Name: Maureen O'Sullivan on Letterman, March 24, 1986
Uploaded: 2016-09-29T21:02:49.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Maureen O'Sullivan on Letterman, March 24, 1986' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-09-29. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Maureen O'Sullivan on Letterman, March 24, 1986' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-09-29. Transcript available.

Our next guest tonight is far too classy a woman to be on this program.
She is the veteran of over 70 motion pictures, including A Day at the Races,
The Thin Man, and the original Jane in a slew of Tarzan movies.
Her latest film is Hannah and Her Sisters. Please welcome Maureen O'Sullivan.
Nice to see you. Thank you very much for being here. You look terrific.
Congratulations.
Wait, no, it couldn't be much of an effort. You're a stunning woman.
Thank you.
Sure. It must be very exciting being a part of this film that's doing so well,
Hannah and Her Sisters.
Oh, I'm very happy. I'm happy for everybody, and I'm especially, I guess, happy
for Woody.
What was it like working with him and your daughter on the set and so forth?
Was it tense? A lot of anxiety?
Oh, no, no. No tension, really, on Woody's sets. You're just there to work.
And I had worked, really. It's funny. I'd worked with Mia before. I'd played
her daughter.
You played Mia's daughter?
I played her daughter.
How did that happen?
Well, only in readings. They didn't have enough actors when they were doing The
Great Gatsby, so they needed somebody to play the daughter, so I played the
five-year-old daughter.
In all the readings. And we were so serious about it. It was crazy, you know,
that we looked at each other when it was all over.
He said, are we nuts? You know, what's the matter with us?
It's very odd.
You can be so serious about doing nothing like that. No, she's very easy to
work with.
And not that we want to spend the rest of the night talking about him, but what's
he like to be around?
Woody is very much business. He's there for business. He's very, very nice to
be around. He's wonderful in this way. You don't rehearse much. If he wants you
to do something, he'll tell you. But otherwise, it's just do it. And then he'll
say, well, I either like it or I don't like it.
And then I think that he sees what you have to offer.
Yeah.
And he'll enlarge on that. And if he feels a certain sympathy, well, then he'll
play upon that.
So that's really...
It's a lovely way of working.
That's good for an actor, I would guess.
It's wonderful for an actor. And if I have time, I just thought of something
interesting.
I think that...
Good Lord, look at that ring. Whoa! That's a beauty. Is that...
I want to tell you, it's my engagement ring.
Oh, my.
I was married three years ago, so don't give up hope, fellas.
Oh, congratulations.
Boy, that's... that's quite a rock there.
I know.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. You were going to say something else?
No, I was going to say about Woody's working. Woody, I think, shoots a lot of
film.
Whereas my former husband, John Farrow, wouldn't shoot anything more except
what he was going
to use on camera. But Woody, I think, shoots a lot of film. And then he... he's
like a
musician. Then he'll say where the crescendo should be, or the diminuendo. And
because he
had me do a close-up three different ways. Because he said, I may want to lift
it, or I may want
to subdue it, or... I think he thinks not only like a writer, but like a
musician.
And you think that's a good way to approach it?
Oh, I do. Because Woody is the whole thing. He writes it, directs it, stars it,
and what
more can you do?
Yeah. Anyway, again, it's doing very well for everybody concerned. Let's talk
about other
people that you've worked with. Is this you and Groucho Marks?
Groucho, yeah.
This is from what? A Day at the Races? Is that what we said?
A Day at the Races, yeah.
And what was this man like?
He was adorable. He was...
Boy, you're a hot ticket there, aren't you?
Not bad.
Yes, sir. And he was a nice man? Easy to get along with?
He was a very gentle man, oddly enough. And when we first started working
together,
we worked at Santa Anita, the racetrack, a lot. And we had dressing rooms,
separate
dressing rooms, and he'd come here and knock on my door. He'd say, "Hey, honey,
how does
this sit with you?" And he'd tell me a gag. Frozen face.
Next morning he'd say, "Listen, I've got another one to tell you." Frozen face.
The third morning,
I said, "Listen, Groucho, I really hate funny men. I will never laugh." I said,
"So don't
tell me any more jokes." Not at nine in the morning, anyway. I said, "I like
humor to come
out of something else, but no gags." He said, "You're so right, honey." He said,
"I won't." So from then on, we were
inseparable friends. We really were used to bring me lunch instead of jokes. So,
let's see. And
this is quite a photo. This was... Don't tell me, this must have been from one
of those Tarzan
movies? Yes. Now, do you... Tell me who everybody in this photo is. Who, me?
Yeah. That's Jane.
Me.
Wearing my mother, Hubbard, because they objected to my first costume, which
was much more sexy
and exciting. Johnny Weissmiller, Johnny Sheffield, and a horrible little
creature called Cheetah.
Cheetah. Cheetah. How did you get along with Cheetah? Well, Cheetah, when first
Cheetah came
on the set, she was adorable. A little, young monkey. And I really loved her.
And I could
tell she loved me. We were just, we were great friends. And then one day, I saw
a rather mean
look come into her eyes. And I began to notice. I mean, you don't go looking
for such things.
No. But I began to see the Cheetah, the girl, was not a girl, was a, was a male.
Oh, oh, oh.
No, no, no, no. Listen, I must say, my husband said, look, now don't get
carried away on the
show. He said, lay off those monkey jokes. You said you're supposed to be a
lady. Now, lay off.
Lay off the monkey jokes, huh?
Well, anyway, I began to... Should I lay off or go on? No, no. Now, what do you
mean? So, obviously,
there was... So, anyway, there began to be a physical change. So, I began to
see that she was really...
Uh-huh. A male. A male. Well, not only was she a male, but she was a homosexual.
And, uh, and, and how exactly did this manifest itself? What, uh...
It was very bad, because she conceived this passion for Johnny Weissmoke. For
Johnny Weissmoke.
Really a passion. No kidding. No kidding. And, yeah, lots of women did, too.
But, anyway, this monkey did. Crazy about Johnny.
And, every time I would go near Johnny, I would see this wicked look. She'd get
ready to spring at me.
Yeah. Now, what is unusual about this photograph that you have there is that a
lot of the photographs,
uh, of myself and Johnny together, you know, he has his arm around me. Uh-huh.
You will see Cheetah standing with one leg way out of the camera. And you know
why that is? Because it was on a chain.
So that it... So that she would not attack me. Oh, is that right?
Right? So she was held on a chain. Yeah, you can actually see just a little bit
of a...
A chain coming up? Yeah. Oh, she was really tight, obviously. You would only
see just like, you know, just like that much of her, you know.
Yeah. So Cheetah was actually jealous of you and your relationship.
Yes, very jealous. Yeah. So it got to be so bad that, of course, you couldn't
play all the scenes in the film with one leg...
Yeah. ...out of the camera for the monkey all the time.
We had to show the whole animal at times. Yeah, yeah. Did...
So the whole animal was rather embarrassing, if you know what I mean, because
it had this physical attraction.
Thank you.
It was completely physical.
No kidding. Yes, it was just as physical as it was. That must have been
terribly distracting.
It was also...
Or, or, or maybe a bonus. I don't know. I don't know. How do you...
It was not only physical. The monkey is brown, you know.
Uh-huh.
And the physical was pink.
I haven't... I haven't finished this drama.
Brown and pink.
So then came a question of camouflaging this passion.
Oh, hey, no, no. Don't tell me it was spray paint.
Where is he? Come on.
So the make-up man, the make-up man was called in.
And he said, "Would you take care of this situation?"
And the make-up man said, "No."
He said, "My union wouldn't permit."
Right.
"Oh," says the director, "This is bad."
So then he called in the prop man, and he said, "Would you take care of the
situation?"
"No," said the prop man. "My union would not permit me to do such a thing."
Right.
Well, finally, the poor animal, they had the, they had to shoot it with BB guns.
And then it would run way up in the, in the roof and lose all its ardor, you
see.
Oh.
I mean, just tiny shots.
Oh, yeah.
That would kill it.
Yeah.
Oh, that's, that's really, uh, not a pleasant story any way you look at it.
That's...
Can I just tell you the end?
Yeah.
Well, I met William Wellman at a party who directed one of the Tarzans.
And a very famous director, Wings and so on.
And so he said, "Did you know cheetah's in the zoo?"
And I said, "Good, no."
I didn't know that.
And he said, "Why don't you go up and visit, go visit her in the zoo?"
And I did.
I went to Griffith Park.
Uh-huh.
And here's this enormous animal.
I mean, enormous.
Yeah.
It's grown to be huge now, in a cage.
So next time I saw Bill, Bill said, "Did cheetah know you?"
And I said, "Oh, yes."
She spat right in my face.
No kidding.
She remembered you.
Yeah.
Boy, that's too bad.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um...
How many of those films were you in?
I think it's five, but I'm not sure.
Five, yeah.
And we've got all kinds of other stuff to talk about.
What do we do?
Yeah, we'd better get off.
Okay, no, no, no, no.
We don't have to get off.
We'll stay right here.
We'll do a commercial, and then we'll be right back with Marina.
Okay, Marina Sullivan is here, and let's talk about Clark Gable.
You worked with him as well?
Yeah, let's do that, because I could never go home after those monkey stories.
No, that was a great story.
That's a great story.
That's a great story.
No, no, he shouldn't.
And you told it very nicely, I think.
Did you think I was refined?
You were quite refined, and you told it with a delicacy and a great deal of wit,
and I
think we all enjoyed it.
Thank you very much.
that because I could never go home after those monkey stories. No, that was a
great story.
That's a great story. No, no, he shouldn't. And you told it very nicely, I
think. Did you think
I was refined? You were quite refined and you told it with a delicacy and a
great deal of wit
and I think we all enjoyed it. Thank you very much. Now, what films did you
work with, Clark
Gerber? Strange Interlude, something else, but I particularly remember Strange
Interlude because
I didn't come on until the last part of the picture and they were made up like
very old
people, Norma Shearer and he, it was the very end, I don't know if you know the
story, and
you talk back to your thoughts on that. Anyway, well, there's two stories, but
I think I'll
tell you the best one. I think it's the best. That's a good policy for people
wanting to be
future guests on this show. Tell us the better story first.
Perhaps it's the best one, I don't know. Anyway, I saw these two old characters
there, you
know, and I was quite young at the time. How old were you? Not even 19. Yeah.
Yeah, maybe
I was 19, but I didn't go to films and I'd never seen Clark Gable and I didn't
know much
who Norma Shearer was and I saw these two characters with gray hair and it must
be a very good
makeup, really. And I thought, oh, two nice old folk. So I sat there talking
and Clark Gable
would sit talking to me and talking and talking and finally he says, would you
like to go horseback
riding with me? With you? Aren't you too old? I said to myself, I'd be galloping
ahead,
you know, and you'd be in the rear. So I said, well, I don't think I can go. So
then he asked
me out to dinner and I said, it's been an evening to this old guy. Well, I didn't
realize,
maybe this isn't the best story after all. Anyway, I didn't realize until we
did the
recording, the looping. I mean, he had no makeup on, just how young he was. He
came back and
he was his dashing soul. And he was young. And I thought, what have I missed?
What a fool.
Did he, did you ever have another opportunity to have dinner with him? No, he
never asked me again.
That was it, huh? That was it. That's too bad. But he did do something that I
thought was
funny. It's very quick. Okay. Okay. He used to sit talking to me, as I said
before. And
the prop man came over, or the assistant director. He said, Miss Shearer would
really appreciate
it if Mr. Gable would stop talking to Mrs. O'Sullivan between scenes. She
expected him to have
his mind on his work, I suppose. And he said, what did I hear? Well, you tell
Miss Shearer
what she can. No. I'll tell her. So he goes over. And he said, Norma, do you
know what
you can do? And he lets his teeth down. His choppers come right down there.
That's what
you could do. So, that wasn't very funny. No, you're all right. You're all
right here.
Don't worry. Yes, we have peaks and valleys. Anyway. We're all right. We're all
right.
He loved letting his teeth down. You're saying that he had...
False teeth. False teeth. I didn't realize that. Oh, didn't you know that? He
called them
choppers. So, if ever he was annoyed... You mean, in the heyday of his matinee
idol star
status, he had false teeth? Choppers. Yeah. We got one minute left. Tell me a
story, or tell
me about somebody that you may have worked with, or knew, who he didn't care
for, who was no
fun to be around, aside from the monkey, obviously. Well, Will Rogers, really.
Will Rogers.
Now, that's interesting. I'm stepping on a lot of toes. Because this man built
a career
as being folksy, down home. And saying he never met the... I never met a man I
didn't
like. He didn't say he never met a woman he didn't like. Really? Was he... He
was nasty
to you? Rude to you? Impolite? He was... He never spoke to me. Yeah. I could
have been
a piece of furniture. I was very glad he didn't speak, because I was afraid
what he might have
said. Uh-huh. A very sharp tongue. Uh, did he have a reputation as being
somebody
who was nasty, uh, off... Could be. Very nice. There's an actress, and
I think it would be unkind to mention her name. Although I'm generally unkind.
Uh-huh. Oh, there's an actress involved here? Who was the actress? Somebody we
would know?
Oh, no. We can't be that unkind. Okay. But he had to kiss her in the scene. Uh-huh.
And
he said, uh, tell her to take off her lipstick and put on mercuric rum. Ooh. It
was pretty
sharp, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. And who... See why? I don't want to mention her
name. No, tell
us who it was. Uh-uh. Guess. Uh, was she... It wasn't me. No, it wasn't you. No,
no, no,
no. Uh, well, that's strange. And, uh, you know, speaking of... You, you also
worked in
this building, didn't you, on the old Today Show, the very early Today Show, I
believe,
right? I'd rather not mention that, but you brought it up, yes. Well, now, why
would...
No, you should mention that. Oh, sure, it's all right. I was absolutely awful.
No. I was.
What did they have you doing on it? I was terrible. Well, they were starting
out with women on the show. It was before Barbara Walters. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I
just couldn't
ask questions. Mm-hmm. I can't ask questions. Yeah. I can answer them sometimes.
Yeah. But
ask them, I can. How did... How did they, uh, get you for that job? Well, uh,
they saw
me on an interview, and I guess I was funny. She'd be terrific. Yeah. Well, you
may get
a call from them tomorrow, after this. Well, the most awful one was when I
entered... had
to interview Kenneth, the hairdresser, and my first question was, do you like
women?
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. He was so angry, he got up and he left the set.
Kenneth, Kenneth, the hairdresser. We'll, uh, we'll be right back, folks.
Okay. Uh, we're out of time, Maureen. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure
meeting you.
Thank you. Thank you for being here. Uh, tomorrow, folks, oh, I'm sorry, John
Stravinsky was going
to be with us. We'll have him, uh, rescheduled as soon as possible. Tomorrow,
it's New York
City Parks Commissioner Henry Stern. Good night, folks.
Thank you.

Maureen O'Sullivan on Letterman, March 24, 1986

Our next guest tonight is far too classy a woman to be on this program.
She is the veteran of over 70 motion pictures, including A Day at the Races,
The Thin Man, and the original Jane in a slew of Tarzan movies.
Her latest film is Hannah and Her Sisters. Please welcome Maureen O'Sullivan.
Nice to see you. Thank you very much for being here. You look terrific.
Congratulations.
Wait, no, it couldn't be much of an effort. You're a stunning woman.
Thank you.
Sure. It must be very exciting being a part of this film that's doing so well,
Hannah and Her Sisters.
Oh, I'm very happy. I'm happy for everybody, and I'm especially, I guess, happy
for Woody.
What was it like working with him and your daughter on the set and so forth?
Was it tense? A lot of anxiety?
Oh, no, no. No tension, really, on Woody's sets. You're just there to work.
And I had worked, really. It's funny. I'd worked with Mia before. I'd played
her daughter.
You played Mia's daughter?
I played her daughter.
How did that happen?
Well, only in readings. They didn't have enough actors when they were doing The
Great Gatsby, so they needed somebody to play the daughter, so I played the
five-year-old daughter.
In all the readings. And we were so serious about it. It was crazy, you know,
that we looked at each other when it was all over.
He said, are we nuts? You know, what's the matter with us?
It's very odd.
You can be so serious about doing nothing like that. No, she's very easy to
work with.
And not that we want to spend the rest of the night talking about him, but what's
he like to be around?
Woody is very much business. He's there for business. He's very, very nice to
be around. He's wonderful in this way. You don't rehearse much. If he wants you
to do something, he'll tell you. But otherwise, it's just do it. And then he'll
say, well, I either like it or I don't like it.
And then I think that he sees what you have to offer.
Yeah.
And he'll enlarge on that. And if he feels a certain sympathy, well, then he'll
play upon that.
So that's really...
It's a lovely way of working.
That's good for an actor, I would guess.
It's wonderful for an actor. And if I have time, I just thought of something
interesting.
I think that...
Good Lord, look at that ring. Whoa! That's a beauty. Is that...
I want to tell you, it's my engagement ring.
Oh, my.
I was married three years ago, so don't give up hope, fellas.
Oh, congratulations.
Boy, that's... that's quite a rock there.
I know.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. You were going to say something else?
No, I was going to say about Woody's working. Woody, I think, shoots a lot of
film.
Whereas my former husband, John Farrow, wouldn't shoot anything more except
what he was going
to use on camera. But Woody, I think, shoots a lot of film. And then he... he's
like a
musician. Then he'll say where the crescendo should be, or the diminuendo. And
because he
had me do a close-up three different ways. Because he said, I may want to lift
it, or I may want
to subdue it, or... I think he thinks not only like a writer, but like a
musician.
And you think that's a good way to approach it?
Oh, I do. Because Woody is the whole thing. He writes it, directs it, stars it,
and what
more can you do?
Yeah. Anyway, again, it's doing very well for everybody concerned. Let's talk
about other
people that you've worked with. Is this you and Groucho Marks?
Groucho, yeah.
This is from what? A Day at the Races? Is that what we said?
A Day at the Races, yeah.
And what was this man like?
He was adorable. He was...
Boy, you're a hot ticket there, aren't you?
Not bad.
Yes, sir. And he was a nice man? Easy to get along with?
He was a very gentle man, oddly enough. And when we first started working
together,
we worked at Santa Anita, the racetrack, a lot. And we had dressing rooms,
separate
dressing rooms, and he'd come here and knock on my door. He'd say, "Hey, honey,
how does
this sit with you?" And he'd tell me a gag. Frozen face.
Next morning he'd say, "Listen, I've got another one to tell you." Frozen face.
The third morning,
I said, "Listen, Groucho, I really hate funny men. I will never laugh." I said,
"So don't
tell me any more jokes." Not at nine in the morning, anyway. I said, "I like
humor to come
out of something else, but no gags." He said, "You're so right, honey." He said,
"I won't." So from then on, we were
inseparable friends. We really were used to bring me lunch instead of jokes. So,
let's see. And
this is quite a photo. This was... Don't tell me, this must have been from one
of those Tarzan
movies? Yes. Now, do you... Tell me who everybody in this photo is. Who, me?
Yeah. That's Jane.
Me.
Wearing my mother, Hubbard, because they objected to my first costume, which
was much more sexy
and exciting. Johnny Weissmiller, Johnny Sheffield, and a horrible little
creature called Cheetah.
Cheetah. Cheetah. How did you get along with Cheetah? Well, Cheetah, when first
Cheetah came
on the set, she was adorable. A little, young monkey. And I really loved her.
And I could
tell she loved me. We were just, we were great friends. And then one day, I saw
a rather mean
look come into her eyes. And I began to notice. I mean, you don't go looking
for such things.
No. But I began to see the Cheetah, the girl, was not a girl, was a, was a male.
Oh, oh, oh.
No, no, no, no. Listen, I must say, my husband said, look, now don't get
carried away on the
show. He said, lay off those monkey jokes. You said you're supposed to be a
lady. Now, lay off.
Lay off the monkey jokes, huh?
Well, anyway, I began to... Should I lay off or go on? No, no. Now, what do you
mean? So, obviously,
there was... So, anyway, there began to be a physical change. So, I began to
see that she was really...
Uh-huh. A male. A male. Well, not only was she a male, but she was a homosexual.
And, uh, and, and how exactly did this manifest itself? What, uh...
It was very bad, because she conceived this passion for Johnny Weissmoke. For
Johnny Weissmoke.
Really a passion. No kidding. No kidding. And, yeah, lots of women did, too.
But, anyway, this monkey did. Crazy about Johnny.
And, every time I would go near Johnny, I would see this wicked look. She'd get
ready to spring at me.
Yeah. Now, what is unusual about this photograph that you have there is that a
lot of the photographs,
uh, of myself and Johnny together, you know, he has his arm around me. Uh-huh.
You will see Cheetah standing with one leg way out of the camera. And you know
why that is? Because it was on a chain.
So that it... So that she would not attack me. Oh, is that right?
Right? So she was held on a chain. Yeah, you can actually see just a little bit
of a...
A chain coming up? Yeah. Oh, she was really tight, obviously. You would only
see just like, you know, just like that much of her, you know.
Yeah. So Cheetah was actually jealous of you and your relationship.
Yes, very jealous. Yeah. So it got to be so bad that, of course, you couldn't
play all the scenes in the film with one leg...
Yeah. ...out of the camera for the monkey all the time.
We had to show the whole animal at times. Yeah, yeah. Did...
So the whole animal was rather embarrassing, if you know what I mean, because
it had this physical attraction.
Thank you.
It was completely physical.
No kidding. Yes, it was just as physical as it was. That must have been
terribly distracting.
It was also...
Or, or, or maybe a bonus. I don't know. I don't know. How do you...
It was not only physical. The monkey is brown, you know.
Uh-huh.
And the physical was pink.
I haven't... I haven't finished this drama.
Brown and pink.
So then came a question of camouflaging this passion.
Oh, hey, no, no. Don't tell me it was spray paint.
Where is he? Come on.
So the make-up man, the make-up man was called in.
And he said, "Would you take care of this situation?"
And the make-up man said, "No."
He said, "My union wouldn't permit."
Right.
"Oh," says the director, "This is bad."
So then he called in the prop man, and he said, "Would you take care of the
situation?"
"No," said the prop man. "My union would not permit me to do such a thing."
Right.
Well, finally, the poor animal, they had the, they had to shoot it with BB guns.
And then it would run way up in the, in the roof and lose all its ardor, you
see.
Oh.
I mean, just tiny shots.
Oh, yeah.
That would kill it.
Yeah.
Oh, that's, that's really, uh, not a pleasant story any way you look at it.
That's...
Can I just tell you the end?
Yeah.
Well, I met William Wellman at a party who directed one of the Tarzans.
And a very famous director, Wings and so on.
And so he said, "Did you know cheetah's in the zoo?"
And I said, "Good, no."
I didn't know that.
And he said, "Why don't you go up and visit, go visit her in the zoo?"
And I did.
I went to Griffith Park.
Uh-huh.
And here's this enormous animal.
I mean, enormous.
Yeah.
It's grown to be huge now, in a cage.
So next time I saw Bill, Bill said, "Did cheetah know you?"
And I said, "Oh, yes."
She spat right in my face.
No kidding.
She remembered you.
Yeah.
Boy, that's too bad.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um...
How many of those films were you in?
I think it's five, but I'm not sure.
Five, yeah.
And we've got all kinds of other stuff to talk about.
What do we do?
Yeah, we'd better get off.
Okay, no, no, no, no.
We don't have to get off.
We'll stay right here.
We'll do a commercial, and then we'll be right back with Marina.
Okay, Marina Sullivan is here, and let's talk about Clark Gable.
You worked with him as well?
Yeah, let's do that, because I could never go home after those monkey stories.
No, that was a great story.
That's a great story.
That's a great story.
No, no, he shouldn't.
And you told it very nicely, I think.
Did you think I was refined?
You were quite refined, and you told it with a delicacy and a great deal of wit,
and I
think we all enjoyed it.
Thank you very much.
that because I could never go home after those monkey stories. No, that was a
great story.
That's a great story. No, no, he shouldn't. And you told it very nicely, I
think. Did you think
I was refined? You were quite refined and you told it with a delicacy and a
great deal of wit
and I think we all enjoyed it. Thank you very much. Now, what films did you
work with, Clark
Gerber? Strange Interlude, something else, but I particularly remember Strange
Interlude because
I didn't come on until the last part of the picture and they were made up like
very old
people, Norma Shearer and he, it was the very end, I don't know if you know the
story, and
you talk back to your thoughts on that. Anyway, well, there's two stories, but
I think I'll
tell you the best one. I think it's the best. That's a good policy for people
wanting to be
future guests on this show. Tell us the better story first.
Perhaps it's the best one, I don't know. Anyway, I saw these two old characters
there, you
know, and I was quite young at the time. How old were you? Not even 19. Yeah.
Yeah, maybe
I was 19, but I didn't go to films and I'd never seen Clark Gable and I didn't
know much
who Norma Shearer was and I saw these two characters with gray hair and it must
be a very good
makeup, really. And I thought, oh, two nice old folk. So I sat there talking
and Clark Gable
would sit talking to me and talking and talking and finally he says, would you
like to go horseback
riding with me? With you? Aren't you too old? I said to myself, I'd be galloping
ahead,
you know, and you'd be in the rear. So I said, well, I don't think I can go. So
then he asked
me out to dinner and I said, it's been an evening to this old guy. Well, I didn't
realize,
maybe this isn't the best story after all. Anyway, I didn't realize until we
did the
recording, the looping. I mean, he had no makeup on, just how young he was. He
came back and
he was his dashing soul. And he was young. And I thought, what have I missed?
What a fool.
Did he, did you ever have another opportunity to have dinner with him? No, he
never asked me again.
That was it, huh? That was it. That's too bad.