Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Will Jordan: There were mistakes I made... like trusting Jack Carter. The thing I couldn't control was - why did I dry up? What happened? I talk more like a researcher. You're not hearing anything creative. The two biggest bits I did ended up stolen. Frankenstein and Hitler were my biggest bits aside from impersonations. The very first act I did had no impersonations. I did a thing on the Frankenstein movie with sound effects. When I did the hunchback I didn't imitate Dwight Frye, I just did a voice. That was the way I was.
When I worked the Blue Angel the first time, it was not good. The second time was better. I didn't want to do impressions, but without the impressions I didn't have enough material. I hadn't enough experience. What I needed to do was go to some really unknown, obscure town and use a different name so people wouldn't judge me. I wasn't ready for comedy. I needed to do what Lenny Bruce did.
Get up every single day, keep working on it, working on it, working on it, until you finally develop your own style. Very few comedians had their own style to begin with. Comedy is the one talent that you can't rehearse. You can't do lines in front of a mirror. Many of these comedians... you have no idea how bad Joan Rivers was.
You have no idea how bad Rodney was. You have no idea how bad Jackie Mason was. Awful. Rickles - not quite that bad, but completely different. Rickles would do a [bit about] a guy in a movie theater sneaking a smoke. Nothing could be further from what you see today. And Joan Rivers was just bad. I thought she had a great body. I said to her, "You have a great ass. You should talk about that." And she had her old nose, but she was just terrible. But! Every single day she worked. She got writers. Endless, endless work. Rodney too. Rewrites, rewrites. Rodney did impressions and he was a singer originally!
Kliph Nesteroff: And that was as Jack Roy...
Will Jordan: Jack Roy - and before he was Jack Roy he was something else. That is an example of intense work. Constantly. I didn't work that hard. I wish I had. I worked hard at impressions, but impressions are so unfunny. In order to make them funny you need an audience to inspire you and alone I was just a Xerox machine, a tape recorder, that's all I was, doing the voices. It is a kind of talent to shape your muscles to reproduce a voice. Rich Little was very good at it. The only difference between Rich Little and I was... when I did an impression and it was no good, I stopped doing it.
Kliph Nesteroff: (laughs)
Will Jordan: Rich Little is not stopped by that. Rich Little can not get over how great he is.
Kliph Nesteroff: Ugh.
Will Jordan: He is overwhelmed by his talent. To give you an idea of Rich Little's ego, he would listen to tapes in his car and work on it. He didn't have humility and unselfishness. He would play a tape and then try to do Sinatra, which he did unbelievably bad. Unbelievably bad. Anyway, he somehow got the tape mixed up and Sinatra's voice came on and this egomaniac said, "Ah! Now I'm getting it!" Can you believe that? He heard Sinatra and he thought it was himself! You wanna talk about ego? How could this man have had this amazing career?
There is some talent there, no question about it. I've never heard anybody who ever did Sinatra's voice. The closest thing was Vic Damone and Steve Lawrence and they weren't doing an imitation. For some reason imitating Sinatra seems to have escaped everybody. It is just out of everybody's range.
Kliph Nesteroff: I want to ask you about some other names.
Will Jordan: Sure.
Kliph Nesteroff: Joe Ancis.
Will Jordan: Ah, yes, that is such an interesting thing. Now, Ancis was really brilliant, but it's hard to see it. He won't do it in front of you. I asked Rodney, "But God, we've known each other for years." Ancis aside from everything else, being brilliant and a very big money maker and everything, he was handsome! I mean, you wanna talk about a guy that had everything? Unbelievably great guy. People would tell me various stories of things that he did. They say that one day he came in when all the comedians were around. He said, "Carry me! I'm too rich to walk!"
A brilliant guy - but - I never saw it. Then one day Rodney said, "Don't you know why? He's in awe of you." I said, "Are you kidding? He's in awe of me? I'm in awe of him." That happened with several people I knew. They wouldn't open up in front of me. In awe of me? Who the hell do you think I am? Nobody ever heard of me. There were many articles about Joe Ancis and there's no question - a lot of evidence. I still would have liked to have seen it first hand.
Getting back to hard work... Rodney is an example of hard work. That was a man who really worked on his lines. When Johnny Carson stole one of his lines, oh boy. Although that's terrible, I don't think it's as bad as stealing a routine. The only way you could hurt Rodney was if you stole his character. But stealing one of his jokes - which is terrible - it's not life threatening.
When you steal my Ed Sullivan, it's like stealing one of my children and you ruin me when you do that. Even when I imitate a hundred other people, how am I going to find that crazy chemistry that made the Sullivan a hit? It was because he was on TV for years and I was the first to make fun of him. Why wasn't there an impression of Steve Allen? Paul Newman was the biggest star, why wasn't there an impression of Paul Newman?
Kliph Nesteroff: Wait, what happened when Johnny Carson stole Rodney Dangerfield's joke?
Will Jordan: Oh, Rodney wouldn't do the show anymore. Later on he needed to and they finally made up. But I give Rodney credit. He had a lot more balls than I did. When he worked with Peggy Lee early on she said, "Let's get together." He said, "No, I'm not going to hang out with you to get famous." He was very, very proud. He had his weaknesses, but very proud. Of course I loved deep voices and boy, that was a natural, deep voice. He talked about that horrible father he had. Very, very wonderful. I asked him if I could break in my new act [at the comedy club Dangerfield's] and it didn't work there.
That was not the place to do it. He said, "I'll give you twenty-five a night," and I said, "That's all right, I don't need to be paid. I'm getting five thousand a night doing General Patton [for corporate engagements]. Money is not the thing. I don't want to do Patton. I don't want to do Sullivan. I want to do Will Jordan. That's why I'm doing this shit." It was the right idea, but I just wasn't ready. And, of course, I was too old. It would take a lot of work. I would [have to] keep experimenting with a hundred different characterizations, rhythms and this and that until I found the thing that worked. Buddy Hackett didn't like to work [the way he did]. A lot of these people wanted to work far more literate, but the literacy didn't work. They became the dumb character.
Of course, many of them were dumb, like Joe E. Ross, but many of them played these kinds of guys. Sheldon Leonard for example. A brilliant man and he played that [dumb] character, which he had been developing since the old days. Before the Method there was the Group Theater and that's where Sheldon Leonard came from and that was a great characterization. It was a great thing. I did that voice on a commercial once. I don't know why there weren't more people that imitated Sheldon Leonard, although they did use Sheldon himself in cartoons. It's not a hard voice to do. I thought he was brilliant.
The big rumor around him was, "Is he Arab or is he Jewish?" Of course he was Jewish, but his real name was Bershad and he helped Danny Thomas. Danny Thomas was a guy that was not Jewish, but had a Jewish name. Bershad sounds Arabic, but it was Jewish. For a second I wondered why he would help a guy that wasn't Jewish, although I admit it's all completely irrelevant. The story goes that at the very beginning Danny Thomas let the William Morris Agency think that he was Jewish to get Jewish agent support, Lastfogel and the big brains.
Kliph Nesteroff: That's the crux of Shecky Greene's Danny Thomas impression. It's him doing a whole bit of Danny Thomas singing this Hebrew incantation and this Catskills crowd goes nuts for it. Shecky as Danny closes saying, "Thank you very much, you've made a Lebanese Catholic a very happy man."
Will Jordan: He also said, "You people helped me - but now that I'm a star - I don't need you!" (laughs) Typical Shecky. Very, very funny. The kind of thing that Danny Thomas did - and irritated me - he did a remake of The Jazz Singer. It was kind of strange casting, although, of course, Neil Diamond did it later on. At least Neil Diamond was Jewish and so was Jolson. Still, Thomas handled his career well. You know he was on radio?
He did impressions of Eddie Cantor and everything. Did you know he was on The Lone Ranger show playing little bits? Well, it makes sense - Detroit. WXYZ, sure. That's where they did The Green Hornet, WXYZ. When I went there once, a lot of that was still there. The guys gave me a box of silver bullets and a couple albums and I met Fred Flowerday. When I went to Pittsburgh I saw part of KDKA. That was the first radio station. Very interesting. I would talk to these guys and they told me about the effects.
They would stand on one leg to give them the feeling they were on a horse. Fascinating. This was one of the guys that did it. He was telling me about how those wonderful effects were done. He told me about a guy named Todd who was Tonto. Great Shakespearean actor with a fantastically resonant voice. Here's this great actor and all he says is, "Ugh, no." One sentence. However, he helped make Tonto a legend. Everyone knows kemosabe and all of that.
Kliph Nesteroff: Well, you mentioned Joe E. Brown earlier.
Will Jordan: Yes.
Kliph Nesteroff: Apparently he is the one who convinced Jay Silverheels to move to Hollywood.
Will Jordan: Oh.
Kliph Nesteroff: Jay Silverheels was a lacrosse player. Joe E. Brown being the big sports fan that he was, had seen Jay Silverheels play lacrosse and wanted to cast him in some kind of shitty RKO film. And he did exactly that. He started playing Republic serials and things like that.
Will Jordan: I don't think he was in Republic serials, just on TV. Republic serials was Chief Thundercloud. Now that guy looked like a nickel. The one great serial - Lone Ranger 1937 - that's Republic. Now that guy really looked like Tonto.
Kliph Nesteroff: Right. Well, Jay Silverheels wasn't in the Lone Ranger serials - but he was doing other Republic serials not related to the Lone Ranger.
Will Jordan: Oh, yeah, okay. If you have ever seen the original Lone Ranger serials they are very interesting. Nothing like the radio show. The radio show was written by this guy Fran Striker. I think he also wrote The Green Hornet. The Green Hornet, it seems, was supposed to be the great grand nephew of the Lone Ranger. In the movie they went the other way. They were so obsessed with masks. The hero had a mask, the villain had a mask and in one satire they had a dog with a mask. The original serial was not that bad and the supporting players became big and not the Lone Ranger.
Bruce Bennett, then known as Herman Brix, was the great olympic swimmer. George Montogomery later became a big star and married Dinah Shore. These were the rangers and with each chapter you never found out who the Lone Ranger was. His name was Alan King - obviously that was before [comedian] Alan King changed his name to Alan King. It's kind of nice for a dated serial of that type. It starts off with all of these rangers being killed. Each chapter another one of these rangers dies. One is still living. Tonto discovers him and nurses him back to health in the silver mine.
That's where the Lone Ranger gets his silver bullets and everything else. Not quite the same as the radio show. At that time, if you go historically, they're all doing Zorro, they're all doing the Scarlet Pimpernel, it's the same character. In the day time he takes his mask off and he's a fag. It's like Clark Kent in Superman. At night they put on their cape or their mask and they become super. Same traditional gimmick still going on today. Now they have these movies of Spiderman that are unbelievable. You've got what looks like a fourteen year old girl playing Spiderman and Michael Keaton as Batman. What insane casting.
Kliph Nesteroff: You mentioned Alan King...
Will Jordan: Brilliant. Nasty. Nasty, brilliant man. He started off as a mimic too. He definitely improved. He did all the old stuff, but he had a lot of friends. He had a very powerful manager named Adler. Adler got him with Tony Martin and Tony Martin helped out a lot of comedians. Also not a particularly brilliant man, Tony Martin, but a very nice guy and quite a good voice.
Alan King said he was six months younger than me. That could be true, but I'm just stubborn. I think he was older. All these people today - they all sound like kids, but Alan King sounded like an old man when he was a kid! Even before he got his nose fixed he had that very deep voice and a great command.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Friday, November 23, 2012
Kenny Colman: I really got to know Redd Foxx in 1974 at the Princess Hotel in Acapulco. I was singing there for about a year. I was doing my jazz oriented stuff. I was standing in the lobby and I heard, "Don't you know me!? I'm Redd Foxx!" He was having problems getting a room. "I'm Redd Foxx! I've got a TV show!" He was rattling on.
I had been there quite often and I had spent much of my career in Mexico. I went to the front desk and I said, "This is a gentleman who is very well known in America. Can we find him a good room?" We got him a nice suite not too far from where I was appearing in the lounge with a sextet. From that point on Redd and I became friends.
He was in Mexico because they wouldn't put a window in his NBC office like he wanted. He was doing Sanford and Son. He was pissed off. They wouldn't give him the window so he just took off and nobody knew where he went. He told me, "Kenny, I'll come in every night and we'll load the place." Of course, my shows were busy anyway, but the fact that Redd had the kindness to acknowledge that Kenny Colman was there and he'd be right there with him - it was a nice boost for me.
It made for a nice five or six days of sitting by the pool. He was very, very nice to me and it continued in Los Angeles. I was singing in Los Angeles and he took me on The Merv Griffin Show with him. I had been on Merv Griffin many times before that, but he brought me on again in 1976. He said, "Kenny Colman is preparing to take Frank Sinatra's position in show business. He knows what the lyrics are all about. He is the heir to Frank Sinatra in show business."
Merv would say, "Yes, I know Kenny very well." I used to work with Merv in New York City. Redd was very, very good to me and often came to see me sing in Los Angeles. They did a five-part documentary on Kenny Colman in Los Angeles on KABC in 1979. Regis Philbin followed me around with a camera to all of the jazz clubs where I was performing. He interviewed people like Redd Foxx, Carmen McRae and Al Schmitt, who won twenty-two Grammys. Redd wanted to help me.
Frank Sinatra liked me. The ad you have says, "Frank Sinatra and Redd Foxx," but there's another ad they had in the paper that said, "Redd Foxx and Frank Sinatra invite you to watch Kenny Colman..." And he was so pissed off because he did not want to have top billing over Frank. He was very concerned about that. Redd was very kind.
There are a lot of other comics - who I won't name - that were in a position where they could have helped, but they didn't. Not only myself, but others. On The Mike Douglas Show we went to Redd's home and I sang a song with Joe Parnello who was Sinatra and Vic Damone's conductor for a long time. They did the show from Redd's house.
I did the Midnight Special with Steve Martin. He was on the show and the hosts were Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber. I did a Lou Rawls special, The Steve Allen Show, Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin and Johnny Carson. I sang with a talking dog on the Johnny Carson show in 1964. But the dog didn't talk, he barked. They gave him cookies all day long. He was supposed to say, "I love you." They had been feeding him all day long.
They introduced me, "Here's Kenny Colman from Canada and he's going to talk to this dog." This was when my first record was on Epic. I signed with Epic in 1963. Anyway, I went on the show and the dog was on a stool. I offered him a cookie and he just looked at me. It barked and ran off the stage. Skitch Henderson kicked in the orchestra and I sang a song. Peter O'Toole was getting loaded in the green room, sitting in there with Dick Cavett. So he couldn't come out and do the show. He was there to promote Lawrence of Arabia. So, they said, "Put Kenny Colman back out there." So I sang God Bless the Child and I did very well.
Before that I had worked for Goodson - Todman. They did game shows and a show called Play Your Hunch. I was working on Play Your Hunch and Merv was host. That was 1960. My first gig in show business was at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas with Lionel Hampton for the first three weeks and Harry James the next three weeks. Two of the great big bands.
The main room was Joe E. Lewis and Vic Damone. Here I was twenty-seven years old and I was in awe. It was a very memorable time. I met Jack Carter in 1961 at the Flamingo. He was on the bill with Vic Damone, following in Joe E. Lewis. Joe E. was kind of a legend with Frank. After the show we would all head over to the Sahara to be put down by Don Rickles. When he knew I was in the lounge he would do shtick on me.
That was 1961. The days of the Rat Pack. I got this gig with Sarah Vaughan. Her husband CB Atkins heard me in a club and got me, booked me, put together an act with a bunch of tunes and that's how I really started singing. I was in radio and television prior to that. I was a disc jockey in Bermuda in 1957. I met Bill Todman's mother-in-law at a party in Bermuda. At the party I sang Come Rain or Come Shine. I went to New York and stayed with this wealthy woman at her Park Avenue apartment. I met her son-in-law, who was Bill Todman.
I went to see him and I got a job in casting and as an idea man for Play Your Hunch. So I was in show business. I worked with Lenny Bruce at Le Bistro in Atlantic City in 1963. I opened the show and then Gloria Lynne, the great jazz singer, was on after me. And Herkie Styles... you ever hear of him?
Kliph Nesteroff: Yeah, drummer turned comic.
Kenny Colman: Oh, you know? Well, Herkie was there every night - never got on. He was only there in case Lenny didn't show up. I was in the dressing room and there was drug paraphernalia and everything, but I was pretty naive. To me marijuana was a drug. I didn't know the difference between heavy shit. Lenny was delightful and we were both Jewish so we conveyed to each other through shtick.
Lenny's mother was Sally Marr. When I went to Los Angeles I was playing the Playboy Club and the jazz clubs, I got to know Sally quite well. Jackie Gayle was in their family. Jackie was a good friend of mine and I worked with him in the Playboy Clubs. I worked them with Jerry Van Dyke, Dave Madden, George Carlin, Don Adams and Jackie Gayle many times. They worked all the Playboy Clubs.
Alan King saw me in Acapulco and asked me to do Johnny Carson with him. I was singing When Joanna Loved Me, one of the dominant songs in my career. I was booked on the show with [guest host] Alan King. They gave me two or three days off from the St. Geronimo Hotel where I was headlining. I was booked on the show and two days before I got a call that I was canceled because Alan King was ill and Woody Allen wanted to bring his own people on.
So, I never had my second appearance on The Tonight Show - which would have been a tremendous opportunity for me. Didn't do it, but Alan was very kind to have done that for me. Ed Sullivan finally discovered me when I was in Acapulco - but his show was already off the air. So, you've got to have a little luck to go with your career.
Kliph Nesteroff: You mentioned Joe E. Lewis...
Kenny Colman: He was always playing gin rummy by the pool. I have a picture somewhere in my reservoir of stuff of Joe E, Vic Damone, Jack Carter and myself. They used to play gin rummy with Joe E. Lewis. He was very well respected by the stars. Joe E. was a legend. My career has taken me to a lot of places all over the world. In 1967 I was singing at the Hungry I in San Francisco. I think I followed Jack Burns and George Carlin in. My opening act was Reiner and Bishop. Rob Reiner, as a matter of fact, still owes me eighty dollars.
Larry Bishop was Joey Bishop's son. I came on next. Kenny Colman. Then Carmen McRae was on. She was there for three weeks and then the guy from the Kingston Trio. In the lounge, off the main show room, was a place called the Living Room. Mort Sahl played there and the Professor Irwin Corey. So I was with these guys. I got friendly with Jack Burns - and John Aylesworth and Frank Peppiatt. They all came to see me sing. When rock and roll prevailed and there were no more singers, I had to find work.
My mom and dad were in Palm Springs, so I went. I got up and sang at a place called the Metropole. I did very well and I got another job at the Country Club Hotel in Palm Springs. Jilly's reopened with Frank and his boys. Jilly came in with Jimmy the Hook while I was building a name for myself. People were coming to see Kenny Colman. Jilly Rizzo and I knew each other from New York because I used to hang out at Jilly's. I was learning my craft by sitting in all the jazz clubs and piano bars. That's where I learned to do my thing.
I worked the Bon Soir just after Barbra Streisand. Anyway, after I opened at Jilly's - Jilly grabbed me and took me over to meet Frank. This was the first time I met Frank. He was sitting with Lucille Ball. Frank sat up. He gave me a little hug. "Kenny, looking forward to hearing you." From that point on he would wink at me, shake my hand, "You're singing good." I knew from the fact that he was there... I wouldn't be there a second if Frank didn't dig me. It would be impossible. Jilly would only do it to please Frank. He invited me to Vegas. I was a guest. Just a guest. Jilly got me a room and everything.
Nine years pass. All those years I was singing all over from Aruba to Bermuda to Cancun to Australia. Jerry Van Dyke and I had a condo in Australia. 1976 I was getting a divorce and looking for work in Palm Springs. Bobby Milano knew I was in town. He was sick and he couldn't work at Dominic's, a restaurant in Palm Springs. He asked me to fill in. I didn't even rehearse. It was just a piano player with a synthesizer. I hate that. I don't work with less than a trio. But I did it because I needed a gig and I needed to get exposure again. Is this boring? Everything I tell you is no bullshit. This is it.
I walked in. I see Jilly, I see Frank, I see Barbara, Jimmy Van Heusen, Laraine Day, Leo Durocher, Pat Henry. I walked up to Dominic and I said, "I haven't rehearsed. Why don't we wait [for another day]. There's only eighteen people here." He said, "He came to hear you! He called to find out who was working." I was fucking nervous, you know. I sang all the beautiful songs that I knew Frank liked to hear. So, while I was singing he was asking me questions. "Who wrote that?"
He was starting to converse with me and I would answer back. During my time on stage I was in pretty good shape and looking pretty good. He called me to the table, but I didn't go. I went to the corner of the bar. Barbara came and got me and brought me back. When Frank was watching me... he turns his back to you... not to be rude, but because he doesn't want to intimidate you. He's very sensitive to artists. He's deeply concerned about people. I could go on and on about Frank. Anyway, Frank turned the chair around and I sat right next to Blue Eyes - and he's beautiful when he talks to you. There's no question. He looks you right in the eye.
He said, "Kenny, how are you doing?" I said, "Frank, with rock and roll and Top 40 music - it's tough to get a gig. Nobody wants to hear When I Fall in Love." He said, "Does Jilly have your phone number?" I said, "Yeah, I think so." He said, "I'm going to Germany. I'll be back in two weeks. Jilly will call you and we'll talk then." Two weeks to the day I get a phone call and they flew me to Las Vegas. I had a suite at Caesar's Palace. Two bodyguards took me to see Frank. He was onstage at the time and I was backstage with Liberace.
Liberace was telling me how he and Frank had to prove to their mothers that they were millionaires. They each brought a million dollars to their mothers and showed them, "Look. A million dollars." That's what he told me. When Frank came off stage after the first show he came right up to me and rubbed my hair. He says, "You got some great hair, Kenny!"
We all got into limousines and in between shows went to the Moby Dick Room at the Stardust and had seafood. I was sitting across from Frank and couldn't believe I was there. Tongue tied. When he came back we talked about fighters. He loved fighters. I loved boxing also. I was ringside with Barbara watching Frank. From that point on I was in his corner. Maybe it's not important to other people, but Frank did many things for me.
I reopened at Jilly's. Jilly's closed down for many years and reopened in 1979-1980. Frank Sinatra was doing Second Deadly Sin. Of course, Jilly was there and a couple of wiseguys operated it. After I came offstage he called me over and he said, "You know Kenny, you, me, Tony Bennett - we're like the last of a fraternity. We're the last of the saloon singers." I thought to myself, "Yeah, I'm making a thousand dollars and he's making a hundred million a week."
As I was leaving he said, "Kenny, if you ever need anything - holler." Well, during the five-part documentary on me - it was quite a coup. The camera followed me around opening night. Frank told the producer that he would come in on his way to Palm Springs and catch a few songs from Kenny. Word got out. The place was jammed. Of course, it was pretty packed anyways. I knew he knew how good I could be and I knew how could he is. Nobody is better than he is and nobody ever will be better than he is.
He's one of a kind. That night Frank did not come. But Regis was there with his wife Joy and Jilly was there with Dorothy. I sang my ass off. Regis interviewed Jilly. Jilly talks like a wiseguy. He says, "Frank called me one day and he said, 'That Kenny Colman can sing. He's a great singer. Take care of him." When Frank says that - he never deviated til the day he died. I sang in Chicago and Frank came in with Milton Berle and Irv Kupcinet.
It continued. Frank, his final show, November 8, 1994. I was on my way to do a show at Tavern on the Green. I stopped off in Chicago to do some interviews. That night he was in Chicago and I joined him afterward with Don Rickles and Elliot Wiseman. I was with Tony O. We were standing in the wings with Nancy Sinatra. I watched him and I was crying inside. He couldn't read the lyrics. It was very sad. It was like watching an aging fighter unable to lift his hands up to defend himself.
Then, later, I came back to Chicago from New York and he was absolutely un-fucking-believalble. Great. The last round. It was like Rocky. I said to Tony, "What the hell happened?" He was unbelievable. Tony said, "We took him off the medication." It was too much medication. He was magnificent. That was his last time ever singing except for one last gig in Japan. I saw his last performance and he was wonderful.
He arranged for me to sing... at Bally's Hotel in Atlantic City in 1989. Frank took me to Reno on his fiftieth anniversary in show business. I went to Atlantic City with him and he came in almost every night. He was doing his July 4th concert outside for ten thousand people. He was coming out of his trailer and I was headed to go watch him from the sides, but he grabbed me and he lead me with him to the stage, to the curtain. He said, "Just stand right here, Kenny." And he did the whole show looking at me, winking at me, and he made sure to mention, "There's a great singer in the lounge." And he came in that night. Just great. He was wonderful to me.
But the coup de grace was in 1985. April Fool's I was diagnosed with inoperable adenocarcinoma and given six months to live. So I gave away my music and everything. It was a terrible situation. I gave my clothes and everything away. I was booked to open a show on a ship with Alan King on April 10th. I went on the ship, sang and didn't talk too much to Alan. I returned to Canada, it was a mistaken diagnosis, I did have a tumor, it was benign, it was operated on.
Three doctors misdiagnosed me. All three of those doctors are now dead. Seriously. Now, I'm alive. Word got out to Frank. I get a call from Robert Tisch who owns Loew's and the New York Giants. Frank had called him. Bottom line, Bob Houseman called and asked me, "Do you want to go to Monte Carlo to sing at the Loew's Hotel?" Who wouldn't want to go to Monte Carlo?
Kliph Nesteroff: Kenny, I saw you open for Don Rickles a few years ago. When did you first get to know Rickles? Was it through Frank Sinatra?
Kenny Colman: When I did The Merv Griffin Show with Redd Foxx, the next night Don patched up the situation with Johnny Carson and he. You know they had a beef, right? Johnny Carson was a... I knew Johnny when I was working for Merv Griffin in 1960. I was also the singer at the Living Room when Johnny was doing Who Do You Trust and he was a bad drunk. Quite a bad drunk.
Apparently, at Jilly's, Johnny was drunk and he grabbed the ass of this girl, an obscene gesture. It was not in good taste and it could have been a dangerous situation because they were going to beat the shit out of Johnny. Jilly got Johnny out of the club and because of that Jilly and Frank didn't talk to Johnny for years.
For years. Maybe you've heard about this. So, Don was [going to be on] Johnny the next night after I was on The Merv Griffin Show. Jilly asked me to come down to say hello to Frank. So I went down to NBC and went backstage and there was Barbara and Don. Barbara said to me, "Saw you last night on The Merv Griffin Show and you were terrific. Just terrific." Don said, "Terrific!" They knew of me. I had been in the peripheral all my life, but when it came to singing - I was up there. My ambiance, my style, I phrased differently and I never tried to be Frank like Tony did.
Even Michael Buble does, although he's terrific and I wish him even more success. Anyway, Jilly grabs me and I'm walking with Frank behind the curtain on Johnny's show. When you saw me open for Rickles - I think Tony O. told him, "Frank loved Kenny. Let's use Kenny." He raved about me. I was booked with him after that at the Golden Nugget in Vegas.
I tried to be friendly with comics so I could get work. I worked with Pete Barbutti, Ralph Young, Sandy Baron. I knew Sandy very well. He used to come see me in New York, but he was in bad shape. He was on drugs and frustrated.
Kliph Nesteroff: There's a 45 I found and I'm assuming it must be you because it's the same spelling. A Heart Divided by Kenny Colman and the Lanas.
Kenny Colman: Yes! That's my first (laughs). You know what happened? When I first started working for Goodson - Todman I met these guys that were like song writers and they cut this record. I don't even have a copy of it. I also did a soundtrack for Malamondo. Look up Ennio Morricone and Ken Colman.
Can I tell you about George Burns? I met George Burns at The Cave Supper Club. I worked there with Julliet Prowse and of course I headlined there many times. A friend and I, we drove George Burns around Vancouver to show him the city. I had a series called Showcase, the Ken Colman show on CBC. Anyway, George Burns came to the CBC and watched my show. He said, "When you come to Los Angeles look me up and we'll see what we can do for you."
Inevitably I end up back in Los Angeles and I make an appointment to see George. He says, "Come to the Hollywood Palace. I'm hosting, come see me." This was around 1964. He handed me a cigar, "How's your sister? How's your mom?" Most gracious guy. I watched the show and then he said, "Thanks for coming to the show and when you're in town please look me up." I said, "George. I'm in town. I am looking you up!" He said, "Uh, uh, oh, uh, well, what do you want?" I said, "I want to be on the Johnny Carson show again." It never happened.
He wasn't in the position at the time and you've got to grab the moment, y'know. When I was in Acapulco this guy heard me and he said, "You know, I'm a good friend of Jack Benny's." So he arranged for me to meet Jack Benny so he could hear me sing. This was 1974. I schlepped to his office in Beverly Hills with my tape recorder and Irving Fein was his go between.
I see this little guy shriveled up in the chair and he was very gracious. I gave him a tape of the album I did. He listened to it and he listens to almost the whole thing. I says to Irv, "Gee, Irv, I think he's heard enough. Maybe we should stop it." He said, "No, no, he likes it!" I look over - and he's fucking sound asleep. He'd been asleep the whole time!
A few years later I met Muhammad Ali. Sarah Vaughn's husband became right hand man for Muhammad Ali. CB found out I was singing in a club and he came. He came by himself in Beverly Hills and I said, "I'd love for you to meet Muhammad Ali." He arranged for me to go to his home. He did thirty minutes of close magic for me! I have all kinds of pictures of it. He asked me, "Are you as good as Tony Bennett?" I told him, "I'm the greatest." He fucking loved it.
He came to hear me sing. Muhammad came on a Wednesday night. It was empty. There were maybe six people in the room. He comes in, here's Muhammad Ali with CB and another guy to hear Kenny Colman swing! I'm singing and wailing away - singing my guts out to Muhammad Ali and I looked down at him... sound asleep!
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