Name: Ricardo Montalbán Reveals The True Meaning Of Corinthian Leather | Letterman
Uploaded: 2024-05-07T15:54:05.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ricardo Montalbán Reveals The True Meaning Of Corinthian Leather | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-05-07. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ricardo Montalbán Reveals The True Meaning Of Corinthian Leather | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-05-07. Transcript available.

Our first guest tonight has been in more than 40 motion pictures, including The
Mark of Zorro.
I was in that as well.
He was also in Across the Wide, Missouri, and Star Trek, The Wrath of Khan.
And for seven years, he was Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island.
Folks, please welcome Ricardo Montalban.
Hi, Ricardo. Nice to meet you. How are you?
Thank you very much for being here.
How are you doing?
Well, they made me feel cable-rific.
See?
They really did.
Oh, yeah.
He's celebrating National Cable Month. That's very nice.
You were on Fantasy Island for seven years?
Seven years.
That's a long time, isn't it?
Got up at five every morning, never came home before, seven, eight, nine, ten o'clock
at night.
Seven years.
And it was you and Hervé?
Hervé Vilchez.
Now, how did you guys get along?
Very well.
Hervé is, he's French.
And...
Is he from France?
From France.
From the South of France.
I guess that's what French means, doesn't it?
That's right.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
And he was, he is delightful.
He's very artistic.
He's a very good painter, a good artist, a good sense of humor, very charming.
Did he get on your nerves at all?
No, I'm just joking.
I mean, you must have been good friends to work with.
I probably got on his nerves.
I probably got on his nerves.
No, the thing that was funny about Hervé was that he had a little difficulty
with the language.
You know, I mean, being from Mexico originally, I had a lot of trouble with the
language.
And he had trouble enunciating certain things, you know.
For instance, one day, he was supposed to say,
Boss, is he here for the grand opening?
And so, and so the director says, Hervé, cut.
Hervé, it's grand.
For the grand opening.
Grand.
He says, grand.
Grand.
Grand.
Grand.
Grand.
Grand.
Grand.
Grand.
Grand.
Perfect.
Let's shoot it.
Well, actually, he was just using the French pronunciation.
That's right.
Yeah.
They had another time, there was a name, an unlikely name for him to pronounce.
It would be difficult for me.
His name was, he said, oh, boss, is that, the name was Simon Flynn.
Simon Flynn.
So we're doing the introductions, who's that boss?
I said, well, that's me so-and-so from Kansas City, who has a fantasy boss.
Well, she has to, oh, is she related to Simon Flynn?
Cut.
Do it again.
It's, it's, it's, it's Simon Flynn.
Yeah.
Ah.
There's, oh, boss, is she related to, uh, Flynn on Sims?
No, Simon Flynn, he couldn't get it.
By that time, the crew, we were all laughing.
Hervé was laughing.
Yeah.
And before the, I mean, it took forever to shoot that, you know.
But in his defense, not that he needs anybody to defend him on this count, but
that's the
kind of thing that anybody can make.
Anybody.
It could happen to, of course, it's happened to me, yes.
And you get to that point, and you get the mental block, but Simon Flynn.
Yeah.
He comes out, you know, Flynn on Simon, they all.
Now, and now, and now you're on, uh, the Colby's, right?
I'm on the Colby's.
Now, what is that show about?
That's like the, the second, the second half of, uh, it's, it's, isn't it a
continuation
of, uh, Dynasty?
Yeah, Dynasty.
Yeah, they're interrelated somehow, but no.
No, what it is, it's very funny, you know, because you as an actor, after so
many years,
you're used to reading a script.
Mm-hmm.
And you're at the beginning, the middle, and the end.
Now, you never, an actor never plays the result, but you play the continuity,
and you know
where you are.
You orchestrate the role, you know, you don't want to go high, you know, and so.
But in this thing, it's surprising.
Speak for yourself, by the way.
This is a surprise.
You open the script, and you read, and you say, and then you say, I do what?
Comes the total surprise, you know, there you are.
However, it's very much like life, David.
I don't know what's going to happen to me after I leave the studio, but I know
me, and I
know how I will react, you know?
I'm reacting to you a different way than I read somebody else.
Absolutely.
So in this case, it puts you in a certain circumstance, and you react to me.
Now, what is your character?
You're, uh, you're Zachary...
I am Zach Powers.
Zachary Powers.
My original name was, uh, Pablo Zacharias.
Mm-hmm.
He changed it to Zach Powers.
And you're...
And he's an ambitious man.
An ambitious man.
Ambitious, ambitious womanizer.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
You know, a sybarite.
Uh-huh.
He's very...
Uh-huh.
And, uh, but he has a soft spot in him, you know?
And I play him, you know, and an evil man doesn't know that he's evil.
He does things that are evil in the eyes of others, but he thinks it's
perfectly legitimate
for him to do certain things.
All right.
Is this guy a wealthy man?
Very wealthy.
Yeah.
Very, very powerful.
Very powerful.
But, you know...
And are you related to the Carringtons at all?
Not at all.
Yeah.
No.
Pablo Zacarias, not at all.
No.
No.
No, but, you know, in one occasion I did a guest shot in Dynasty, you know, and
I'm supposed
to have a scene with, uh, Samantha, you know, Joan Collins.
Joan Collins is Samantha?
Uh, is it...
Is it Samantha?
No, what is it?
Please help me.
Alexis.
Alexis, I beg your pardon.
Well, I'm working on the Colby's, not...
Yeah.
So, I, uh, they give me the, they give me, they give me the script, you know,
and it
was a very simple scene in which she, she calls me on the phone and I said, yes,
Alexis.
She says, uh, I don't know the name of the person, something like Mabel.
Mabel is, she says, Mabel is out of jail.
Mabel is out of jail.
Mabel is out of jail.
And it's written there.
My answer is, she is.
Now, so now I get to the, I, I get, I get to the studio and I say, I know,
because they
never tell you, you know, what's ahead.
It has to keep you a little bit in suspense so you, so you don't become stale.
I say, I realize, but then, you know, that she is, it's a very pregnant little
phrase.
It can be many things.
Sure.
Am I saying, she is?
Yeah.
I mean, scared that she's out of jail to incriminate that?
Yeah, right.
Am I saying, oh, she is, you know, so glad?
Am I saying, am I saying, she is?
I don't believe it.
Am I saying, oh, is she, you know, at least give me a clue.
What am I, glad, scared, what?
And they say, well, it doesn't really matter that much to you.
So, Samantha, yeah, yes, Alexis, you know, Mabel is out of jail.
Oh, she is.
That was the whole deal.
That was the whole deal.
And you never found out what she was, I never found out, nothing.
She is, okay.
We're going to do a commercial there, and then when we come back, we're going
to find out
whether we've made her lost money in the New Zealand stock market.
I ain't missing it already.
Oh, you're in on it, too?
Oh, good, all right.
We'll be right back.
All right.
So, we're, we're, we've broken even now.
So, it's come back up, Paul.
Earlier, we were losing three cents on the share, and now it's evened out.
So, our investment is holding its own, yeah.
We're, we're in the Rainbow Entrepreneurial Corporation.
They do various investments and so forth.
We bought in at $3.15 a share, and it's still holding its own.
So, so far.
Sire relief.
Not a bad investment.
Now, now, Paul mentioned this earlier.
What, what is the deal?
What the hell is?
Is there anything really Corinthian leather?
Is that anything?
It's just.
It's just, it's some kind of vinyl they make in Detroit, doesn't it?
No, they found, they found a leather that was very pliable, very soft, and very
durable.
And, and I don't know whether it was because of the, the writer, Jim Nichols,
who wrote the
commercials for Chrysler for me at that time, found, he wanted to find a word
that sounded
sort of elegant, that I could say with a little verb, you know.
And, uh, so Corinthian, it seemed, you know what I mean?
But, but does it mean anything?
Nothing.
Yeah.
Is that, uh, well, what does, you know, what does David Letterman mean?
You know?
Well, it's.
It's a name, David.
It's a name.
It's a name.
It's a name.
But it doesn't.
A very good name.
It doesn't refer to a geographic area.
Like David Letterman.
From Corinthianon.
Yeah.
It's a trade name.
Trade name.
A trade name.
How, how did you get that, uh, you were the spokesperson for Chrysler for
Atlanta.
Yes, for 13 years.
Yeah.
I think it's, I think it's a, a record.
Mm-hmm.
13 years.
How did that happen?
I was doing a tour of, uh, George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell.
Mm-hmm.
And, um, with, um.
Now, why, now, why do people laugh at that?
Why do they laugh at that?
Well, maybe the hell or the Don Juan.
I don't know which.
But I was doing this tour with, uh, making a tour with, uh, Aggie Moorhead.
Agnes Moorhead, God rest her soul.
Paul Henry and, um, and, uh, Edward Mulher.
And one of the places that he took us was Detroit.
And then in Detroit were people from Chrysler and from Young, uh, Younger Rubricum.
The ad agency.
The ad agency then.
And the writer, Jim Nichols, you know, they were getting ready to do this.
Didn't he write Corinthian leather?
He did.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
This is an original.
But they were, they were, they were getting ready to launch a new car called
the Cordova.
Yeah.
Now, that was very interesting because.
Now, I'll tell you what's funny about this, David.
You see, actually, the name of the city in Spain where my father in Mexico,
there's a city called Cordova, where they had a brewery, my, the branch of a
brewery makes it so I know the name, Cordova, you know.
Cordova.
Cordova.
The accent's on the first syllable.
Cordova.
Cordova.
Cordova.
Ta, ta, ta.
Cordova.
Now.
Cordova.
So now when I, I said, I said the new car, when I was reading the demonstration
for them, I say Cordova.
And they say, no, no, no, it's Cordova.
It is?
Yeah, they're telling you.
Cordova.
But not only, not only, Cordova.
So I said, well, at least let me say Cordova.
And they did.
Yeah, yeah.
And that's how, when, when, the, the, the, the, the Spanish sounding name.
I bet you sold a lot of cars.
Don't you get the feeling you probably, I mean, they had you for 13 years.
You must have moved a lot of iron.
I think Cordova was a very successful car.
Did you have one?
Did you?
Yeah, always.
Was it a nice car?
A very good car.
As a matter of fact, the other day, I was driving in my Chrysler and some kids
up next to me and he says, hi, Ricardo.
I said, hi.
He says, yeah.
I said, he said, he said, have you driven a Ford lately?
And I said, I said, no, maybe that's why I haven't, haven't had a recall in the
13 years I've driven a Chrysler.
Which is true, I never did.
In 13 years, I never had a recall.
And what are you working on now?
You're in the Colby's, more Star Trek movies?
And the Star Trek movie, I don't know, they left me, when I, when I died in
Star Trek, it was a definite death.
I mean, you saw me really kick the bucket.
But they cut just before I kicked the bucket.
So they left it kind of open, so I don't know what was going to happen.
So you couldn't be out there again.
But I'm doing the Colby's, David, which is, it's good for me because, you know,
after doing seven years of Fantasy Island, the image of Mr. Rourke,
in the white suit was so strong that I thought it was difficult for people to
take me seriously in other roles.
Whereas the Colby's is like a halfway house.
I mean, it's taking me, taking me out of the, taking me out of the, or the man
in the white suit to other things, I hope.
Well, I hope it's around for as long as you want it to be around.
We shall see if it's renewed.
We're waiting to hear.
And it's a pleasure to meet you.
You're a terrific man, and thank you for your time.
Nice to have you here.
Thank you.
Ricardo Montebein.
We'll be right back, Fred.