Speaker 1: Hi, This is Carl Reiner working hard to promote his
Speaker 1: new book I Remember Me, and where better to promote
Speaker 1: it on The Doctor Sky Show. A doctor. He's a
Speaker 1: real doctor. I have never spoken to a doctor who
Speaker 1: interviews so brilliantly. It's because he's got a degree in
Speaker 1: what is it? Doctor?
Speaker 2: Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, as we continue to move
Speaker 2: through time and space. Always great guests here on The
Speaker 2: Doctor Sky Show, and as you know, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 2: from time to time, we're honored by having celebrity guests
Speaker 2: from all different walks of life, and today is certainly
Speaker 2: no exception. Today the great Carl Reiner an American actor,
Speaker 2: film director, producer, writer, and comedian. He's won twelve Emmy
Speaker 2: Awards and one Grammy Award during his illustrious career. We
Speaker 2: have mister Reiner here and we're grateful for his time
Speaker 2: talking about his recently issued memoirs entitled I Remember Me.
Speaker 2: Spoks some fifty five chapters talking about his life and
Speaker 2: all the great people that he's come across in this
Speaker 2: most phenomenal life. Sir, welcome to the show. It's a
Speaker 2: privileged and honor to have you. You're ninety one years young,
Speaker 2: and from what I got out of your book, you're
Speaker 2: just raring to go for the next ninety one.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm trying.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, I caught me while I
Speaker 2: was tweeting. I love it. I got to read some
Speaker 2: of your tweets and tell us the tweets have become
Speaker 2: a pretty staple part.
Speaker 1: Of your life. You know it's not. I'm going to
Speaker 1: give you a first. I just tweeted this about five
Speaker 1: about four minutes ago. They're two new tweets. There's a
Speaker 1: seventy ninth new Reiner Dictionary word. I'm writing a new
Speaker 1: dictionary with new words. People's you know. The old dictionary
Speaker 1: is just you know, it's been done. So this new
Speaker 1: word is war tech synarctica. Wow, that's an arctic. It's
Speaker 1: a noun. It's the rare hemispheric condition caused by tornadoes
Speaker 1: spawned in divergent weather zones. Vartech synarctica.
Speaker 2: Oh that's interesting. And I followed your tweets so well,
Speaker 2: mister Ryner. The first one to tell you that I'm
Speaker 2: paying attention, as you know better is odd varc and
Speaker 2: you describe it as what an hard looking arc.
Speaker 1: Eighty two BC well, I got another one I just finished,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if this is Maybe you can
Speaker 1: help me. It's they decormative EECU the E c O
Speaker 1: r U MTIV decormative.
Speaker 2: Wow, you got me on that one.
Speaker 1: That's unsolicited advice given to a professional room designer.
Speaker 2: Decormative and very interesting book. Now when is that book
Speaker 2: possibly coming out?
Speaker 1: Oh? I don't know. Before I got definitely nine. I
Speaker 1: think I have to do what is the unabridge dictionary thousands.
Speaker 2: One hundreds of web the webster is I'm just looking
Speaker 2: at the websites as one hundred.
Speaker 1: And fifty thousand entries, so one hundred and fifty thousand.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, I have to Oh, I have to
Speaker 1: last another year at least.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you will talking about I remember me. I mean,
Speaker 2: I find this fascinating. Fifty five chapters written from the hearts.
Speaker 2: Or I learned so much about you. I learned so
Speaker 2: much about your children, of course, Rob Annie Lucas, your
Speaker 2: lovely wife who sadly passed on as we all know,
Speaker 2: in two thousand and eight. But I got a salute you.
Speaker 2: There's sixty five years married and I'm sure still madly
Speaker 2: in love with us spell tell me a little bit
Speaker 2: about the origin of writing. I remember me well, you know.
Speaker 1: I had written a while ago, about a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, I wrote a thing called My Anecdotal Life,
Speaker 1: where I decided I might want to write a bio.
Speaker 1: And then I said, I don't want to leave. I
Speaker 1: just wanted to still be funny. So I've picked out
Speaker 1: on particular stories that tickled me that were funny, mainly funny,
Speaker 1: and I finished with it. And then I realized, as
Speaker 1: I'm walking around the block every day, stories would pop
Speaker 1: into my head. I said, I got to put that down.
Speaker 1: I got to put that down. So I kept putting
Speaker 1: him down. I realized I had to do this, and
Speaker 1: I went, you know, the thing that really triggered me
Speaker 1: is I got a letter, and I think the first
Speaker 1: thing in the book is about my bar Mitzvah speech.
Speaker 1: I got a letter from this woman, missus Passarelli, and
Speaker 1: she said she found this little speech written in beautiful handwriting.
Speaker 1: My father was an engraverent and it was a bar
Speaker 1: Mitzvah speech she had done for her her son, and
Speaker 1: he had passed away with my age, and she found it.
Speaker 1: But she found my father's name on the back, and
Speaker 1: she said, you might like to have this, and I
Speaker 1: realized that it's the same speech I made a year before.
Speaker 1: He has written a little bar Mitzvahs speech for me,
Speaker 1: and that thoughted me going. I said, my god, that's
Speaker 1: the beginning. You know, today I'm a man, and I started.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, you become a man. You know. It is Don
Speaker 2: just joining us, a living legend here in ninety one
Speaker 2: years young. As an American actor, film director, producer, writer,
Speaker 2: and comedian. He's won twelve Emmy Awards and one Grammy
Speaker 2: Award during his illustrious career that continues in force. We're
Speaker 2: talking with none other than Carl Reiner memoir I Remember Me,
Speaker 2: fifty five chapters this man. Of course, rocks and ladies
Speaker 2: and gentlemen were so privileged to have you. Mister Reyner,
Speaker 2: thank you for spending time with us today and talking
Speaker 2: all about your life. Let's start with your family, New
Speaker 2: York City. I'm a native New Yorker, myself born in Jamaica,
Speaker 2: Queens and you, obviously born in the Bronx, New York.
Speaker 2: Described to us your early days, your mom Bessie and Irving,
Speaker 2: your father a watchmaker, and so much more. He was
Speaker 2: an inventor too. I understand.
Speaker 1: Yes, Well, I saw my father every day of my
Speaker 1: life because he worked. He didn't like working in a
Speaker 1: jewelry story. The story worked and was under the l
Speaker 1: elevated train and they would rumble by and he would
Speaker 1: drop things. So I decided to work at home. Some
Speaker 1: of the time I was four or five years old,
Speaker 1: he was in our living room dining room. That's we
Speaker 1: had a three room apartment. He sat by a window
Speaker 1: and he did his work, and I came home from
Speaker 1: school every day and sat there. And some of the
Speaker 1: stories that my favorite story of all was when I
Speaker 1: was thirteen. I'm sitting on the couch and my father
Speaker 1: was a stoic. He never made any of the sound
Speaker 1: of annoyance or he never cursed. The most that ever
Speaker 1: came out and was disc diisk and they came out,
Speaker 1: that's what you did. And when I looked up that
Speaker 1: one two times I heard it. Once he had a
Speaker 1: screwdriver had pierced the flesh of his forefinger, right the
Speaker 1: tip of his forefinger, and all I heard was a
Speaker 1: had I looked up and he was thinking about how
Speaker 1: to get it out. I said, don't you pull it out?
Speaker 1: Pull it out. He's no, no, I pull it out.
Speaker 1: The thick end of the screwdriver rippmof flesh. So he
Speaker 1: cut the bottom, pulled it out with the thin pot,
Speaker 1: and the band of his finger went back to work.
Speaker 1: And that was the first. The second one was my
Speaker 1: favorite that I wrote about. He said he did the disk.
Speaker 1: I looked up and he's look at that, and I said,
Speaker 1: what is that? He said he was holding something between
Speaker 1: his thumb and forefinger. He says, it's a silver filling.
Speaker 2: That's oh, yeah, this is a good chapter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's my tooth thirty eight years he said. I said, Paul,
Speaker 1: how could you know how long of silver filling is
Speaker 1: in your tooth? He said, this one I put in myself.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. He actually was like.
Speaker 1: Sixteen or eighteen years old. He was, and he lived
Speaker 1: in Share of It's Hungry, Poland, and he moved to
Speaker 1: Vienna when he was fourteen. I think he was already
Speaker 1: a master watchmaker. He had a seventeen or eighteen He
Speaker 1: had two molars that had needed filling. He went to
Speaker 1: a dentist and the dentist hurt him so badly, he said,
Speaker 1: ran out of the office, screamed with paint, paid the dentist,
Speaker 1: and he said the second one he was going to
Speaker 1: do himself. He bought a book. He bought a book
Speaker 1: on dentistry, found out how to make facets. He bought
Speaker 1: a book on a malcolms how to make silver and
Speaker 1: mercury filling. That's incredible, And he said, and I wouldn't
Speaker 1: hurt myself. He says, I drilled. I had all these
Speaker 1: little drills, and I stopped drilling when I felt pain.
Speaker 1: It took me a little longer, but he filled the filling.
Speaker 2: And an Irving Reiner a very inventive man. That's an
Speaker 2: amazing story. Carl. You know you also describe him as
Speaker 2: an inventor. I mean you were telling me off air
Speaker 2: that there's a lot of things that your father actually
Speaker 2: put together in a very inventive mind. Tell us a
Speaker 2: little bit about well, one of the things.
Speaker 1: Two of the things. I one of the things in
Speaker 1: my book. There's a book a picture of him playing
Speaker 1: the violin, and I entitled it Irving Shoots Irving playing Irving.
Speaker 1: The shooting Irving is the part that is what is that. Well,
Speaker 1: he did learn to play a violin by buying a
Speaker 1: violin when he was twenty years old. He admired the
Speaker 1: fact his brother took lessons when he was a kid,
Speaker 1: and he always said he's going to get a violin
Speaker 1: when he's twenty. He bought a violin for five hundred
Speaker 1: dollars that my granddaughter plays today, by the way, and
Speaker 1: he taught himself to play from a book. Again, he
Speaker 1: got to and did the same with a flute. He
Speaker 1: learned played it in the little orchestras around New York.
Speaker 1: And that was, you know, the beginning of his But
Speaker 1: now he has this picture of himself playing a violin.
Speaker 1: And what happened is that my father was always a photographer.
Speaker 1: When he was a kid, he made a pinhold camera
Speaker 1: for himself. He bought it the garatype kind of plate camera, know,
Speaker 1: a glass plate camera. When took pictures of my mother
Speaker 1: nursing my brother, which I have to this day, a
Speaker 1: hundred year old picture in glass. And he was a photographer.
Speaker 1: There was never any pictures of himself because he was
Speaker 1: always taking pictures of other people. He sat one day
Speaker 1: and figured out he's a watchmaker. He made a little
Speaker 1: device with a spring. He wound up a little device,
Speaker 1: put it on the camera, gave him one minute to
Speaker 1: get into place, and the camera clicked him taking he
Speaker 1: took a picture of himself. So there's her, and they
Speaker 1: weren't Irving shoots Irving playing Irving. My granddaughter played the violin.
Speaker 1: I saw a concert verse. She's wait, I'll be right
Speaker 1: with you. I got to get Irving. I said, who's Irving?
Speaker 1: She said, I call the violin Irving. She had a
Speaker 1: picture of a grandfather in the in the case playing
Speaker 1: that violent.
Speaker 2: Amazing story. Our special guest is Carl Reiner. Legends that
Speaker 2: I'm going a privilege, an honor to have him today
Speaker 2: talking about his memoirs, fifty five chapters of his life,
Speaker 2: great story, the book entitled I Remember Me, mister Reyner.
Speaker 2: I understand that your brother Charlie is credited for reading
Speaker 2: something in the New York Daily News about a free
Speaker 2: dramatic workshop by the WPA, and you show up and
Speaker 2: the rest is history. This is a path that changes
Speaker 2: always in life.
Speaker 1: I had the pleasure of going to Washington one year
Speaker 1: and when they gave me the mof Twain Prize and
Speaker 1: the Library of Congress asked me about how I got
Speaker 1: to be who I am, and I realized, you know
Speaker 1: now they say, get the government off, get the people
Speaker 1: off the government's back. It was the government that made
Speaker 1: me who I am today. My brother Charlie saw on
Speaker 1: the ad in the paper said, WPA the Works Progress Administration,
Speaker 1: Free acting lessons at one hundred Center Street, New York.
Speaker 1: I went down there and I enrolled seventeen years old,
Speaker 1: and I learned reading Shakespeare of things I had never
Speaker 1: done before. And that was the beginning of it. That
Speaker 1: was the government now and then and a year later
Speaker 1: the NYA Radio Workshop. I got twenty two dollars a
Speaker 1: month for doing three radio shows a month, announcing operas
Speaker 1: and you know, in concerts, and doing Archoblers stories and
Speaker 1: Norman Coleen plays on the air for twenty two dollars
Speaker 1: a month. The government paid actors to learn to act
Speaker 1: and to be actors. They paid painters to do murals
Speaker 1: of post offices. They paid, they paid the professional musicians
Speaker 1: to learn their craft. And as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: when I was sixteen years old, the first play I
Speaker 1: ever saw a musical was The Mercado done by the WPA.
Speaker 1: In high school. It was thrilling to hear a small
Speaker 1: orchestra and a full cast of characters. All these people
Speaker 1: would have been out of work now they were getting
Speaker 1: an the money for subsistence. So I say, the government
Speaker 1: not only helped me, but I wouldn't be an actor
Speaker 1: who wasn't for the government.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a very interesting story, mister Reyner, because we
Speaker 2: don't ever really hear the details like you've given us
Speaker 2: today and shifting years in the short time we have
Speaker 2: with You're okay. The love of your life is still
Speaker 2: very talented, of course, and amazing story. You're about to
Speaker 2: tell us that I didn't know this until I read
Speaker 2: your memoirs. Of course, that she has the number four
Speaker 2: most memorable of all time movie lines. Of course, this
Speaker 2: most amazing line, which is quote one, I'll have what
Speaker 2: she's having when Harry met Sally. She's even the head
Speaker 2: of Humphrey Bogart with here's looking at you kid? Tell
Speaker 2: us about that. That's about Robbie.
Speaker 1: Robbie Ryanan was doing Harry met Sally in New York
Speaker 1: and he had this one line that Billy Crystal came
Speaker 1: up with, and he called his mother in California, said,
Speaker 1: may you got to come to New York. She says,
Speaker 1: why she's this one line? I want you to say?
Speaker 1: And that's his delicatest. And she says, rob there's one
Speaker 1: hundred actress in New York can do it. He's not
Speaker 1: like you, Bah, and that she did the line and
Speaker 1: the rest is history. There wasn't an airport we didn't
Speaker 1: go through. People used to yelled, I'll have what she's having.
Speaker 1: But you know, the interesting thing is he knew his
Speaker 1: mother could do it. His mother and my wife had
Speaker 1: a way of saying funny things very shortly. There's one
Speaker 1: I have in the book that I absolutely loved. When
Speaker 1: my son was eighteen and Annie, my daughter was sixteen,
Speaker 1: she was thinking what she wanted for her birthday, and
Speaker 1: Robbie said, why don't you get a nose yall like
Speaker 1: nose job like your friends did. They weren't getting pert
Speaker 1: little noses in Bethley. They were their sixteen birth I
Speaker 1: just wait a minute, wait a minute. My mother has
Speaker 1: a bigger nose than Annie. And look at the handsome
Speaker 1: guy she got. And Aelle said, yes, it's not the
Speaker 1: size of your nose that counts, it's what's in it.
Speaker 1: At the time I was doing the jerk with Steve Martin.
Speaker 1: I told him and he laughed. Ten years later he
Speaker 1: calls my house. Can I speak to Estelle? I what
Speaker 1: is it? I have to ask you something? He said, Estelle,
Speaker 1: you know that line? He said? Can I borrow it?
Speaker 1: He says, she's of course, what do you want to
Speaker 1: He was doing Sirino. He was doing rock sand Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there're Cirino using his cells launches facilities. If you
Speaker 1: news that counts, it's weel.
Speaker 2: That is funny. See, I never knew that. I mean,
Speaker 2: I remember Steve Martin in that particular movie. He's a
Speaker 2: lot of wonderful story call Reiner. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: an amazing journey your life. I mean, there's so limited
Speaker 2: time today to talk about so many of the things.
Speaker 2: But I got to ask you this. Of all the
Speaker 2: people that I read about in this book, your close friendship,
Speaker 2: your bond at the hip there between you and mel Brooks,
Speaker 2: I mean, I can't stop laughing every time I see
Speaker 2: that guy on teeth.
Speaker 1: Well, it's ongoing. We met in nineteen fifty and it's
Speaker 1: now twenty thirteen and in the last I don't know
Speaker 1: how many years. Why we see each other every day.
Speaker 1: He comes over every night, that's all television together, we
Speaker 1: have dinner together, we fall asleep no, he falls asleep.
Speaker 1: I don't fall asleep as much. On I said, wake up,
Speaker 1: wake up, something great on. We're watching Breaking Bad now
Speaker 1: and we just love it.
Speaker 2: We have It's amazing. I mean, mel is something you know.
Speaker 2: I'm obviously as a personal friend, but watching and seeing
Speaker 2: these movies when I was young, like blazing saddles. I
Speaker 2: mean I never laughed so hard, just hilarious, the slew
Speaker 2: of the.
Speaker 1: Funniest movies ever made, the producers blazing circles. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just he broke it open for everybody to go crazy.
Speaker 2: Paul Reiner, You've been in a number of wonderful movies too.
Speaker 2: Another one that I enjoy and I'm going to promote here,
Speaker 2: and I'd love you to tell me a little bit
Speaker 2: behind the scenes story. The Russians Are Coming. The Russians
Speaker 2: Are Coming. Now here's one that I think is also
Speaker 2: a phenomenal movie.
Speaker 1: To say, well, I love being in that because when
Speaker 1: I did The Russians Are Coming, I hadn't acted for
Speaker 1: about five or six years, not seriously. I was producing
Speaker 1: and writing in The Dick Van Dyke Show for television,
Speaker 1: and at the very end of last year Norman Jewiston
Speaker 1: came to my house. He said, I got this project.
Speaker 1: I'd like you to be in it. And he offered
Speaker 1: be the role of the Russian, the Russian character in it,
Speaker 1: and I said, she I used to do that on
Speaker 1: the show shows, fake Russian accent. And I turned it down,
Speaker 1: and as a matter of fact, I'm glad I did,
Speaker 1: because I got the role of the lead. He came
Speaker 1: back again, he said, would you like to play the lead?
Speaker 1: And I had never played a lead in the movie.
Speaker 1: And it was the last two weeks of the show
Speaker 1: of Van Dyke Show and Persky and then of Bill
Speaker 1: Persky and Sandna took over for me, and I was
Speaker 1: able to go free and become an actre and put
Speaker 1: my tupe on again and become an actors And that
Speaker 1: was that was a thrill for me, going up to
Speaker 1: Mendosino County and just working with n with Evil Re
Speaker 1: Saint and Johnny Winters and the wonderful cast of people
Speaker 1: in that. It was just a thrill.
Speaker 2: Call Wrin in more recent movies than I'm sure a
Speaker 2: lot of folks the younger generation recognizes as the Great
Speaker 2: Ocean Series eleven, twelve, and thirteen, they know you. I'm
Speaker 2: sure as many.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I have to thank mister Wintrout
Speaker 1: for casting me in that, because now nobody would know
Speaker 1: who I am, because all of the good things I
Speaker 1: did with twenty thirty years ago. But Saul Bloom happened
Speaker 1: to the Ocean's eleven, twelve, and thirteen happened recently. So
Speaker 1: when I do go to story, young kids will say, oh,
Speaker 1: that's the guy from Oceans. They've kept me alive.
Speaker 2: Folks, an amazing moment here in our broadcast history. Here
Speaker 2: we're privileging on her to have Carl Reiner once again
Speaker 2: an American actor, film director, producer, writer, and comedian. He's
Speaker 2: won twelve Emmy Awards, have won Grammy Award during his career.
Speaker 2: He's kind enough to talk with us today about his
Speaker 2: new memoir, some fifty five chapters of Amazing Stories, that
Speaker 2: a gentleman simply entitled I Remember Me. We're speaking with
Speaker 2: him from his home in California. Mister Ryner, there's so
Speaker 2: many shows that you've been on, and I find in
Speaker 2: a short time that we have here. I just wanted
Speaker 2: you to talk a little bit about Dick Van Dyke,
Speaker 2: the show we had Rose Marie here about a month
Speaker 2: or two ago and goud Lusser. He's also a wonderful actress,
Speaker 2: as you know, and come to nowhere but talk about
Speaker 2: to Dick Van Dyke Show and Dick Van Dyke, well.
Speaker 1: The Dick van Dyke Show. After I did the Show
Speaker 1: of Shows, I was being offered shows to do with
Speaker 1: situation comedies and they weren't very good. To my wife
Speaker 1: and are infinite wisdom says, why don't you write one?
Speaker 1: And I don't, can't write that. And what I did is,
Speaker 1: I remember this is Zephore. Yesterday, I was riding home
Speaker 1: to Newshell in my car at the ninety sixth Street
Speaker 1: Eggres on the Franklin Bill and Roosevelt Drive, and I
Speaker 1: said to myself, Hey, Reiner, what piece of ground do
Speaker 1: you stand on nobody else stands on. I said, well,
Speaker 1: I live in Newshelle, I work in New York, and
Speaker 1: when I'm in New York, I work on a variety
Speaker 1: show and I talk about how it is at home
Speaker 1: with my wife and kids. When I get home, I
Speaker 1: talk about the show. I'll write about that. And I
Speaker 1: wrote a thing called Head of the Family, and it
Speaker 1: turned out to be a pretty good pilot, and peterel
Speaker 1: Offerd picked it up to he was going to finance it,
Speaker 1: and I realized, if I did a pilot and I
Speaker 1: was in it, I better have a bible. So that
Speaker 1: summer I wrote thirteen episodes of The of the Head
Speaker 1: of the Family. I did the pilot. It was okay.
Speaker 1: I did it with a very good actress Barbara Britton
Speaker 1: and Morty Gunty and Sylvia Miles. But it wasn't good
Speaker 1: enough and it didn't sell. So I went up about
Speaker 1: my business and I wrote a movie for Dar's Day
Speaker 1: called The Thrill of It Or. I was at Universal
Speaker 1: and I get a call from my agent, who was
Speaker 1: very bothered that he had thirteen episodes of what he
Speaker 1: considered might be a hit show on his desk just
Speaker 1: spawned and he called me in one day. He says,
Speaker 1: I've given this to Sheldon Lendon and Danny Thomas, who
Speaker 1: have a production company, and they want to see you.
Speaker 1: And I came up there and I said, gentlemen, I'm
Speaker 1: so pleased that you liked my material that I don't
Speaker 1: want to fail the same material twice. And Sheldon, I'll
Speaker 1: do a good impression of him right here. He says, Carl,
Speaker 1: you won't fail because we will get a better rector
Speaker 1: to play you, and he suggested Dick Van Dyke went
Speaker 1: to the house, saw him and bye by Bertie and
Speaker 1: found maybe the most talented actor. This man could do anything,
Speaker 1: anything at the drop of a hat. He can be
Speaker 1: fifteen different things.
Speaker 2: Mister Runny, you're so correct, and you know not to
Speaker 2: do a selfless promotion here, but in our area and
Speaker 2: across the country, of course, I watch every night here
Speaker 2: me TV with the Dick Van Dyke Show, the reruns,
Speaker 2: and also I'm interested to share with the audience. I
Speaker 2: thought you were a little promo there with the shut
Speaker 2: up metal was just absolutely so cool that we all
Speaker 2: watch here a wonderful show. And again, sir, we're so
Speaker 2: honored to have you here as our guest today talking
Speaker 2: about your life and this interesting memoir. And I understand
Speaker 2: that the memoir is now going to want Is it
Speaker 2: officially now out in book form? I remember me, Oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, it's out in book form, and it's all
Speaker 1: an e book. There's an e book where you can
Speaker 1: actually press buttons and hear me talk about my kids
Speaker 1: when they're on Fire Island Pictures. But that I took
Speaker 1: with my little eight milimeter camera and all kinds of things.
Speaker 1: And I didn't even know if this existed, but these
Speaker 1: two gentlemen came and a knee book out of my
Speaker 1: regular book. Oh I want a book. You can put
Speaker 1: it on a shelf. But they've got a book. You
Speaker 1: can put it in a nightpad or whatever they've called them.
Speaker 2: Right for the new technologies, Right you call these books.
Speaker 2: I guess amazing stuff, mister Reiner. You know I also
Speaker 2: find a bit of trivia here for Johnny Carson fans,
Speaker 2: and more specifically, the Tonight Show is incorrector that you're
Speaker 2: the only guests that have appeared with all of the
Speaker 2: hosts of the Tonight Show.
Speaker 1: And as a matter of fact, before this Tonight Show host,
Speaker 1: there was a guy called Jerry Lester. There were a
Speaker 1: few people before that. I appeared because I started in
Speaker 1: television in nineteen forty eight when there was an ABC
Speaker 1: was a little had one little office in a horse
Speaker 1: rink where they did the news, and I did a
Speaker 1: show called The Fashion Story where a girl named Marilyn
Speaker 1: da sang I was a comedy photographer and we di catches.
Speaker 1: While I was in a Broadway show called Inside Usaas
Speaker 1: to get in my cab and change in the cab
Speaker 1: and get on stage at eight o'clock Lowway, So that
Speaker 1: was very early television.
Speaker 2: You have some closing stories to share here. We've got
Speaker 2: about ten minutes before the top of the hour, and again,
Speaker 2: our very special guest is none other than Carl Reiner,
Speaker 2: an American actor, film director, producer, writer, and comedian. He's
Speaker 2: one legend to them in twelve Emmy Awards and one
Speaker 2: Grammy Award during his continuing career. He's ninety one years
Speaker 2: young and going back to his life. He's talking to
Speaker 2: us today about his new memoirs in book and e form.
Speaker 2: I remember me, mister Reiner, as we moved to the
Speaker 2: top of the hour here. I find it so fascinating
Speaker 2: you've been in the company of so many people. Heddy Lamar,
Speaker 2: tell me a little about her, because there's actually a
Speaker 2: funny story that you write in one of the chapters.
Speaker 2: You're trying to light her cigarette. You're both appearing on
Speaker 2: a game show.
Speaker 1: What happens from I was sitting next to on a
Speaker 1: game show. We were both panelists, both looking at the host
Speaker 1: I think was Bill Cullen, and I was being very gentlemanly.
Speaker 1: I was paying attention to the host, but I noticed
Speaker 1: in the corner of my eye that she was taking
Speaker 1: something out of a park book. I assumed she was
Speaker 1: going to light up a cigarette, and all of these
Speaker 1: people lit cigarettes. So I reached into my pocket without
Speaker 1: looking at her, took out a pack of matches, and
Speaker 1: I struck a match and held it under didn't even
Speaker 1: look at it. And she said, Carl, what are you
Speaker 1: trying to do? You're going to light my lozenge. She
Speaker 1: was putting a lozenge in her.
Speaker 2: Mouth, and you have a match lit underneath the.
Speaker 1: Held right before her finger to light my lozenge. It
Speaker 1: even has alliteration to it. You wanted to light my lozenge.
Speaker 1: She was, By the way, she was the single most
Speaker 1: beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life. I've
Speaker 1: heard the story and we found out lady she was
Speaker 1: an inventor. The idea that that she came up with.
Speaker 1: She was actually a real inventor of mechanical devices and
Speaker 1: the cell phones and all the things we're using today.
Speaker 1: She has a pattern on a thing that was able
Speaker 1: to make all of this possible.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. I mean, never would have thought that such
Speaker 2: a person would even have any kind of I know,
Speaker 2: but it came.
Speaker 1: Out in the paper not too long ago.
Speaker 2: Mister Reiner, you've also described in your book, how do
Speaker 2: I say this, a very big, deep interest and fascination
Speaker 2: with Judy Garland. You describe a scene there in your
Speaker 2: memoirs that I think is also very prolific.
Speaker 1: Well, I just loved Judy Golf from the time I
Speaker 1: was thirteen years old. I saw her in a thing
Speaker 1: called Balbo. When she sang bal bow in us, I
Speaker 1: fell in love with it, literally fell in love with it.
Speaker 1: Every time I saw that quivering lip of his eyes.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was smitten. And then when I was
Speaker 1: thirty eight, thirty seven years old, she had a program
Speaker 1: called Celebrity Player Celebrity. She talked to celebrities, and I
Speaker 1: remember the two shows. Actually, I was on two shows
Speaker 1: with her, and I remember sitting with her one day
Speaker 1: and she said she was we were the exact same age.
Speaker 1: And I told her, by the way, how much I
Speaker 1: did love her, and I said, sure, I would have
Speaker 1: done anything to be your book friend. But she said,
Speaker 1: she said, thirty seven. We're both thirty seven. And then
Speaker 1: she's actually said these words to me. Isn't thirty seven
Speaker 1: a shitty age? Exactly where's that quarter? And I said
Speaker 1: why So she says, well, forty isn't a round number.
Speaker 1: Everybody says life begins at forty. He says, thirty eight
Speaker 1: is a nice round number. You're approaching a lovely age,
Speaker 1: but thirty seven is nowhere. And I said, She says
Speaker 1: in between, And I said, you know, in my first
Speaker 1: one of the first things, you sang a song to
Speaker 1: a picture of God Gable singing I'm just an in between,
Speaker 1: I says, you're again and in between.
Speaker 2: You know, it's so incredible and one of the most
Speaker 2: phenomenal movies leddiess. Gentlemen, George Burns, we would be remiss
Speaker 2: if we didn't, mister Hiner talk about him. You directed,
Speaker 2: Oh God. I mean, that was one of my favorite
Speaker 2: movies and still probably is what one of the great classics.
Speaker 2: George Burns talk about this relationship, I mean, just amazing.
Speaker 1: Well, I just love George Burns because, first of all,
Speaker 1: I all my life I watched him do without. He
Speaker 1: was the he's sweaty comedian in the history of the world.
Speaker 1: He never never sweated. He was so calm. And when
Speaker 1: I had him and O God, the two things I
Speaker 1: learned about him. He was the most professional man I'd
Speaker 1: ever met. He learned the whole script before he did it,
Speaker 1: so any day I wanted to change scenes, he was
Speaker 1: ready to do it. The other actors say, wait wait,
Speaker 1: I got to learn my lines. He was so perfect.
Speaker 1: But I must say one of the things I remember
Speaker 1: before I even used him. The first time I met
Speaker 1: him was with mel Bush and I were doing The
Speaker 1: two thousand year Old Man at parties and he was
Speaker 1: at a party and he with a cigar after we
Speaker 1: finished esus gham or an album and did you put
Speaker 1: this on an album? And we said no, He says,
Speaker 1: put it on an album or I'm going to steal it.
Speaker 1: And it was him, And as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: it was Edward gery Robinson after it says, yeah, make
Speaker 1: a playout. I want to play the thousand year old
Speaker 1: Man on Broadway. I said, he's two thousand. I can
Speaker 1: play any age, he said. And it was evl who said, hey, fellas,
Speaker 1: take my He had a studio go World Pacific. He
Speaker 1: why don't you go there? Whale for a couple hours.
Speaker 1: And it was Steve Allen who actually made us put
Speaker 1: the two thousand year Old Man on record. But I
Speaker 1: remember that was George Burns was the one who suggested
Speaker 1: we put it on record.
Speaker 2: Mister Ryder has this amazing journey that you've shared with
Speaker 2: our audience here, and I'm really I want to salute you,
Speaker 2: sir for all the stories that you have in their
Speaker 2: most amazing life that continues positively, you know. And I
Speaker 2: say this, sir, with no apologies. I've talked to so
Speaker 2: many folks that are in their seventies and eighties, and
Speaker 2: you sound like you're just lot thirty five years old
Speaker 2: and very positive with energy, and I really do appreciate
Speaker 2: your time talking about this. I wanted to close, if
Speaker 2: it's okay by you, sir, just to read a quote
Speaker 2: and I think it's so apropos and if you could
Speaker 2: describe the quote and the quote, is this inviting people
Speaker 2: to laugh at you while you're laughing at yourself is
Speaker 2: a good thing to do. You may be the fool
Speaker 2: that you are, the fool in charge. I think it
Speaker 2: sums up so much.
Speaker 1: Hey, by the way, is I'm going to tell you
Speaker 1: something about that is I don't think it's ever been
Speaker 1: done before. You see that quote. That quote comes from
Speaker 1: my anecdotal life. I was looking in other books I've written.
Speaker 1: I look for a quote from you know, Mark Twain
Speaker 1: or d rush for Cole or Oscar Wilde or some
Speaker 1: well somebody, and I couldn't find a quote. So for
Speaker 1: antal laughing, I mean for my anecdotal life, I put
Speaker 1: that quote in my Anecdotal Life. You know where that
Speaker 1: quote comes from. Where's the book itself? I wrote that
Speaker 1: for the It's inside the book. Someplace has something I
Speaker 1: happen to write. So in that book, I quote myself.
Speaker 1: I says, and I said it, you know my dos
Speaker 1: a quote and at the bottom it says from my
Speaker 1: Anecdotal Life. I call Reiner. Now I've did another book
Speaker 1: and I quote myself, quoted myself from another book that
Speaker 1: I quoted myself.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure that you'll be continuing to continue on
Speaker 2: and tweet tweet, right, yes, yeah, it's Carl Reiner. Privilege
Speaker 2: and honor. I want to thank you, and if you're
Speaker 2: kind enough, sir, as we come to the top of
Speaker 2: the hour here, as you know, sir, in radio, we'd
Speaker 2: like to just have you hold on the line just
Speaker 2: for a moment off air. But ladies and gentlemen, a
Speaker 2: wonderful opportunity here to share the life, albeit a short interview,
Speaker 2: so much in the fifty five chapters that Carl Reiner,
Speaker 2: our special guest, is sharing with the world, his life
Speaker 2: continuing strong at ninety one. He just celebrated his ninety
Speaker 2: first birthday on March the twentieth, And Sir, in memory
Speaker 2: of your wonderful life of Stelle and a salute to
Speaker 2: your children, Rob, Annie and Lucas, I want to thank you,
Speaker 2: sir for being our special guest here on our radio
Speaker 2: show today. I'm Steve Kates, Doctor Sky. We'll be right
Speaker 2: back on the other side of the top of the
Speaker 2: hour with more and phenomenal guests. Thank you, mister Carl Reiner. Well, sir,
Speaker 2: I'm really I'm just flabbergast that I really Oh, I
Speaker 2: had a great time.
Speaker 1: You guys are terrific.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you and I you guy, you guy, you guys,
Speaker 2: you guys. I love it. Just wander and sir, if
Speaker 2: you might just do this little and you're the pro
Speaker 2: at this, I just wanted to ask in general terms,
Speaker 2: Doctor Sky, so something that would say, Hi, this is
Speaker 2: Carl Reiner, and just tell me a little bit about yourself,
Speaker 2: not thattting people don't know you and tell me the
Speaker 2: tie in with your book and maybe something that you know,
Speaker 2: and you're listening to the Doctor Sky Show