Day at Night: Jonathan Winters

James Day public television pioneer and chairman of the CUNY TV Advisory Board passed away in April 2008 his legacy includes the series day at night which aired for 130 episodes beginning in 1973 the program features interviews with many of the great thinkers and achievers of the 20th century these 30-year old programs have been restored the interviews remain fresh and relevant today exploring issues that are still important to society showing them again as CUNY TVs tribute to Jim and his contributions to public television deciding whether Jonathan winters is the funniest man alive is as futile as trying to decide virtue among thieves it is enough that he's funny his rare gift of mimicry was first uncovered and developed in his hometown of Dayton Ohio where he dropped out of high school to join the Marines returning after the war not only to finish high school but also to study at the Dayton Art Institute his interest in art grows with the passing years the talent that was nourished in Dayton was exported to the funny bones of the world through television he's had his own shows an addition to frequent guest appearances through nightclub dates record albums and the half-dozen movies in which he has starred including it's a mad mad mad mad world Jonathan you're reportedly writing a book which is dedicated so I am told to all the people who are overly sensitive do you number yourself among those while the full title is I mean eidetic the dedication is it's dedicated to all people who are overly sensitive and I put in brackets it beats being overly bitter the title of the book which i think is kind of funny it's called I couldn't wait for success I went on ahead without it I've seen them three or four different title to this book is in fact a book there is a book I've been working on it Jim for about oh I guess about 15 years but fortunately or unfortunately I've been working a lot and as you know to sit down and write a book and I'm really not you know working with a ghostwriter anything else I'm doing it myself that's very difficult it's very difficult and I know I'm not a novelist by any matter means I think I'm somewhat of a writer if nothing else with my regard to my comedy but I I want to do it myself it's me it's see if it doesn't sell that's alright at least I want one copy so that I that my kids can read it if nothing else are you overly sensitive yes I am yeah is we know it's a disadvantage in certain no yes it is a disadvantage too in many ways because if nothing else you're very vulnerable sure to everything but I think without sounding corny or saccharine I think that we that are overly sensitive lead richer lives because of it why why Richard well because we're on a frequency we're tuned into more than the guy certainly that his hard-nosed and bitter and bugged and this takes everything just general right down the lines is our idea guys you you know who has little or no humour or or sensitivity but it does leave you vulnerable songs it does leave you vulnerable you're very vulnerable to a lot of hurts and people on a number of occasions are inclined say cruel things to you and and you take everything an overly sensitive person does take everything he takes all the arrows so to speak but as I say again I I think you lead it we leader out richer lives is this the way you were when you were a child Indiana Ohio as I was i my my life is not unique to that of many others it's you're an only child I was much as much as made of that by certain people isn't it as though it I always get about it and I say I didn't have any brothers and sisters but that means I'm first on the will my father instant interestingly enough is 75 today my mother died a few years ago she was in radio in Ohio my father was born I was born in Ohio my father and mother were divorced when I was seven years old this was a blow to you yeah of seven horse it would be it's a blow so any job course because as you know only too well children are very cruel and kids would come and say hey where's your old man and I'd say well he was off in the army which he was he was in a three-c camp out in Utah and Idaho and they'd say I y'all man dead or you don't have an old man I said yes I do have an old man he's very much alive but I'd run around and back of a tree and cry and then come back and it was it was a tough time for me humors so often is a shield against pain or frustration once said a great thing which I've never forgotten he said humor is the mistress of sorrow yes I think that's great so in a sense a person of your sensitivities with us kind of a life might even be driven into humor as a kind of protection oh sure enough sure it's ER it's a great shield a great sheet of armor for you you dropped out of high school ultimately to jail Marines at the age of 17 so why did you join the Marines of course it was away well it's a very simple story there are terms that you hear in school the teachers will say to parents the boys slow which is a kind word for saying the boys dumb um I was not I don't think dumb I was very backward in one subject which I'm now backward more than ever because of how it changes over the years and that's mathematics my father was mathematician my stepfather no less was a mathematician was an engineer my father being an investment broker and I was pathetic at math I can go back instantly I've almost Total Recall when my father would say if I give you one Apple and give you seven apples how many apples do you have and I would say with my little funny humor you have too many which late a big balloon yes but no I knew that I was failing I knew I was in trouble I was in trouble emotionally I was in trouble with my studies I was in trouble in every department the war was on gave me a great excuse to join the Marines which I ran right down to the post office raised my hand and I was in in an hour and off to the Pacific off to yes I meant six months in naval hospital before I went over I had a cute nephritis a kidney disease no less and spent a year only a year overseas I was a seagoing marine I was on the interestingly enough the only aircraft carrier essex-class carriers that wasn't hit the bond hammer shark or BONHOMME RICHARD CB 31 we were the only big one that wasn't it and we we almost got it yeah it's been written about you that you were greatly influenced by a grandfather yes who was a banker and influence in terms of comedy no bankers a comedy don't go over a white grandfather's name who I always thought was a great and his name a theatrical name was Valentine winters VW v winters and he had a great sense of humor he was a he told me he said I wish I wish someplace maybe in the next life I can be in show business I know I can't in this life he was a banker he lost the bank in the Depression and we became very poor in a matter of seconds but he had a great sense of humor he loves show people he was an amateur shows back in Ohio used to take a little funny wagon and horses down to a little town called Bellbrook and they put on shows he had a number of friends in show business grant Mitchell if you'd remember him a character actor Minna gamble was another woman that he knew and actress and he took me to Hollywood to meet some of these equal we took the train in those days this is 1940 a year before the war and had a fascinating time he was he told me a story I must tell you in my house I have a photograph of him several but one great one which is a classic photograph it's in a mark cross leather frame and in the picture I know a few pictures who are titled this way certainly to their grandchildren or taken this way and the title is to bozo he called me bozo not Johnny or John I call me bozo from bozo Snyder and sliding Billy Watson they were a burlesque team so he's calling he said to bozo from your old college chum alias Valentine winners that was his tie which I just cherish it's a great hip humor for a 77 year old man and then he had on a Homburg hat he had a cashmere scarf and an overcoat and I said why like anybody would say why would you wear a Homburg a cashmere scarf and an overcoat he said first of all I have very thin hair I'm very conscious of that and the people in the years to come will say why the Hat miss and that but they'll never know that I lost my hair number two I have a lot of wrinkles and I look like someone like a turkey gobbler here and I'm very sensitive about that so I put the scarf on to hide them makes sense right then he said last of all I said why the overcoat he said was damn cold in the studio that's that that's the story was he a memik at all did you get yeah oh yes he did a lot we when the Depression hit like many people they turned their big or small in the boarding houses so are the old house that my grandfather lived in up until the time he died turned into a boarding house and we had oh I guess about a half a dozen people who lived in this big house and he would mimic all of them he had one guy had a rug you know a wig and he called him Lord false thatch and of course this man hated him for it but he was guest in the house and he went along with it but he always say I remember my grandfather saying good evening Lord false that's this guy go please you know but he was funny it was a great guy great sense of humor a great gentleman after the war you came back and finished high school and then went on to the Dayton Art Institute obviously you were motivated to go into art commercial art I went to college I went to Kenya and I always say I was in Ohio I was in college for about an hour it seemed no more than that I was heavy in the sauce those days like many people it seemed like many people because I thought everybody was bombed around me I thought everybody was bombed in the service and many were but I I was having a great party I had emerged as not a victor or anything or a hero but I'd uh I'd survived if nothing else so I continued to party I was in Kenyon about a year and dropped out again because of my studies I was a problem student obviously but I did want to be an artist I I went to the Dayton Art Institute a fine little school in Dayton not like that of what my wife went to Sarasota and also to Colorado Springs she got her master's degree at Ohio State but you met her at Dayton yes I met her in de she's a Dayton Gowen and I studied for three years today what was the root of the roots of the interest in arc you know know because neither one of my parents painted them not anybody in my family to my knowledge but I I wanted to be of all things Jim when it started out a political cartoonist oh but I dropped that and today I painted over the years I went through a period where I was as I say in trouble in many departments and couldn't get it together but in 1960 started to paint again and then not a lot but a number of paintings and drawings and inks and then three years ago I sat down with my manager George Spota and I said I want to do my first art show here in Los Angeles they may very well put me in the sink the critics but I don't care I want to do it I think it's time at something I want to turn to and a handful of years when I retire and so I did it and I got a great letter about ten years of yeah of going back to painting again so it took me these past three years to put this show together it took me three years to do about close to 60 paintings yeah I'd like to take a look at several those Jonathan because they're they're unique I know very little about our well the great thing about the critic who is top guy on the coast is name is Henry Saracen he compared me to Paul clay and to a Belgian painter called and he asked me roba to a Belgian painter called rene magritte yo yes yes because this one in particular reminds me just a bit of well that one doesn't of Miro no he he took it away first you have to put a bag off you know he's got wait am I put the other one back here if you will the one in your hand we haven't seen that that's it that's right that's the one this is yelling to me rule this is called this is called the umbrella the umbrella dancers and this is one of my wife's favorite and one of mine it's interesting enough was done on canvas board most of my things are on canvas actually again stunning board but we've kept this this wasn't for sale on the show I just like it it has a mural quality to it really is there any relationship in your own mind to what you paint and what you perform yes some of it most of it I are a lot of it granted is comedy but there's some strong statements that I feel very strongly about and that I've said in my paintings you'll see here is one I think is rather timely uh this is Watergate 1973 and you see the people coming out of the telephone which are the people involved in the administration and the people here in the country the telephone with the red white and blue represents naturally the country number one is the president the heart of the nation the ladybugs are the bug the bugging of the phones the big bug the wire is just a fraction of an inch from being attached to the ladybug because to date the president hasn't been labeled certainly legally guilty so that's Watergate take a look at the next one this is what I feel very strongly about this is Wounded Knee which is most Americans know took place a very tragic thing not too long ago not too many months ago I'm part Indian I'm 1/16 so although it's a fraction it I'm very proud of that 16th 16th Cherokee the feathers represent after the Indian the torn American flag the money which affects all of us the two rabbits with the arrows it's all there you've taken a considerable interest in in the Indians in recent years I have a little thing here which you can see is Indian this is Cheyenne I was told sir there by the Plains Indians they do a lot of beaded work this ring I bought in Sedona not too long ago the Navajos make that that turquoise which has become why has it been why we taken so long to take this deep interest in the plight of the Indian well I tell you very honestly the Indian I said to somebody the other day is not a very chic minority someone once said to me again not too long ago well we're talking about eight hundred thousand people who cares which is some kind of statement that in itself makes a reason eight hundred thousand good Lord the people that that own this country the 48 states and developed it and their philosophy their whole thing was buried for so many years it's a very tragic thing and when people say what can I for the American in water again what's that what's the major problem well it's almost easy and yet it's very difficult it's not just starvation it's not just the economy and jobs or blending into the white society the problem is right there in that television set every minority or at least almost every minority 90 percent of them and look into that magic box and say hey I can identify with somebody their own culture their own culture swallowed up the Indian doesn't have any hero maybe a football player like the boy that played appear for Washington I can't for a minute think of his name John e6 color Jim Plunkett I think Indian now they're but two men you know used to be alley rentals who pitched for the Yankees but the kids it's not enough they need some heroes they need a guy at second base they need a guy in Washington they need a painter they have some wonderful fantastic painters but they made like Andrew Wyeth or Picasso they need some names to say hey there's some of our people it's the way you find your own identity isn't it and I and people outside yourself too bright gives you that anything out here you I'm gonna go back now your your history of performance I think is extremely well known but you did begin in an amateur hour so I understand that your wife persuaded you to that's right I tell you talking about art for a minute again when I was in art school I was in my third year Jim and my wife sat and looked at my things I brought him home one evening and she said you know your stuff stinks which is rather strong today this even from a wife yeah it's not just a little you're just missing or it's not bad it stinks and I began to look at it and I said you know sweetheart you're right she said you're not ready to become an artist and I'm not ready to starve so uh thank God for her and many little things that happened but she was right I wasn't ready it did it was bad but I didn't have a restful wristwatch at the time and she saw an ad in the paper about an amateur show at the Colonial Theatre in Dayton Ohio gone now and she said look you're always clowning around here in school and at home and you are funny it's one of the reasons I married you because you've got a great sense of humor she said but most of all you need a wristwatch why don't you get out of the colonial theater see if you can win it while I went down and wanted what you do and I didn't know routine I and those days I was doing impersonations and I did Clem McCarthy at the internet with Speedway and then brought in some Hollywood characters but I won the show got the wristwatch and became a disc jockey WINZ and then on up - you've had till the time you had your own show on television several shows you that as a matter of fact and have your own now now I have the wacky world of Jonathan winters which is seen on channel 2 here in CBS New York somebody described what you do in performance is a kind of verbal painting and that yeah that you are I suppose holding up a mirror to our foibles and our hypocracy and so forth but in the sense funny as it is and it is terribly funny sure there there can be a kind of message oh yes oh sure my things my show this year and this past year has been to me I've literally waited 24 years because that's the length of time I've been in this business to do this type of show it's a half hour good or bad it's the way it's like the song I did it my way and it's improvisational there's no script no no cue cards you offer that and that's yeah sure it's the way I like to work were there models for some of the characters you're well known what about Grand Moff record is I want to record oh yes Grand Moff record came from a great hand of mine not a great am but a great lady god rest her soul she died around 84 her name was aunt Lou perks born in Springfield Ohio my grandmother's my mother's mother's sister for gals in the family she was a big heavyset woman and always well I remember her with snow-white hair she was a what grandma Fricker did she was a hip old lady she was bright she would do something that no grandmother in those days certainly would dream of doing she'd give a little glass of wine and some fudge even let me hold and take a puff from a cigarette I'm talking about age 910 and taught me to gamble play poker she was a great gal and so I patterned my character grand moff record after a my aunt Lu you must not only be observant but must have to be a good listener yeah I as much as I'm talking today I'm great d like a sponge I move in and soak it all in I I've said this which i think is a is an interesting analysis I believe this to be true I said to a group of students I'm not one to lecture too many students because of my brief career as a student and in college in high school but I once told them I said you know you and I have the same talent sounds a little strange and some people raised some eyebrows and said oh no come on but it's true this is what I believe to be true this is the greatest movie camera in the world better than any Nikon Zeiss Kodak what have you this is the greatest sound equipment in the world all of us are listening basically and when we're in the room the streets what have you in the meadows - the same sounds and we're taking the same pictures as we pan around the thing being you're the editor and it's how often you go to your darkroom to develop what you've seen in this also a state of mind isn't shown and it's the way in which you look at things you can look at them and off to the side so to speak and they become very funny we're looking at them head-on that's going to be frightening serious or whatever so that your humor is a kind of indirection it's always a little of a mirror that reflects right with a skew image I suppose you know you quit the nightclub appearance brightness because you wanted to be home yeah I wasn't being a being a parent was terribly important to you very and I am NOT a bit sorry I stayed out of clubs for 12 years I went back just about a year or so ago because of the economy and the prices and it is a lot of bread as they say and so I went back but I for those twelve years my boy once came to me here in Mamaroneck New York where we lived and he said you know dad he said can you go fishing today very simple little story but it said an awful lot and he said an awful lot I said ah Jay I've got to go to st. Louis I'm out there in the chase and he said dad you're always going somewhere and I said well I got to make a living Jay he said you know I don't dig fishing alone and that brought tears to my eyes and I said you're not gonna be fishing alone anymore my friend so I got on the phone to my agent and I said at the time I said Marty I said I'm not doing any more clubs he said you're kidding a lot of money no I'm sorry I've got a boy wants to fish and we're gonna fish and what do you wish for your children knew other than not having to fish alone well uh I've got two wonderful kids I've got a boy who's on his way now to Guatemala he's someplace deep in Mexico he dropped us a card the other day he's not the greatest writer in the world like a lot of kids it's a lot of adults for that matter he's 1,700 miles deep into a southern part of the continent and he worked hard for a year driving a truck he's unlike a lot of kids in show business that got their big car a little car would have been living a lush life brother haven't seen weather have him work feel suppose exactly and he is he's a good boy and my daughter he he'll be 24 and February my daughter was just 17 in July she's very pretty and talented girl worked at Universal in the parking lot know as directing people to park their cars how do you feel about young people not your own but you've worked your idolized by a lot a lot of faith and have young people I think they're going to turn this whole thing around I think they've turned it half way around already I think I'll tell you strange thing I think that this not dismissing young people but for a minutes that because it has to do with young people are certainly affected like all of us the energy crisis to me is one of the great blessings of the world the Arabs in their strange warped way have done us not in but a good turn I believe because I think thank God we're going to go back maybe the bicycles yes and we not that you can bicycle on the West Side Highway because you can't or the freeways in LA or the Turnpike's but you can in your community go to the grocery store which I expect to do my Christmas present to myself is going to be a new bicycle but I put a little basket on it and by gosh instead of going eight blocks to the grocery when right of my says enjoying life again and not just the acquisition of material things exactly let me in a minute remaining Jonathan I ask you one question about privacy it becomes a kind of privilege to a person who's constantly in the public eyes you are does it right is it something that you you cherish did you fight for or is it come now more easily well we all live we that are in the industry in politics we live in glass houses it's difficult naturally for a number of reasons you're always you know their camera so to speak of life that sounds a little trite is on you but I I'm a very private person I'm very much of a loner although I've been married 25 years I I like to go up to Zuma Beach out there in LA and look at Jonathan Livingston Seagull soar around and take my sketchpad and my AM FM radio and kind of listen to that it's difficult for me in public I'm basically a very shy person but I know that in not too many years I'm going to pack it in as far as show business and go to my painting so I'll be I'll be out of the public's way or out of there or in their way in a handful of years but I'm glad you were able to overcome your shyness long enough to spend this half-hour thank you thank you very much it's a pleasure to be here you you

Channel: CUNY TV

Views: 153,817

Keywords: James Day, cuny tv, jonathan winters, Day At Night, comedy, Comedian (Profession), painting

Id: -OX0ECA59-4

Length: 28min 41sec (1721 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 13 2011