It's the Dearly Departed Podcast, featuring your host, historian Scott Michaels and filmmaker
Mike Dorsey. All Right, and welcome to another episode of the Dearly Departed
Podcast. There is no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going.
Somebody's been watching a movie. I'm Mike Dorsey, I'm Scott Michaels, and
this is Dearly Departed Podcast. And if you couldn't tell, we are doing
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the classic, the original the well yeah
yeah, I mean yeah, the original movie. It is the original movie.
Yeah, it has to be right, but yeah, yeah. Somebody,
my friend callexually actually suggested that we call this the Dearly Departed Podcast.
Oh that's good. That's not hate mail, that's like wit, that's like
pun mail. But yeah that's how I think. That's actually how they say
in Boston Departed. You're right, yeah you probably would. Yeah, yeah,
very good, very good. Sounds like we're making fun of Bostoners.
Not at all, not at all. Um, So we uh, some
some housekeeping things were we may be putting ads on this episode. I don't
know, we're trying, we're turning it on. We distribute through pod Bean,
and they have like an AD marketplace. Well we'll see, won't we.
Yeah, so we flipped the switch. We don't know. Maybe an
AD played before this, Maybe it didn't. We have no idea. No,
probably, well yeah we don't, so we'll see and uh and uh
but yeah, but remember that's you know, that's how we go living.
So don't if you can sit through an AD, that'd be really nice.
That's just one, just one. Uh, and of course on uh and
if you want ad free, um, well this maybe ad free if we
failed, but also if it did work, it is still always it will
always be AD free on our Patreon and our Patreon subscribers keep going up and
up. And we just did another special we called MINNISO but it was an
hour and a half long episode a couple weeks ago. Just we go over
more current events, deaths and Hollywood stuff and other and various tripe in various
tripe. Yes, speaking of extra things, you had an interesting post about
an unsolved murderer in LA history that I had never heard of. Yeah,
it wasn't it something in frank selectr. Yeah, the I was at David
Olman's house, our mutual friend who lives on Clo Drive. And I met
his niece and she came to I. You know, it was a story
I think I'd heard of before, and then we got to talking about it
and I found out she was who she was and uh. And then she
came to the shop and she gave me this Frankenstein painting that hung in our
hanged I think it's hanged in her uncle's in her uncle's living room and and
it's incredible to do the deep dive and uh, and it was. It's
a pretty fascinating case. So Frank Seletry was the producer. Um got into
the black exploitation thing, most famous for Blackenstein, which was a riff on
black que law in the early seventies. But then he was he was murdered
and is still an unsolved murder. And and I could officially announce a twenty
thousand dollars rewards. So that was that was kind of cool to be involved
in a true crime case. So absolutely, I hope something comes of that.
That'd be Really he had been he had been an attorney. Yes,
Also I think he was involved in lots of different things. It seems like,
yeah, see, I mean, the most curious association with his ex
girlfriend. Her name was Liz Renee, who was a stripper burlesque they would
you know, some would say, and and she was most famous for streaking
down Hollywood Boulevard in publicity for a show she was going to be opening up
and what's now the Eye of Our theater, and she was arrested and charged
with I think it was lude conduct or something to that effect. And Frank
Selectry represented her but because of her, and they were boyfriend and girlfriend for
a while. Her ax was Mickey Cohen the gangster. So there were all
sorts of like degrees of of of who knows what happened to him, because
you know, he was shot in the head, but there was a screwdriver
there that they used to puncture him, which makes it it wouldn't a fatal
wound, but it makes it sound as if he was tortured first. And
it's just it's really something and and shockingly little information was out there. So
I was really honored to be able to h to tell the story. And
yeah, it was very nice of them to abstind to to do that for
me. So unsolved murder in his house and his house was famously had been
previously owned by Well. Now that's confusing because he used to live in a
home the Battle of the Ghosts. He lived in in Whitley House, the
Ghostie's House, where he'd correct he it was like one of those old,
you know, quirky sunset boulevard mansions up in Whitley Heights. But he moved
out and the mansion was torn down. So then he moved into where he
was up in the Hollywood Hills. Um, sort of near that Kretona cult.
You know that's up there. Uh, that was there in the twenties,
and and it's it's it's an old chapel and everything gets still. It's
another good story. But any one of the first cults in Los Angeles was
called Krotona with a K. But that was it. Like the parking lot
for Kretona is right below his backyard. So um. Anyway, Yeah,
and them the paint in the painting that you have, what was the providence
on that? It was his? Yeah, and he it was. It
was the story as it came from Battle Legosi's home. I don't know how
true that is, but I see no reason for it not to be.
And he did have all those kind of crazy gothic. Uh uh, you
know, memorabilia, caskets, et cetera. And there is you know,
photoproof of a being in his house at least, and it was before people
were bragging about memorabilia, you know, trying to pass it off as anything
else. I don't think it was ever even attempted. So you know,
the providences, it was there. And interestingly, because Cindy who gave that
to me, also donated the mirror that Zach has in his museum that was
better to goost He's mirror. She's the one that gave it. She showed
up on that show Zach was doing and presented her with this this haunted mirror.
And now Zach I think, I think they make you sign a waiver
if you look into it. You can't sue him if if you get possessed
or something like that, something follows you home. Yeah yeah, so,
um that's stuff. But but yeah, so that Cindy gave that to Zach
and gave the painting to me, so it was Uh, she's a nice
and generous lady. And I hope something comes of it, I really do.
I hope they do it. So again at Frank Celetry was murdered in
the Hollywood Hills and it was never been solved, right, and they just
yeah, who knows. Yeah, look it up on my YouTube channel on
a de Leader part online and uh and you will see the video it's it's
at the house and hear the whole story. It's it's it's anyway. It's
pretty good stuff. I mean, you know, not good for the family,
but right good good for content. So, speaking of Zach, I
can we talked about this a little bit on the Patreon show, but I
can finally talk about the show I've been doing with Zach Bagans. I've been
I've been the showrunner and I've edited a couple of episodes also for Ghost Adventures
House Calls, which is the new Ghost Adventures spinoff, which by the time
this episode comes out will have premiered because we're recording this on the eighteenth,
and tomorrow to nineteenth is the world premiere on Discovery Plus of that series.
That's exciting. I saw the trailer yesterday that you posted. It's really it
looks really good, and I was relieved to see a big house because I
was you know, when he goes my hearted story is going to be like
a one bedroom apartment or something, but to see like a cool proper house,
and there's houses of all sizes. We did eight episodes, so eight
locations, very diverse, and it was a super interesting, fun series to
produce. So I've been reading Humphrey Bogart's biography and I watched Um High Sierra
for the first time. As I'd like to when I read Hollywood biographies,
I'll watch some of the films as I go along. You know that they
mentioned, so I kind of go, this is where they were in their
life when they did you know this movie U And that was awesome because they
filmed that actually up in the Sierras. Have you been up there? Yeah?
Well, Um, I made my documentary of the Oiler House. The
architecture one was about my house in Lone Pine, where my stepmom grew up.
I've been to Lone Pine tons and tons of times. I've and I
in the history of they've filmed over like three hundred movies and TV shows in
Lone Pine, like all the Great Westerns, A bunch of them were shot
there. Gunga Din was shot there, like yeah, it's you still see
it in things. It was in the first Iron Man Movieum was the see
It's you know it stood in for like Afghanistan or something. So yeah,
nice, well cool. So so you enjoyed the movie, Yeah, I
see it is great. Yeah, I recommend it. It's it's fascinating because
Bogart, you know, um, he was a B lister in the first
few years of his life. It took a long time for him to convince
Warner Brothers that he could be like an A list star. It's kind of
wild to look back on that now and think of it that way. But
he was just kind of a heavy. He played a heavy in all his
movies. Yeah, and he didn't get the glamorous death. You know,
he was just good he's dead kind of character. You know. Yeah,
he's he said when I've never developed an appreciation for But how far along are
you in the duck? In the book, I'm about a third of the
way through. So he's up to Hira, is what he's up to now?
Yes, Icierra was the first time taking a lead role in a major
big you know, in an A list picture that like established him like,
Okay, he's for real now. Ra was like a major turning point,
is he So he's married to his first wife. Now by then I think
he was married to his second wife, who was a very tumultuous, crazy,
drunken Yeah, house basically from both of them, you know, wine
bottles, getting thrones at people's heads kind of relationship. Yeah, I can,
I can. That's something that's his. And he lived and he lived
with her just north of Sunset Plaza. Um there like a block up now
it's like in a big sixties apartment complex there now. But at the time
of his the house. You know, I say that because the Sierras will
come up again in this conversation. Okay, I don't know that. That's
interesting. I look forward to that. I am older now than Humphrey bog
Are ever wise. What oh my gosh, I know right. He died
when he was fifty nine, and very soon I will be sixty. So
um so yeah, wow. When when's your birthday? August? But yeah,
we're both. Here's something that's interesting. My birthday the same day as
Roman Polanski and Vincent BOULIOSI. What, I swear to God, it's crazy
those guys have the same birthday. I know. Wow, you know,
it's it's weird. It's weird. But yeah, sou but that was just
a fact that stumbled upon fairly recently about Bogart, and it's like, oh
my god, those people, you know, they were doing movies when they
were thirty, and they looked like they were, you know, eighty,
right, But that's like looking at your high school yearbook and seeing the faces
of the kids that were seniors and still they still look older, but they're
only like seventeen, right. Anyway, Um, do you have any hate
mail? You don't, No, I don't, I don't. You know,
they would only be hate comments, and they're really nothing worth mentioning.
It's very disappointing. No more name calling unless Troy's cut them all off on
me, so maybe that's possible. All right, then let's get into the
main feature, Willy Wonka. It's time for the main feature. So this
is Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the nineteen seventy one version of the
film, the first film version of it based on the original book, which
was called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And I thought it was interesting they
changed the name for the film because, in large part because they got Quaker
Oats to fund the film. This was the biggest revelation for me when I
when I found that out, I was like, whoa, that's just so.
It was all about then releasing a new candy and they wanted to promote
it, and mel Stewart just said, I know, we'll make a movie.
Right. Yeah, he had he realized. He goes, I have
a movie about a chocolate factory and here's a major corporation trying to market a
new chocolate candy bar. So there you go. I had no idea.
So Quaker Oats put up the money for this thing, and uh and the
story of what happened afterwards is just as fascinating. How you know, Paramount
didn't didn't want it after because it wasn't a success. Uh, And Paramount
got rid of it a couple of years later, and nobody wanted it.
So Quaker Oats got it and they didn't know what they had and within the
Warner got it for like five hundred thousand and he sold it the Warner Brothers.
It's crazy. Yeah, when the when the original distribution deal with Paramount
expired in seventy seven, you know, six years afterwards. Yeah, they
didn't see that. They didn't think it was valuable enough to renew it's just
nuts because it made some money, but it wasn't a huge it wasn't a
bomb. It just didn't make a lot of money. So it was like,
it's it's fascinating. I mean with those people, they have no idea.
Well, of course it was. Again, it was the days before
DVTs and vhs and and then memorabilia became a whole different thing too, So
now you know now probably I know it's not but just saying like Jane Wilder's
costume probably costs, could you could fetch as much as the budget of this
movie cost a little bit of an exaggeration, but not that's not that.
Yeah, I think the budget was like two point eight million. Yeah,
I think maybe three, which even then was not was a very small budget.
And that's why they filmed in Germany. Yeah, filmed in Bavaria because
they America was completely out of the question with the budget they had, and
they felt like London was too recognizable, too much stuff was getting made there.
And then they looked at Munich and were like, ah, yeah,
they wanted those timeless anywhere, any magical kingdom kind of place that was not
you know, even the fashions were quite drabbed. There was nothing really indicative.
Maybe some of the language in the movie was indicative of the time period.
And there were a couple of other things I noticed, like antennas.
You know, you wouldn't normally notice antennas on houses, but when they showed,
like one of the opening scenes, there's all these TV aerials on the
houses and stuff. It's like all that dates itself somewhat. And uh.
And then I noticed there were ads. They were like um uh, posters
for like Sprite and Luke thansa airway, airlines and stuff like that. So
I did notice a couple of odd sort of nuggets here and there. But
he also when Charlie early on, when Charlie is um looking in the window
of the candy store and then he kind of runs were skips away or whatever
he like, kind of he walks past a big cigarette billboard. Oh does
he I miss that was seeing a kids movie. I love that thing.
They picked the magical, weird, odd kind of anywhere in the world fairytale
landy kind of plays, which you know, Europe has a lot of the
stuff that survived the war anyway, and uh and uh, and that it
was and I guess they used the uh the Munich. They feel mostly in
Munich, at the Munich Gas Works and which is still amazingly there. Yeah,
the front gate and the two side buildings are still there, and then
kind of the in the deep background, the kind of smoke stacky building is
gone now, but the moh is it Okay? I thought it was all
still there. Okay. Yeah, the side buildings in the front gate are
all still the same though. And when we were prepping for this, I
watched a couple of docs documentaries. I watched The Pure Imagination the story of
Willie Walk and the Chocolate Factory, which was made I think maybe in the
late nineties, possibly early two thousands, and there's a book called with the
same name. And then this was really fascinating. There was a series about
twenty years ago called After They Were Famous, I think it was a British
series, and they did one on Walking. They got all five kids to
come back as adults and they took them back to Munich and took them back
to the gates and everything. It was really really fascinating. Yeah, it
was room, took them back to the hotel they'd stayed in and had them
reminesque. It was really, really, really fascinating. I'll have to look
at that. I missed that completely. I watched the documented the documentary,
and I did watch it, watch the movie a couple of times, once
with the commentary. They had all the kids in it, which was which
was kind of fun to listen to. But I definitely want to I've seen
that. Actually, I remember that show because they did it. They did
one with um the Sound of Music, and they brought all the kids back
to Streon, you know where they showed him, you know, walking down
the you know, balancing on a certain step and they all these kids and
they're like fifties and sixties are. But it was funny too because for the
reunion, you know, they're all adults now. And Michael Bohlner, who
played the Augustus group, he grew up to be six foot seven. He's
still just giant. I don't think he haardly speaks a word of English either.
He does kind of now, at least he didn't the thing but they
said back when he filmed the movie he had he did not know English like
at all. You couldn't say fudge a budge. It came out like weirdly,
and he could not do the f's correctly. We started up, you
know, I feel hungry? Could I had? You know? That was
you know, that was when he went, how does that make you feel
hungry? He was, But then again he had food in his mouth most
of the time, too, sure, but right, right, right right,
but uh but yeah, it's he had very little to say. But
then he was the first kid to go too, so probably his filming was
you know, I was thinking about that. Yeah, he only had probably
like a dozen lines in the commentary. He hardly spoke at all. But
I do think it's a language thing more so. But then he didn't have
a lot to reminisce about. And and as soon as they asked him a
question, the other kids were saying, oh, so, um, you
know, what's the first thing were you ever on the set for any of
the other stuff after you left? And he goes, well, and then
of course the kids are like, oh, here's the thing I'm in.
You know, it's like totally cutting him off. This guy probably had three
lines in the whole commentary. But you know, that's just your actory kind
of thing. Here's something that I'm fascinating that I'm in right here. But
poor guy, no, no, but hey, you know, and while
anyway we're gonna we're gonna get into the gloops. A little bit later we
mentioned the you know, the Willie Wonka candy and you know, the Quaker
Roads connection and all that, and you can't I don't think you can get
the Wonka bars anymore. I think they discontinued them years ago, possibly but
apparently. But the irony was when they first put the bars out. Apparently
there was something wrong with the formula, which it's just so ironic considering it's
Wonka and they I think the problem was that they were melting on the shelves
basically okay, and so they had to pull them. So here's their big
three million dollar promotional movie that they've created to launch this candy bar with,
and there's no candy bars on the shelves because they screwed up the design of
them. Basically, that's wild and Quake Roads had hung onto the movie,
they'd have made their money back, you know, two thousand folds. Yeah,
it's it's uh, that's quite I mean, it's probably made tens of
millions of dollars by now, because easily just like what you know when we
talk about UM it's a wonderful life kind of similar thing. Not a huge
hit when it came out, but then when TV syndication came around, when
to sort of airing it on TV every year, and VHS came out and
everything, it was like this whole market popped up and made these movies bigger
than they were. Yeah, when I first came out. Yeah, did
you ever watch the two thousand and five remake with Johnny Depp? I did,
you know? And I even bought it, but I haven't watched it
since I bought it. But I remember liking it enough to buy it.
But I can't say I remember much about it, just that he was a
very well I could. I remember that. I couldn't stop thinking he looked
like Michael Jackson vividly. But but no, I don't remember much about the
movie. Really, I don't either. But all I really remember, and
I know I saw it, but I remember I was working at the Jim
Hinson studio a lot at the time, and they had their rap party or
their premier party or something big party there for that movie, and the big
courtyard that's in the middle of Jim Hinson Studios they converted to look like the
set. Wow. And I have photos that all put up on the video
version of this podcast so you can see it. I found the old photos
I took that was like two thousand and five. Awesome. I look forward
to seeing those. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really cool. And
they're making another Wonka film that comes out next year with Timothy Shalomi. I
don't know who that is. He's great. Shalom has been at tons of
stuff. He was in the Homeland series for a season, but he's most
famous. He was an Interstellar, but probably most famous. He really kind
of hit his stride with Ladybird. He plays kind of the the love interest
in Ladybird, the kind of bad boy love interest, I guess. And
he's the star of Call Me by Your Name. And he was in the
New Little Women remake they did a couple of years ago. He was just
in the French Dispatch, He's in the New Dune movie, and now he's
in what they're just calling it Wonka. It's gonna be the name of the
film. Is it the same story about, you know, Willy Wonka opening
up his chocolate factory or I think it's like it's like a prequel. It's
like young Willy Wonka. Okay, well that'll be dark. I'm sure.
I guess it's interesting because you know, Roald Dahl, we're going to talk
about who's the author of the original book. He I don't think he wrote
any of that, any of that story. He wrote a sequel book that
was never made into a movie, and he started writing a third book that
he never finished. They put out like one pair, like one chapter of
it. Yeah, so this is someone else's, you know, completely someone
in difference, you know, imagining of what the prequel would be. I
guess, but I don't I don't know. Well, I'm sure they're going
to be compensated for that the dollars. I love the cast, Timothy Shallowme,
Olivia Coleman, Keegan, Michael Key. That's you know, it's fantastic
cast. Hopefully they Rowan Atkinson's in. Its awesome. That's awesome. I
just wanted to point out we're talking about the Munich Gas works where they filmed
it, and there's that scene, a really haunting scene at the very beginning,
where you know, Charlie buckets walking in his nighttime and he walks to
the front gate and he sees the tow or the big smokestack with the Wonka,
which apparently wasn't really there. They like painted it on frame by frame
on the film itself or on the negative. But um, he's sitting there
and then and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this like
guy with this noisiest possible cart on the planet, which wasn't there. When
he shows up, turns around, it gives a whole scary speech about you
know, the little men, uh, the fear of little men or something
like that, and then he does that famous nobody ever comes in, nobody
ever comes out, which is such a great set up for that place.
Um and except for except for now we know slug Worth he must have gone
in and out because because you know, he worked for Willy Wonka. So
up. Uh So yeah, that was that. But I just thought that
was kind of kind of funny and interesting about the tinker who because he turns
around, it moves, and he's got like it's like he's got a whole
thing of tin garbage cans and stuff. But he wasn't there at first,
So it's kind of funny but magic. Yeah. So um so Mel Stewart
was the director, and he made the movie because his daughter Madaline liked the
book basically, and that has happened so many times, I feel like in
Hollywood history where the kid gets their parents to do something, usually sometimes as
an actor or whatever. But she really liked it, and m her and
one of his other sons appear in the movie. Right Peter, He the
son Peter Stewart is in the candy store when um, he goes scrum dible,
umptuous bar? How does he do it? I think that's Peter.
And then Madaline, I think is in I think she's in Charlie's class.
She's in the black and white striped kind of sweater. And when the teacher
asked how many candy bars each kid bought so they can talk about percentages,
she's the first one to answer. She says she bought a hundred, and
then Charlie gets shamed because he's poor and he only bought two. Two.
Yeah, well, Peter, you know Tony that I used to work for
Peter Stewart. He was my old boss in England. What I know?
Right, So all that I was working on a show called Eurotrash and which
was a culty kind of show and the company is called Repeato, and then
I worked on a couple of other things with them. I was one was
called Unzipped and one was called Rock Babylon. But I found out that my
boss was Peter Stewart. So I got to talking to Peter and he's like,
oh, yeah, well, my dad, you know, this is
before the internet. The internet just started because we're using it all the time
for the research. But but but he told me that, you know,
my dad was Mel Stewart, and he told me that his dad, capp
Gene Wilder's hat still had it and uh and um. But it was funny
because I was I had taped videotaped the copy of Marilyn Manson's um video called
Dope Hat, and it was it was like ninety five that that that that
came out and it's a total It's like Marilyn Manson on the boat. The
whole scene on the boat is redone. It's really well done too, with
Opa Loompa's in costume. The whole bit really well done. And Peter had
never seen it before. So I was, oh, no, you gotta
check this out. You can check it over and he's like, oh,
that's my dad's thing, So it was kind of it was kind of funny,
but uh, but yeah, Peter was Peter was an interesting man,
and uh, and I enjoyed. I don't Repeato went under. I don't
know whatever happened to him after that, but but I remember that's how that
by Christian party that year, I got to hang out and have drinks with
Richard Branson because Richard Branson was part of the one of the people that owned
Repeato. He was like one of the partners. It was a bizarre time,
it really was. But working on Eurotrash was a lot of fun.
That was a that was a great show. Did Peter tell you anything else
about the movie? Or did years they were talking about Wonka, I found
out that they didn't. He and Mel had a very complicated relationship, so
it was not And Peter was a very intense individual. So he was one
of those guys that if you caught him at a good time, it was
really good. Uh, it'd becaut him a bad time. It's just just
yeah, it was. It's very tense sometimes. So no, I didn't,
it didn't come up very much. It didn't come I wish I would
have known more so now I would have been a bit more aggressive with the
questioning. But but I don't know. It was kind of cold to be
able to talk to him for a bit about it. Anyway. Um,
his sister who's in the film, Madeline, I think she's a respected interior
designer now in Los Angeles. Oh she lived here. Okay, yeah,
I believe so, Yeah, I wonder, I wonder if Peter's still in
England. He's got to be well anyway, Yeah, interesting, but yeah,
So the kid comes up with the book and says, you got to
do this, and our uncle is a David Walper, the producer, he
could put up the money for it. Like the little ten year old's going
to say that I'm gonna I'm gonna package this deal for your dad. You
can get financing from me. But but uh, but yeah, anyway,
but yeah, mel mel Stewart was ah. I didn't know that he directed
the TV show um Ripley's Believe It or Not either And that was a big
staple on American television, which lends into this whole wacky kind of Willie Wonka
feel. You know, all these weird sort of things different shapes and sizes
and unbelievable and etc. So Yeah, he was mainly a TV director and
producer guy, and this is definitely the biggest thing he did. But he
also did the Oscar nominated documentary Four Days in November, which was about the
JFK assassination. Oh was it came out? Which came out like the year
after JFK was assassinated. It was like an early film on it. Yeah,
he was the director of that. Hm. Wow, good timing anyway?
Was Mel? He passed away on August ninth, two twelve. He
was eighty three years old. He had melanoma. Scrum diddle, i'mptious,
how does he do it? Scrum diblely, i'mpshous he had, Yeah,
he had the hat and I looked it up. He had he had sold
the or the hat sold in two thousand and twelve or seventy four thousand,
Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka hat. So Mel had it. I think it was
the only prop he had. In fact, I did ask that and he
did tell me that his dad had the hat. But otherwise, um,
but yeah, seventy four k who knew well and um Julie don Cole who
played Ruca Salt, who's still alive. I think she took one of the
golden eggs, because that's her big scene where she exits is the geese laying
the golden eggs. She took a golden egg. I think she kept her
gob Stopper and her golden ticket Smart Girl with her, and I think two
of those were I saw were sold. Had an auction years ago for like
fifteen thousand pounds, seventeen thousand pounds something like that. The gobstrapper I heard
they went from forty kum. Oh really, yeah, that's what I heard.
I was I was looking. I tried looking him up on that Heritage
auction site because they, I know, the whole Willi Wonka outfit. They
had him one piece and that sold too. I think that was eighty thousand.
Not the hats, but this the shirt, you know, the coat,
The shirt and the pants and the hat was sold separate. I'd be
bound, wouldn't it to have that, like the costume and not the hat.
That would suck exactly all right, We'll rest in peace. Mel Stewart
and the novel was based off of the great children's author Roald Dahl, who
I've seen his name pronounced multiple times. I've seen it pronounced Rold. I've
seen rowled, yeah, and then I've seen a kind of ruled ruled.
It was Norwegian, so it's probably some pronunciation we aren't accustomed to. Yeah,
I'm going by the people in the commentary who knew him and dealt with
them, and they were saying, there you go. But yeah, he
was a complicated man as well. He was very complicated. He was sorry.
He was six foot six, He's a very tall guy, and it's
very odd he flew fighter planes. He was a fighter pilot in World War
Two, which is very unusual for someone of his height to be stuffed into
the cockpit of a fighter. I mean, I've known World War Two fighter
pilots and most of them were short, short guys. Interesting, they're in
crapped situations, so it's kind of unusual. I don't Maybe for the Brits
maybe it wasn't as unusual. But yeah, he got injured a few times,
he survived a crash, and he knew Um. Seems like everybody knew
this guy in the war. He knew Ian Fleming, who created James bond
Oh, who also wrote Shitty Chitty Bang Bang, who I think Rold worked
on the script for that. Didn't He who wrote the screenplay for Yeah,
and Rold also wrote You Only Lived Twice screenplay for it. So yeah,
so that I mean the stuff that I mean. But he wrote really dark
stuff. I mean, you know, the Matilda and the Witches, I
mean those were and Tales from I think it was Tales, the Unexpected Hitchcock
stuff that, you know, it's all he wrote some really dark set up.
He liked, like children's stuff that, but it was had a dark
edge to it. Yes. Yeah, he wrote James and the Giant Peach.
He wrote Fantastic Mister Fox. He wrote the BFG. I mean those
are all vall been you know, adapted, and yeah, I guess,
I mean it probably has something to do because I was looking him up and
if i'd saw the kid that was four months old and hit by a taxi
and it developed like this brain fluid condition. And then he had a daughter
that died of measles. Yeah. Yeah. And then he was married to
Patricia Neil for thirty years and she had like I'm not laughing, it's not
funny, but she had like three cerebral aneurisms which she was pregnant. I
mean she was talking about I remember when she used to do those Annison commercials
for for Aspirant back in the in the in the seventies. But it was
like girl needed it because she bo through she she uh yeah. And if
you don't know Patricia Neil was she was in the day there should stood still
a face in the crowd Breakfast a Tiffany's hud, which she won the Best
Actress Oscar for. Yeah. And she played Olivia Walton in the in the
first Walton's movie, Yeah, Homecoming, and didn't didn't reprise it for the
series, but was in like the movie the pre movie Yeah yeah yeah.
Um. She also I read she won a Tony at the first ever Tony
Awards. Oh yeah, and was the last surviving winner from that first class
of winners at the first Evertony Awards. Not anymore, there's some tribute for
you. Not alive anymore though, um years. It's interesting getting back to
Wanka dall Uh was supposed to be the screenwriter and is the only credited screenwriter
on Willie Walk in a Chocolate Factory. Um, but I guess he never
really finished the screenplay. Mainly just kind of wrote an outline and kept referencing
pages of the book and he quit. Are he quit? Are you think
because he just hated it? Yeah? Well, and then what happened was
they brought in a replacement screenwriter and Dall didn't like the changes that he and
Mel Stewart made to the story, and so he disowned the film. Dall
disowned it, and that was it. Yeah, But they wouldn't give the
other guy, Steve David Seltzer. They wouldn't give him a credit screen credit,
right because they had to look like it was all Roll Doll. They
wanted Doll's name for the marketing to be the screenwriter, even though he really
ended up not writing it. So whatever, Yeah, exactly I was reading
I got there was a list they say that, um now where I got
this from? But it says that there are eight main rules he applied on
all of his children's books. Did you see this list? I don't think
so. No. Number one, just add chocolate. Number two. Adults
can be scary, which is that Matilda movie that's one with Danny DeVito,
isn't it They played really awful like parents? Or I don't remember. Three
bad things happen. This is all in kids books for Revenge is sweet.
Five, keep a wicked sense of humor. Six pick perfect pictures. Not
quite sure what that means. Seven films are fun, but books are better.
And number eight food is fun, but bad things happened, adults can
be ay, I mean, and revenge is sweet. There's you know,
those are kids books that don't usually get written. So but good for him,
I mean, you know, for all as him as a human being.
You know, I've heard rumors about him not being such a nice guy.
I don't know, because when I was doing the actual research, I
couldn't find many examples of him not being a very nice guy. Um.
Yeah, he I think he had some kind of racist leanings at least of
course, you know, he certainly would not be acceptable now. Um the
the oopa loopas were you know, black pygmy characters in his book apparently,
and and Melsterer was like, we're not doing that. Yeah, in our
movie, We're going to make them orangs with green hair, you know,
from the land of Oupaopa or from Lupa land. Um. But yeah,
I don't know. Yeah, they do say there was a lot of uh
they say, a lot of anti Semitic uh references in his publications, and
his family did come out and apologize after he was dead for his you know
action. So he was a genius as a writer, and you know,
like a lot of people nowadays, they in retrospect, you realize that a
lot of the things they wrote weren't very nice. Um and hopefully it doesn't
overshadow the good things. You know, those they should be addressed. I
don't think they should be removed because they're indicative of a time period. But
as long as they're acknowledged, you know, it's like it's like watching on
Netflix. Now there's cigarettes in this movie, you know what I mean.
It's like the commentary is not indicative of how I feel or how the company
feels. You know, these are I mean, I think a simple disclaimer.
I'm not going to say that that that relinquishes any responsibility. But how
can you say I don't like that and I like this. It's like removing
removing little bits of things that you don't like because they make you uncomfortable.
I guess that's yeah, that's that's what it's all about. So but his
family has acknowledged that and apologized for that, and yeah, and you can
adapt, like as they have pretty much all his films. You can adapt
it and cut out the parts that are yes, that have not aged well
or not acceptable anymore, and the story is still good. Yeah yeah,
Um. So he passed away on November twenty third, nineteen ninety. He
was only seventy four. He had my my alot man my lotus plastic syndrome.
It's probably horribly mispronounced. It's a rare cancer of the blood, basically
cancer. He had cancer, Mike, Yeah, he was seventy four cancer.
Don't ask me for details. Um and uh, he said, just
had chocolate, and they did. When they buried him. He was buried
with chocolates, among other really how interesting. And I think in the book
he imagined that the the Wonka's chocolate would be kind of like the Cadbury chocolate.
It's very creamy, milky. You know. It's funny because they take
that ship very seriously over there in Britain. They do because because cadbury is
made by like Hershey, here in America, the Cadbury's actually a Cadbury.
There's you know, it's a factory that makes it a certain in Europe and
uh and uh, but but the cabir Here's is substandards to the Cabury over
there, which is interesting. They think that's up very seriously. Really,
Cadbury eggs are like my top three favorite candies. Yeah, and I think
I flew through the airport in London years ago and I remember it wasn't Easter
time and they had Cadbury eggs for sale. Yeah, and I was like,
wait, wait wait you sell these year round here, the little tiny
ones. Yeah yeah, yeah, well there's whatever. Yeah. It was
like, oh man, we can only get those in the easter. Yeah,
you gotta like somebody. Also, they m like, we do chocolate
bunnies over here. They do easter eggs like Violet, Like I'm sorry,
like Arucas, you know, the big eggs that are chocolate hollow with stuff
inside it. That's their thing, like ours are the chocolate bunnies. But
that's what they do over there. It's just um oh, it's a different
world, a different world. Well rest in peace, rolled doll. Yeah,
and I and I did do a quick quick look at I know we
shaid work to talk about him, but I did want to mention that David
Seltzer. I don't know if you kept any of that information, but you
know, Seltzer was the guy when Rabald Dahl was kind of on the outs,
they got David Seltzer and to do the writing and he wouldn't get credit,
but I guess they're going to produce a movie for him as a favor
or something like that. He ended up doing the Omen and punchline. But
he's the guy that decided that Slugworth was going to be a proper villain in
the movie because he wasn't a character in the book that was a very villainous
character. Yeah, they said there were no villains really in the story and
they needed one. Yeah, you know, so as I understand that Seltzer
was the one. He did it. And then filming, I guess supposedly
rapped or at least for him, and he told the story about him going
to some remote island or something where there was like one telephone in the whole
village, and it was like yeah, And they finally chased him down because
they needed a line for the end of the movie, which it sounds like
it's been dramatic side the tiny bit, but yeah, but we need a
line, we need a line. And he said that Happily ever after,
and like genius, genius, what happened to the boy who got everything he
wanted. He lived definitely rid. Oh my god, it's yeah, I
don't know if that's I mean again, people take you know, it's like
the kids were talking about it. That took me thirty six takes well,
you know, no, I'm sure it didn't. You know, probably two
and you remember thirty six. But if people get prone to exaggeration. But
David Seltzer is still He's still alive. He um wrote the Omen and Burnt
on a Wire and um the nine to the classic nineteen eighty eight comedy Punchline,
the stand up comedy one Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, and Shining Through
with Melan Griffith and Michael Douglas. I'm just reading his Wikipedia page at this
point. But because he's not dead, so we weren't going to talk about
him. But yeah, well yeah, so he did. He contributed quite
a bit to the to the movie, and I think he said during a
documentary that he'd never really done something like this writing wise, he had not
taken on a project like this before, and he was kind of panicked because
he's like, I've made all these promises I can do this, and I
have no idea what I'm doing I think he did a good job. I
think it's a great script. Yeah, I wonder. Yeah, it'd be
curious to know how much exactly what was his contribution and what they kept from
Roobul Dalds. You know. So we weren't really going to go into the
producers, but I did want to mention two things about them because there is
an interesting story with them. Stan Margolis and David Wolper were the producers,
and Wolper was kind of like the head of it was his company. It
was like Wolper Productions, I think or something, and Stan was his like
his VP, and they produced the Roots mini series. They Wolper was also
responsible for helping to bring the Olympics to Los Angeles and eighty four and he
produced the opening and closing ceremonies for the eighty four Olympics in LA which I
thought was cool. He has a star on the Walk of Fame. But
here's why I mentioned the Sierras at the top of the podcast. So he
um they were producing a documentary series called primal Man about you know, early
Man, and they were they had a big crew working up in the Sierras,
filming up in the mountains. It was supposed to be like the Mountains
of Tibet or something like that. I care they were. There was something
with a tiger, and they brought a tiger up there for this thing.
And long story short, the whole crew gets on a chartered flight out of
Bishop to fly down to Burbank because they're done filming and they got to be
filming somewhere else, you know. A couple of days later down in La
and their plane takes off from the airport and Bishop and crashes into a ridge
on in the Sierras and kills. Everybody was Wolper on it. Nope,
Wolper and stand, I think we're back in La because they were the exact
kid. So they were a story. And all thirty one members of their
crew that were on the airplane died. Wow. And then and that was
in seventy four. It's referred to as the primal Man crash. So this
is Mike pausing the conversation for a moment because after we recorded this episode,
we learned something kind of interesting about one of the victims of this primal Man
plane crash that was part of this documentary crew, and it was a makeup
artist named Rolfe Miller and Rolfe was also a makeup artist on one hundred and
fourteen episodes of Bewitched, which was the subject of our last episode, and
he also received an Emmy nomination for working on that series. So this is
just one of several odd Bewitched connections to Willy Wonka that you know, we
didn't really realize until we've set out to do this. So back to the
show, and it is one of only three crashes. I don't know if
this is true, but I read one of only three crashes that the NTSB
is investigated that are still considered unsolved. They don't know why it crashed into
the mountain. How long after the takeoff? Do you think it could have
been very low? Right, They were still ascending, they were still climbing,
and they just didn't They didn't climb at at the correct rate for some
reason. But they were in the pilots were in contact with the tower and
there was no reports of, oh, something's going wrong. They just flew
into a mountain. It was nighttime, so that you know, I'm sure
contributed, but they I mean assumed. I guess pilot error, but you
don't. You don't know what the reason for the pilot error, was like,
why didn't they just what happened? Yeah, I wonder if they,
I mean, if it's unsolved, they still have all that happen somewhere,
I'm sure. I wondered if they, you know, since it's taken so
long, maybe they just kind of you know, brushed it aside. But
it's probably all still intact somewhere. Maybe I would imagine, so imagine,
you know, forensically, now that they know I know, DNA wise it
won't make any difference. But I wonder if they, you know, with
all the terrorism it's happened and everything, they could look at it with a
fresh set of eyes. I think that sometimes it's just a matter of the
only people that know were the two pilots, and yeah, and that's that
secret was lost with them, you know. Yeah. But what wasn't lost
was they were able to recover the film footage from the wreckage filmed and they
used it and they they they the series was broadcast and some of that last
footage that they shot up in the Sierras was used. Um I think correctly
they said, you know, this is what the crew would want. It
was the last thing they ever worked on. A bunch of artists. You
know that you would want you know, it's tragedy. At least the last
thing they did made it to air, right, Um did the tiger?
The tiger must have been on it. Then the tiger. I think the
tiger maybe caught another flight. I don't know. Tiger probably flew back to
Vegas. Um, so the question, you know, Tony the Tiger.
Tony the Tiger lived. Uh Stan Margolis passed away on February twenty seven,
two thousand and one, from lung cancer. He was eighty and Wolper died
on August tenth, twenty ten, eighty eight, two years old, from
congestive heart disease and Parkinson's. So yeah, man, I loved my air
disasters. I hate flying, So yeah, I love reading about him.
And I also wanted to mention Harper Goff, who was the art director who
built designed that amazing set. Yes, because he was such a character.
He was the set designer for Casa Blanca. He he back before Disneyland was
a thing. He met Walt Disney at a model train shop in London.
They were both model train geeks, and Walt Disney recognized Goff's some illustrations he
had done for Esquire magazine and was kind of like, hey, you know,
next time you're in La or whatever, look look me up. And
he did. And Goff did the first artist renderings of Disneyland, and he's
he was dubbed the second Imagineer was his name, so and he also helped
designed the Jungle Book Cruise and Haunted Mansion rides there. He also did designs
for twenty thousand Leagues Under the Sea um and was kind he's credited as kind
of the father of steampunk design. So that's the guy that designed that amazing
chocolate room set at the heart of Willy Wonka with the river of chocolate and
all that. Yeah, that was incredible. And they had, as I
understand they well, they waited much like when they when they did the Goonies
and they didn't tell any of the kids they were going to go onto the
sound stage and see that spectacular set of that ship ship. And they did
the same thing with these kids. They just kept it apparently, uh you
know that's what they say. They kept it quiet. And when they opened
up the door, that's their genuine reaction. And say, when when they
saw the imp Olympus for the first time. Apparently they were not notified what
that was. I would have been like, what the fuck? It would
have ruined the whole take, I know, right, but it would have
been you know, but there was They weren't saying that as a as a
an exclamation at that point, but I'd be like, they'd be cutting me
off like a wow, and I'll be going, yeah, you can't say
f you can't say the F word, and yet are I think our both
our favorite quote from the movie is when when Rucas Sault says, I want
it now, what's the matter with those plots down there? Well, honestly,
she does say twerp. She does say twerp. Does it does sound
like, yeah, it sounds like plots exact? No, I'm not,
I'm not. I'm not at all arguing with you because I didn't even know
twerp was a word over there. I knew it was a word here,
but I asked. I asked my friend Ann, and I got you know,
I lived there for I don't know X amount of years, and I'm
like, I've never heard that expression in my life. She goes, oh,
yeah, my dad used to call me that. When I was a
kid. It was a you know, sort of a sort of you're an
idiot, but in a loving, lighthearted way. Not you know, don't
be stupid, don't be daft, don't be a twerp. And so yeah,
that is what she's saying. But it sure sounds like twat to me.
It doesn't. I thought, maybe it's a British thing. Maybe they
wasn't a bad word back then. Really, they won't even say that on
TV. You know, they'll say the F word on TV in England,
but not but not the not the dreaded tw word. But it was no.
I took that same video like you sent it to me. I honestly
got to think that very same video instead to a friend of mine, I
go, is she really saying this? Come on? Oh my god?
Um so her Harper Goff, the art director. He passed away on March
third, nineteen ninety three. He was eighty one from heart failure. He
was posthumously named a Disney Legend, which is a big honor. You know,
the Disney world. Um, and there is a window in adventure Land,
you know how they some of their writings on the windows in Disneyland,
like you know, the main street and stuff are dedicated to certain people.
It's like kind of mode. There is a window in adventure Land that reads
Oriental tattooing by Professor Harper Goff, and the lower pain reads banjo lessons.
He was a banjo player and how they're traveling kind of jazz band. He
played banjo in Okay, So look around for that and see if you can
find that. That is Professor Harper Gooff. Harper Goff is the guy that
helped design Disneyland and designed Wonka Cool Cool. Yeah, the the Nautilus from
twenty thousand leagues. I mean that is an incredible That submarine is a fascinating,
incredible design. So yeah, he did some pretty pretty amazing things and
they say that what well, so Gene Wilder said that a third of that
set was edible, but you know, I mean, that's just that's a
bit silly, but i'd be but all that stuff that was going on,
I mean, the ship and and the uh and the waterfall, the chocolate
waterfall that was actually just colored water, I guess, but they you know,
they just put um and all the edible sort of everything. You know,
it looked so good and even the kids were saying when they're watching it,
they're saying, this looks fantastic, and it doesn't even come close to
the way it looked. You know, it was so absolutely stunning how how
everything looked, and uh, yeah, I know he has a has an
incredible job in that, down to the ship and everything. It was wow.
Yeah, it's to cut that. For that to come out of somebody's
brain, you know, that is like wild goods. Make it work.
Yeah. Michael bold Bohner, who played Augustus who had to go get in
the water, said it was cold and stink. Yeah, I believe it.
I wonder what they what they died it with? Um, I mean
what they died. They ended up having to pour some type of solution into
it was a bleach or something and to get the smell to go away because
it was just like I guess it got can overpowering. Maybe they has like
real milk or something. Maybe I don't know, but he he yeah,
when he had and he said he had to fall in like six different times.
But he did say that that that bit about him getting stuck in that
tube was kind of interesting. How they you know, they they you know,
he's the one that blew up into the uh, you know, the
pressure blew up, and all the Gilder's like, what did you say?
Something like, oh, the pressure, you know, the tensions building up.
I hope it lasts or something. Yeah, yea, he says the
tension is intolerable or something like that, I hope it lasts. There's so
many great little likes night, you know, like side out of the side
of the mouth lines that he says. They're so great, which which is
a huge part of the appeal of this movie because growing up so as kids,
you don't know those things right and uh, and you know, you
just find it really fun and mysterious because Willy Wonka is this wacky character.
But as adults you're watching it and you know, could you say that a
little louder next time? A try will deafen this year? And all the
parent yeah, and all they and all the parent actors get little lines like
that too that you might not notice if you know you're not paying close attention.
Um, yeah, it's funny. Um. So both songwriters that wrote
the music for it, I'm got Oscar Nams out of this one, and
Leslie Bricus also wrote you Only Lived Twice, and they can You Read My
Mind love theme from the Superman movie, and Anthony Newley was his his writing
partner on it, and he wrote the music stopped the World I Want to
Get Off, And he wrote the hit Feeling Good, which was, you
know, the one covered by Nina Simone so famously and it's been covering must
time since then. Um. And what's interesting is Newley was friends with Sammy
Davis Junior, and both Davis and Newly himself wanted the role of the candy
Man in the Candy Shop in the beginning of the movie. And then Sammy
Davis Junior, of course ends up recording his own cover of the Candy Man's
song Yeah, and that ends up being Sammy Davis Junior's only number one Billboard
hit ever in his whole career. That's yeah, that's what I heard.
That he really wanted to be in the movie, and they just know,
we just gotta we had to suspend reality in your Biggest Star. I think
Peter Sellers wanted it to and uh, and we just can't. We can't
do that. So it's very interesting. And then I was also reading that
leslie Bercouse. I think it was just I wrote with gold Goldfinger with Anthony
Newley the lyrics to Goldfinger and like you said, the Only Only Lived Twice
both Bond themes, which goes back to Ian Fleming, which goes back to
Raoul Dahl, which is crazy right. Yeah. So he also wrote Guide
to the Married Man, which he wrote with the with John Williams, the
famous composer for the movie The Beach Boys sang it and the Victor Victorian music.
Um did that too, and he wanted to ask her for best original
song Talked to the Animals. I think it's what it was from Doctor Doolittle.
Oh really yeah, um. And Burkas's wife was a Vaughan every Romaine
who starred with Elvis in Double Trouble. Okay, interesting it was an Elvis
connection as well. Yeah, these guys are swinging in sixties people. Yeah,
there they were. Yeah, I know, I know Newly was for
sure. Yeah. Um so Um. Leslie Burkas on October nineteenth, twenty
twenty one, I just recently passed away. He was ninety and was old
age and newly passed away back in ninety nine. On April fourteenth, nineteen
ninety nine, he was only sixty seven. He had renal cancer. He
was. Now, this is interesting and you'll like this actually, because we
know we always got to go back to this point. Anthony Newley was married
to Joan Collins. Anthony Newley, Uh was attended a Roman Plansky in Charon
Tate's wedding. I knew you were going Manson, I knew, I knew
they did. Anthony Newley and uh and Joan Collins. We're friends with Sharon
in Roman and went to their wedding in London at the at the well,
the reception was at the at the Playboy Club. But but yeah, they
were there, and uh, Anthony Newley was also here's a here's a piece
of bizarre trivia for you. He was probably the second most famous person immortalized
by Cynthia plaster Caster. Oh really we who we talked about just on our
Patreon only episode. Yeah, from a couple of weeks ago. Plaster Caster,
the famous groupie who would take plaster casts of so called famous rock musicians.
Although the most famous one she did with Jimi Hendrix. Yeah, their
penises she would play. She would cast their penises, not their whole bodies,
right and and and yeah, Anthony Newley was. There was Hendricks,
and there was Anthony Newley and the rest of them were just kind of like
you know, other bands, but those were the those are the two big
ones. But Anthony Newley was was a complicated guy. He was also when
Doctor Doolittle with Rex Harrison and h there's a lot of sexual exploits which I
don't really get either because I remember him from the talk show circuit when he
talked. I know his voice was different early on when he did that song
from Uh Stop the World, What kind of wool am I? I was
listening to that today and it wasn't so bad, but I remember him,
like in the seventies of late seventies doing that. The way he spoke,
the way he sang was like that real. I mean, it was so
exaggerated of a vibrato. It was it was, it was. It was
distracting. Um it was not pleasant, but he was, you know,
an amazing talent. Apparently in England he was huge and and and Anthony Newley
died on April fourteenth, nineteen ninety nine, in Florida of renal cancer.
Yeah, he was only sixty seven. Livehart die young, right, right,
that's swinging sixty seventies music scene, all right, let's do the cast
and you you start with uh with uh one of the greats, Gene Wilder
as Willy Wonka. Yeah, yeah, he was, he was, and
I did I didn't, you know, doing the research, and I didn't
know he was in Bonnie and Clyde. You know, I had no idea
he was in Bonnie and Clyde. I haven't seen that movie in many years.
But yeah, neither that Ye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. You know,
it's a shock to me, so uh but yeah, um uh. Fred
Astaire wanted the Walker role, was one of many actors that wanted it,
but they judged he was I think he was in his seventies by this point.
It was just a little too too old for the character. And Peter
Seller supposedly begged Roll Doll for the part, and I didn't get it.
Um. They held casting, you know, they held auditions, and they
said that when Wilder walked in, like two or three sentences in, they
were like, he's the guy, and they basically they they they before he
left, they offered him the role. It was like done. The likes
he's Wonka. There's it's something about him and I don't and I probably said
this before. I have like two stories and I repeat them over and over
again. But in London, I met him and he was doing a show
in London. I went to see and I went backstage and met him,
and I you know, I only I knew him. Of course I knew
who he was. This had have been in the late nineties and uh,
and I remember, you know, that's like I was seen Wilder. Didn't
really care because because they didn't really think much of him. I liked him,
don't get me wrong. But anyway, when I met him, it
was like bam. His eyes. I mean it was incredible. It just
it was and it sounds so weird to say this, but they were like
magical eyes. Like you looked and you just I'll say this and it sounds
wanky, but you could just see you see he was good. By looking
in his eyes, there was some kind of weird twinkle. They were so
so very blue. But honestly, guy, it was like a feeling.
I got this guy's a good guy. And uh, it's just it's just
weird. But he but he but that's I'm sure that's what they saw in
him. You know. It was just the magic in his eyes and he
did have incredible eyes. And the kids on the movie all loved him,
the kid actors, they all said that, which they you know, looking
back, they were like, you know, someone was always wanting to be
next to him or sit on his lap or whatever, and he never got
tired of it, you know, he was never like, please give me
something, give me some time to myself for a second. Um. So,
yeah, I haven't heard a negative thing about him except Terry Garr from
Young Frankenstein. There's did you know she did that interview and because he was
a jerk? You know, No, she may have just been having it
a weird day and just got sick of being asked the stupid questions. But
she does that whole interview and she goes, yeah, he was just a
jerk because she she dated him for a while when they were making Young Frankenstein.
So but that's you know, that's that's that's exist. I mean,
you could find that, but I find Yeah, to me, it seemed
like she was just tired and tired of answering questions. He's a jerk,
Stop asking me about him. Yeah. So he was a last minute replacement
for the lead and Blazing Saddles and we talked about this. There is a
Bewitched connection because he replaced Gig Young, Gig Young who would have been married
to Elizabeth Montgomery of Bewitched. Gig Young who later on UM murdered his next
you know, a later wife and then killed himself. Um. He was
a gig Young was an alcoholic and he on the very first day of filming
Blazing Saddles, he collapsed on set from alcohol withdrawals and was immediately fired.
And they old Gene Wilder and we're like, can you please get on a
plane and fly out here and make this movie? And he agreed. Interesting,
that's why it happened. Yeah, so there's a Bewitched connection. So
go go back and listen to or Bewitched episode. Yeah. He was also
in the producers Young Frankenstein, which he wrote. Um. He was with
Richard Pryor in four films. UM. And of course he was married to
Gilda Radner, who was his third wife until she died from cancer in nineteen
eighty nine. Um. And there's a really great documentary about her and of
course their marriage called Love Gilda, that came out a few years ago.
That was, Yeah, that was that was That's Gilda was one of those
people that you just just tears your heart out, you know, people when
Lorraine Newman said that, I think we talked about this, and we did
a Saturday Night Live episode talked about Gilda. But you know, sometimes you
can see some kind of weird Carmen involved, and sometimes you know, you
just kind of go, what the hell is that. It's like Terry gar
It's like a Punicello. It's you know, these are people that you just
look at and smile and think that there's nothing and then terrible things happened to
them. It's just it's awful. But um he and Guilty even said,
but I did like this, and I again probably repeating myself, but when
she wrote her book, it's always something about her struggle with cancer and that
had you been you know, she was an insecure, really insecure individual,
and he stuck with her through the whole thing, and when she came out
of it, you know, I thought she was in the clear, or
she was for a short period of time. Um. She said, after
reading my book, women from all of the world, all over the world
will fall in love with Gene. Unfortunately, they're all going to have terminal
diseases, which is sweet, but but he was, you know, he
was one of those people that he was when he did the whole gene,
when he did the Willy Wonka thing, I guess he said that he would
this a stipulation, This is how I want to make my entrance. And
with the thing with the cane, he was acting as if he had like
a limp leg He was walking with a limp and he had the cane.
And then the cane gets stuck in the bricks and he tumbles forward like he's
going to fall in does a summersault, and everyone goes hooray, and Willy
Wonka, you know, opens up his candy shop. But then that's another
point where all the kids, this is their first scene that they shot.
You know, little the kids were there and this is the very first scene
these people were shooting for the movie, and they didn't know who June Wilder
was. And this guy comes out of this this weird door and hobbles out
and then does this whole thing that they were just as shocked as everyone else
was to see it happened. They did a lot of almost what I would
call forced method acting the kids because they did that, they didn't know that
he was going to do that stunt so they'd get a real look out of
him. They didn't show him the big sound stage until they walked in and
saw it. And then at the end when he yells, he gets mad
and he yells, you know, good day, sir, and you lose
good day. Um. They they didn't know how hard he was going to
go on that take, and that kind of shocked expression, especially on Charlie
is Yeah, he didn't know he's gonna star shouting it's horrible. Yeah,
it's terrible, No, it's it is. And then though it also was
really disturbing, is that like his you know, his his hair would go
manic. You know, his hair will go crazy, and you know,
I think period, you know through the film it gets worse and worse,
you know, and then you know it's just at the end, it's like
it's all over the place is flying and uh, and that just makes it
even more intense when you when you see that scene, you know, you
don't want that sparkly eyed person coming around and screaming at you with his maniacal
hair. And but I think that was the whole thing. He started the
whole shoot with the with you know, throwing people off guard by doing that,
uh that tumble and they, you know say they some people say that
that was a stipulation. If I can't do it this way, then I'm
not going to do it. Um. I don't know if that's true,
but it's a good story. Yeah, he supposedly said he wouldn't take the
rule unless they let him do that stunt there. Yeah, okay, now
I know if it's true or not, but it works because to the rest
of the movie, you don't know what's up as sleep, you don't know
if he's telling the truth. He talks some weird languages, he tells bizarre
stories and um, you know, talks about kids, you know, being
you know, oh, she's down in the incinerator. Now you know,
it was like, oh, okay, you know, take him to the
taffy room so we can stretch him out. I mean, it's like awful,
terrible things. But they're like very elastic at that age or whatever he
says. But but yeah, he was something. But that whole psychotic monologue
in the in the ship in the tunnel, and yeah, that was terrifying.
And uh and you know with the chick, I mean It's really quite
graphic. The chicken getting its head chopped off in the worms and everything.
That was really um, I mean that was a real proper chicken getting its
head chopped off. It wasn't a special effect that was stock footage or something.
Uh and uh yeah, there's the worms and insects eating other insects and
stuff, and then the whole you know, he said, I was just
a couple of like the fires of how and the Grizzly Reaper, and you
know he's talking to these little kids. I thought it was going to be
a show about candy. And I think Violet says something, I guess,
is this a freak out or something like that. I love it's a freak
out or something. Yeah, funny but um but yeah, Jane, So
Gene Wilder, Um, as you know, after after living through that whole
thing with Gilda Radner, which is well documented, then got married again and
lived a happy life. But his wife kind of stayed out of the out
of the limelight because he was always going to be sort of mister Gilda after
that. You know, he was lived in the same house. Yeah,
did they I didn't know that. He couldn't not. She was always going
to be looked on as a villainists you know, or a villain by by
being the new woman in Gene Wilder's life. That was that was never going
to work out well because she was so because Guilder was so loved. Yeah,
yeah, so. Um. He also was you know Wonka for the
rest of his life, you know, all the all the roles he did.
And he did tell a story that he was like in a grocery store
one time and this mother walked up and was like, you're Willy Wonka.
Can I Can I tell my kid you're Willy Wonkas your kids with her?
And he said something like yeah, but but uh, only if you whisper
it, if you say it quietly so that don't get mobbed, you can
come over. And so he was very he kept honoring that. Um,
you know the legacy they added for playing that character. And he died from
Alzheimer's and um, he apparently kept it quiet in parts so that he wouldn't
he said, so he wouldn't make Willy Wonka fans sad to know that he
was suffering with you know, this illness. Hmm. Isn't it interesting?
All those movies he did and you know Wonka is always going to be probably
the biggest. It's iconic, Young Frankenstein to be a second. M Lazing
Saddles probably third. Yeah, huh wow, rest in peace. So he
died. They say he died while he was listening to Eli Fitzgerald singing over
the Rainbow. They'd play it for him, which was and and ironically,
Um Ebert when he reviewed Wanka the movie when it came out and said it
was the best kids movie since wizd of Oz. Hmm, it's interesting.
I mean I remember seeing it when it first came out, and I remember
being really blown away by the look of it, but I never really I
guess it was so much of it was uncomfortable in me, and that was
his maniacal sort of you know, rants and things like that. I didn't
understand a lot of that. I still find it. It's got more of
an edge than the Wizard of Oz most certainly well which of Oz had its
edge two considering this nineteen thirty nine. But but yeah, it just seemed
a bit more sinister because the good guy was also this bad guy, Whereas
you know, the lines were pretty clear in the Wizard of Oz. Who
was what? And and Willy Wonka. Was that weird when the teetered back
and forth? M what was that famous that famous description of wizd of Oz
it's so good. Hold on It was from a newspaper, I think,
or like a TV guide. It was transported to a surreal lance cape.
Young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers
to kill again. It's perfect, It's awesome. Oh so, Geane Wilder
passed away on August twenty ninth, twenty sixteen. He was eighty three,
and it was Alzheimer's So rest in peace, Gene Wilder, r ip so.
The next actor on the list is was the second build in the film,
which is kind of interesting, and that is um Jack Albertson, who
played Grandpa Joe yep, like uh huh, who would have only been around
sixty sixty two, sixty three maybe what the time he died. He died
ten years later and he was only seventy four. So he was only five
years older than me when he made Willy Wonka. Yeah, only five years
older than me, maybe maybe like three or four. So just so we're
to to catch people up here, you are you are older than Bogart and
you're a few years away from your Grandpa Joe phase. Five years younger than
Grandpa Joe. In a few years you can start just living out of your
bed like full time. You know what. The amount of vitriol on the
line about Grandpa Joe is fascinating for me. Piece. But there are websites
devoted to how much people hate him about Facebook groups. There's a let's say
I dislike that piece of shit that is Grandpa Joe from Willy Wonka. That's
him of a Facebook groups. The group. Yes, there's a website called
say No to Grandpa Joe dot com because they're like, because they're like,
because he wouldn't. They're like, he wouldn't get out of bed to support
his family, but he got out of bed to go to a chocolate factory.
He wouldn't get out of bed, and he complained to the mother because
maybe the floor was too cold. Okay. The keep of the family are
eating cabbage water, and he's just deciding to give up tobacco just then,
you know, And then the kid buys a loaf of bread and he's like,
Oh, we're gonna have a real banquet tonight, you know, And
bosly, but he's been smoking tobacco, so so yeah, there's, there's
there's. People get really angry about him, and it's kind of funny.
Now, I was here's what I read on say No to Grandpa Joe dot
com. In the early stages of the story, it's clearly established that Grandpa
Joe does not contributed to the household in the meaningful way. He does not
work, and in fact, is not left to bed in twenty years.
He offers criticism of the situation, but it's unwilling to work to help improve
it. He initially claims that he's unable to help and offers a litany of
excuses why he cannot get out of bed. Things change rapidly when Charlie finds
the Golden Ticket. He's suddenly able to get out of bed and engaging quite
a stunning display of physical prowess, you know, and he's like, I
got a golden ticket, I got it, I got it. It is
interesting knowing all this and going back and watching it. And another thing,
Missus Buckett did laundry for a living. Charlie's Charlie's mom. Yeah, yes,
did you see that night shirt he was wearing? It was all brown
stained in the front of it. I mean, it wasn't ye all brown,
but it was like the brown like probably tobacco juice stains, you know,
I mean, or cabbage water stains. But still, she did laundry
for a living, and he's in it with this dirty, nasty, nasty.
It's funny. Say no to Grandpa Joe, say no to I do
think though that, you know, because I watched it again for you know,
prepping for this episode, and he Charlie is definitely a little bit better
version of a person than Grandpa Joe is, because you remember at the end
when they get told off and in the office and Charlie's like, you know,
or Grandpa Joe's like, come on, Charlie, let's go, you
know, sell that gop stopper. Basic, let's go you know someone who
can buy that gop stopper. And Charlie's like, no, I'm gonna give
the gob stopper back to Waka, And that's what wins him the grand prize.
Yeah. So yeah, And so for the for the quick, just
a quick explanation, ever lasting gob Stopper is a piece of candy that Wonka
is just inventing and Throughout the movie, these five children win these golden tickets
to get a tour, these five golden tickets to get a tour of the
chocolate factory. And every time that you know, kid wins one this this
villain shows up and whispers in the ear. We find out later that he
says he's slug worth a competing chocolate company and will pay them for one of
those gob stoppers to get the whole recipe because Zee will put him out of
business. And so that's the whole thing. And then, you know,
so at the end of it, Charlie has the gob stopper and they're gonna
leave, and Willie Wonka just told him off, saying, get the hell
out of here, and Grandpa Joe says he'll get his gob stopper, We'll
sell it to him, and Charlie says no, and thus he wins,
and going forth with that, Willie Wonka saying, you know, because I
know if a grown up did it, they'd want to do it their way.
And that's why I need a kid to do it my way, so
I to run the chocolate factory after I'm gone. So um, it's interesting,
very interesting. Yeah, and it also ties into The reason that Wonka
shut the factory down and become a recluse in the first place is because people
kept his employees kept acting as spies and stealing his creations. Yeah, giving
them to the competition. So that makes sense. That's his big test,
as I need someone who's not going to do that, right, And so
we hired the spice. Slug Worth, however, called the spice slug Worth.
But all through the movie there is Slugworth candy, So Slugworth was a
real person. Was Willi Wonker really making Slugworth candy, you know and putting
it out there as probably was the guy who just posing as slog slug Worth.
It wasn't the real slug Worth. Yeah, yeah, I don't know
it. Maybe so, but it would be probably in the book I've ever
read it, you know what I mean? I read that when I was
a kid. I don't remember. I don't remember. But did you did
you see that video I posted of Jack Albertson licking the wallpaper? Yes,
so creepy, something don't ever need to see again. Scary tunnel scene,
Yeah, that was that was something else. Immage you're not going to get
out of your out of your mind for a long time. No, and
there was a girl. One of the people who commented her name was Sarah
Love. She said that she had seen Jack Albertson in a show called I'm
Not Rappaport just before he died and needed a Q and A. And someone
asked him about licking the wallpaper, and he said, what the hell do
you think it tasted like? It wasn't lemons tasted like wallpaper? Um.
He started out in vaudeville and in radio. He got three fourths of the
way to an egot because he won an Emmy and Oscar in a Tony.
The only thing he didn't win was the Grammy. Um. He was also
in a Poseidon Adventure which we did an episode on UM and he won an
Emmy. His Emmy he won for Chico in the Man television series UM.
And his last film role was he was a voice actor in The Fox and
the Hound, for which was one of my favorite movies when I was growing
up. Oh really yeah? Nice um. And there's also another Bewitched connection.
Hm. His sister was Mabel Albertson, who played Phillis Stevens on Bewitch
too, was Darren's mother. I've got a sick headache, Frank and she
died just ten months after her brother did Jack did. Uh and from Alzheimer's
interesting that you know, they're making Cheeko on the Man, which is a
huge show with Freddie Prince or Jack Albertson and Freddie. Jack Albertson outlived Freddie
Prince because Freddie Prince killed himself and uh, and the show went on.
I forget what they called it, but it was they took out the cheeko
bit. It was just the Man and yeah, and just started, you
know, kept the show going. I don't think it lasted, but because
he needed that, you know that uh, that chemistry that was gone after
Freddie was but uh, but yeah, they did try to make a go
of it after that. Um yeah, that piece of shit Grandpa show.
Love that guy. That's so funny, but people hate him. I mean
I would be really angry because you know, he's just in bed that whole
time and doesn't let his mom be the one to go to Did she did
she not want to go? What was going on with it? Didn't ask?
Nobody asked. I guess. I mean they were close, you know,
because Grandpa Joe did you know sneak him the candy bar and uh so
they were they were close. But uh yeah, that makes makes more sense.
Well if it makes the grandpa Joe Hayters happy. Jack Albertson died on
November twenty fifth, nineteen eighty one. He was seventy four and it was
colon cancer. Hm. I think they were both scattered to see both you
and his sister. Yeah out in the Pacificum, Roy Keaneer, we'll do
some of the parents. Who was mister salt rucas Sault's father. Um,
He was a successful character actor and his dad was a professional rugby player who
was also named Roy Keaneer, and his dad died when he was only thirty
eight while playing rugby with the RAF in nineteen forty two, you know,
during World War two. And if you're a rugby fan listening to this,
the Scotland Rugby League named their Student Player of the Year award after Roy Kaneer's
dad, who was also Roy King Here. Nice didn't know that very interesting?
Did you know? That Roy appeared in a bunch of stuff. He
was one of those character actors who was in tons and tons of things.
He was in the Beatles, Help, he was in the Hammer horror movie
Taste of the Blood of Dracula Taste the Blood of Dracula with Christopher Lee and
his wife was Carmel Crying Crying Cryan. She was Brenda Boyle in east Enders,
Brenda Boyle. M have to look that one up. I don't know
that name. I know you're an east Enders fan, so I figure,
yeah, yeah, and his daughter, because the girl played Arukas Sault was
also claimed she was in east Enders, so I'm like, I had to
look her up and she was like, nah, well she probably was in
a couple episodes, but but no, that Brenda. I feel like that
one up. I don't know that Kara there. This is something that's kind
of interesting that I didn't know until I moved over there. But a veruca
is actually a wart. It's a planner's wart that you get the bottom midle
of that foot. Yeah, And so I would see these ads on commercials,
commercials for like, you know, if you have a Varuca, do
this, and which makes sense. Old would call this character Varuca because she's
an awful little girl. So Varuca is actually a wart on the bottom of
your foot. And uh, it's just and I thought it was kind of
clever, and I knew Rucas Sault also as the rock band from the nineties.
Oh was there one called that? Oh? How cool? Okay,
Yeah, they had um they had the song um seeither was their big like
their big big hit. He uh roy can hear? Rucas Sault's father died
a really weird tragic way. He was filming The Return of the Musketeers in
Spain in nineteen eighty eight, and he fell off a horse and broke his
pelvis and sustained internal bleeding and he died the next day from a heart of
heck really, you know, as a result of those injuries. Oh interesting,
Well that's sad. I mean, that's yes. He was only fifty
four. It was September twentieth, nineteen eighty eight, and his family ended
up suing both the production and the hospital, and between the two of them
got about one and a half million dollars. Good them, I mean,
I guess they're they were really at so the hospital um screwed up as well
as the ps. What they felt like, Yeah, the production they said,
I guess was you know, unsafe with the way the horses and the
way they were kind of overworking him. Or something. I can't remember what
the charge was, but yeah, yeah, died from a horsefall while filming.
While filming, I think that's a bummer. Yeah he's only fifty four.
Gosh, yeah, you know, I'm I'm six years older. He
didn't Royking here ever got when he died. Yeah, that's because you don't
ride horses. Yeah yeah, did you watch? Did you watch? I
know you probably didn't any of the Jewbilee that you know, The Queen's Jubilee
just started happening this week. It's going to be like an entire month or
so of celebrations. And they had the horse show on Sunday, and it's
just, you know, I'm a big I don't pay for him. So,
you know, I feel differently than today. The royal family or you
know, I love them. I think they're lovely and I get caught up
in their you know, day to day and they're you know, I read
the gossip and all that sort of stuff family, and I love her.
I think she is you know, she she is the only one in the
family who hasn't embarrassed the family. And I'm very fond of her. And
to see her show up at these things, I saw today also she unveiled
the new subway line, uh, the Elizabeth Line, and so it's but
it's neat to see her because you know, we're like, you know,
it ain't gonna be very long, and so it's neat to see her there
for this jubilee, which is you know, just the the Golden Jubilee.
I was there for that and that was just an incredible time and people like
the British you know, you can get caught up in a lot of bullshit,
you know, but but in day to day politics, et cetera,
taxes, etc. But it's so it's so wonderful to see you know,
that kind of people camaraderie for something like that and something everyone gathering up for
this happy you know for a lot of people, happy occasion. Seventy years
on the throne is incredible. So anyway, it was it was neat to
see that. And I don't know what what got me started on that.
The horse show, That's what it was, the horse show. But yeah,
it's so there's gonna be this whole concert. Tom Cruise was at this
thing the other day, but yeah, he's like become friends with them.
It's bizarre because you know, everything else. Everyone else is British, British,
well not at all Brits, but they're all part of the Commonwealth.
And then Tom Cruise, you know, it's like all right, well but
um you know, I guess they want the name the name, but uh,
I don't know, but it is it is that. Did you ever
see that they're in the Golden jew Believe when they did the big concert and
Grace Jones did the whole thing with a hula hoop? No, she's got
this like ten minutes set and during the whole thing's it's it is awesome.
That's awesome. But anyway, so yeah, but I okay, went off
on a tangent. But I also looked up Brenda on east Enders, and
I tell you, I don't it just happened. I watched it during this
time too, and I don't remember this character at all, so like as
her having to do with all these people, I know, but I don't
remember her, so um so yeah, sorry, oh wait, she got
married to Charlie Slater. I didn't know that I should know this, Okay,
anyway, now you do, oh my gosh. Yeah, uh all
right, all right, I'm gonna put putting that part away. Putting the
part of my light boy. All right, we're moving on to someone else's
dad. Leonard Stone, who played mister Beauregard, who was Violet's father.
Um another character actor with too many roles to list. Pretty much name a
TV show from the sixties to the eight he appeared on it, probably,
Yeah. He was also a night Court my favorite. Yeah, I was
gonna say, I knew you'd picked that one up. And he was even
on Wheel of Fortune in two thousand, which is wild. He was a
Soiling Green, which is a fantastic movie, a night to remember, and
it was not the first Titanic movie, but it was one of you know,
one of three that are very famous and for nineteen fifty six and uh.
And also one of my favorite things he did was he he was Farnum
in Lost in Space. He played he had he owned the Intergalactic Zoo and
he would show up with these wild animals or creatures from other planets and stuff
like that. But but he was yeah, he was just he was a
staple in television, showed up on every everything. And Shaky's Gun in the
West, it was another movie he did which I loved. But night Coort,
Yeah, that was. I knew you'd find that one. I need
to look him up and see what episode it was. Well, I did
find out I did see it actually, okay. And he plays He plays
a chacter called Nikolai Karpov. And this is Yakov's brother. Yakov, I
guess is a is a character on Night Court. Yakov, his brother,
wants to defect to the United States. In short order, Harry's courtroom was
overrun by Russian circus troop agents of the KGB and CIA and a pair of
hot tempered arms negotiators. So, um, that's what that's what they say.
Wow, that's cool. I'll to look up that episode because I'm sure
I saw it. Um he uh. Leonard Stone was the last surviving parent
who toured the factory. He was the last one. He lived the longest
of all the parents who comes up with these facts. He died because he
did not outlive Charlie's mother, the actress that played his mother, but she
didn't tour the factory. So of the adults have toured the factory. He
was the last survivor, okay, he was. He was the last survivor
with the initials LS that were the moon base that also right. Yeah.
He was also um this is like he gets into like baseball stats. He
was also the third longest living left handed outfielder now. Um. He passed
away on November second, twenty eleven. He was eighty seven. He had
cancer just one day before his eighty eighth birthday. He almost made it.
But he's another one life. It was always at the always at the autograph
show. So he's a nice guy. I talked to him a few times.
I mean, I know, no, no, I mean, nothing
to speak of, but he was always there, and he was always really
nice. And and god, I loved those autograph shows. They were I
will you know, I always talk about those, but you know, god,
they were great. They were so great. Well. And Denise Nickerson,
who played his daughter Violet, was also I think a staple at the
autograph conventions and stuff as well. Um. And she started out as a
stage actor when she was only five years old, which is crazy, and
she continued acting for another eight years. Was after Wonka. Um. She
was also in the kids show The Electric Company and the Sixties and she was
in the soap opera's Dark Shadows and Search for Tomorrow, which were soaps in
the sixties. And seventies. Um. And she was also in an episode
on the final season of The Brady Bunch when Peter Brady goes on two dates
and one night. She was one of the dates apparently. UM and also
I read she lost out to Linda Blair for the Exer System. Doesn't everybody
claim they lost out to Linda Blair for the ex is that like a thing?
It's up there, it's up there, it's up there with Scarlett O'Hara,
and uh and uh, there's yeah, there are, there are several
people that claim that. But uh, why would you know? I didn't
get that part. I wouldn't be breaking about that. There's another thing I
didn't do. But but no, it's but electric part. It just makes
my head spin. Oh, you're so angry. Um. So she retired
from acting when she was only twenty one, and then she found out her
parents had spent all her money. So it was one of those other one
of those situations. Yeah, so much so. She ended up becoming an
office manager in an accountant for a doctor. Um. Did the fan conventions,
did the public cast reunions that they did? There were there were several
over the years. Um. And then she had a stroke in twenty eighteen,
and a year later she overdosed on some type of medication. I don't
know if it was intentional or unintentional, and she died at the hospital.
A couple of days after that. She had a do not resuscitate, yeah
order, So there's only sixty two technically die from pneumonia. And it was
July tenth, twenty nineteen, so just a few years ago. She um,
you know it was it's so back when, you know, I was
doing my research on the Rocky Horror Picture Show book and that got to be
friends with with Pat Quinn, who played Magenta in the movie. And you
know, they they they would the only money they ever got was for the
original play soundtrack. They got like more money than that than they ever got
for residuals for the movie. But you know, they had to live with
this legacy the whole time, which wasn't a bad I think to do.
But even Barry Bostwick was like, come on, it's been forty years.
Share the wealth. You got your baby ds, you got your jackets,
you got your buttons, you've got your all this other stuff, you know,
Share the wealth. So it was kind of neat that these people did
live long enough to be able to capitalize on their Wonka stardom more than because
the kids. I guess they made six hundred pounds for the whole set.
Julie don Cole played Ruca Salt says, you got sixty pounds a week for
ten weeks. Six hundred pounds, yeah, which was aqual of like a
thousand dollars today, you know, six hundred pounds is like a thousand bucks.
And and Paris Thimmen, who played Mike TV. He could tell in
the documentary or in the after they were famous thing, you could tell he
was bitter about the money situation. Yeah, but he's he's also he's no
different than his character. I mean that that Paris guy is much like my
TV. But you can tell there was definitely some they're a little bitter about
the fact that everybody else kept making money off this and they they least from
the film. Now they can go into the convention. But that's also that's
more work too. It's not like Sid I'm a residuals check. He knows
all the job. But it's true that you do have to work. But
I'm just saying the lunevity. That's just you know, I understand i'd be
a bit bitter too. However, it's something we've talked about a lot on
this on our show too. I just you're given this opportunity to make you
know, money, and it's cash money, and so I don't know,
it didn't seem like, uh, it didn't seem like the kids had that
much of a jobbing actors is all they were after that. You know,
there were no big movies. They were never going to get any bigger than
Willy Wonka, which is kind of weird to peak at that young of an
age as an actor. But a lot of them are still working as actors.
Well, actually no they're not. I think Julie Julie Coles that what
her name is, played Farruca. She's the only one it's actually working.
The rest from her, literally all of her accounts, I think she is
mostly retired now. But she was by far the most successful acting career.
Afterwards. She was in a bunch of TV and film stuff in the seventies,
eighties, nineties. Yeah, she worked a lot. Yeah, it
was six weeks of their lives. Well, they say it was a five
month shoot, so maybe it's five months for Peter Ostrum had played Charlie,
but the rest of him it was like six or eight weeks or something like
that, or ten weeks and ten weeks of your life, you know,
and and international celebrity for the rest of your life. And yeah yeah.
Also supposedly Denise Nickerson, Violet and Um and Um and Julie Cole ruc Assault
they both both actresses, supposed they had a crush on Peter Ostrum Charlie while
making the film, and they would take turns hanging out with them in they
had free time. So it was a little set crush team crush going on
because they were all like twelve or thirteen except for Um I think um Um
paris them and Mike TV was like eleven. He was yeah, yeah,
yeah. They even Gane Wilder alludes to him not being a very nice kid.
It's like I like him now, but back to then. Yeah.
Well also you know there's that there was the one of the machines had the
bees. Yeah, and he's he admitted that he let the bees out,
like yeah, yeah he was. He got the pay I think yeah,
but she now was It was interesting to finally get an explanation as to um,
you know when they blew her up, what that was, you know
what they actually did to her. And it was one thing that said it
was a metal thing, but the other one sounds more legit that it was
styrofoam, a styrofoam ball and they carved her shape out of and uh and
and uh they said she said that. Um again, these things get embellished
over the years. I don't know how much of it's true, but they
she said that she was. I mean, you could look at it and
see her. The ball of her body was bigger, taller than the Oompa
loompa's were. And they didn't know how to steerers. And she said she
got bashed into a doorway more than once from from faulty Oompa loompa steering.
So but uh, and the the and the well, the three actors,
uh, the Oompa Loompas that they had on that documentary, they also they
think they kind of confirmed, Yeah, that happened, but none of them
wanted to take credit for it. Yeah, and the one guy's like,
hey man, I was holding the door open. It couldn't have been me.
So um So anyways, rest in peace, Denise Nickerson, Nora Denny
aka Dodo Denny was missus TV Mike's mom and she was another character actors a
bunch of stuff. She was in Green Acres and Petticoat Junction and Bewitched and
Heart to Heart, Get Smart. She was also in Splash Um. But
I thought this was interesting. Her two sons formed of the seventies punk band
the Weirdos in Los Angele didn't know that's interesting. Yeah, they were brothers
that founded that that punk band, and they were I mean, they were
contemporaries of the Ramons. They you know, the Ramones were big influences on
them, and and I think they had a big influence on because I was
in the pop punk, especially California stuff in the nineties and they you can
definitely see the influence the Weirdos had on that scene. And one of the
brothers was almost almost joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers at one point also but
didn't didn't work out. So that was interesting. Said, I didn't know
she had that many kids. She had two sons. That's very cool because
I've heard of the Weirdos. I didn't know that. Yep. I know
that she um back in because the Kansas City they were trying to make a
Elvira character or actually it was vampire back then, and they and she did
that back in Kansas City for the local news. I think Maryland the Witch
is what they called her. But she was haggy. She wasn't going to
be like sexy Maryland. She was kind of haggy and uh but that's really
us. She got her start in show business and she was another one that
was a regular umbwitched, you know. So that's what how many that's Mabel
Anderson, that's Dodo Denny and Jack Albert's. Um No, there was a
gig Young connection. Gig Young that's what it was, or three self far.
Yeah, and she was supposed to be at the house on Cello Drive
in the night of the murders. She's just said that or she really was.
I just made that up. God, I was going to lose my
money. And then she lost out to Linda Blair and the Exorcist, so
you know, oh no. She she passed away on November twenty of two
thousand and five. She was seventy eight, and it was just listed his
cancer r I P like Dodo Denny Alp. I only have a few things
on some of the other parents and folks. Ursela Wright reet right was Missus
Gloup Augustus mom. She was mostly a German TV actress. Um she passed
away in ninety eight. She was eighty four from natural causes. Ursela Wright
who was who played Missus Gloup was a very successful actress in Germany. Continued
to be a very successful actress in Germany, and just playing on the German
thing. I was watching and I noticed that Willy Wonka speaks in German at
some point. And this is weird because there was no there were no subtitles.
You know, he speaks in French, which I'll talk about in just
a second, but he talks in German too, And so I recorded it
and I sent it my friend Rachel Kay and she this is before the they
get on that vehicle that they go with. It spits out all the foam,
all the gassy stuff, and what he says, he she said,
this is a Willie Wonka says, Please give me your attention. You're now
entering into the most interesting and at the same time most secret room of the
factory ladies and gentlemen, the inventing room. So and then then when they
go through that thing, and they're spraying all that juncle of him, and
then they go through the squeezy bits and uh and and he also and then
he starts singing this bizarre song which isn't even a language. I mean,
it's like it sounds there's like a couple of German words in there. But
but otherwise, I mean he just spits out this bizarre you know, these
these these bizarre words. You know, it's really it adds to the Wonka
character most definitely. But yeah, she was but I love that the most
secret room of the factory, the inventing room. But they said, German,
how are kids going to know that? You know, for this information
we needed to know? Man, Well it's it's you know, it's it's
a bit odd. If it's the most secretive room, then I need to
know that information. Yeah, I guess said they did there for the German
audience. I guess. Um So, Ursula passed away on November ninth,
nineteen ninety eight. She was eighty four, and it was natural causes.
She was in a ton of German TV shows I've never seen, but that's
she had a great, big career. Um and and kind of ironically,
I guess her. The actor who played her son Augustus. Uh, he
was not an actor. He was cast. He was really cast because he
had the look that they were going for. He ended up doing a great
job considering he didn't speak English and was not an actor, and he did
a few more TV roles after Wanka. But then he became a tax accountant.
Don't they all except for Ruca as you do? Yeah, well,
no, Charlie's a vet now, so no, he's not either. But
both of Violet and Paris and Augustus all went into account thing. Interesting.
Yeah, probably because they didn't get paid much and they're like, what they'll
happen to all my money? You know? Would you like at a fart
out sick when you're a kid six weeks of your life and you become this,
you know, and you wish that that would have happened. Wouldn't that
have been pretty cool? I mean, not that you want to. I
used to be anything, but but I don't mean it like that. But
it's like, what a great trivia question that would be. You know,
guess what I did? Yeah? Well, And and the actor who played
Charlie, Peter Rostrum, he said that you know, he has kids.
Now his family was owned now and you know when when his kids were younger,
they would see the movie and they didn't really they didn't put two and
two together. That's dad. It was that they had to get quite a
bit older before he was able to tell, like explain to them that's me
when I was your age. Yeah, it's hard to explain that to kids,
but yeah, I thought that was interesting. Yeah, he became a
like a livestock veterinarian, like like cows and yeah, very understated. Seems
like a decent guy. Yeah, yeah, well I guess that was his
real passion animals, So you know worked out. Yeah, I mean,
I guess the thing is, yes, you can be bitter about not having
the money, they still are happy that they did it, that they were
part of it. And if you were to tell this a kid, like,
hey, you can be in one of the biggest movie kids movies is
ever going to be made, and you won't make a lot of money,
but you'll have that for first of your life or you cannot. The trouble
would be trying to catch up with that peeking when you're eleven years old,
and if you want to make it in the business, you'll never ever get
that big again. Even though Willy Wonka was not a successful movie when it
came out, but it turned into never Gonna Happen again. So that is
lightning in a bottle, and that's what this movie kind of was. Diana
Soul and I am pronouncing that right. Salsehoul was Missus Bucket, Charlie's mother.
Her song in the film was dubbed though that's not her singing. Yeah,
I didn't know that till I was doing this research of a weird resume.
She was in some bit parts, but like the two bit part things
she was in were both in nineteen ninety four. She had small parts in
Clear and Present Danger and Guarding tests. It's like twenty years later. Yeah,
that is Oh, I know she was living in Germany when when she'd
been living there when she got cast she wasn't you know she was American and
uh but yeah, that's uh, that's interesting. But yeah, now not
a huge career. But her husband was m was sergeant first class in the
army. Oh wow. Yeah, and she's she's buried in Arlington, which
surprised me. Yeah. Her song that Cherub Charlie business, that was like
that was like the beauty school dropout thing from Greece. It's like it was
early on in the film, but it's like, okay, now we can
go to the bathroom. It was like it's a really long song, but
uh and yeah. But she was um and she had she had that mop
of hair like Jane Mansfield used to have at the end of Terrible Wigs.
That was it was. And here's something that that that when when Charlie gets
the Golden ticket, you know, and and he's like I got it and
he's got it up in his seam, did you like scream like, oh
my god, run take it. Yeah, he's open the air and people
are grabbing his arm and stuff like that. It's like no, no,
no, no, they're gonna rose the pieces. I was so upset.
I was like, no, run kid, no, get they're gonna take
it from you. So um because I mean they showed him like, you
know, holding people for ransom to get their wonk up bars and stuff like
that. So Diana Um passed away on October nineteenth, twenty eighteen. She
was eighty eight, and it was natural causes because she was missus Bucket right
yep. And Um Scott is still drinking down his dwindling taps. I know,
very very few left, all right, Um, Aubrey Woods, who
was Bill the candy store owner, the one that Sammy Davis Junior wanted,
the role that he wanted, who sings the candy man song? Um,
And that's kind of all I know about him. Yeah, he I mean,
he was another one that was hugely successful in Britain doing he was in
a couple I think he was in a couple of Doctor Who's but he was
in a ton of television programs in Britain. But something I found very interesting
is that there's this conspiracy about about Willy Wonka, not not in real life,
but in within the movie, and they're saying that Bill was actually an
informant for Willy Wonka and he was giving he was testing out the kids to
find out, you know, who was going to be worthy of it.
And he was supposedly on Wonka's you know, payroll, and because he's given
all that candy away and just seeing how the kids are going to react.
Because at the end of it, when Charlie you know, gets the one
thing and he eats it and it's not the one but he just says I'm
giving another one, and then gout and Bill goes to the display. He
says, like, if you're a classic one, and he gives it like
right in the center, right stock, not when where you go. We're
gonna keep that. One day he just talk him into getting a different type
of wakah and that particular one that was front and center. And they're saying
that, you know, Bill might have been working for Willy Wonka in that
regard, and that would explain the slug Worth signs all over the place too,
because maybe slug Worth was a phony name and uh, and they just
had it in that one candy shop. I don't know, but it was
just a very I liked that. I liked that idea that because we got
so we already know that he had a he had a mole, uh,
slug Worth whatever. The actor who was playing this this bad guy, so
it would make sense that that he had and who better. But again,
that was a candy shop, absolutely, and uh. When they first meet
Wonka coming in the gates, Wonka tells Charlie, I've run all about you
in the newspaper, and then at the end he says, you know,
I knew it would be you or I knew it was I knew it was
going to be you kind of thing, he says, he when he suddenly
he was like, yeah, you passed you you passed the test. He's
like, I knew you would. I knew you would. It kind of
does maybe, um hinted a four knowledge of the type of person that Charlie
and the fact that they, uh, there was a news crew on set
every time one of those things was discovered, that Slugworth was Agworth was always
there, always right there. So they're saying Willy Wonka had planted these things
and uh and knew exactly where they were going to be discovered, which makes
sense, which also leads me to, well, let's finished on Aubrey Woods.
Um, it's funny in that way he kind of stacked the deck in
Charlie's favor because the other four kids were like the most selfish kids on the
planet. Yeah, and why wouldn't you Why would he why would he make
sure that they were going to be the ones to get them? Um?
Right, that is uh, it's kind of interesting, but U but yeah,
but the news cruise being there, Well, okay, so let's finish
on Aubrey Woods because I was going to hit the others. So he died
May seventh, twenty thirteen. He was eighty five years old. But so
natural causes. I was doing the dive about the people in this movie,
and I was really curious about and you maybe you did this too, but
I wanted to know more about the fake winner. You know, the picture
that was in the newspaper, the guy that pretended to have won, and
because he didn't, he didn't. There was no news crew there, There
were no photographs, you know, it was always a solid picture in a
newspaper saying that this guy won. It said his name was Alberto Minaltta knew
that lived in Paraguay and he was the only one that did. They have
news cameras there. And that photograph was actually a photograph of Hitler's Nazi like
private secretary Nazi Martin Borman. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it was
a real picture of this Nazi criminal who was supposedly hiding out in Paraguay.
So they put this this, this is it's true and uh, and they
put it in this newspaper. He was a wanted Nazi war criminal and he
was supposed to be living in Paraguay, and uh, and he ends up
in the Willy Wonka movie and nobody really caught onto it, and so and
in His body was found buried in Berlin in nineteen seventy two, but it
wasn't positive identified until nineteen ninety eight using DNA. So this picture is in
the newspaper of Willy Wonka is a Nazi criminal. Just fascinating and Gunter Meisner,
who played Arthur Slugworth, was a German actor who played in almost all
German productions. He played Adolf Hitler twice and often played kind of you know,
Nazi soldier, heavy type bad guys, officers and stuff and a lot
of it because he had that look. I guess, yeah, he had
a Nazi bad guy natural look. So how weird, weird, what a
weird place to pick guys picture for I'm guessing that that was a makeup scar,
That's what I'm guessing. I'm pretty sure it would be made up,
but it was well done. But yeah, I would I just had this
idea, not an idea, but it was probably based on the Boris and
Natasha had that bullwinkle, the enemies and they had their fearless, fearless leader.
It was the Natzi in general, and looked just like him with the
monocle, this guy that glasses. But but yeah, just your stereotype stereotypical
Nazi and uh run but uh but yeah, yeah that I was going back
into the whole conspiracy thing because it is kind of he's actually, you know,
the guy that works for me and I forget what they said his name
was. But interesting, Yeah, I mean counterpoint. They didn't even know
what the last line in the movie was going to be, so how deeply
did they think about this? True? I don't know. True, maybe
as Royal Doll that did it, though maybe you know roled Dolly script his
original script, he put these nuggets in there. Uh. But as far
as there was a contrived decision though the Nazi picture wasn't an act. Yeah,
it was down to I think it was down to um uh Mel Stewart
that did that, I believe. But but and it's interesting also maybe it's
to counteract the Royal Doll you know, Nazi anti anti Semitic rhetoric in some
of his books. I don't know, was that guy was? Was that
guy's they still looking for that guy in nineteen seventy one, Well, he
wasn't found until seventy two, so yeah, yeah he was so maybe they
put his picture in the movie hoping it get out there and people are like,
hey, I recognize that's thought. And a year later he gets arrested
like yeah, yeah, or found. Yeah, but they found a barrier
really want so in Berlin. So it wasn't like somebody ideed him. You
know, I've seen that guy as his corpse hasn't aged a day. Um.
David Batley who played mister Turkentine, who was the school teacher that was
opening. Yeah, he has a great opening monologue too about when he's doing
He's donna do the quizzes now before the week, at the beginning of the
week, before they've learned the stuff they're gonna be quizzed about. But it's
Tuesday to day, so don't worry about it. I don't worry about it.
Yeah. There's a lot of a lot of jumping. Yeah. The
the text was kind of funny in this movie sometimes. Um. He was
born with a hole in his heart art um, but lived to be sixty
seven, did ultimately die from a heart attack. Um, and he passed
away in January twenty In two thousand and three, hmm, yeah, because
I remember, well Gina Shock had that I believe um from the Gotos had
that hole in her heart business and had to have surgery on that one too.
But I guess technology moved on in this regard when she when she got
it was it was treatable. But yeah, but yeah, huh well um,
and we already mentioned that. You know that Madeleine um Stewart, the
director's daughter, was in the classroom scene, yeah, with him, with
him as the teacher and answers the first question that he asked about how many
how many? Yeah, by and that's when Peter Peter burst in the room
saying, well, Lee Wanka has opened his chocolate factory, and so yeah,
he got two Peter got two good lines in the movie, went in
the candy store and went in the school, and ended up being the only
one of the two siblings to get credited as a result of that. Yeah,
it's interesting. I wonder, well, I don't even think she filmed
anything else, the daughter. I don't think there's anything else. And she
was always kind of a yeah, I'd be mad if I was this if
my life. Yeah, but you know, sibling rivalries, Yeah, you're
both in the picture and your brother gets a credit and you don't. Oh,
and it was your idea to make the movie in the first place.
Come on, Yeah, no kidding, she should have got a producer's credit,
right, I thought this was funny. Speaking of classrooms, um,
Julie Cole, who played Rucas Sault, said that she based her character on
a girl that she knew at boarding school. So there was a girl who
really was a ruca assault awful person that she drew inspiration from. Yeah,
that's good. I mean she was really a good brat. She was a
really good brat. She was you know what, it's one of those roles.
She's so um, she's such a great breath. You don't realize what
a great job she's doing. His little actress. And one thing I did
notice, I think I think the director was very complimentary toward her, especially
her acting. So it's not a surprise of all the kids in the movie,
she ended up having the most successful career after that, yeah, adulthood.
But she said also that when they're filming that scene when they were trapped
in that little room, uh and uh, that first one, that that
was all black and white, not not the different, not the lickable wallpaper
one but one of the other ones, and she said she flubbed a line.
And she said meld was was relentless mel Stewart, which is like just
ragging on her big time, just you know, really making her feel like
an idiot, which is also you know, in character with him because he
was a taskmaster and m and probably shouldn't have been according to a lot of
people, not just saying this that, you know, they said, of
all the people to be working on a kids a movie, it shouldn't be
mel Stewart. But because there's there. It's the running joke in Hollywood since
I first started, especially if you're making any movies, low budget movies,
is you know, the golden the rule is no kids, no pets.
Yeah, because they will slow your production down to a halt. Yeah.
And so yeah, if you're especially in you have a tight budget and a
tight you know, production schedule, and you've got kids flubbing lines. Yeah,
yeah, frustrating. It did the right personality to deal with that,
I guess. But they said they had like a dialogue coach with them,
who you know, every day before they filmed their scenes, they would go
over their lines over and over with this dialogue coach before they would go out
there, so they would be totally prepped and ready as much as possible.
And they're still going to be kids, and they're still going to be kids
kids. Yeah. Um. Gunter Meisner, who we mentioned who played Slugworth,
did mostly German films and he died also while filming a TV series,
which is interesting. He had heart failure when he was sixty eight years old.
On December fifth, nineteen ninety four. He had heart failure while shooting
a show. He's a good villain Germany. He's a very good villain.
Yep. So that boat scene, that crazy boat scene, it's voted one
of the scariest movie moments of all time, which which it does. I
think it qualifies completely and just one of another one of those odd sort of
you know, Gene Wilder talking in foreign languages. It just came out of
nowhere. To me. I was a kid, you know, ten twelve
years old or something hearing somebody speak French. I know it's you know,
sounded like, but he does. He speaks when the boat comes out,
and he speaks this line in perfect French. So finally I asked my friends
Jeff and Dana Hartman to translate it for me, and they did, and
it's just very simple. But it's when the boat comes out. He's his
ladies and gentlemen, Now we are going to take a little trip by boat.
You are now entering Wonka Tania, which is really yeah, that's what
he says. So that's that was the name of the ship. And he
introduces completely in French, and then Dodo Denny goes, oh, you know,
something like trejeall Lee or something trajeall Lee. Uh when she gets on
the thing. But uh, it just um, it was just a cool
touch. Um. Do you want to talk about some oopa oopa's I don't
know anything about loop loopas. I really don't. I had to stop.
I was like, I'm done. I can't do anymore. Okay, well
let's there's there's there's like one that I was going to mention um. Probably
the most well known or that you know of the Upa Loopa actors um who
has passed away was Malcolm Dixon. And Malcolm Dixon was in He had a
pretty big role in Time Bandits. He was one of the named ewoks in
Return of the Jedi. He had extra work role and Flash Flash, Gordon,
The Dark, Crystal Labyrinth, Willow. He was in with them Hints
and People pretty good. I guess. He was also in music videos for
David Bowie and Duran Duran, which I thought was interesting. And this is
what's weird about him. So he passed away on April ninth, twenty twenty,
no cause that I could find. But there's some sources that say he
was eighty five, and there's other sources that say he was sixty six.
Oh interesting, I don't know. Some like if you is. Wikipedia says
he was born in nineteen thirty four, and therefore he was eighty five when
he died, But then other media reports from when he died claimed that he
was born in nineteen fifty three and that he was actually sixty six, and
find a Grave says he was sixty six. So I guess sixty six is
what I go. I would go with that. If he was a Dwarf,
I would go with the sixty six. Then you know, I'm not
saying they don't have they generally, don't you know that the physical Dwarfism is
a you know, a melody that could be considered a handicapped to some people.
Nine handy, capable, whatever you want to say. But but dwarves
have more maladies than than most physically, so it would the younger age would
make sense. Apparently there were I don't know, I heard eight. I
think I counted nine at one time in a scene of oompall Oompa's. I
read an interview where they said there were ten. Most of them were British.
There was a woman. There was a female in Balloompau. There was
one from Turkey, one from Malta I think, and one from Spain.
So they had a hard time following orders from me. Couldn't give them directions.
Yeah, yeah, but I'm not sure. I was kind of bummed
now because there was I believe one girl, one woman in there. There
was a midget, not a dwarf. And I kind of wish my friend,
my friend Sadie was in there because she totally could have been in that.
She was a little person. She wasn't ewok. She was in the
Frankie Goes to Hollywood video for Relax, she was in you know, Rocky
Horse. She was in a ton of stuff, and I'm all disappointed,
But I don't know. Maybe she didn't like the costumes they are wearing hers
and then she played it elf. So yeah, and yeah, so she
got into costumes. I don't know why. I wish I had asked her
about that. But um. Another upolumpa was named George Clayton, and he,
you know, we talked about how Roy Keaneer was in Help, George
Clayton was in Magical Mystery. To her was hemm, so like a circus
performer. Probably, you know, they the little people just were like that.
That's the way they were used in in movies, right, Yeah,
they were just curiosities. Um. And then Marcus Powell who was also in
Time Bandits and he was in an Elephant Man. Um, he was in
the original the first Star Wars movie. He's an extra at the bar in
the CANTEENA. Oh cool. He's this little guy who can barely see over
the top of the bar. He's got white hair, and he kind of
looks over at Luke and Obi Wan as they like walk up to the bar
basically and then the fight happens where the guy gets his arm cut off.
Um. But yeah, he's right. You get a pretty good look at
him sitting at the bar. And I even saw somebody made like an action
figure out of him. How fun. And he has a name and they
gave him a name, so yeah, it's kind of funny. Wow.
Seeah there's another thing. It's like, all, how would you like to
be in a frame of Star Wars? You know, I mean, that's
so cool. I would have that frame framed on my wall. That would
be amazing. Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, I had UM. I
worked with a lady years ago who was an extra in the Um, The
Enchantment, Under the Sea Dance and Back to the Future, and I was
she described the dress that she was wearing, and she's not she was not
an actress at all. She just got picked, you know, at a
mall somewhere by a casting person like we need more people, we need people
like you. And I found her. She's in clearly visible on two shots.
The one shot where them when they stopped playing, and the and they
cut to the principle and he's covering his ears with his hands because Marty's just
played the big guitar, so she's standing right behind him, like right over
his shoulder basically. So I printed out the two of them and gave him
to her to frame, and she put up in her office I'm like,
I would have this up, like I tell everyone I'd be in my business
card. Yeah, it's enchanting to meet you. Yeah, I mean everything.
The girl who worked at our shop, Terry Bola was you know,
she was one of the girls that through tampons at carry at the beginning of
the movie, you know, and it's like I was given it. I
gave Terry tampons to autographed for people. You know. It's like that with
a great claim to fame, you know. I mean she's been in a
lot of movies and stuff, but but yeah, so iconic to be you
know, plug it Up. Plug it Up. Had as producer I worked
with years ago. He um was a musician on the side for fun and
somehow I think he was on a production in England with George Harrison and he
goes, yeah, we ended up getting on a helicopter and flying to George's
mansion out in the countryside, and and he goes and I got to play.
I played guitar with him, like in his living room and just hung
out and I went, what yeah, And he goes, yeah, He's
like I got a picture of it. I'm like, yeah, he brought
he brings he brought the picture to the office the next day and it was
kind of like wrinkled a little bit and like just creasing. I was just
he goes and it's a beautiful photo of him sitting on the floor with George
Harrison playing guitar, and I'm like, oh my god, Like what you
jammed with a beatle? That's pretty cool. Yeah, He's like, oh
yeah. I was like, dude, this would be like blowing up the
size of a white wallpaper in my yes, Like you meet at parties.
What's your name? My name is Scott. I used to jam with George
Harrison. What's your name? Enchanted to meet you? So um. The
other four kids outside of the actress that played Violet are still alive. Peter
Olstrom, who was Charlie. Of course, he became a veterinarian Um.
Julie Cole who was ruc Assault. She wrote a book in twenty sixteen called
I Want It Now. She's Great, all about her experience making the movie
Paris them In who was Mike TV. He did some acting and then he
bounced around a bunch of different gigs. And when he did that, you
know, after they were famous. Thing he was working in investments. I
think something in the Fine It's World. And then Michael Boehner, Augustus Gloop,
we already said a group to be six foot seven and he's in a
tax account in Germany and who knows. I mean that was as of,
you know, whenever they made that show, like twenty years ago. So
I'm sure a lot of them have since retired, yeah, from even from
their second career as even yeah yeah, wow. Well, like I said,
he's six weeks of your life. You become an American icon, You've
become a cinematic icon. And it's not so bad. Not so bad.
I mean, look at Butch Patrick. You know, Butch Patrick has been
dining out on the Eddie Munster thing forever. It's just been it's become his
career. You know, he is, and and good for him, you
know, something a job he had almost sixty years ago. But so you
know, he's he's he's he's making it work for him. It is.
Granted it was a little bit more than six weeks for him, but h
but still it's it's why not people, that's what they're gonna know you for.
I feel like, if you can't make it a big career, as
an actor. That's like the next best thing. Yes, I agree,
you had that one iconic role that, like you said, you can dine
out on the Yeah. Yeah, wow, and a great and a great
one. And in longevity, you know, the longevity of this movie is
is fascinating to me. And it's going to be fifty years soon. I
got the forty fifth anniversary and it was just fifty years. It wasn't already
fifty Oh this right. I went to see Oh my god, it was
like it was fifty years last year. Yeah. I think they played it
here in Palm Springs and I went to see it at the movies. I
was only like five people there, but it was a fiftieth anniversary screening.
There was no I mean, it wasn't any cash members. It was just
seeing it on the big screen again, and it was it was really neat
to m to see it again in the movie theater. But fifty years,
my gosh, well there you are. It means eight years from now it'll
be older than a Humphrey bill Guard. It's actually it wasn't fifty this year,
my gosh, it is twenty twenty one. It came out in nineteen
seventy one, so twenty twenty one fifty. Yeah. The only other thing
I was going to say is that, um, the you know, the
longevity we talked about the auction. I guess there was a golden ticket that's
sold for it was Verruca's Julie Cole's golden tickets over thirty four thousand at auction.
And um, and they say the all time most popular meme is the
Willy Wonka meme, the one that the condescending Willy Wonka meme they call it.
Yes, where um, you know, oh, really tell me more
kind of things, right exactly? Yeah, which is there? But yeah,
it's an independent study of two thousand British adults concluded that it was all
their whole time favorite. It's like, well, okay, I absolutly room
full of people. But it's funny because there's probably a younger generation that knows
Gene Wilder because of that meme, probably from any of his movies. But
I do the Wonka one is is you still see it a lot? And
uh and uh and I think that says something about longepitty. Yes, I
guess that's it. All right, Well, everybody, thanks for going on
this. Uh this Journey to Wanka Land with us. Yeah, you're going
to see it on Wonka Vision eventually on YouTube. Yeah and hopefully and check
out um aut you can watch that um after they were famous episode with the
Waka cast. He is on YouTube the whole episode. We should put a
link to it when when you send me the Kyle, remind me and I'll
put a link just underneath it. Watch that. That'd be cool, um
and you can also you can also find the making of documentaries might also be
on one of the DVDs that they put out. I think that's originally what
that was made for. Possibly it was for the first DVD release back in
the Night, Yeah, because they were still talking about Leonard Stone like he
was alive, you know, when it was that's an old documentary. It
was great. They interviewed everybody. Mel Stewart was in it and the director
and uh and the the the screenwriter was in it and not rolled all but
the one that didn't get his name on it. Yeah. So I reckon
both of those. And they're not too long either. They're both like half
hour program so basically you could have watched it five times in the time that
we are taking to make this podcast, but you laugh a lot more listening
to the podcast to us tell the stories from it in our own words.
I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go in lick wallpaper now, okay, tongue.
Oh, it's so creepy. It's so creepy. That is so creepy.
You think he's spelling out the alphabet. I don't know. All right,
everybody, It's been fun as always. Thanks for joining us and we
will see you on the next episode. And check out our Patreon Dearly Departed
Pod. At Patreon, you get yeah, click below this and you get
you get advanced access to the episodes like this one, plus the ones we
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that are only on our Patreon. It's always helpful, but we will continue
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Thank you very much. This has been an episode of the Dearly Departed
podcast. Dig up more episodes at Dearly Departed pod dot com and on iTunes
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