The dcon Chamber.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I am Connor Trenier and my co hosts best friend
dominic Keaty.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Hey, guys, we've got a.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Very special episode for you. Dare I say a collector's
episode indeed.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
We have Walter Kanig.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
Walter, thank you for having us, Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
We have Dave tab Our, executive producer. And these two
gentlemen are extraordinary collectors. Walter has been kind enough to
allow us to be in his collector's lair here. It's
a thrill to be able to explore a lot of
this stuff and also to just talk about the general
(01:59):
sense why people collect, what what gets them involved in collecting.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And I think this is going.
Speaker 6 (02:05):
To be great, the full culture of collection.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And we were in the chat we were having before
we got up here and miked and ready for the cameras.
Dave and Walter were talking and Dave had not been
here before, and when I brought him up here to
look around Walter's man cave.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
He was just literally aghast at the depth that this
collection goes.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Walter, first question, what was the first thing that you
can remember maybe buying and thinking, oh that will start
me off.
Speaker 7 (02:39):
Callogg's pep. It's a breakfast cereal, probably the most insipid,
best breakfast cereal of all time. Tasteless, it was tasteless.
It was cardboard, right, but but they had a premium
in each box, a little tin back button. This is
(03:01):
nineteen forty five forty six, and you bought the cereal.
You had to buy the cereal to get the button. However,
if you had a larcen his soul, if you were
a felony at heart, there you could go into the
supermarket when nobody's looking, grab a box, open up the
(03:27):
bottom of the box. They would slip down and take
out the little pin back button, put the box back.
I was very circumspected about putting the box back. I
just didn't leave it on the ground or you know
what dropped No.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
I like a thief for the hunt.
Speaker 7 (03:40):
Well, I consider it a virtue, you know. So I
did that, and I had about half the collection when
I got caught. Me.
Speaker 6 (03:51):
I got caught by buy a shopkeeper, by.
Speaker 7 (03:54):
Somebody who worked in the supermarket, and they took me
back where they where they had the meat on hooks,
and they told me they were going to I was
about ten. They were going to arrest me and take
me to prison. I was there with my brother, who
(04:16):
was six years older than I was, and I told
him I was terrified. I was terrified. The meat on
the hooks. I thought, that's where I'm going to end
up on one of those. Yeah. So we went looking
for my brother and at first he denied knowing me. Yes,
(04:38):
I don't know him, bless his heart. But then they
let me go with the admonition that I should never
come back, you know, never darken our doorstep again. But
I had friends. I had ten year old friends. I
set up a competition who could steal the most impact buttons?
(05:02):
For me? What was in it?
Speaker 6 (05:03):
For them? It was great?
Speaker 7 (05:05):
I finished my collection, but what was it?
Speaker 6 (05:07):
What was in it for the friends to go in
and nam?
Speaker 7 (05:10):
Did it for the just for love competition?
Speaker 8 (05:15):
Do you still have those?
Speaker 7 (05:16):
Yes?
Speaker 8 (05:17):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (05:17):
No, no, I don't have those. No, everything went the traditionals.
The story that is part of every collector's life is
the mother who threw everything out.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
Did you suffer from that at all?
Speaker 8 (05:34):
No?
Speaker 6 (05:34):
No, not So what was your first collectable? Do you
remember when you got into that?
Speaker 8 (05:40):
I started collecting. God, it was probably after seeing Star
Wars for the first time in nineteen seventy seven, and
then going down to the toy store and buying the
comic books and some of the action figures and that
kind of stuff. I remember. One of my favorite toys
was this Planet of the Apes toy from the early seventies,
which I'm still trying to replace. That there was that
(06:00):
probably was thrown away by my mom. That and some
of the old hot wheel stuffs, and the old collecting cars,
and the matchbooks cars and the vintage the lunch pails,
the game boards. But lots of comic books, lots of
baseball cards.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
What do you think draws a person to be a collector.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I'm not particularly one.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I never really was in the comic books or any
of those sorts of things. Do you what do you
think it is about someone's memory memory?
Speaker 8 (06:28):
There's there's you know for Star Wars. It's kind of like, uh,
it's it's familiarity. It brings you home to like seeing
different things in my room. It reminds me of certain
times in my life. Nostalgia, Yeah, nostalgia, you know, seeing things.
I come to the Creation shows every summer with you guys,
where I met you guys many years back, and where
I met you for the first time. And it's it's
(06:50):
the enjoyment of also putting together collectible pieces, like buying
a original lithograph or a uniform and then taking it
around over years and years and having people like Walt
Or and people like that sign it to where at
the end of ten years it has one hundred and
twenty autographs on it. It's the challenge and the fun
of doing.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
It, you know, it's a quest.
Speaker 8 (07:09):
It's a quest. Yeah, So for some collectors we enjoy
the quest. Like if you look around this room, this
is probably one of the most insane collectible I mean,
I'm in awe. I mean the amount of pieces.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
In here.
Speaker 8 (07:22):
Are mind blowing.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Just the big little books behind us or in a
you would have one of these or two of these books.
There must be I mean, I've got to think that's
two hundred of them there.
Speaker 7 (07:33):
Five hundred?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Do you have all of them?
Speaker 7 (07:36):
I have all the big little books except those that
didn't have art. There are some books that were taken
directly from motion pictures and instead of art they had photos, right,
And I felt that was beneath me.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
In what way?
Speaker 7 (07:58):
I don't know. There's nothing rational and insane about this.
Speaker 6 (08:04):
Stuff, the big little books.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Just to go back to that, So you started collecting
these as what an.
Speaker 7 (08:10):
Eight year old or something, or eight or nine years old,
and they were too big to steal.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
And how much was a big little book in those days?
Do you have any recollection sense? Ten cents? Which was
pocket money? Do you remember how much pocket money you
used to get in those days?
Speaker 7 (08:26):
Well, you know, the curious thing is I never got
an allowance. No, no, I never thought about it. People
that I knew were getting allowances. I didn't care. I
had nothing to buy except big little books. And if
if these came out seven or eight at a time.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
And where did you keep these at home in a
family home with a brother and mom and dad? And
how did your parents react to you?
Speaker 7 (08:55):
I kept them in a closet.
Speaker 6 (08:57):
You did in a.
Speaker 7 (09:00):
Bookcase?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Right?
Speaker 7 (09:02):
And I had forty or fifty?
Speaker 6 (09:05):
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Did you take them off to college?
Speaker 7 (09:08):
I read him?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Oh no, no, I mean to be able to keep
your collection where you know, you go off to Grenelle
and then you go to UCLA, And did you have
all of your collections with you?
Speaker 7 (09:21):
Down the incinerator? Everything went down the incinerator.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Not me, mama, literally, So did you go back and
recollect them as it were?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Then?
Speaker 7 (09:35):
Well, nineteen sixty seven, I was in a bookstore with
my wife, Judy, Judy Levin, and she saw my ooing
and eyeing, and these the little books that somebody had
kept and they were selling. It was a Cherokee bookstore,
(09:55):
and she went back and bought me one and it
was like a buck.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And that that after.
Speaker 6 (10:08):
That, that was the Gateway drug.
Speaker 8 (10:11):
So out of all the stuff that's up here, and
there's a lot of amazing stuff, what are you like
your favorite few collectibles? Like if you if you had
to hand pick a few things just to keep by
your side and look at, what would they be? What
are the most.
Speaker 7 (10:25):
I'm not really sure. I don't know if I have
a favorite. It's just collecting all of it. Was was what
was appealing to me. And you talk about, you know,
what were the circumstances, what was the motivation? Uh? How
how what do they represent in your life? And it
(10:48):
was for me, it was just the pursuit. It's just
finding this stuff, you know, and and looking at it
and saying, oh, that's nice. I like that, and I
put it here and I put it there, And it
took on a different significance as I grew older. When
(11:09):
I became about thirteen, all the kids in my neighborhood
moved away. Everybody moved away. I was alone with the nuns.
There were two nuns who were living next door to me,
and oh I was.
Speaker 6 (11:29):
A good Jewish boy.
Speaker 8 (11:30):
YEA A different question that is there something that you
always wanted that you didn't get?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Like?
Speaker 8 (11:36):
Is there a collectible out there? Is there one holy
Grail item that you sought after, looked for and is
not in your collection?
Speaker 7 (11:43):
I wrote a poem about it, okay, Oh, keep it
of my thousand anguish size within my young and ear
breasted rised the song of youth, of love, simple and
content of all the good things that God to me
has sent. Oh powers above the drenched the earth with rain,
They give men breta and deliver them from pain. Am
(12:04):
I destined to lose these things? So dear to turn
from simple love to frustrating jeer? Am I to be
among the milling crowd, doomed all my life to ignomy's shroud?
Am I to under to and fro and hopeless love
(12:25):
with Marilyn?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
That's great? Is there one for you?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Oh?
Speaker 8 (12:36):
My God?
Speaker 6 (12:37):
You know I wrote a poem about it.
Speaker 7 (12:39):
I wrote a poem about it.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
No I bought it.
Speaker 8 (12:45):
No, I mean there's there's some original.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
It's got to be a dominant casing something.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
It's the it's the life size statue of Dominic Keating,
you know, the one.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
I've got it.
Speaker 8 (12:54):
Yeah, I see, you've got the original in your possession,
aged very well. It's a fine year. I think i'd like,
you know, from one of my favorite movies. I'd like
probably one of the original costumes, like like like a
full body Iron Man suit or a full like a
Darth Vader, like a full costume, like.
Speaker 6 (13:12):
Oh, they got for grabs, that sort of thing.
Speaker 8 (13:14):
Sometimes I see I see some things once in a
while that go for auction, but they're but they're pretty dark.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
And the provenance of them and is it authentic? Is
it pretty?
Speaker 8 (13:23):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, like you.
Speaker 6 (13:24):
Can always guarantee that it actually was.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Warm by it's or whatever.
Speaker 8 (13:30):
It's well, it's over who's donating or where it came
from and whose collection. But yeah, owning like the original
ambulance used in the Ghostbusters, or using something like the
original Darth Vader helmet used from the Empire Strikes.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Back, or well you've just gone all out, of course,
haven't you. Yeah, let's talk about the the the Back
to the Future, the third car that they smashed, the Smitherees.
Speaker 8 (13:55):
Yeah, I've been I've been helping a friend restore one
of the doloreist.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
And I've sat in it and it's now back to
its full glory.
Speaker 8 (14:04):
It's it's absolutely amazing to see it.
Speaker 6 (14:06):
It's been amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
We went to see Back to the Future music the
Sekstrom Well.
Speaker 8 (14:12):
Back to the Future I think is one of those
movies that is just so it brings us out like
a child. You know when we saw it, and we
have so many memories from when we saw it that
to actually have the opportunity to help a friend restore
the car was just priceless. It's just and then to
see it come together, uh, and then be able to
stand in front of it, like you said, be able
to take pictures in front of it, was just absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
At what aged for you?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Was it that collecting became important as opposed to admiring things,
and you know you were into comics, I'm assuming I was.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (14:43):
I mean, like I said, I started very early on
it with baseball cards in the early seventies, I think,
as a kid, and I remember having like Mike Schmid's
rookie card and Steve Garvey's rookie card, and you know,
Pete Rose's Rookie card and and I wanted to try
to complete some of the sets as a kid, and
then comic books and then action figures and toys.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
Do you still have a lot of this?
Speaker 8 (15:04):
A lot of it, Yeah, a lot of it. And
then I think it just kind of brings back a
loa childhood memory.
Speaker 6 (15:09):
There is I read about collecting.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I mean it's either a nostalgia and a sense of
you know, my.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
Safe place as it were, or it's the quest.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
There's a lot of one upmanship too when you get
into the weeds of it with other collectors, like I'm
the only one that got that.
Speaker 8 (15:29):
I think as you start to get into really collecting,
I think what becomes fun is trying to better your collection.
Meaning I had an original Darth Vader tie fighter ship
from Star Wars, and then I remember trying to get
a better condition one, and then a better condition and
then the same thing happened with like Star Wars comic books,
Like you've got a nine point four graded Star Wars
comic book number one, and then you want the nine
(15:51):
point five, and you want the nine point six, and
continually trying to find one that's in better condition. So
it's all about finding one of your favorite toys and
then continually putting it, you know, getting a better one
of it.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
How much time do you put in seeking these things out?
Speaker 8 (16:06):
Too much?
Speaker 7 (16:09):
You know?
Speaker 8 (16:10):
Yeah, the amount of money you've probably spent in your
lifetime buying this stuff, which some people call crap, you know,
is you could have bought twelve houses over. You know,
you could have put all your kids through college a
dozen times over. And then the big question is when
are you going to sell.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
It, like or if you're going to it? All right?
Speaker 8 (16:31):
And then the kids decide when they tell me when
I pass away, they they've already divided up what they're
each taking. You know, one's taking the Marvel, ones taking
the Star Wars. You know, one's taking the baseball.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
Don't you want to set up a museum?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
And just I do?
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Yeah, I do? You know that would be the cool
thing to do.
Speaker 8 (16:48):
I just like looking at it sometimes.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, But how.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Much of a sense of identity do you both get
out of the collection? I mean, how much was that
a part of the mix?
Speaker 7 (16:59):
I think that's what I was alluding to when I
said the psychological I didn't need it for that purpose.
I didn't need it to make me feel better about myself.
It was it was a comfort. It gave me comfort
just having it. You know, it gave me a sense
(17:20):
of peace. I know it sounds absurd, you know. I'm
brought up and a totally atheistic background.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I am.
Speaker 7 (17:32):
I am Jewish. I will always be Jewish the same way,
will always be a New Yorker, you know. So whatever need,
religion satisfies and it draws people to it. I probably
got that in some peculiar way out of collecting. I
(17:53):
got that sense of fulfillment, sense of peace. Yeah, they
were my friends, I was started to say. When I
was thirteen, everybody moved away and literally moved away, and
I went to a private school where most of the
students came from Park Avenue in Central Park West in
(18:14):
New York Manhattan, or they came from Riverdale and Scarsdale,
which is the others north of where I live. So
I was the only person in my neighborhood who went there.
I came home from school, there was nobody to play
with the weekends. I didn't know about sleepovers and going.
(18:37):
Nobody invited me. So I really spent four or five
years during my adolessons just hanging out in my own
little abode with my collectibles, and that's.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
And creating the I mean, look at this button chart here.
I mean it's just incredible. I mean that must be.
That's got to have five six hundred buttons on it,
hasn't it.
Speaker 7 (19:03):
But you know, I put them in designs. If I'm
putting straight vertically and horizontally, it would be easy to Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I like the design though. I mean there's an artistic
bent there.
Speaker 7 (19:15):
The ones that are in the circle. Yeah, if we
get to look at those are the ones that I stole.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
You know what's interesting is I have thousands and thousands
of collectibles in my house and people come into my
man cave like this and to show the familiarity of
what people think about when they look at collectibles. And
I'll tell you what my favorite thing is. When I
walked in here to second was people make a B
line usually and it's not the most expensive piece of
my collection. But they go for the hoverboard, they go
(19:44):
for the Darth Vader helmet, they go for the original
like a Superman comic book. They go to something that
like they relate to. It's not always the most expensive thing.
There's like a holy grail. There's the the standout right
people like they look at things like in the room,
like the hoverboard. It's signed by Michael J. Fox and
(20:06):
Christopher Lloyd and it's the first thing people pick up,
or the gauntlet from you know, one of the Avengers movies.
It's just funny when people walk in. They make it.
There's three thousands of things around the rooms that are
much more valuable and they pick up that, and like
they have helmets and they want to put them on,
like they want to touch it, or can I try this.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
Uniform one that allowed? Sometimes I do, depends on who
it is.
Speaker 8 (20:27):
So for me, your head on the wall up here
is like they look like the old tobacco cards and
it looks like a complete set up there on the wall.
It's the top picture up there on the wall of.
Speaker 6 (20:39):
The tobacco cards. You yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8 (20:42):
And it's not just you don't have just one of them,
like a T two O six Honus Wagner card, which
is worth tens of millions of dollars. You have a
whole set of them, and it's just it's an absolute
gorgeous collection of cards.
Speaker 6 (20:55):
Did you smoke to get them?
Speaker 7 (20:57):
Oh? Never, smoke. Never dress never did drugs, but Merilyn
Monroe was very heavy, and I thought, so, did.
Speaker 6 (21:08):
You buy cigarettes to get the cigarette cars?
Speaker 7 (21:11):
No? No, those cards precede me. They were before I
was around, in nineteen twenties.
Speaker 6 (21:19):
So you bought that as a set, as a collectible set.
Do you remember what you pay for them back in
the day?
Speaker 7 (21:27):
Not? Yea, for the day it was, you know it
was it was okay, now it's ten bucks maybe maybe less.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Yeah. And did you know you wanted to collect something
like that? Did you?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
I mean, did you ever collect anything for its value
that you thought it would become or was it just never?
Speaker 7 (21:49):
It was never about what might be worth the value
or anything. The only most of the stuff is comic related,
comic strip related, most of it, not in not all
of it. When I was about nine or ten years old,
I was introduced to the National Geographic magazine and the centerfold,
(22:10):
I believe it or not, was not Marilyn Monroe was
Native Americans, and I immediately felt an affinity and a
sense of sympatico. I know that I knew that we
had committed genocide, and I used to take out the
(22:30):
centerfold of National GENERI and tape it to my wall.
So I have some maybe silks, yeah, the little silks.
And on the on the staircase there was pinbag buttons
Native Americans. I wrote it. I wrote a really good.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Now the images of those as Is there a contention
to that now or.
Speaker 6 (22:59):
Is I don't think. I don't think.
Speaker 8 (23:00):
So.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
It's not like.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
It's not like you know, it's not like caricatures, you know,
it's it's proper portraits.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
I wonder I was thinking about this, the psychology behind collecting.
And I know, having read your book, and I know
enough about your growing up that they weren't the easiest experiences.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
And and is.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
There something in particular about getting lost in the fantasy
of of what you know, having the comic books and
having comfort, as you said, in the sort of pieces
that you have, is is there Have you ever looked
back on that and wondered what what what that is
for you? Or is it just you know, because I
think collectors are a unique breed.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I mean, I'm not particularly one.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I do like things, but I've never really gone after
and sought after items or collections.
Speaker 8 (23:57):
You know, for me, I just I just it just
brings back still any memories, and I just take a
lot of pleasure in it. It's like this last summer,
I put together a album at the Creation convention of
Strange New Worlds, and I met Carol Kine for the
first time, and I got like twelve of these albums
signed so I could give them away to friends and
gifts and stuff, and it's kind of for me, it's
(24:20):
just fun to put them together and the memories. So
when you look at it. So when I look at
this Strange New World's album or a card album I have,
or a twelve Monkey's piece I have in my room,
it's the journey of actually saying, Hi, I'm Dave. Nice
to meet you. You're kind of wow. I really enjoyed
seeing you on the show and having that interaction with you.
And then it's having that memory and then putting you
(24:41):
on the item and having you sign like a bunch
of items, and then having it up in display in
my home office, and then I can smile and look
back and go, God, it was a great summer and
that was a great show. It was like, you know,
formed an awesome friendship and we had some dinners. And
so every time every time I look at something, a
lot of what I do his personal even sometimes I
(25:02):
have a friend Chris we we collect a lot of
our items together, or my daughter Amanda, and it's it's
the journey of getting the items ready. So like I'm
I'm like, you're buying the items. Like for me, it's
like Simon Peg is going to be it. Uh, And
I'm a big fan of his. He's going to be
a creation this summer. And it's putting together the items
that I want to get signed. So it's the journey
(25:23):
of finding some pieces that I want to get him
to sign, and then the journey of like meeting him
and then having him on those pieces and then finally
seeing those pieces in my collection signed.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Are you ever disappointed when it when it doesn't map
out quite as it you had it in your head?
Speaker 8 (25:41):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (25:43):
And I won't mention names there There have there have
been some people I was really excited about meeting and uh,
and it just it didn't turn out. Carl Urban was
somebody I was so excited to meet Carl Urban from
play who played Bones and the Star Trek movies, and
he did not disappoint. Or Scott Bacula, I mean I
(26:04):
really wanted to meet Scott Bacula, and he walked into
the room at one of the conventions and walked around
and shook everybody's hand, and I had the opportunity to
get him to sign all my uniforms and my lithographs,
and you know, and then Walter, you know, another person
who I wanted to meet forever, and I got to
see him at the show, and I brought all my
uniforms for Walter to sign, and all my lithographs and toys.
(26:24):
And now I have these lithographs and uniforms all over
my home office and there's Walter's and Walter's signature sticks
out like a sore thumb. It's absolutely it's absolutely no,
it's absolutely gorgeous. Because some celebrities today have gotten so
commercial that it's just a quick letter. You don't even
know what it is. So Walter's got one of those
(26:46):
signatures like LeVar Burton's or Michelle's or proper cursive that
you look at Walter's signature, it's Walter. It screams his personality,
like LeVar Burton, another person who's just got an amazing
in gorgeous autograph.
Speaker 6 (27:01):
He does a flower, you know something.
Speaker 8 (27:03):
But it's a process and Walters is. So when you
look at your piece and you've got Walter's autograph on there,
it's just like and then you can remember meeting him.
It's you smile.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Does it ever going home to the office, to the
man cave, does it ever become wool paper? Or do
you do you take the presence to go now, wait
a minute, let me look at that.
Speaker 8 (27:24):
There are some items I do. There are some there
are some fun pieces I've put together that are just
absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Uh.
Speaker 8 (27:30):
There's a Doctor Who piece which I just I have
one hundred autographs from a hundred different people that have
been on Doctor Who. And I finally got Matt Smith.
I sent it out to a convention and I finally
put I had David Tennant, and I had Chris Eckles
and I and I finally got Matt Smith on all
my Doctor Who stuff, and it was like it was
like just finally looking at the pieces signed by one
(27:51):
hundred people and then Matt Smith right in the middle,
it was like, Wow, it's like the crown jewel for me.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
When you when you come up here, Walter said, this
is your office now, and do you do you take
a minute to still look around and take in what you've.
Speaker 6 (28:07):
Collected or is it is it? Is it backdrop?
Speaker 7 (28:10):
Well, most of the time it's it's a backdrop.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (28:14):
Occasionally I stopped and say, oh, well, you know, let
me look at that. So I do, I give it
some attention, but it's it's you know, I've been doing
it for a long time. Nineteen sixty seven is when
I started collecting it again. So that's thirty three, fifty three,
(28:34):
fifty eight years ago.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
All these caricatured toys up here behind us.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
I mean, where do you find them?
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Are they just in stores that you know, collectible stores
that you go to. Well, they've got figurines. I mean
there must be a thousand or two figurines in there.
Speaker 7 (28:54):
Well. One of the blessings of being involved in Star Trek.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
Is people give you.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
They give me gentlemen. I wish I could remember his name,
because he deserves being You deserve some promotion. Those soaper
heroes on top of the roll top desk were made
in a garage, you know, and he sold them to
a big toy company. He sold the moles and they
(29:22):
sell them. He gave them all to me.
Speaker 6 (29:24):
That's that's cool, and it's and.
Speaker 7 (29:27):
It's not like I said, gee, you know, he just volunteers.
And then there's another company that gave me those tins
on top of it. They all housed figurines, right, and
they were they were modern, modern person's recollection of the
(29:54):
toys that used to be sold back in the day,
back in the forties. One's were sold in the forties
were made out of wood. They were wood risen. You know,
they poured them into molds, but they were made out
of wood. You know, these are are not wood. In
any case, they were all given to me. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (30:16):
Now today you probably can't get in trouble for anything
you took from the set, but was there because I
don't think they're going to come after you at this point.
Is there anything you took from the show that you
were supposed to take not supposed to take from when
you were filming the original Star Trek TV show or
the movies of yours?
Speaker 7 (30:32):
My costume from Star Trek four and where is it? Well,
let me tell you, I were so. The leather jacket
was really nice. The leather pants, you gotta wonder do
you wear leather pants? After? So? I got an offer
(30:59):
I sell them. Yeah, And if I told you. You
probably blanched because it wasn't enough.
Speaker 8 (31:06):
It was not enough.
Speaker 7 (31:07):
It was very I was very happy I gave it
to I saw them somebody who I was a friend with.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
So do you still go to the Rose Bowl or
places where you can find collectibles? And the second part
of this question is are there still for both of you?
Are there still you know finds that you're like, you.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Know what I got that for twenty bucks?
Speaker 8 (31:29):
You know, everything in this house is a fine I'll take.
Speaker 6 (31:32):
It all right.
Speaker 8 (31:33):
He was showing me a book a few minutes ago,
and he's got these cards in a binder that each
one should be in a museum, and it's like, it's
like Buck Rogers original Dick Tracy cards and Buck Rogers cards,
and they're just they're just in a in a book.
I remember the first time someone showed me their baseball
collection when I was younger, and they literally had pages
(31:54):
and pages of Mickey mantles and they were just creasing
them in the pages.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
There it is, I mean, give the give one of
the cameras a little.
Speaker 8 (32:01):
Yeah, I mean, so I'm terrified. I'm terrified of actually
damaging any of these pages of the book because these
are like original dictra. I mean, each one of these
should be in like some plastic protector or something. I
mean little orphanani. I mean, I'd like to have just
one of these on my desk on display, just this
one right here. And you know he's got yeah, I mean,
(32:28):
this is just look at the original Buck Rogers cards.
I mean, and it's a it's a complete set. Also right.
I offered him my car for this, he said, he said,
he said, no, wow, this is just And look around
the room too, with the you know, with the new
Fantastic Four movie coming out, you've got all the Fantastic
(32:49):
Four stuff, and you've got all the DC heroes and
in the thor I mean, in the X Men.
Speaker 7 (32:55):
And this is interesting because these were you cut out
of the comic book. They were collectibles, and each Fausset
comic had one of these superheroes in't it.
Speaker 8 (33:10):
You know what anybody who's watching this podcast and if
they're my age, one of the neatest collectibles that I
wanted as a kid, I remember was the Hasbro send
in of the Boba Fett Star Wars toy that you
actually had to mail in, but you had to collect.
I think enough of the Kenner little circles off the
back of buying the action figures for the store, and
then you could mail in for the Boba Fett that
(33:33):
was in the cartoon that had the actual rocket on
the back that actually launched, and that was I remember
that was something at that age. I remember buying as
many of those darn action figures and cutting those things
out and I think I got four of them back
in the mail.
Speaker 6 (33:47):
But that was the character Bob.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Why did Boba Fett become quite such the character? It's
amazing how that character took off in Star Wars a
minor character to start with, right.
Speaker 8 (33:59):
And he's still one of today's favorite.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Time even talk in the first time movie we saw him.
Speaker 8 (34:05):
Not sure, I don't think so he talked in the
cartoon and there was an edited scene taken out of
Star Wars that in the special edition he was added
back in all.
Speaker 6 (34:15):
This stuff, man, I mean, this is my era.
Speaker 7 (34:18):
This stuff goes back to the thirties.
Speaker 8 (34:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
You know where you found these? Is it just in
various places?
Speaker 7 (34:26):
And well, I had one principal source. It was an auction.
It was called Hake's Auction and it came out first
literally it was mineog about six staple mimeograph pages. And
now it's a very slick magazine. You know, everything's in color,
(34:49):
and it's more than just it's political, it's it's everything
you can possibly conceive of that could be collectible. And
they have Disney stuff that goes for hundreds of thousands
of dogs.
Speaker 8 (35:01):
Right. You know. I was just reading a special the
other day that this card right here is on one
of a kind and people have been looking for this
for like thirty five years. You've got it right here
in your book.
Speaker 7 (35:10):
Which one is?
Speaker 8 (35:11):
I'm just kidding. You have a T two O six
Honus Wagner card here? Why you have two of them?
Speaker 6 (35:19):
Right now? You only have one?
Speaker 8 (35:24):
But you know what this is. This is exactly what
I would expect to find here today, like be looking
through a book like this, like literally finding like a
Honess Wagner card, just like, oh, you have a Honess
Wagoner card. And I could actually see turning the page
and going, oh, why you have two of them? Right
because at some point in time there was you know,
there was more of these out there. This is this
(35:44):
is like I said, this is now.
Speaker 6 (35:46):
The funny thing, of course, is that we're sitting upstairs.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
In an addition to this house. Yes, that your wife, Judy,
God bless her, who passed away a couple of years ago.
Speaker 6 (35:56):
Sorry for your loss, of course, Walter, but.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
She kind of made you build this extension up here
because I'm not living all this down there exactly.
Speaker 7 (36:05):
That was that was the stipulation. When everything stays up.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Here, everything had to come up here. And this became
the collectible.
Speaker 7 (36:13):
And I had an office downstairs that became her office.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Now, if I'm not mistaken, your missus has just made
you buy another house.
Speaker 6 (36:20):
She wasn't living with it anymore.
Speaker 8 (36:23):
She is she is not happy about how the house
has become collector's paradise.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Yeah, I mean, not to shame you, but I mean
there is no no, There is a story about the
Lamborghini the sat in the garage that hadn't been used
in eighteen months because it had nothing but leather jackets or.
Speaker 8 (36:39):
It's covered and stuff.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Well, now in the collectible leather jacket well a collectible.
Speaker 8 (36:47):
It's become It's become a collectible because of the things
that are on it. Not because the cars are collectible,
but the items that are covering the car in the garage.
Because there's just nowhere else to put it. There's also
that I started collecting shoes with a friend of mine,
and now there's a wall of Nikes in the living room,
which looks great behind her fabulous table. There's about three
(37:10):
hundred pairs of Nikes.
Speaker 6 (37:11):
Do you wear them once in a while?
Speaker 8 (37:14):
I wear my Travis Scott's and I wear a few.
Speaker 6 (37:16):
Of my When you wear them outdoors or just in.
Speaker 8 (37:18):
Oh hell no, you don't wear them outdoors. You don't
wear your shoes outside.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Will you wear them to the car to go to
the restaurant or is it an indoor wear only.
Speaker 8 (37:29):
It's a process because if you actually wear one of
your shoes, then you have to clean them before they
go back in the box. So nothing, you never wear
a pair of shoes. I have to scold my son sometimes,
who I bought him some nice pairs of shoes and
they're white, and he'll literally put them back in the
box and excuse me, bring those down the hallway. Those
need to be soaped up and retreated and scuffed.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
And you know, it's Dave times, kids, and you have
you've got three storage spaces that are.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Full of.
Speaker 8 (37:58):
Yeah, sure, let's not tell the white keys. Let's not
tell the wife too much.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Did you do you collect anymore?
Speaker 1 (38:06):
No?
Speaker 6 (38:07):
I was going to say, yeah, does it ever stop?
Speaker 7 (38:09):
Uh? No, I got you know, a lot of things
on a very I don't know how to explain on
a level that I don't totally understand. Stopped when my
wife passed away.
Speaker 6 (38:30):
Yeah, that's understandable.
Speaker 7 (38:32):
I've living alone and I'm here. There are mornings when
I I wake up and I don't know what to do? What?
What the why should I get out of bed? You know?
I have those days. Ultimately, so far I've been able
to force the issue.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
And it is getting out of bed and putting one
foot in front of the other and getting up and
making the coffee. That's suddenly twenty minutes and you're like, okay,
this is all right.
Speaker 7 (39:04):
You know what part of my routine is every morning
I don't have it on. I feed the squirrels my
walnuts and I.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Saw the walnuts downstairs, and when he's a walnuts easer,
But no, they're for the squirrels.
Speaker 7 (39:18):
Those are for the squirrels. We have an understanding.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
That's why they're all hanging around.
Speaker 7 (39:24):
Forgive me for beginning, even for sounding so racist, but Honestly,
I can't tell one squirrel from me.
Speaker 6 (39:36):
They don't care. Do they ever eat out of your hands?
Speaker 7 (39:41):
They do well?
Speaker 6 (39:42):
Now about that.
Speaker 7 (39:43):
In fact, I have a couple of photos. During a
period when we didn't have dogs, I had great squirrel friends.
My favorite was Claudeine. Claudeine would climb up my pants
and take the walnut out of my hand. Claudine came
(40:04):
up the stairs. No, hopped on my desk when it
was possible to come in the house. Yes, yes, And
I had a bunch of walnuts and a bowl, and
and you know they never just take it and leave.
They they're picky, you know, they check it out. I
think they're looking for with the creases, you know, where
(40:27):
the opening is. And then they take off.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
This one's past due, this one.
Speaker 7 (40:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
I have an avocado tree in my God, and then
the amount of avocada is when?
Speaker 1 (40:39):
When?
Speaker 6 (40:39):
When? When my tree gives them?
Speaker 8 (40:41):
I thought snow White lived here. Pulled up. All the
animals are outside. The squirrels were all around the house.
Speaker 6 (40:46):
It's a little Disney house.
Speaker 8 (40:48):
It's very Disney. There's several Disney things here too.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
It's very pretty.
Speaker 6 (40:52):
Will your collecting ever stop? Never oh, my wife hopes.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
So.
Speaker 8 (40:58):
I mean it's it's it's overwhelming. I mean, you know,
you know every time I think I have everything I want,
then there's something else I want.
Speaker 6 (41:05):
You know that they put a new show out.
Speaker 8 (41:08):
Well, I'll give you an example. You know, all my
friends were getting ready for the big Creation show this
summer at Star Trek, and my kids were, Okay, last year,
we did this, We did this, we did the twelve
Monkey cast, signed items, we did the Strange New Worlds,
we did the card restling. They're like, what are we
doing this year? And it's like it's like, you don't
need anything else. I'm like, well, I can't just show
up at the show empty handed.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Yeah, we brought you here for an intervention. We didn't
want to stay at the very beginning, but there's we
want to talk about some things.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
No, I mean, you know, I've changed my signature. You
need to get all my stuff redone.
Speaker 8 (41:42):
I think for me also, work is very stressful, and
I think that I think that collecting and living in
your past and enjoying things from your childhood is it's
your happy spots. Yeah, and you know when you go
to like these color conventions and collection shows it's kind
(42:03):
of like an escape, you know, it's kind of fun.
And then it's fun to get things done, and it's
fun to see people you know, and it's fun to that's.
Speaker 6 (42:11):
The other part of it is and is the community
aspects of it.
Speaker 8 (42:14):
And I like to get all my stuff in person,
you know. I like to get you know, I like
to pick out my collectibles. I like to pick my
items to get signed, and then I like to actually
meet the people that sign the items.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
Are you disappointed if it's a bit perfunctory that meeting?
Speaker 6 (42:32):
Do you feel that sometimes?
Speaker 8 (42:34):
I mean, sometimes they're a little I will tell you
something interesting. Someone who I really wanted to meet was
Whoopy Goldberg and because she was on Star Trek and
she played guide and who Whoopy Goldberg. Yes, And I
have this thing when I go to the conventions and
we won't talk about Bill Shatner, but he's one of
the only people who would not hold a prop for me.
So I love going in photos and bringing phasers and communicators.
(42:57):
I mean, I have a picture that I wish I
had here to share with you. I did it in
the San Francisco Show with Jerry Ryan and Todd Dashwick
and Brett Spider and they are all people just asked me,
how the heck did you get all these people to
hold phasers and do this like James bond Po's And
it's just an incredible photo. And of course, every time
(43:17):
I would ask Bill to hold a problems, I don't
hold props, and I'm like, oh, okay, no big deal.
So Whoopy Goldberg is there at the same show, of course,
and I'm like, oh my god, Whoopy Goldberg, and I'm
just like, I'm not going to do it. I'm not
going to ask Whoopy Goldberg to hold a phaser and
a communicator. So as I'm getting up there, I put
it and she goes, what's that And I'm like, oh, there,
(43:38):
I brought props and stuff to hold, and she goes, well,
give them to me. Let's do this. And then you
know Whoopy took these folders would be with communicators and
phasers and it's just you know, and then you have
those pictures and it's just what a great memory. And
one of my first time ever at a convention was
photos with you guys and Anthony Montgomery and I came
up to you guys, and you guys do phasers and
communicators and you get you guys started a trend of like,
(44:02):
let's do this.
Speaker 6 (44:03):
I think we all did Charlie's Angels.
Speaker 8 (44:04):
Yeah, we just took some and then I think started
the comfort level of all right, this is okay, and
then we looked at the photos and they're awesome.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Do you ever go and bid something that you can't
be there for, you know, like the Southby's has something
or auctions that are.
Speaker 8 (44:22):
Once in a while.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Ye.
Speaker 7 (44:24):
Can I tell you the opposite side of that story?
Speaker 8 (44:27):
Yes? Absolutely.
Speaker 7 (44:29):
My best friend in the neighborhood playoffs for two years
was Chris Lloyd. Yeah, I made him laugh.
Speaker 6 (44:38):
Buddies.
Speaker 7 (44:39):
Yeah, so we got along great, got along great. So
come out here. Life goes on, people move different directions.
I'm doing Star Trek one in the motion picture. He's
doing Taxi. So I go a paramount. So I go
(45:01):
on and knock on his door. This is my best friend,
the neighbor. This is the guy who invited me up
to his home in Connecticut.
Speaker 6 (45:08):
He comes from a very very quiet, well to do home.
Speaker 7 (45:11):
Holy cow, he had a pipe organ that was three
house stories high. He had elevators in his house. So
I knock on his dressing room door opens. Chris, how
you doing, I said, Chris, it's Walter. Never got a
(45:38):
word out of him. Really, he played that reverend gym
he'd become reverend for ten minutes. Pissed me off, totally
pissed me off. You don't do that with friends.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
No, it's and it's a funny business, isn't it. When
people think they get to a certain level and now
if you're not at their level, I'm all right, we
can't be friends anymore.
Speaker 7 (46:02):
Well, yeah, I got to tell you that. I hastened
to add that we resolved that good. So I'm at conventions.
We all right, how not a little bit? We talked,
all right, so it's over. But I can't resist telling
that story.
Speaker 3 (46:16):
Well, you know, we get in life, you know, particularly
in your late mid to late thirties forties, you've still
got a full sense of yourself, particularly in our game,
you know, and we've we've come across it. I mean,
it's like, Darling, you're not solving well piece it loved,
you know.
Speaker 8 (46:35):
I got to meet him for the first time this
summer at Creation. All right, he was out there and
I brought like fifty things for him to sign.
Speaker 6 (46:41):
Did he sigh.
Speaker 8 (46:42):
Oh, yeah, he was. He was in and he actually
did hold a prop with me for my photo. So
I actually went in with the almanac, the hoverboard, the glasses,
and I actually took a photo and he like he
held the almanac and the hoverboard with me in the photo.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
Wow. Cool.
Speaker 8 (46:56):
So did he talk like this?
Speaker 7 (46:58):
He didn't do.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
He was.
Speaker 8 (47:04):
He was very nice. He was extremely nice. It was
nice to finally get a whole bunch of things signed
in person.
Speaker 6 (47:08):
Also, I'm older. See now, is he your age or
is he a bit younger?
Speaker 7 (47:13):
Is Chris Lloyd? He's a little younger. He's about three
years younger. The oldest member of our cast was Dabney.
Speaker 6 (47:20):
Cormany, a connection.
Speaker 7 (47:22):
He was four years older than I was. I think
I was the second oldest. I was really among less
than a handful of folks who had actually graduated college.
Speaker 6 (47:33):
That's what brought me back to the States.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
I came out here on a vacation, really, and I
met Dabney Coleman's daughter, Oh, Kelly Coleman. Yeah, on my
third night in La at the Rainbow Room, And suddenly
I was having dinner with Dabney Coleman and his best
friend was Harry Dean Stanton at Dan Tanner's restaurant, where
(47:55):
Dabney had a booth and the Colemans Coleman steak on
the menu. I remember Nick Cage came over to the
table to play homage and I was like, whoa.
Speaker 6 (48:06):
Harry Dean lent for? He said, you got You've got
a good little kid.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
You should come back here. I'm not leaving.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Yeah, I didn't know that Damney Coleman was an ace
tennis player.
Speaker 7 (48:19):
He was an ace. Yeah, he came here. Ephraim Zymbolyst
Junior was the big name in Hollywood tennis until Dabney arrived.
And then Dabney just wiped everybody because.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
He didn't look particularly athletic, but he obviously younger days.
Speaker 6 (48:38):
Yeah, great actor, he was really good.
Speaker 7 (48:42):
He married another student, Jeane Hale, and they had several
kids together there. Jean had a very promising career going.
She was in one of the Flint movies. But evidently
Dabney instable with his wife doing so well, right, since
(49:04):
he became a housewife.
Speaker 6 (49:05):
He certainly was.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
He certainly had an ego, Dabney, but he was honestly,
he was such fun at dinners and in a very
very funny, very talented.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
You were an actor for tried, tried, dabbled, dabbled, didn't
do well.
Speaker 8 (49:21):
Probably a few years. I tried to do some TV commercials,
a little acting, little theater, you know. I thought I
wanted to be a film director. But yeah, it didn't last.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
Yeah, yeah, it's a tough to It kind of worked out.
Speaker 8 (49:37):
Every time I went to a TV commercial interview, I'd
show up with Danny about Aducci from the Parture Family
because we were you know, you're always in the room. Now,
I'm always in the room, you know, with twelve other
guys that look exactly like me.
Speaker 6 (49:50):
So it's amazing how they find this isn't right.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
I thought I was one of the guys exactly like
you walk out and you're like, god, damn, damn.
Speaker 7 (50:00):
I have one other and student related, and it jim
James Conn was also in my class, Jimmy.
Speaker 6 (50:10):
I did Las Vegas with him. Yeah, yeah, that's great.
Yeah it was. He was he friendly, was nice that week,
he loved me.
Speaker 3 (50:17):
He loved me being English, so that he were I
got the English card. So because apparently there were some
weeks he was just hateful to people.
Speaker 7 (50:28):
So we ended up coincidentally playing opposite each other. In
an episode of the alphad Hitchcock Hour. He played the
good guy and I played the bad guy. Yeah, and
at one point we put him on trial and I
(50:49):
supposed to swing and you know, hit him. The camera
was over my shoulder. I was wearing this ring. I
got a little fun, too authentic. I cut his lip
with my But the anecdote is, we're eating lunch. Had
a hopper walks by, you know, in the gossip calmness,
(51:10):
and she says, you have a big career going. I
know she wasn't talking to me, she walked by. So
we get up, We get we start to leave. We
leave the restaurant Universal and the ad for the Hitchcock
Hour is yelling, hurry up. They need you guys, They
need you guys. So what's my instinct to run? He
(51:33):
grabs me by the arm. Stars don't run.
Speaker 3 (51:39):
Funny how that's instinctive in some people. Ye, speaking of working, well,
you've got something in the pipe at the moment I
need something in the pipeline.
Speaker 6 (51:47):
You've got a film.
Speaker 7 (51:50):
I have a small festival film that somebody I know
wrote for me. I had seen me do Scrooge and
Christmas Carol and was impressed with the work. And uh,
it's a it's a very significant and appropriate little film.
It's about an old Jewish guy who had as a
child had been in a camp and watched his parents
(52:14):
murdered by an SS officer And what do you know,
the SS officer has just moved into his neighborhood and
starry Stoart starts with the SS officer body being a
found and now they're looking for the perpetrator. Wow, it's
a very it's a challenging role. I played versus Jarman accent.
(52:38):
Uh uh two. One of the one of the people
who plays the cop is the writer director. His name
is Frank Quinn.
Speaker 6 (52:48):
And the other is a short or a full length.
Speaker 7 (52:51):
No, it's a it's a twenty five minute. The other
fellow is an actual German, was born in Germany, is
now American. He plays the other cop and there with
a very slight accent.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Right.
Speaker 7 (53:06):
But anyway, it's the relationship between the three of us
and how it evolves. And I felt it was so appropriate.
It's so appropriate because I have very very strong feelings.
Forgive me, folks, this is my little speech. Okay, I
(53:26):
have strong feelings about what's happening in Gaza, you know.
And I just cannot embrace the idea that this goes
on forever, that you keep killing people and it's okay.
You know, it is not okay. So this is the
way the story ends. Speaks to another option other than
(53:52):
just letting it the mayhem continue.
Speaker 6 (53:54):
All right?
Speaker 3 (53:55):
It sounds quite pertinent and poignant for the times, then
I think, so, yeah, is it got a title yet?
Speaker 7 (54:02):
It's it's called mister Fleischmann.
Speaker 6 (54:05):
That's me good. Is the money there to make it?
Speaker 7 (54:08):
The money is very modest, but it is not there.
It's hard to raise money. It's hard to raise money
for a big picture, and it's hard to raise money
for a little picture, you know, because there's no profit here.
This isn't. This is a festival film for people to see,
(54:29):
to absorb, to appreciate.
Speaker 1 (54:32):
You.
Speaker 6 (54:32):
Probably can make this film for one hundred grand, can you?
Speaker 7 (54:35):
I can make it for far less than that, fifty grand,
far less than that. I can make it right, Yes,
he has business. I could make it for forty grand?
Speaker 6 (54:44):
Could you make it right? I bear that in mind. Well,
I wish you luck without thank you.
Speaker 7 (54:50):
I mean, I don't know how much longer I have here.
Evidently I still have I'm control my cerebralative, Yeah, reasonably articulate,
thissome so and I have aside from psiatica, which so
many people get as they grow older, I don't have
(55:12):
anything that's that's beckoning me to the ground that love.
Speaker 2 (55:18):
Wait until we all four get up off these chairs.
Speaker 6 (55:22):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (55:24):
Well it's been absolutely lovely, and thank you for having
us around.
Speaker 7 (55:29):
It's my pleasure.
Speaker 6 (55:29):
I'm really glad that we can so nice this.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Man, and you know, it's it's great to hear the
stories about collection. It is what it does for you
and what it does for you know, your your psyche.
Speaker 6 (55:46):
Yeah, well we're all we're.
Speaker 8 (55:47):
All living in like I said, just building memories. And
like I said, I just enjoyed it. It makes me happy.
So yeah, I mean, you know, and I love looking
at it. It's there's a lot of memories here, and
there's a lot of this is is probably one of
the greatest rooms I think I've ever been in. That
really is. I mean, the attention to detail of all
the collectibles and here's amazing. I mean, even tho way
(56:10):
the things are like in these little display cases, and uh,
they're all in their own little sets and collections.
Speaker 7 (56:16):
I mean, I got one more story. Oh, come on,
we have time. I never met Marilyn Monroe, but I
didn't meet Betty Gravel. Do you even know who Betty Gray?
Everybody know who?
Speaker 1 (56:29):
Better grab is?
Speaker 7 (56:31):
Okay? So I'm doing a play with Jackie Coogan, who
played the kid opposite Charlie Chaplin. We're doing a play.
I left Star Trek to do the play because I
got crazy away month with sir We're protected. No, we're
perfect three four. But that was my entire dialogue.
Speaker 6 (56:51):
The German again. Then I've been to German.
Speaker 7 (56:54):
But this is not my German accents. So Jackie who
and an Eye Open in a play just side of
Chicago in Saint Charles, Illinois, and Betty Grabel comes into
the Sisteth Theater to do You'll know it if I
play with William Holden, Judy Holliday, and Roderick Crawford.
Speaker 6 (57:17):
Born yesterday, born yes, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 7 (57:20):
And so she does the lead. Now there's a guy
in Chicago who's a radio personality who interviews actors in
theater productions who are known and they came and he
came to interview Betty Grabel on opening night. He's also
known to be very insulting. You know, he's really a
(57:40):
pain in any case, So the clay opens, she does
extremely well. We retire to this restaurant, we Coogan and
I are invited to sit with them while he interviews her.
At one point he turns to me and says, I
bet you never even heard of Betty grew And I said,
(58:01):
on the contrary, I know that when miss Greebel leaves here,
she's taking born Yesterday to New York. She has to
do with in a Broadway theater. She has two pictures
in one in Western Europe, one in Eastern Europe, which
is scheduled to perform in and she has a television series.
I'm making this up as some going along, you know.
(58:24):
And she's just standing sitting there and looking at me
with no expression on her face. But it wasn't negative.
So then I got up and I left. I went
back to the table. Okay, they in their they in
their conversation. I'm going to the bathroom. Betty Grabil is
coming off the dais. She stops me, takes my head
(58:46):
in her hands and says, baby, you got class and
kiss me on the lips. That's something you remember. Yeah, okay,
we're done.
Speaker 2 (59:00):
Thank you guys, Thank you guys, thank you.
Hey everyone, Connor here.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We just want to take a moment to thank you
so very much for tuning in and being a part
of the decon Chamber family. Your support keeps us going
and we couldn't do this without you.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
And if you love what we do and want to
help us even more, please consider joining us on Patreon.
You'll get exclusive perks, behind the scenes content, and even
opportunities to chat with us directly.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
And don't forget to check out are Awesome mergh because
who doesn't want to rep their favorite podcast in style?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Baby?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Every little bit helps, I promise you, and we're really
very very grateful for all of you who make this
show possible. So thanks for being there, and please enjoy
this episode of the Decon Chamber.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I know.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
The show has begun since your phasers, the fun you
kty full trip.
Speaker 6 (01:05):
Co with come.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It's the.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Con ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, trekkies and trekkers.
Welcome back to another episode of.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
The dcon Chamber.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I am Connor Trenier and my co hosts best friend
dominic Keaty.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Hey, guys, we've got a.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Very special episode for you. Dare I say a collector's
episode indeed.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
We have Walter Kanig.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
Walter, thank you for having us, Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
We have Dave tab Our, executive producer. And these two
gentlemen are extraordinary collectors. Walter has been kind enough to
allow us to be in his collector's lair here. It's
a thrill to be able to explore a lot of
this stuff and also to just talk about the general
(01:59):
sense why people collect, what what gets them involved in collecting.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And I think this is going.
Speaker 6 (02:05):
To be great, the full culture of collection.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And we were in the chat we were having before
we got up here and miked and ready for the cameras.
Dave and Walter were talking and Dave had not been
here before, and when I brought him up here to
look around Walter's man cave.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
He was just literally aghast at the depth that this
collection goes.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Walter, first question, what was the first thing that you
can remember maybe buying and thinking, oh that will start
me off.
Speaker 7 (02:39):
Callogg's pep. It's a breakfast cereal, probably the most insipid,
best breakfast cereal of all time. Tasteless, it was tasteless.
It was cardboard, right, but but they had a premium
in each box, a little tin back button. This is
(03:01):
nineteen forty five forty six, and you bought the cereal.
You had to buy the cereal to get the button. However,
if you had a larcen his soul, if you were
a felony at heart, there you could go into the
supermarket when nobody's looking, grab a box, open up the
(03:27):
bottom of the box. They would slip down and take
out the little pin back button, put the box back.
I was very circumspected about putting the box back. I
just didn't leave it on the ground or you know
what dropped No.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
I like a thief for the hunt.
Speaker 7 (03:40):
Well, I consider it a virtue, you know. So I
did that, and I had about half the collection when
I got caught. Me.
Speaker 6 (03:51):
I got caught by buy a shopkeeper, by.
Speaker 7 (03:54):
Somebody who worked in the supermarket, and they took me
back where they where they had the meat on hooks,
and they told me they were going to I was
about ten. They were going to arrest me and take
me to prison. I was there with my brother, who
(04:16):
was six years older than I was, and I told
him I was terrified. I was terrified. The meat on
the hooks. I thought, that's where I'm going to end
up on one of those. Yeah. So we went looking
for my brother and at first he denied knowing me. Yes,
(04:38):
I don't know him, bless his heart. But then they
let me go with the admonition that I should never
come back, you know, never darken our doorstep again. But
I had friends. I had ten year old friends. I
set up a competition who could steal the most impact buttons?
(05:02):
For me? What was in it?
Speaker 6 (05:03):
For them? It was great?
Speaker 7 (05:05):
I finished my collection, but what was it?
Speaker 6 (05:07):
What was in it for the friends to go in
and nam?
Speaker 7 (05:10):
Did it for the just for love competition?
Speaker 8 (05:15):
Do you still have those?
Speaker 7 (05:16):
Yes?
Speaker 8 (05:17):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (05:17):
No, no, I don't have those. No, everything went the traditionals.
The story that is part of every collector's life is
the mother who threw everything out.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
Did you suffer from that at all?
Speaker 8 (05:34):
No?
Speaker 6 (05:34):
No, not So what was your first collectable? Do you
remember when you got into that?
Speaker 8 (05:40):
I started collecting. God, it was probably after seeing Star
Wars for the first time in nineteen seventy seven, and
then going down to the toy store and buying the
comic books and some of the action figures and that
kind of stuff. I remember. One of my favorite toys
was this Planet of the Apes toy from the early seventies,
which I'm still trying to replace. That there was that
(06:00):
probably was thrown away by my mom. That and some
of the old hot wheel stuffs, and the old collecting cars,
and the matchbooks cars and the vintage the lunch pails,
the game boards. But lots of comic books, lots of
baseball cards.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
What do you think draws a person to be a collector.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I'm not particularly one.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I never really was in the comic books or any
of those sorts of things. Do you what do you
think it is about someone's memory memory?
Speaker 8 (06:28):
There's there's you know for Star Wars. It's kind of like, uh,
it's it's familiarity. It brings you home to like seeing
different things in my room. It reminds me of certain
times in my life. Nostalgia, Yeah, nostalgia, you know, seeing things.
I come to the Creation shows every summer with you guys,
where I met you guys many years back, and where
I met you for the first time. And it's it's
(06:50):
the enjoyment of also putting together collectible pieces, like buying
a original lithograph or a uniform and then taking it
around over years and years and having people like Walt
Or and people like that sign it to where at
the end of ten years it has one hundred and
twenty autographs on it. It's the challenge and the fun
of doing.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
It, you know, it's a quest.
Speaker 8 (07:09):
It's a quest. Yeah, So for some collectors we enjoy
the quest. Like if you look around this room, this
is probably one of the most insane collectible I mean,
I'm in awe. I mean the amount of pieces.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
In here.
Speaker 8 (07:22):
Are mind blowing.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Just the big little books behind us or in a
you would have one of these or two of these books.
There must be I mean, I've got to think that's
two hundred of them there.
Speaker 7 (07:33):
Five hundred?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Do you have all of them?
Speaker 7 (07:36):
I have all the big little books except those that
didn't have art. There are some books that were taken
directly from motion pictures and instead of art they had photos, right,
And I felt that was beneath me.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
In what way?
Speaker 7 (07:58):
I don't know. There's nothing rational and insane about this.
Speaker 6 (08:04):
Stuff, the big little books.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Just to go back to that, So you started collecting
these as what an.
Speaker 7 (08:10):
Eight year old or something, or eight or nine years old,
and they were too big to steal.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
And how much was a big little book in those days?
Do you have any recollection sense? Ten cents? Which was
pocket money? Do you remember how much pocket money you
used to get in those days?
Speaker 7 (08:26):
Well, you know, the curious thing is I never got
an allowance. No, no, I never thought about it. People
that I knew were getting allowances. I didn't care. I
had nothing to buy except big little books. And if
if these came out seven or eight at a time.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
And where did you keep these at home in a
family home with a brother and mom and dad? And
how did your parents react to you?
Speaker 7 (08:55):
I kept them in a closet.
Speaker 6 (08:57):
You did in a.
Speaker 7 (09:00):
Bookcase?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Right?
Speaker 7 (09:02):
And I had forty or fifty?
Speaker 6 (09:05):
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Did you take them off to college?
Speaker 7 (09:08):
I read him?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Oh no, no, I mean to be able to keep
your collection where you know, you go off to Grenelle
and then you go to UCLA, And did you have
all of your collections with you?
Speaker 7 (09:21):
Down the incinerator? Everything went down the incinerator.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Not me, mama, literally, So did you go back and
recollect them as it were?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Then?
Speaker 7 (09:35):
Well, nineteen sixty seven, I was in a bookstore with
my wife, Judy, Judy Levin, and she saw my ooing
and eyeing, and these the little books that somebody had
kept and they were selling. It was a Cherokee bookstore,
(09:55):
and she went back and bought me one and it
was like a buck.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And that that after.
Speaker 6 (10:08):
That, that was the Gateway drug.
Speaker 8 (10:11):
So out of all the stuff that's up here, and
there's a lot of amazing stuff, what are you like
your favorite few collectibles? Like if you if you had
to hand pick a few things just to keep by
your side and look at, what would they be? What
are the most.
Speaker 7 (10:25):
I'm not really sure. I don't know if I have
a favorite. It's just collecting all of it. Was was what
was appealing to me. And you talk about, you know,
what were the circumstances, what was the motivation? Uh? How
how what do they represent in your life? And it
(10:48):
was for me, it was just the pursuit. It's just
finding this stuff, you know, and and looking at it
and saying, oh, that's nice. I like that, and I
put it here and I put it there, And it
took on a different significance as I grew older. When
(11:09):
I became about thirteen, all the kids in my neighborhood
moved away. Everybody moved away. I was alone with the nuns.
There were two nuns who were living next door to me,
and oh I was.
Speaker 6 (11:29):
A good Jewish boy.
Speaker 8 (11:30):
YEA A different question that is there something that you
always wanted that you didn't get?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Like?
Speaker 8 (11:36):
Is there a collectible out there? Is there one holy
Grail item that you sought after, looked for and is
not in your collection?
Speaker 7 (11:43):
I wrote a poem about it, okay, Oh, keep it
of my thousand anguish size within my young and ear
breasted rised the song of youth, of love, simple and
content of all the good things that God to me
has sent. Oh powers above the drenched the earth with rain,
They give men breta and deliver them from pain. Am
(12:04):
I destined to lose these things? So dear to turn
from simple love to frustrating jeer? Am I to be
among the milling crowd, doomed all my life to ignomy's shroud?
Am I to under to and fro and hopeless love
(12:25):
with Marilyn?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
That's great? Is there one for you?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Oh?
Speaker 8 (12:36):
My God?
Speaker 6 (12:37):
You know I wrote a poem about it.
Speaker 7 (12:39):
I wrote a poem about it.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
No I bought it.
Speaker 8 (12:45):
No, I mean there's there's some original.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
It's got to be a dominant casing something.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
It's the it's the life size statue of Dominic Keating,
you know, the one.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
I've got it.
Speaker 8 (12:54):
Yeah, I see, you've got the original in your possession,
aged very well. It's a fine year. I think i'd like,
you know, from one of my favorite movies. I'd like
probably one of the original costumes, like like like a
full body Iron Man suit or a full like a
Darth Vader, like a full costume, like.
Speaker 6 (13:12):
Oh, they got for grabs, that sort of thing.
Speaker 8 (13:14):
Sometimes I see I see some things once in a
while that go for auction, but they're but they're pretty dark.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
And the provenance of them and is it authentic? Is
it pretty?
Speaker 8 (13:23):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, like you.
Speaker 6 (13:24):
Can always guarantee that it actually was.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Warm by it's or whatever.
Speaker 8 (13:30):
It's well, it's over who's donating or where it came
from and whose collection. But yeah, owning like the original
ambulance used in the Ghostbusters, or using something like the
original Darth Vader helmet used from the Empire Strikes.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Back, or well you've just gone all out, of course,
haven't you. Yeah, let's talk about the the the Back
to the Future, the third car that they smashed, the Smitherees.
Speaker 8 (13:55):
Yeah, I've been I've been helping a friend restore one
of the doloreist.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
And I've sat in it and it's now back to
its full glory.
Speaker 8 (14:04):
It's it's absolutely amazing to see it.
Speaker 6 (14:06):
It's been amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
We went to see Back to the Future music the
Sekstrom Well.
Speaker 8 (14:12):
Back to the Future I think is one of those
movies that is just so it brings us out like
a child. You know when we saw it, and we
have so many memories from when we saw it that
to actually have the opportunity to help a friend restore
the car was just priceless. It's just and then to
see it come together, uh, and then be able to
stand in front of it, like you said, be able
to take pictures in front of it, was just absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
At what aged for you?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Was it that collecting became important as opposed to admiring things,
and you know you were into comics, I'm assuming I was.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (14:43):
I mean, like I said, I started very early on
it with baseball cards in the early seventies, I think,
as a kid, and I remember having like Mike Schmid's
rookie card and Steve Garvey's rookie card, and you know,
Pete Rose's Rookie card and and I wanted to try
to complete some of the sets as a kid, and
then comic books and then action figures and toys.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
Do you still have a lot of this?
Speaker 8 (15:04):
A lot of it, Yeah, a lot of it. And
then I think it just kind of brings back a
loa childhood memory.
Speaker 6 (15:09):
There is I read about collecting.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I mean it's either a nostalgia and a sense of
you know, my.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
Safe place as it were, or it's the quest.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
There's a lot of one upmanship too when you get
into the weeds of it with other collectors, like I'm
the only one that got that.
Speaker 8 (15:29):
I think as you start to get into really collecting,
I think what becomes fun is trying to better your collection.
Meaning I had an original Darth Vader tie fighter ship
from Star Wars, and then I remember trying to get
a better condition one, and then a better condition and
then the same thing happened with like Star Wars comic books,
Like you've got a nine point four graded Star Wars
comic book number one, and then you want the nine
(15:51):
point five, and you want the nine point six, and
continually trying to find one that's in better condition. So
it's all about finding one of your favorite toys and
then continually putting it, you know, getting a better one
of it.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
How much time do you put in seeking these things out?
Speaker 8 (16:06):
Too much?
Speaker 7 (16:09):
You know?
Speaker 8 (16:10):
Yeah, the amount of money you've probably spent in your
lifetime buying this stuff, which some people call crap, you know,
is you could have bought twelve houses over. You know,
you could have put all your kids through college a
dozen times over. And then the big question is when
are you going to sell.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
It, like or if you're going to it? All right?
Speaker 8 (16:31):
And then the kids decide when they tell me when
I pass away, they they've already divided up what they're
each taking. You know, one's taking the Marvel, ones taking
the Star Wars. You know, one's taking the baseball.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
Don't you want to set up a museum?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
And just I do?
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Yeah, I do? You know that would be the cool
thing to do.
Speaker 8 (16:48):
I just like looking at it sometimes.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, But how.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Much of a sense of identity do you both get
out of the collection? I mean, how much was that
a part of the mix?
Speaker 7 (16:59):
I think that's what I was alluding to when I
said the psychological I didn't need it for that purpose.
I didn't need it to make me feel better about myself.
It was it was a comfort. It gave me comfort
just having it. You know, it gave me a sense
(17:20):
of peace. I know it sounds absurd, you know. I'm
brought up and a totally atheistic background.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I am.
Speaker 7 (17:32):
I am Jewish. I will always be Jewish the same way,
will always be a New Yorker, you know. So whatever need,
religion satisfies and it draws people to it. I probably
got that in some peculiar way out of collecting. I
(17:53):
got that sense of fulfillment, sense of peace. Yeah, they
were my friends, I was started to say. When I
was thirteen, everybody moved away and literally moved away, and
I went to a private school where most of the
students came from Park Avenue in Central Park West in
(18:14):
New York Manhattan, or they came from Riverdale and Scarsdale,
which is the others north of where I live. So
I was the only person in my neighborhood who went there.
I came home from school, there was nobody to play
with the weekends. I didn't know about sleepovers and going.
(18:37):
Nobody invited me. So I really spent four or five
years during my adolessons just hanging out in my own
little abode with my collectibles, and that's.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
And creating the I mean, look at this button chart here.
I mean it's just incredible. I mean that must be.
That's got to have five six hundred buttons on it,
hasn't it.
Speaker 7 (19:03):
But you know, I put them in designs. If I'm
putting straight vertically and horizontally, it would be easy to Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I like the design though. I mean there's an artistic
bent there.
Speaker 7 (19:15):
The ones that are in the circle. Yeah, if we
get to look at those are the ones that I stole.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
You know what's interesting is I have thousands and thousands
of collectibles in my house and people come into my
man cave like this and to show the familiarity of
what people think about when they look at collectibles. And
I'll tell you what my favorite thing is. When I
walked in here to second was people make a B
line usually and it's not the most expensive piece of
my collection. But they go for the hoverboard, they go
(19:44):
for the Darth Vader helmet, they go for the original
like a Superman comic book. They go to something that
like they relate to. It's not always the most expensive thing.
There's like a holy grail. There's the the standout right
people like they look at things like in the room,
like the hoverboard. It's signed by Michael J. Fox and
(20:06):
Christopher Lloyd and it's the first thing people pick up,
or the gauntlet from you know, one of the Avengers movies.
It's just funny when people walk in. They make it.
There's three thousands of things around the rooms that are
much more valuable and they pick up that, and like
they have helmets and they want to put them on,
like they want to touch it, or can I try this.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
Uniform one that allowed? Sometimes I do, depends on who
it is.
Speaker 8 (20:27):
So for me, your head on the wall up here
is like they look like the old tobacco cards and
it looks like a complete set up there on the wall.
It's the top picture up there on the wall of.
Speaker 6 (20:39):
The tobacco cards. You yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8 (20:42):
And it's not just you don't have just one of them,
like a T two O six Honus Wagner card, which
is worth tens of millions of dollars. You have a
whole set of them, and it's just it's an absolute
gorgeous collection of cards.
Speaker 6 (20:55):
Did you smoke to get them?
Speaker 7 (20:57):
Oh? Never, smoke. Never dress never did drugs, but Merilyn
Monroe was very heavy, and I thought, so, did.
Speaker 6 (21:08):
You buy cigarettes to get the cigarette cars?
Speaker 7 (21:11):
No? No, those cards precede me. They were before I
was around, in nineteen twenties.
Speaker 6 (21:19):
So you bought that as a set, as a collectible set.
Do you remember what you pay for them back in
the day?
Speaker 7 (21:27):
Not? Yea, for the day it was, you know it
was it was okay, now it's ten bucks maybe maybe less.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Yeah. And did you know you wanted to collect something
like that? Did you?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
I mean, did you ever collect anything for its value
that you thought it would become or was it just never?
Speaker 7 (21:49):
It was never about what might be worth the value
or anything. The only most of the stuff is comic related,
comic strip related, most of it, not in not all
of it. When I was about nine or ten years old,
I was introduced to the National Geographic magazine and the centerfold,
(22:10):
I believe it or not, was not Marilyn Monroe was
Native Americans, and I immediately felt an affinity and a
sense of sympatico. I know that I knew that we
had committed genocide, and I used to take out the
(22:30):
centerfold of National GENERI and tape it to my wall.
So I have some maybe silks, yeah, the little silks.
And on the on the staircase there was pinbag buttons
Native Americans. I wrote it. I wrote a really good.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Now the images of those as Is there a contention
to that now or.
Speaker 6 (22:59):
Is I don't think. I don't think.
Speaker 8 (23:00):
So.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
It's not like.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
It's not like you know, it's not like caricatures, you know,
it's it's proper portraits.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
I wonder I was thinking about this, the psychology behind collecting.
And I know, having read your book, and I know
enough about your growing up that they weren't the easiest experiences.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
And and is.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
There something in particular about getting lost in the fantasy
of of what you know, having the comic books and
having comfort, as you said, in the sort of pieces
that you have, is is there Have you ever looked
back on that and wondered what what what that is
for you? Or is it just you know, because I
think collectors are a unique breed.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I mean, I'm not particularly one.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I do like things, but I've never really gone after
and sought after items or collections.
Speaker 8 (23:57):
You know, for me, I just I just it just
brings back still any memories, and I just take a
lot of pleasure in it. It's like this last summer,
I put together a album at the Creation convention of
Strange New Worlds, and I met Carol Kine for the
first time, and I got like twelve of these albums
signed so I could give them away to friends and
gifts and stuff, and it's kind of for me, it's
(24:20):
just fun to put them together and the memories. So
when you look at it. So when I look at
this Strange New World's album or a card album I have,
or a twelve Monkey's piece I have in my room,
it's the journey of actually saying, Hi, I'm Dave. Nice
to meet you. You're kind of wow. I really enjoyed
seeing you on the show and having that interaction with you.
And then it's having that memory and then putting you
(24:41):
on the item and having you sign like a bunch
of items, and then having it up in display in
my home office, and then I can smile and look
back and go, God, it was a great summer and
that was a great show. It was like, you know,
formed an awesome friendship and we had some dinners. And
so every time every time I look at something, a
lot of what I do his personal even sometimes I
(25:02):
have a friend Chris we we collect a lot of
our items together, or my daughter Amanda, and it's it's
the journey of getting the items ready. So like I'm
I'm like, you're buying the items. Like for me, it's
like Simon Peg is going to be it. Uh, And
I'm a big fan of his. He's going to be
a creation this summer. And it's putting together the items
that I want to get signed. So it's the journey
(25:23):
of finding some pieces that I want to get him
to sign, and then the journey of like meeting him
and then having him on those pieces and then finally
seeing those pieces in my collection signed.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Are you ever disappointed when it when it doesn't map
out quite as it you had it in your head?
Speaker 8 (25:41):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (25:43):
And I won't mention names there There have there have
been some people I was really excited about meeting and uh,
and it just it didn't turn out. Carl Urban was
somebody I was so excited to meet Carl Urban from
play who played Bones and the Star Trek movies, and
he did not disappoint. Or Scott Bacula, I mean I
(26:04):
really wanted to meet Scott Bacula, and he walked into
the room at one of the conventions and walked around
and shook everybody's hand, and I had the opportunity to
get him to sign all my uniforms and my lithographs,
and you know, and then Walter, you know, another person
who I wanted to meet forever, and I got to
see him at the show, and I brought all my
uniforms for Walter to sign, and all my lithographs and toys.
(26:24):
And now I have these lithographs and uniforms all over
my home office and there's Walter's and Walter's signature sticks
out like a sore thumb. It's absolutely it's absolutely no,
it's absolutely gorgeous. Because some celebrities today have gotten so
commercial that it's just a quick letter. You don't even
know what it is. So Walter's got one of those
(26:46):
signatures like LeVar Burton's or Michelle's or proper cursive that
you look at Walter's signature, it's Walter. It screams his personality,
like LeVar Burton, another person who's just got an amazing
in gorgeous autograph.
Speaker 6 (27:01):
He does a flower, you know something.
Speaker 8 (27:03):
But it's a process and Walters is. So when you
look at your piece and you've got Walter's autograph on there,
it's just like and then you can remember meeting him.
It's you smile.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Does it ever going home to the office, to the
man cave, does it ever become wool paper? Or do
you do you take the presence to go now, wait
a minute, let me look at that.
Speaker 8 (27:24):
There are some items I do. There are some there
are some fun pieces I've put together that are just
absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Uh.
Speaker 8 (27:30):
There's a Doctor Who piece which I just I have
one hundred autographs from a hundred different people that have
been on Doctor Who. And I finally got Matt Smith.
I sent it out to a convention and I finally
put I had David Tennant, and I had Chris Eckles
and I and I finally got Matt Smith on all
my Doctor Who stuff, and it was like it was
like just finally looking at the pieces signed by one
(27:51):
hundred people and then Matt Smith right in the middle,
it was like, Wow, it's like the crown jewel for me.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
When you when you come up here, Walter said, this
is your office now, and do you do you take
a minute to still look around and take in what you've.
Speaker 6 (28:07):
Collected or is it is it? Is it backdrop?
Speaker 7 (28:10):
Well, most of the time it's it's a backdrop.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (28:14):
Occasionally I stopped and say, oh, well, you know, let
me look at that. So I do, I give it
some attention, but it's it's you know, I've been doing
it for a long time. Nineteen sixty seven is when
I started collecting it again. So that's thirty three, fifty three,
(28:34):
fifty eight years ago.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
All these caricatured toys up here behind us.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
I mean, where do you find them?
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Are they just in stores that you know, collectible stores
that you go to. Well, they've got figurines. I mean
there must be a thousand or two figurines in there.
Speaker 7 (28:54):
Well. One of the blessings of being involved in Star Trek.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
Is people give you.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
They give me gentlemen. I wish I could remember his name,
because he deserves being You deserve some promotion. Those soaper
heroes on top of the roll top desk were made
in a garage, you know, and he sold them to
a big toy company. He sold the moles and they
(29:22):
sell them. He gave them all to me.
Speaker 6 (29:24):
That's that's cool, and it's and.
Speaker 7 (29:27):
It's not like I said, gee, you know, he just volunteers.
And then there's another company that gave me those tins
on top of it. They all housed figurines, right, and
they were they were modern, modern person's recollection of the
(29:54):
toys that used to be sold back in the day,
back in the forties. One's were sold in the forties
were made out of wood. They were wood risen. You know,
they poured them into molds, but they were made out
of wood. You know, these are are not wood. In
any case, they were all given to me. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (30:16):
Now today you probably can't get in trouble for anything
you took from the set, but was there because I
don't think they're going to come after you at this point.
Is there anything you took from the show that you
were supposed to take not supposed to take from when
you were filming the original Star Trek TV show or
the movies of yours?
Speaker 7 (30:32):
My costume from Star Trek four and where is it? Well,
let me tell you, I were so. The leather jacket
was really nice. The leather pants, you gotta wonder do
you wear leather pants? After? So? I got an offer
(30:59):
I sell them. Yeah, And if I told you. You
probably blanched because it wasn't enough.
Speaker 8 (31:06):
It was not enough.
Speaker 7 (31:07):
It was very I was very happy I gave it
to I saw them somebody who I was a friend with.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
So do you still go to the Rose Bowl or
places where you can find collectibles? And the second part
of this question is are there still for both of you?
Are there still you know finds that you're like, you.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Know what I got that for twenty bucks?
Speaker 8 (31:29):
You know, everything in this house is a fine I'll take.
Speaker 6 (31:32):
It all right.
Speaker 8 (31:33):
He was showing me a book a few minutes ago,
and he's got these cards in a binder that each
one should be in a museum, and it's like, it's
like Buck Rogers original Dick Tracy cards and Buck Rogers cards,
and they're just they're just in a in a book.
I remember the first time someone showed me their baseball
collection when I was younger, and they literally had pages
(31:54):
and pages of Mickey mantles and they were just creasing
them in the pages.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
There it is, I mean, give the give one of
the cameras a little.
Speaker 8 (32:01):
Yeah, I mean, so I'm terrified. I'm terrified of actually
damaging any of these pages of the book because these
are like original dictra. I mean, each one of these
should be in like some plastic protector or something. I
mean little orphanani. I mean, I'd like to have just
one of these on my desk on display, just this
one right here. And you know he's got yeah, I mean,
(32:28):
this is just look at the original Buck Rogers cards.
I mean, and it's a it's a complete set. Also right.
I offered him my car for this, he said, he said,
he said, no, wow, this is just And look around
the room too, with the you know, with the new
Fantastic Four movie coming out, you've got all the Fantastic
(32:49):
Four stuff, and you've got all the DC heroes and
in the thor I mean, in the X Men.
Speaker 7 (32:55):
And this is interesting because these were you cut out
of the comic book. They were collectibles, and each Fausset
comic had one of these superheroes in't it.
Speaker 8 (33:10):
You know what anybody who's watching this podcast and if
they're my age, one of the neatest collectibles that I
wanted as a kid, I remember was the Hasbro send
in of the Boba Fett Star Wars toy that you
actually had to mail in, but you had to collect.
I think enough of the Kenner little circles off the
back of buying the action figures for the store, and
then you could mail in for the Boba Fett that
(33:33):
was in the cartoon that had the actual rocket on
the back that actually launched, and that was I remember
that was something at that age. I remember buying as
many of those darn action figures and cutting those things
out and I think I got four of them back
in the mail.
Speaker 6 (33:47):
But that was the character Bob.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Why did Boba Fett become quite such the character? It's
amazing how that character took off in Star Wars a
minor character to start with, right.
Speaker 8 (33:59):
And he's still one of today's favorite.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Time even talk in the first time movie we saw him.
Speaker 8 (34:05):
Not sure, I don't think so he talked in the
cartoon and there was an edited scene taken out of
Star Wars that in the special edition he was added
back in all.
Speaker 6 (34:15):
This stuff, man, I mean, this is my era.
Speaker 7 (34:18):
This stuff goes back to the thirties.
Speaker 8 (34:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
You know where you found these? Is it just in
various places?
Speaker 7 (34:26):
And well, I had one principal source. It was an auction.
It was called Hake's Auction and it came out first
literally it was mineog about six staple mimeograph pages. And
now it's a very slick magazine. You know, everything's in color,
(34:49):
and it's more than just it's political, it's it's everything
you can possibly conceive of that could be collectible. And
they have Disney stuff that goes for hundreds of thousands
of dogs.
Speaker 8 (35:01):
Right. You know. I was just reading a special the
other day that this card right here is on one
of a kind and people have been looking for this
for like thirty five years. You've got it right here
in your book.
Speaker 7 (35:10):
Which one is?
Speaker 8 (35:11):
I'm just kidding. You have a T two O six
Honus Wagner card here? Why you have two of them?
Speaker 6 (35:19):
Right now? You only have one?
Speaker 8 (35:24):
But you know what this is. This is exactly what
I would expect to find here today, like be looking
through a book like this, like literally finding like a
Honess Wagner card, just like, oh, you have a Honess
Wagoner card. And I could actually see turning the page
and going, oh, why you have two of them? Right
because at some point in time there was you know,
there was more of these out there. This is this
(35:44):
is like I said, this is now.
Speaker 6 (35:46):
The funny thing, of course, is that we're sitting upstairs.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
In an addition to this house. Yes, that your wife, Judy,
God bless her, who passed away a couple of years ago.
Speaker 6 (35:56):
Sorry for your loss, of course, Walter, but.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
She kind of made you build this extension up here
because I'm not living all this down there exactly.
Speaker 7 (36:05):
That was that was the stipulation. When everything stays up.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Here, everything had to come up here. And this became
the collectible.
Speaker 7 (36:13):
And I had an office downstairs that became her office.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Now, if I'm not mistaken, your missus has just made
you buy another house.
Speaker 6 (36:20):
She wasn't living with it anymore.
Speaker 8 (36:23):
She is she is not happy about how the house
has become collector's paradise.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Yeah, I mean, not to shame you, but I mean
there is no no, There is a story about the
Lamborghini the sat in the garage that hadn't been used
in eighteen months because it had nothing but leather jackets or.
Speaker 8 (36:39):
It's covered and stuff.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Well, now in the collectible leather jacket well a collectible.
Speaker 8 (36:47):
It's become It's become a collectible because of the things
that are on it. Not because the cars are collectible,
but the items that are covering the car in the garage.
Because there's just nowhere else to put it. There's also
that I started collecting shoes with a friend of mine,
and now there's a wall of Nikes in the living room,
which looks great behind her fabulous table. There's about three
(37:10):
hundred pairs of Nikes.
Speaker 6 (37:11):
Do you wear them once in a while?
Speaker 8 (37:14):
I wear my Travis Scott's and I wear a few.
Speaker 6 (37:16):
Of my When you wear them outdoors or just in.
Speaker 8 (37:18):
Oh hell no, you don't wear them outdoors. You don't
wear your shoes outside.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Will you wear them to the car to go to
the restaurant or is it an indoor wear only.
Speaker 8 (37:29):
It's a process because if you actually wear one of
your shoes, then you have to clean them before they
go back in the box. So nothing, you never wear
a pair of shoes. I have to scold my son sometimes,
who I bought him some nice pairs of shoes and
they're white, and he'll literally put them back in the
box and excuse me, bring those down the hallway. Those
need to be soaped up and retreated and scuffed.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
And you know, it's Dave times, kids, and you have
you've got three storage spaces that are.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Full of.
Speaker 8 (37:58):
Yeah, sure, let's not tell the white keys. Let's not
tell the wife too much.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Did you do you collect anymore?
Speaker 1 (38:06):
No?
Speaker 6 (38:07):
I was going to say, yeah, does it ever stop?
Speaker 7 (38:09):
Uh? No, I got you know, a lot of things
on a very I don't know how to explain on
a level that I don't totally understand. Stopped when my
wife passed away.
Speaker 6 (38:30):
Yeah, that's understandable.
Speaker 7 (38:32):
I've living alone and I'm here. There are mornings when
I I wake up and I don't know what to do? What?
What the why should I get out of bed? You know?
I have those days. Ultimately, so far I've been able
to force the issue.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
And it is getting out of bed and putting one
foot in front of the other and getting up and
making the coffee. That's suddenly twenty minutes and you're like, okay,
this is all right.
Speaker 7 (39:04):
You know what part of my routine is every morning
I don't have it on. I feed the squirrels my
walnuts and I.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Saw the walnuts downstairs, and when he's a walnuts easer,
But no, they're for the squirrels.
Speaker 7 (39:18):
Those are for the squirrels. We have an understanding.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
That's why they're all hanging around.
Speaker 7 (39:24):
Forgive me for beginning, even for sounding so racist, but Honestly,
I can't tell one squirrel from me.
Speaker 6 (39:36):
They don't care. Do they ever eat out of your hands?
Speaker 7 (39:41):
They do well?
Speaker 6 (39:42):
Now about that.
Speaker 7 (39:43):
In fact, I have a couple of photos. During a
period when we didn't have dogs, I had great squirrel friends.
My favorite was Claudeine. Claudeine would climb up my pants
and take the walnut out of my hand. Claudine came
(40:04):
up the stairs. No, hopped on my desk when it
was possible to come in the house. Yes, yes, And
I had a bunch of walnuts and a bowl, and
and you know they never just take it and leave.
They they're picky, you know, they check it out. I
think they're looking for with the creases, you know, where
(40:27):
the opening is. And then they take off.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
This one's past due, this one.
Speaker 7 (40:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
I have an avocado tree in my God, and then
the amount of avocada is when?
Speaker 1 (40:39):
When?
Speaker 6 (40:39):
When? When my tree gives them?
Speaker 8 (40:41):
I thought snow White lived here. Pulled up. All the
animals are outside. The squirrels were all around the house.
Speaker 6 (40:46):
It's a little Disney house.
Speaker 8 (40:48):
It's very Disney. There's several Disney things here too.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
It's very pretty.
Speaker 6 (40:52):
Will your collecting ever stop? Never oh, my wife hopes.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
So.
Speaker 8 (40:58):
I mean it's it's it's overwhelming. I mean, you know,
you know every time I think I have everything I want,
then there's something else I want.
Speaker 6 (41:05):
You know that they put a new show out.
Speaker 8 (41:08):
Well, I'll give you an example. You know, all my
friends were getting ready for the big Creation show this
summer at Star Trek, and my kids were, Okay, last year,
we did this, We did this, we did the twelve
Monkey cast, signed items, we did the Strange New Worlds,
we did the card restling. They're like, what are we
doing this year? And it's like it's like, you don't
need anything else. I'm like, well, I can't just show
up at the show empty handed.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Yeah, we brought you here for an intervention. We didn't
want to stay at the very beginning, but there's we
want to talk about some things.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
No, I mean, you know, I've changed my signature. You
need to get all my stuff redone.
Speaker 8 (41:42):
I think for me also, work is very stressful, and
I think that I think that collecting and living in
your past and enjoying things from your childhood is it's
your happy spots. Yeah, and you know when you go
to like these color conventions and collection shows it's kind
(42:03):
of like an escape, you know, it's kind of fun.
And then it's fun to get things done, and it's
fun to see people you know, and it's fun to that's.
Speaker 6 (42:11):
The other part of it is and is the community
aspects of it.
Speaker 8 (42:14):
And I like to get all my stuff in person,
you know. I like to get you know, I like
to pick out my collectibles. I like to pick my
items to get signed, and then I like to actually
meet the people that sign the items.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
Are you disappointed if it's a bit perfunctory that meeting?
Speaker 6 (42:32):
Do you feel that sometimes?
Speaker 8 (42:34):
I mean, sometimes they're a little I will tell you
something interesting. Someone who I really wanted to meet was
Whoopy Goldberg and because she was on Star Trek and
she played guide and who Whoopy Goldberg. Yes, And I
have this thing when I go to the conventions and
we won't talk about Bill Shatner, but he's one of
the only people who would not hold a prop for me.
So I love going in photos and bringing phasers and communicators.
(42:57):
I mean, I have a picture that I wish I
had here to share with you. I did it in
the San Francisco Show with Jerry Ryan and Todd Dashwick
and Brett Spider and they are all people just asked me,
how the heck did you get all these people to
hold phasers and do this like James bond Po's And
it's just an incredible photo. And of course, every time
(43:17):
I would ask Bill to hold a problems, I don't
hold props, and I'm like, oh, okay, no big deal.
So Whoopy Goldberg is there at the same show, of course,
and I'm like, oh my god, Whoopy Goldberg, and I'm
just like, I'm not going to do it. I'm not
going to ask Whoopy Goldberg to hold a phaser and
a communicator. So as I'm getting up there, I put
it and she goes, what's that And I'm like, oh, there,
(43:38):
I brought props and stuff to hold, and she goes, well,
give them to me. Let's do this. And then you
know Whoopy took these folders would be with communicators and
phasers and it's just you know, and then you have
those pictures and it's just what a great memory. And
one of my first time ever at a convention was
photos with you guys and Anthony Montgomery and I came
up to you guys, and you guys do phasers and
communicators and you get you guys started a trend of like,
(44:02):
let's do this.
Speaker 6 (44:03):
I think we all did Charlie's Angels.
Speaker 8 (44:04):
Yeah, we just took some and then I think started
the comfort level of all right, this is okay, and
then we looked at the photos and they're awesome.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Do you ever go and bid something that you can't
be there for, you know, like the Southby's has something
or auctions that are.
Speaker 8 (44:22):
Once in a while.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Ye.
Speaker 7 (44:24):
Can I tell you the opposite side of that story?
Speaker 8 (44:27):
Yes? Absolutely.
Speaker 7 (44:29):
My best friend in the neighborhood playoffs for two years
was Chris Lloyd. Yeah, I made him laugh.
Speaker 6 (44:38):
Buddies.
Speaker 7 (44:39):
Yeah, so we got along great, got along great. So
come out here. Life goes on, people move different directions.
I'm doing Star Trek one in the motion picture. He's
doing Taxi. So I go a paramount. So I go
(45:01):
on and knock on his door. This is my best friend,
the neighbor. This is the guy who invited me up
to his home in Connecticut.
Speaker 6 (45:08):
He comes from a very very quiet, well to do home.
Speaker 7 (45:11):
Holy cow, he had a pipe organ that was three
house stories high. He had elevators in his house. So
I knock on his dressing room door opens. Chris, how
you doing, I said, Chris, it's Walter. Never got a
(45:38):
word out of him. Really, he played that reverend gym
he'd become reverend for ten minutes. Pissed me off, totally
pissed me off. You don't do that with friends.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
No, it's and it's a funny business, isn't it. When
people think they get to a certain level and now
if you're not at their level, I'm all right, we
can't be friends anymore.
Speaker 7 (46:02):
Well, yeah, I got to tell you that. I hastened
to add that we resolved that good. So I'm at conventions.
We all right, how not a little bit? We talked,
all right, so it's over. But I can't resist telling
that story.
Speaker 3 (46:16):
Well, you know, we get in life, you know, particularly
in your late mid to late thirties forties, you've still
got a full sense of yourself, particularly in our game,
you know, and we've we've come across it. I mean,
it's like, Darling, you're not solving well piece it loved,
you know.
Speaker 8 (46:35):
I got to meet him for the first time this
summer at Creation. All right, he was out there and
I brought like fifty things for him to sign.
Speaker 6 (46:41):
Did he sigh.
Speaker 8 (46:42):
Oh, yeah, he was. He was in and he actually
did hold a prop with me for my photo. So
I actually went in with the almanac, the hoverboard, the glasses,
and I actually took a photo and he like he
held the almanac and the hoverboard with me in the photo.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
Wow. Cool.
Speaker 8 (46:56):
So did he talk like this?
Speaker 7 (46:58):
He didn't do.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
He was.
Speaker 8 (47:04):
He was very nice. He was extremely nice. It was
nice to finally get a whole bunch of things signed
in person.
Speaker 6 (47:08):
Also, I'm older. See now, is he your age or
is he a bit younger?
Speaker 7 (47:13):
Is Chris Lloyd? He's a little younger. He's about three
years younger. The oldest member of our cast was Dabney.
Speaker 6 (47:20):
Cormany, a connection.
Speaker 7 (47:22):
He was four years older than I was. I think
I was the second oldest. I was really among less
than a handful of folks who had actually graduated college.
Speaker 6 (47:33):
That's what brought me back to the States.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
I came out here on a vacation, really, and I
met Dabney Coleman's daughter, Oh, Kelly Coleman. Yeah, on my
third night in La at the Rainbow Room, And suddenly
I was having dinner with Dabney Coleman and his best
friend was Harry Dean Stanton at Dan Tanner's restaurant, where
(47:55):
Dabney had a booth and the Colemans Coleman steak on
the menu. I remember Nick Cage came over to the
table to play homage and I was like, whoa.
Speaker 6 (48:06):
Harry Dean lent for? He said, you got You've got
a good little kid.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
You should come back here. I'm not leaving.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Yeah, I didn't know that Damney Coleman was an ace
tennis player.
Speaker 7 (48:19):
He was an ace. Yeah, he came here. Ephraim Zymbolyst
Junior was the big name in Hollywood tennis until Dabney arrived.
And then Dabney just wiped everybody because.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
He didn't look particularly athletic, but he obviously younger days.
Speaker 6 (48:38):
Yeah, great actor, he was really good.
Speaker 7 (48:42):
He married another student, Jeane Hale, and they had several
kids together there. Jean had a very promising career going.
She was in one of the Flint movies. But evidently
Dabney instable with his wife doing so well, right, since
(49:04):
he became a housewife.
Speaker 6 (49:05):
He certainly was.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
He certainly had an ego, Dabney, but he was honestly,
he was such fun at dinners and in a very
very funny, very talented.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
You were an actor for tried, tried, dabbled, dabbled, didn't
do well.
Speaker 8 (49:21):
Probably a few years. I tried to do some TV commercials,
a little acting, little theater, you know. I thought I
wanted to be a film director. But yeah, it didn't last.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
Yeah, yeah, it's a tough to It kind of worked out.
Speaker 8 (49:37):
Every time I went to a TV commercial interview, I'd
show up with Danny about Aducci from the Parture Family
because we were you know, you're always in the room. Now,
I'm always in the room, you know, with twelve other
guys that look exactly like me.
Speaker 6 (49:50):
So it's amazing how they find this isn't right.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
I thought I was one of the guys exactly like
you walk out and you're like, god, damn, damn.
Speaker 7 (50:00):
I have one other and student related, and it jim
James Conn was also in my class, Jimmy.
Speaker 6 (50:10):
I did Las Vegas with him. Yeah, yeah, that's great.
Yeah it was. He was he friendly, was nice that week,
he loved me.
Speaker 3 (50:17):
He loved me being English, so that he were I
got the English card. So because apparently there were some
weeks he was just hateful to people.
Speaker 7 (50:28):
So we ended up coincidentally playing opposite each other. In
an episode of the alphad Hitchcock Hour. He played the
good guy and I played the bad guy. Yeah, and
at one point we put him on trial and I
(50:49):
supposed to swing and you know, hit him. The camera
was over my shoulder. I was wearing this ring. I
got a little fun, too authentic. I cut his lip
with my But the anecdote is, we're eating lunch. Had
a hopper walks by, you know, in the gossip calmness,
(51:10):
and she says, you have a big career going. I
know she wasn't talking to me, she walked by. So
we get up, We get we start to leave. We
leave the restaurant Universal and the ad for the Hitchcock
Hour is yelling, hurry up. They need you guys, They
need you guys. So what's my instinct to run? He
(51:33):
grabs me by the arm. Stars don't run.
Speaker 3 (51:39):
Funny how that's instinctive in some people. Ye, speaking of working, well,
you've got something in the pipe at the moment I
need something in the pipeline.
Speaker 6 (51:47):
You've got a film.
Speaker 7 (51:50):
I have a small festival film that somebody I know
wrote for me. I had seen me do Scrooge and
Christmas Carol and was impressed with the work. And uh,
it's a it's a very significant and appropriate little film.
It's about an old Jewish guy who had as a
child had been in a camp and watched his parents
(52:14):
murdered by an SS officer And what do you know,
the SS officer has just moved into his neighborhood and
starry Stoart starts with the SS officer body being a
found and now they're looking for the perpetrator. Wow, it's
a very it's a challenging role. I played versus Jarman accent.
(52:38):
Uh uh two. One of the one of the people
who plays the cop is the writer director. His name
is Frank Quinn.
Speaker 6 (52:48):
And the other is a short or a full length.
Speaker 7 (52:51):
No, it's a it's a twenty five minute. The other
fellow is an actual German, was born in Germany, is
now American. He plays the other cop and there with
a very slight accent.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Right.
Speaker 7 (53:06):
But anyway, it's the relationship between the three of us
and how it evolves. And I felt it was so appropriate.
It's so appropriate because I have very very strong feelings.
Forgive me, folks, this is my little speech. Okay, I
(53:26):
have strong feelings about what's happening in Gaza, you know.
And I just cannot embrace the idea that this goes
on forever, that you keep killing people and it's okay.
You know, it is not okay. So this is the
way the story ends. Speaks to another option other than
(53:52):
just letting it the mayhem continue.
Speaker 6 (53:54):
All right?
Speaker 3 (53:55):
It sounds quite pertinent and poignant for the times, then
I think, so, yeah, is it got a title yet?
Speaker 7 (54:02):
It's it's called mister Fleischmann.
Speaker 6 (54:05):
That's me good. Is the money there to make it?
Speaker 7 (54:08):
The money is very modest, but it is not there.
It's hard to raise money. It's hard to raise money
for a big picture, and it's hard to raise money
for a little picture, you know, because there's no profit here.
This isn't. This is a festival film for people to see,
(54:29):
to absorb, to appreciate.
Speaker 1 (54:32):
You.
Speaker 6 (54:32):
Probably can make this film for one hundred grand, can you?
Speaker 7 (54:35):
I can make it for far less than that, fifty grand,
far less than that. I can make it right, Yes,
he has business. I could make it for forty grand?
Speaker 6 (54:44):
Could you make it right? I bear that in mind. Well,
I wish you luck without thank you.
Speaker 7 (54:50):
I mean, I don't know how much longer I have here.
Evidently I still have I'm control my cerebralative, Yeah, reasonably articulate,
thissome so and I have aside from psiatica, which so
many people get as they grow older, I don't have
(55:12):
anything that's that's beckoning me to the ground that love.
Speaker 2 (55:18):
Wait until we all four get up off these chairs.
Speaker 6 (55:22):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (55:24):
Well it's been absolutely lovely, and thank you for having
us around.
Speaker 7 (55:29):
It's my pleasure.
Speaker 6 (55:29):
I'm really glad that we can so nice this.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Man, and you know, it's it's great to hear the
stories about collection. It is what it does for you
and what it does for you know, your your psyche.
Speaker 6 (55:46):
Yeah, well we're all we're.
Speaker 8 (55:47):
All living in like I said, just building memories. And
like I said, I just enjoyed it. It makes me happy.
So yeah, I mean, you know, and I love looking
at it. It's there's a lot of memories here, and
there's a lot of this is is probably one of
the greatest rooms I think I've ever been in. That
really is. I mean, the attention to detail of all
the collectibles and here's amazing. I mean, even tho way
(56:10):
the things are like in these little display cases, and uh,
they're all in their own little sets and collections.
Speaker 7 (56:16):
I mean, I got one more story. Oh, come on,
we have time. I never met Marilyn Monroe, but I
didn't meet Betty Gravel. Do you even know who Betty Gray?
Everybody know who?
Speaker 1 (56:29):
Better grab is?
Speaker 7 (56:31):
Okay? So I'm doing a play with Jackie Coogan, who
played the kid opposite Charlie Chaplin. We're doing a play.
I left Star Trek to do the play because I
got crazy away month with sir We're protected. No, we're
perfect three four. But that was my entire dialogue.
Speaker 6 (56:51):
The German again. Then I've been to German.
Speaker 7 (56:54):
But this is not my German accents. So Jackie who
and an Eye Open in a play just side of
Chicago in Saint Charles, Illinois, and Betty Grabel comes into
the Sisteth Theater to do You'll know it if I
play with William Holden, Judy Holliday, and Roderick Crawford.
Speaker 6 (57:17):
Born yesterday, born yes, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 7 (57:20):
And so she does the lead. Now there's a guy
in Chicago who's a radio personality who interviews actors in
theater productions who are known and they came and he
came to interview Betty Grabel on opening night. He's also
known to be very insulting. You know, he's really a
(57:40):
pain in any case, So the clay opens, she does
extremely well. We retire to this restaurant, we Coogan and
I are invited to sit with them while he interviews her.
At one point he turns to me and says, I
bet you never even heard of Betty grew And I said,
(58:01):
on the contrary, I know that when miss Greebel leaves here,
she's taking born Yesterday to New York. She has to
do with in a Broadway theater. She has two pictures
in one in Western Europe, one in Eastern Europe, which
is scheduled to perform in and she has a television series.
I'm making this up as some going along, you know.
(58:24):
And she's just standing sitting there and looking at me
with no expression on her face. But it wasn't negative.
So then I got up and I left. I went
back to the table. Okay, they in their they in
their conversation. I'm going to the bathroom. Betty Grabil is
coming off the dais. She stops me, takes my head
(58:46):
in her hands and says, baby, you got class and
kiss me on the lips. That's something you remember. Yeah, okay,
we're done.
Speaker 2 (59:00):
Thank you guys, Thank you guys, thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!