Episode 885 - Rita Moreno

Episode 885 • Released January 28, 2018 • Speakers detected

00:00:00Marc:All right, let's do this.

00:00:11Marc:How are you?

00:00:11Marc:What the fuckers?

00:00:12Marc:What the fuck buddies?

00:00:13Marc:What the fucking ears?

00:00:14Marc:What the fucksters?

00:00:16Marc:What's happening?

00:00:16Marc:I'm Mark Maron.

00:00:17Marc:This is my podcast WTF.

00:00:19Marc:How are you?

00:00:20Marc:I'm pretty good.

00:00:21Marc:I'm trying to level off.

00:00:24Marc:You know, Rita Moreno's here.

00:00:27Marc:That was an honor, I must say.

00:00:29Marc:That was great to talk to her.

00:00:32Marc:Glow ended.

00:00:33Marc:We shot the last episode.

00:00:35Marc:We finished the last shots of this season, season two of the gorgeous ladies of wrestling last Tuesday.

00:00:42Marc:And then we had a photo shoot, promotional photo shoot Wednesday.

00:00:46Marc:But yeah, so it's always sort of weird and touching when a production ends because you've been with these people for a few months.

00:00:55Marc:But it does feel weird.

00:00:56Marc:You do develop a little community and a little world with everybody involved in the production from craft services all the way up to the grips, to the lighting, to the ADs.

00:01:06Marc:There's so many people involved.

00:01:08Marc:And it's like its own little village for a few months.

00:01:10Marc:And it was sort of...

00:01:11Marc:I think it was sort of sad.

00:01:13Marc:And oddly, I don't even remember what the fuck we shot.

00:01:17Marc:Yeah, we did three and a half, four months there.

00:01:18Marc:And I read all the scripts and I did my part.

00:01:20Marc:And I don't know how it's all going to come together, what it's going to look like.

00:01:22Marc:I do know that the stories are pretty great and compelling and that the season looks good.

00:01:27Marc:But you just don't know.

00:01:28Marc:Like, I don't remember episode two that I shot.

00:01:33Marc:It's a very bizarre thing.

00:01:34Marc:It all just becomes this blur.

00:01:35Marc:But...

00:01:37Marc:It's going to be good.

00:01:38Marc:We took some fun pictures.

00:01:40Marc:Yeah.

00:01:41Marc:And everybody's gone their separate ways to do their separate lives.

00:01:45Marc:Sad.

00:01:46Marc:But like I said, the season's going to be, I think it's going to be great.

00:01:50Marc:What else is happening?

00:01:52Marc:I'm watching movies.

00:01:54Marc:I've watched all the screeners except for one.

00:01:56Marc:I didn't watch the Churchill movie.

00:02:00Marc:What's that one called?

00:02:02Marc:Darkest Hour.

00:02:04Marc:I got to watch that.

00:02:05Marc:I got to watch.

00:02:06Marc:I want to see Gary Oldman encased in a Churchill body cocoon, like some sort of strain.

00:02:14Marc:Like at the end of it, he just kind of breaks open at the end of the shoot, at the end of his production, at the end of his little village of movie making.

00:02:23Marc:He just rips out of Churchill from the inside.

00:02:26Marc:And there's a metamorphosis back into Gary Oldman.

00:02:29Marc:I'd like to see that.

00:02:31Marc:They should make a short film of that.

00:02:33Marc:Just Gary Oldman in the Churchill cocoon.

00:02:36Marc:And then you just see him laying there, the Churchill.

00:02:39Marc:And then it starts to break open in sort of a grotesque way.

00:02:42Marc:And out comes the beautiful butterfly that is Gary Oldman out of the tough skin of the Churchill.

00:02:53Yeah.

00:02:53Marc:Just a concept, just a pitch, you know, don't, you know, you don't have to mark, you know, I'm just saying, just pitching.

00:02:59Marc:So, yeah, I've seen them all except for that one.

00:03:01Marc:Maybe I'll watch that one later.

00:03:04Marc:Some of them aren't on here.

00:03:05Marc:Like, yeah, the three billboards outside Ebbing was great.

00:03:07Marc:I enjoyed that.

00:03:08Marc:The Shape of Water is nice.

00:03:09Marc:The Fishman.

00:03:11Marc:The Post, I thought, was...

00:03:12Marc:Okay.

00:03:13Marc:Phantom Thread was genius.

00:03:14Marc:Lady Bird I loved.

00:03:15Marc:Get Out was great.

00:03:16Marc:Dunkirk.

00:03:17Marc:I think I should have seen it in a movie.

00:03:19Marc:In the theater.

00:03:19Marc:Didn't have the same effect, but I enjoyed the movie.

00:03:21Marc:Darkest Hour I Didn't See.

00:03:22Marc:Call Me By Your Name.

00:03:24Marc:Enjoyed that movie.

00:03:25Marc:I watched some other movies.

00:03:26Marc:I have to say, though, I get all these screeners and...

00:03:30Marc:You know that movie, All the Money in the World?

00:03:33Marc:That one was so bad, I walked out of my house.

00:03:36Marc:That's how bad that was.

00:03:37Marc:So, yeah, what else is happening?

00:03:40Marc:I'm trying to go through the garage a little bit.

00:03:42Marc:Went through my stack of business cards.

00:03:44Marc:It's weird how many business cards...

00:03:48Marc:uh, you have and how far back they go.

00:03:51Marc:I mean, I have business cards.

00:03:53Marc:I didn't even, what am I, I have a, a, a Geras brothers townhouse restaurant package wicker business card, Peter Geras, this guy, I went to high school with this guy and the townhouse is a liquor store and restaurant on central, uh,

00:04:09Marc:uh avenue in albuquerque new mexico and i don't even know if it's still open and i know pete i went to ice i don't know if he's still alive or what's going on or whether he owns it now but i have the business card why i don't know did take me back though it did take me back to buying booze at that place when i was you know i don't want to get into the trouble

00:04:28Marc:Here's one, Fran Salomita.

00:04:30Marc:Fran Salomita's business card.

00:04:32Marc:Fran Salomita's a Boston comic.

00:04:33Marc:He later went on to do other stuff, and I remember running into him, but it brings me back to Boston to watching Fran do his half-Italian, half-Jewish bit back in the basement at Play It Against Sam's in Alston, Massachusetts.

00:04:48Marc:maybe 1987, 88, France Alameda.

00:04:51Marc:I've got Ruby Mazur's card, Ruby Mazur, Mazur Studios.

00:04:54Marc:I've been carrying this around for like a decade or two.

00:04:58Marc:He is actually the guy that created the...

00:05:02Marc:The Rolling Stones logo, the tongue and the lips.

00:05:05Marc:He did all right with that one.

00:05:07Marc:Here's one.

00:05:08Marc:I kept this forever.

00:05:09Marc:This is Oasis Diner.

00:05:11Marc:It's in Burlington, Vermont.

00:05:14Marc:I've kept this since the 80s.

00:05:16Marc:I don't even know if this place is still there.

00:05:17Marc:I was on a road trip with another comic.

00:05:19Marc:I remember going to the diner.

00:05:20Marc:It was a classical dining car.

00:05:22Marc:I remember having, I believe I had an open-faced turkey sandwich gravy.

00:05:27Marc:Huh.

00:05:28Marc:Max Gill and Grill.

00:05:29Marc:This is my buddy Eric in Denver.

00:05:32Marc:What's in the case?

00:05:33Marc:Guitars.

00:05:34Marc:Andy Clark.

00:05:34Marc:I don't even know if Andy does this anymore.

00:05:36Marc:Andy Clark was a guy who worked at Venus Records.

00:05:38Marc:There's a friend of my friend, Craig Anton.

00:05:40Marc:He's a good guitar player, but he got out of the racket of playing guitar.

00:05:43Marc:He was working at a record store.

00:05:44Marc:Then he went and got a degree in accounting.

00:05:47Marc:I think he went on to accounting and management at restaurants.

00:05:49Marc:Guitar collector.

00:05:50Marc:Nice guy.

00:05:51Marc:Miss him.

00:05:52Marc:Should give him a call.

00:05:53Marc:I have David Rakoff's business card.

00:05:54Marc:That's sad.

00:05:55Marc:He passed.

00:05:57Marc:What a loss that was.

00:05:58Marc:What a great writer.

00:05:59Marc:Funny guy.

00:06:00Marc:Beverly Laurel Hotel.

00:06:02Marc:Mm-hmm.

00:06:02Marc:Memories there.

00:06:03Marc:That was before they renovated.

00:06:05Marc:Holiday Beach Inn.

00:06:06Marc:Holiday Beach Inn.

00:06:07Marc:Oh, 411 South Ocean Drive.

00:06:09Marc:I don't think this is there anymore.

00:06:11Marc:It was this creepy, horrible little hotel that for some reason I stayed in because it was close to my mom's many years ago.

00:06:17Marc:And then Billy F. Gibbons, friend of Eric Clapton.

00:06:19Marc:That's what his business card says.

00:06:21Marc:Billy Gibbons.

00:06:22Marc:Sorry.

00:06:23Marc:Sorry.

00:06:24Marc:I just took a walk down business card lane.

00:06:27Marc:Accept my apology.

00:06:28Marc:I just thought that would be interesting.

00:06:30Marc:Maybe it was.

00:06:31Marc:Maybe it wasn't.

00:06:32Marc:I don't know.

00:06:33Marc:I don't know, folks.

00:06:35Marc:Rita Moreno is on the show today.

00:06:37Marc:Rita Moreno.

00:06:38Marc:The Rita Moreno.

00:06:40Marc:What was it?

00:06:40Marc:I wanted to tell you something about something else.

00:06:43Marc:About something else.

00:06:45Marc:God damn it.

00:06:46Marc:Oh, I remember.

00:06:48Marc:I remember what I wanted to talk to you about.

00:06:51Marc:Have you seen this documentary?

00:06:53Marc:I think it's on Amazon Prime, I believe, called Rumble, about the indigenous people, American indigenous people's involvement in music, specifically the blues and rock and roll.

00:07:08Marc:And they talk about Link Wray, Buffy St.

00:07:10Marc:Marie, but they talk about Charlie Patton

00:07:14Marc:And I didn't realize, I didn't really, I should have known, this is all accessible history about the kind of the indigenous people and the freed slaves and the sort of these communities of intermingling of the two.

00:07:32Marc:I knew somewhat about it in New Jersey and whatnot, but I didn't really put together or would never have known that Charlie Patton was an American Indian.

00:07:42Marc:And

00:07:44Marc:And that rhythm, there's a rhythm that comes from American indigenous population, the music of the American indigenous people, North American, North American Indians, that have, it sort of, it kind of weaved its way into popular music.

00:07:59Marc:Oh, there was this one jazz singer too.

00:08:01Marc:There's a type of singing and a type of rhythm that kind of infused itself into jazz and blues and rock and roll.

00:08:09Marc:And I never knew anything about it because I was ignorant.

00:08:12Marc:I was ignorant of it.

00:08:14Marc:And it was sort of fascinating to watch in this documentary, Rumble, an American Indian woman listening to Charlie Patton and following the lines of his cadence with traditional Indian music from America.

00:08:31Marc:It just was very touching to me and I had no idea.

00:08:35Marc:So I've been going down this Charlie Patton rabbit hole trying to connect the dots.

00:08:39Marc:of North American indigenous music to the blues.

00:08:44Marc:Kind of mind-blowing.

00:08:45Marc:I do enjoy when my mind gets blown.

00:08:46Marc:So that was provocative to me.

00:08:48Marc:So I thought I'd share it with you for those of you who give a shit.

00:08:53Marc:All right, so...

00:08:56Marc:Rita Moreno, West Side Story, The Electric Company, met a lot of TV, a lot of awards.

00:09:02Marc:She's like a very powerful presence and a very outspoken presence in the world of acting.

00:09:09Marc:And I was very excited that we got, that we, I got to talk to her.

00:09:15Marc:She's doing a new season of One Day at a Time.

00:09:18Marc:It's now streaming on Netflix.

00:09:19Marc:You can watch all the episodes now.

00:09:21Marc:That's obviously a revamping of the classic old Norman Lear show.

00:09:25Marc:I also did this interview the day after the SAG Awards where she presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Morgan Friedman.

00:09:33Marc:And also I, I wanted to take, you know, she's 86 and she's very lively and clear headed, but we only had like an hour and obviously I could have spoken to her for a long time, but this is the time I got to spend with, with this Hollywood legend, Rita Moreno.

00:09:50Marc:So enjoy the time we had.

00:09:57Yeah.

00:09:58Marc:It was very nice what you had to say about Morgan Freeman.

00:10:01Guest:Oh, he's my buddy, he's my pal.

00:10:03Guest:We've known each other for 50 years.

00:10:06Guest:Isn't that amazing?

00:10:06Guest:It's a long friendship in show business that's usually really, really, really long.

00:10:11Marc:Yeah, and you guys are actual friends.

00:10:13Marc:You talk to each other.

00:10:14Guest:We are, yeah.

00:10:14Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:10:16Marc:Because I always meet people in here, I talk to them, and I assume people are friends in show business just because you see them on a show.

00:10:22Guest:But they're not.

00:10:22Guest:They're not.

00:10:23Guest:No, they don't know.

00:10:24Guest:I don't know lots and lots of people.

00:10:26Guest:I don't know lots and lots of stars, for instance.

00:10:28Guest:It is assumed by friends and civilians that I know everybody and they know me.

00:10:35Guest:Not so.

00:10:36Marc:Yeah, because they think it's a small community.

00:10:38Marc:They think that we all must know each other.

00:10:40Guest:It may be small, but it's not that small.

00:10:42Marc:It's not as small as it used to be.

00:10:44Marc:I mean, I can't imagine, like, you've been doing this a long time.

00:10:47Marc:I mean, you won an Oscar in 1961.

00:10:49Marc:I have to assume that that party, that house, it did feel like more people knew each other then.

00:10:59Guest:I think so.

00:11:00Guest:I think so.

00:11:00Guest:Right?

00:11:01Guest:Yes.

00:11:02Guest:I think it's, well, you know, people travel a lot now, too.

00:11:05Guest:Right.

00:11:05Guest:But I'll tell you something really interesting that happened last night that just absolutely knocked me out.

00:11:11Guest:A young woman, I'm saying young, she's probably about, I'm guessing she's in her late 30s, came over to my chair at the table, and she kneeled down because I was sitting down, so she wasn't kneeling, really.

00:11:27Guest:Right.

00:11:27Guest:And began to tell me how much I meant to her and how very moved she was by meeting me and to see me.

00:11:35Guest:And it was so wonderful that I was there.

00:11:38Guest:And she just went on and on and on.

00:11:39Guest:And I suddenly said to myself, oh, my God, this is Winona Ryder.

00:11:44Marc:It was Winona?

00:11:45Guest:It was Pinona Ryder.

00:11:46Marc:Oh, that's so sweet.

00:11:48Guest:And I thought she looked familiar.

00:11:50Guest:I said, oh, my God.

00:11:52Guest:So following that up, I'm backstage with just before I go on to present Morgan, his wonderful honor.

00:12:01Guest:Yeah.

00:12:02Guest:And Sarah Silverman.

00:12:04Guest:Yeah.

00:12:05Guest:comes up to me with wet eyes that are slightly gleaming, says, I love you.

00:12:11Guest:I've always loved you.

00:12:13Guest:Oh, my God, it's you.

00:12:14Guest:And I'm saying, my God, it's you.

00:12:17Guest:I was astonished and delighted at all these young, and it happened all evening, all evening long, so many younger.

00:12:28Guest:Let's put it that way.

00:12:29Guest:I'm 86, so everybody's younger.

00:12:31Guest:Right, right.

00:12:31Guest:uh uh so many people kept coming up to me and i was just not to speak of delighted yeah i was thrilled well you're one of those people like i just i've always known you feel like you're there your whole life you know like you know it's true because i've been around for so long yeah but i've done a lot of different things totally different the electric company was a very very big deal yeah

00:12:54Marc:Yeah, I'm 54, and certainly the electric company went into my head.

00:13:00Marc:Just the fact that you did like 700 of them.

00:13:03Guest:Oh, yeah, we did tons and tons of them.

00:13:05Marc:I mean, it's crazy how many there were.

00:13:06Guest:This was five.

00:13:08Guest:Well, no, I was going to say five a week, but no, we didn't even do that.

00:13:11Guest:What we did was we did lots of sketches every day.

00:13:14Guest:So 700 is probably right.

00:13:16Marc:Yeah.

00:13:16Marc:Yeah, and it's just like it's this part of your imagination.

00:13:19Marc:Then when I was looking at your credits and stuff, I'd forgotten about carnal knowledge.

00:13:25Guest:Oh, that's right.

00:13:26Guest:A lot of people have forgotten.

00:13:27Marc:That's a great scene.

00:13:27Marc:That's a crazy scene.

00:13:28Guest:It's you and Jack.

00:13:29Guest:It's a superb movie.

00:13:31Marc:Yeah, it's a wild movie.

00:13:33Marc:Very dark.

00:13:34Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:13:34Marc:You play the prostitute, right?

00:13:35Marc:That's right, the hooker.

00:13:36Marc:In that one scene where he's telling you you're doing it wrong.

00:13:39Guest:Exactly as he says because he's paying me.

00:13:42Marc:Right.

00:13:43Guest:Oh, what a depressing scene.

00:13:45Guest:That was a horrible... But it was a good scene.

00:13:46Guest:That was hard to do, though.

00:13:48Guest:Yeah?

00:13:48Guest:Oh, it was so hard to do.

00:13:50Guest:We were doing it on a hydraulic platform.

00:13:53Guest:Uh-huh.

00:13:54Guest:The reason being that she should appear according to the directions of... Mike Nichols?

00:14:01Guest:No, no, no.

00:14:02Guest:The writer.

00:14:03Guest:Oh, who wrote it?

00:14:04Guest:Oh, God.

00:14:06Guest:Village Voice.

00:14:07Guest:He did all those wonderful cartoons.

00:14:08Guest:Yeah.

00:14:08Marc:Oh, right, right, right.

00:14:10Guest:Jules Pfeiffer.

00:14:11Marc:Oh, you did it.

00:14:12Marc:Jules Pfeiffer.

00:14:13Marc:Google this.

00:14:14Marc:You did it.

00:14:15Marc:I couldn't even get there.

00:14:16Guest:Jules Pfeiffer wrote it.

00:14:17Marc:Right.

00:14:18Guest:And it says that when she's doing him his service that she seems to be descending forever and ever.

00:14:27Guest:Now, we know what that means sexually.

00:14:30Guest:But what they did that was really so clever but insanity is

00:14:34Guest:was to put me on a hydraulic platform looking into the camera as though it were Jack.

00:14:40Guest:But Jack was right there under the camera to help me.

00:14:43Guest:You know, whenever I could, I'd look at him for inspiration, if that's what you call it.

00:14:48Guest:But we had a wall.

00:14:49Guest:We were in a warehouse.

00:14:51Guest:And we had a wall that must have been, I don't know, $100.

00:14:54Guest:Really?

00:14:56Guest:Whatever warehouses are.

00:14:58Guest:And the hydraulic platform would go all the way up.

00:15:01Guest:And then the monologue was done on the way down.

00:15:06Guest:And that wall was all wallpapered, the same wallpaper.

00:15:09Marc:That must have looked wild.

00:15:11Guest:Oh, it was bizarre.

00:15:12Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:15:13Guest:Extreme.

00:15:14Guest:Here's the problem.

00:15:15Guest:For one shot.

00:15:16Guest:Well, it's a major scene.

00:15:19Marc:Yeah, it is.

00:15:19Guest:Yeah.

00:15:20Guest:In a major movie, but it was a major, major scene.

00:15:22Guest:Yeah.

00:15:22Guest:Because this was the upshot of what happens to a man who objectifies women.

00:15:27Guest:I mean, it was really.

00:15:28Marc:To such a degree.

00:15:29Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:15:30Marc:Yeah.

00:15:30Guest:And the one problem, and it was a huge one, was that hydraulic platforms have air bubbles.

00:15:37Guest:Uh-huh.

00:15:38Guest:So every once in a while, I bounce a little.

00:15:42Yeah.

00:15:42Guest:And then you'd hear Michael say, okay, let's take her up again.

00:15:48Guest:And we did it over and over and over.

00:15:53Guest:And, you know, at some point, sometimes we'd get to almost the middle of my ride.

00:15:59Guest:And we were thinking, oh, thank God.

00:16:00Guest:And then we'd go, blah, blah, blah.

00:16:02Marc:Oh, man.

00:16:03Guest:So as a result of that, and I was not thrilled about doing this scene.

00:16:08Guest:No?

00:16:09Guest:I did it because I thought it was brilliant.

00:16:10Marc:Yeah.

00:16:11Guest:And it needed to be done.

00:16:12Marc:And it was in a typecast role.

00:16:14Guest:Hell no.

00:16:15Marc:Yeah.

00:16:15Guest:Anyway, the thing is finally over.

00:16:18Guest:I go home.

00:16:19Guest:This whole movie was shot in Canada.

00:16:22Guest:I think it was Montreal.

00:16:24Guest:And two weeks later, I answer the phone.

00:16:30Guest:Rita?

00:16:32Guest:is this mike mike he said yeah honey and i said no no please tell me no i knew i knew you gotta do it again so i had to do it again this time stationary oh wow

00:16:48Guest:And I did not have Jack there to inspire me, nothing.

00:16:53Guest:I was just looking into this bloody black lens on the camera as though it were him.

00:17:01Guest:And I can't tell you how much more difficult that was without Jack there.

00:17:07Guest:I bet.

00:17:07Marc:Isn't that interesting?

00:17:08Marc:Yeah.

00:17:08Marc:So they didn't use any of the footage?

00:17:09Guest:They did.

00:17:10Marc:Oh, from that.

00:17:11Guest:They used some of it.

00:17:12Guest:Oh, okay.

00:17:12Guest:They used stationary and then they used the moving.

00:17:14Guest:Thank goodness they were able to use some of them because I thought that was such an incredible effect.

00:17:19Marc:Yeah, it was.

00:17:20Marc:It sounds like it.

00:17:20Marc:Well, Jack, I mean, I've heard.

00:17:22Marc:I've not talked to him.

00:17:23Marc:I'd love to talk to him, but I don't think that's going to happen.

00:17:25Guest:Everybody would love to talk to Jack.

00:17:26Marc:But I hear he's very available on set.

00:17:30Marc:He loves to act all the time.

00:17:32Guest:Well, imagine, I mean, you know how many takes?

00:17:35Guest:We must have done, I'm guessing, we must have done about 30 takes, maybe even more that were interrupted.

00:17:43Guest:Sure.

00:17:44Guest:And he stayed there for me.

00:17:46Guest:Right.

00:17:47Guest:It's great.

00:17:47Guest:Because he really knew that as an actor, for myself as an actress, I needed to have something other than a lens to look into.

00:17:55Guest:So between takes, like on the way up each time, I'd be looking at him and he had that evil, evil smile that he has.

00:18:03Guest:Oh, my God.

00:18:04Guest:That is the worst smile in the world when he wants it.

00:18:07Marc:Yeah.

00:18:07Guest:When he wants to.

00:18:08Marc:Yeah.

00:18:08Guest:He is so wicked.

00:18:10Marc:Yeah.

00:18:10Marc:But a nice guy, generally.

00:18:12Marc:Yeah.

00:18:12Guest:Very, very nice guy.

00:18:14Guest:But when the awards came along, the New York City Critics was the first always to come up with the awards for movies.

00:18:22Guest:And they were honoring Jack.

00:18:26Guest:And they asked me, since I had done the film with him, would I do just his section, like I did with Morgan Freeman.

00:18:34Guest:And I said, oh, gee, yeah, I'd be thrilled.

00:18:37Guest:I'd be thrilled.

00:18:38Guest:Yeah.

00:18:38Guest:And I told the story to the audience, which are all critics.

00:18:42Guest:And I remember Meryl Streep was there.

00:18:47Guest:I told the audience the story of the damn thing bubbling and how really generous.

00:18:56Guest:And I just praised him to the skies.

00:18:57Guest:I said, you know, that's what acting's really all about and all that kind of stuff.

00:19:02Guest:He got drunk.

00:19:04Guest:And he was apparently pretty rude that evening to a lot of people or salacious or whatever it is he gets.

00:19:11Guest:And he said to me out loud, so if I was so terrific, why don't you give me something?

00:19:18Guest:And of course, everybody laughed and I thought, how am I gonna come back?

00:19:21Guest:And I did it.

00:19:23Guest:I said, well, if there'd been something there,

00:19:26Marc:I would have.

00:19:27Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:19:28Marc:You got him.

00:19:29Guest:And his wicked smile just went clunk.

00:19:31Marc:Just dropped.

00:19:32Marc:Dropped.

00:19:34Marc:Good one.

00:19:35Marc:What year was that?

00:19:36Guest:Oh, I don't know.

00:19:37Guest:I don't know years.

00:19:38Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:19:39Guest:I stopped doing years.

00:19:41Marc:Yeah, there's no reason to.

00:19:42Marc:Right.

00:19:43Marc:Why bother?

00:19:44Guest:Right.

00:19:45Guest:I just know when I was born.

00:19:46Marc:Yeah, that's good.

00:19:48Marc:That's a good one to know.

00:19:50Marc:And you know where you were born.

00:19:51Guest:Yes.

00:19:52Marc:Puerto Rico, right?

00:19:54Marc:I was.

00:19:54Marc:Do you still have family there?

00:19:56Guest:I have some extremely distant, you know, the cousin of the cousin of the cousin.

00:20:02Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:20:03Guest:So they're almost barely related.

00:20:05Marc:Right.

00:20:06Guest:And so I don't know a lot of these people.

00:20:09Marc:It's an awful time right there.

00:20:10Guest:I was there.

00:20:10Guest:You went?

00:20:11Guest:Oh, of course.

00:20:12Guest:Yeah.

00:20:13Guest:I went there about, is it two weeks now?

00:20:15Guest:About two, three weeks ago.

00:20:17Guest:And I brought a bunch of money with me.

00:20:20Marc:Oh, that's nice.

00:20:21Guest:And... That you collected?

00:20:22Guest:I collected some, and some was due me because I was supposed to do a talk there way before the storm happened.

00:20:32Guest:So what I said was, okay, I'm going to give my speaker's fee.

00:20:37Guest:Yeah.

00:20:37Guest:And then we added to that.

00:20:39Guest:And Luis Miranda, the pop...

00:20:45Guest:He and I collected $15,000 at another event.

00:20:49Guest:Lin-Manuel's father?

00:20:50Guest:Lin-Manuel's father, yeah.

00:20:51Guest:Luis is very, very active and very political, by the way.

00:20:54Guest:And so I went there with about $25,000, $30,000.

00:20:57Guest:And we got a huge truck with basics.

00:21:03Guest:When I say basics, I'm talking toothbrushes.

00:21:07Marc:Right.

00:21:08Guest:Soap.

00:21:09Marc:They needed everything.

00:21:10Guest:And I took it upon myself to visit the senior homes in my hometown.

00:21:17Marc:Oh, wow.

00:21:17Guest:Which was the first hit by, it was where the storm landed.

00:21:23Marc:Which town?

00:21:24Guest:Umacao.

00:21:25Guest:It starts with an H. H-U-M-A-C-A-O.

00:21:29Guest:And that, what you imagine, it got hit.

00:21:32Guest:First.

00:21:33Marc:Wow.

00:21:33Marc:Devastated?

00:21:34Guest:Oh my goodness.

00:21:35Guest:Oh my goodness.

00:21:36Guest:And these people have been living without light now up until this very moment.

00:21:43Guest:And it is heartbreaking.

00:21:44Guest:One of the things that we brought was solar battery... Reading lights?

00:21:52Guest:Flashes, flashlights, and reading lights.

00:21:55Guest:That was one of the really important things.

00:21:57Guest:I mean, think of it this way, that at night, what do you do at night?

00:22:01Guest:You tend to have a telly and watch the news.

00:22:04Guest:You watch your favorite shows.

00:22:05Guest:You read the newspaper.

00:22:07Guest:You catch up.

00:22:08Guest:You read a book.

00:22:10Guest:You play dominoes, as they do there a lot.

00:22:13Guest:You play cards.

00:22:14Guest:You can't do anything at night except stare into this black hole.

00:22:19Marc:It was so depressing and horrible.

00:22:20Guest:It was so horrible.

00:22:21Guest:So I danced with some of the guys, the old guys.

00:22:23Guest:They were really sweet.

00:22:25Marc:They must have been thrilled that you were there.

00:22:27Guest:They were very happy.

00:22:30Guest:And they all knew you.

00:22:30Guest:I was happy, yes.

00:22:32Marc:Of course.

00:22:33Guest:Rita.

00:22:34Marc:Yeah, you're a hero, a returning hero.

00:22:36Guest:Yes, it was very gratifying.

00:22:39Marc:Well, how old were you when you left there?

00:22:41Marc:I was five.

00:22:43Marc:But did you travel there throughout your life?

00:22:45Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:22:46Guest:I've gone back there a bunch of times.

00:22:48Guest:I've performed there, all kinds of things, yeah.

00:22:51Guest:And when my book came out, I went to promote it there and read some sections because it also came out in Spanish.

00:22:58Guest:And needless to say, it did really well.

00:23:02Marc:Of course, yeah.

00:23:03Marc:I'm sure that was a great market for your book.

00:23:05Guest:It did really, really well.

00:23:07Marc:So you come here at five with your mom?

00:23:10Marc:On a ship.

00:23:12Marc:Uh-huh.

00:23:13Marc:And when does the showbiz start?

00:23:16Marc:How does that happen?

00:23:17Guest:It started in Puerto Rico when I was dancing for Grandpa.

00:23:20Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:23:21Guest:He was playing records.

00:23:22Guest:Remember records?

00:23:23Marc:Sure.

00:23:23Marc:I have them.

00:23:24Guest:I still buy them.

00:23:25Guest:So do I. Yeah, I love them.

00:23:26Guest:Oh, so do I. I have a huge collection of LPs.

00:23:30Guest:Yeah.

00:23:30Guest:And I even have some 78s.

00:23:32Guest:Oh, wow.

00:23:33Guest:Yeah.

00:23:33Guest:Do you know what I have?

00:23:34Guest:What?

00:23:35Guest:You're not going to believe it.

00:23:36Guest:Tell me.

00:23:36Guest:I have a 12-inch version of 78s of Wizard of Oz.

00:23:42Marc:Really?

00:23:43Marc:On 78?

00:23:43Marc:Wow.

00:23:44Marc:78, but 12-inch.

00:23:47Marc:A big one.

00:23:47Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:23:48Guest:And a huge-looking album with the people singing.

00:23:52Guest:Oh, that's great.

00:23:52Guest:The people.

00:23:53Marc:Yeah, sure.

00:23:53Marc:Judy Garland.

00:23:54Marc:You knew her, right?

00:23:56Marc:Did you know her?

00:23:56Guest:Oh, yeah, everybody knew her.

00:23:59Guest:But also when I was about 10, I started to do dubbing from English into Spanish.

00:24:07Guest:Here?

00:24:08Guest:In New York.

00:24:09Guest:Yeah.

00:24:10Guest:And Ricardo Montalban's brother used to be the director of those, Carlos Montalban.

00:24:16Guest:And I became the voice of Margaret O'Brien.

00:24:19Guest:Uh-huh.

00:24:19Yeah.

00:24:19Guest:In Spanish, Tree Grows in Brooklyn, in Spanish, dubbing.

00:24:25Guest:I'm very good, by the way, at doing looping as a result.

00:24:29Marc:Just watching the screen and just doing it?

00:24:31Guest:Yeah, I'm really good at that.

00:24:32Marc:So you just dubbed TV shows and movies?

00:24:35Guest:No, there were no TV shows then.

00:24:38Marc:So it was just dubbing movies?

00:24:39Guest:Meet Me in St.

00:24:40Guest:Louis, Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

00:24:42Marc:Meet Me in St.

00:24:43Marc:Louis, that was Judy Garland, right?

00:24:45Marc:Yeah.

00:24:45Yeah.

00:24:45Guest:And they had, this is interesting, they had a singer from Cuba who would fly in just to do her singing voice.

00:24:52Guest:Why they would do that, I'll never understand.

00:24:55Guest:Why in heaven's name would you dub Judy Garland's voice with someone else who tried very hard to sound like her.

00:25:03Guest:Oh, that's bizarre.

00:25:04Marc:You should just leave the music intact.

00:25:06Guest:I could not understand it.

00:25:08Marc:So you dance to your grandpa, but then you come here, and you start working immediately on stage?

00:25:15Guest:I started to go, a friend of ours, who was a Spanish dancer, visited my mom in the apartment one day.

00:25:22Guest:And she saw me bopping around.

00:25:24Guest:And she just had an instinct.

00:25:26Guest:And she said, you know, I have a feeling that Rosita might be a good dancer.

00:25:30Guest:Can I take her to my dance teacher?

00:25:32Guest:And my mom said, sure.

00:25:35Guest:And I went to meet a man named Paco Casino, who was Rita Haywood's uncle.

00:25:39Marc:Wow, Rita Hayworth's uncle.

00:25:40Guest:She was Margarita Cancino.

00:25:43Marc:Oh, okay.

00:25:44Marc:Yeah.

00:25:46Guest:And it was thought that I would probably be a very good dancer, so that started it.

00:25:51Marc:And that's when he started doing... When I was five.

00:25:53Marc:Yeah, and so how old were you when he did the first stage show?

00:25:57Guest:The first show I ever did was in the village as a partner to my dance teacher who was all of five feet one, I think.

00:26:05Guest:And I was about... I was a little girl.

00:26:08Guest:Yeah.

00:26:09Guest:I was about six.

00:26:10Guest:I can't even imagine when you... And he partnered me and we played castanets, which I still play, by the way.

00:26:15Marc:You can still do it?

00:26:16Guest:I do.

00:26:17Marc:That's a very... I don't know.

00:26:19Marc:I've seen them.

00:26:21Guest:Yeah.

00:26:21Marc:And I don't know how it's a very specific skill.

00:26:23Guest:It really takes an enormous amount of muscle in your lower arm.

00:26:26Marc:Yeah, because people don't realize they're not connected.

00:26:28Guest:No, no, they're not connected.

00:26:30Guest:And what makes the sound is when you connect them with your four fingers.

00:26:33Marc:Right.

00:26:34Guest:Your thumb holds the rope.

00:26:37Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:26:39Guest:And you do it tight enough so that the castanets open up like a clam.

00:26:42Marc:Right, right, I get it, yeah.

00:26:43Guest:And then you do that.

00:26:44Marc:Oh, wow.

00:26:44Marc:So it takes a whole different skill of holding.

00:26:47Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:26:48Guest:I'm not even sure that I can play them well enough now because I don't know if I have that kind of strength in my lower arms.

00:26:54Marc:Well, fortunately, you don't have to play castanets.

00:26:57Guest:But I love to.

00:26:58Guest:And I do it in my act sometimes.

00:27:00Marc:And when you do your show?

00:27:01Marc:Your one-person show?

00:27:03Marc:Mm-hmm.

00:27:03Marc:You get the castanets going?

00:27:04Marc:Yeah.

00:27:04Guest:I sure do.

00:27:05Guest:I love to do it because it's such an unusual instrument.

00:27:08Marc:Yeah.

00:27:09Guest:Particularly nowadays.

00:27:10Guest:I mean, whoever heard of those things.

00:27:12Marc:I just remember seeing them when I was younger.

00:27:13Marc:I don't think I've seen a pair of castanets in a long time.

00:27:15Guest:I know that people call them clackers.

00:27:17Marc:Clackers, right.

00:27:17Marc:Yeah.

00:27:18Guest:You know, the clackers.

00:27:19Marc:Well, I know there's kind that are connected for easier for people that don't.

00:27:22Guest:Well, no, that's for percussionists.

00:27:25Marc:Right.

00:27:25Guest:They are connected.

00:27:26Guest:Yeah.

00:27:26Guest:And they just do finger stuff on them.

00:27:28Marc:Right, right.

00:27:29Marc:But that's not the real deal.

00:27:30Guest:That ain't a castanet.

00:27:31Marc:Where'd you learn how to do that?

00:27:32Marc:From this dance teacher?

00:27:33Guest:Yeah.

00:27:34Guest:Yeah, I was a Spanish dance teacher.

00:27:36Marc:Uh-huh.

00:27:36Guest:So I learned all kinds of Spanish dances from Spain, Mexico, the Mexican hat dance.

00:27:43Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:27:44Marc:Around the sombrero?

00:27:46Guest:Yep.

00:27:46Guest:Yeah.

00:27:47Guest:Exactly.

00:27:47Marc:Yeah.

00:27:47Guest:Which I used to do in high school, not in high school, but in grammar school all the time.

00:27:51Marc:And when you were growing up, what part of New York did you grow up in?

00:27:54Guest:In Manhattan on 180th Street.

00:27:57Marc:I can't imagine what it was like then.

00:27:59Marc:Like everything was so much different.

00:28:00Marc:Even watching you the other night and just realizing that, you know, you've watched this.

00:28:04Guest:Where I come from.

00:28:05Guest:Where you come from.

00:28:06Guest:History.

00:28:07Marc:It's crazy, right?

00:28:08Guest:It is.

00:28:08Marc:I mean, the changes, like even New York was so much more intimate then and it must have seemed so different.

00:28:13Guest:But you know what's interesting too?

00:28:14Guest:Yeah.

00:28:15Guest:The gangs were starting to form then.

00:28:17Marc:Already.

00:28:17Marc:Yeah.

00:28:17Guest:Now, there was no diaspora when I came to New York City because... From Puerto Rico?

00:28:25Guest:Yeah.

00:28:25Guest:Not then.

00:28:26Guest:Not yet.

00:28:26Guest:So there was nobody who spoke Spanish in school when I went to kindergarten.

00:28:30Guest:Didn't know a word of English.

00:28:32Marc:Where were most of the people from?

00:28:34Guest:The Italians were there already.

00:28:35Guest:They were Italian.

00:28:36Guest:They were Irish.

00:28:36Guest:They were Jewish.

00:28:38Guest:They were anything but Hispanic.

00:28:40Guest:No kidding.

00:28:41Guest:There wasn't one Latino kid in kindergarten.

00:28:44Marc:Not yet.

00:28:45Guest:It was really scary for me.

00:28:46Guest:It was very hard.

00:28:47Marc:Were they hard on you?

00:28:49Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:28:50Guest:Oh, and so when- Well, as I said, gangs were just starting to form.

00:28:55Marc:Which gangs?

00:28:56Guest:I don't know.

00:28:57Marc:The Latino gangs?

00:28:58Guest:No.

00:28:58Guest:Oh, you mean like- No, no, no.

00:29:00Guest:Irish.

00:29:00Marc:Oh, the street gangs.

00:29:02Guest:Irish and street gangs.

00:29:03Marc:Yeah, wow.

00:29:03Guest:And I used to walk to school for lunch.

00:29:06Guest:Yeah.

00:29:07Guest:I mean, walk from school to my apartment building for lunch and then walk away again and then come home.

00:29:12Guest:And I used to zigzag to avoid these kids because they, right away, they were saying terrible things to me, calling me spick.

00:29:21Guest:Oh, really?

00:29:22Guest:And, you know, I barely spoke English.

00:29:24Guest:Yeah.

00:29:24Guest:And I didn't know what that meant, but I knew that there was something bad about me.

00:29:28Guest:That's what happens.

00:29:29Marc:Yeah.

00:29:30Marc:Yeah.

00:29:30Guest:Children are very tender.

00:29:31Marc:Internalized creatures.

00:29:32Marc:Right.

00:29:33Guest:And they feel that, you know, people behave badly to you because you're a bad person.

00:29:38Marc:Right.

00:29:38Guest:You may not know why, but... It's your fault.

00:29:41Guest:It's my fault.

00:29:41Marc:Right.

00:29:42Marc:And that dialogue starts.

00:29:44Marc:And then you got to go home and be like, why am I different?

00:29:46Marc:Why are they saying this to me?

00:29:47Guest:And, you know, I never told my mom.

00:29:49Marc:You didn't?

00:29:49Guest:No.

00:29:50Guest:Well, I felt, I'll tell you what to tell her.

00:29:52Guest:I intuited that she was not able to do anything about it and I didn't want to make her worry.

00:29:58Marc:Right.

00:29:59Marc:So you're carrying the burden.

00:30:00Guest:Exactly.

00:30:01Marc:You're going to carry the hatred of the kids and protect your mother.

00:30:05Marc:That's right.

00:30:06Marc:Carrying the big load for a kid.

00:30:07Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:30:08Guest:That's a very big load for a kid.

00:30:10Marc:And your mom wasn't married again?

00:30:11Marc:Where was your dad?

00:30:12Guest:Well, my mom married five times.

00:30:14Marc:Oh, okay.

00:30:16Guest:Well, she was a good girl, you know.

00:30:19Guest:So she divorced my father in Puerto Rico, my biological father, and who was a woman crazy, like many of those Latino guys were certainly in those days.

00:30:32Guest:Sure.

00:30:32Marc:Did you have a relationship with him at all?

00:30:34Guest:Not much, because she only left for six months.

00:30:37Guest:She left me there with him after the divorce.

00:30:40Guest:And she came back about five months later, again by ship, to bring me back to, oh, God, days.

00:30:49Guest:Yeah.

00:30:49Guest:Actually, on the way back to the United States, she kept saying to me, you're going to a better life.

00:30:56Guest:You'll see.

00:30:58Guest:And the first thing that happened was this horrific storm, which delayed us.

00:31:04Guest:And everyone was throwing up.

00:31:06Guest:It was a horrific.

00:31:07Marc:You're on the boat already?

00:31:08Marc:Yeah.

00:31:08Ugh.

00:31:09Guest:We're on the boat.

00:31:09Guest:That scares me.

00:31:10Guest:Oh, it was very scary.

00:31:12Guest:Yeah.

00:31:12Guest:And, you know, everyone really was getting violently ill.

00:31:15Guest:It was horrific.

00:31:17Marc:Yeah.

00:31:18Marc:But you made it.

00:31:18Guest:Yeah, of course.

00:31:20Guest:But that six months.

00:31:20Guest:You always make it.

00:31:21Marc:The six months you spent with your dad, that was about the longest.

00:31:23Marc:That was it for the long stretches.

00:31:25Marc:And then it was done.

00:31:26Guest:That was it.

00:31:27Guest:And I saw him again many, many years later when I was about...

00:31:32Guest:oh 19 or so oh yeah already in movies 20 yes i was making an appearance along with other stars from a particular movie i don't remember which one but i know that that what's her name was with us um um katie kathy hurado and uh some you know well-known people yeah whom i don't remember now and he came backstage and i was just furious with him oh really

00:31:58Guest:Where have you been?

00:31:59Guest:Where have you been?

00:32:02Guest:And I didn't want anything to do with him.

00:32:04Guest:I was so angry at him that he left my mother in such dire straits.

00:32:09Guest:And I conveniently forgot about the divorce.

00:32:14Marc:You just had the abandonment and the anger.

00:32:17Guest:That's it.

00:32:18Guest:And I wouldn't date a Hispanic man if you paid me.

00:32:24Guest:Because that's how I perceived them.

00:32:26Guest:Because my mom went with several.

00:32:28Guest:Actually, my second father was a lovely man.

00:32:34Guest:I loved him.

00:32:35Guest:He was Cuban.

00:32:36Guest:And he had strawberry blonde hair.

00:32:39Guest:A lot of Cubans, by the way, are... Blondes?

00:32:43Guest:Yeah, blonde and blue-eyed.

00:32:44Guest:I didn't know that.

00:32:44Guest:Yeah, really?

00:32:45Guest:Yeah, I think that has something to do with Scotland, I think.

00:32:49Guest:I'm not sure.

00:32:49Marc:Yeah, I'm sure there's a history to that.

00:32:51Guest:Yeah, right.

00:32:52Marc:Now I'm going to go look it up later.

00:32:53Guest:Yeah, actually, I'm curious too.

00:32:56Guest:And I loved him very much, and then she found someone else.

00:32:59Guest:She was very young.

00:33:02Guest:She was inexperienced.

00:33:04Guest:I can't say that I dislike her for what happened, but I had five fathers.

00:33:09Marc:How was the third guy?

00:33:11Guest:Third guy was the one I really hated.

00:33:12Marc:Yeah, really?

00:33:13Guest:He was Hispanic and he was Mexican.

00:33:18Guest:He had a wonderful speaking voice because he worked for the local Spanish station radio.

00:33:24Guest:And he was kind of full of himself.

00:33:27Guest:And I just saw through him.

00:33:29Guest:And my mother was like just gaga.

00:33:32Guest:Gaga.

00:33:33Marc:A real charmer, huh?

00:33:34Guest:And I was also jealous.

00:33:35Marc:Right.

00:33:36Guest:Because to them she'd been my mommy.

00:33:38Guest:Right.

00:33:38Marc:Right, but not an abusive guy, just to annoy you.

00:33:40Guest:Oh, no, no, no, no, not at all.

00:33:42Guest:Nobody was ever abusive.

00:33:43Marc:That's good.

00:33:45Guest:You got lucky there.

00:33:45Guest:Yeah, I did.

00:33:47Marc:How long did you keep your policy of no Latino men for life?

00:33:52Guest:I did.

00:33:53Guest:It was really traumatic for me.

00:33:55Marc:I guess.

00:33:55Guest:Very traumatic.

00:33:57Guest:Yeah.

00:33:57Guest:And in fact, when somebody would flirt with me who was Latino, I'd get shivers.

00:34:05Marc:Which happened all the time, I imagine.

00:34:06Guest:Not that often, really.

00:34:09Marc:When you're out in public?

00:34:11Guest:But it did happen.

00:34:12Guest:And when it did happen, I would literally get chills.

00:34:16Guest:I'd get frightened.

00:34:17Marc:But you did marry.

00:34:18Marc:You got married.

00:34:18Guest:I married and I stayed married for 46 years, too.

00:34:22Guest:That's good.

00:34:22Guest:A nice Jewish doctor.

00:34:24Marc:Sure.

00:34:25Marc:Nice Jewish doctor.

00:34:26Guest:Sensitive guy.

00:34:27Guest:Well, that's, you know, it's redundant.

00:34:30Marc:Yeah.

00:34:32Marc:Yeah.

00:34:32Marc:Look, my father was a nice Jewish doctor.

00:34:34Marc:He wasn't that nice ultimately.

00:34:37Guest:My husband was a wonderful man.

00:34:39Guest:He was terrific.

00:34:40Marc:That's nice.

00:34:41Marc:46 years, that's a good run.

00:34:42Guest:He was the most devoted husband and father and later grandfather.

00:34:49Guest:What a great grandfather he was.

00:34:51Marc:That's sweet.

00:34:51Marc:Wow.

00:34:52Marc:That's great.

00:34:53Marc:Killer.

00:34:54Marc:Oh, that's nice to have that.

00:34:55Guest:But, you know, we had our problems, too, because he was very controlling, which is not surprising the way I was brought up.

00:35:02Guest:You know, you want daddy.

00:35:04Marc:Sure.

00:35:04Marc:Yeah, if you're missing one, you're kind of always looking.

00:35:08Guest:That's what I was always looking for.

00:35:09Marc:And also you were a Hollywood starlet.

00:35:12Guest:But after a while, that kind of control does not sit well.

00:35:16Guest:And one day you want to start growing up,

00:35:19Guest:And that's when the problem starts.

00:35:21Marc:Yeah.

00:35:22Guest:Because you're trying to use your wings, as it were.

00:35:27Marc:As an adult.

00:35:29Guest:As an adult.

00:35:29Marc:Yeah, that's when it gets weird.

00:35:31Marc:Because there's so much of you that's grown up, but there's one part that isn't.

00:35:34Guest:And he just had to do everything for me.

00:35:37Guest:And it began to be just absolutely maddening.

00:35:42Marc:Annoying.

00:35:42Guest:But we stayed married.

00:35:43Guest:We stayed married for 46 years.

00:35:45Marc:Well, also, I imagine that coming from where you're a well-known movie star with an exciting past, that must have been threatening on some level.

00:35:55Guest:To him?

00:35:55Marc:Yeah.

00:35:56Guest:I think it was, and I didn't realize that.

00:35:58Marc:Right.

00:35:59Guest:I think it was.

00:36:00Guest:And there was all kinds of handsome guys around me all the time in my business.

00:36:04Marc:Yeah.

00:36:05Guest:And I would think it would give you pause if you were the guy.

00:36:08Guest:Yeah.

00:36:08Marc:If you were the guy who you're in love with someone who dated Marlon Brando or Elvis Presley.

00:36:15Guest:That was a big deal.

00:36:16Marc:It's a lot to carry, man.

00:36:18Marc:It is.

00:36:19Guest:In all fairness to him, absolutely.

00:36:21Marc:I don't know if I could handle it.

00:36:23Marc:There must have been moments where it's like, oh, what, I'm not Elvis Presley?

00:36:27Guest:No, no, I never got that.

00:36:28Marc:No, good.

00:36:29Guest:He had way too much class.

00:36:31Marc:Oh, good.

00:36:32Marc:Well, that's good.

00:36:32Marc:You got to respect him for that, huh?

00:36:36Guest:He was extremely bright, very intelligent.

00:36:38Guest:He's got high IQ.

00:36:39Marc:What kind of doctor?

00:36:40Guest:And I've always been attracted to people who are very, very smart, including women.

00:36:44Guest:Yeah.

00:36:45Guest:I'm always attracted to the woman who's had a great education.

00:36:48Guest:It's interesting.

00:36:49Guest:When I had roommates, for instance.

00:36:50Guest:Right.

00:36:51Guest:We're not talking gay relationships.

00:36:54Guest:Right.

00:36:54Guest:Just talking.

00:36:55Guest:Sure.

00:36:56Guest:Sharing apartments.

00:36:57Guest:Being impressed with people.

00:36:58Marc:Friendship.

00:36:59Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:36:59Guest:Yeah.

00:37:00Marc:So when did you start doing films?

00:37:03Guest:When I was 17.

00:37:04Yeah.

00:37:05Marc:Yeah?

00:37:05Marc:What was the first one?

00:37:06Guest:It was called So Young, So Bad.

00:37:10Marc:Yeah.

00:37:11Guest:And my agent could never get it right.

00:37:13Guest:Yeah.

00:37:14Guest:And he'd say, you know, when he was trying to push me, he'd say, you know, it's so good, so young.

00:37:18Guest:She said, so good, so young.

00:37:20Marc:I'd say, so young, so bad.

00:37:23Guest:Bullets Dergum.

00:37:24Marc:Yeah?

00:37:25Marc:That was his name?

00:37:26Guest:His name was Bullets Dergum.

00:37:29Marc:In New York?

00:37:30Guest:No, this was in L.A.,

00:37:31Marc:Was he with an agency or was he his own guy?

00:37:34Guest:Yeah, that was his own agency.

00:37:36Marc:Bullets Dergum.

00:37:37Guest:The Bullets Dergum Agency.

00:37:39Marc:Yeah.

00:37:39Guest:And he was about, he was about, he was under five feet tall.

00:37:45Guest:Uh-huh.

00:37:46Guest:And he had a head shape.

00:37:49Guest:like a bullet yes and no hair so was he was he a big agent or was he a he was in the middle uh-huh i mean a lot of people knew him because you know someone in the name like that bullets yeah it's memorable and he talked very fast yeah you know hey reader how you doing reader

00:38:07Marc:Where was he from?

00:38:10Marc:New York?

00:38:10Guest:I have no idea.

00:38:11Guest:I never wanted to know anything about him.

00:38:14Marc:Reader.

00:38:17Marc:So you moved out here permanently when you were 17?

00:38:20Marc:I did.

00:38:20Guest:I came with my mom.

00:38:21Marc:Oh, she came too?

00:38:22Guest:Yeah.

00:38:23Marc:So you're both out here in the beautiful Southern California.

00:38:25Guest:And she had by this time divorced the Mexican guy.

00:38:28Marc:The third one.

00:38:30Guest:That's the Moreno, actually.

00:38:31Guest:That's where I got that last name.

00:38:33Marc:From the third one?

00:38:34Marc:Yeah.

00:38:34Uh-huh.

00:38:35Guest:Because my actual name, Rosita Dolores Alverio, no one could ever pronounce Alverio to save my life.

00:38:44Guest:Alvarayo.

00:38:45Guest:Right, sure.

00:38:45Guest:Alvarining.

00:38:48Guest:And I thought, I got to get a name that people can pronounce.

00:38:51Guest:So I took his name.

00:38:53Marc:It worked.

00:38:54Guest:It worked.

00:38:55Marc:So the first movie, was it a musical or just acting?

00:38:58Guest:It was about runaway schoolgirls.

00:39:01Guest:Anne Jackson was in it.

00:39:03Guest:She was very young too.

00:39:05Guest:Oh, wow.

00:39:05Guest:The actress, the New York actress.

00:39:07Marc:Yeah.

00:39:07Guest:And Anne Francis was in it.

00:39:09Marc:So that was just a, was it like a B movie or was it like?

00:39:12Guest:It was a B movie.

00:39:13Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:39:13Guest:It was one of the very early independent movies.

00:39:18Guest:Paul Henry, do you remember Paul Henry the actor?

00:39:20Guest:I don't, I don't.

00:39:21Guest:He would if I tell you, what was the name of that famous movie he did with Bette Davis?

00:39:27Guest:I know.

00:39:27Guest:Now Voyager.

00:39:28Guest:Oh, good.

00:39:28Guest:Yeah.

00:39:29Guest:Now Voyager.

00:39:30Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:39:31Guest:And he likes to say he was very romantic.

00:39:33Guest:Yeah.

00:39:34Guest:Leading man.

00:39:34Guest:He was European.

00:39:35Guest:Yeah.

00:39:36Guest:And he decided to make his own movies when he got blacklisted.

00:39:43Guest:Oh, okay.

00:39:44Yeah.

00:39:44Guest:So he put this movie together, Runaway Schoolgirls, and it was a bit exploitive, but not terrible.

00:39:53Marc:But that was sort of that time in the early 50s where things they were doing, those kind of motorcycle gang movies.

00:39:58Guest:It was just starting to do independent films, little black and white movies.

00:40:04Marc:Not outside the studio system.

00:40:06Guest:Outside of the studios.

00:40:07Guest:That's what they would call independent.

00:40:09Guest:And I remember seeing a movie with Tony Curtis, whose name was then Bernie Schwartz, in a movie called City Across the River, which came from a very famous book about gangs called the Amboy Dukes.

00:40:23Guest:right okay and i remember seeing tony curtis and just dying he was gorgeous yeah he made such an impression he had a small part in that movie and the world wanted to know who he was really bernie schwartz that was the one that broke him that was the one that was the one i think it's his first movie uh-huh and he changed his name after that

00:40:46Guest:I guess.

00:40:46Marc:Somebody said that.

00:40:47Guest:Because it wasn't Bernie Schwartz for long.

00:40:49Marc:You're a good-looking kid.

00:40:50Marc:Lose the Bernie.

00:40:51Guest:Lose the Schwartz.

00:40:52Guest:I have a wonderful photograph of myself with him where we were doing an Arabian Nights television show.

00:41:00Guest:And don't even ask me what it was about.

00:41:02Guest:I don't remember.

00:41:02Guest:But it's a wonderful movie.

00:41:04Guest:He was still looking pretty gorgeous.

00:41:06Guest:I looked so pretty.

00:41:07Guest:Yeah.

00:41:08Guest:And I was an Arabian princess.

00:41:10Guest:But he was saying things like, Yonder likes the castle of my father, the Caliph.

00:41:16Marc:I mean, yonder.

00:41:19Marc:Never lost that accent.

00:41:21Guest:Oh, no.

00:41:21Guest:It was just pathetic.

00:41:24Marc:That's too much.

00:41:25Guest:Well, Dee was also in, what was the one with Kirk Douglas?

00:41:28Marc:Spartacus?

00:41:29Guest:Yes, he talked just like that.

00:41:31Guest:Just like that.

00:41:32Marc:The Brooklyn Spartacus?

00:41:33Guest:Yeah.

00:41:34Marc:Yeah.

00:41:37Yeah.

00:41:38Guest:And they ask him, oh, I know, the king asks him.

00:41:41Guest:Peter Russo says, and what do you do, boy?

00:41:43Guest:And he says, I am a poet and a singer.

00:41:52Guest:I just saw that recently, and I swear I wet my knickers.

00:41:56Guest:I laugh so hard, I am a poet and a singer.

00:42:00Guest:And then the king has to, you know, with a straight face, the actor Peter Ustertoff says, good, we need someone.

00:42:07Guest:And on the saying, Peter Ustertoff must have just split a gun.

00:42:11Marc:Yeah, they must have had to do a few takes on that one.

00:42:14Marc:Oh, God.

00:42:15Marc:Well, I guess he was such an appealing looking person.

00:42:18Marc:Everybody gave him a pass.

00:42:19Marc:Who cared?

00:42:20Marc:Right, exactly.

00:42:20Guest:He was gorgeous.

00:42:21Guest:Yeah.

00:42:22Guest:Ava Gardner was the world's worst actress, but I would drop everything to go see her.

00:42:26Guest:She was beautiful.

00:42:27Marc:So you got to know a lot of these people, didn't you?

00:42:32Marc:No.

00:42:33Marc:Who am I going to know?

00:42:34Marc:Who?

00:42:35Marc:See, again, we're back to that.

00:42:38Marc:Who's friends in Hollywood, right?

00:42:41Guest:No, I never knew any of those people.

00:42:42Guest:I was also very shy.

00:42:44Marc:Yeah.

00:42:45Guest:And I never knew anybody.

00:42:47Marc:But when you did, after that movie, you started doing a couple musicals, right?

00:42:52Yeah.

00:42:52Guest:Yeah, I did Singing in the Rain, which I adored.

00:42:55Marc:That was so much fun.

00:42:56Guest:That's a fun movie.

00:42:57Guest:Yeah, Gene.

00:42:58Marc:Oh, I can't.

00:42:58Guest:Gene Kelly.

00:42:59Marc:And you got to watch him live right up close.

00:43:01Guest:I was there every day when I didn't have any work to do.

00:43:05Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:43:06Guest:I was there every single day.

00:43:08Guest:I saw everything that they shot.

00:43:10Guest:Everything.

00:43:11Guest:Yeah.

00:43:11Guest:The Be a Clown number, Make Him Laugh number.

00:43:14Guest:Yeah.

00:43:14Guest:I was there when he did the Singing in the Rain with the Rain when he had 103 fever.

00:43:19Guest:Oh, wow.

00:43:20Guest:I was there every day watching everything.

00:43:23Guest:It's one of my favorite movies.

00:43:25Marc:It's amazing.

00:43:25Guest:I call it my Christmas movie.

00:43:27Guest:I watch it every year.

00:43:28Marc:How old were you when you were sitting there?

00:43:30Guest:I was, yeah, I was under contract to MGM, so I was really young.

00:43:34Guest:I must have been about 18.

00:43:37Marc:Really?

00:43:38Marc:Yeah.

00:43:39Marc:So you were under contract with MGM.

00:43:40Marc:How does that work?

00:43:41Marc:What is the process of being under contract?

00:43:44Marc:Because I don't know if I've ever talked to anybody about that.

00:43:47Guest:Uh-huh.

00:43:48Guest:Well, a talent scout actually saw me perform at my dance school recital.

00:43:57Guest:And in those days, talent scouts went everywhere.

00:44:00Marc:Okay.

00:44:00Guest:Everywhere.

00:44:01Marc:And you're like 15?

00:44:03Yeah.

00:44:03Guest:And I was about, I think I was about 16.

00:44:06Guest:And he saw me dance.

00:44:08Guest:I was a Spanish dancer.

00:44:10Guest:And he came backstage afterward, gave my mom his business card, and it said MGM.

00:44:16Guest:And I'll never forget his name, Dudley Wilkinson.

00:44:19Marc:Wow.

00:44:19Guest:Great name, huh?

00:44:20Marc:It's a couple good names today.

00:44:22Marc:Bullets and Dudley.

00:44:23Guest:That's right.

00:44:25Guest:And he said to my mom, it's not the right time, but I'll be in touch with you now and then because I think MGM can use this young lady.

00:44:33Guest:Oh, really?

00:44:34Guest:Yeah.

00:44:35Guest:And we went crazy.

00:44:36Guest:And we waited months.

00:44:38Guest:And he would call now and then.

00:44:39Guest:Really?

00:44:40Guest:How's she doing?

00:44:40Guest:Yeah, to say everything okay.

00:44:41Guest:You know, I haven't forgotten and all that.

00:44:43Guest:And one day he called and said, Louis B. Mayer is coming into town and I would like Rosita to meet him.

00:44:49Wow.

00:44:50Guest:And that's exactly what happened.

00:44:52Guest:We went to the Waldorf Astoria where he had the penthouse apartment where the elevator actually opened into the room, into the house, into the apartment.

00:45:03Marc:Yeah.

00:45:03Guest:This is the man who did all of it.

00:45:08Marc:He invented movies almost.

00:45:10Guest:Practically, yeah.

00:45:11Marc:Him and the Warners and the other ones.

00:45:14Guest:Yeah, but especially MGM.

00:45:16Guest:MGM had the best ones.

00:45:18Guest:They had Gene Kelly.

00:45:20Guest:They had Judy Garland.

00:45:21Guest:They had Tap Dancer.

00:45:26Marc:Fred Astaire.

00:45:27Guest:The woman.

00:45:28Guest:Ann Miller.

00:45:29Marc:Yeah.

00:45:29Guest:Ann Miller.

00:45:30Marc:Yeah.

00:45:30Guest:They were all there.

00:45:32Guest:Yeah.

00:45:33Guest:All the great dancers.

00:45:34Guest:Oh, my God.

00:45:35Guest:And Elizabeth Taylor was there.

00:45:38Marc:Yeah.

00:45:38Guest:She was my role model because I didn't have a role model.

00:45:42Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:45:42Guest:Latin girls didn't have such a thing.

00:45:44Marc:Right.

00:45:45Guest:So she became my role model.

00:45:47Marc:So you met him.

00:45:49Marc:What was that like?

00:45:50Guest:Oh, he was very avuncular.

00:45:53Marc:Uh-huh.

00:45:53Guest:And he looked me over and took my hand.

00:45:57Guest:And I had made a point of trying to look as much like Liz Taylor as I could.

00:46:02Guest:I did.

00:46:03Guest:Because she was a teenager when she found him.

00:46:05Guest:Yeah.

00:46:06Guest:So I did my hair like her.

00:46:07Guest:I did my eyebrows like her.

00:46:09Guest:I got a waist cincher because she had this tiny, tiny wasp waist.

00:46:16Guest:And I dressed just like her, just like her.

00:46:18Guest:Uh-huh.

00:46:18Guest:And he took my hand.

00:46:19Guest:Did you put them all on your face?

00:46:21Guest:No, that I didn't do.

00:46:22Guest:But he took my hand and he looked me up and down.

00:46:25Guest:He said, why, she looks like a Spanish Elizabeth Taylor.

00:46:28Marc:You did it.

00:46:32Marc:I done did it.

00:46:33Marc:Yeah.

00:46:34Marc:And that was it?

00:46:34Marc:And then they signed you?

00:46:36Guest:And they literally, yes.

00:46:37Guest:He took the word of the talent scout.

00:46:40Guest:Dudley.

00:46:41Guest:He felt that, you know, that's why they had these guys.

00:46:44Marc:Yeah.

00:46:44Guest:They trusted these guys.

00:46:45Guest:Yeah.

00:46:45Marc:And then once you're put under contract, that's when you moved?

00:46:49Guest:Yes.

00:46:50Marc:And then what does that mean?

00:46:52Marc:Do you just go?

00:46:53Guest:You literally go and you find yourself a little cottage or house.

00:46:57Marc:Yeah.

00:46:57Guest:I mean, we had to do that on our own.

00:46:59Marc:A bungalow?

00:47:01Guest:Exactly.

00:47:01Guest:That's the word for it.

00:47:02Guest:In Culver City, which was near the studio, I got a driver's license.

00:47:08Guest:And on the very first day that I acquired the license, I had an accident.

00:47:13Guest:Yeah.

00:47:13Guest:I ran into somebody.

00:47:14Guest:Oh, man.

00:47:15Guest:It was so horrible.

00:47:18Guest:Thank God it wasn't bad, but I did crunch somebody's rear.

00:47:22Marc:Those were big old cars then.

00:47:24Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:47:25Guest:Yeah.

00:47:25Marc:Yeah.

00:47:26Guest:Anyway, and it was a very old car that I had.

00:47:29Guest:It was more like 24th hand.

00:47:32Guest:Uh-huh.

00:47:33Uh-huh.

00:47:33Guest:really really old yeah in fact it was so old it had a little uh what do they call those those little backs rear seats oh yeah rumble seat rumble it had a rumble seat that's how old that car was old and uh that's

00:47:49Marc:And you wait around for a role or you go to the studio?

00:47:51Guest:Well, what they had at the time, they had a little stable of young people, one of whom was Debbie Reynolds.

00:47:58Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:47:59Guest:Another was Amanda Blake.

00:48:01Guest:And they had a teacher of drama who was a joke.

00:48:06Guest:She was George Sidney's wife.

00:48:08Guest:He was a house director at MGM.

00:48:12Guest:He directed all the sort of B kind of stuff.

00:48:15Marc:Right.

00:48:16Guest:And she was a horrible, she was a horrible teacher.

00:48:19Marc:And you all had to go to school?

00:48:21Guest:And I still had to because I was still 17.

00:48:23Guest:Okay.

00:48:24Guest:So they had a lady following me around.

00:48:26Guest:Uh-huh.

00:48:27Guest:And a really old maid kind of lady.

00:48:30Guest:And I smoked.

00:48:31Guest:Yeah.

00:48:31Guest:At the time I was 17.

00:48:33Guest:Yeah.

00:48:34Guest:And she saw me light up and she said, you can't do that.

00:48:39Guest:As long as I'm here, you do not smoke.

00:48:43Guest:Yes, ma'am.

00:48:44Marc:They just go smoke somewhere else.

00:48:45Guest:yeah of course so so like you would you went to school on the on the lot or at a school yeah yeah no actually i was 17 going on 18. right what they didn't know is that i had quit school when i was 16. oh right okay i quit high school and i started working as a dancer in nightclubs and stuff

00:49:05Marc:But not burlesque, just four shows.

00:49:08Guest:No, there were a lot of nightclubs.

00:49:10Guest:And I was underage.

00:49:11Guest:You could not work in a place where liquor was sold unless you were 18 or over, and I lied all the time.

00:49:18Guest:And some places just sort of were complicit because some of them, they'd see a cop coming in, and they'd put a mink coat on me in a far corner of the nightclub like I was a patron.

00:49:31Marc:Just blend in.

00:49:32Marc:Don't say anything.

00:49:32Marc:Yeah.

00:49:33Marc:But it's interesting that there was so much work for dancers at one time.

00:49:40Marc:There was all these live shows that had dancers.

00:49:43Marc:Movies had dancers.

00:49:44Guest:It was hard for me to get work because I was a Spanish dancer.

00:49:50Guest:Who the hell employed a Spanish dancer with the ruffled costumes?

00:49:54Marc:You got to wait for that.

00:49:56Guest:And castanets.

00:49:56Guest:I usually worked out of town where age wasn't a problem.

00:50:00Marc:Very specific.

00:50:01Guest:Very.

00:50:02Guest:Philadelphia, Boston, Montreal, places like that.

00:50:10Marc:So you did so many movies that weren't dance movies.

00:50:13Marc:That's right.

00:50:14Guest:Isn't that typical of show business?

00:50:17Marc:Yeah.

00:50:17Marc:It's sort of astounding that there was westerns and comedies.

00:50:22Guest:Oh, I did lots of Indian maidens in westerns.

00:50:25Guest:But that started to get... That was after MGM dropped me.

00:50:28Marc:How long were you with MGM?

00:50:30Guest:I was with them, I think, for about three years.

00:50:33Guest:I was heartbroken.

00:50:35Guest:It was like Daddy had said, I don't love you anymore.

00:50:38Marc:You did Singing in the Rain with them?

00:50:39Guest:That was after I was dropped, which is interesting.

00:50:43Marc:So you only did a few movies with them?

00:50:45Guest:Yeah, just a few.

00:50:46Marc:Small parts, and then Singing in the Rain?

00:50:47Guest:Singing in the Rain, and that was that.

00:50:49Marc:And who were you with then?

00:50:49Marc:Was there another contract with a studio?

00:50:51Guest:No.

00:50:52Guest:You just freelance?

00:50:53Guest:That was MGM.

00:50:54Marc:That was MGM, but you weren't under contract anyway.

00:50:56Guest:Not anymore, but I don't know why.

00:51:00Guest:Gene had seen me in the commissary of something, something like that.

00:51:03Marc:Yeah.

00:51:04Guest:And he said, I'll take her.

00:51:07Marc:And then so eventually you got tired of playing.

00:51:11Guest:I got tired of playing native girls and I was still stuck with them.

00:51:17Guest:But there came a time when I thought, this isn't a life, this isn't a career.

00:51:22Guest:This is terrible.

00:51:24Guest:But that's all I could get.

00:51:25Marc:Like you'd literally go in, that was all they were looking for.

00:51:29Guest:The agents, I mean, producers wouldn't see me for anything else.

00:51:32Marc:And they were completely limited, one-line parts, caricatures.

00:51:36Guest:Well, they were, you know, why you no love Lolita no more?

00:51:38Guest:You know, Jenky Pig.

00:51:41Guest:Yeah.

00:51:41Guest:Do you think you can fool Carmelita?

00:51:44Guest:And it's funny now, but boy, it hurt.

00:51:47Guest:Yeah.

00:51:48Guest:It hurt a lot.

00:51:49Guest:Yeah.

00:51:49Guest:And I played a lot of American Indian squaws.

00:51:52Guest:Right.

00:51:53Guest:Tons.

00:51:54Guest:Couldn't ride a horse, but I rode many of them.

00:51:57Marc:Yeah.

00:51:58Guest:And my buckskins, oh, which were freezing.

00:52:01Marc:They'd make you ride?

00:52:02Guest:Yeah.

00:52:03Guest:Well, no, I lied.

00:52:04Marc:Right.

00:52:05Guest:Can you ride?

00:52:05Guest:Of course.

00:52:06Guest:Of course I can ride a horse.

00:52:09Guest:And I remember this first time I lied like that.

00:52:13Guest:Yeah.

00:52:13Yeah.

00:52:14Guest:And that morning when we started shooting, it was about in Kanab, Utah.

00:52:20Guest:And it was freezing.

00:52:21Guest:For which movie?

00:52:22Guest:I don't remember.

00:52:25Guest:And they said, can you write?

00:52:26Guest:I said, of course.

00:52:28Guest:And thank God it was a western saddle with a pommel.

00:52:31Guest:That's all I can tell you.

00:52:32Guest:Hold on.

00:52:33Guest:And it was freezing.

00:52:34Guest:Canab, Utah, at 5, 6 in the morning.

00:52:37Guest:Yeah.

00:52:37Guest:It's like 20, 18 degrees.

00:52:41Guest:And buckskins are... You might as well have a slab of ice on you.

00:52:47Guest:It's horrible.

00:52:48Guest:Oh, my God.

00:52:49Guest:And the person who's in charge of the horses says to all of us, there are about five of us on horseback.

00:52:58Guest:And I had never...

00:52:59Guest:been on a horse in my life oh my god that's you and i'm holding on to the pummel and he says okay here's what we're gonna do wrangler he's the wrangler oh there you go so he says here's what we're gonna do after so and so says such and such a line i'm gonna shoot off a gun and that'll get that'll make the horses go yeah

00:53:24Guest:And I thought, oh, wow, okay.

00:53:26Guest:So action.

00:53:27Guest:And they do the shoot off the gun.

00:53:30Guest:And my horse takes off like a bat out of hell.

00:53:34Guest:I mean, to the point where he went so fast that I was riding on my back.

00:53:38Guest:That's scary.

00:53:39Guest:Because he went so fast.

00:53:42Guest:And I finally was able to get myself up.

00:53:44Guest:I mean, imagine this Indian girl with a feather in her thing.

00:53:48Guest:And she's saying, oh, damn it.

00:53:51Guest:Oh.

00:53:51Guest:oh and that damn horse was very angry he didn't want to be doing this yeah and we get to a ravine and he stops short like bam yeah hoping fully that i would just sort of

00:54:08Guest:Just run, you know, just fly over him and fall into the ravine.

00:54:12Guest:Oh, my God.

00:54:13Guest:And thank God for the pummel because it saved me.

00:54:15Guest:I mean, I went sideways, but I'm hanging on to the pummel.

00:54:18Marc:Oh, my God.

00:54:19Marc:That's your first time on a horse.

00:54:22Marc:Did they know that maybe you hadn't ridden before?

00:54:24Guest:No, because it ran so fast and away into trees and stuff like that.

00:54:31Guest:They didn't see it.

00:54:32Guest:They just had to see, the camera just had to see that we were taking off.

00:54:35Marc:Oh, that was it.

00:54:35Guest:So we were out of frame.

00:54:37Marc:So they already cut and your horse is on his way to the ravine.

00:54:43Marc:What's with that one?

00:54:45Guest:It's like when they asked me if I could swim and I said, of course.

00:54:47Marc:You couldn't swim either?

00:54:48Guest:No, it was an Esther Williams movie.

00:54:50Guest:Come on.

00:54:51Guest:No, I couldn't swim.

00:54:53Marc:You really needed to know how to swim in an Esther Williams movie.

00:54:56Marc:Oh, yes, you did.

00:54:57Guest:It was a big number.

00:54:59Guest:We were in Hawaii.

00:55:01Guest:We were in Kauai, actually.

00:55:03Guest:I love it there.

00:55:04Guest:It's beautiful.

00:55:05Guest:And the day kept coming sooner and sooner, and I do not know how to swim.

00:55:12Guest:at all oh no not at all oh i'm a new york kid right what if i went into a pool in new york at the public pools i'd go into the shallow edge you know splash a lot so so comes i mean a week there's a week left yeah

00:55:32Guest:And literally, and I tried to swim in the pool when no one was looking at the hotel.

00:55:37Guest:I couldn't.

00:55:39Guest:And one night, I swear to God, I don't know how these things actually happen.

00:55:44Guest:I dreamed I could swim.

00:55:47Guest:And the next morning, I just had a feeling.

00:55:50Guest:I went into the pool.

00:55:52Guest:Well, I couldn't do a breaststroke, but I could do a backstroke.

00:55:55Guest:I was actually able to do that.

00:55:58Guest:So there is this scene a few days later with...

00:56:03Guest:Hundreds of people swimming in the lagoon.

00:56:07Guest:And there's one person doing the backstroke in this crowd of people.

00:56:10Guest:And it's me.

00:56:12Marc:Yeah.

00:56:13Marc:You pulled it off, huh?

00:56:18Guest:I don't know how.

00:56:19Guest:I mean, you know, you're crazy when you're young.

00:56:22Guest:I mean, I could have drowned.

00:56:24Marc:Right.

00:56:25Marc:Oh, definitely.

00:56:25Marc:Yeah.

00:56:26Marc:Yeah.

00:56:26Marc:It was pretty bold.

00:56:28Marc:And these were just basically, were they extra parts?

00:56:31Guest:These were extras.

00:56:32Guest:I wasn't an extra.

00:56:34Guest:I had a little feature role in it.

00:56:36Guest:But I had a speaking part, yes.

00:56:40Guest:And I'm supposed to be able to swim.

00:56:43Marc:And you did it.

00:56:44Marc:As long as you were on your back, you could do it.

00:56:46Guest:Unbelievable.

00:56:48Marc:So when did the big movies start to happen?

00:56:50Marc:Like, I didn't realize that you had done like 20 movies before you did West Side Story.

00:56:54Guest:Oh, I did a whole bunch of movies, yeah.

00:56:55Guest:And I did a lot of TV and stuff.

00:56:57Guest:Only the Westerns, though.

00:56:59Marc:Yeah, only the Westerns.

00:57:00Guest:Always Conchita Lolita.

00:57:02Guest:Always, always, always.

00:57:03Marc:It never changed.

00:57:04Marc:At some point you changed.

00:57:05Guest:Never changed.

00:57:06Guest:And then what happened was, what came first?

00:57:10Guest:Yeah, The King and I. Yeah.

00:57:12Guest:And I was under contract to 20th Century Fox, who made that movie.

00:57:15Guest:Uh-huh.

00:57:16Guest:And I tested for it along with a lot of other girls who really were more proper.

00:57:22Guest:They looked Asian.

00:57:26Guest:I'm supposed to be playing an Asian girl, Burmese.

00:57:31Guest:And I thought, oh, well, I don't stand a chance here.

00:57:33Guest:And I got the part.

00:57:36Guest:Don't even ask me.

00:57:37Guest:I really felt very guilty.

00:57:39Guest:I felt guilty because I felt so happy to get it.

00:57:42Marc:Yeah, it's interesting that you're feeling guilty because you're usually typecast as another ethnicity.

00:57:47Marc:Exactly, exactly.

00:57:48Marc:And then you don't want to take away a word from it.

00:57:50Guest:I mean, there was a young actress named Franz Nguyen.

00:57:54Guest:Beautiful.

00:57:55Guest:Oh, my God.

00:57:56Guest:She was beautiful.

00:57:57Guest:She was Vietnamese and French.

00:58:00Guest:And her name, Franz Nguyen.

00:58:03Guest:And I thought, oh, she's the one.

00:58:04Guest:She's going to get it.

00:58:05Guest:She was just breathtaking and lovely.

00:58:07Guest:And for years and years, I felt so guilty whenever I saw her.

00:58:12Guest:And I thought, it's just not fair.

00:58:16Marc:But I did it.

00:58:18Marc:Right.

00:58:19Marc:But it's like show business isn't fair for anybody on some level.

00:58:24Marc:It's a very weird, heartbreaking endeavor.

00:58:27Marc:It sure is.

00:58:28Marc:You know what I mean?

00:58:30Guest:It is heartbreaking.

00:58:31Guest:I won an Oscar for West Side Story.

00:58:34Guest:I also won a Golden Globe and then didn't do a movie for a couple of years.

00:58:41Marc:What is that?

00:58:41Guest:My heart broke.

00:58:42Guest:My heart just broke.

00:58:44Marc:What happened?

00:58:45Guest:I was the definitive Hispanic, I guess.

00:58:48Guest:I don't know.

00:58:49Marc:They didn't book you or you weren't looking?

00:58:51Guest:No, no, they weren't looking.

00:58:53Guest:My agents were killing themselves trying to get me jobs.

00:58:58Guest:And we got a very few offers and the offers were gang movies.

00:59:03Marc:So they typecast you again.

00:59:04Guest:Yeah.

00:59:05Marc:With an Oscar.

00:59:06Guest:And this time I said, with an Oscar and a Golden Globe.

00:59:09Guest:And this time I said to myself, you know, I tucked that little gold guy under my arm and I said, I'm not going to do this again.

00:59:15Guest:And ha ha, I showed them.

00:59:17Guest:I didn't work for a very long time.

00:59:20Marc:Yeah.

00:59:20Marc:For years.

00:59:21Marc:And when you came back, were the roles better?

00:59:24Guest:It was a Hispanic part, but it was a legitimate one with Alan Arkin.

00:59:29Guest:It was called Poppy.

00:59:30Guest:Yeah.

00:59:30Marc:Oh, he's great.

00:59:31Marc:Oh, he's wonderful.

00:59:33Marc:I adore him.

00:59:34Marc:Wow.

00:59:35Guest:What a great guy.

00:59:36Marc:He was playing a Hispanic part?

00:59:38Guest:He was playing a Puerto Rican.

00:59:39Marc:How'd he do?

00:59:41Guest:The accent?

00:59:42Marc:Not so good.

00:59:44Guest:It's not that easy.

00:59:45Guest:No, I guess not.

00:59:46Guest:I mean, American actors think they know how to... It's like Carlito's way.

00:59:51Marc:Yeah.

00:59:51Guest:Where Pacino's playing... Is he a Cuban or a Puerto Rican?

00:59:55Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:59:56Guest:It was a terrible accent.

00:59:57Marc:I don't think he ever shook that accent he made for Scarface, that Cuban accent.

01:00:01Marc:I think that stuck with him for decades.

01:00:03Guest:Yeah.

01:00:04Marc:I think that's his go-to Latino accent.

01:00:06Guest:Yeah, well, I had a go-to accent, too, when I was young.

01:00:09Guest:Everything sounded like this.

01:00:11Guest:I play a Hawaiian girl, and she sounded like this.

01:00:15Guest:And then I play an Egyptian princess, and she sounded like this.

01:00:19Guest:Because that's all I knew.

01:00:20Marc:But you know, it's a bit sad.

01:00:22Guest:You know, some of all of that is so sad, and yet it's so funny.

01:00:26Marc:Well, the weird thing is, is it probably a good deal of the audience was sort of like, okay, that's right.

01:00:31Marc:You know, I just know it's different.

01:00:32Guest:Directors never said anything.

01:00:34Marc:Yeah.

01:00:35Guest:And I just took it upon myself to give these characters accents because it seemed logical.

01:00:40Marc:And it was always the same one.

01:00:41Guest:Always the same accent.

01:00:43Marc:So Poppy, was it like a turning point, you think?

01:00:45Guest:Actually, it was.

01:00:46Guest:It was a lovely part.

01:00:48Guest:Oh, I just adored working with Alan.

01:00:52Marc:He's something else.

01:00:53Guest:He really is.

01:00:54Marc:He can do anything, that guy.

01:00:55Marc:So can you.

01:00:56Marc:Comedy, serious, all of it.

01:00:58Guest:I do it all.

01:01:00Marc:Yeah, you do.

01:01:02Marc:So after that, though, in the 70s, you got better roles.

01:01:07Yeah.

01:01:07Guest:Well, the most amazing role that I got because it was so unlike anything I'd ever had was the prostitute.

01:01:15Guest:Right.

01:01:16Marc:Carnal knowledge.

01:01:17Guest:Carnal knowledge.

01:01:18Marc:Yep.

01:01:18Marc:Well, let's get to the present then.

01:01:20Marc:So you're doing this Norman Lear reboot.

01:01:22Marc:Yep.

01:01:22Marc:And you enjoy doing it?

01:01:24Guest:And it's called One Day at a Time.

01:01:26Marc:Yes, One Day at a Time.

01:01:27Guest:I remember the original.

01:01:28Guest:I am in love with Norman Lear.

01:01:31Guest:I never dreamed that I would have the opportunity to work with someone like him.

01:01:37Guest:I just feel so lucky.

01:01:40Guest:I really do.

01:01:41Guest:I mean, I'm 86 now, for Pete's sake, and I'm doing a series.

01:01:45Guest:I'm doing a series.

01:01:45Marc:Well, you're very alive.

01:01:47Guest:It's into its second season right now.

01:01:51Guest:Is this coming out soon?

01:01:53Marc:Yeah.

01:01:53Marc:We're going to match it up with whenever you told us to.

01:01:56Marc:You had never met Norman before you had.

01:01:58Marc:Have you known him?

01:01:59Guest:I met him years ago, but he doesn't remember when he was doing a lot of producing.

01:02:05Uh-huh.

01:02:05Guest:And I went in for a look-see.

01:02:08Guest:They call that a look-see, I think.

01:02:11Guest:He was doing a pilot with Charles Durning, and they needed a wife for Charlie, and I was in my 60s.

01:02:20Guest:But you see, I've never looked my age.

01:02:22Guest:Yeah, you don't.

01:02:25Guest:So I hoped against hope, and I went to meet him, and I come in, and he says, Rita Moreno.

01:02:32Guest:I said, yeah, hi.

01:02:35Guest:Big smile, hoping.

01:02:37Guest:He says, what the hell are you doing here?

01:02:38Guest:And I said, he was being very sweet.

01:02:41Guest:And I said...

01:02:42Guest:Oh, well, I came here for you to look at me for Charlie Durning's wife.

01:02:50Guest:He says, Charlie Durning's wife?

01:02:54Guest:He said, oh, honey, you could never be Charlie Durning's wife at any age.

01:03:02Guest:And I got very upset.

01:03:04Guest:I said, but hey, I'm 60.

01:03:05Guest:I was 60-something at the time.

01:03:07Guest:I don't remember which one it was.

01:03:09Guest:And he said, honey, you could never, after I told my agent, you could never be Charlie Durning's wife.

01:03:17Guest:Get the hell out of here.

01:03:19Guest:But it was done, you know, with enormous warmth.

01:03:21Guest:I went, sat in my car, and I cried for two hours.

01:03:24Guest:I hadn't worked in a bunch of years.

01:03:27Marc:But he was giving you a compliment.

01:03:29Guest:Well, good luck.

01:03:30Marc:Right.

01:03:31Marc:I get it.

01:03:31Marc:Yeah.

01:03:32Guest:And that happened to me a lot.

01:03:35Guest:I never looked the age that I would go in for.

01:03:38Marc:You're too pretty to be Charlie Durning's wife.

01:03:40Guest:It wasn't the pretty part.

01:03:42Guest:It was just the young looking part.

01:03:43Marc:Oh, really?

01:03:44Guest:Yeah, because I just looked very young for my age.

01:03:48Guest:The younger I was, the more young I would look.

01:03:52Marc:Yeah.

01:03:53Guest:Because, I mean, when I was 17, I looked like I was 15.

01:03:56Marc:Right.

01:03:56Marc:Well, this one, how much have you dealt with him?

01:03:59Marc:He was in here, you know.

01:04:00Marc:He came here.

01:04:00Guest:Oh, we're here.

01:04:01Guest:We deal with each other constantly because we have found we are soulmates.

01:04:07Marc:Yeah.

01:04:07Guest:We are real soulmates.

01:04:08Marc:Well, I'll tell you, you both got your wits about your age.

01:04:11Marc:Yeah, he's like older than you.

01:04:12Guest:He's 95.

01:04:14Guest:Oh, unbelievable.

01:04:16Marc:What a gift to be, you know.

01:04:17Guest:Imagine that.

01:04:18Marc:To have the brain still.

01:04:19Guest:Mel Brooks, too.

01:04:21Guest:But also to bring back a show that is supposedly old-fashioned and make it work.

01:04:30Guest:That's genius.

01:04:31Marc:Oh, yeah.

01:04:32Guest:Well, he's good with the... The four camera, live audience, which, of course, I love as an actress.

01:04:38Marc:Sure.

01:04:39Guest:It sure puts you on your metal, let me tell you.

01:04:41Guest:Yeah.

01:04:41Marc:Get the laughs.

01:04:42Guest:Well, it's like theater.

01:04:43Marc:Yeah, right.

01:04:44Guest:And, you know, I get nervous every week that we do it.

01:04:47Guest:I get nervous because I am... Well, I was then 85 when we were doing the second season.

01:04:52Marc:And you're playing the grandma?

01:04:53Guest:And I'm playing grandma.

01:04:54Marc:And the family is Cuban?

01:04:56Guest:But she's a 77-year-old grandma.

01:04:58Marc:There you go.

01:04:58Guest:Yeah.

01:04:59Marc:See, you got it.

01:05:00Marc:Now you're playing the young part.

01:05:03Marc:Oh, it's marvelous.

01:05:05Marc:And the family's Cuban?

01:05:05Marc:Is that the angle?

01:05:06Guest:The angle is that it's a Cuban family minus husband because there's been a divorce.

01:05:12Guest:And it's one day at a time.

01:05:13Marc:Sure.

01:05:13Guest:Except... Is there a Schneider?

01:05:16Guest:Yes, and I call him a Snyder.

01:05:19Guest:Because she has an accent, she talks like this, you know?

01:05:21Marc:That's different than the other one.

01:05:23Guest:She talks like this.

01:05:25Guest:Snyder.

01:05:27Guest:Hello, Snyder.

01:05:28Guest:She'll flirt with anything, a fence post.

01:05:31Guest:She's shameless.

01:05:33Guest:The one caveat that I said to them when they offered the part to me, I said, I would love to do it with one condition.

01:05:41Guest:She has to be, even though she's older, she has to be sexual.

01:05:46Guest:I said, you know, things don't just go away and disappear because you're 77.

01:05:51Guest:They love the idea and have taken full advantage.

01:05:55Guest:They have me flirting.

01:05:56Guest:Oh, my God.

01:05:58Guest:It's very funny.

01:05:59Guest:That's great.

01:06:00Guest:She really believes she's God's gift to men.

01:06:05Guest:Maybe she is.

01:06:05Guest:I love people that are filled with illusions.

01:06:11Marc:She's vain.

01:06:13Marc:The vanity.

01:06:14Guest:She's opinionated.

01:06:17Guest:She knows everything.

01:06:19Guest:That's great.

01:06:20Guest:She's hilarious.

01:06:21Guest:She must have the funniest part.

01:06:24Guest:Actually, sometimes in some episodes, it is the funniest part.

01:06:28Marc:That's so great.

01:06:29Marc:And you've never stopped working.

01:06:31Marc:It's unbelievable.

01:06:31Marc:It's beautiful.

01:06:33Marc:And how do you feel about what's happening now with the pushback against the male-dominated horror show?

01:06:39Guest:I think it's about fucking time.

01:06:40Guest:That's what I think.

01:06:41Marc:Yeah.

01:06:42Guest:Jesus, I can't believe... You know, I lived through that.

01:06:46Marc:All of it from the beginning, I imagine.

01:06:48Guest:From the very beginning.

01:06:50Guest:And when I was under contract to Fox, I was pursued by the head of the studio for months and months.

01:06:58Guest:And I was terrified because I thought, well, I guess I'll never work again.

01:07:02Marc:If you don't do it.

01:07:03Guest:Yeah.

01:07:05Guest:And finally, finally, he gave up.

01:07:08Guest:I couldn't even go to lunch by myself in the commissary because he might sit down.

01:07:14Guest:I was scared to death that he'd sit down and proposition me.

01:07:17Guest:So when I did lunch in the commissary, I would lunch with somebody.

01:07:22Guest:So he couldn't do anything if he wanted to sit down.

01:07:26Marc:So it's always been there.

01:07:28Guest:It was a nightmare.

01:07:29Guest:It was brutal, it was mean, and it was heartbreaking.

01:07:33Guest:And being Latina on top of everything else.

01:07:36Marc:Right.

01:07:37Marc:So it is about time.

01:07:39Marc:I told you.

01:07:41Marc:Yeah.

01:07:42Guest:I know these things.

01:07:43Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:07:44Guest:I'm not 86 for nothing.

01:07:46Marc:Yeah.

01:07:47Guest:Actually, I'll tell you what.

01:07:48Guest:It's been really terrific talking to you.

01:07:50Guest:You do your homework, and I love that.

01:07:52Marc:Well, thank you.

01:07:53Marc:It was an honor for me to talk to you.

01:07:55Marc:And it was great seeing you last night.

01:07:56Marc:Great seeing you here.

01:07:57Marc:You seem great.

01:07:58Marc:Congratulations on the continued work.

01:08:01Guest:Thank you.

01:08:02Guest:It's pretty great, isn't it?

01:08:03Guest:I wake up humming.

01:08:04Marc:Yeah.

01:08:05Marc:You're an electric person.

01:08:07Guest:There's a marvelous quote by, I think it's Fleur Cowles, who was a lady who ran Vogue magazine for many years.

01:08:16Guest:She said something that I just love to quote.

01:08:18Guest:She says, I wake up expecting things.

01:08:21Uh-huh.

01:08:21Guest:And that's exactly me.

01:08:23Guest:That's good.

01:08:24Guest:Isn't that a great quote?

01:08:25Marc:Yeah.

01:08:25Guest:I wake up expecting things.

01:08:27Marc:I get to start doing that.

01:08:29Guest:I do.

01:08:30Marc:I do.

01:08:30Marc:I wake up that same way, but they're never good things.

01:08:34Guest:Now you sound like an old Jew.

01:08:36Marc:It's happening.

01:08:38Marc:Thanks for talking.

01:08:39Guest:My pleasure, I assure you.

01:08:47Marc:So that was it.

01:08:47Marc:That was me and the amazing Rita Moreno.

01:08:50Marc:Great stories.

01:08:51Marc:So great memory.

01:08:53Marc:So clear.

01:08:54Marc:And I guess it's, I don't want to be condescending, but she is 86.

01:08:58Marc:It's pretty profound and pretty amazing.

01:09:00Marc:And I was thrilled to talk to her.

01:09:01Marc:Am I going to play guitar?

01:09:06Marc:I don't know.

01:09:08Marc:Yeah, okay.

01:09:26guitar solo

01:09:56Guest:Boomer lives!