Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan on WBS Causton's new radio.
Speaker 2: Good evening, everybody. I have a nice four hours of comfort,
Speaker 2: fun and trolic plans for you. And before I go
Speaker 2: any further, Nicole, thank you for plugging that I am
Speaker 2: on tonight and I've enjoyed working with you this week.
Speaker 2: We've got one more night, Nicola, you want tomorrow night
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: I believe it or not, AM off tomorrow night.
Speaker 3: So this is the last night we have together this week.
Speaker 2: Darn it. And I'm sorry. I had a subject for
Speaker 2: tomorrow that I'm leading with that I think it would
Speaker 2: have been great to incorporate you to start it off,
Speaker 2: but that we're going to be talking about breakfast cereals
Speaker 2: that we when we were kids. I love breakfast cereal
Speaker 2: on corn call in.
Speaker 3: You know I very well, mind, I'll give it my
Speaker 3: best shot. You know the inside numbers and I know
Speaker 3: the outside number two and I'll be traveling so I'll
Speaker 3: be listening on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: So I'll give it a shot.
Speaker 2: I look forward to it. You take care and have
Speaker 2: a good night. Likewise, my friend. All right, everybody, I've
Speaker 2: promised you on Monday or last Thursday, I promised you
Speaker 2: every time I try to fill in or we'll be
Speaker 2: filling in for Dan Ray, which periodically happens, I promised
Speaker 2: to get somebody that I've never had before, and this
Speaker 2: is a good get. Pardon the grammar. You all used
Speaker 2: to watch this show and the line that blurred between
Speaker 2: what we saw on the TV screen and reality, and
Speaker 2: this actress, because of the character she played on TV,
Speaker 2: periodically was attacked, physically attacked, cut nasty letters from people,
Speaker 2: all because of that little Nellie Olsen out on the prairie.
Speaker 2: I've got Allison. I'm grim here, Allison, thank you for
Speaker 2: coming on. This is a true pleasure.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I know I'm terrible. It's like
Speaker 3: Nelly also is holding out on you. I just you know.
Speaker 3: I was running around carting people from hospitals to pharmacy
Speaker 3: to back and going, oh my god, I'm never going
Speaker 3: to make it out.
Speaker 2: No, no, I'm not even I'm not even going to
Speaker 2: go there. You're here now, and that's all that matters.
Speaker 3: But I'm here and here, I'm live. It's happening, and.
Speaker 2: If people want to call in. Normally, the first segment
Speaker 2: we take right after the news and go to about
Speaker 2: quarter pass the hour, and after that I take phone calls.
Speaker 2: I'm going to give the phone number now because I
Speaker 2: know that there are a cartload of people that would
Speaker 2: love to say booty you Nelly Olsen six.
Speaker 3: I think they should two.
Speaker 2: Five four ten thirty or eight eight eight nine, two
Speaker 2: nine ten thirty if you want to speak, I have
Speaker 2: my producers speaking to make sure I give the right
Speaker 2: phone number. And oh he does and he is a
Speaker 2: fan of yours. I know you got to speak to
Speaker 2: him as he called you to set you up. And
Speaker 2: for those of you who don't clearly remember, her character
Speaker 2: was the daughter of the woman that owned the general
Speaker 2: store in town, and all kinds of storylines would grow
Speaker 2: from little elementary age school Nellie Olsen and how she
Speaker 2: interacted with the Ingles kids and the other kids in
Speaker 2: the community, and trouble ensued every Monday night. And it's
Speaker 2: been fifty years since that show came on our TV sets?
Speaker 2: How does that feel when you hear that fifty years ago?
Speaker 3: It is absolutely like mind blowing after just you know,
Speaker 3: all of these years, if you had told us fifty
Speaker 3: years ago that people were going to still be watching
Speaker 3: the show, let alone discussing the show ad nauseum, being
Speaker 3: excited about the show and coming to fans later. Never
Speaker 3: in a million years, we didn't remember when we started
Speaker 3: the show. We're in nineteen seventy four. We started the show.
Speaker 3: There was no cable television, There were no DVDs. There
Speaker 3: was no such thing as a VC or VHS tape.
Speaker 3: There was a cable TV hadn't been invented yet. There
Speaker 3: or three channels, and certainly there was no such thing
Speaker 3: as streaming, et cetera, et cetera. We didn't know how
Speaker 3: someone was going to watch the show fifty years from now,
Speaker 3: let alone that they would.
Speaker 2: You had to see it that night or wait five
Speaker 2: six months later, maybe for the rerun of your favorite episode.
Speaker 2: And that was it.
Speaker 3: Summer reruns. Summer reruns, yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3: And then and then we had like they started doing stuff.
Speaker 3: We're okay, there was enough of it. It made syndica,
Speaker 3: you go best fives. Oh, now they can show it
Speaker 3: like in the afternoons after school. That was like a
Speaker 3: big jump that they did that. And then they invented
Speaker 3: cable TV and suddenly we were on that. And then
Speaker 3: they came out with VH and suddenly started selling TV
Speaker 3: shows at VHS tapes like, oh my god, what is happening?
Speaker 3: We had no idea, And I'm telling you it is
Speaker 3: more popular now fifty years later than it was where
Speaker 3: the damn thing was on. I mean, we are also floored.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to say this, when I mentioned that
Speaker 2: you have been physically attacked, that's.
Speaker 1: True, can you It's crazy.
Speaker 2: Stories for us real quick.
Speaker 3: Before that, I mean, the dumbest thing I did was
Speaker 3: go in costume once I was. It was for this
Speaker 3: big charity thing for an Eastern fair, and Catherine McGregor
Speaker 3: the Brilliant would have played missus Olsen. We were talked into,
Speaker 3: oh yes, it'll be fun. I think somebody from the
Speaker 3: network's kids went to the school. So we went in costume.
Speaker 3: They got us all done up at the studio and
Speaker 3: everything well, people were terrified of us. No one wanted
Speaker 3: to autograph, no one would come near. And then two
Speaker 3: little girls ran it behind me and kicked me in
Speaker 3: the button, knocked me to the pavement. And then there
Speaker 3: was a time I was in the Christmas parade. Mind you,
Speaker 3: I was about sixteen at least I was older, and
Speaker 3: I going down the street yelling Mary Christmas had a
Speaker 3: great time, and someone threw a McDonald's cup of orange
Speaker 3: soda at my face direct hit oh my goodness, and
Speaker 3: I mean, of course, my reaction was like, you know, first, okay,
Speaker 3: well list it's not a beer bottle, so I'm not dead.
Speaker 3: But then I was like, oh my god, this thing's
Speaker 3: like half fold as a buck seventy five of centa left.
Speaker 3: Someone's just so angry at the sight of me, and
Speaker 3: that's what I still damn. I must be good doing something, right.
Speaker 2: We can't go after Godzilla at s gwiff Nelly Elson
Speaker 2: right right?
Speaker 3: People were I thought, what am I doing? And it
Speaker 3: did occur to me even at a young age, because
Speaker 3: he came from a family of actors, went what am
Speaker 3: I doing that? People think this is so real that
Speaker 3: they're flipping out when they see me and doing crazy
Speaker 3: stuff like this, What the hell did I do?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 4: And you're interpreting a writer's words on page, a director's
Speaker 4: telling you do this, don't do that, but you were
Speaker 4: doing it in such a way that you are tremendously convincing,
Speaker 4: and thank.
Speaker 3: You, thank you. I went all out. I did my best,
Speaker 3: and well.
Speaker 5: There you go.
Speaker 2: I'm going to take my break when we come back.
Speaker 2: I also want to bring into the conversation your parents,
Speaker 2: because your father managed people like Labaraci, Debbie Reynolds and
Speaker 2: what can Chariton do for you? Miss Susan Antone, that
Speaker 2: was one of her commercial lives. And aren't cloaky? How
Speaker 2: many people raise your hands? If you know who are cloaky?
Speaker 2: As people raise your hands, Nancy sitting next to me,
Speaker 2: raise your rams. Aren't cloaky? Helped create Davy and Goliath,
Speaker 2: Gumby and Pokey, and your mother was the voice to
Speaker 2: Davy and Gumby can't and Casper the Friendly Ghost and Casper.
Speaker 3: The Friendly Ghost and sweet pallidirr Bread Underdog's girlfriend.
Speaker 2: Oh where, oh where has my underdog guard? She had
Speaker 2: to sing that every episode.
Speaker 3: Let me she did, and she would do it. She
Speaker 3: would do it for friends. My friends would go, could
Speaker 3: your mom do? Could she do the voice? Could you
Speaker 3: do the voice? She would go, where where is what?
Speaker 3: She would do it? It was great.
Speaker 2: Let me let me take my break. People, if you
Speaker 2: want to call in, we're gonna have fun right here.
Speaker 2: Alice yes and arm grim a r M. I am
Speaker 2: is here, so come on give us a call. Six
Speaker 2: one seven, two, five, four, ten, thirty eight, eight, eight, nine, two, nine,
Speaker 2: ten thirty Time and Temperature at w b Z. Oh
Speaker 2: my goodness, I'm late eight seventeen sixty five degrees.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World
Speaker 1: Night Sike Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Alison arm Grim is my guest here. Remember Little House
Speaker 2: on the Prairie. It's thing the fiftieth anniversary, nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 2: That show hit NBC and it just hang on and
Speaker 2: people love it, loved it and do love it now.
Speaker 2: And my producer just told me my headphones there are
Speaker 2: stations dedicated to a single show twenty four to seven.
Speaker 2: All they do is a show. Now, Rob said, there's
Speaker 2: a network that plays Happy Days of Vernon Shirley all
Speaker 2: the way through. But there are I'm gonna say, there's
Speaker 2: at least a station that does nothing but show Little
Speaker 2: House on the Prairie morning, noon and night.
Speaker 3: This is true. This is the one that just blows
Speaker 3: our minds, all of us in the show. So you've
Speaker 3: got your channels that show a lot of Little House
Speaker 3: and a few other shows here, the Hallmark, Cozy TV,
Speaker 3: me TV, I those a Little House and like and
Speaker 3: the Waltons and nn but there's a Little House like
Speaker 3: Mad the Marathons, but now with Roku and all and
Speaker 3: Pluto and all of these things, there is an all
Speaker 3: Little House all the time. And I think there's now
Speaker 3: at least two of them that are literally all only
Speaker 3: show episode of the Little House in the Prayer. I
Speaker 3: mean it streams on Amazon, you can order it on
Speaker 3: the streaming networks. But there's a couple where literally this
Speaker 3: Little House in the Prey all the time, twenty four
Speaker 3: hours a day, seven seven days, three week.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. And you know I had one of
Speaker 2: your co stars on roughly four weeks ago. I had
Speaker 2: Dean Butler on he as well.
Speaker 3: Was we lovely. We loved Deane.
Speaker 2: He was talking about fifty years of Little House. How
Speaker 2: were you chosen? I know, anything and everything to do
Speaker 2: with that show went through Michael Landon would every single
Speaker 2: half there was to wear on that show. Tell me
Speaker 2: about how you get chosen to be Nelly?
Speaker 3: I it was so incredible. We had you know Susan
Speaker 3: who was a Susie Suckman and later married Kent McCray,
Speaker 3: a Producerus McCrae, and you know Kate McCrae produced an
Speaker 3: ed friend Lee, who had first tried to make a
Speaker 3: show in the books than Michael Lenna. So I go in, God,
Speaker 3: I was about love it, and I read for the
Speaker 3: part of Laura, and I read for the part of Mary.
Speaker 3: I think everyone did. I used to call out the
Speaker 3: search of Scarlett O'Hara for eight year olds, so everybody
Speaker 3: hears this. I go in and I don't get it.
Speaker 3: And I know I'm a kid actor. I go to
Speaker 3: auditions all the time. I go, well, that was nice,
Speaker 3: but I was I knew I was not a country girl.
Speaker 3: I went, this is so not me. And I think
Speaker 3: I read form one of the worlds girls like dah no,
Speaker 3: and so I didn't really think about it. And I
Speaker 3: go about my business and they make the pilot with
Speaker 3: of course Melissa Gilberts and Melissa to Andrew, so they go, well,
Speaker 3: they're perfect, Okay. So I go on with my and
Speaker 3: then I get a call to come read for The
Speaker 3: Little House on the Prairie again at Paramount Studios, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, how many people are on the show. I
Speaker 3: already did this, but I at least may make it
Speaker 3: the series. It's more people. I like an idiot, have
Speaker 3: not read the books. I have no clue. I have
Speaker 3: no idea. I don't know there is an Ally Elson.
Speaker 3: I don't know what annlly Elson is, no idea. I
Speaker 3: get there and I'm handed these pages for something vanlie
Speaker 3: Elson that this character in the show. And I sit
Speaker 3: there and I start to read these pages. My father
Speaker 3: is sitting there with me out in the waiting room,
Speaker 3: and I look and I start reading and I turned
Speaker 3: to my father. I said, this is not a normal part.
Speaker 3: He said, what are you talking about. I said, she's awful,
Speaker 3: this girl, she's a bitch. And she said, just a
Speaker 3: total bitch. Might like that. In fact, don't rehearse it again,
Speaker 3: don't read it again. And then he snatched the page
Speaker 3: and said, put the pages face down, don't even look
Speaker 3: at them. Don't even look at them. Go in and
Speaker 3: do that. Just do exactly what you just did it. Okay.
Speaker 3: I go in and there's Michael Landa, there's Michael Landon
Speaker 3: and get McCrae said friendly. And they're all sitting there
Speaker 3: on a couch and I I say, go ahead, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh my god, okay, it's Michael. I knew
Speaker 3: who Michael Anna was from Bonanza, and I wasn't like
Speaker 3: a Bonanza fan, and I knew all these people were.
Speaker 3: And I start reading and these three grown men are
Speaker 3: sitting two feet away from me in this couch, start
Speaker 3: laughing and laughing and laughing, and they're just dying over
Speaker 3: every word I'm reading. And remember I'm like twelve years old.
Speaker 3: And they said, could you do it again? Please? And
Speaker 3: I said, oh, yes, very trained little child actor. What
Speaker 3: would you like me to change? And they said, no,
Speaker 3: just read the thing about That was the get And
Speaker 3: it was that scene in Country Girls at first episode
Speaker 3: where she talks about her how my home is the
Speaker 3: best home in all of Walnut Grove, and it is
Speaker 3: hilarious because she has no idea how fool she sounds.
Speaker 3: And she rattles off all this bragging about the house
Speaker 3: and she talks about how there's three sets of dishes,
Speaker 3: one for every day, one for Sunday, and one for
Speaker 3: when someone's very special importance comes to visit, which we've
Speaker 3: never even used yet. And she doesn't even realize the
Speaker 3: insanity this statement, that like, how you don't know anybody
Speaker 3: important you live in walder Grove, Minnesota, And she doesn't get.
Speaker 2: And Nellie never understood that in the run of the show.
Speaker 3: Her that she's obviously your Minnesota, nothing is happening here,
Speaker 3: and she doesn't realize she's just told a story on herself.
Speaker 3: And the fact that I could play that joke that
Speaker 3: I like, what, Oh, that's really funny. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: that's hysterical, and I did. They couldn't believe that a
Speaker 3: twelve year olds had like got the joke, and so
Speaker 3: they laughed again. They were like crying, they were laughing
Speaker 3: so hard, and then they said thank you, and my
Speaker 3: father and I got out the door, into the parking lot,
Speaker 3: into the car, drove home, maybe half an hour away.
Speaker 3: Back and my agent was already on the phone saying
Speaker 3: that he'd already heard from them and they'd made a deal.
Speaker 3: In wardrobe fitting was tuesday. Yeah, boom, that was it.
Speaker 2: Job.
Speaker 3: I walked out the door and they were like done, Yeah,
Speaker 3: let me take a call, because I wanted to try
Speaker 3: to get this call in before I have to take
Speaker 3: a news hit.
Speaker 2: As maybe Harlan told you, I hit thirty eight states.
Speaker 2: I'm based in Boston, but our first call is from
Speaker 2: believe it or not, Michigan and Matt and Michigan has
Speaker 2: called in to speak to Alison matt.
Speaker 5: Hello, Hi Morgan, Hey Allison, it's a pleasure to speak
Speaker 5: with you.
Speaker 6: Hi.
Speaker 3: How are you.
Speaker 5: I'm fine, thank you. As Morgan mentioned, he had Dean
Speaker 5: Butler on a few weeks ago, I was able to
Speaker 5: speak with him. So now I've got you, and it's
Speaker 5: an extreme pleasure. And I'm also pleased to remind you
Speaker 5: that I was a while I am a resident of
Speaker 5: the state of Michigan, and we were pleased to have
Speaker 5: Melissa Gilbert as a fellow resident for about four or
Speaker 5: five years. She I know, I know. She lives in
Speaker 5: a town where my daughter lived in time Howell, Michigan.
Speaker 5: And were you ever out to see her over there?
Speaker 3: I'm sadly no, she took off to the Catskills before
Speaker 3: I could get over there. But the pictures at that
Speaker 3: little house on the lake, oh my god, it's fabulous.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was hopeful, you know, to run into her
Speaker 5: sometime and I could tell my daughter, Rachel. I said,
Speaker 5: it's half pint. I never got that opportunity, never got
Speaker 5: that opportunity. But anyway, I just wanted to congratulate you
Speaker 5: on the job that you did on that show. And
Speaker 5: I saw you on an interview with a fellow. His
Speaker 5: name was Anthony, and one of the things that you
Speaker 5: touched on was that you were able to continue your education,
Speaker 5: not as a you know, with a tutor on set,
Speaker 5: but that you you stayed in the schools that you
Speaker 5: were going to. And I've always heard that, you know,
Speaker 5: the hours are so long when you do a series.
Speaker 7: How were you able to do that?
Speaker 3: Though though not everyone follows the rules, they did on
Speaker 3: the set of Little House, they followed the code, and
Speaker 3: the code in California was if you were under eighteen,
Speaker 3: you could only work a total of eight hours plus
Speaker 3: an hour for lunch, so nine hours you were out.
Speaker 3: And during those nine hours it was three hours of school,
Speaker 3: four hours of work, one hour rest and recreation, and
Speaker 3: an hour of lunch. And that was your schedule. So
Speaker 3: they would break it up and it could be very confusing.
Speaker 3: It was still very difficult because you'd bring your work
Speaker 3: from school and you'd shoot a scene and they'd say, well,
Speaker 3: we got to go set up the next scene. Why
Speaker 3: don't you go to school, and you'd go to the
Speaker 3: school room. You'd get all engrossed in writing a paper
Speaker 3: work and they'd say, well, now, come back and shoot,
Speaker 3: and you'd stop doing. You go back and shoot for
Speaker 3: and a half an hour, and then you go back
Speaker 3: to school for half an hour, and then you go
Speaker 3: back and this would go on all day, and sometimes
Speaker 3: you'd be a few minutes in there, but as long
Speaker 3: as you got to three hours in there somehow, and
Speaker 3: I stayed enrolled in the regular school. I was going
Speaker 3: to Bancroft Junior High and in Hollywood High, which Holly
Speaker 3: has very good school. And they what I would do
Speaker 3: is come to them say, well, because I was I
Speaker 3: was seven out of thirteen episodes. So I would come
Speaker 3: to them say, Okay, I'm in next week's episodes. I'm
Speaker 3: going to be gone for a week or two. I
Speaker 3: need my assignments, and they would give me that, let
Speaker 3: me know all the stuff that was supposed to be
Speaker 3: done in that time period, and I could get makeup
Speaker 3: exams and all of this. But it was still difficult
Speaker 3: because I'd leave and go, Okay, I know I need
Speaker 3: to get from page nine to page thirty two, but
Speaker 3: you know, if it's algebra and you're not there for
Speaker 3: the lectures, it's like really difficult. I slogged through, and
Speaker 3: then I'd come back to school too. It was It
Speaker 3: was great because I had friends I'd had my god
Speaker 3: since the third grade, who I knew in junior high
Speaker 3: in high school, who knew me as me long before
Speaker 3: I got Little House, and they just didn't care. They would, oh,
Speaker 3: Alison got a job. They were Hollywood kids, people got
Speaker 3: jobs on TV. They went, oh, that's nice. I'd actually
Speaker 3: got work, but they really did not care. I'd come
Speaker 3: back to school and say, well, I've been filming, and
Speaker 3: they'd say that's good. And then they kept me caught
Speaker 3: up on like who was dating who, and who'd broken
Speaker 3: up and who took her to the dance because that
Speaker 3: was the important news.
Speaker 5: Naturally, Matt, I know.
Speaker 2: And man, I hate to do it. I'm already late
Speaker 2: to my news hits. So thank you for coming again.
Speaker 5: Okay, good evening, Allison. Keep by the great work and
Speaker 5: the partners speaking with you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Take care of Allison. Let me do my news hit.
Speaker 2: I'll be right back, I promise, and uh, Peter in
Speaker 2: New York, you will be next, I promise you. With
Speaker 2: Alison Armgrim here, I'm busy with the time and temperature
Speaker 2: eight thirty one sixty five degrees.
Speaker 1: You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
Speaker 1: news radio.
Speaker 2: I'm going to read this off stage. She's an activist
Speaker 2: for AIDS, also on the board for the National Advisory
Speaker 2: Board of the National Association to Protect Children, giving children
Speaker 2: a legal and political voice in the war against child abuse.
Speaker 2: Alison Armgrim is here from Little House on the Prairie
Speaker 2: and I was told to tell you hello by mister
Speaker 2: William Keck.
Speaker 6: Oh.
Speaker 3: Hi, Oh, he's he's such a terror. He has a
Speaker 3: book out though he's marvelous, where he's confessed to everything
Speaker 3: he has. He has begged all everyone's forgiveness for everything
Speaker 3: he did at a national.
Speaker 2: And he mentioned that he was on a show with
Speaker 2: you and you apologize. No, he apologized to you and
Speaker 2: you accepted his apology.
Speaker 3: Did We had a complete, complete, like throwdown on my
Speaker 3: show because he said he's on this like forgiveness work.
Speaker 3: Basically it's kind of hilarious. But I said, okay, here's
Speaker 3: what happened. He's like, oh my god, okay, I am
Speaker 3: officially sorry. As he said, yeah, the National inquire mentality
Speaker 3: and he was in this whole zone with the tabloids
Speaker 3: and they asked him to do outlandish things because a
Speaker 3: page true when they worked for the Inquirer is and
Speaker 3: he has now lived to regret many of the things
Speaker 3: he did at the time. And yes, we've we completely
Speaker 3: kissed and made up.
Speaker 2: He was armed with me Monday and he was on
Speaker 2: the first hour eight and you obviously you know you
Speaker 2: were scheduled for nine. So this is kind of disjointed,
Speaker 2: this hello from three days ago. It would have made
Speaker 2: more sense on Monday, but it still makes sense.
Speaker 3: But still but still, yes, we we we have fully
Speaker 3: forgiven William. We shook and made up.
Speaker 2: Let me tell I promised Peter and New York he
Speaker 2: could be next. So Peter, you've got Allison.
Speaker 7: Allison, Michael. Did you know Michael Wandon's nickname?
Speaker 3: Yes, well, because his full real name was Eugene Maurice Rowitz,
Speaker 3: and they called him movie.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 7: My friend Hebrew school with him, and she, oh my god.
Speaker 3: Because when he would win, they would you know, they
Speaker 3: had football betting pools on those guys had bet on
Speaker 3: everything him in the crew and I even bought a
Speaker 3: square once in a while, and he won and they
Speaker 3: took his cash and they put in a bag and
Speaker 3: they hung it from the ceiling with a note saying
Speaker 3: for Oogie and told him to jump up and get
Speaker 3: it because he kept winning all the time.
Speaker 7: They got mad.
Speaker 6: And Walgan.
Speaker 7: I got another story for you. You mentioned Casper the
Speaker 7: Friendly Ghost. Yes, indeed, that was my uncle, Myron Woltman's cartoon.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, did he started it? Because my mom came
Speaker 3: in around they were you know, it started wearing TV
Speaker 3: in Josh Like Well movies the thirties, and then in
Speaker 3: TV in the fifties, sixties and in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 3: Really all through the late fifties, sixties, early seventies. My
Speaker 3: mom was the voice all the Hanna Barbera ones, all
Speaker 3: the Harvey tunes.
Speaker 2: That's all my mom, and if I'm not mistaken, it
Speaker 2: was a comic book first and then a cartoon on
Speaker 2: TV and movie.
Speaker 3: Some of the comments.
Speaker 7: He was also the first animator at Fleischer Studios.
Speaker 2: It was a comic book.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have the comedy.
Speaker 2: Casper Baby he we all those were under the title
Speaker 2: of Harvey Casper the Friendly Ghost, the Friendly Ghost. Do
Speaker 2: you know, though grown up to might look at him
Speaker 2: in fright, the children all love him.
Speaker 7: So I could do the whole thing word for word
Speaker 7: do you have the album?
Speaker 1: Do you have that?
Speaker 3: There's a they put out a cast musical album and
Speaker 3: it's basically my mom and one guy playing a cast
Speaker 3: of thousands because you know, cartoons, and it's available. You
Speaker 3: can get it like on Amazon's It's like it's out there.
Speaker 3: It's totally out there and get the CD or downloaded.
Speaker 3: And it's this hilarious album of all these that like
Speaker 3: it's a giant musical extravaganza with my mom and this
Speaker 3: guy playing all these you know, Casper and the Ghostly
Speaker 3: Trio and Nightmare and Wendy and my mother has one
Speaker 3: song called I'm Boo Boo the Beautiful Ghost where she
Speaker 3: does like a marily Monroe ghost, freaking hysterical. I've not
Speaker 3: heard that Casper album is out there. You must get
Speaker 3: it's right.
Speaker 2: He always says hello, He's really glad to meet you
Speaker 2: wherever he may go. He's kind to every living understand
Speaker 2: why children love him the most because the kids don't
Speaker 2: know that he loves them. So Casper the Friendly Ghost.
Speaker 2: I had to get that out. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: That's it's terrifying things imprinted imprinted on our minds.
Speaker 7: Yes, Peter, A lot of voices she.
Speaker 3: Did, she did, She did Casper and she with Casper
Speaker 3: things she did do Wendy, Nightmare, Spooky, and then she
Speaker 3: was Davy and Davy's mom, Davy's sister, Davy's friends, and
Speaker 3: then Gumby, and then she was also Goo when they
Speaker 3: brought in Prickle and Goo, and she was in a
Speaker 3: bunch of other cartoons. And then so she's Gumby and
Speaker 3: Casper and Uh Davy and then Sweet and then she
Speaker 3: did some other cartoons and she was on the first
Speaker 3: Family album.
Speaker 7: That's great, Alice.
Speaker 3: In Wonderland in Paris, which is a darling little cartoon.
Speaker 3: She did that.
Speaker 7: That's great.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell both of you. The first person that
Speaker 2: I ever interviewed on the radio in nineteen eighty was
Speaker 2: Dows Butler, who was for Hannah Marbera. So many voices,
Speaker 2: Yogi and Hock and Hoki Wolf.
Speaker 3: My mom worked with him like crazy. She loved Does Dog.
Speaker 2: I loved Does as well. He was He was supposed
Speaker 2: to come on for one hour. He wound up doing
Speaker 2: three hours with me.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 3: He also in Little House we had Chuck McCann who
Speaker 3: was one of the great voices. Yeah, of course he
Speaker 3: played a deaf mute on Little House. But there you
Speaker 3: are go.
Speaker 2: Figure, you couldn't take advantage of Chuck McCann's character characterizations
Speaker 2: in his voice.
Speaker 3: I know he played it, and you know he did
Speaker 3: that a lot. He did a lot of voiceover, but
Speaker 3: many of the characters he played on camera did not speak.
Speaker 2: He was in the medicine chest. Somebody brought this up
Speaker 2: on my show the other day. That was right guard commercials,
Speaker 2: Hi guy, Hi guy.
Speaker 3: The medicine chest.
Speaker 2: There was strack, my can Oh my goodness, Peter, Thank
Speaker 2: you for the call.
Speaker 7: Thank you, have a nice night, keep it up.
Speaker 2: Thank you for the time and some of those stories.
Speaker 2: Let me go to Grutten and speak with Mike. Mike,
Speaker 2: you've got Alison Armgrim here on night Side.
Speaker 8: Well, hello Morgan, and hello Alison. Wonderful to speak with you.
Speaker 8: I am also I'm Morgan's producer, and Morgan notes this,
Speaker 8: I am twenty four years old. Biggest fan of the show,
Speaker 8: you know, for someone my you know, just super fan.
Speaker 7: Amazing.
Speaker 3: Well, well, I always say we're on like our seventh
Speaker 3: generation of viewers. It's just incredible. But I love it
Speaker 3: when I meet people in their teens and twenties who
Speaker 3: say Oh, yes, I watched Little House of the Bird's Great.
Speaker 2: Yes, Mike produces my show. I have a show separate
Speaker 2: on Saturday nights. This week I'm filling in for the
Speaker 2: night side host Dan Ray. But my show has been
Speaker 2: on busy for years and years and I do Saturday
Speaker 2: nights and Mike is my producer then and he does
Speaker 2: an excellent job and he as the theater bug. Maybe
Speaker 2: you two should speak about.
Speaker 8: It's something I definitely, yeah, want to pursue on some level,
Speaker 8: you know, and I love radio, so finding a way
Speaker 8: to sort of combine both of those things. But Alison,
Speaker 8: my question for you, so I have so many favorite
Speaker 8: moments of the show. I wanted, you know, because I
Speaker 8: listened to your book and you know, love the podcast.
Speaker 8: Could you just break down a little bit into the
Speaker 8: wheelchair going down the hill scene because I think, you know,
Speaker 8: as someone watching that show, now like how did they
Speaker 8: let that happen?
Speaker 3: So it was amazing. Now there was a stunt woman involved,
Speaker 3: as they explained in the book, it was it was
Speaker 3: actually a feat of editing. So they first I'm in
Speaker 3: the chair and there's a steel cable on the back
Speaker 3: and they start to let it go down the hill.
Speaker 3: So she has a shot of me going wait what, Oh,
Speaker 3: you're such a good friend, Alley, and it starts good
Speaker 3: and they stops it. Then a very well trained professional
Speaker 3: stunt woman puts on the wig in the ninety and
Speaker 3: she does that thing when she goes bouncing out. She
Speaker 3: does that like somersault in midair into the pond. I
Speaker 3: definitely get to them. Then they take me to a
Speaker 3: different hill. It was actually over by the little house,
Speaker 3: because we're had the area of Seaeye Valley, Big Sky
Speaker 3: Ranch before we shot where the town isn't he go
Speaker 3: up the road about a mile in it's a little house.
Speaker 3: So we went over there and there was a hill
Speaker 3: and it was like longer but much less steep because
Speaker 3: the hill by the mill it's straight down. It is
Speaker 3: straight down. It's like, I don't know how that woman
Speaker 3: survived that fall. So they take me that hill which
Speaker 3: is longer or less steep, put me in the chair
Speaker 3: and just say go. There's nothing stopping the chair. They've
Speaker 3: got a camera on a track. Follow the cameras on
Speaker 3: a track. I'm not on a track, and I'm in
Speaker 3: a nightgown and a wig, and well not even the
Speaker 3: way because they did you know it was my hair
Speaker 3: because I just had the nightcap and curls. So I'm
Speaker 3: in a nightgown, bedroom, slippers, underwear and nothing else. I
Speaker 3: have no seat belt, safety equipment, no padding, nothing, And
Speaker 3: I had a real broken arm because I had managed
Speaker 3: to break my risk skateboarding. So the eighteen hundreds cast
Speaker 3: is over the fake cast. So I've got a real
Speaker 3: broken arm and I am bouncing completely out of control
Speaker 3: with no seatbelt or safety equipment down this rocky hill
Speaker 3: in this antique wooden wheelchair, hanging on for dear life. No,
Speaker 3: I'm screaming bloody murder. I did not no acting required,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, holy wrap, how am I going to
Speaker 3: get through this? And I get them They go those great,
Speaker 3: can we do it again? I'm like, you want to
Speaker 3: do it again? As they did again, and they were like, going, oh,
Speaker 3: the rope broke, trying to scare me. I'm like, I
Speaker 3: don't please. The rope wasn't holding anything any way, you guys.
Speaker 3: So I get through this and then we go to
Speaker 3: the pond where the woman had landed, and they have
Speaker 3: me get in the nighty and the thing get into
Speaker 3: the pond. Now, remember I have a real cast, and
Speaker 3: this was the you know, plaster cast of the day,
Speaker 3: so I had to They had the plastics and they
Speaker 3: had the wood and the thing over And what they
Speaker 3: did is I then put the cast and put the
Speaker 3: plastic trash bag over my cast it wouldn't get wet,
Speaker 3: taped it up, then put the eighteen hundred spandages in
Speaker 3: wood over that, and then got in the water so
Speaker 3: it looked up. They had a trash bag on and
Speaker 3: I'm getting in the pond and it's so dirty and
Speaker 3: there's algae floating on the top. And Michael linn And
Speaker 3: says to me, give a swimming pool at your apartment.
Speaker 3: And I said, no, no, I don't, and he says, well,
Speaker 3: after this, you can swim in your toilet. It's not clean.
Speaker 3: And so I did the thing where I put my
Speaker 3: face down and come up spitting. And they edited all
Speaker 3: this together to the point that people go, I saw
Speaker 3: you go down, and the wheel chair I could. And
Speaker 3: the same episode, remember I'd run face first on the
Speaker 3: horse into a tree branch. Right again, brilliant freaking editing.
Speaker 3: I'm never on that horse. I'm standing on a ladder,
Speaker 3: hitting the ladder with the riding crop the horse is
Speaker 3: off having a cigarette. You know, the horse is fine.
Speaker 3: Nobody's doing anything but the horse. Horse is totally fine.
Speaker 3: Fake in the whole thing. And when you see the stunt,
Speaker 3: lady dresses me on the horse and the horse is
Speaker 3: rearing up, and you hear the horse screaming. People like that,
Speaker 3: poor horse. The horse screaming are special effects that were
Speaker 3: put in later in the recording studio. The woman is
Speaker 3: on the horse and the only sound you heard when
Speaker 3: she did that was up, and the horse would go
Speaker 3: up as you go, good boy, okay, up again. Literally
Speaker 3: they're doing that, and then they put it so it
Speaker 3: looked like this terrible thing is happening like nothing. So
Speaker 3: they put me. I'm sitting on a box going like
Speaker 3: Gidea up, and these two guys are holding a piece
Speaker 3: of plexiglass in front of my face and I pretend
Speaker 3: like gide up, gideaop, bouncing and then on cue, a
Speaker 3: third guy swings a tree branch even to the plexiglass,
Speaker 3: at which point I go oh and fall over.
Speaker 2: And that's the magic of folly people and editors, and
Speaker 2: I can.
Speaker 3: Watch that footage and goo damn, that looks like I
Speaker 3: just went face first new treat branch. It looks so good,
Speaker 3: and I mean there were windexing the thing, so there's
Speaker 3: no like marks of the plexiglass. This is nineteen seventies technology.
Speaker 3: We had no CGI, there was no way to do this.
Speaker 3: This is nineteen seventies technology and editing, and it was
Speaker 3: freaking brilliant.
Speaker 2: Now, Mike, you know, Mike No by being a producer
Speaker 2: that I am well beyond my break time.
Speaker 8: So I'm going to be done. All right, I'll speak
Speaker 8: with you, Alison.
Speaker 2: I'll speak you on Saturday night. And Rob, I am
Speaker 2: so sorry for being this late for my break time
Speaker 2: and temperature here on night Side eight forty eight, and Dennis,
Speaker 2: you'll be next, I promise. After Reese take our break
Speaker 2: time and temperature again, eighty eight sixty five degrees.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: My guests here at night Side, Allison, I'm grim and
Speaker 2: she has a one woman show, and I'm going to
Speaker 2: tippy toe around one of the words in the title. Allison,
Speaker 2: you gotta remember I'm on AM radio confessional of a
Speaker 2: Prairie witch. Take out, take out the W and put
Speaker 2: in the B. Okay, and this is on a national
Speaker 2: tour and it as well is the name of her book.
Speaker 2: And did you get in any trouble when you put
Speaker 2: that title on your book?
Speaker 7: I did not.
Speaker 3: When I came went to Harper Collins with that title,
Speaker 3: and they said, best damn title anybody's brought in all week. Yes,
Speaker 3: they thought it was great. They were like, this, this
Speaker 3: is fat, this will sell. And it's true because people
Speaker 3: who came into the store. There were people who bought
Speaker 3: it because he knew who I was, or people bought
Speaker 3: it he knew. But Little House and the Prairie Nellielson,
Speaker 3: And there were people who came into the store and said,
Speaker 3: there's a hot pink cover with this face and the
Speaker 3: B word on it. I need to copy that book
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 6: It's so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it was as people went yet that's pretty accurate.
Speaker 3: I mean, she was the Prairie I being okay, confessions
Speaker 3: of it. And the only time I remember, we were
Speaker 3: at in Minnesota, Wisconsin, at one of the sort of
Speaker 3: prairie sites. They said, okay, we have a gift shop.
Speaker 3: We sell a lot of stuff here, but you know,
Speaker 3: we are out here in the country and not sure
Speaker 3: what the title like, obviously want to sell your book.
Speaker 3: Would you die if we covered just that part of
Speaker 3: the cover like on the display rack? I said no,
Speaker 3: I mean people know what it is, they'll figure it out.
Speaker 3: But you know, do what you have to do, they said. Finally,
Speaker 3: the woman the said, Okay, rather than sit here and
Speaker 3: feel I'm censoring something stickering the cover of their book,
Speaker 3: let me put several of the books on the counter
Speaker 3: next to the cash register for three days and see
Speaker 3: if people complain or what the her comments are.
Speaker 1: And she did.
Speaker 3: She put them in full view, uncensored, and phone the
Speaker 3: cash register and waited and people came up to the counter,
Speaker 3: looked at it, did a double take and then started
Speaker 3: laughing hysterically. She had like one person go oh my.
Speaker 3: And then when she said, well it sounds who played,
Speaker 3: she goes, oh, well, she was, I mean that's accurate.
Speaker 3: And she at no point did anyone say oh my god, no, no,
Speaker 3: you can't have that out there. That's bad. Why A
Speaker 3: couple of people express shock, and then they went well
Speaker 3: it is. Nellie al said okay, well that's totally accurate.
Speaker 3: That's fine.
Speaker 2: And you you you used that word a half hour
Speaker 2: ago when you talked about going into the original reading.
Speaker 3: Because it's I mean, it's true, She's awful. And then
Speaker 3: of course you know, I mean, my god, I tried
Speaker 3: to go about my business at school. In the first
Speaker 3: day at school, I get yelled at. I mean, that's
Speaker 3: what people started calling me. And I was like, Wow, okay,
Speaker 3: this is really gonna stick. I guess, I guess this
Speaker 3: is my new nickname.
Speaker 7: Yike, let me take let me take one run with it.
Speaker 2: I'm so let me take this last call, because had
Speaker 2: been holding for about fifteen minutes four things, so I
Speaker 2: can say two or three minutes for Dennis and Lowe.
Speaker 2: You were nervous. Dennis. You didn't think I was going
Speaker 2: to bring you into the conversation, did you No?
Speaker 6: Morgan, but you always do me great favors, good evening, Morgan,
Speaker 6: and Allison, great stories, Allison. Love it. My question for you,
Speaker 6: I was a big football fan and I was wondering
Speaker 6: about your relationship with Merlin Olson fourteen year old remember
Speaker 6: of the Los Angeles Rams, fearsome fulsome I was wondering, Yeah,
Speaker 6: I was wondering what type of relationship you might have
Speaker 6: had with Merlin Olsen.
Speaker 3: Merlin was a wonderful person. And yes for your football fans. Indeed,
Speaker 3: Merlin and Rosie Greer in the Gang the fearsome force
Speaker 3: in daily rams, and he was the least fearsome person
Speaker 3: you could possibly meet in person. He was so sweet.
Speaker 3: I mean, when you say gentle giant, I mean that's
Speaker 3: the guy. He was big, and Michael liked that because
Speaker 3: you know, Michael Anna was quite short. He was all
Speaker 3: the side, very cute, very adorable. Want to pick him up,
Speaker 3: put him in your pocket. And he liked the idea
Speaker 3: of having Charles's friend, this enormous guy who towered over
Speaker 3: and he said, oh this is this is hilarious, and
Speaker 3: they went all out with that. Well, Merlin shows up
Speaker 3: and he's so quiet and so just sensible and sweet.
Speaker 3: And we kids adored him because we would go we
Speaker 3: would watch him eat at lunchtime. We get in line
Speaker 3: and we'd all get a lunch dead wonderful catered food
Speaker 3: on locations and of course to brun enough to have
Speaker 3: enough calories for him to just even like breathe. It's
Speaker 3: a lot of food. He ate very healthy, had huge
Speaker 3: salad and then some kind of protein chicken. He ate
Speaker 3: very healthy. But my god, that was a lot of food,
Speaker 3: and we kids would line up and we'd follow him
Speaker 3: to his table and we'd sit down and next to
Speaker 3: him and watch, and he's like, what are you doing?
Speaker 3: We just want to see if you're really going to
Speaker 3: eat all that?
Speaker 2: That was your lunchtime entertainment to watch Merlin.
Speaker 3: Is Merlin seriously going to eat all that? We would
Speaker 3: literally sit there and watch him eat lunch because we
Speaker 3: couldn't believe the exactly and he did very quiet, Lincoln,
Speaker 3: he was very sweet. We just adored him. And you know,
Speaker 3: when Michael died, it was Merlin who presided over his
Speaker 3: whole funeral. Into the eulogy. There was a rabbi, many
Speaker 3: people spoke, but it was it was Merlin who really
Speaker 3: ran the show.
Speaker 2: It's just incredible, all right, Dennis, I got to let
Speaker 2: you go.
Speaker 7: Yes, So thank you for your car. Thank you, Thank
Speaker 7: you Alison, great guy, you.
Speaker 2: Have tremendous energy. I wish I could go see your
Speaker 2: One Woman Joe tomorrow if we're playing here.
Speaker 3: It was great fun, great fun. We just I just
Speaker 3: did San Francisco and it was a smash.
Speaker 2: Do you ever come to Boston?
Speaker 3: I do you know? I was just in Provincetown, Okay,
Speaker 3: a couple of weeks ago and was a smash there,
Speaker 3: and I have performed in Boston, and I love Boston.
Speaker 3: I have friends. Okay, shout out in Boston to Howie Green.
Speaker 8: Hi.
Speaker 3: Howie Halloween has a company called Howie Green Design. He
Speaker 3: is an artist and he's done He's done some art
Speaker 3: for the city of Boston. There's been some murals for
Speaker 3: the city and miss the ballpark and whatnot. That's all
Speaker 3: Howie stuff. He's marvelous and he teaches art, and so
Speaker 3: I often stay with him when I'm in Boston. So
Speaker 3: we love Boston. I have many, many friends from Boston,
Speaker 3: and I do try to go there whenever I can.
Speaker 2: Alison, thank you very much. Tell Harlan that I'm glad
Speaker 2: we stuck with this. You were a home run for
Speaker 2: me and I will have you on again, probably in
Speaker 2: the fall, I promise.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Go get a lobster roll for me.
Speaker 2: Oh please. Now you and I are best friends, Alison,
Speaker 2: get a.
Speaker 3: Good lobster roll. Get a good lobster all.
Speaker 2: There you go, Allison, I'm grim everybody, Alison, thank you.
Speaker 2: News is next year. Bus's the night Side Time? Oh
Speaker 2: good Grief eight fifty nine sixty five degrees