Name: Hope Vinitsky on Letterman, 1982-86
Uploaded: 2016-05-19T15:29:28.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Hope Vinitsky on Letterman, 1982-86' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-05-19. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Hope Vinitsky on Letterman, 1982-86' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-05-19. Transcript available.

Tonight, Late Night, is proud to present the first installment of a new segment
that salutes the talented professionals who put this program together.
It's educational, and since PBS was not interested, we decided we'd show it
ourselves.
Late Night is more than just the jokes, the songs, and the fancy sets.
Late Night is people, not just the marvelous stars you see on the show, but the
people you don't see.
The people behind Late Night.
Howard Vanitsky is one of the people behind Late Night.
He's the sound effects man, a tough job that requires more than the standard
training, apprenticeship, and examinations other NBC employees go through.
It demands a special talent for listening.
Where does Howard get his ideas for sound effects?
Why, from everyday life.
You see, Howard hears things a little differently than most of us.
He's able to detect sounds that laymen like you and I might not notice.
The job of the sound effects technician is not for everyone.
The hours are long, the pace is relentless, and every moment, Howard's eagle
ears are open, listening for any new sounds he might be able to use on the show.
As the time approaches to tape the show, Howard prepares himself.
All they can do now is wait for that special moment when there's a job that
must be done.
And two gentlemen, each of them representing the east one, the east coast, the
other the west coast.
They both work for NBC.
We'll talk a little bit more about them later.
Yes, the moment of truth has come and gone, and somehow, in that one magical
moment, it was all worthwhile.
But there are a few congratulations, because for Howard, the job is not over.
He will be back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.
Feeding this drooling procedure, show after show.
And that's what makes sound effects man Howard Vanitsky one of the people
behind late night.
Yes, sir, Howard Vanitsky will be right back with the commissioner of baseball,
Bowie Kuhn.
Now, since this program went on the air way back in the late 50s, you have
become familiar with many members of what we call our floor crew.
That is, the people who deal with the cameras, the lighting, makeup, et cetera.
Tonight, we thought we would give these folks a chance to share with you, the
home viewers, their personal hobbies, talents, and bizarre obsessions.
It's a segment we call "Floor Crew Show and Tell."
I would like to now introduce to you our old friend, who is an audio assist man
here, Mr. Bob Rooney.
Bob?
Bob, how are you?
Nice to see you, Bob.
Bob, what is in the suitcase here? What is this?
I have a famous beer collection from my own neighborhood.
Let me turn it off.
A famous beer collection.
From your old neighborhood, where is the old neighborhood, Bob?
Oh, Brooklyn, New York.
And this is one I picked up when I was traveling to Texas, Texas Pride.
Texas, that's cold. These are all cold, aren't they?
The studio is cold.
Is this valuable beer?
Let me see if I get one. Here's one.
Is Texas Pride something we're familiar with? The what?
The what? The Lone Star.
Put it in there?
Put it back in.
This is one that's worth a few dollars, Billy Carter beer, when the President
was around.
Those are hard to get now, aren't they?
Those are very hard to get now.
How much would that be worth?
About $300, I heard.
Now, would you ever decide just, uh, what the hell, and drink it?
Someday we'll have a good party with it.
Here's Dallas beer.
Dallas? All right.
J.R.
Oh, J.R., right. Okay.
How long have you been collecting beer, Bob?
Friends of mine bring them back from their travels. I picked them up for about
four or five years.
And I thought it was a fun game, and they just do it.
Uh-huh.
This is, uh, Willie Nelson's favorite beer. He was drinking over Saturday Night
Live when I was up there with him.
Uh, Lone Star.
Comes out of San Antone.
And I see you don't keep all of the collection in the suitcase, do you, Bob?
No, I have my, uh, bedroom wine right here.
Oh.
That's part of the fun of collecting. I'm trying them out.
Strokes, I'm familiar with that. Sure, yeah.
Out of, uh, Detroit.
Pearl, what else?
Here's Casey, uh, Stengel's private brand, Casey Beer.
Casey Beer? I didn't realize there was a Casey Beer. Is this discontinued also?
Yes, there's a Paul Schaefer beer.
What is that?
Rock and Roll.
Rock and Roll. All right.
Rock and Roll.
Where did you get that one?
That's what he's got of.
Rock of St. Louis.
All right. What else do we have here? Any, uh...
National Claws.
Maragansa.
Now, what would you value this collection at, Bob?
Keystone State. Have you tasted all of these?
I've...
Yeah, I would guess so.
Not 95%. Yeah, well, proof's in the pudding.
Yeah, all right.
At least, when I was in Mexico, at Dos Equis, they did a nice job.
Uh-huh.
Now, that's not, no, that's not Dos Equis, is it?
Dos Equis, no.
No. All right.
Here's Dixie.
Dixie? Where does that come from?
Obviously.
New Orleans, down south.
Down south.
All right.
And on the other side, I have a bunch of others. I have some into...
Oh, this is going to be fun.
Tickle Acle is a favorite of mine.
Dinkle Ocker.
Dinkle Ocker.
Razorback.
Arkansas's favorite.
Okay.
All right, Bob, pick out one more here. Your pride and joy there.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Too tough, huh, Bob?
Too tough. They're all favorites.
Okay, Bob Rooney, ladies and gentlemen, and his beer collection.
Thank you, Bob.
Thank you.
Thank you, Bob.
All right.
Well, Bob...
No, go right ahead.
Well, Bob's cleaning up.
A man you know and love, you've seen him already twice this evening, our head
prop man, Jimmy Fitzgerald.
Jimmy, come on out.
Thank you, Bob.
Jimmy, how are you?
I'm good, I'm good.
Jimmy, you're going to do something I find difficult to believe.
What is it?
I'm going to make the perfect five-point star by folding a square of paper and
one slice
of scissors.
All right.
Go right ahead, sir, and do that.
Would you like to come along with me and do it?
Yeah.
How long have you been here at NBC?
Oh, 20 years plus.
Yeah?
Have you ever done this on television before?
I don't think anybody ever has.
All right.
Well, that's the way we like it, Jimmy.
I'm broadcasting first here.
Is this difficult to do?
No.
Very simple.
How did you learn how to do it?
How did you learn how to do it?
I was browsing through the Encyclopedia Americana when I was in the fifth grade.
Mm-hmm.
And I came upon this in the craft section.
And I've never forgotten.
All right.
Americana, not Britannica.
Okay.
There are no stars in the British flag.
One cut.
One cut.
One cut.
One cut.
A perfect five-point star.
Want to open that?
I'd be happy to.
Very nice.
One cut.
One cut.
One cut.
One cut.
I'd be happy to.
very nice one cut
jimmy fitzgerald thank you very much jimmy our head pop man jimmy fitzgerald
next is uh candy corral our makeup artist candy come out here if you will
can i help you with that all right candy obviously this is a collection of
powder puffs all right
let's start at the top uh you you use this one to make up betty ford correct
yes shelly winters
yes lucille ball oh there's a little blood there on that one
king hussein yes frank zappa who's been on our show several times lauren bacall
who has not been
on the show never will be either uh we would we would ask certainly but i don't
think she would
come on here uh shirley temple uh this is ben vereen yes i knew him in
superstar here we have
the grateful dead now could you pick out jerry garcia out of that bunch there jerry
jerry garcia
is right here that's that's jerry all right morgan fairchild morgan fairchild
paul is here
the beach boys muhammad ali yes uh
but it's true and uh billy carter all right oh mick jagger well this is very
impressive
jerry carter too here's paul mccartney how long have you been collecting these
uh since about 1970 well that's very impressive tons of them at home
well we're very happy to have you on the show you do a terrific job
kandy corral ladies and gentlemen and her potter pups collection thank you kandy
all called one more okay uh howard vanitsky ladies and gentlemen our sound
effects man howard
come on out here got a couple of things to show you here let me just get out
here anything big howard no
howard is responsible for the uh the sound effects on this program and and you're
going to demonstrate
some tonight aren't you howard yeah these are uh pretty old type sound effects
devices they started
out in the days of radio and we don't use them too much we used them when we
first started in the late
50s but now we don't use them all right we'll start off with uh marching
soldiers here oh yeah
okay you needed a car door sound open this up it's an actual car door isn't it
actual car door all
right and this device over here is for breaking glass and uh just use regular
pane of glass like this
and i don't know if you can see it in there there's a couple of panes of glass
already in there yeah
are you going to do that for us yeah and this bar right here when when i
release that
will go into that and we'll break it okay if all works right very nice boy i
like that
how are we doing on time we got to keep moving paul there's an interesting
article
in uh today's new york times cvc canadian broadcasting company corporation what
is corporation corporation
calls for end of most u.s programs on its tv by 1987 really yeah right here in
the times well we
we were never on the cvc anyway we're on global up there global tv yeah but
what is so do they have
a lot of american television up there uh not mine thanks i'm sorry they got the
ed sullivan show up there
and they didn't get the ed sullivan and that's about it i think i don't know sullivan
go ahead
you know what let's do let's just for a second you you have no idea where this
noise comes from
just uh we're going to show you where that noise comes from just
i'm sorry paul i didn't mean to interrupt no no we'll go right back through
here
we're going backstage now this will be informative kind of a little tour
this is the backstage area there's many of the uh uh crew members right over
there
and uh some of the excuse me just a minute uh 10 minutes miss hart
a joke it's a it's a joke it's a joke it's a joke here we have uh staff members
this woman's name
is barbara this woman's name is barbara most most of the people on our staff
are named barbara uh
ladders ladders ladders crazy eddie has gone ladder loco all right come on back
here oh brother look at
this sumptuous buffet that they put out for the cast and crew every night of
the week all right we're
looking for howard vanitsky oh here are some of the trophies that the stagehands
have won over the years
for for their fine work those are pretty darn nice aren't they how we doing on
time where'd you go are we
all right okay this is now this is where the sound effects come from we're
nowhere near the studio now
uh 6a8 if you want to send him any mail howard can we come in sure all right oh
this is beautiful
here he is folks this is howard vanitsky this is the man in charge of the sound
effects hello hi
getting a nice handle yeah well this is this is beautiful where it happens and
what this is uh
this is a studio apartment howard yeah yeah this goes about 2200 a month here
and uh-huh you ever
thought of like a room divider maybe kind of break up the space yeah i made the
proposal but i haven't
heard yet by the way uh when you start to run low on cereal let us know and we'll
get you some more
uh okay sure now where which one of these is the glass break that one right
there right there
just can i hit it sure that's pretty impressive how many how many of these
machines do you have
well we have 12 of them okay start playing some stuff for us okay well this is
you play and i'll pick
out some more that's the sky cam sound we have some bubbles here's a good lady
is that actually you
on there uh no it's not and here's there's our chanting africans right there
that was recorded
up in the commissary yes it was okay we have that and who loves you baby all
right all right i tell you
you got a couple more yeah what's the head spinner when the dart hits the lens
of the camera okay
yeah that sound right there i tell you what you you uh help me unload these
okay okay pull these out
yeah uh does it make any difference what order these are in no okay all of
these out yep oh it's
okay we can all right now here i'll load up some of these okay and uh you go
out and sit down where i am
okay say hello to paul when you go out there okay all right hurry howard hurry
mary hart's on we don't
want to keep her waiting all right this will be a little experiment i'll load
these boys in here is
this any kind of union violation oh it is howard's getting a hand howard that's
the second hand of the
next all right howard don't milk it okay yeah how you doing hi paul all right
don't add lib howard
what oh don't i live okay just a minute i'm just about loaded up all right more
okay you got a
pencil there to throw i got one right here all right you look like you're doing
very well
okay i think we're we're all set to go all right now you go ahead and toss it
through there okay ready
ready okay throw it to commercial howard sounds good okay we'll be back after
these words
we're all set to go all right here we're all set to go all right here we're all
set to go all right

Hope Vinitsky on Letterman, 1982-86

Tonight, Late Night, is proud to present the first installment of a new segment
that salutes the talented professionals who put this program together.
It's educational, and since PBS was not interested, we decided we'd show it
ourselves.
Late Night is more than just the jokes, the songs, and the fancy sets.
Late Night is people, not just the marvelous stars you see on the show, but the
people you don't see.
The people behind Late Night.
Howard Vanitsky is one of the people behind Late Night.
He's the sound effects man, a tough job that requires more than the standard
training, apprenticeship, and examinations other NBC employees go through.
It demands a special talent for listening.
Where does Howard get his ideas for sound effects?
Why, from everyday life.
You see, Howard hears things a little differently than most of us.
He's able to detect sounds that laymen like you and I might not notice.
The job of the sound effects technician is not for everyone.
The hours are long, the pace is relentless, and every moment, Howard's eagle
ears are open, listening for any new sounds he might be able to use on the show.
As the time approaches to tape the show, Howard prepares himself.
All they can do now is wait for that special moment when there's a job that
must be done.
And two gentlemen, each of them representing the east one, the east coast, the
other the west coast.
They both work for NBC.
We'll talk a little bit more about them later.
Yes, the moment of truth has come and gone, and somehow, in that one magical
moment, it was all worthwhile.
But there are a few congratulations, because for Howard, the job is not over.
He will be back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.
Feeding this drooling procedure, show after show.
And that's what makes sound effects man Howard Vanitsky one of the people
behind late night.
Yes, sir, Howard Vanitsky will be right back with the commissioner of baseball,
Bowie Kuhn.
Now, since this program went on the air way back in the late 50s, you have
become familiar with many members of what we call our floor crew.
That is, the people who deal with the cameras, the lighting, makeup, et cetera.
Tonight, we thought we would give these folks a chance to share with you, the
home viewers, their personal hobbies, talents, and bizarre obsessions.
It's a segment we call "Floor Crew Show and Tell."
I would like to now introduce to you our old friend, who is an audio assist man
here, Mr. Bob Rooney.
Bob?
Bob, how are you?
Nice to see you, Bob.
Bob, what is in the suitcase here? What is this?
I have a famous beer collection from my own neighborhood.
Let me turn it off.
A famous beer collection.
From your old neighborhood, where is the old neighborhood, Bob?
Oh, Brooklyn, New York.
And this is one I picked up when I was traveling to Texas, Texas Pride.
Texas, that's cold. These are all cold, aren't they?
The studio is cold.
Is this valuable beer?
Let me see if I get one. Here's one.
Is Texas Pride something we're familiar with? The what?
The what? The Lone Star.
Put it in there?
Put it back in.
This is one that's worth a few dollars, Billy Carter beer, when the President
was around.
Those are hard to get now, aren't they?
Those are very hard to get now.
How much would that be worth?
About $300, I heard.
Now, would you ever decide just, uh, what the hell, and drink it?
Someday we'll have a good party with it.
Here's Dallas beer.
Dallas? All right.
J.R.
Oh, J.R., right. Okay.
How long have you been collecting beer, Bob?
Friends of mine bring them back from their travels. I picked them up for about
four or five years.
And I thought it was a fun game, and they just do it.
Uh-huh.
This is, uh, Willie Nelson's favorite beer. He was drinking over Saturday Night
Live when I was up there with him.
Uh, Lone Star.
Comes out of San Antone.
And I see you don't keep all of the collection in the suitcase, do you, Bob?
No, I have my, uh, bedroom wine right here.
Oh.
That's part of the fun of collecting. I'm trying them out.
Strokes, I'm familiar with that. Sure, yeah.
Out of, uh, Detroit.
Pearl, what else?
Here's Casey, uh, Stengel's private brand, Casey Beer.
Casey Beer? I didn't realize there was a Casey Beer. Is this discontinued also?
Yes, there's a Paul Schaefer beer.
What is that?
Rock and Roll.
Rock and Roll. All right.
Rock and Roll.
Where did you get that one?
That's what he's got of.
Rock of St. Louis.
All right. What else do we have here? Any, uh...
National Claws.
Maragansa.
Now, what would you value this collection at, Bob?
Keystone State. Have you tasted all of these?
I've...
Yeah, I would guess so.
Not 95%. Yeah, well, proof's in the pudding.
Yeah, all right.
At least, when I was in Mexico, at Dos Equis, they did a nice job.
Uh-huh.
Now, that's not, no, that's not Dos Equis, is it?
Dos Equis, no.
No. All right.
Here's Dixie.
Dixie? Where does that come from?
Obviously.
New Orleans, down south.
Down south.
All right.
And on the other side, I have a bunch of others. I have some into...
Oh, this is going to be fun.
Tickle Acle is a favorite of mine.
Dinkle Ocker.
Dinkle Ocker.
Razorback.
Arkansas's favorite.
Okay.
All right, Bob, pick out one more here. Your pride and joy there.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Too tough, huh, Bob?
Too tough. They're all favorites.
Okay, Bob Rooney, ladies and gentlemen, and his beer collection.
Thank you, Bob.
Thank you.
Thank you, Bob.
All right.
Well, Bob...
No, go right ahead.
Well, Bob's cleaning up.
A man you know and love, you've seen him already twice this evening, our head
prop man, Jimmy Fitzgerald.
Jimmy, come on out.
Thank you, Bob.
Jimmy, how are you?
I'm good, I'm good.
Jimmy, you're going to do something I find difficult to believe.
What is it?
I'm going to make the perfect five-point star by folding a square of paper and
one slice
of scissors.
All right.
Go right ahead, sir, and do that.
Would you like to come along with me and do it?
Yeah.
How long have you been here at NBC?
Oh, 20 years plus.
Yeah?
Have you ever done this on television before?
I don't think anybody ever has.
All right.
Well, that's the way we like it, Jimmy.
I'm broadcasting first here.
Is this difficult to do?
No.
Very simple.
How did you learn how to do it?
How did you learn how to do it?
I was browsing through the Encyclopedia Americana when I was in the fifth grade.
Mm-hmm.
And I came upon this in the craft section.
And I've never forgotten.
All right.
Americana, not Britannica.
Okay.
There are no stars in the British flag.
One cut.
One cut.
One cut.
One cut.
A perfect five-point star.
Want to open that?
I'd be happy to.
Very nice.
One cut.
One cut.
One cut.
One cut.
I'd be happy to.
very nice one cut
jimmy fitzgerald thank you very much jimmy our head pop man jimmy fitzgerald
next is uh candy corral our makeup artist candy come out here if you will
can i help you with that all right candy obviously this is a collection of
powder puffs all right
let's start at the top uh you you use this one to make up betty ford correct
yes shelly winters
yes lucille ball oh there's a little blood there on that one
king hussein yes frank zappa who's been on our show several times lauren bacall
who has not been
on the show never will be either uh we would we would ask certainly but i don't
think she would
come on here uh shirley temple uh this is ben vereen yes i knew him in
superstar here we have
the grateful dead now could you pick out jerry garcia out of that bunch there jerry
jerry garcia
is right here that's that's jerry all right morgan fairchild morgan fairchild
paul is here
the beach boys muhammad ali yes uh
but it's true and uh billy carter all right oh mick jagger well this is very
impressive
jerry carter too here's paul mccartney how long have you been collecting these
uh since about 1970 well that's very impressive tons of them at home
well we're very happy to have you on the show you do a terrific job
kandy corral ladies and gentlemen and her potter pups collection thank you kandy
all called one more okay uh howard vanitsky ladies and gentlemen our sound
effects man howard
come on out here got a couple of things to show you here let me just get out
here anything big howard no
howard is responsible for the uh the sound effects on this program and and you're
going to demonstrate
some tonight aren't you howard yeah these are uh pretty old type sound effects
devices they started
out in the days of radio and we don't use them too much we used them when we
first started in the late
50s but now we don't use them all right we'll start off with uh marching
soldiers here oh yeah
okay you needed a car door sound open this up it's an actual car door isn't it
actual car door all
right and this device over here is for breaking glass and uh just use regular
pane of glass like this
and i don't know if you can see it in there there's a couple of panes of glass
already in there yeah
are you going to do that for us yeah and this bar right here when when i
release that
will go into that and we'll break it okay if all works right very nice boy i
like that
how are we doing on time we got to keep moving paul there's an interesting
article
in uh today's new york times cvc canadian broadcasting company corporation what
is corporation corporation
calls for end of most u.s programs on its tv by 1987 really yeah right here in
the times well we
we were never on the cvc anyway we're on global up there global tv yeah but
what is so do they have
a lot of american television up there uh not mine thanks i'm sorry they got the
ed sullivan show up there
and they didn't get the ed sullivan and that's about it i think i don't know sullivan
go ahead
you know what let's do let's just for a second you you have no idea where this
noise comes from
just uh we're going to show you where that noise comes from just
i'm sorry paul i didn't mean to interrupt no no we'll go right back through
here
we're going backstage now this will be informative kind of a little tour
this is the backstage area there's many of the uh uh crew members right over
there
and uh some of the excuse me just a minute uh 10 minutes miss hart
a joke it's a it's a joke it's a joke it's a joke here we have uh staff members
this woman's name
is barbara this woman's name is barbara most most of the people on our staff
are named barbara uh
ladders ladders ladders crazy eddie has gone ladder loco all right come on back
here oh brother look at
this sumptuous buffet that they put out for the cast and crew every night of
the week all right we're
looking for howard vanitsky oh here are some of the trophies that the stagehands
have won over the years
for for their fine work those are pretty darn nice aren't they how we doing on
time where'd you go are we
all right okay this is now this is where the sound effects come from we're
nowhere near the studio now
uh 6a8 if you want to send him any mail howard can we come in sure all right oh
this is beautiful
here he is folks this is howard vanitsky this is the man in charge of the sound
effects hello hi
getting a nice handle yeah well this is this is beautiful where it happens and
what this is uh
this is a studio apartment howard yeah yeah this goes about 2200 a month here
and uh-huh you ever
thought of like a room divider maybe kind of break up the space yeah i made the
proposal but i haven't
heard yet by the way uh when you start to run low on cereal let us know and we'll
get you some more
uh okay sure now where which one of these is the glass break that one right
there right there
just can i hit it sure that's pretty impressive how many how many of these
machines do you have
well we have 12 of them okay start playing some stuff for us okay well this is
you play and i'll pick
out some more that's the sky cam sound we have some bubbles here's a good lady
is that actually you
on there uh no it's not and here's there's our chanting africans right there
that was recorded
up in the commissary yes it was okay we have that and who loves you baby all
right all right i tell you
you got a 