Thursday, March 28, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
Woody Woodbury: I once did a pilot film for Warner Brothers. Jack Warner kind of took a liking to me years ago. I did this pilot and some guy, I don't know who he was, got so mad. He came to Jack Warner and said, "Why'd you give that son of a bitch the pilot for? I should have been up for that!" I got a kick out of Mr. Warner telling me that. Jack Warner used to smoke these big cigars and they came in these little individual wooden boxes. They were like long, little caskets just for a cigar. I still have one he gave to me. He was a real character.
Kliph Nesteroff: What was your association with Warner Brothers?
Woody Woodbury: Just that pilot and a couple of the directors. Joe Pasternak was at Warner Brothers for a while and I got to know him pretty well. I lived in Toluca Lake and Burbank was right there. I knew different guys at Warners. Jim Jordan was there for a while and he wound up directing my show for Ralph Edwards. Jim Jordan Jr, that is. He was Fibber McGee's son.
You've been in contact with Jack Carter? I had always been a fan of his. I followed him into a couple of places. I followed him into the Top Hat in Windsor. I used to do the Warner-Lambert shows with him years ago. We did those in Miami and Palm Desert. Usually at the Mariott or something. I worked with him quite a few times. I have a picture of he and Harry Ritz. Harry Ritz gave it to me.
Jack Carter was in an accident with Toni Murray? I knew her and Jan Murray when they were just newlyweds in 1947 or 1948. They used to come down to Miami and work The Clover Club with Rose Marie and The Vagabonds. We used to go water skiing. She was pretty. She was a Copa girl or something. Toni Murray was movie star pretty. Another guy that I miss that I got to know pretty well was Jack from Dragnet.
Kliph Nesteroff: Jack Webb.
Woody Woodbury: Jack Webb, yeah. He was very close to the Pickers who headed up United Artists. He was going at that time with this gorgeous girl, Angie Dickinson.
Kliph Nesteroff: You were a mainstay at the Clover Club in Miami. You were there nightly for a year or two.
Woody Woodbury: The Clover Club had great acts. Jack Goldman was a marvelous boss and he was especially good to me. Every time that I asked for a raise I got it. Nobody else would dare ask him for a raise. We were doing incredible business there in the lounge and I emceed other shows for him. That's how I got to know so many of the headliners. Jack was married to a beautiful Italian girl named Louise. Jack got interested in Las Vegas and he was in on the ground floor.
He was one of the initial backers - owners - of the Sahara. I don't know what happened, but in the process he stayed out there so long, things didn't work out, and he got divorced. Somehow he lost out and got bought out. By the time he came back to Miami he had no interest in his club anymore and he just faded from the scene. One night at the Bahama Hotel, about five or six years later, the room was full and doing great business. I walk in and there's Jack Goldman with an entourage of people. I introduced him from the stage.
Fort Lauderdale then had kind of an anti-Semitic flavor to it. When I introduced him and said he was the greatest boss I ever had - people stood up and applauded because they remembered the Clover Club. I mean, it was the plush place. It was like Ciro's in California or the Stork Club in New York or Lou Walters' Latin Quarter. Lou Walters built a place in Miami at one point and he called it the Latin Quarter South. Barbara Walters is his daughter. I remember Barbara when she was a kid. I would see her around when she was making the nightclub scene.
She was a pretty little girl. That was my time in Miami and then everything opened up for me in Fort Lauderdale. Sonny Werblin, he was next in line from Jules Stein at MCA. They were my agents. They wanted me to go to Fort Lauderdale. I went and at the time I was real bitter about it. I didn't want to leave Miami and the Vagabonds. But everything good happened to me in Lauderdale.
Kliph Nesteroff: Over in Miami Beach it was very much what you might call "connected."
Woody Woodybury: Yes. There was Murray Weinger with Copa City and there was the Beachcomber. Murray Weinger was a businessman out of New York and I think he had some money behind it. It was gorgeous, but it was really nothing compared to the Clover Club. Sophie Tucker never worked the Clover, but Jack wanted her to. She had family down here. So did Rickles. Don's mom lived down here forever.
Kliph Nesteroff: How about Place Pigalle where BS Pully performed...
Woody Woodbury: Place Pigalle was over on the Beach. I remember when Jerry Colonna was in town. He and I went over to the Club 22 and BS Pully was onstage. Colonna went crazy. Jerry was rolling over laughing at BS Pully. He was a dirty comic, but he was also a funny guy and had a voice like a cannon.
And when Don Rickles started down here... my friend Al Schwartz who I was with constantly... we were inseparable buddies. We'd go over to see Rickles perform and Al would say, "Honestly, I don't know if I wanna go in there." I said, "Why?" He said, "Because the Jews hate him!" I said, "He's Jewish. What are you talking about?" We went in there and Don was still perfecting what he was doing. He wasn't yet accepted for what he was. When he was first starting out he was making anti-Semitic remarks.
It was like when he did the Carson roast and he told Flip Wilson, "It's amazing you're sitting up here with us. You should be in back washing the dishes." Things like that. That's what he was doing at Murray Franklin's across the street from the Roney Plaza. He would say things that sounded anti-Jewish and those young Jewish kids didn't understand what the hell he was doing. They wanted to come over the goddamn bar and kill him. Don would tell you that himself.
Kliph Nesteroff: I have an early advertisement for Don Rickles playing the Admiral Vee Motel.
Woody Woodbury: I think that was a little later on. Do you have a year on that?
Kliph Nesteroff: 1958.
Woody Woodbury: Uh huh. Well, I'm talking about 1948, 1949, 1950.
Kliph Nesteroff: What was Murray Franklin's like?
Woody Woodbury: It was a small, intimate club. It was like a lounge bar and had a pretty good size stage. What was good about it was that the stage was behind the bar so you had command of the room. There was no escape. You were a perfect target for everybody. Don was starting to get his feet wet. You know who saw him? The Slate Brothers were down here in Florida.
They were down here and they liked Rickles. He shuffled around Miami and New York a few more years and the Slates never forgot him. They brought him out to their club. The Slate Brothers had a club on La Cienega Blvd out there in Los Angeles and they were connected to the Ritz Brothers and a lot of people.
Billy Gray, who worked the Band Box, and all the great performers out there. They'd have a lot of stars in there. I was in there three or four times and Sinatra saw Rickles there and just went up the wall. If memory serves, that's when Rickles really started to make noise. The stuff he was doing back then was pretty much what he does now, although I think it may have been a little more coarse. He had that kisser of his and he'd be making those eyes, rolling them and all this kind of stuff. Some of his stuff is still standard. Dick Haymes would be in the audience. "Dick, I heard you sing tonight. Go home. You're through." You know? That's the way he operated.
Kliph Nesteroff: Billy Gray's Band Box was a predecessor of comedy clubs. It really featured a lot of comedians. What do you remember of it?
Woody Woodbury: We used to go to it every now and then. It was on Fairfax, not far from where CBS is today. It was a nice place. It wasn't as classy as Ciro's. I went to Ciro's with Rose Marie and Bobby Guy and my own mom and dad for some reason. My mother couldn't get over how plush Ciro's was. "This is almost as pretty as the Clover Club!"
The Band Box had people like Noonan and Marshall. Peter was a vocalist, as you well know, and he has a great mind for comedy. I met Peter when I was working the Clover Club. I think it was probably 1948. He was at the Olympia Theater with Tommy Noonan. They were a comedy duo and when Tommy died... I thought that was going to be the end of Peter Marshall. They were bosom buddies for several years and he died unexpectedly. Did you ever know of a guy named Roger Ray?
Kliph Nesteroff: No.
Woody Woodbury: A comedian?
Kliph Nesteroff: No.
Woody Woodbury: He was an excellent musician. He played the marimba with two mallets, four mallets, six mallets and he was really great. He always had to be a supporting act. You hear the marimba two or three times and that's it. And he knew that. He was a great friend of mine. What he did was - he got work at some little lounge in Las Vegas. Word got to him that Las Vegas was really gonna blow up and expand. So Roger got into the cement block business. Think about that.
Roger retired with something like eight hundred million dollars. He supplied all the cement blocks for all the Strip hotels and Clark County. Roger Ray. He was a talented guy. I worked with him two or three times. He and Corbett Monica were good friends. When I worked the El Cortez there was no Strip in Las Vegas yet. The only place to work was the Sahara, which Beldon Kattleman had.
Nothing was ever called The Strip. It was called the LA Highway. They had a place out there called the Old Frontier. It was shaped like a big letter C. Gambling was wide open in those days, but nobody knew about it except people in California. I was working the El Cortez and the only other place was the Biltmore. That was downtown. Downtown was where all the activity was and there was nothing on the Strip except for Beldon Kattleman's place. The only comic who ever worked it was Joe E. Lewis. That was it. There was nothing else in Las Vegas. Nothing. I remember it well.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
Kliph Nesteroff: We've talked about your time in the comedy team Antone and Curtiss, but we haven't talked much about your other comedy team Curtiss and Tracy.
Jackie Curtiss: After Bill Tracy and I split up he joined The Modernaires. By the time he got there it only had people that had worked once or twice with the original group. The girl with them was Paula Kelly Jr. and she was the legitimate link because of her mother. She owned the name. Her father was the originator of the Modernaires. Just like there were about fifteen or sixteen Ink Spots. Everytime someone left they would form their own group and it was like an amoeba.
Kliph Nesteroff: Same thing with the Drifters.
Jackie Curtiss: Yes, there was an awful lot of that.
Kliph Nesteroff: Although one of the original Ink Spots died fairly recently. He was over a hundred years old.
Jackie Curtiss: Well, they were all pretty old to begin with! I saw them as a kid in New York. I was maybe twelve or thirteen and they were adults then and weren't exactly starting out. I listen to a show here, I don't know if you've ever heard of this guy, Chuck Cecil. He started a show in 1955, and it's still going, called The Swinging Years.
He has all these interviews with the great record people and he plays music from 1935 to 1955. It's a marvelous show. He has interviews with just about every star and he is a real authority. He's really a great guy and he's eighty-nine now. He has so much information about the records and who's on them.
He has all these interviews with the great record people and he plays music from 1935 to 1955. It's a marvelous show. He has interviews with just about every star and he is a real authority. He's really a great guy and he's eighty-nine now. He has so much information about the records and who's on them.
Kliph Nesteroff: I recently found an ad for the Trolly Ho.
Jackie Curtiss: Oh, you mean my Trolly Ho?
Kliph Nesteroff: Yes.
Jackie Curtiss: Wow! That's really wild! That was quite a thing. That whole Trolly Ho thing. When I split up with Marc Antone, I was writing and very busy in town with recording. Bill Tracy, who I had met years before, asked, "Wanna team up with me?" I had just about had it with comedy teams and I didn't want to travel.
He said, "There's this little place, the Trolly Ho. There might be something there and you can stay in town." He conned me into it and, my God, within three months it was the top place in town. Every star came in and I would get them to get up on stage. Then we moved down to La Cienega and it became a big deal. I discovered so many people. I had a singer friend. I brought her in and she just exploded. She was one of the bookends when I was writing The Ray Anthony Show. This was Vikki Carr. She, of course, became a superstar. I had her for six months at the Trolly Ho.
He said, "There's this little place, the Trolly Ho. There might be something there and you can stay in town." He conned me into it and, my God, within three months it was the top place in town. Every star came in and I would get them to get up on stage. Then we moved down to La Cienega and it became a big deal. I discovered so many people. I had a singer friend. I brought her in and she just exploded. She was one of the bookends when I was writing The Ray Anthony Show. This was Vikki Carr. She, of course, became a superstar. I had her for six months at the Trolly Ho.
Kliph Nesteroff: Ray Anthony seems like a strange guy.
Jackie Curtiss: Oh (laughs). You nailed that. Did you talk to him?
Kliph Nesteroff: Never. That's just an observation. He and Hugh Hefner are close...
Jackie Curtiss: Very close.
Kliph Nesteroff: I always see these photos of a decrepit Ray Anthony and his ridiculous toupe with these young girls...
Jackie Curtiss: Right. Well, when I wrote the show... I wrote twenty-six episodes for KTTV, I think. In the twenty-six weeks I really got to know him. First of all, he is very short and he wore Adler Elevator Shoes, which made him look like he was walking downhill. He also had a toupe. It wasn't a really great one and I used to stare at the netting when I was talking to him. He would say, "What are you looking at?" I'd say, "Oh, it looks like you're sweating or something." Used to drive him crazy. He used to wear a robe with nothing under it. When the doorbell rang and it was a girl, he would accidentally let it unfold.
And he was just a cooze hound. Just was nuts with girls and everything. When we did the show... when the first review came out... it was a good show and he really was a good trumpet man, but evidently somebody didn't like him and the review came out. It said he had all these talented people and talented writers... it's too bad he can't have someone write talent for him.
Kliph Nesteroff: Ouch.
Jackie Curtiss: It was in the Hollywood Reporter and we bought them all up, so he never saw it. Because if he did? "How come there haven't been any reviews?" "Uh, I dunno, Ray." But his history - he goes way back. He got fired from Glenn Miller. He was always egotistical. There's a clip in Sun Valley Serenade where the Glenn Miller Orchestra is playing Chattanooga Choo Choo. In the back, as they're getting ready to play, to gain attention, Ray picks up one of the mutes and throws it in the air to catch it. He was always doing something to draw attention to himself on camera. He finally got fired. But a really good trumpet player... but also a real wacko.
Kliph Nesteroff: A big ego.
Jackie Curtiss: Oh, unbelievable.
Kliph Nesteroff: But like I say, I've never met him, I've never talked to him... I'm just picking up that vibe.
Jackie Curtiss: Can I tell you? You're lucky.
Kliph Nesteroff: (laughs)
Jackie Curtiss: Unless there's something you really want to get from him - he would just drive you bugs. I mean, that whole thing with Hef is incredible. Hef is the same way. I knew Hef, my God, I worked for him for eleven years and I opened most of his Playboy Clubs. Ray is quite a character.
Kliph Nesteroff: Anyway, I don't know how we got on the topic of Ray Anthony...
Jackie Curtiss: Yeah, I was just thinking that. Oh, I mentioned Vikki Carr was with Ray Anthony.
Kliph Nesteroff: The Trolly Ho blurb says, "Jim Duffin and Jerry Calavao's swinging suburban playroom continues their policy of spotlighting new singers with the regular Jackie Curtiss - Bill Tracy comedy act." So, was that before you guys took it over?
Jackie Curtiss: Well, we never took it over, but it just got so big with us that we fronted it. What you're reading there was about the old Trolly Ho at Beverly Drive and Pico. After about four months it got so big and it was such a tiny place that they went and bought a place on La Cienega.
We went in there and were there for some time. We had a piece of it instead of getting a salary. We caught the one guy, Jerry, going out the back with half a rack of cow. We knew that they were cheating us and we got into a fight. He said, "Yeah, well, who needs you! We got this big place now." We left and they were closed in three weeks. Empty. But I met so many people there and became friends.
I'll never forget the night that Harpo Marx was in the audience. His son, Bill Marx, brought him in. I had befriended Bill. It was such a shock because he came back after the show. I opened the door and I wasn't expecting it. He said, "You guys are so great." I just realized I heard Harpo Marx speak - and it knocked me out. And then we became friendly. But a lot of stars came in and we became friends. One of my buddies through the years was Johnny Weissmuller.
He would let go with the Tarzan yell before he walked in the door and everyone knew he was coming in! I used to do a thing in my act with both Marc Antone and Bill Tracy. It was a Cheetah impression where I would jump from the floor into his arms. When Johnny saw that he loved it. He said, "Can I do that with you?" So, I would get him up when he came in and would actually do Cheetah with Tarzan! So, it was quite a thing.
We went in there and were there for some time. We had a piece of it instead of getting a salary. We caught the one guy, Jerry, going out the back with half a rack of cow. We knew that they were cheating us and we got into a fight. He said, "Yeah, well, who needs you! We got this big place now." We left and they were closed in three weeks. Empty. But I met so many people there and became friends.
I'll never forget the night that Harpo Marx was in the audience. His son, Bill Marx, brought him in. I had befriended Bill. It was such a shock because he came back after the show. I opened the door and I wasn't expecting it. He said, "You guys are so great." I just realized I heard Harpo Marx speak - and it knocked me out. And then we became friendly. But a lot of stars came in and we became friends. One of my buddies through the years was Johnny Weissmuller.
He would let go with the Tarzan yell before he walked in the door and everyone knew he was coming in! I used to do a thing in my act with both Marc Antone and Bill Tracy. It was a Cheetah impression where I would jump from the floor into his arms. When Johnny saw that he loved it. He said, "Can I do that with you?" So, I would get him up when he came in and would actually do Cheetah with Tarzan! So, it was quite a thing.
Kliph Nesteroff: What was Weissmuller doing at that point? Was he just living off of his...
Jackie Curtiss: He was kind of semi-retired. He had been doing some Jungle Jim stuff and...
Kliph Nesteroff: Did he get into real estate?
Jackie Curtiss: Oh, yes. He was into all of that. In Hollywood he was such an icon. Everywhere he went he was so loved.
Kliph Nesteroff: How about some of the other Jackies... all the comedians were named Jackie. Do you remember anything about Jackie Miles?
Jackie Curtiss: Jackie Miles was a very funny guy. He did a routine, a running gag, "I saw every movie Gene Autry did." He would talk and say something that didn't go over and then pause and say, "Yeah. But I saw every movie Gene Autry ever made." And if they laughed he'd say, "You see? You're laughing. But it doesn't compare to the fact that I saw every movie that Gene Autry ever made."
A guy would drop a dish. He'd say, "Sure, disturb my show. Drop a dish. Doesn't matter. Cause I saw every movie that Gene Autry ever made."
Kliph Nesteroff: What a weird...
Jackie Curtiss: Yeah, but it worked!
Kliph Nesteroff: How about a sad sack comic friend of Jackie Miles. Lenny Kent.
Jackie Curtiss: Lenny Kent. Yeahhhh... good old Lenny Kent. He was another wacko. Oh, he was big in the Playboy clubs when I was there. I walked into the Chicago Playboy Club and Lenny was there. When I first went into Playboy, the bunnies didn't get paid. They just got tips. But nobody knew they didn't get paid. I devised a thing in my act for the bunnies.
"Incidentally, folks, the bunnies don't get paid. They only get paid in what you leave in tips. Be kind. But one thing. Watch out for Bunny Heidi. Boy, you better tip her because if you have any relatives left in Germany..." So, I did that and the bunnies loved that. I did that because it helped them. So, I walk in one night and here's Lenny Kent doing my Bunny Heidi routine. He walks off and I said, "Lenny..." And he goes, "Oh! Yeah! I know, yeah, you do that, but..." I said, "Lenny, I do that to help the girls. You should have asked." He said, "Oh, okay. I'm asking you now." I said, "What are you asking me?" He says, "Let me have it. You're clever. You can write something else." That was his attitude.
Kliph Nesteroff: Both Lenny Kent and Jackie Miles were quite popular at one point and then both of their careers nose dived.
Jackie Curtiss: Yes. They wore out their welcome. They were both pretty cheap, y'know. You have to be, even if you don't want to be, flamboyant. You have got to pick up the check now and then. That was their thing.
Kliph Nesteroff: How about Jack Carter.
Jackie Curtiss: Marc Antone and I were doing The Ed Sullivan Show and Jack Carter was on as well. I don't know if you know how the Sullivan show worked. There were two shows in the same day.
Kliph Nesteroff: Right there was the dress rehearsal and then the live broadcast...
Jackie Curtiss: Yes, but do you know why he had that rehearsal? You see, we rehearsed and blocked it and all of that, but he had an actual show with a full audience. How that audience reacted to each act would determine where that act ended up on the show at night. That's why people would complain that Sullivan didn't know what he was doing because he had comics following comics. When a comic did real well and another comic didn't do real well [at rehearsal], he would take the comic that didn't do well and put him immediately after the comic who did.
He felt that the goodness would overflow. Anyway, we had just done our afternoon show and we were taking a walk. Jack Carter said, "Let's go for a walk over to the Avenue of the Americas. There's a souvenir shop I want to see." We're walking down the street and this little old lady is pushing a shopping cart. She spots Jack Carter and she says, "Bert Parks! Bert Parks! There she is - Missssss Amerrrrr-icaaaaa! Bert Parks, I love you!" Jack says, "I'm not Bert Parks." She says, "Oh, come on! I know you're Bert Parks. You're famous!" He says, "I'm not Bert Parks! I'm Jack Carter!" She says, "Jack Carter!? I hate Jack Carter!" And she hit him with her shopping bag and walked away!
I did around four or five Sullivan shots with him. It just so happened that we were on the same shows. He was a good guy. When I opened my club down here in Los Angeles he was the first one to come over and say, "If you need any help, I'm here for you. I'll bring people in." Good guy. One thing about Jack - he thought very well of himself (laughs).
Kliph Nesteroff: Now how about Lenny Bruce...
Jackie Curtiss: I used to babysit for Lenny Bruce.
Kliph Nesteroff: Really?
Jackie Curtiss: Yeah, in San Francisco. I had a club. I hired Lenny when nobody else would. I was with him just before he died. The last couple of years, Lenny was in search of the truth and the truth killed him. He was a great guy. To show you how wild his mind was - I would finish my last show and then we would meet at the Thunderbird Hotel on Sunset Blvd at a little coffee shop. We'd meet for breakfast.
At that time he was writing - law things - for court. People don't realize that Lenny didn't get high to get high. Lenny was in a lot of pain. He was addicted to prescription drugs and everything. Most of the time he was high he was still lucid. He may have been high, but he knew what he was doing. We were talking and I had just heard a joke. I tell it to Lenny.
"This priest is in the hospital for an appendicitis and two nurses are sitting downstairs and someone leaves a baby on the doorstep. They hear it crying and take it in. One of the nurses says, 'Oh my God, now we're going to have to write up all these papers and everything - we're going to be here all night.' The other nurse says, 'Wait a minute. Let's take the baby upstairs and put it in the bed with that priest that's in ward such and such. We'll tell him he had an immaculate conception.' So they take the baby up there and he believes them. The priest raises the boy and when he reaches the age of twenty-one the priest tells him. 'Son, I have something to tell you. All these years you have thought I am your father. I am not your father. I am your mother. The bishop is your father." So, I told this joke to Lenny and he says, "Ah, man. That's the answer! That's the answer to Catholicism! Suppose Mary just had an emergency appendectomy! Joe never screwed her so a Roman soldier lays this bastard kid on her. That could be the answer!" That's how Lenny's mind worked.
Kliph Nesteroff: Now you were babysitting for the child that he and Honey...
Jackie Curtiss: Yes.
Kliph Nesteroff: This was during their dispute?
Jackie Curtiss: No, what happened was - they were separated. They were friends. They were together. They were separated. They were together. They were separated. She would have a club date, Lenny would have a club date and I'd say, "I'll take care of the baby." That happened a few times in San Francisco.
Kliph Nesteroff: There's a story that when Honey was trying to get full custody, Lenny kidnapped the baby and drove it to Shecky Greene's house where Shecky stashed the child.
Jackie Curtiss: Yes, right. Well, we all have Lenny stories. Lenny's mother was great too.
Kliph Nesteroff: Sally.
Jackie Curtiss: Sally Marr. Her biggest compliment to me was one-night after a Playboy Club show she walked up to me and said, "You know something, Jackie? You're not very funny, but you've got the greatest memory. You remember every joke in the world." That was her little way.
Kliph Nesteroff: How about Jack E. Leonard?
Jackie Curtiss: Oh, a very good buddy of mine. He introduced Bill Tracy and I on an episode of The Merv Griffin Show. Bill Tracy and I were at the Playboy in Chicago and Jack was at the Camellia Room at the Drake Hotel. He came in and Jack had his pianist, a Filipino piano player. They always pretended he was Japanese so that Jack E. could do Japanese jokes. He came in to see us at the Drake Hotel.
Like most comics, the first time we'd see a room was during rehearsal. Jack E. Leonard never rehearsed. When he arrived he couldn't go through the front so they'd send him through the kitchen. He had never been in the Camellia Room and this place is fifty years old. He walks out onstage and it is like walking into a tomb. We were sitting ringside and he walks out and says, "Oh my God. Was this room ever new?" I used that line later on whenever I walked into a room like that.
Kliph Nesteroff: Jerry Lester.
Jackie Curtiss: Jerry I met two or three times, but I was only close with his brother Buddy Lester. We hung out a lot. Buddy died a couple years ago. We were together here in town every week with a big band for about a year. Buddy was (sighs) Jerry Lester lite. Jerry was the one who was really the funny guy. Buddy was the younger brother who wanted to be Jerry. That doesn't mean Buddy wasn't funny. He was a very funny guy, but he always walked in his brother's shadow.
Kliph Nesteroff: Jerry Lester's stardom collapsed pretty hard.
Jackie Curtiss: Yes. Same thing. Jerry was very big with the first Tonight Show, Broadway Open House. Jerry was working in Oakland at the Orpheum. Across the street was the Paramount. They had stage shows in movie houses in those days. The Andrews Sisters were working at the Paramount. As a gag, for an opening, when they said, "Ladies and gentleman, here's Jerry Lester!"
He ran down the aisle, over the pit, up onstage and said, "I'm sorry I'm so late. I was across the street. I went over to see The Andrews Sisters. You know, Patti, Maxine and AHHHHH!" Because Laverne was so ugly. He'd mug this horrible, ugly face.
Kliph Nesteroff: How about some of the other Jackies... all the comedians were named Jackie. Do you remember anything about Jackie Miles?
Jackie Curtiss: Jackie Miles was a very funny guy. He did a routine, a running gag, "I saw every movie Gene Autry did." He would talk and say something that didn't go over and then pause and say, "Yeah. But I saw every movie Gene Autry ever made." And if they laughed he'd say, "You see? You're laughing. But it doesn't compare to the fact that I saw every movie that Gene Autry ever made."
A guy would drop a dish. He'd say, "Sure, disturb my show. Drop a dish. Doesn't matter. Cause I saw every movie that Gene Autry ever made."
Kliph Nesteroff: What a weird...
Jackie Curtiss: Yeah, but it worked!
Kliph Nesteroff: How about a sad sack comic friend of Jackie Miles. Lenny Kent.
Jackie Curtiss: Lenny Kent. Yeahhhh... good old Lenny Kent. He was another wacko. Oh, he was big in the Playboy clubs when I was there. I walked into the Chicago Playboy Club and Lenny was there. When I first went into Playboy, the bunnies didn't get paid. They just got tips. But nobody knew they didn't get paid. I devised a thing in my act for the bunnies.
"Incidentally, folks, the bunnies don't get paid. They only get paid in what you leave in tips. Be kind. But one thing. Watch out for Bunny Heidi. Boy, you better tip her because if you have any relatives left in Germany..." So, I did that and the bunnies loved that. I did that because it helped them. So, I walk in one night and here's Lenny Kent doing my Bunny Heidi routine. He walks off and I said, "Lenny..." And he goes, "Oh! Yeah! I know, yeah, you do that, but..." I said, "Lenny, I do that to help the girls. You should have asked." He said, "Oh, okay. I'm asking you now." I said, "What are you asking me?" He says, "Let me have it. You're clever. You can write something else." That was his attitude.
Kliph Nesteroff: Both Lenny Kent and Jackie Miles were quite popular at one point and then both of their careers nose dived.
Jackie Curtiss: Yes. They wore out their welcome. They were both pretty cheap, y'know. You have to be, even if you don't want to be, flamboyant. You have got to pick up the check now and then. That was their thing.
Kliph Nesteroff: How about Jack Carter.
Jackie Curtiss: Marc Antone and I were doing The Ed Sullivan Show and Jack Carter was on as well. I don't know if you know how the Sullivan show worked. There were two shows in the same day.
Kliph Nesteroff: Right there was the dress rehearsal and then the live broadcast...
Jackie Curtiss: Yes, but do you know why he had that rehearsal? You see, we rehearsed and blocked it and all of that, but he had an actual show with a full audience. How that audience reacted to each act would determine where that act ended up on the show at night. That's why people would complain that Sullivan didn't know what he was doing because he had comics following comics. When a comic did real well and another comic didn't do real well [at rehearsal], he would take the comic that didn't do well and put him immediately after the comic who did.
He felt that the goodness would overflow. Anyway, we had just done our afternoon show and we were taking a walk. Jack Carter said, "Let's go for a walk over to the Avenue of the Americas. There's a souvenir shop I want to see." We're walking down the street and this little old lady is pushing a shopping cart. She spots Jack Carter and she says, "Bert Parks! Bert Parks! There she is - Missssss Amerrrrr-icaaaaa! Bert Parks, I love you!" Jack says, "I'm not Bert Parks." She says, "Oh, come on! I know you're Bert Parks. You're famous!" He says, "I'm not Bert Parks! I'm Jack Carter!" She says, "Jack Carter!? I hate Jack Carter!" And she hit him with her shopping bag and walked away!
I did around four or five Sullivan shots with him. It just so happened that we were on the same shows. He was a good guy. When I opened my club down here in Los Angeles he was the first one to come over and say, "If you need any help, I'm here for you. I'll bring people in." Good guy. One thing about Jack - he thought very well of himself (laughs).
Kliph Nesteroff: Now how about Lenny Bruce...
Jackie Curtiss: I used to babysit for Lenny Bruce.
Kliph Nesteroff: Really?
Jackie Curtiss: Yeah, in San Francisco. I had a club. I hired Lenny when nobody else would. I was with him just before he died. The last couple of years, Lenny was in search of the truth and the truth killed him. He was a great guy. To show you how wild his mind was - I would finish my last show and then we would meet at the Thunderbird Hotel on Sunset Blvd at a little coffee shop. We'd meet for breakfast.
At that time he was writing - law things - for court. People don't realize that Lenny didn't get high to get high. Lenny was in a lot of pain. He was addicted to prescription drugs and everything. Most of the time he was high he was still lucid. He may have been high, but he knew what he was doing. We were talking and I had just heard a joke. I tell it to Lenny.
"This priest is in the hospital for an appendicitis and two nurses are sitting downstairs and someone leaves a baby on the doorstep. They hear it crying and take it in. One of the nurses says, 'Oh my God, now we're going to have to write up all these papers and everything - we're going to be here all night.' The other nurse says, 'Wait a minute. Let's take the baby upstairs and put it in the bed with that priest that's in ward such and such. We'll tell him he had an immaculate conception.' So they take the baby up there and he believes them. The priest raises the boy and when he reaches the age of twenty-one the priest tells him. 'Son, I have something to tell you. All these years you have thought I am your father. I am not your father. I am your mother. The bishop is your father." So, I told this joke to Lenny and he says, "Ah, man. That's the answer! That's the answer to Catholicism! Suppose Mary just had an emergency appendectomy! Joe never screwed her so a Roman soldier lays this bastard kid on her. That could be the answer!" That's how Lenny's mind worked.
Kliph Nesteroff: Now you were babysitting for the child that he and Honey...
Jackie Curtiss: Yes.
Kliph Nesteroff: This was during their dispute?
Jackie Curtiss: No, what happened was - they were separated. They were friends. They were together. They were separated. They were together. They were separated. She would have a club date, Lenny would have a club date and I'd say, "I'll take care of the baby." That happened a few times in San Francisco.
Kliph Nesteroff: There's a story that when Honey was trying to get full custody, Lenny kidnapped the baby and drove it to Shecky Greene's house where Shecky stashed the child.
Jackie Curtiss: Yes, right. Well, we all have Lenny stories. Lenny's mother was great too.
Kliph Nesteroff: Sally.
Jackie Curtiss: Sally Marr. Her biggest compliment to me was one-night after a Playboy Club show she walked up to me and said, "You know something, Jackie? You're not very funny, but you've got the greatest memory. You remember every joke in the world." That was her little way.
Kliph Nesteroff: How about Jack E. Leonard?
Jackie Curtiss: Oh, a very good buddy of mine. He introduced Bill Tracy and I on an episode of The Merv Griffin Show. Bill Tracy and I were at the Playboy in Chicago and Jack was at the Camellia Room at the Drake Hotel. He came in and Jack had his pianist, a Filipino piano player. They always pretended he was Japanese so that Jack E. could do Japanese jokes. He came in to see us at the Drake Hotel.
Like most comics, the first time we'd see a room was during rehearsal. Jack E. Leonard never rehearsed. When he arrived he couldn't go through the front so they'd send him through the kitchen. He had never been in the Camellia Room and this place is fifty years old. He walks out onstage and it is like walking into a tomb. We were sitting ringside and he walks out and says, "Oh my God. Was this room ever new?" I used that line later on whenever I walked into a room like that.
Kliph Nesteroff: Jerry Lester.
Jackie Curtiss: Jerry I met two or three times, but I was only close with his brother Buddy Lester. We hung out a lot. Buddy died a couple years ago. We were together here in town every week with a big band for about a year. Buddy was (sighs) Jerry Lester lite. Jerry was the one who was really the funny guy. Buddy was the younger brother who wanted to be Jerry. That doesn't mean Buddy wasn't funny. He was a very funny guy, but he always walked in his brother's shadow.
Kliph Nesteroff: Jerry Lester's stardom collapsed pretty hard.
Jackie Curtiss: Yes. Same thing. Jerry was very big with the first Tonight Show, Broadway Open House. Jerry was working in Oakland at the Orpheum. Across the street was the Paramount. They had stage shows in movie houses in those days. The Andrews Sisters were working at the Paramount. As a gag, for an opening, when they said, "Ladies and gentleman, here's Jerry Lester!"
He ran down the aisle, over the pit, up onstage and said, "I'm sorry I'm so late. I was across the street. I went over to see The Andrews Sisters. You know, Patti, Maxine and AHHHHH!" Because Laverne was so ugly. He'd mug this horrible, ugly face.
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