Speaker 1: I'm going final hour, final hour of night Side Dan
Speaker 1: spin Off all night.
Speaker 2: He should be here tomorrow, but if not, who knows.
Speaker 2: I may get the call, I may not. But this
Speaker 2: hour I'm speaking with a colleague, broadcast colleague. He's out
Speaker 2: of New York. He got in touch with me earlier
Speaker 2: last week. I think I got a text from him saying,
Speaker 2: in case you're looking for a potential guest, I'll do it.
Speaker 2: So Ed Kalecki, did I pronounce it wrong?
Speaker 3: Ed, You're very close, Morgan, good evening. It's close.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I don't like mispronouncing names. It's a bad
Speaker 2: thing to.
Speaker 3: Do, but I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Tell people the name of your show.
Speaker 3: The name of my show is The Weekend with Ed
Speaker 3: Kleggy and I've been doing it for about ten years.
Speaker 3: We're on a series of stations in the pretty much
Speaker 3: the Midwest and the West. And it's a love of
Speaker 3: life for me because I am someone who grew up
Speaker 3: immersed in media. Morgan. I'm a child of the seventies
Speaker 3: and an adolescent of the eighties, and I simply loved
Speaker 3: radio and television, and I guess I listened to and
Speaker 3: watched way too much of it and it rub off
Speaker 3: on me, and it made me realize at a very
Speaker 3: young age what I wanted to do, and I was broadcasting.
Speaker 2: That's how I started. A generation before you. I was
Speaker 2: a child of the fifties into the sixties. I was
Speaker 2: one of those kids that had the transistor radio under
Speaker 2: my pillow turned up so I could hear it through
Speaker 2: the pillow. And ironically, the radio station I listened to
Speaker 2: most often was BZ. I loved nighttime VZ with Larry
Speaker 2: Glick and Dick Summer and on down the line mm hmm.
Speaker 3: And with me down in New Jersey, I was able
Speaker 3: to pick up easy at night, and I literally fell
Speaker 3: in love with the artistry and the craftsmanship that was
Speaker 3: David Brudnoy. And to me, that was a standard of
Speaker 3: gold radio and gold standard of radio. And I love
Speaker 3: that so much. And there has always been so much
Speaker 3: personality out of that radio station. In later years, I
Speaker 3: of course loved listening to You, but I became infatuated
Speaker 3: with Steve Lavelli. I mean, any guy that plays the
Speaker 3: clarinet is good with me. I mean, and and to me,
Speaker 3: it's just there is such a wonder when it comes
Speaker 3: to communication and the radio and listening to that, and
Speaker 3: there is a magic within radio Morgan that simply does
Speaker 3: not exist in any other medium.
Speaker 2: How true. Now I'm going to test you. What was
Speaker 2: Steve Levelli's cat's name?
Speaker 3: Oh see, now I knew there was going to be
Speaker 3: I remember the clarinet, but I don't remember. You know
Speaker 3: what's gonna happen next hour when I'm walking upstairs in
Speaker 3: my home, I'm gonna think that was the name of
Speaker 3: the cat. But I know you're I'm going to tell
Speaker 3: you now.
Speaker 2: My producer knew, and he whispered in my ear. Max
Speaker 2: there's a there's a TV show about cats and it
Speaker 2: comes on periodically, and he was on that show once
Speaker 2: with Max broadcasting in front of this not this microphone,
Speaker 2: but absy microphone. Wow, And you mentioned David Brednoy. I
Speaker 2: have met thousands of people, celebrities, uh, TV people, movie people,
Speaker 2: sports people, thousands. The most intelligent man I ever met
Speaker 2: was David Brennan bar none, and he had me.
Speaker 3: On his show subject. There was nothing that could get
Speaker 3: past him. And he was able to elicit so much
Speaker 3: out of a guest, and that's not the easiest thing
Speaker 3: to do many times, but he was able to do
Speaker 3: it a wonderful avenue of communication. And he was so
Speaker 3: erudite and just so communicative, and it was just simply
Speaker 3: a pleasure to listen to him. You felt like you
Speaker 3: were in a course at Harvard or at Yale. But
Speaker 3: he was able to communicate in a way that was
Speaker 3: understandable to everyone. But he did it on such a
Speaker 3: high level. And you are born with that, Morgan. You
Speaker 3: cannot be taught how to do that.
Speaker 2: That is true. And I will say this Norm Nathan
Speaker 2: and David BRADNOI the other reason I have a microphone
Speaker 2: in front of me. They spoke on different occasions to
Speaker 2: my boss in the old days, Peter Casey, and they
Speaker 2: talked Peter in the giving me a shot, and I
Speaker 2: ran with it once I got the shot, And that's
Speaker 2: why I'm still here. David was underlying the most intelligent
Speaker 2: man I ever person, most intelligent person I ever met. Yes,
Speaker 2: and thank you for bringing up his name. So I
Speaker 2: want to I want to talk about this book. It
Speaker 2: was my treat to say hello to Blank. That's your
Speaker 2: book title? Did I get it right?
Speaker 3: But almost?
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 3: It was great to say hello to And the reason
Speaker 3: why it's cold, that is because just over the years,
Speaker 3: I guess I had fallen into a trap of opening
Speaker 3: up a conversation with it's great to say hello to
Speaker 3: the person's name, and it kind of just sucks. So
Speaker 3: I guess that kind of became my thing after a while.
Speaker 3: So when my literary agent, a wonderful literary agent named
Speaker 3: Diane nine who was headquartered down in Washington, when we
Speaker 3: were kicking around ideas for an idea for the title
Speaker 3: of the book, she said, what about you know what
Speaker 3: your catchphrase is? And I'm thinking that's pretty obvious, but
Speaker 3: it's also pretty good. So since these are interviews which
Speaker 3: have already happened, we took that it is great and
Speaker 3: we turned it into what it was great. So it
Speaker 3: was great to say hello to a curious radio hosts,
Speaker 3: conversations with actors, authors, and newsmakers, And that is the title.
Speaker 2: Now, I for no particular reason, I called six names.
Speaker 2: How many separate names are in the book.
Speaker 3: There are twenty four separate interviews in this book, all.
Speaker 2: Right, So I called six names, and I want to
Speaker 2: throw them out to my audience. Most of my audience
Speaker 2: should be able to relate to these individuals. Maybe you've
Speaker 2: heard them interviewed here by me or Dan Ray or
Speaker 2: Steve Lavelly over the years, Paul Sullivan, Bradley jay On
Speaker 2: down the list, Dick van Dyke, who just turned ninety
Speaker 2: nine this week, Cindy Williams, Carol Burnett, Richard Lewis, Robert Klein,
Speaker 2: and Doris Kerns Goodwin. You heard those names people. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be speaking to add up until midnight. If you'd
Speaker 2: like to call in and ask about Dick Van Dyke's
Speaker 2: interview or Doris Kerns Goodwin's interview. That's why I've got
Speaker 2: ed here now. If you want, you can just sit
Speaker 2: back and listen. A lot of good conversation will be
Speaker 2: bubbling up over the next forty five minutes. But if
Speaker 2: you would like to join six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine, two, nine,
Speaker 2: ten thirty, this is night Side. Dan is off. I
Speaker 2: am here. Time and temperature eleven fifteen forty three degrees.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios.
Speaker 2: I' WBZ News Radio. I'm Morgan. Ed Kalecki is my guest,
Speaker 2: and we are talking about the two dozen of important
Speaker 2: people he has interviewed over the years, He's got a
Speaker 2: book it was great to say hello to and you
Speaker 2: fill in the blank of all these people, curious radio hosts,
Speaker 2: conversations with actors, authors and newsmakers. That's the official title.
Speaker 2: Who published it, by the way.
Speaker 3: The publisher, Morgan is Rand Smith's books, and they have
Speaker 3: been wonderful to work with.
Speaker 2: All Right, and I'm going to begin with a woman
Speaker 2: I've heard here on BZ interviewed by Dan Ray and
Speaker 2: David Brudnoy, Doris Kearns Goodwin. And she began her political
Speaker 2: career on Lyndon Johnson's staff and has kept her hand
Speaker 2: in politics low these four or five decades. Tell me
Speaker 2: about Darris Kurn's Goodwin Morgan.
Speaker 3: What I always enjoyed most about Doris, and it came
Speaker 3: through in our conversation, is that she has a very
Speaker 3: unique ability as a historian to be able to take
Speaker 3: current events and she can analyze them but through the
Speaker 3: wonderful prism of history, and that's her craft. And she
Speaker 3: has a delightful sense of humor as well. I remember
Speaker 3: when we spoke and she kind of tossed out the
Speaker 3: line I go to bed with dead presidents every single
Speaker 3: night because they're always on her mind. And yeah, but
Speaker 3: I just find her ability to take a look at
Speaker 3: history and to be able to relate it to what's
Speaker 3: going on now, and she does it in such a
Speaker 3: flawless and in such a seamless way, And she is
Speaker 3: such a wonderful repository of American history, of presidential history.
Speaker 3: I had a wonderful conversation with her about FDR and
Speaker 3: and about the contemporary importance that he would still show
Speaker 3: now with some of the things that he did back then,
Speaker 3: And talked about her conduct with Lyndon Johnson and how
Speaker 3: she felt about him, and overall just about leadership and
Speaker 3: leadership qualities and what was it that made a perfect president?
Speaker 3: And Abe Lincoln is her guy and will always be
Speaker 3: her guide. But I just found her fascinating because here
Speaker 3: is someone who deals with history, but yet she speaks
Speaker 3: in such a contemporary way.
Speaker 2: Why was Abe Lincoln her favorite president? I mean, she
Speaker 2: worked for a president, She worked for.
Speaker 3: Lyndon Johnson exactly. But she said there would be no
Speaker 3: Lindon Johnson, there would be no other presidents that came
Speaker 3: after A. B. Lincoln because he saved the country. He
Speaker 3: saved the country at its most horrible most fractious time,
Speaker 3: and she feels that he is a seminal leader because
Speaker 3: everything that came after that in terms of American history,
Speaker 3: is because of how he acted as president during the
Speaker 3: Civil War and during that most important and most incredible times.
Speaker 2: Most people don't realize that his assassination was a troika
Speaker 2: of assassinations planned by the South, and John Wilkes Booth
Speaker 2: was just one of the pawns that the South had
Speaker 2: used to try and kill Johnson, his vice president, and
Speaker 2: the Secretary of State. And if I'm not mistaken, was
Speaker 2: that swort at the time.
Speaker 3: I think you're correct, yes, And.
Speaker 2: That way the South would have been able to reinvigorate
Speaker 2: the war between the states and hopefully have it turned
Speaker 2: in the favor of the South. But their plans were
Speaker 2: figured out by soldiers and people in Washington. So they
Speaker 2: succeeded in killing Lincoln. And they tried to kill Johnson,
Speaker 2: and they thought they did. They shot him, but the
Speaker 2: bullet bounced off a neck brace that he had, if
Speaker 2: I'm not mistaken, So their attempt to kill three was
Speaker 2: not successful, and the Union endured. And I want to
Speaker 2: be the first to say thank goodness for that.
Speaker 3: But indeed.
Speaker 2: Lincoln had already cemented the path we would follow after
Speaker 2: April of eighteen sixty five.
Speaker 3: And it's incredible to think about how and how difficult
Speaker 3: that was because obviously, you know, there was no ubiquitous media,
Speaker 3: There was no way to communicate instantly and in an
Speaker 3: easy way to the entire country at that point. And
Speaker 3: just with all the machinations that had to take place
Speaker 3: to be able to do what he did and to
Speaker 3: be able to cemit that path to preserving the Union
Speaker 3: and for us to continue as a united nation, it
Speaker 3: just makes what he did that much more impressive.
Speaker 2: And look at now we don't have a lot of
Speaker 2: pictorial evidence, but there were photos pictures of Abraham Lincoln
Speaker 2: before he took office in eighteen sixty sixty one and
Speaker 2: at the end of his life being assassinated in April
Speaker 2: of eighteen sixty five. Look at the aging that took
Speaker 2: place on that man. The weight of the Civil War,
Speaker 2: the war between the States, just took almost a decade
Speaker 2: off his life in five years, And I cannot imagine
Speaker 2: what that pressure was like. Yet and still he survived it.
Speaker 4: You know, the.
Speaker 2: Treaty of Appomattics came before his assassination, so he lived
Speaker 2: through the war. Not long after, but he lived through
Speaker 2: the war.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: And unfortunately he didn't get a chance to finish out
Speaker 2: his second term. And I wonder, had he finished his
Speaker 2: second term, how would our life, our lives be different.
Speaker 3: It's a very good point. I mean, obviously, you know,
Speaker 3: we can never go back. And it's funny. As we're
Speaker 3: talking about Lincoln, I think about something that I experienced
Speaker 3: about ten years ago. I had taken my family to
Speaker 3: Washington for a vacation, and we walked through the Smithsonian
Speaker 3: and everybody is happy, and there's this, and there's that,
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, you go into this room
Speaker 3: and it's very dimly lit and there is this glass
Speaker 3: and enclosed case in the middle of the room, and
Speaker 3: you're wondering what is that. And then when you walk
Speaker 3: up to it and you see what it is, and
Speaker 3: you realize what it is, you're struck. And it's the
Speaker 3: hat that Lincoln wore that night at Ford's Theater, and
Speaker 3: the bullet hole is in it, the bloodstain, all these
Speaker 3: decades and decades later, is still there, and you realize
Speaker 3: that you're looking at this most incredible piece of tangible
Speaker 3: American history right in front of you. And this is
Speaker 3: something that you were taught when you were a kid
Speaker 3: in elementary school, and it's something that we've learned about
Speaker 3: and we carried with and we know how important this
Speaker 3: man was. But when you see the actual hat and
Speaker 3: you see the bullet hole right there, it's a very
Speaker 3: surreal feeling and that washes upon you as you walk
Speaker 3: through that room. It's very difficult to describe.
Speaker 2: I'm speaking with Ed Kellenghee and he has a radio
Speaker 2: show that's if I were to drive away from Boston,
Speaker 2: what would be the first city I could hit and
Speaker 2: tune in your radio show? And what night is it on?
Speaker 3: All right, it is depending upon the station. It's on Saturdays,
Speaker 3: it's on Sundays. It gets moved around for sports. We
Speaker 3: are on essentially a number of smaller community stations, a
Speaker 3: bunch of stations that still do believe in the magic
Speaker 3: of radio. You got to go out towards Oh, you
Speaker 3: gotta go out towards Minnesota, and you got to go
Speaker 3: out to Oregon. In Colorado, we're pretty much in that
Speaker 3: neck of the woods. And I'm just a guy who
Speaker 3: lived in Jersey. But that is what it is. But
Speaker 3: in early twenty twenty five, there will be an announcement
Speaker 3: of a larger platform. So as they stay say in
Speaker 3: the biz, stay tuned.
Speaker 2: But you can't tell me now, I know I.
Speaker 3: Can't, all right, I would get thirty lashes, but yes,
Speaker 3: but there is that they say something in the hopper.
Speaker 3: So once I know you, my friend will be one
Speaker 3: of the first to know.
Speaker 2: Are you on CEO in Minnesota?
Speaker 3: No, I'm not. I know that's a wonderful station, and
Speaker 3: I know that Jordan Rich for a long time is
Speaker 3: doing a show that was hurt both on DZ and WCCO.
Speaker 2: But same for me, same for me.
Speaker 3: You go very nice.
Speaker 2: That's what I thought, because I know they do talk
Speaker 2: and they've always had that talk station vibe. So I
Speaker 2: figured maybe that's where you are. But I wrong.
Speaker 3: Maybe there will well maybe at some point I will
Speaker 3: who knows.
Speaker 2: All right, I've been wrong before.
Speaker 3: Now that's okay.
Speaker 2: Dick Van Dyke had his ninety ninth birthday this week.
Speaker 2: How many times did you interview Dick Van Dyke.
Speaker 3: I had the pleasure of speaking with Dick one time,
Speaker 3: and it was so memorable because I was just taken
Speaker 3: by the energy of this man and even into his
Speaker 3: late nineties. And it was very interesting how when we
Speaker 3: were talking he just came out and said, you know,
Speaker 3: most of my contemporaries are gone. So I responded, well,
Speaker 3: then what do you do? And really what I'm missing
Speaker 3: a beat? He said, well, I just find new contemporaries.
Speaker 3: And when you go online Morgan and you watch, there
Speaker 3: are these YouTube videos he sings with an a cappella group.
Speaker 3: He's still dancing ninety nine years old, and just the
Speaker 3: unbound energy and not just the love of life, but Morgan,
Speaker 3: this man has such an appreciation of life and an
Speaker 3: appreciation of his career, and he knows the position he
Speaker 3: holds in the fiber and the fabric of the pop
Speaker 3: culture of this country and of the world. And I
Speaker 3: think that he feeds upon that, and I think that's
Speaker 3: a wonderful thing. And he truly proves that age is
Speaker 3: simply it's it's the number with the numbers, but it's
Speaker 3: a state of mind. You know what you can be
Speaker 3: whatever age you want to be, because of how you
Speaker 3: choose to live each day. And he exemplifies that to
Speaker 3: the next.
Speaker 2: The key is he won't let the view of being
Speaker 2: seventy being eighty being ninety stop him and I saw
Speaker 2: this must have been about three or four years ago.
Speaker 2: He did a soft shoe on some TV program. I
Speaker 2: don't remember the program, but he is a ninety something
Speaker 2: year old man doing a soft shoe in time as
Speaker 2: if he were in his mid thirties. Again, yeah, and
Speaker 2: so smoothly. He always was a great dancer. And I
Speaker 2: want to tell you something I did on my show,
Speaker 2: maybe a decade ago. I asked the audience. This is
Speaker 2: one of those questions to get a reaction. Who did
Speaker 2: the better pratfall? Ken Berry or Dick Van Dyke. Now
Speaker 2: Kim Barry was good, and he was a hoofer as well,
Speaker 2: but easily threw out of every four call I took,
Speaker 2: said Dick Van Dyke.
Speaker 3: I think he did a great pratfall. I think I
Speaker 3: think Dick is or was, however you want to phrase.
Speaker 3: This was a bit more theatric in what he was
Speaker 3: a to do, because Dick was influenced so greatly by
Speaker 3: Stan Laurel ken Berry. Yes, I'm I'm glad you brought
Speaker 3: him up because I can remember. And it's funny how
Speaker 3: you think of things when you have these conversations. He
Speaker 3: was on a summer replacement show on ABC called Wow.
Speaker 3: It was this Saturday night variety show and it would
Speaker 3: always be it would always start with these wonderful dance numbers.
Speaker 3: Ken Berry was an incredible dancer. People think of him
Speaker 3: for f Troop and Mama's Family and Mayberry RFD. That
Speaker 3: man was so light on his feet and it was
Speaker 3: a wonderful dancer. And it makes me think, you know, Morgan,
Speaker 3: times have changed so much. Performers used to be so
Speaker 3: well rounded. They were quote unquote entertainers and.
Speaker 2: They could do everything, yes, everything.
Speaker 3: And we don't really have that anymore, and I think
Speaker 3: that's a shame.
Speaker 2: No tell you what. Let me take my news break
Speaker 2: and come back and we'll pick up talking about Dick
Speaker 2: Vandyke and maybe I'll incorporate the other names that I mentioned.
Speaker 2: So people, Ed Khalicky is going to be here until
Speaker 2: I leave at midnight. You want to call in, do so.
Speaker 2: The time is eleven thirty and temperature forty three degrees.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: My name is Morgan White Junior. I am here until midnight.
Speaker 2: I've been here since eight. Dan Ray has been off.
Speaker 2: Hopefully he'll be in tomorrow, Ed, you're still here.
Speaker 3: I certainly am Morgan.
Speaker 2: Good Ed Kaliky is my guest. He is here, and
Speaker 2: he is like I am, a talk show host. His
Speaker 2: show is syndicated. And you said there are thirty stations
Speaker 2: or so the carrier.
Speaker 3: Show thirty stations and wonderful places like are again and
Speaker 3: out in Nebraska and all across the Fruited Plains. So yeah,
Speaker 3: So it's a bunch of stations that are still committed
Speaker 3: towards radio and this type of radio and community radio.
Speaker 3: So it's been a fun ride and it just provides
Speaker 3: me an opportunity to have some great conversations with all
Speaker 3: kinds of different people from all different walks of life.
Speaker 2: All right, now, I want to continue our conversation about
Speaker 2: Dick Van Dyke, and I will, but we've got a
Speaker 2: phone call and callers come first. So Gary, you're next
Speaker 2: on night Side. Hello, Gary, Yes, Ed.
Speaker 4: Can you fill me in? What type of show do
Speaker 4: you have? Again?
Speaker 3: It's a talk show, Gary, And I'm good to talk
Speaker 3: to you, and we talk about we talk with authors,
Speaker 3: and we talk with actors, and we talk with newsmakers.
Speaker 3: I've been very fortunate over the years to be able
Speaker 3: to work with some great publicists from New York and
Speaker 3: Washington and Los Angeles and so general interest talk. But
Speaker 3: I am also someone who loves old show business. So
Speaker 3: I always loved that great, feel good interview with a celebrity,
Speaker 3: and that's why you'll see so many of them in
Speaker 3: this book, because I'm just somebody who grew up immersed
Speaker 3: in media and it never rubbed off. And it's very
Speaker 3: fortunate for me to be able to do something that
Speaker 3: I always wanted to do.
Speaker 4: Where can we hit your show around this area?
Speaker 3: Well in this area, which you'd have to do. The
Speaker 3: easiest way to be able to hear the content that
Speaker 3: I do is a because like I said, we're on
Speaker 3: a lot of smaller stations than any of them don't
Speaker 3: really broadcast online. What you can do, which you can
Speaker 3: go to my website which is ed colegg E ed
Speaker 3: k A l e gi dot com, or you can
Speaker 3: also go on SoundCloud and what happens is after everything airs,
Speaker 3: everything is placed up there and there is a wonderful
Speaker 3: repository of about twelve hundred segments and interviews from over
Speaker 3: the years, and there is just hours and hours of
Speaker 3: listening that's available. So It's a great way for all
Speaker 3: of the audio just to live on and to be
Speaker 3: able to be heard whenever somebody wants to hear it.
Speaker 4: Since you're an old time entertainment or even still today.
Speaker 4: Of course at the tablet, I'm sixty one years of age.
Speaker 4: I tell people all the time, you know, like some
Speaker 4: of the greatest sports movies at our time. The one
Speaker 4: that makes me cry all the time is the Little
Speaker 4: Garrett Story.
Speaker 3: Of course, yep, I love that movie. So you know
Speaker 3: what's so interesting about that? I got to tell you
Speaker 3: I found this out. I thought it was great when
Speaker 3: Gary Cooper could not swing the bat left handed as
Speaker 3: Lou Garrett did. A lot of people realize is that
Speaker 3: what they had to do was put a Yankee uniform
Speaker 3: on Gary Cooper with the reverse image of the Yankee
Speaker 3: and why on the other side of the uniform, so
Speaker 3: when they shot it, they could flip the mirror image
Speaker 3: of Gary Cooper swinging a bat right handed, but it
Speaker 3: looked like Lou Garrigg swinging the bat left handed. That's
Speaker 3: the magic of Hollywood.
Speaker 4: Excellent, and that's the one movie that definitely makes me cry.
Speaker 4: It is one of the greatest sports movies of our
Speaker 4: time now what people talk about even sports movies and
Speaker 4: so forth in this type of category, as you would know,
Speaker 4: and you never see the movie ever, as Morgan is
Speaker 4: listening to. You never seen it on AMC or anywhere.
Speaker 4: The Dan nikes the musical.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I've seen it. I've seen it. It's a
Speaker 3: wonderful movie. Yes, low against But the question.
Speaker 4: Indeed, why don't they ever put it on? It's still
Speaker 4: an entertaining movie for even today's audience.
Speaker 2: Agree, Turner Classic Movies has shown it within the past year.
Speaker 2: You weren't home on that night in front of your
Speaker 2: TV that it was shown. And I have seen it
Speaker 2: on Turner Classic Movies.
Speaker 4: Okay, and also ed as far as sports movies are concerned, right,
Speaker 4: the only movie I ever want to go see with
Speaker 4: my father and my life. My dad was a great dad,
Speaker 4: but he wasn't you know, the type of guy that
Speaker 4: played catch with Yeah this dat blank line right, Well,
Speaker 4: he was still a great dad. We went together and
Speaker 4: go to see the nineteen seventy five The Bad News
Speaker 4: Beierz m Yeah, yes to me, it was so fun
Speaker 4: of a movie. I mean, way do get rate The
Speaker 4: Bad News Berz for a sports movie?
Speaker 3: For a little aside. I was. I was what was
Speaker 3: in seventy five? I was eight years old. I was
Speaker 3: all excited. We were going to go that night to
Speaker 3: go see it, but my parents had looked at the
Speaker 3: newspaper the day before, and when my dad and I
Speaker 3: showed up at the theater, the Bad News Bears was gone,
Speaker 3: and they were showing James Cohn and Alan Arkin and
Speaker 3: Freebee and the Bean. My father took me to my
Speaker 3: first rated movie, and when we got home, my mother
Speaker 3: was mad. But I got to tell you, Gary, the
Speaker 3: Bad News Bears is a great movie. But for me,
Speaker 3: the second Bad News Bears movie, Bad News Bears in
Speaker 3: Breaking Training, when they went to the Astrodome to play
Speaker 3: the Texas Champion or whatever with William Devane. To me,
Speaker 3: that story is just better. But as a baseball movie,
Speaker 3: the Bad News Bears the whole, the one when they
Speaker 3: went off into Japan with Tony Curtis that one. I
Speaker 3: wouldn't even waste my time with that. But the first
Speaker 3: two are fantastic. And Walter matt that was great in
Speaker 3: that first movie, and it was so true to what
Speaker 3: Little League baseball was, and that Vic Morrow character when
Speaker 3: he slaps branding and Cruise on the mound. When I
Speaker 3: loved that Barretts, Oh my goodness. And that was so
Speaker 3: nineteen seventies. I mean that's the way things were then,
Speaker 3: and there were little league coaches like that. Gary, You're right,
Speaker 3: I mean, great movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know it. Yeah, all right, Gary, anything else.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell us one last thing, since we're talking
Speaker 4: about baseball. I am five years old. That was a
Speaker 4: little league baseball way back when we won. There was
Speaker 4: two half ten games and ten games. We went ten
Speaker 4: and on the fresh half and then the second half.
Speaker 4: I looked at my coach. He said, hey, we win
Speaker 4: this half. We automatic to win the championship. I said,
Speaker 4: there's no championship game. Coach goes, oh, how boring that is. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but we still get a cophy and all that. And
Speaker 4: I said, oh, geez, I hope we have a bad
Speaker 4: second half. He goes, how dare you? You're my play,
Speaker 4: my best guy on my team, and you talk like that.
Speaker 4: We went five and five, and he looks at me says, well,
Speaker 4: the other team we tied. We got to play a
Speaker 4: championship game. You got your wish. And we lost in
Speaker 4: the championship game seven to two. Because that wasn't allowed
Speaker 4: to pitch because I was in little league minors, not majors.
Speaker 4: And they smoked us and my coach looked at he says, well, Gary,
Speaker 4: you got yours. That's right the way, all right again?
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, thanks for the call, Gary. Take care, a
Speaker 2: happy merry Christmas, Happy New Year. All right, now, let's
Speaker 2: finish talking about Dick Van Dyke. Yes, I've got two
Speaker 2: minutes before my next break. What else do you want
Speaker 2: to mention about that legend?
Speaker 3: His versatility. We talked about his ability to dance, his
Speaker 3: comic acting, but I also remember a wonderful movie that
Speaker 3: he was in and it kind of reflected some of
Speaker 3: the battles of his own life. He was in a
Speaker 3: movie called The Morning After and it was him and
Speaker 3: he was portraying this man who was dealing with alcoholism,
Speaker 3: and it was such a difference from what we were
Speaker 3: used to from Dick Van Dyke. And when I spoke
Speaker 3: to him, he talked about how that movie, even almost
Speaker 3: fifty years later, is still being shown at AA meetings
Speaker 3: and trying to help people. But he was such an
Speaker 3: incredibly versatile performer and he still is, obviously for some
Speaker 3: of the things you see him doing on YouTube. But
Speaker 3: I just found that he is he is the manager
Speaker 3: to be celebrated, not just for his talent, but his
Speaker 3: diversification of talent. Bye by Bertie on the Broadway stage
Speaker 3: and everything that he has done. He is a well
Speaker 3: rounded performer, to say the very released.
Speaker 2: You know, they use the term a five tooled player
Speaker 2: in baseball, that's right, and he is a five tooled actor.
Speaker 2: He can act, he can sing, he can dance, he
Speaker 2: can make you cry, he can make you laugh. And
Speaker 2: when the only other actor I can think of that
Speaker 2: compared with those skills is Sammy Davis Junior.
Speaker 3: That's a very I like that. That's a very good point,
Speaker 3: and that's a good correlation. And with Dick van doct
Speaker 3: you remember he said he got to deliver the eulogy
Speaker 3: at stan Laurel's funeral and he worshiped stan Laurel. And
Speaker 3: for Dick that was pretty much his way of knowing
Speaker 3: that he made it and he was able to touch
Speaker 3: the life of stan Laurel in that way. And I
Speaker 3: just thought that was fantastic as well.
Speaker 2: And when Henry Calvin and Dick fitz well Rob Petrie
Speaker 2: did a Laurel and hardy bit on the Dick Van
Speaker 2: Dyke Show ACES Home Run. Tell you what, Let's let
Speaker 2: me take my last break and we might touch upon
Speaker 2: the other performers I mentioned earlier. Time and temperature here
Speaker 2: on nights side eleven forty five forty three degrees.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Life Sight Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: You know, with only ten minutes of show to go,
Speaker 2: if you haven't figured out that Dan is not here tonight. Yes,
Speaker 2: my name is Morgan Mike Junior. I get to fill
Speaker 2: in for Dan periodically, as I will be filling in
Speaker 2: all next week. I'm scheduled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Speaker 2: and the following Monday and Tuesday the week after next week.
Speaker 2: But right now I've got my buddy Ed Kalki. He
Speaker 2: is here, I am here, and the both of us
Speaker 2: do this for a living. Talk to people in the radio,
Speaker 2: well known people like from the world of TV, from
Speaker 2: the world of movies, from the world of politics, newsmakers
Speaker 2: as they are called, And I threw out some names earlier,
Speaker 2: and we've got enough time to talk about Carol Burnett.
Speaker 2: But before I do, Ed, where can they get your book?
Speaker 2: Name the publisher again and where they can get it.
Speaker 3: The name of the book. The name of the publisher
Speaker 3: is Rand Smith Books. The name of the book is
Speaker 3: it was Great to Say he lo To. It is
Speaker 3: available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble. You can go online
Speaker 3: to Walmart, thrift Books, Hudson Booksellers, any of the regular
Speaker 3: places you would go online and purchase a book. It
Speaker 3: is there and it makes a wonderful holiday gift. And
Speaker 3: with the magic of prime, that could be there before
Speaker 3: you know it. So yes, is.
Speaker 2: There a talking book aspect to the book.
Speaker 3: There are conversations about that because what it would be
Speaker 3: it would be me repurposing the recordings of these and
Speaker 3: you know what, that's probably a really good idea, So
Speaker 3: that could be the next step with us. The first
Speaker 3: idea was to get the written version of this out,
Speaker 3: because the idea is me talking about the interviews rather
Speaker 3: than just putting the transcriptions up. So an audio book
Speaker 3: would be a bit of an interesting challenge to be
Speaker 3: able to do that, but it's something that could be explored.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's with the time we have left talk about
Speaker 2: the charwoman. I'm so glad we've had this time together.
Speaker 2: Carol Burnette, What.
Speaker 3: Of joy I mean, because here's somebody who you know,
Speaker 3: you're like me. I spent so many Saturday nights at
Speaker 3: ten o'clock watching CBS and watching what was wonderful television.
Speaker 3: Oh and it's funny how she had that show had
Speaker 3: such staying power because television in nineteen seventy eight looked
Speaker 3: much different than it did in nineteen sixty seven. But
Speaker 3: the one constant during that time was the Carol Burnette
Speaker 3: Show on CBS. And one of the most interesting things
Speaker 3: that she told me, Morgan, was how the show came
Speaker 3: to be. She was a performer on the Gary Moore
Speaker 3: Show for many years, and she was and in her contract,
Speaker 3: her agent, who was very very smart, put this little
Speaker 3: clause in it and said, you know what, at some point
Speaker 3: towards the end of the contract, all Carol has to
Speaker 3: do is kind of pull a hypothetical lever and you'll
Speaker 3: give her her own variety show. Well, She's at a
Speaker 3: Christmas party one year in late sixty six and says
Speaker 3: to an executive CBS, you know what, I want to
Speaker 3: pull that lever. I want that show. And they said
Speaker 3: to her, come on, Carol, we know we put it
Speaker 3: in the contract for the Variety. It's a guy's game
Speaker 3: at this point. It's it's Dean Martin. It's not a woman.
Speaker 3: It's Gary Moore. It's not a woman. And so she said,
Speaker 3: well it's in the contract. They they were forced to
Speaker 3: give her the show. And it was the smartest thing
Speaker 3: CBS ever did.
Speaker 2: And I cannot think of too many variety shows that
Speaker 2: had a decade of success.
Speaker 3: That's right, that's what you did, Morgan. Oh, and she
Speaker 3: respected the industry so much when you think about the
Speaker 3: musical numbers that they did on that and how she
Speaker 3: paid homage to what came before her. And she had
Speaker 3: on these wonderful celebrities and these people that so meant
Speaker 3: so much to Hollywood, and she brought them into a
Speaker 3: contemporary audience. And I think about the humor on that show.
Speaker 3: You go watch the Dentist Sketch with Tim Conway and
Speaker 3: Harvey Corman. It's as hysterical now as it was then,
Speaker 3: and it's something that we can share with our kids
Speaker 3: and our grandkids, and you don't have to be afraid
Speaker 3: to watch it because it's all g rated. Yet it
Speaker 3: is all hysterical, and that is timeless comedy. And there
Speaker 3: is no better comedy than that.
Speaker 2: It reminds me of the w see Field's bit where
Speaker 2: he was a dentist and had a female patient and
Speaker 2: comedy ensued. And the fact of when now they didn't
Speaker 2: start with Tim Conway as part of their regular cast,
Speaker 2: but when they added Tim Conway, the magic of Tim
Speaker 2: Conway and Harvey Korman, I think that gave her a
Speaker 2: show another four or five seasons that it might not
Speaker 2: have had.
Speaker 3: I think you're right. I mean lyle Wagener was a
Speaker 3: good performer in his own set, but you know what,
Speaker 3: he wasn't Tim Conway. And when you had that constant
Speaker 3: on the show and Morgan, wasn't it wonderful how we
Speaker 3: as the audience we were brought in on the joke
Speaker 3: because they would break character, they would laugh in the
Speaker 3: middle of doing these skits because they were so funny,
Speaker 3: and it just it made what they were doing that
Speaker 3: much more entertaining. And it was such a unique brand
Speaker 3: of comedy and a unique brand of television At a
Speaker 3: time when Variety started to go in a lot of
Speaker 3: weird and different directions, that show had a consistency and
Speaker 3: a lot of people forget Dick Van Dyke was even
Speaker 3: a regular on that show for one season towards the end, Yeah,
Speaker 3: as he was, Yes, And it was so unique even
Speaker 3: for its own time.
Speaker 2: And the thing of it is, I'm trying to think
Speaker 2: of an example. Chaer had her own variety show after
Speaker 2: she and Sonny had the divorce. They each had their
Speaker 2: own separate shows, and Chare had her own show, and
Speaker 2: she went that extra step to be rebald, to be
Speaker 2: almost lewded with the skits that they did. She was
Speaker 2: a camp and a bit of a tramp. Cal Bernett
Speaker 2: didn't have to do that. They went with Funny and
Speaker 2: share with r Raided And that was the major difference
Speaker 2: in both for CBS network shows.
Speaker 3: And it goes to show you how confident Carol was
Speaker 3: in her material and what she did, because it was
Speaker 3: proven at that point. And she had said to me
Speaker 3: one of the things that she remembers most fondly about
Speaker 3: what she did was with that show. Is that then
Speaker 3: and even now, a grandmother can sit with a grandchild,
Speaker 3: they can watch the very same thing on a screen
Speaker 3: and they can both laugh at the same time. And
Speaker 3: as a parent, you never had to go running to
Speaker 3: change the channel on the television because you were worry
Speaker 3: what was going to be said or what would happen next?
Speaker 3: And you know what, that's a wonderful way to be
Speaker 3: able to enjoy and watch television when you don't have
Speaker 3: to be afraid what your kids are going to be
Speaker 3: exposed to.
Speaker 2: And I'd see her now because she does promos for
Speaker 2: her show on Meet TV and they have her interacting.
Speaker 2: So the magic of TV with Perry Mason and Sergeant
Speaker 2: Chokes from Hogansira and she still has that it quality
Speaker 2: to make you smile.
Speaker 3: It is and you brought it up too, and Morgan,
Speaker 3: isn't it wonderful now that we have all of these
Speaker 3: ancillary channels that have come up, And this is all
Speaker 3: because television went digital and you have these subchannels that
Speaker 3: have to be populated with programming and bringing back all
Speaker 3: of these classic shows, and these channels such as me
Speaker 3: TV and Antenna and Cozy, it is an opportunity for
Speaker 3: a different generation to look at programs that we remember
Speaker 3: fondly but had really begun to be kind of forgotten
Speaker 3: about by the younger generation because they weren't out there.
Speaker 3: There wasn't that ubiquity of these shows. But now you
Speaker 3: can flip around to the remote and you can find
Speaker 3: these shows, and I think it's wonderful that it's being
Speaker 3: exposed to an entirely new audience.
Speaker 2: I do too. I'm almost out of time, so Ed,
Speaker 2: will you come back one night?
Speaker 3: This has been oh, this has been absolute choice for me.
Speaker 2: All right, well, we will get you back sometime in
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty five. So thank you. I want to
Speaker 2: thank Bill Friedman who's on earlier tonight. I want to
Speaker 2: thank Jack Hart who's on early tonight. I want to
Speaker 2: thank my producer, Rob Brooks, and he's the producer at
Speaker 2: the station. Sitting next to me is Nancy. Thank you,
Speaker 2: and Gray So for all of the night side audience.
Speaker 2: Thanks for putting up with me for the past four hours.
Speaker 2: And I've got the Morgan Show on Saturday and Phillyanfidan
Speaker 2: all next week and beyond. Bye Boston.