Episode 574 - Marty Allen

Episode 574 • Released February 4, 2015 • Speakers detected

00:00:00Marc:Lock the gates!

00:00:09Marc:Alright, let's do this.

00:00:10Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?

00:00:11Marc:What the fuck buddies?

00:00:12Marc:What the fuckineers?

00:00:13Marc:What the fuckadelics?

00:00:15Marc:What the fucksters?

00:00:16Marc:What the fuckaholics?

00:00:18Marc:What the fuckknuckles?

00:00:20Marc:Alright, that was enjoyable for me.

00:00:23Marc:Thank you for listening.

00:00:24Marc:I'm Mark Maron.

00:00:24Marc:Welcome to the show.

00:00:25Marc:This is my show, WTF.

00:00:27Marc:We've been on the air for quite a while now.

00:00:30Marc:We're a staple.

00:00:31Marc:It's been five years in count.

00:00:33Marc:Five years plus.

00:00:35Marc:We're in it.

00:00:37Marc:What episode are we even on?

00:00:38Marc:I mean, this has got to be episode 574.

00:00:45Marc:Jesus, I've been doing this is the thing, man.

00:00:48Marc:This is my thing.

00:00:49Marc:This is it.

00:00:51Marc:I'm a stand up comedian and I host a podcast where I talk to people and I ramble on a bit.

00:00:56Marc:Some people listen to that.

00:00:59Marc:I go do stand-up.

00:01:00Marc:I'm doing a TV show.

00:01:02Marc:I'm in the middle of filming the TV show, and the last I talked to you, last time I talked to you, I was ill.

00:01:08Marc:I got ill, and I got scared, and I got freaked out.

00:01:12Marc:You really want that magic shot.

00:01:13Marc:I feel better.

00:01:14Marc:I think you can still hear my voice a little bit, but it leveled off.

00:01:18Marc:Like it settled in a bit.

00:01:21Marc:Some of it went away.

00:01:22Marc:I got lucky, man.

00:01:23Marc:I got lucky because some people are going down with that flu shit.

00:01:27Marc:That's fucking nasty.

00:01:30Marc:Sorry if you got it.

00:01:31Marc:But on some level, it forces you to relax, doesn't it?

00:01:36Marc:Forces you to relax and feel like you're dying.

00:01:39Marc:That's the flu.

00:01:42Marc:Okay, look.

00:01:44Marc:So the tour thing is happening.

00:01:46Marc:You know that it's happening.

00:01:47Marc:I told you that it's happening.

00:01:48Marc:Marination, the tour, is happening.

00:01:52Marc:I told you where the cities were going.

00:01:54Marc:Now, everything's going on sale tomorrow.

00:01:57Marc:There's some pre-sales going on here and there.

00:01:59Marc:And I know for a fact that tomorrow they will all be on sale.

00:02:03Marc:Now, listen, I know some of you are like, you're not coming to my state.

00:02:07Marc:You're not coming to my city.

00:02:09Marc:I will add dates.

00:02:10Marc:Later in the year.

00:02:11Marc:This is just the round I'm doing.

00:02:13Marc:And obviously.

00:02:15Marc:I have a lot of fans.

00:02:17Marc:Minneapolis.

00:02:18Marc:Chicago.

00:02:19Marc:Portland.

00:02:20Marc:New York City.

00:02:21Marc:Which I was just in.

00:02:22Marc:But some of you missed it apparently.

00:02:24Marc:I just did two shows there.

00:02:25Marc:But.

00:02:27Marc:I'll make some dates.

00:02:28Marc:I'm going to be folding them in.

00:02:29Marc:This is the bulk of the tour.

00:02:31Marc:And then I'll do some weekends out and I'll get to where you are.

00:02:35Marc:Or within a few hundred miles of it.

00:02:37Marc:Okay?

00:02:38Marc:You dig?

00:02:39Marc:So tomorrow, through the links that I have on my side, you can go to WTFPod.com slash calendar.

00:02:46Marc:You can see all the dates and you can get your tickets tomorrow.

00:02:50Marc:Also...

00:02:51Marc:I believe, if I'm not mistaken, I added a date that I got to put up on there, but it's not there yet.

00:02:57Marc:So you're the first to know.

00:02:58Marc:To warm up for my tour, I'm going to Rochester, Rochester, New York.

00:03:05Marc:I'm going March 20 and 21 to the Comedy Club in Rochester.

00:03:10Marc:That's for four shows.

00:03:12Marc:And I don't know who I got up there.

00:03:14Marc:I don't know what I'm like up there.

00:03:15Marc:I don't know who wants to see me in Rochester.

00:03:18Marc:I'm feeling out the country a bit.

00:03:20Marc:A lot of stuff that I don't know about what people want or who wants to see me.

00:03:25Marc:But it's all happening after I finish filming.

00:03:29Marc:My show Marin season three, which, as I said, I'm having a good time tomorrow.

00:03:35Marc:I'm working with Elliot Gould, who will be playing Elliot Gould.

00:03:39Marc:Now, for some reason, man, and this is true about my guest as well, Marty Allen.

00:03:45Marc:is my guest today marty allen the marty allen now i know some of you are thinking who the hell is marty allen yeah i understand um but look i didn't grow up with marty allen other than knowing him from like the hollywood squares the guy with the crazy hair on the hollywood squares i remember him when i was a kid uh marty allen the block hello there

00:04:10Marc:He was the hello there guy.

00:04:12Marc:But Marty Allen has been around in show business for many years.

00:04:16Marc:He was in a comedy team called Rossi and Allen.

00:04:19Marc:Here's my point.

00:04:21Marc:I remember seeing him when I was a kid on TV on game shows and I didn't really have any where to place him other than that but he was very recognizable and I think that some of you certainly people my age or maybe a little younger but certainly older would know who Marty Allen is because he was on a lot of game shows and he was a weird looking little guy and he had weird hair and he said hello there and he was kind of funny and he talked weird.

00:04:45Marc:But I didn't know that he was this huge comedy star in this huge comedy team for years and years.

00:04:53Marc:And that he was on the Ed Sullivan show so many times.

00:04:58Marc:But I got this opportunity.

00:05:02Marc:Marty Allen's 92 years old.

00:05:04Marc:And I'm like, all right.

00:05:06Marc:You know, that guy, he's got a story.

00:05:08Marc:He's still working.

00:05:11Marc:Fascinating.

00:05:13Marc:Because I got to tell you something, folks, and I don't want to disappoint anybody.

00:05:16Marc:But lately, all I've been thinking is like, how much money will it take for me to just say, I'm not going to do nothing no more.

00:05:24Marc:I'm just going to hang out.

00:05:26Marc:I'm going to just get off the grid because sometimes.

00:05:30Marc:You know, I enjoy talking to you, and I know that I've had my ups and downs, and some days are what they are, and I love doing this show, and I love talking to people here on the show.

00:05:39Marc:I like doing stand-up, but I don't always know why I'm doing things.

00:05:42Marc:Sometimes I'm like, am I just doing it to do it, to keep up?

00:05:44Marc:To keep up with what?

00:05:45Marc:Am I doing it to stay in the game, to compete?

00:05:48Marc:Am I doing it because I love to do it?

00:05:50Marc:You know, these questions have been coming up.

00:05:52Marc:I need maybe a month off or something, but a lot of times when I hear these guys, they've been working, you know,

00:05:57Marc:non-stop and they're 92 i'm like holy shit why what isn't the goal to stop

00:06:07Marc:At some point to say like, all right, I did it.

00:06:10Marc:I'm going to relax for a year or two or maybe for the rest of it.

00:06:14Marc:Maybe it isn't.

00:06:16Marc:Maybe I'm giving myself, maybe I'm misreading myself and I would go nuts if I had nothing to do.

00:06:22Marc:When I came out to L.A., when I got fucked up the first time after college in 80...

00:06:29Marc:I guess 87, 88.

00:06:32Marc:When I first was, when I was living in Culver City, I spent a lot of time alone and I was at Factors Deli.

00:06:37Marc:There's Factors Delicatestine, I think, over in the Santa Monica Pavilion having some soup at the counter.

00:06:44Marc:And who comes in and sits a few chairs away from me?

00:06:46Marc:Marty Allen.

00:06:47Marc:And I'm looking at him and I'm like, holy shit, that's Marty Allen.

00:06:51Marc:Look at that hair.

00:06:52Marc:Look at him sitting there eating soup.

00:06:54Marc:This is a sad moment for everyone.

00:06:57Marc:Why would I think that?

00:06:58Marc:Why would I think that?

00:06:59Marc:And then I realized that I've always been compelled by the weird, tragic humanity of comedians and comedy and Hollywood and actors and all of it.

00:07:11Marc:The first show I ever saw, Jackie Vernon sitting right up front, 11 years old.

00:07:16Marc:I saw his like sweat and his fat and his miserable kind of disposition and his clown face and

00:07:25Marc:And I was like, that's the life for me.

00:07:27Marc:I'm still very odd about it.

00:07:29Marc:I still have this weird kind of unexplicable respect and awe for anybody that I can identify from the television or from movies.

00:07:40Marc:Certainly from when I was a kid, you know, and Marty Allen comes from that generation of guys that would used to do the roasts.

00:07:46Marc:These were men that were suits and did singing and dancing on camera and they did jokes with each other and there was camaraderie and they all looked their age.

00:07:56Marc:I don't know, man.

00:07:58Marc:There's just something just in my head.

00:08:01Marc:I was watching old Don Rickles pieces the other night.

00:08:06Marc:There was such a glory to it.

00:08:08Marc:There was such an intimacy to the relationship of these celebrities that I grew up watching.

00:08:16Marc:I watched It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World the other night just to watch these comedians do their little bits in there.

00:08:25Marc:I mean, it was unbelievable.

00:08:26Marc:Rosemary Clooney was unbelievable.

00:08:30Marc:Buddy Hackinson and Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, Spencer Tracy was fucking a genius.

00:08:35Marc:And he was almost dead by that point.

00:08:38Marc:And who else?

00:08:38Marc:Buster Keaton had a cameo.

00:08:40Marc:The Three Stooges were in and they didn't even say anything.

00:08:42Marc:The movie's not even that good.

00:08:43Marc:But Jonathan Winters, Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney.

00:08:48Marc:And like, oh, my God, I just can't.

00:08:52Marc:And these aren't even the people that I really grew up with.

00:08:54Marc:These are the people that my grandparents liked.

00:08:56Marc:These are the people that I knew from watching television at my grandparents' house.

00:08:59Marc:And these were monumental people to me.

00:09:01Marc:And I still can't shake that.

00:09:06Marc:You know, I'm just, I'm thrilled.

00:09:08Marc:I'm thrilled.

00:09:09Marc:And then I watched Broadway, Danny Rose, Milton Berle's in there.

00:09:12Marc:It's just, it's my, in my brain, part of me lives there.

00:09:17Marc:It was always just, they were the most important people.

00:09:21Marc:I just don't, it's unbelievable to me.

00:09:23Marc:So what am I just having some reverie about old comedians and actors?

00:09:30Marc:I'm working with Elliot Gould tomorrow and I'm excited.

00:09:32Marc:I'm working with, you know, the original Trapper John, man.

00:09:36Marc:I'm working with the guy who was in The Long Goodbye.

00:09:39Marc:I'm working with the guy who was in Harry and Walter Go to New York.

00:09:42Marc:I mean, I don't see him as a TV actor.

00:09:44Marc:Ellie Gould is Capricorn One.

00:09:47Marc:He's in my mind from when I was a little kid.

00:09:50Marc:They're like my parents.

00:09:52Marc:All these people are like my family.

00:09:54Marc:That's how I look at them when I'm very familiar with an entertainer.

00:10:00Marc:I hope I'm entertaining.

00:10:03Marc:You know?

00:10:05Marc:Marty Allen is here and he's going to be 93 next month.

00:10:09Marc:Unbelievable.

00:10:12Marc:Now, I want to tell you, when he came, this is a 92-year-old man.

00:10:15Marc:I went outside.

00:10:16Marc:I saw him.

00:10:17Marc:I walked over to the car across the street when they parked.

00:10:20Marc:A man and a woman got out.

00:10:22Marc:He got out, too.

00:10:23Marc:And he's a little guy.

00:10:25Marc:He's got his hair.

00:10:26Marc:He's got the thing.

00:10:27Marc:Hello there, he said.

00:10:28Marc:And I got a steep driveway.

00:10:31Marc:And we all said, do you want help?

00:10:33Marc:He's like, no, I'm going to do it.

00:10:34Marc:I'm doing it.

00:10:36Marc:He's a tough old guy.

00:10:39Marc:And apparently, he was quite a dancer.

00:10:42Marc:So here we go.

00:10:44Marc:I'm learning how to talk to older people too, by the way.

00:10:48Marc:I'm not as freaked out as I usually am.

00:10:52Marc:I don't think.

00:10:54Marc:Okay.

00:10:56Marc:Let's talk to Marty Allen.

00:11:06Marc:Marty Allen.

00:11:08Marc:Hello there.

00:11:09Marc:Hello there.

00:11:11Marc:I remember you.

00:11:12Marc:So I remember seeing you on the Hollywood squares.

00:11:15Marc:You were the guy.

00:11:16Marc:Oh, I was.

00:11:16Marc:That was my first introduction to you because I'm like a little younger than you.

00:11:19Marc:I'm about half your age.

00:11:23Marc:But I remember that.

00:11:23Marc:Who's that guy with the voice and the hair?

00:11:25Marc:That was you.

00:11:27Marc:But it made an impression on me to the point where I first lived in L.A.

00:11:31Marc:briefly in 88.

00:11:33Marc:So I go to Junior's and I see you sitting at the counter by yourself eating soup.

00:11:36Marc:And I'm like, I'm in Hollywood.

00:11:38Marc:I made it.

00:11:39Marc:I'm in Los Angeles.

00:11:40Marc:There's Marty Allen eating soup.

00:11:41Marc:This is the life I'm going to live.

00:11:43Marc:Did you used to go there a lot?

00:11:45Guest:Yeah, well, at that time, I lived in Beverly Hills.

00:11:49Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:11:50Guest:But I used to go to Junior's Delicatessen.

00:11:53Guest:Good one, right?

00:11:54Guest:A great deli.

00:11:55Guest:Yeah.

00:11:56Marc:There's not many of them anymore, is there?

00:11:57Guest:Yeah, it's gone.

00:11:59Guest:Oh, no, it's open.

00:12:00Guest:New owner.

00:12:01Guest:Oh, yeah?

00:12:02Marc:Yeah.

00:12:02Marc:But delis, they're a dying thing, the deli.

00:12:05Marc:There's not that many anymore.

00:12:07Marc:No.

00:12:07Marc:You have to go to Africa to...

00:12:09Guest:To Africa for a deli?

00:12:12Guest:They tell me in the Belgian Congo there's one.

00:12:16Marc:Really?

00:12:17Marc:Someone said that to you?

00:12:18Marc:I don't know.

00:12:20Marc:I thought that was a real tip.

00:12:21Marc:I hear the best corned beef is in Africa.

00:12:25Marc:How do you like that cover?

00:12:26Marc:Love the cover.

00:12:27Marc:Is that you in a clown outfit?

00:12:28Marc:That's me crying, yeah.

00:12:31Marc:Crying in a clown outfit.

00:12:33Guest:Whose idea was that?

00:12:34Guest:That's me.

00:12:36Guest:I do a pan of mine.

00:12:39Guest:You do?

00:12:40Marc:You actually do a clown act at Panama?

00:12:42Guest:But a different kind of a clown who's gone through all kind of problems.

00:12:48Guest:Yeah.

00:12:49Guest:And in the moment of knowing that he's getting older.

00:12:55Guest:Uh-huh.

00:12:56Guest:He suddenly realized he's out there to make the people laugh.

00:13:01Guest:He puts a smile back on and goes out.

00:13:06Guest:It's very, very human.

00:13:10Guest:It's Marty Allen because that's the way I am.

00:13:14Guest:Mark, to be honest, I'm the kind of guy.

00:13:17Guest:I love people.

00:13:18Guest:I enjoy people, and I am very sentimental.

00:13:23Guest:When the football game comes on and they play the national anthem, I stand up in the living room.

00:13:30Guest:Do you?

00:13:31Marc:And salute.

00:13:34Marc:Well, I mean, it's like, well, you've made it a long time.

00:13:36Marc:I mean, you've been performing in front of audiences for a very long time.

00:13:39Marc:Long time.

00:13:40Marc:And, you know, and your character has always been like a very, you know, it's a big, broad character.

00:13:47Marc:Marty Allen, you know, you had a hell of a shtick for a long time.

00:13:51Marc:And I don't think that very many people would assume that who knows what's in there.

00:13:55Marc:You know what I mean?

00:13:56Marc:And clearly this, you know, what you're telling me sort of illustrates that, that, you know, you got a big heart and you do it.

00:14:02Guest:But you've made it to— No, they say, you know, some entertainers go out.

00:14:08Guest:They do their job.

00:14:10Guest:Right.

00:14:11Guest:I do it in all sincerity, in all warmth.

00:14:15Guest:Three days ago, I get a letter talking about fan mail from the Ukraine.

00:14:23Guest:Really?

00:14:23Guest:I says, oh, my God.

00:14:26Guest:They just got Hollywood Squares there.

00:14:28Ha, ha, ha, ha.

00:14:29Guest:I don't know.

00:14:30Guest:And the girl says, we saw you, we laughed, and I'd like to have an autographed photo.

00:14:37Guest:That's amazing.

00:14:38Guest:And I'm saying, from the Ukraine yet.

00:14:41Guest:I wonder, it's so interesting.

00:14:43Guest:I said, don't give them my home address.

00:14:46Marc:I don't want to get in trouble.

00:14:48Marc:Well, it's weird that you can watch Now We Live In This Time where, like I sat down this morning, I'm watching, you know, Alan and Rossi clips, you know, from the whole time.

00:14:56Marc:I can watch you on The Roast.

00:14:57Marc:I can watch you on Hollywood.

00:14:58Guest:Somebody asked me how many Ed Sullivan shows I've done.

00:15:02Guest:Yeah.

00:15:03Guest:I did more than Ed Sullivan.

00:15:05Guest:What was it?

00:15:06Guest:Like 45, 46?

00:15:07Marc:Somewhere along that.

00:15:08Marc:How old are you now?

00:15:10Marc:Take a guess.

00:15:11Marc:I'm going to go a young 90.

00:15:14Marc:pretty not bad what old are you 92 unbelievable yeah and you gotta you know you're still cranking still going yeah you know i've talked to uh who did i talk to i talked to shelly berman he's still he's still when they told me it's my birthday yeah and i'm gonna be on a mark marron show i got so excited come on my hair went almost straight

00:15:37Marc:Well, I'm glad it didn't.

00:15:38Marc:I don't want you to lose your edge.

00:15:40Marc:You know what I mean?

00:15:40Marc:Okay, Mark.

00:15:41Marc:So, all right.

00:15:41Marc:So, let's talk about where it started because, you know, like I'm fascinated.

00:15:45Marc:Well, it actually began.

00:15:46Marc:Yeah.

00:15:47Guest:I'm from Pittsburgh.

00:15:48Guest:Yeah.

00:15:50Guest:And I started out...

00:15:53Guest:i always had to feel i was a state uh jitterbug champion dancer really so you were a dancer i won all kind of contents and i was a kid in school yeah that made everybody laugh you know i don't even know what the jitterbug looks like it's a it's quick with the hands and the so you were you were a dancer when you were a kid a wild dancer and uh a showman

00:16:17Guest:And the kind of guy in school that made everybody laugh and they would go to a party.

00:16:24Guest:I was the jester or whatever.

00:16:26Guest:Couldn't help yourself.

00:16:27Guest:And I felt that's really what I wanted.

00:16:30Guest:I started out journalism.

00:16:32Guest:But what did your father do?

00:16:34Marc:Did you grow up in a very Jewish family or what?

00:16:36Guest:My father had a bar and restaurant.

00:16:39Marc:Yeah, so you grew up in the food business.

00:16:41Guest:Well, his bar and restaurant was in the produce.

00:16:45Guest:Yeah.

00:16:47Guest:Mark, you understand where the food and the vegetables came in on the train?

00:16:52Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:16:52Guest:And there was a section, and he had a restaurant and bar there.

00:16:56Guest:Did you work in the restaurant?

00:16:58Guest:No.

00:16:58Guest:No?

00:16:58Guest:Oh, me?

00:16:59Guest:Yeah.

00:16:59Guest:Never?

00:17:00Guest:No.

00:17:00Guest:Never went down there?

00:17:02Guest:You remember they used to have on the famous Kilroy was here?

00:17:07Guest:Yeah, was here, yeah.

00:17:09Guest:And I say in all truth, and not too many people know, I think you're the first one, though.

00:17:15Guest:My dad took chalk and wrote on the train, Marty is here.

00:17:20Guest:And guys would come in his restaurant, and I said, somebody's riding all over the trains.

00:17:27Guest:Marty is here.

00:17:28Guest:Who's Marty?

00:17:30Yeah.

00:17:30Marc:He doing it for you, huh?

00:17:32Marc:He was doing it for me.

00:17:34Marc:So how many people in your family?

00:17:35Marc:You got brothers, sisters?

00:17:36Marc:I had two sisters.

00:17:38Marc:Uh-huh.

00:17:38Marc:And did you, like, what year, so nine years ago, so you were jitterbug champion in high school.

00:17:45Marc:Were you in the war?

00:17:47Marc:On our side.

00:17:51Guest:Good, good.

00:17:51Marc:Well, that's good.

00:17:52Marc:I was in the Air Force.

00:17:54Guest:Oh, yeah?

00:17:55Guest:Did you go overseas?

00:17:57Guest:Yeah.

00:17:58Guest:I was in the 15th Air Force.

00:18:01Guest:We were stationed in Folgia, Italy.

00:18:04Guest:We were the ones that bombed Romania and all around.

00:18:09Guest:What was your job in the war?

00:18:11Guest:I had a mastoid, Mark, in the beginning of my career.

00:18:17Guest:What is it?

00:18:17Guest:It's an ear problem.

00:18:20Guest:And the doctor told my family, I don't think he's going to make it.

00:18:27Guest:And my grandmother said to the doctor, you're an idiot.

00:18:31Guest:He's not only going to make it, he's going to make his family very proud.

00:18:37Guest:That's a true story.

00:18:38Marc:Tough grandmother.

00:18:39Marc:That's a great human.

00:18:41Marc:But when you were in the service, did that... So I was on the ground crew.

00:18:46Marc:Okay.

00:18:46Marc:All right.

00:18:47Marc:But how long were you in for?

00:18:48Marc:A couple of years?

00:18:50Marc:Yeah.

00:18:50Marc:I can't even... And you enlisted, right?

00:18:52Marc:That's what people did then.

00:18:53Guest:They were proud to go.

00:18:55Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:18:55Guest:To be honest with you, I wanted to be in the service.

00:18:59Guest:I wanted to serve my country.

00:19:02Guest:And I felt it in my heart.

00:19:04Guest:And my mother says, she's cooking, and she says, well, you'll be home early.

00:19:10Guest:They'll see your ear.

00:19:12Guest:You'll be home early.

00:19:13Guest:And I came home early.

00:19:16Guest:Ma, Dad, I'm in the service.

00:19:19Guest:Oh!

00:19:20Guest:Yeah.

00:19:22Guest:The soup fell over.

00:19:25Marc:But you were in for a while, though, right?

00:19:28Guest:So you didn't actually see any action, but you... I saw... Well, we were involved in action, actually.

00:19:37Guest:Yeah.

00:19:37Marc:yeah did you stay in touch with a lot of the guys you were in the service with for your whole life oh yeah well i had many friends yeah yeah so when you come back from italy yeah what you on the gi bill then and you would you go to school how'd that work well i like i said i uh i was very uh hot in journalism i like to write i still write short stories and oh yeah and you wrote a book

00:20:03Guest:And I wrote a book.

00:20:05Guest:Yeah.

00:20:05Guest:Marty Allen.

00:20:06Guest:Hello there.

00:20:07Guest:And this is a memoir.

00:20:10Guest:Memoir of my times with Elvis, with Nat King Cole, with Sarah Vaughan, with you name it.

00:20:21Guest:Steve Rossi.

00:20:22Guest:Yeah, that was the name.

00:20:24Guest:I was trying to think of the name.

00:20:26Ha, ha, ha.

00:20:27Guest:Well, that guy.

00:20:30Marc:So when you come back, where did you end up going to college?

00:20:32Guest:Well, what happened is when I came back, like I said, I was going to go to school in journalism, but I felt in my heart, Mark, comedy, comedy.

00:20:44Guest:Really?

00:20:44Guest:So I became like the kid in Pittsburgh.

00:20:49Guest:I played all kind of joints.

00:20:52Guest:I played all kind of taverns.

00:20:54Guest:Doing stand-up?

00:20:55Guest:I played bars.

00:20:56Guest:I would do a routine, a crazy routine.

00:21:00Guest:And I'd do pantomime.

00:21:03Guest:I'd do dancing.

00:21:04Guest:And finally, one day, I became like...

00:21:10Guest:One of the popular guys.

00:21:12Guest:In Pittsburgh.

00:21:13Guest:And the agent said to me, I got you booked on a weekend with a girl singer.

00:21:20Guest:So I said, oh, that's great.

00:21:24Guest:Do I know her?

00:21:26Guest:He says, I hope you do because it's Sarah Vaughan.

00:21:30Guest:Wow.

00:21:30Guest:Well, I almost collapsed.

00:21:34Guest:Wow.

00:21:34Guest:Sarah Vaughn.

00:21:35Guest:Yeah.

00:21:36Guest:And so I worked with her.

00:21:38Guest:Then she took a liking of me and she made a phone call.

00:21:42Guest:Because in those days, Mark, all the singers had an opening act.

00:21:48Guest:The opening act was a comedian.

00:21:50Guest:Yeah.

00:21:51Guest:So they would book you to do 15 or 20 minutes to open the show.

00:21:59Guest:And then the singer would come on and take over.

00:22:02Guest:And she recommended me to Nat King Cole.

00:22:06Guest:Really?

00:22:06Guest:And his manager finally, I was coming to Hollywood with my cousin who was going to school out there.

00:22:14Guest:And I says, well, go to Hollywood.

00:22:18Guest:And in the meantime, I was doing dates.

00:22:21Guest:And then she called Nat.

00:22:23Guest:Yeah.

00:22:23Guest:And I started traveling with Nat King Cole.

00:22:26Marc:Oh, my God.

00:22:27Marc:My grandfather loved him.

00:22:29Marc:Loved him.

00:22:30Marc:Loved him.

00:22:31Guest:I adored him.

00:22:32Guest:Yeah.

00:22:33Guest:What a man.

00:22:34Guest:Yeah.

00:22:35Guest:I would say in my mind, Sinatra, Elvis, and Nat King Cole stand out who I worked with and who I knew and who I felt such great admiration for.

00:22:52Marc:Yeah, he was a great, real style.

00:22:55Guest:And that was unbelievable.

00:22:57Guest:And you toured with him a lot?

00:22:59Guest:Toured with him and toured with him.

00:23:01Guest:And then I was in Chicago at the Chez Paris, famous nightclub in Chicago with Edie Gourmet.

00:23:14Guest:Steve Rossi was a production singer at the Sands Hotel in Vegas.

00:23:19Guest:What's that mean, a production singer?

00:23:20Guest:He was the guy that when the girls came out, he sang.

00:23:24Guest:Oh, okay, okay.

00:23:25Marc:So like the intro guy.

00:23:26Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:23:27Guest:A pretty girl.

00:23:28Guest:Yeah, right, right.

00:23:30Guest:And he said to Nat, he says, I don't want to be a singer anymore.

00:23:36Guest:I want to do something else.

00:23:39Guest:And Nat says, well, Martin and Lewis are a hot comedy team.

00:23:45Guest:And I have a young man who is really funny.

00:23:49Guest:And maybe if the two of you got together, it would work out as a good comedy team.

00:23:57Guest:So Steve called me, and I said, I don't know if I want to do that.

00:24:04Guest:I'm making a couple bucks.

00:24:06Guest:I'm happy.

00:24:06Guest:You got an act?

00:24:08Guest:Yeah, I got an act I'm working with.

00:24:10Guest:With eating gourmet.

00:24:13Guest:I said, you know, I'm happy.

00:24:16Guest:I don't know.

00:24:17Guest:He said, well, if I flew in and talked to you, maybe we could work something out.

00:24:24Guest:So I says, well, come on, fly in.

00:24:29Guest:So he's flying in from Vegas?

00:24:31Guest:He flew in from Las Vegas.

00:24:33Guest:Well, I see this guy that looked like Rock Hudson.

00:24:38Guest:Yeah.

00:24:38Guest:No, he was so handsome.

00:24:40Guest:And then I heard him sing.

00:24:41Guest:He knocked me out.

00:24:44Guest:He was a great singer, and he had a nice personality, an attitude.

00:24:51Guest:And I said, well, I'll tell you what, let's give it a shot.

00:24:58Guest:So I wrote some material.

00:25:00Guest:Yeah.

00:25:00Guest:And we wrote a couple routines and I worked with him.

00:25:05Guest:And we start playing little places where little joints.

00:25:12Marc:Let me ask you something about that, about the nightclub circuit at that time.

00:25:16Marc:These were like usually dinner clubs, right?

00:25:19Marc:Well, there were like private clubs.

00:25:24Guest:Like mob-owned clubs?

00:25:26Guest:Yeah.

00:25:26Guest:There were like all kind of private clubs.

00:25:29Guest:There were little nightclubs in those days.

00:25:34Guest:So we played all, what you might say, joints.

00:25:40Guest:And I felt in my ear...

00:25:45Guest:The audience was reacting.

00:25:47Guest:You knew right off the bat.

00:25:50Guest:They were hysterical.

00:25:51Guest:I said, oh, it's working.

00:25:55Marc:It's really... Better than it was as a solo act?

00:25:59Marc:You felt a better response when you were with the... Well, not a better response.

00:26:03Guest:I felt that they reacted to...

00:26:06Guest:To what we were doing.

00:26:07Marc:To the dynamic.

00:26:08Guest:And I said, oh, okay.

00:26:11Guest:Yeah.

00:26:12Guest:Let's give it a shot.

00:26:13Guest:Yeah.

00:26:14Guest:We called Nat.

00:26:14Guest:We said we were ready.

00:26:16Guest:Yeah.

00:26:17Guest:And then he took us and took us on tour.

00:26:20Guest:And eventually we ended up...

00:26:23Guest:playing with Nat King Cole at the Sands in Las Vegas.

00:26:28Guest:Isn't that something?

00:26:29Guest:And after Nat, we were held over with Sinatra.

00:26:34Guest:After that, we were held over with Lena Horne.

00:26:38Guest:Wow.

00:26:39Guest:After that, we were held over with that fantastic singer from London, Shirley Bassey.

00:26:45Guest:Mm-hmm.

00:26:46Guest:And then we ended up after that with Paul Anka.

00:26:51Guest:Mm-hmm.

00:26:51Guest:One after the other.

00:26:52Guest:So you were in Vegas all year round.

00:26:54Marc:For years.

00:26:56Marc:I should have bought a hotel.

00:26:59Marc:Or a motel.

00:27:00Marc:What was Vegas like then?

00:27:01Marc:Because there was only a handful of hotels then, right?

00:27:04Marc:It was terrific.

00:27:04Marc:Yeah, it was classy, right?

00:27:06Marc:It's always been terrific.

00:27:07Marc:Vegas there's no place like Las Vegas but back then like you did you because I've talked to guys you know who do I talk to recently I talked to Bob Newhart and it just seemed that there was a camaraderie to Vegas that you know that everybody sort of knew who was in town we knew who was in town and did you and if I'm working with Nat King Cole I would go see maybe go see Don Rickles right oh in fact

00:27:31Guest:That's it.

00:27:32Guest:I had an agent who was a good friend of mine.

00:27:37Guest:Yeah.

00:27:37Guest:He said, listen, I just booked an act for two weeks.

00:27:41Guest:I want you to go down and see them there at the Sahara.

00:27:45Guest:Yeah.

00:27:45Guest:And he says, if you like them, just tell me what you think of them.

00:27:51Guest:Yeah.

00:27:51Guest:When we were done with our show, Mark, we would go see whoever we could see.

00:27:57Guest:Did you go see Shecky?

00:27:58Guest:He was still playing.

00:28:00Guest:At that time.

00:28:01Guest:Did you ever see Shecky Green?

00:28:02Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:28:03Guest:Yeah.

00:28:03Guest:Funny guy, right?

00:28:05Guest:No, great funny guy and a good friend of mine.

00:28:08Guest:Yeah?

00:28:08Guest:Oh, yeah, Shecky.

00:28:10Guest:I'm fascinated with that guy.

00:28:11Guest:We're very classy.

00:28:12Marc:Yeah?

00:28:13Marc:How long were you in Vegas?

00:28:14Guest:I mean, like...

00:28:16Guest:When we played with Nat, and then like I said, we do.

00:28:23Guest:You used to stay over.

00:28:24Guest:You do 10 days with Nat, stay over 10 days with Sinatra, 10 days with Lena.

00:28:31Guest:What was it like working with Frank?

00:28:33Guest:I mean, was he a sweet guy?

00:28:35Guest:He was unbelievable.

00:28:37Guest:He is Las Vegas.

00:28:40Guest:Sinatra, in my estimation, was a classy, phenomenal singer, classy man, and a nice guy.

00:28:52Guest:I really adored him.

00:28:55Guest:And at that time, people would dress up for Vegas.

00:28:57Guest:Everybody looked nice.

00:28:58Guest:Shirt and tie, the women in cocktail dresses.

00:29:02Guest:and looking beautiful like that.

00:29:06Guest:And the guys wore a shirt and ties.

00:29:10Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:29:11Marc:And did you, like, after the shows, like, was Dean Martin hanging around?

00:29:17Marc:Was Joey Bishop hanging around with everybody?

00:29:20Guest:Well, then...

00:29:21Guest:And then I saw the Rat Pack together, and they were a class act, you know.

00:29:30Guest:And they were real nice guys.

00:29:33Guest:Dean Martin would come in the casino, and he'd start to deal.

00:29:38Guest:Yeah.

00:29:38Guest:Blackjack.

00:29:39Guest:Well, he used to be a Blackjack dealer.

00:29:40Marc:Yeah.

00:29:41Marc:In Steubenville, Ohio.

00:29:44Marc:That's right.

00:29:44Marc:You're right, Mark.

00:29:45Marc:Yeah, it's a fascinating story, man.

00:29:48Marc:He was the real deal.

00:29:49Marc:Yeah.

00:29:50Marc:Yeah.

00:29:50Marc:So, okay, so now how do you get from Vegas?

00:29:53Marc:So you and Rossi, you're making waves.

00:29:56Guest:Well, now we're Alan and Rossi.

00:29:58Guest:Right.

00:29:58Guest:We start doing shows.

00:30:01Guest:We did Hollywood Squares at the beginning.

00:30:04Guest:Together.

00:30:05Guest:We had together, we did Password together, What's My Line, you name it, we did it.

00:30:12Guest:So you were out there, everyone knew who you were.

00:30:14Guest:We did, everybody now.

00:30:17Guest:And then you moved to a headlining spot at that point?

00:30:19Guest:No, then we became a headline, ended up at the Copacabana in New York, which is awesome.

00:30:26Marc:Was the mecca of all show business.

00:30:28Marc:What was that like?

00:30:29Marc:I mean, my only point of reference for that is watching something like Goodfellas.

00:30:35Marc:That's how I know it.

00:30:38Guest:Well, you worked and you worked and you say someday if you could make it,

00:30:44Guest:where would you like to be well the pinnacle of all success yeah for all singers and and professional comics and so forth uh-huh was the copacabana uh-huh and we ended up at the copacabana and you knew you'd arrived that was it and that's it yeah and was it great oh

00:31:07Marc:Yeah.

00:31:08Marc:What made it so good?

00:31:09Marc:Ecstasy.

00:31:10Marc:What made it so good, really?

00:31:12Marc:I mean, just the rumor.

00:31:13Marc:That's when my hair went well.

00:31:16Marc:That's what started the hair.

00:31:18Guest:When I had the wild hair.

00:31:19Guest:I was the first one.

00:31:21Guest:That's why with the Beatles, you know, and they took that picture.

00:31:26Guest:They kept looking at me.

00:31:28Guest:In fact, the reason...

00:31:30Guest:It was a photo of me with John Lennon.

00:31:34Guest:I walked over to John Lennon.

00:31:35Guest:He had no idea who I was.

00:31:39Guest:And I said, John?

00:31:40Guest:He said, yes.

00:31:42Guest:I said, a lot of people mistake me for you.

00:31:45Guest:And he got hysterical.

00:31:48Guest:He started laughing.

00:31:51Guest:He had no idea.

00:31:52Guest:And when I hit him with that line, he went crazy.

00:31:55Guest:And that was at the Sullivan Show.

00:31:57Marc:That was in 1964.

00:31:59Marc:Were you the other guest on the show on their first American, on the first Sullivan?

00:32:05Marc:We were on that big show in 1964.

00:32:08Marc:The first time the Beatles were on American television, you were the other act.

00:32:12Marc:alan and rossi how many acts on it there were other acts on also so i'm assuming that it didn't go well for you that night it didn't go well well they would you have a bunch of screaming teenage girls waiting for the beatles yes but when i came out and said hello there i'm ringo's mother boom the kids went ah

00:32:35Guest:Then they knew right off the bat.

00:32:39Guest:You adapted.

00:32:40Guest:Got them on your team and they paid attention, huh?

00:32:42Guest:They paid attention.

00:32:43Guest:That must have been amazing.

00:32:44Guest:And Steve, instead of singing an up-tempo, did more of an up-tempo song.

00:32:49Guest:For the kids.

00:32:49Guest:And I was dancing.

00:32:50Guest:You were dancing.

00:32:51Guest:And we did a routine and they reacted.

00:32:54Marc:So you did it with the Beatles and you got to hang out with the Beatles.

00:32:57Marc:But I got to assume show business has never been any different in the sense that you two must have been backstage thinking, how are we going to make this work?

00:33:07Guest:Well, we knew right off the bat there had to be 100 police because there were 1,000 little girls.

00:33:16Guest:And they were yelling, John!

00:33:19Guest:John!

00:33:19Guest:Ringo.

00:33:20Guest:Ringo.

00:33:21Guest:Paul.

00:33:23Guest:Paul.

00:33:24Guest:And I yelled, Marty.

00:33:26Guest:And I went, who?

00:33:29Guest:Me.

00:33:31Marc:Oh, my God.

00:33:32Marc:See, like, I don't have any point of reference.

00:33:34Marc:I imagine a lot of people who listen to my show don't really know that, you know, the power of Ed Sullivan and just what that meant to an actor.

00:33:42Guest:Oh, it was the biggest show.

00:33:44Marc:Yeah.

00:33:44Marc:Well, before the Tonight Show.

00:33:46Guest:Yeah.

00:33:46Guest:and it was a variety show and it was a variety show and so he had the greatest variety show and you knew that every every time sullivan was on and the people were mobbed yeah and also like it wouldn't be unusual to be there with a plate spinner or a dog act or anything jugglers yeah guys with things on fire

00:34:08Guest:Well, and a good friend of mine who was a big comic on the show.

00:34:12Marc:Who?

00:34:13Marc:Myron Cohn.

00:34:14Marc:See, no one knows who that guy is now.

00:34:17Marc:And he was one of the biggest comics.

00:34:19Guest:He was the guy that did Italian and Jewish and Polish.

00:34:23Guest:He did all kind of accents.

00:34:25Guest:And a lot of Yiddish.

00:34:26Guest:And a lot of, oh, his humor was humor regarding the group.

00:34:35Marc:Right, sure.

00:34:36Marc:Yeah.

00:34:36Marc:But like originally, I think when he was playing the hotels in the Borscht Belt, he almost performed exclusively in Yiddish, didn't he?

00:34:45Guest:No.

00:34:45Guest:No?

00:34:46Guest:No, he did really in English.

00:34:49Guest:Oh, yeah?

00:34:50Guest:But he was a brilliant, brilliant man and a brilliant storyteller.

00:34:57Guest:Right, right.

00:34:57Guest:Yeah.

00:34:57Guest:Did you spend time up there in the mountains?

00:35:00Guest:Well, I knew Myron.

00:35:01Guest:I knew all those guys.

00:35:03Guest:Who were the guys?

00:35:04Guest:You name them, and I'll say yes.

00:35:06Guest:Mousy Lawrence.

00:35:07Guest:Mousy Lawrence.

00:35:09Marc:Well, Mousy came later.

00:35:10Guest:Later.

00:35:11Marc:I don't even know who the original guys were.

00:35:13Marc:There was Myron Cohen, and who else were the original guys?

00:35:17Marc:Well, then Jackie Mason came along.

00:35:20Guest:And all the big comics.

00:35:22Guest:Jerry Lewis.

00:35:24Guest:Sure.

00:35:25Guest:Everybody played the Catskills.

00:35:27Guest:Was that a good gig?

00:35:29Guest:Oh, the Catskills was phenomenal.

00:35:31Guest:Yeah?

00:35:32Guest:Oh, fabulous.

00:35:33Guest:Why?

00:35:33Guest:Because they took care of you?

00:35:35Guest:Or the good audiences?

00:35:36Guest:Well, when you say took care of you, I'll give you an idea what happened.

00:35:42Okay.

00:35:42Guest:uh the owner uh the guy that ran his name was phil greenwald he he booked all the shows big shows he had sammy davis he had every everybody big you know all the tony ben everybody played the cat the concord hotel right and at the concord hotel uh

00:36:07Guest:He said to me, they really like you, don't they?

00:36:12Guest:I says, well, it's a great compliment.

00:36:15Guest:He says, I want you to have lunch with me.

00:36:18Guest:And I'm saying, oh, I'll have lunch with you.

00:36:22Guest:And there, having lunch, was a woman who ran the hotel.

00:36:31Guest:She was more or less the general manager of booking all the guests.

00:36:38Guest:Her name was Lorraine Tridel.

00:36:41Guest:She was from Paris, France, originally.

00:36:45Guest:And she was sitting there, and she was laughing.

00:36:49Guest:And I said to her, where are you from?

00:36:51Guest:She said, Paris.

00:36:54Guest:I said, France?

00:36:55Guest:Yes.

00:36:56Guest:And I said, well, I'm not only a comedian, but I collect art.

00:37:01Guest:I have photos of the various artists from Paris and famous photos of

00:37:08Guest:of different things in Paris, and they're in my room.

00:37:13Guest:She says, I've heard every kind of a remark from a comedian, but this is the first time I've ever heard anyone say this to me.

00:37:23Guest:They're in my room, meaning what?

00:37:26Guest:I said, well, I was going to say, if you came to my room, she said, oh, Marty, come on, you've got to be kidding me.

00:37:33Guest:this routine and I says no I'm not I'm not doing this on a make yeah I said I'll tell you what you stand outside the door of my room I'll bring the pictures out so she started laughing stood out

00:37:52Guest:I brought the pictures out.

00:37:55Guest:Not only brought the pictures out, Mark, but we were married for a long, long time.

00:38:02Guest:Yeah.

00:38:02Guest:For over 15, 17 years.

00:38:04Guest:And then she passed away.

00:38:07Guest:But we were very happily married.

00:38:10Guest:And we had a penthouse, and people used to say, where do you live, Marty?

00:38:18Guest:I says, I live in the Concord Hotel.

00:38:21Guest:No, no, where do you live?

00:38:23Guest:I says, I live in the Concord Hotel.

00:38:26Guest:And the guy says, how can you live in the Concord Hotel?

00:38:29Guest:I say, you think it's easy?

00:38:31Guest:I can't get help.

00:38:33LAUGHTER

00:38:35Guest:You did live there, though?

00:38:38Guest:Where was the penthouse?

00:38:39Guest:You actually lived there or no?

00:38:40Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:38:43Guest:We lived in the penthouse.

00:38:44Guest:In the Concord.

00:38:45Guest:In the Concord, which was one of the greatest hotels ever.

00:38:52Guest:And then eventually, after she passed away, Steve and I were together.

00:39:01Guest:And then we got to a point, Mark, where we had played everything.

00:39:09Guest:And we'd been at the Copa Club.

00:39:12Guest:Three, four times.

00:39:14Guest:And they start to ask me, would you do an acting job?

00:39:18Guest:We'd like you to be a semi-regular on Hollywood Squares.

00:39:24Guest:We'd like you to do this show.

00:39:26Guest:And I said to Steve, well, you know, we played everything.

00:39:30Guest:We've done everything.

00:39:32Guest:Could we part very amicably?

00:39:37Guest:As I sit here in front of you, in all honesty, we were the only team I think that ever parted friendly, and we remained friends all through life.

00:39:53Guest:That's amazing.

00:39:54Guest:Until he just passed away.

00:39:55Guest:Recently, yeah.

00:39:56Guest:Sorry to hear that.

00:39:58Guest:And then I became a semi-regular on Hollywood Squares with Paul Lynch.

00:40:03Guest:That's what I remember.

00:40:04Guest:And Charlie Weaver.

00:40:06Guest:And then I did Big Valley with Barbara Stanwyck.

00:40:09Guest:Oh, wow.

00:40:10Guest:I played the Jonah, and I was nominated for all kind of awards for my acting.

00:40:16Guest:I did a movie in...

00:40:18Guest:Connie Stevens and and we went to Malta and did a movie and I did other movies I did a lot of movies and television and then one day my agent took me to a restaurant in Los Angeles and

00:40:38Guest:And it was next door to his route where he was.

00:40:46Guest:And walked in and I saw the maitre d' who was a beautiful girl by the name of Karen Blackwell.

00:40:57Guest:And he said, I have some pictures from Paris.

00:40:59Guest:She says, Mr. Allen.

00:41:00Guest:She says, Mr. Allen.

00:41:02Guest:What would you like?

00:41:04Guest:I says, a fruit cocktail, a plate of fruit.

00:41:10Guest:And when she went, I wrote on the menu, I like the way you look in that dress.

00:41:16Guest:I like that more than the fruit cocktail.

00:41:19Guest:And we got married and became...

00:41:22Guest:And we are married 30 years.

00:41:25Guest:That's unbelievable.

00:41:27Guest:Did you guys work together?

00:41:28Guest:We worked together all the time.

00:41:31Guest:She became my straight lady, and we became a hot act.

00:41:35Guest:Oh, yeah?

00:41:36Marc:And it's Marty Allen and Karen Blackwell.

00:41:39Marc:So when you and Rossi split, that was like the late 60s, right?

00:41:43Marc:Yeah, after we split.

00:41:46Marc:When did you work with Elvis?

00:41:48Guest:Oh, well, what happened with Elvis is when he did his big show in Las Vegas.

00:41:57Guest:In the 70s or earlier.

00:42:00Guest:The first time when he did that big show before Hawaii and all that, when he became like...

00:42:08Guest:Nobody could top him, and the crowds were coming.

00:42:13Guest:I walk in the hotel.

00:42:15Guest:There was a photo of Elvis, and I see his two guards standing off to the side.

00:42:23Guest:And they spot me.

00:42:25Guest:Yeah.

00:42:25Guest:I go over to the picture and start kissing the photo and getting real close and doing all kind of wild things to the photo.

00:42:36Guest:And they handcuffed me and took me backstage.

00:42:40Guest:And Elvis says, what's this?

00:42:43Guest:And they said, we found this pervert.

00:42:47Guest:Yeah.

00:42:47Guest:outside kissing your photo, making love to your photo.

00:42:53Guest:And he says, it's Marty.

00:42:55Guest:You're Marty Allen.

00:42:57Guest:And he took the handcuffs off me and he was hysterical laughing.

00:43:02Guest:And then it was time for him

00:43:05Guest:to go out to do the show.

00:43:07Guest:And they said, what about Marty?

00:43:10Guest:And he's laughing.

00:43:12Guest:He says, I'll tell you what, handcuff him to the door.

00:43:16Guest:So I thought they were kidding.

00:43:18Guest:They handcuffed me, and I know Elvis is going to be out there for over two hours.

00:43:25Guest:And finally a guard comes along.

00:43:28Guest:I keep hollering, and he says, what are you doing in the dress?

00:43:32Guest:He says...

00:43:33Guest:You're Marty Allen, yeah.

00:43:36Guest:What are you doing?

00:43:37Guest:I said, they did a joke, and they forgot, and they handcuffed me.

00:43:41Guest:Can you get me out of it?

00:43:43Guest:And he got the handcuffs, took it, and I saw all the scarves lying on the bed.

00:43:50Guest:I put one on my head like a babushka, ran out, and there are thousands of girls.

00:43:57Guest:I go up to the ringside,

00:43:59Guest:And get right close to the ring, right up to the ring.

00:44:04Guest:And Elvis is coming by with his car.

00:44:07Guest:Love me, tender, love me.

00:44:09Guest:And I look up and I go, I love you.

00:44:12Guest:I love you.

00:44:13Guest:He almost collapsed.

00:44:16Guest:And that was the beginning.

00:44:17Guest:of our relationship and eventually he came to see me one night when it was dark he walked in with two of his guards i was doing an elvis presley impersonation a takeoff on him

00:44:34Guest:doing the whole routine, and he got hysterical.

00:44:39Guest:In fact, he wrote me a fan letter saying, you're 99 plus, and he signed an EP.

00:44:48Guest:Did you end up opening for him?

00:44:50Guest:no i never i never worked you just you were just buddies never one of those comics work uh that worked with him with but our relationship he would mention me he would say something about my hair or he'd be singing a song and he says and i love you marty or something in which he was he a funny guy

00:45:16Guest:He was a nice man.

00:45:20Guest:There's no way to describe him.

00:45:22Guest:He was a terrific...

00:45:24Guest:How do you explain something like that?

00:45:28Guest:He was Elvis Presley.

00:45:29Guest:And you could feel it.

00:45:31Guest:In my estimation, one of the greats of our business.

00:45:34Guest:You say Sinatra, number one, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley.

00:45:40Guest:These are kind of stars.

00:45:43Guest:And they were friendly.

00:45:44Guest:And they were nice people.

00:45:46Guest:And never, you know, none of the...

00:45:50Marc:conceived or anything and real professionals real professional and elvis put on a hell of a show oh yeah there was nobody he hypnotized the world yeah yeah it was like sinatra yeah you know the next generation yeah and what the i was told that the that you had on the sullivan show there was a couple of uh uh interesting almost uh uh problems what was the uh the the zulu bit

00:46:17Guest:Oh, we did a routine at the time when the Peace Corps was a big deal, and Steve played a member of the Peace Corps, and I was a Zulu native that he was going to interview.

00:46:38Guest:Uh-huh.

00:46:38Guest:Sullivan is sitting, putting his makeup on, and Steve, he says, he just asked, what routine are you doing?

00:46:47Guest:He said, we're doing the Peace Corps, and Marty placed a Zulu warrior.

00:46:53Guest:He says, no, you're not.

00:46:55Guest:And Steve started laughing.

00:46:58Guest:He said, what do you mean, no, we're not?

00:47:00Guest:He says, you're not doing that routine.

00:47:03Guest:He says, why?

00:47:04Guest:Why?

00:47:04Guest:He says, because I have 100 Zulu dancers on the show tonight.

00:47:10Guest:I have no conception, and I'm in that outfit, and I'm going down to put on makeup, and I walk down the steps, and I see all these natives wearing the same outfit, and I can't believe... And I said, what is that?

00:47:30Guest:And I run up, and I said...

00:47:32Guest:Ed, there are guys that look like Zulus on the show.

00:47:37Guest:He said, they are real Zulu dancers.

00:47:42Guest:So I said, oh, what are we going to do?

00:47:46Guest:Now, we had an hour before the show.

00:47:49Guest:We ran across the street.

00:47:51Guest:I got a Japanese cap and we played the manager of the World's Fair, the manager of the Japanese pavilion.

00:48:03Guest:I changed all the jokes.

00:48:05Guest:Steve and I changed all the jokes and we went out and did this.

00:48:10Guest:Had it worked.

00:48:11Guest:And it worked.

00:48:12Guest:And then about, we would eat at a famous restaurant called Danny's Hideaway.

00:48:19Guest:Mm-hmm.

00:48:19Guest:And Ed was having dinner there one night, and he said to me, when are you going to do your Zulu routine?

00:48:28Guest:I said, if I had a pot, I'd hit you, Ed.

00:48:35Marc:It was hysterical.

00:48:36Marc:It's interesting because so many of the routines that used to be sort of commonplace at that time would be considered insensitive now.

00:48:43Marc:You know what I mean?

00:48:45Guest:Back then, the Peace Corps was a big thing.

00:48:48Guest:I was playing a regular Zulu warrior and being interviewed.

00:48:54Guest:I had no conception that he would have Zulu dancers on the show.

00:48:59Marc:So when you grew up, like knowing Myron Cohn and knowing the Catskills and having spent as much time as you spent up there, how much was being Jewish or being brought up Jewish part?

00:49:11Marc:I wasn't thinking that way.

00:49:13Marc:No, but I mean, were you?

00:49:15Marc:Because I mean, I'm Jewish.

00:49:16Guest:Most of the comics were Jewish.

00:49:18No.

00:49:18Guest:Well, they weren't all, they were regular comics.

00:49:21Guest:Right, right.

00:49:22Guest:Nobody was doing Jewish.

00:49:23Guest:Yeah.

00:49:24Guest:Except there may have been a couple.

00:49:28Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:49:29Guest:But there wasn't like what you're thinking.

00:49:31Guest:It was all the acts would go every weekend.

00:49:36Guest:Yeah.

00:49:36Guest:You meet at a drugstore in New York called Hanson's.

00:49:40Guest:Did you play the Catskill today in the famous hotels?

00:49:45Guest:Grossinger's, the Concord, Brown's, Neville Lee.

00:49:50Marc:I just always pictured it like for some reason, I guess I romanticized it because I'm a Jewish kid.

00:49:56Marc:I grew up in New Mexico.

00:49:57Marc:It wasn't.

00:49:58Marc:It didn't feel that way?

00:49:59Guest:It was a Jewish population that came up there on the weekend, but it wasn't that you played it that way.

00:50:09Guest:No, no, no.

00:50:10Guest:Because in the nightclub at the Concord,

00:50:13Guest:was like playing the Cobra Cabana.

00:50:16Guest:Right, right.

00:50:16Guest:Because they had Tony Bennett.

00:50:18Guest:Right.

00:50:19Guest:You had Sammy Davis.

00:50:21Guest:Right.

00:50:21Guest:You had, you name the guy.

00:50:25Marc:Everybody.

00:50:26Marc:Everybody.

00:50:27Marc:Who were the guys?

00:50:28Marc:There's so many comics that...

00:50:30Marc:Like that I, you know, that people don't know.

00:50:33Marc:Because like, you know, now there's like hundreds and hundreds of comics.

00:50:36Marc:But it was like that when you were starting out too, wasn't it?

00:50:38Marc:Yeah.

00:50:38Marc:I mean, there were a lot of guys that never made it that, you know, that were really funny and no one knows who they are.

00:50:43Marc:Yeah.

00:50:44Marc:Did you know a lot of guys that were hilarious that no one would know?

00:50:47Marc:Well, I mean...

00:50:48Guest:You know, you have that same thing today where there are a lot of guys that are working, but they never become as well-known as the ones that I knew at the time.

00:51:03Guest:And I take pride in the fact that I know great comedian Shecky.

00:51:10Guest:You mentioned Shecky, who's not only a great comedian, but a good friend of

00:51:17Guest:uh jackie mason yeah yeah you know these kind of guys and i worked with them growing up during their time their period of when they were entertaining when you were in vegas i you know shecky gets sort of credited with you know sort of creating the lounge act that you know like he would play this small room and just you know oh yeah but he

00:51:40Guest:But you would go in and know how great he was.

00:51:45Guest:Yeah.

00:51:45Guest:All the lounges were fantastic.

00:51:47Guest:Yeah.

00:51:48Guest:Because you would go in and say like a singer like Jerry Vale would be in the lounge.

00:51:55Guest:Right, right, right.

00:51:56Guest:Or some other famous singer.

00:51:58Guest:Yeah.

00:51:59Guest:Before they got big.

00:52:00Guest:Eventually they became big names.

00:52:02Guest:So that was the way it worked.

00:52:03Guest:You'd do the lounge.

00:52:04Guest:That was it.

00:52:04Guest:A lot of them worked in lounges.

00:52:07Guest:And then from the lounges, when I went down to see Louis Prima and Keeley, Rickles was also in the lounge.

00:52:19Guest:And then boom, he became a big star.

00:52:22Marc:It must have been amazing to see him in the lounge.

00:52:23Marc:It's a smaller room, right?

00:52:25Guest:Yeah.

00:52:25Marc:And just to see him work with that crowd.

00:52:27Guest:But he worked so good.

00:52:30Guest:Yeah.

00:52:31Guest:That eventually the people took to him and he became a big star.

00:52:37Guest:So quick.

00:52:37Guest:And deservedly so.

00:52:39Guest:So quick.

00:52:39Guest:In fact, when I'm in Vegas, I live in Vegas.

00:52:43Guest:Do you?

00:52:44Guest:And they say, who do you go to see?

00:52:48Guest:Like, who do you go to as a comedian?

00:52:51Guest:Who do you like?

00:52:52Guest:Oh, I like Tony Bennett.

00:52:55Guest:But if I go to see a comedian, it's either Shecky or Rickles.

00:53:00Guest:Those are my two favorites.

00:53:02Marc:They hit me hard.

00:53:03Marc:I just saw Rickles in Canada.

00:53:05Marc:He's like, what is he, almost 90?

00:53:07Marc:And he sits down, but he's sharp.

00:53:10Marc:Oh, yeah, he's sharp.

00:53:11Marc:We just saw Karen and I just went to see him.

00:53:14Marc:Did you win some sort of... I saw something on YouTube where they were presenting you with like a Tropicana Award or did someone give you... Oh, no, the Louis Primo Award was presented by his daughter.

00:53:29Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:53:29Guest:But right now on YouTube, there are two DVDs of Karen Blackwell singing by the time I go to Phoenix.

00:53:42Guest:And I pray before.

00:53:44Guest:Two songs that are phenomenal.

00:53:46Guest:And I did a quickie that you gotta take a look.

00:53:50Guest:It's called Marty Allen's Secret.

00:53:53Guest:I don't want you to know.

00:53:55Guest:Just go watch it.

00:53:56Guest:I saw that.

00:53:57Guest:You'll fall down.

00:53:58Guest:You'll fall down.

00:53:59Guest:Do you still perform?

00:54:02Guest:Is he kidding me?

00:54:04Guest:I love that.

00:54:05Guest:That's a great line.

00:54:08Guest:Of course.

00:54:09Guest:Yeah.

00:54:10Guest:That's amazing.

00:54:10Guest:With a cane and everything.

00:54:12Guest:Yeah, you love it.

00:54:13Guest:No, we just came back.

00:54:14Guest:We were in Michigan and Milwaukee.

00:54:17Guest:In Milwaukee, we played a famous casino, Potawatomi.

00:54:23Guest:Yeah.

00:54:24Guest:And that's where I met this wonderful...

00:54:26Marc:And how do you find the audience now?

00:54:29Marc:Who comes out?

00:54:31Marc:They're hysterical.

00:54:34Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:54:35Marc:They're good audiences and just great.

00:54:38Marc:Do you play Vegas still?

00:54:39Marc:We play Vegas.

00:54:41Marc:How do you feel?

00:54:41Marc:Do you feel like Vegas has changed?

00:54:43Marc:Is it a different place now?

00:54:45Marc:Is there...

00:54:46Marc:Well, no.

00:54:49Guest:I can't say that it's any different.

00:54:52Guest:Right.

00:54:52Guest:Because I get great reaction, you know.

00:54:56Guest:I enjoy, and we're still working, and Karen opens the show, sings.

00:55:03Guest:She sings like you can't believe it.

00:55:06Guest:She plays the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis.

00:55:09Guest:Wow.

00:55:10Guest:And she's a straight lady like you can't believe.

00:55:13Guest:So she does the Rossi lines?

00:55:14Guest:She does.

00:55:15Guest:And we have many routines that we haven't done.

00:55:19Guest:But she does...

00:55:21Marc:uh you do husband we have taken some of the uh old routines and rewritten them and made them to fit us do you uh do you do uh uh like married couple stuff do you do that like that married well i mean like do you talk about are you are well once in a while we kid around but you don't do a stick we don't do a married uh

00:55:45Marc:But you're married, aren't you?

00:55:46Marc:30 years.

00:55:48Marc:And you never thought to go on stage and bicker and play a married couple?

00:55:52Marc:Oh, no, we don't do that.

00:55:54Marc:Why?

00:55:54Marc:We never bicker.

00:55:57Marc:Well, that's why I say it.

00:55:58Marc:That's why it would be funny.

00:55:59Marc:You make it up.

00:56:01Guest:No.

00:56:02Guest:No, we really...

00:56:04Guest:We really enjoy each other on stage.

00:56:12Guest:And when you get off stage, as it was with Steve and as it is with her, when you get off, you don't discuss it.

00:56:21Guest:You don't say, well, why didn't you do that joke?

00:56:25Guest:Or why didn't you say so-and-so at that time?

00:56:28Marc:You just forget it.

00:56:30Marc:You walk out.

00:56:31Marc:When you look back at the whole career, I mean, what do you got?

00:56:33Marc:Like, now you got, like, what, almost 80 years in show business.

00:56:37Marc:What was the biggest thrill?

00:56:41Guest:The biggest thrill?

00:56:43Guest:Yeah.

00:56:44Guest:The fact that I was going to be on a Marc Maron show.

00:56:48Marc:Yeah.

00:56:48Marc:Ha, ha, ha.

00:56:49Marc:Good answer.

00:56:50Marc:This is it.

00:56:52Marc:45 Sullivans.

00:56:53Marc:He met the Beatles.

00:56:54Marc:Frank Sinatra.

00:56:56Marc:Frank Sinatra.

00:56:57Marc:Elvis Presley.

00:56:58Marc:But this is it.

00:56:59Marc:This is a high point.

00:57:01Marc:Because we're both still at it.

00:57:02Guest:Well, when I heard it, you asked for me.

00:57:06Guest:I couldn't believe it.

00:57:07Guest:I cried for a half hour.

00:57:09Guest:Oh, I'm so glad.

00:57:10Guest:I said, oh, my.

00:57:12Marc:The mark wants me on the show.

00:57:14Marc:I'm so glad you pulled it together.

00:57:16Guest:to make the appearance it sounds like you were overwhelmed with emotion hey yeah we drove all the way down and tonight you know i'm doing the autograph section so yeah he's telling me it was the most exciting day of his life today you're driving up here it's like where the hell is this place right no okay the further up we were going i said we're getting close

00:57:40Guest:What the hell happened in show business?

00:57:42Guest:This is a guy's garage.

00:57:44Guest:This is it.

00:57:45Guest:It doesn't matter.

00:57:46Guest:No, sir.

00:57:46Guest:You got the talent.

00:57:48Guest:Yeah, I'm all right.

00:57:48Guest:And you got the place.

00:57:50Guest:And I got the microphones.

00:57:51Guest:And you got the microphone.

00:57:52Guest:It's all you need.

00:57:52Guest:And you got the people listening to you.

00:57:56Guest:Yeah.

00:57:57Guest:And saying that your show is good.

00:58:01Marc:Who are your favorite comics, looking back, outside of Shecky and Don?

00:58:04Marc:I mean, guys I'm admiring.

00:58:06Marc:Well, a lot of them are in Washington.

00:58:07Marc:Yeah.

00:58:07Marc:Yeah, always.

00:58:10Marc:There's a new batch of comedians every few years in Washington.

00:58:13Marc:Yeah, they keep changing.

00:58:15Marc:But who were the guys that you watched when you were a kid that influenced the way you sort of did shtick?

00:58:20Guest:Well, I thought the Marx Brothers were phenomenal.

00:58:26Marc:Right, yeah, yeah.

00:58:27Guest:Lauren, Harvey.

00:58:27Guest:Did you meet Groucho?

00:58:29Guest:Oh, I knew Groucho very well.

00:58:31Guest:Yeah?

00:58:31Marc:He must have been something.

00:58:32Guest:He was quick, huh?

00:58:34Guest:Yeah, whoa.

00:58:34Guest:Yeah.

00:58:34Guest:great mind yeah yeah great physical mind yeah i would say uh groucho and uh abbott and costello how funny was he you know that must be like that so that i thought they were the kind of people that i enjoyed yeah yeah laughed at well that was sort of a classic team thing too there's like the the thing that you and rossi had like you know there's not a lot of teams to do it anymore but that was a classic straight man and you were just you know over the top

00:59:03Marc:And that was the way Evan Costello was.

00:59:05Guest:But I saw Laurel and Hardy and Evan Costello and the Marx Brothers.

00:59:10Guest:In my beginning, these were the ones that I thought of so much of.

00:59:17Marc:I interviewed Dick Van Dyke, and when he got to Hollywood, he actually looked up Stan Laurel in the phone book.

00:59:24Marc:Yeah.

00:59:25Marc:And went to his house to meet him.

00:59:26Marc:Well, by the way, Dick Van Dyke did a terrific job.

00:59:31Marc:Unbelievable.

00:59:33Marc:Unbelievable.

00:59:34Marc:Yeah, he's still good.

00:59:35Marc:He's clear.

00:59:36Marc:He's good.

00:59:36Marc:Yeah.

00:59:37Marc:Yeah, he's got a wife that keeps him going.

00:59:39Marc:Yeah.

00:59:39Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:59:40Marc:Well, it was a thrill to talk to you.

00:59:42Marc:And I'm happy you're alive and still working.

00:59:45Guest:Yeah, we enjoy working.

00:59:48Guest:And I enjoy doing these autograph sessions.

00:59:52Marc:What is that exactly?

00:59:53Marc:So you...

00:59:54Guest:Well, a lot of celebrities, you go in a room and one sits next to each other.

01:00:02Guest:Like last time was Dan Haggerty, Hasselhoff, Marty Allen, you know, Bo Derek.

01:00:12Guest:And once it's next to each other, people come in and buy your photo.

01:00:19Guest:And they buy the photos.

01:00:21Guest:And tonight I'm...

01:00:24Guest:I brought a stack because everybody called me up.

01:00:27Guest:You gotta come with the Beatle photo.

01:00:30Guest:So I got the photo with the Beatles and Marty Allen and whatever.

01:00:36Guest:And the book is on Kindle.

01:00:38Guest:Hello, Dad.

01:00:38Guest:The book, you are the first one to know.

01:00:41Guest:It just went on about a half hour ago.

01:00:45Guest:Do you remember that?

01:00:46Guest:And the guy that called my wife and said, Karen, the book has been accepted.

01:00:53Guest:You can tell him he can say it on the Marc Maron show.

01:00:57Marc:You were like, oh my God, everything's working out for me.

01:01:01Marc:Do you remember the first time you said hello there?

01:01:04Marc:Hello there.

01:01:05Guest:Yeah, that became my famous thing.

01:01:09Guest:I, I, I, you try to get a catchphrase, you know.

01:01:16Guest:I'm a bad boy.

01:01:17Guest:I'm a bad boy.

01:01:20Guest:I'm a bad boy.

01:01:21Guest:Yeah.

01:01:22Guest:And, and different things like that.

01:01:25Guest:Yeah.

01:01:25Guest:So I try to think of something and I always knew the expression, hello there.

01:01:31Guest:Yeah.

01:01:31Guest:It's a great warm feeling.

01:01:34Guest:Yeah.

01:01:34Guest:So I changed it to,

01:01:35Guest:hello there d-e-r-e yeah in fact kids would go to school they'd write d-e-r-e teachers say that is not the way oh yeah marty allen hello there yeah who's the other guy who's on that did you know bill dana

01:01:51Marc:Bill Dana, yeah.

01:01:52Marc:Jose Jimenez?

01:01:53Marc:Yeah.

01:01:54Guest:Is he still around?

01:01:55Guest:He did the Going to the Moon.

01:01:57Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:01:58Guest:And how about Senior Winces?

01:01:59Guest:Did you know that guy?

01:02:00Guest:Senior Winces?

01:02:01Guest:Oh, yeah, the old man, yeah.

01:02:04Guest:We did a show.

01:02:05Guest:Yeah?

01:02:05Guest:I think he was 100 years old on a radio show.

01:02:10Guest:Mm-hmm.

01:02:11Guest:And it was in Atlantic City.

01:02:14Guest:Okay.

01:02:14Guest:And I did it with him.

01:02:16Guest:Oh, good.

01:02:16Guest:And he was very nice.

01:02:18Guest:Yeah.

01:02:19Guest:I go with the attitude, Mark.

01:02:23Guest:I'm not jealous of anybody.

01:02:25Guest:I believe anybody who's got a chance to make it, make it.

01:02:33Guest:Good luck.

01:02:36Guest:To be in the business is a warm feeling.

01:02:40Guest:And like I say, if you get a chance to make it, make it.

01:02:45Guest:Well, you did it.

01:02:46Guest:And I never took jokes from anybody.

01:02:50Guest:I just try to have my own routines and have the attitude.

01:02:55Guest:Hey, you're funny, you're funny.

01:02:58Guest:Yeah.

01:02:58Guest:Like I say, like what you said.

01:03:01Guest:Yeah.

01:03:01Guest:You go sit and watch Rickles.

01:03:03Guest:Yeah.

01:03:04Guest:And you laugh.

01:03:05Guest:Yeah.

01:03:07Guest:You really laugh at the guy.

01:03:09Guest:Yeah.

01:03:09Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:03:09Guest:Or you see Shecky and you're laughing.

01:03:12Guest:Kills me.

01:03:13Guest:Yeah, that's it.

01:03:14Guest:yep i was sitting there watching rickles the other night and say why is he doing this yeah or would this routine fit in with mine yeah no i just love the man or the person and and like i say uh there are many girls yeah that are terrific comedians yeah and uh did you know joan

01:03:37Guest:Joan was terrific.

01:03:39Guest:The greatest, huh?

01:03:40Guest:May she rest in peace.

01:03:42Guest:She was a terrific entertainer, terrific comedian.

01:03:48Guest:And when I was on the Gary Moore show, the number one girl, Carol Burnett.

01:03:54Guest:Yeah.

01:03:55Guest:She's still around, huh?

01:03:57Guest:We did, Alan and Rossi and I, we did a show with Carol Burnett.

01:04:04Guest:Oh, well, Carol was, there's no way to explain Carol Burnett.

01:04:09Guest:Yeah.

01:04:10Guest:She would be the top.

01:04:12Guest:Yeah, because she could do anything.

01:04:15Guest:There's nothing she could do.

01:04:17Guest:She could do routines.

01:04:19Guest:She could sing, dance.

01:04:21Guest:She would be like a female Sinatra.

01:04:24Guest:Wow.

01:04:24Guest:That's how I see Carol Burnett.

01:04:27Guest:Is she still around?

01:04:28Guest:Do you talk to her?

01:04:31Guest:I think she just wrote another book, if I recall.

01:04:35Guest:That's great, man.

01:04:35Guest:You've had a great career.

01:04:36Guest:She keeps going on stage and she does routines.

01:04:41Guest:Routines.

01:04:42Guest:And I'm happy for her.

01:04:44Guest:I'm happy for anybody that makes it and does good in the business.

01:04:49Guest:I'm happy for you.

01:04:50Guest:Oh, thank you.

01:04:51Marc:It was great to see you.

01:04:52Marc:It was a pleasure to talk to you.

01:04:54Guest:It was a pleasure to be here.

01:04:55Marc:Thanks for coming.

01:04:56Marc:Thank you.

01:05:02Marc:Okay, that's Marty Allen, who's going to be 93, still working.

01:05:08Marc:Still working.

01:05:10Marc:God bless him if you believe in that kind of stuff.

01:05:14Marc:I don't know if I got it in me to do that.

01:05:17Marc:Oh, boy.

01:05:18Marc:I guess that's, you know, I guess that's how you feel like you're in it, in the life.

01:05:24Marc:All right.

01:05:24Marc:Well, look, go to WTFPod.com.

01:05:26Marc:Go to the calendar there and see if I'm coming near you on my marination tour.

01:05:32Marc:And if not, I'll be near you soon.

01:05:35Marc:All right.

01:05:36Marc:I'm going to add dates.

01:05:37Marc:Just relax.

01:05:38Marc:Don't freak out.

01:05:39Marc:Also, you can check who's been on the show.

01:05:41Marc:You can get the app free, upgrade to premium.

01:05:45Marc:Do what you got to do.

01:05:46Marc:Get some just coffee.coop.

01:05:48Marc:All right.

01:05:49Marc:Okay.

01:05:49Marc:All right.

01:05:50Marc:Okay.

01:05:51Marc:All right.

01:05:52Marc:I go to sleep.

01:05:54Marc:I shoot tomorrow.

01:05:55Marc:Early.

01:05:56Marc:All right.

01:05:57Marc:Thanks for being here.

01:05:58Marc:Boomer lives.

01:06:04you