ah guest today has is the owner of a
most unusual and the most familiar voice
our guest is Alan Reed and here's the
voice yabba-dabba-doo is that what you
wanted to hear well I have been there
have been many such recognizable sounds
in my long career my goodness you go
back when was your first when did your
first use your voice to make a living
well and this is my 53rd year in the
entertainment business by using the
voice I suppose you mean radio well I
started before that I started when I was
14 as an extra with the French Opera
Comique who came over here and I had to
learn some lines and French and help
carry a a King around on a sedan chair
and I still remember the lines we had a
song we sang it was o Mary Hail Mary
Kell who many they can say dong he was
their accountant King and I got a dollar
of performance and an agent got 10% of
yeah go ahead no I say when did you
first get involved with radio it was
1926 I had been working at a summer
place called copaque it was it's still
in existence in New York State it was an
adult camp and from this place emerged
to great many many people Mosshart for
instance Jacques Wolff who wrote
short'nin bread and glory days they were
both first sung at copán
Misha our George Tobias myself
Eddie Ellis killer great many people
were on the staff of this place well a
guest came up some oh and I was
19 and talked about working for the
Jetson radio program corporation and he
told me that they were doing all of the
radio programs for the network's this
was a subsidiary a newly formed
subsidiary of the Jetson concert Bureau
which is the largest booking company of
of concert attractions in it and he told
me that if I came up to his office in
New York he was a kid turned out he was
an office boy up there but he was
learning the business
his name was herb for lazy who later on
had 20 questions and later on we did a
program together called Henry and George
for Henry George cigars but he
introduced me to the Secretary of
Charlie skank who was a producer and the
programs he was producing at that time
were wrong to Detective mysteries true
story physical culture all of the
bernarr Macfadden magazines they had an
exclusive on the stories in them and he
introduced me to his secretary who took
a look at my youthful face and said yeah
it's only one part open this weekend and
that's a head monster and I'm afraid
you're too young for that all the rest
of the parts are cast so it was around
lunchtime and I waited for her to go out
to lunch and I saw her go out to lunch
and I went in the herbes office and got
the phone and asked for charlie skank
who was in another office and he got on
the phone and I said hello skank he says
who's this I say never mind who this is
I'm just gonna tell you something I'm
coming into your office in a couple of
minutes you're gonna give me a job or
you're going for right
he understand what the hell who is it
come in here so I went in my gut job and
that was the beginning of radio I had
done one thing before that I'd been with
a group in the village called the new
playwrights theater and we as a
semi-professional group met in
competition with a supposedly amateur
group that of radioactives that the WR
had and we each presented a play it was
a phony set of publicity contests but
that was the first time and this was the
first time I get paid well it's a good
time to remember yeah yeah well from
then on Charlie and I became very good
friends and I worked all of the shows
and and got a good firm early footing in
the radio business because very shortly
the radio business emerged to the fact
to the place where where knowledge and
quickness was very important to the
director he didn't have time to stop and
teaching I had a read a line or what to
do because you were always fighting a
time thing and so I was in at the
beginning and gotten the experience and
by the time radio started to get really
big I was there and working like quite
versatile and being able to do all
different kinds of voices that one
valuable before the yes Union days when
you could double and triple and all that
true true true I'm one of the founders
of the Union I don't never knew that no
were three of us George Heller and John
Brown and myself had belonged to the
forum inequity and we sat down and we
started talking of the needs for a union
by this time there are a lot of people
working but in radio from the beginning
to the end there was like a hierarchy
there were maybe 90% of the work was
done by 10% of the people and of that
10% of the people maybe 10% of them
were always going you know it was it was
that and it was due to the early start
and friendships that were formed and
knowledge of the business everybody
threw his hand in in those days and many
varying things for instance I was on one
of the phones at CBS where we were
working mostly then that where I was
working mostly then when Orson Welles
had his war of the worlds' thing and
everybody was at a phone and some calls
it was frantic
right people really had were taken in Oh
date though said it's so believable they
they they they were frightened really
frightened people were calling was it
existed
what did Welles think about that I mean
what he was didn't think about it but it
certainly caused a lot of New Directions
in in the radio business they had to be
informed that there was any Reeve and
remote possibility of anybody getting
frightened that this was a radio
broadcast it was not not real you know
it was it was a strange strange time and
radio in those days
did you work most of the time in those
early days out in New York yes I worked
in New York until 1943 and then out here
ever since half my life they're happy
and a lot of strange things happen in
the early days the script the soap
operas they were like a factory that
were being turned out and the same
writers would be engaged to write and
they'd write two shows at once so that
you would find plots that you were
playing on one show we're also running
with different names on another show now
I did big sister and Burton Marg back to
back one was on
ten to ten fifteen and the other was on
ten fifteen to ten thirty just walk
across the studio you know into the into
the other room and I played heavies for
two years straight on both of these one
he was called ASA Griffin and on the
other he was called something like
seffarine II or something a hard-nosed
gangster and ASA Griffin was a seemingly
a kindly old man who was a horror he
burned down off images but personal gain
all kinds of things and the same bloody
plots were occurring back and forth all
the time you run a program you know in
some in those early days they tried to
get the sponsors name involved in these
things like Myrtle Merton Marge wearing
mud myrtle see here I mentioned
mentioned before that her palazzi and I
did Henry George well we were plugging
the Henry George cigar and we played a
character called Henry and George and we
had an orchestra and a male singer and a
female singer on the show and we would
like the Traveling bellhops like later
on major Bowes went to cities and told
about the city we had the same thing
never left the studio course when we
told all about what was happening in
Detroit Minneapolis Chicago all around
and we do one-minute blackouts and
there'd be a musical number and it was
Henry George cigars I found a note that
said that you were on a program called
Harve and Esther right and it was the
same same company and I'll tell you
there's a very interesting tale
connected with that
Harvin Esther was four harvester cigars
the consolidated Cigar Company was the
owner of both the previous Henry George
and harvest and they were related to the
Paley's the Paley's made the La Polina
cigar
there was some connection and I don't
remember what it was now between
consolidated Cigar Company and Bailey
who founded the CBS network but I had
been doing Harvin
Henry George for three years and I got
$50 a show the first year and $100 a
show the second year and 150 the third
year and this was a lot of Dell for me
this was at a time when you were kids
and that money meant a lot more than
than today I went to a party one night
and a little man came up to me and he
says I'd like to introduce myself he
says my name is listen Stein Jewish man
I'm Jewish and he said he said you're a
young fella I'm surprised we're paying
you so much money I said well I
appreciate what you paying me but so
much money it's not that much this is
boy are you making $750 a week I said
what and I told him what I was getting
Jetson radio program operation had been
billing him for my services at 250 500
and 750 a hundred and fifty well this
kind man got on the phone the next day
to Judson and raised holy Cain with them
he said if you ever want to do business
with me again you will adjust that for
that nice young man that I met bless I
got a check for 12 thousand 500 and it
was it was fantastic
when was this about what year a 1930 oh
man
not many taxes then yeah and in 1931
Columbia was old CBS incidentally I
don't know if you knew this in the
beginning when I started what turned
into CBS network
was originally station ABC in New York
WABC and they rented two hours of time
from wor and used their own call and as
WABC for a wild last station was being
readied oh yeah that's part of the
history of the business Paley had come
up with his father cigar money and and
they owned a radio station down there
WCAU and and decided that they were
going to see if they couldn't build
another network which they did and
pretty good one were you you were of
course were the voice of Falstaff
Openshaw I'm a Fred Allen she referred
to her you wonder you want to go there
right away I wanted to tell you well go
back let's take it I want to tell you
something that happened in 1931 and 32
Columbia CBS was experimenting with
television and they're building at 485
Madison Avenue and the 23rd floor they
had a tiny studio and in those days
television was done was something that
looked very much like a makeup mirror
just a string of lights strong lights
coming down this way and back of which
was the camera and if more than one
person was in front of it you had a get
your face in like this well struck
nickel and bud and myself we're waiting
to go up and had lived they asked
everybody working at CBS to come up and
do a stint gist's they were then 54 sets
in New York and advertising agencies
they're all closed channel you know and
and in a few buffs homes anyway we're
waiting to go on and on the receiver in
the lobby of this very small space girl
was singing and the beautiful girl and
she came out just as we were ready to go
on and follow her in
and I said can you wait downstairs I
want to talk to you I wanted to make a
date with her she was gorgeous
mm-hmm so stupid idling button I went in
and we had lived her way through Creek
Dex and brother visit we're downstairs
with the result that I asked the girl
out for dinner and we went across to her
drugstore which was on the street and
had dinner at the counter and I took her
home and I met a mother that night who
happened to be visiting in New York they
were from Washington and six months
later we were married and we've been
married ever so that was probably the
first television romance ha ha we now
have our 43rd anniversary and there's
some of the result of it Oh doing it all
our grandchildren 10 grandchildren how
many children three boys married
produced now we go to straight Allen
before Fred Allen there were there were
many things I did straight for a lot of
the comedian's I worked for David
Freedman who had a comedy factory he had
Fanny Brice Eddie Cantor Blokhin Sully
Burns and Al and every comedy act that
was in New York David Freeman supplied
the material book and again the same
jokes in different dialects all around
the place I did Reuben off the voice of
Reuben have fun and if he had to show
Reuben I've never wanted to talk he was
frightened once he went to Philadelphia
and his to Pittsburgh brother his home
Union Local was there and they were
giving a big benefit and they invited
grouping up in this vial in a radio
benefit you know for the musicians I
mean any bet him a hundred dollars that
he wouldn't open his mouth that he just
plays for her link because he was afraid
to talk he was a little embarrassed
about his accent but he shouldn't have
been and anyway he got out and and I got
a stop my wife just walked it huh this
is mrs. Reed
they delegate that young not for me Oh
No thank you we could said I'm having
some consomme
and there's some left if you want say
thank you so any so he finally got down
to Pittsburgh to the benefit pardon the
interruption and he got on the air was
introduced by the master ceremonies
Ruben up on his violin and he talked
that all he said was handycam free only
hundred dollars well when you were his
voice on the Cantor show did you did you
do it with a Russian accent there how
did you just as I sounded just now happy
camper what's the matter with you he had
the Reuben Oates wife we had Reuben up
to everybody was on the show we played
all kinds of things I found the Russian
accent once I was driving in a cab in
New York and the cab driver turned
around
I gave him told him where I wanted to go
he says I would inform you sir that you
have the honor of being driven by a
genuine Russian batter so I said keep
driving yeah we drove her out Central
Park and I picked this thing up but he
was quite a character dialects have
always been a kind of a special line
when you were in radio you were using
the name Teddy birdy Bergman which was
my name's my father's name I tell you
how the name change came about that
happened in 1939 were out of
chronological order that's all right uh
in 1939 I changed it because by that
time I was the busiest what we called in
those days stooge in radio I worked all
of the comedy programs and every time I
wanted to get to do a dramatic program
which I was fish
because that had some theater before
radio their guides would say I or you
funny fellas you want to act and I did
want to act and I couldn't get the first
base so I decided the Dickens with this
I'm gonna become a whole new person so I
changed my name change my manner of of
approach I kept very few of the comedy
shows and just started on dramatic shows
by that time stupid stupid a girl's
partner bud had phased out of the
picture and it became stuck Nagle and
Reid and we had a show for a couple of
years for men ins skin products and I
was his announcer and partner and
straight man in effect you see so I was
able to create a whole new image and I
wanted a name when where I found Alan
Reed Reed was a family name of my wife's
not not her last name her father's name
was Myron Reed Walker his mother's
maiden name was read and we had called
our firstborn son Alan Reed Bergman and
I started looking around there it is
right in front of us it's an awfully
good name yeah they just chopped off the
book but I had it legally changed in
1939 and that was it but I used to have
a program under the name of Bergman
blubber Bergman I was on for several
years for venues and collars and what
kind of a show was it well blubber uh
it's hard to say this I had done Joe
palooka Joe worry Joe I was joking okay
Joe palooka was a very naive kind of a
fella first but big guy was this kind of
a guy and I kept this basic thing for
blubber they except we added it got a
couple of that above energy everything
worth of full of vitality that sometimes
he did he'd get tied up in him Southie
and and and and then he would even even
switch words around like he said like I
got to be going now kibou I'm a baby
baby so on this kind of a comic
character it was a lovable character and
I had a straight woman betty guard who
whose attitude toward god blubber was
kind of like a big sisters and it was it
was very good but he was in love with
her you know and he'd make these
pathetic love speech it's a mimic in no
place it was an interesting kind of when
wondered when did Joe felucca brought
when were you at drop felucca okay we
got married on the strength of my
contract the job we looked at was very
early in 32 and after that I did a Harry
Hirschfeld program called Maya the buyer
Joe palooka I had a long contract which
was beautiful on paper it went off after
16 weeks and the reason it went off is
that it was on for HJ Heinz the pickled
people you know mm-hmm and mr. Heinz
belonged to a very Swank club in
Pittsburgh the Duquesne Club and he used
to come into the club for lunch and the
guys would say well will you fighting
this week Joe and and they start ribbing
him about the program and it didn't
bother him so much but it bothered his
wife and she insisted that this was too
lowbrow the price fight field for her
pickles and she ended up with the Longy
and symphonies out of it out of the
picture how much influence that the
sponsors exerted on the programming in
those days all and everything in those
days yes in those days it was everything
was different than now now the network
control yeah there are very few shows
that are totally sponsored by a single
advertiser today yeah true but the the
network has been able to dictate terms
to sponsors even when there's only ones
months
there are some but it's it's it's it's a
monopoly too much so in my opinion
because I'm solely against the number of
reruns that are being done I think it's
it's it's horrible what we are faced
with used to be there would be reruns
for thirteen weeks in the summer hiatus
and 39 weeks would be booked solid or 26
weeks with option for another 13 in the
old radio days and and on into
television but now we get nothing but
rehash stuff and stuff that you've seen
over and over and over again and this of
course saves countless millions of
dollars with the networks and an awful
lot of effort and having to put out new
product but it also keeps an awful lot
of actors out of work producers writers
and it cheats the public to out of
course you know stuff nothing yes it
does of course it does
I don't know if you know this but in the
Screen Actors Guild about over 80
percent of our membership earn less than
two thousand dollars a year hmm
that's and these are people who have
made good money at some time one time or
another that mean may mean that they
work in one TV movie and that's it for a
whole year or fourteen days at a hundred
dollars a day one hundred and twenty or
thirty whatever it is no who knows
actors who would never take under a
minimum of a week's contract are very
happy to get they work thank the Lord
the Flintstones has taken me out of that
that message I've been a very fortunate
man we're jumping all around so let's
get about the Flintstones we're gonna go
back that's alright when did
that when did that first come along 1960
this is our 15th year and you're still
doing new known program no no no there
is a new program being offered it hasn't
been sold yet yeah it would be great if
they could sell it but so far they have
been able to it's called the flintstone
fuss in which Barney and I would be
policemen the cop said it would be a
satire on the police shows how many
other shows the Jamaican league 167 of
the original Flintstones and 26 of the
pebbles and bamm-bamm mm-hmm in which
the Flintstones each have segments and
the kids have segments but they're
repeated and repeated and repeated my
residuals ran out long ago but what's
great about it is the commercials I have
between 8 and 16 commercials going every
year for conflict of Harlem's
yeah and they keep running them and
playing a better well that's good you're
working with Mel Blanc on that smelled
and I work together very cool you worked
a number of years ago in radio with me I
was on Mel's yeah yeah yeah yeah you
know he had his own show and I had my
own show and other hunts can read once
had his own show it is impossible for a
good character man to come up with a
central pleasing character that can
carry a show we've had to come to the
realization that we belong in a certain
spot we are character man we can play
character leads as we do in the
Flintstones but in the old radio days I
had will you mentioned at the harvest
show I was I was the guy but and I had
top writers but I never made it of
course I had tough opposition I was not
an opposite Rudy Vallee it is toughest
right well you you you though as a main
character in a good solid supporting
character in so many shows you literally
stole the show in a lot week after week
we were Pasquale in her life with Luigi
I'd survive do you got a memory I love
that I like that more than any show I've
ever done that then with Fred Fred's was
an experience all in itself Falstaff
became a household word during the
wartime period and I understand that
Falstaff I did an awful lot of work in
in hospitals and canteens and things
like that and then finally from the Fred
Allen from the friend Allen show yeah
they always have it wasn't it the one
that falls that's one with the ah he
opened with a palm of some she'd say
he'd knock on the door and the door
would open and it's a blow the bugle
toot the trumpet here is Falstaff where
shall I dump it and Fred would say do
you have a poem for us tonight
it's a Oh indubitably I might go so far
as to say in double dubitable II have
you heard make for the Roundhouse Nelly
the brakeman can't corny oh there oh she
was a girl just down from Vancouver huh
he was a sailor bent on manoeuvre now
cut that out
wait a minute and then we would end up
with a poem that about eight lines that
would have relevance to the topic of the
day in the alley it was was a thing many
people grew up with as they've grown up
with Flintstone just about a month ago
along with a bunch of other radio people
we went up to Cal arts University which
is the Disney sponsored art school a
full college upstate here little ways up
and there were 21 and 22 year olds we
addressed the humanities class who were
studying radio in the time of the 30s
and we did a Cisco Kid and there are a
lot of people who had worked in the
original and who have since become
finalities and first we did Cisco Kid
and I did Pancho who's which was the
thing that Mel did it for a while place
the guy who did it but that forget the
fellows not Harry Lange did it
originally Hey hey Cisco
what's the matter Cisco you know one of
these smells and and later on the master
ceremonies introduced each of us with
what we're doing today and when the guy
mentioned Flintstone it was amazing it
was like I was adopted by these people
because they had grown up with them they
were just the right age in 1960 15 years
ago they were 7 years old 8 years old 6
years old and they were grow and they'd
listened all through the years and by
the questions that we will be seized
with it was an exciting experience you
were run them on babies Irish Rose and
there again you almost stole the show us
you were Solomon levy
the father of Av right yes AG spot yeah
yeah it was it was one reason I couldn't
come out here with Fanny Brice wrong
about that time I was the original daddy
to Fanny Brice's babies before he
thought of doing it huh we did it for
about eight months and then Fanny
decided she had to come to the coast and
wanted me to come along with her and I
couldn't we had done for two years
before that famous lovers in history and
Yiddish dialect and we did the Anthony
and Cleopatra and Isabella and Columbus
you know imaginary things which he wrote
up and it was very funny and Fanny was
very nearsighted and she had her script
done in very large type on special paper
with a special machine and each page was
on a cardboard so the
her script was this thick and she had a
big podium and we knocked the podium
down and the script when all over the
floor one show and I grabbed my mic and
brought it down and we're sorted out and
ad-libbing until the thing and we did
the whole program from the floor that
was a highlight Fanny was a wonderful
woman and and that was it as I said
before abies Irish Rose was fun Menasha
skulnick was great on it and everybody
was great not incidentally rosie was I'm
getting old now several blanks of memory
I am getting old
well there's so many things to recall Oh
pull it all together
Carla won an Academy Award in one news
she was so great and all the king's men
mercilessly did I said his average was
so she came from Chicago and this was
her first show in New York
she played Rose rose I did a play not
long ago called oasis in Manhattan and
the press all termed it a B's Lebanese
rose Lebanese it was in an Arab in there
and I asked you very cute oh uh uh you
were on the shadow for a while and yes I
played shrevie the cab driver mostly for
a lot of years a lot of years was that
in New York or out here encounter York I
know in New York I didn't know occasion
I guess it did come from out here for
that later than the ladies yeah there's
an interesting tale about the shadow in
the old days getting personnel
experienced in radio which was a new
medium was rather difficult
so people were would have to learn it
from scratch the shadow was one of the
early show is not the earliest but Ruth
ruff and Ryan was an agency that
come from a small office and one account
or in cell accounting expanded into a
huge organization they had an awful lot
of soap operas on and the shadow was one
of their shows and a fellow was put in
charge of made supervisor of all daytime
programs and he came up to McKnight in
Jordan but night and Jordan were the
independent producers for Ruth rope and
Ryan of the shadow they both wrote and
directed and hired and casted and they
came up this guy came up to his office I
don't know if you remember the shadow or
heard episodes oh yes of course
Lamont Cranston of course was the shadow
hmm and this great brain I don't think
he lasted much longer after this came up
and seriously sat down in their office
and he said now I've been doing a lot of
thinking and I think that after this
much time you should develop a scene
between Lamont Cranston and the shadow
it would be very interesting he had no
idea what a wall about he was in on the
cuff you know and there were a lot of
people like that who had a
brother-in-law or somebody and they just
knew nothing incidentally I just just
went in my the back of my mind in those
days there was no tape there was just
big 16-inch records you know you had 15
minutes on a side in those days and Joe
palooka was a 15 minute program three
times a week if a mistake was made
anywhere during the show we had to start
all over from the beginning there was no
snipping off a little bit and saying all
right pick it up from there Frank
Rennick who was the shadow incidentally
most of the time that I played it and he
was the shadow for longer than anyone
else played knobby walls to my joke
Aloha and he had tagline of the show and
he said why Joe will hit him with
everything with the water bucket and
that was the tag of the show and we get
to the end of the show we'd done pickups
we'd stop two or three times and we were
exhausted now it was maybe the fifth
time we've gone over it and finally we
get to the tag line and he said Joe is
gonna hit him with everything but the
gloves we're dead we were dead oh yeah
it was it was bad
did you on any of these broadcasts have
to do repeat shows for as low as Cold
War on any of them on all of them from
New York it's the chief reason I moved
out here mm-hmm
my I had a growing family
three little children mm-hmm and we
lived in Riverdale in New York and I
never got to see my family have a meal
with them more than once a month because
their kids would be asleep I'd get home
late by the time I get up they'd be off
to school and and I had to get down
early for the next morning cuz it was a
long haul I'd go from nine ten of them
my first show would be 10 o'clock and
sometimes earlier sometimes you have to
be in it so I did one show was on the
air at 7:30
PEGI Windsor's letters we can have a
nice there's an experience ahead with
that that we'd rehearsed that in the
afternoon and then come in at 7:30 in
the morning was on NBC and we do it and
we would play all kinds of parts you
know background voices and everything
and in the afternoon they asked another
fella and myself if if we play a couple
of kids hollering goodbye goodbye daddy
goodbye daddy well we got in in the
morning in the early morning voice when
I heard that they came out goodbye
[Laughter]
well when we were skipped around oh
that's not you you were riding on my
friend Irma for a while weren't you for
a long while yeah later boss mr. claw ha
ha and it was a fine experience that and
Luigi were on at the same time as I said
Luigi was my favorite no he was yourself
a very lovable really lovable guy and
you were always you're trying to marry
off your daughter on the show
Rosa yeah yeah he was he was a hero I
mean the villain with the with not too
black aha yeah but what I liked about
the show was the sincerity of it we
approached it as if we were those people
and in the orchestra and this stands out
in my mind is one of the rare life
experiences one of the orchestra man in
our group was Italian and his father had
never been out of Worcester Mass from
the time he came over he ate open an
Italian restaurant
eventually in Worcester Mass and was
therefore although all these years and
life with Luigi was a must
serving stopped when the program went on
a big radio and on everybody had to
listen to life with Loretta who and we
kept getting reports and the son had
read letters to us finally he brought
his father out to see the show and he
was sitting in the first row and the man
couldn't believe that he was seeing this
and tears were rolling down his eyes and
I had all I could do to get through that
program without breaking down because I
realized what it meant and had meant
that to him
I had realized that we had really
succeeded in legitimacy in in
in believability and both Nash and I
were on a guess of the Italian American
society and then it was an enjoyable
experience the end of it was not
enjoyable the end of it and this to give
you an idea the times the girl of played
Rosa was called up before the unamerican
Activities Committee and instead of
admitting that she'd made a mistake she
raised hell and threw things around the
place and just made a mm-hmm and the
sponsor took advantage of moral
turpitude clause and cancelled the
program uh-huh cost me a quarter of a
million dollars in both radio and
television shows that we had going we're
just breaking into television well you
had me half the math than that
six months after went off the way times
were and rumors got around I went into a
butcher shop that I frequented rather
well and as the butcher was wrapping up
my stuff he said is it true that both
you and Nash were canceled on the Luigi
show because you're communist this is
the way the thing happened and people
only read half of it or a middle in a
rumor and a story and one to another it
was a frightening frightening time he
made a fairly easy transition from radio
to television
you were on the TV version of Luigi well
yes but and I'd done some TV before that
but it wasn't the kind of transition
that I want to not tell you why I had
spent most of my time in radio doing for
eight to ten years I did an average of
35 programs a week and and the money was
very good and with money you acquire
responsibilities and and coming into
television you can only do one at most
two programs a week and I hadn't built
enough of a name to be the star of a
show where the money would be copper
so I decided that I better have
something else going because I had a big
home and family and supports schools and
things like that and I started a
business and especially advertising 20
years ago and my son's running the
business today it was quite successful
and my son has made it even more so my
youngest son has it and I've retired and
from that business but not from showbiz
well the only thing I do a Flintstone a
Flintstone connected things now and that
is commercials I do have a major
activity now that I'm very excited about
I'm on the board of directors and
finance chairman of a group called
Theatre 40 we're sponsored by the city
of Beverly Hills hmm we Beverly Hills is
the only High School in the country that
has in residence in its own our own
theater which they built for us we had
to have a 99-seat theater because it's a
workshop kind of thing and the City
Council gave us $10,000 they spent close
to $100,000 on this theater then we got
from the almond sin' foundation we got
two grants and we do 36 seminars a week
as part of the adult education program
on theatre appreciation we do plays and
then discuss them remember I told you
when we spoke on the phone I had
something I had to do up I'm doing a
seminar on
third of March we a couple of weeks away
I'm doing too early Eugene O'Neill plays
we're doing what actors know and I was
in the first revival of this town of the
Provincetown theater in New York in 1925
and I had always wanted all my life but
always wanted to play the part of
Driscoll who was one of the leading
characters in the thing big hulking
Irishman and finally in my old age I'm
getting to do it it's only a seminar but
it's fun it's fun and we do four full
productions of classic plays a year
there rehearsing hips ins dollhouse now
I'm not in that I was in the last one
there was his diary of us coming and
this theater has become my my sole
interest now truly does it's exciting as
anything we hope we have a plan within
five or six years will be an important
regional theater we will build our own
big theater eventually in Beverly Hills
with the backing of the community and
then we'll be able to charge an
admission and really finance we put a
show on now Diary of a scoundrel looked
like there was a 25 thousand dollar
production in horses four thousand
dollars and it was amazing to see this
come alive but everybody's contributing
services now that the actors are paid we
pay dues but there no no pay yet but
eventually it will work into into
something where will will be important
will make a contribution to the national
scene because we have good directors
technicians actors lighting people and a
magnificent a skilled designer well
you've made an important contribution to
the entertainment scene over the over
the years I've played in every phase now
but every phase of a picture's
legitimate theater radio
television nightclubs vaudeville
everything it's great to share some
memories with you today thank you very
much Ellen my pleasure