Dinah Shore Interviews Burt Reynolds--1991 TV

[Music] [Applause] welcome to dinah shore's special conversation with burt reynolds [Music] the only thing i'm sure of today is that i'm not sure what's going to happen the reason is i'll be spending the next hour with someone with whom i've shared some really great times a lot of laughs some tears and as with few relationships as intense as ours enduring respect and friendship i'm looking forward to this i think welcome burt reynolds [Applause] you smell the same you know smell exactly the same is that good no i think yeah i'm so glad uh how how are things things are good what you've been doing nothing nothing i know i yeah you know i i really wasn't nervous about this until i drove from the parking lot and i saw our name side by side i saw that too yeah that's nice i had to jump start my motorcycles yeah she took the same sign we had about 20 years ago it's the cheapest show i've ever been on there's no music there's nothing oh you don't know he's a real oh yeah these are real you don't know how cheap wait we we've only just speaking you know what this is no it's my favorite picture of you and i what is it it's a piece of cork oh do you remember that well that's the wrong that's my wrong side see this is this is one of the problems we went through terrible time you don't have a wrong side every side is you don't like that picture my teeth stick out too far oh stop garlic i became in love with an overbite did you i did yes i've been searching for one of you you want to know when i fell in love you you burst into our show from the closet no that was the second time yeah you don't know he doesn't remember yes i do i was doing uh uh some show with uh army archer and and and fred came over and got me he did anyway you jumped in i jumped you did your own stunt you broke the table bust the budget murray nearly had a fit yeah and i fell in love you remember that yeah i do of course it was the day we met yes and then we went to palm springs [Applause] oh amazing anything you could do anything you want and we're going to reminisce a little bit i hope so and where did you ever take care of this by the way i have a letter here would you like to read it would you like me to i'd like you to because i got my contacts thank you very much okay dear mr reynolds yes you and bob barker are my favorite movie stars i got your autograph but i haven't got bob barker's i was wondering if you could contact bob barker and get me a picture of him with his autograph please don't again forget to send me his address too thank you debbie ferraro yeah did you ever do that yes oh yeah oh sure you did i said when you by the time i contact you bob your hair will turn gray they tell me we have a few surprises coming up things that neither one of us remember you look so pretty you look wonderful thank you let's don't don't worry about the surprises now with them all right fred is this for me you're not going to look good in it no doesn't matter remember john hall yeah oh yeah okay this looks very good okay ladies and gentlemen the academy i want to thank it's great in the back isn't that pretty bill bixby would love okay all right i want to show you something okay i just don't know if i like it on or off well you're gonna have to make up your mind you see you just can't go on procrastinating you have to make a decision i can't go through the rest of my life like this how do you want it on we're off couldn't we leave it just like it is [Laughter] oh you did some interesting things yes we have i think you have another one haven't you here another side bob no i i you know there was another time when you surprised me you were talking a bit you went after the commercial you never could do this i never could do this i never could do this go to the commercials we're going to i know it you want me to just go ahead we don't have to go it's your show we're not going to go to commercial i want to show you that other thing you better go to commercial he's very upset all right honey whatever you say go to commercial go to commercial you're good go go we'll be right back shouldn't i be starting my sauce now i don't have the the duck sauce ingredients in the closet oh [Applause] dean martin turned that collar down and said it was too long it's the longest collar i've ever seen oh i like it i didn't notice the collar oh i saw the guy the guy yeah yeah well that was nice you were full of surprises this is my new cookbook that i've been plugging all over the country yes i have had a wonderful time yes i remember it i hope you'll buy it yeah yeah the velveeta you were you were plugging the first one when i met you was i yeah was it that long ago it was exactly when this show airs talk about uh-uh was it really yeah see how time flies i haven't had nearly as much fun either i don't remember about 12 of them okay nine of them i'm glad to hear that okay let you know i spoke to your mom and dad vernon bert yeah i did a concert in palm beach that's free with school yeah and oh i heard you were wonderful by the way did you yeah my spies tell me you were great oh good do you remember we were dating and i said now look i it's real important that they think we're not doing it that's right we're not that's right so uh that's right because you know we're not married yet that's right you can't be doing it can't be doing it so you were you were in one building and i was in another building that's right and there was a path between those two buildings it wasn't there before before and then you would come in the morning as you always do you know five in the morning you wake her up i do know and and so she would come in the morning and whip up breakfast and and my mother finally one day said why don't you why are you in these two buildings somebody with you too don't you you were sleeping on the couch that's right and they're living to make sure and neither one of them could hear too well then they hear better now but they couldn't hear you they hear better now well actually they probably do because that's right he's got a little hearing aid but i that we didn't burn you couldn't figure it out about anything big bert did he love it when you were playing football at florida state he must have yeah he did he liked that but you know he wasn't a demonstrative father you know i mean he wasn't uh he wasn't italian you know and uh and i i somehow think that uh that's probably uh there's some italian blood in me somewhere that nobody knows about oh fire yes but i i fantastic i would have liked to uh some some embraces and stuff you know i never got those but in his own wonderful way he was a a great father at that time he just was quiet and um and and kind of um kind of scary because you know he would come in a doorway and all the light would go out of the room you know because it was like you know he filled the doorway because he's a big man big man still he's a big man and he was police chief he was police chief which didn't make it it was tough for me and he was pretty strict pretty strict how about putting me in jail he did oh yeah i put me in jail i was fighting once i got in a fight with a bunch of guys and he came and put about six of us in jail and he came and he said no your father's here you go home your father's reading home and he looked at me he said your father didn't show up i was in there for like four days every drunk that he arrested him threw on top of me he came and watched you every night to see that you were okay he gave you a separate bunk uh no no no no no he was eased up he was a tough father i remember once when i only once i sassed my mother and uh i think i said i would be sassing today it would be something else you know you'd sit down and have a discussion today but in those days you didn't have a discussion about anything no and i think i said oh yeah i was about 17 16. and he hit me right on the jaw and i you know in the movies when i put breakaway doors and stuff it wasn't a breakaway door it was a real door i went right through the door and all the clothes in the closet fell on top of me and i remember lying there and i heard my mother say my virtue killed him and i heard my dad say no he's just asleep i'm just asleep just to sleep you know what i never assassed him again now when you were at florida state and you were all state i see more people come up to me and say i played football with buddy that's the biggest football i have more people come up and say they were my roommate oh yeah i had a big room which is not very flat that they think they were in the room but i remember them there and you made a 75-yard run it gets bigger every year was it oh it was 59 yards 59 yards oh there it is look well that that is a 75-yard run look at those look at those legs go churning churning and churning yeah would you that's before they wore helmets yeah yeah i'm amazed they had film then i will not use oh you you were always very comfortable on the athletic field though you really were i was accepted on the tennis court with you well we had yeah we that we had a few problems on the tennis court yeah and on the golf course you've always got a problem when some you know i said that ginger rogers was i was interviewing her last week for this show i'm doing and this dear lady and esther williams was on and i said it must have been a problem dating men because you were a better athlete than any man you could ever date you know and then i thought wait a minute because you used to beat me so oh but that was only in tennis i would never beat you in football no no boxing or boxing or weight lift any of those things fantasize per minute if you could have had a super bowl ring or if you could have now an oscar no there's no contest i'd take the super bowl ring the the two things that i would like to have more than any oscar you would take a super bowl oh sure i'd rather have a super bowl ring first no not first i would rather have a super bowl ring or or the medal of honor because that would make my dad yeah oh yeah but an oscar yeah man my third or fourth i say that because i don't have a chance of getting an oscar and oh yeah and the medal of honor i got a pretty good chance i thought you should have had an oscar for or at least the nomination for starting over and you should have had an oscar for deliverance he was slightly prejudiced but thank you no no really that those were too unique do you remember the night that we went to the screening of deliverance oh never really forget it as long as i lived in my natural life and that was a shock and there were two rather important people there one was lee marvin and the other was a malcolm mukherjee was a writer for new york i mean for london actually critic very uh caustic salty critic and uh i had a scene that was later cut out of the movie as you remember and uh lee marvin came up and said you're going to get the academy award and uh oh my goodness you're going to get the academy award and i went out in the alley and i was shaking and i said what am i going to do and then boorman came up and said can i talk to you a minute we went for a walk and on that walk forward and told me he said you know the big scene you tell voigt to climb up the mountain i said yeah he said i got to take it out ah i remember what he said i have to take it out because you know the first half of the movie is your movie and the last half has got to be voice and it sort of doesn't balance out that way now and so this scene i have to take out and i remember coming back to you and we took a drive on mulholland drive and you said there'll be other scenes and other things and you know you have to go on life isn't about a a scene in a movie life is about life and you were right but i know it but i remember after the next preview in new york and you were disappointed about that scene we both were but the we were sitting in the water looking out at all the lights in new york and i said life will never be the same for us we've been able to have our quiet little dinners and go places and you know have a lot of fun and sort of slip around a little bit never again and i said it's probably over for us you're going to be such a big star no well uh you know and you know that because that was that really was the beginning of everything because you'd done a lot of movies you played every you told dick clayton once you played every indian except pocahontas remember yeah i dated her i did i played a lot of indians and a lot of uh untouchables you know a lot of those killers sure but in those days you know when i first came out here it was the time when the pretty boy was in and i wasn't you know that pretty so it was uh i say that pretty because i'm slightly pretty i have a very nice ear i thought you would thank you are they playing music because we're going away we're going for a minute [Applause] [Music] oh oh god there's louis ah oh yeah oh oh i get so i get such a charge just looking at i get so nervous when i see that right i mean that was one of my favorite movies of all time you know i went down the river just to see if i could do it again you did not oh sure and uh you and i i i actually uh i took ned beatty because then did you yeah ned's had a uh you know the whole the whole experience was very psychological it was very difficult for him you know and he and he had to this day you know was tired of people coming up and saying aren't you the guy that got you know yeah so uh and deliver i said it would be good for you to go down the river to be cathartic you know just get it out of the system i have these good ideas and so uh we went and what we both didn't realize is that it's become like what they call the deliverance syndrome yeah uh every hour there's a whole group of rafters that go down but not where you went down yes they don't go they don't go in a canoe they go on a rubber raft and they're they've got guides and ropes and things and helmets and like which we do and uh ned and i go down and the guide forgets that you know we were in the movie you know he goes and right around here is where jon voight climbed the mountain and this is where the this is called deliverance rock and we're coming around i said this is great ned you know it's a beautiful place and that is feeling better we come around he said we're just coming up on sodomy creek it didn't help that at all it's on the map now there were scenes in there that john borman wanted you to do and he wanted the double to do and the devil refused to do them right yeah and guess who did them well you know when you're young and frisky you think you're immortal and and uh there was one shot where i went over the dam oh yeah and they put a uh um uh what do you call it a uh something that looks like you and in the water and it floated over the dam and it looked awful it looked like a dummy yeah and uh i said john i could do this so he said i don't know i said yeah i can do it so i i jumped out on the rocks and i was sitting there and looking at the water and then i looked at this waterfall and i thought and the guy the cameraman said which way are you gonna go like a like a jerk i said i'll go down there i hit that rock then i'll turn left and i'll go over there and i'll probably do a little one and a half and i'll be like i was going to have some control what a jerk so i'm sitting up there and and uh he said all right roll them and everybody's going like that i'm waving and the guy the white water expert said if you get caught in the hyperfoil he's screaming at me if you get caught in the hydrofoil yeah he said swim to the bottom and it'll shoot you right out of there so i go i lie down on the water and i i don't i mean i where i was going to turn right i didn't know left i mean it was just and i get in there and i'm caught in the hydrofoil and i can't get out and it's just it's like a washing machine around i asked me for air and and borman says great acting great acting beta rolling keep it rolling looks like you're drowning i am so i i take a deep breath and i i go to the bottom you remember to go to the bottom and it but what he didn't tell you is it's like being shot out of a submarine i mean you're sh the pressure you go out of there well this 30 some year old kid went over the over the waterfall and way down about a hundred yards down they said where is he where is he and you know i had that rubber yeah thing on which later they started selling them like that with the sleeves got off the sleeves so lewis got blue there's tight levi's and a pair of climbing boots i came out of the water i had no stitch on not a stitch it tore every bit of clothes off me i climbed out of the rocks and i was beat and this 85 year old man kind of i said who is that nude 85 year old man coming up here and you know saved my life that this guy told me to dive down oh sure but i didn't know i was going to no it wasn't your clothes ripped off yeah was that a little boy who played the banjo remember that yeah he was an amazing kid yeah we remember we looked him up once yeah and he kept calling you stood stood hey good well i was lifting weights every minute you know to try to get this character and yeah but i mean even when you're coming up out of the water they looked those pecs looked great yeah nice packs even though they were drowning yeah the kid the kid was an amazing kid because he uh he had a kind of a touch with with life that ordinary kids don't have and i i had never uh dealt up until that time with children and i didn't realize that they're they have tunnel vision and if they concentrate on something there's nothing to interfere with that yeah they're kind of amazing yeah and i as you remember we shot the movie entirely in sequence because barman fell if when any of us got hurt he'd write it in the script you know right or if we died that's right so uh so we shot that scene first and so i went to the prop band and i said i want to buy this banjo and give to the kid and so i gave it to him i never saw him again we had one little scene on top of this little bridge where he was swinging it and then we didn't see him for 12 weeks and the last day of the movie which was a very emotional day for voigt and ned and ronnie and i because we had become very very close we've been through so much together and we were hugging each other and i looked up and there he was the boy and i said look look john look and as he walked towards us he went da da da da da da da da da da da whole thing oh yeah i remember that child lots more memories coming up on dinah's special conversation with bert not want to remember but i'm sure you will once i remind you am i going to like this one no you'll like this one no no you won't like this one but it's nice to be alive is that uh we shot it in a real prison what was it reidsville georgia peaceville which was a very probably at that time maybe the number two worst prison in the united states the number one was oklahoma state which they burned to the ground right after that and uh it was a tough place to be and and i must say we somehow brought it off but you came to visit me only dinosaur as only donna shore would do she said can i bring some lunch out to everybody i said well we're in the middle of the prison i mean there's guys and you know these murderers and rapists and she said won't they like lunch will yes probably so you brought out your little basket and then you had to go through 11 guards 16 guys bringing you out my little lunch i couldn't believe it but anyway the the the last it was the last night of the picture of the it was the week of the football game mom and pop came up that's right and you went to to buy some meat to cook something and you went to the local little town which we better not mention and you got this meat which looked it was a rib eye steak i remember it to this day because there was this big ribeye in the middle and you cooked this ribeye steak and mom and pop just thought this was great and they left in the car and you and i were just laughing and we're enjoying ourselves and suddenly you said do you feel anything i said yeah do you feel something yeah wow and we both bolted for the bathroom there was only one there's only one yeah ah i'll let you go first as i remember you were so sweet thank you i regretted it later i was clawing at the door and we both had food poisoning yes we did so i said you think mom and pop have got it so about 11 o'clock at night the phone rang and it was poppy said you got food they all had everybody had food i knew it from that rib eye steak well i cooked it on a hot plate is that what it was sure that's all we had there was that i think it was a six dollar motel i've never eaten a ribeye steak since then no i don't want one no what do you think in this cookbook by the way it's called how to lose weight with just one easy ribeye steak pick this up you lose weight overnight in a second in a second you remember the 47 minute sequence you shot with those friends the guy that tried to take your head off literally yeah well what happened was that we were we were doing this football game and and uh bob aldridge thought that would be i did two at the time if we would run one play that was choreographed and then one play that wasn't choreographed and it was on the play that wasn't choreographed each time that they tried to take my head off and the linebacker was a guy named ray nichky who was in the hall of fame who was a great guy and every single play he would hit me so hard with the little hole in my helmet would be i'd be looking at it like this and i thought funny i said ray it's a movie it's not the super bowl he said it's a movie it's not he didn't know had a helmet on and there i was a quarterback and so he was just killing me and killing me but i never said a word i never complained and so one play i ran around outside at one of those plays that wasn't choreographed and and they they hit me into the bench and kind of it was semi-pro football players who have a tendency to want to prove themselves and as i went back to the huddle i heard this terrible racket and i looked over there and nitschke had four of them on the ground and he said he said if anybody kills this guy it'll be me don't anybody kill even me well listen we really appreciated that yeah we had some interesting prisons there was a period i guess you call it our prison period because we went to leavenworth with leavenworth we did a we did a special in lemonworth and it was amazing because uh he played basketball yeah i went there early because i felt it was uh and coming up on me as a host to to let these guys trust me so i went out in the yard and oh yeah played bocce with uh some guys who were very big in the mafia and uh played basketball lifted weights and played pool and then you came and and of course won the entire place over oh look there it is there it is there you are you're shooting baskets shooting baskets okay one miss okay right now okay wait two miss that was an air ball i didn't hit the backboard okay now yes i was slim though yeah well it's important no i don't i don't think so i did a nice thing i like this better yeah and and you remember who was on that show merle haggard and jonathan winters oh johnny sure who bolted on this remember oh he bolted on us that's right because he heard the door closed that's right you're going to remind him of something i don't know what and uh he and i were doing an improvisation and the warden said remember we had dinner with the warden and i got the leavenworth biscuit recipe that's right and the warden said look whatever you do don't mention the cook i said we don't have anything about a cooker don't worry about it don't mention the cook because you guys are close to rioting now i said i'm not going to bench the cook first thing winners comes out sits down on this little thing and i said you want to do an improvisation johnny said great he said i'll be a cook i'll play the cook okay okay and i'll tell you something i've never eaten food like that and i've lived in a reservation all my life that's garbage you're giving us boy you're right the place went crazy oh yeah remember the guy that played the guitar yes of course and i was going to sing a solo with him and merle and all the guys are shooting pool up on the pool room and i'm used to big heavy doors i've been in studios recording studios all my life and you were out there you all should but i said i think i'm going to run over this number just once i just want to warm up a little bit she's wandering around the prison like it's you know you know a maze they said don't do this because you can be a hostage and evidence so i go in and i i hear this door clang behind me and i don't think i've been recording studio doors are that heavy and i walk in and there's this fellow with a five o'clock shadow sitting there and he looks at me now if i scream he's got another 20 years on his sentence and if he grabs hold of me that's it for us right good for him [Laughter] always the optimist at any rate forget it we got i sat there and i looked at him but i said would you like a cup of coffee i do i remember that he said and you want him immediately oh no all he said was honey i just want you to get out of here and i could i found the door and had finally found the pool hall again it was an incredible experience for both of us murrah was not crazy about it well merle had been in the joint and it wasn't he wasn't crazy about it but he was wonderful because he said on the air which was amazing that um i said what happens when you when this show is over and he said for me i came to see a show like this san quentin and i went back to my cell and i said it was johnny cash and he said that may be my way out and he yeah he got a guitar oh and what changed his life yeah changed his life sure that happened to you wasn't you were in a woman's prison i think i was having a terrible time there's the music again that's the music that means that uh yeah going away we're gonna be right back oh what was your uh first impression of the place of leavenworth yeah well well it's very impressive my goodness it's kind of like one of those buildings in washington the mint you know big impressive place and the grounds are lovely it's a lovely place to visit i wouldn't like to live here that's your 12 gallon hat from smoking the bandit yeah that was a phenomenon in the business directed by hal needham yeah remember that picture i i was in um 21 having lunch uh i don't know what the hell i was doing in 21 but i was there why not well i've had lunch there twice and and uh i was sitting with somebody i can't remember who and lou wassman ran across the room and said shook my hand and it went away i said uh oh man this picture must be making a lot of money and it turned out that we'd only released it in the south you know and because they said it won't make any money in the north it made 45 million dollars in in the south and so they said well what the hell we'll release it north and it made 58 million in the north i mean they're nothing flat but the dearest story about that directed by hal needham what's up man yeah stunt man that's my roommate crazy crazy but the best all-round stunt man in the world and and dar robinson was probably that went the highest and did the but but how did high falls horse falls car stuff anything he was amazing and uh his his uh capacity for pain was quite incredible i want to tell this story because i shouldn't tell the story but i want to tell this story and you can bleep it where it doesn't you know okay i'm not going to because we were together and uh how did this jump you probably remember this hal jumped a truck over the los angeles river and uh broke his back so i i i was at our house on oxford way drive and i went back to our other house on miller drive and i came in and hal was standing in the corner and i said uh why are you standing in the corner he said i can't i can't move i said well what do you mean i said i can't move ah and i said well let me help you so i i said we'll we'll put you in chair so i can't i can't sit down. so well come on we'll go to the hospital so i somehow got him in the car and we went to this emergency room on santa monica and we go in there and hal being how was still being very cocky and and you know when they put those little paper mache outfits on you it's hard to be cocky but he was still being cocky and uh a very attractive nurse came in really cute and he was kind of flirting with her and the doctor came in who who was all of 24 or something and he had a needle this long and he said mr needham we're going to have to drain that lung and house it get on with it i think i said no no you don't understand he said there's fluid on the lung it's going to be very painful so i would advise you know if you've got you know if you want to go in another room he said get on with it now the doctor is a little po because you know he's kind of cocky and maybe the doctor was dating the nurse i don't know this is something i put in the subplot so so he said supplement so he said mr deena you better lean up against the wall so hal goes puts his hands against the wall now i'm fascinated with his capacity for pain so i go around to look at his face to see what happens when the needle goes in and uh and the doctor walks up behind him with this big needle and the nurse the doctor said nurse you better hold on to him he may faint anyone against so she grabs him by the legs and i'm looking at the face and the needle goes and i look and there's not even a blink not even a bit of perspiration but he's all over the nurse and it was just everywhere he was on the floor was on the nurse it was on the arms and everything that's a little embarrassing and he he went like this and but not not us be the person he went i guess getting your number now would be impossible it's a story you you can't use any of that story but i wanted to tell you i just want to tell it for the guys i think i think it's typical of hal needham it is needham has a high threshold i'll tell you something else that happened you're going to tell me another one oh that's a good one we were together and and i as usual either didn't come home or did come home or whatever and this particular night i don't know why i came home at about three in the morning and there was a man called i'm gonna i'm gonna condense this story real fast there's a man called the skid row slasher who had killed oh i had forgotten they think about 23 people you know cut them through and he had he was getting some drugs down below my house and they said you know who lives up there and for some reason i thought that was fascinating went up and waited in my closet for me but i didn't come home so he got bored waiting in the closet and he went up to the house above me and killed one guy and cut the other guy real bad slid down the hill and then i came home it was then three o'clock in the morning and you remember i used to leave the doors wide open oh yeah and i never had a weapon in there no and i went in and i was lying down and crawling on the floor was one of the guys from from the house above with his stomach wide open he was holding his inside and i looked down and he couldn't talk and i jumped up and there wasn't 911 in those days but whatever the equivalent was and i looked out the door and standing about 15 feet from me was a skid row slasher with a machete a clint eastwood hat and a seraphim right he's staring at me i'm staring at him he's staring at me i closed the door and then i looked for a weapon you know i tried a knife or a bottle or whatever and he slowly was a great acting lesson because he slowly walked across and disappeared helicopters came and cops came and oh i never what they found out was the reason they knew it was him was because every time he had murdered somebody he had taken their shoes which only these two cops played by walter matthau and peter falk he took their shoes and pointed them at the head and only they knew that particular the press didn't know about that so they said it's a skid row slasher and can did you see him i said yeah i looked right in his eyes there he is so then i went down to do wwe dixie dance kings they called me and said we got him because when he slid down the hill his food stamps came out and we tracked him to his address and will you come and identify them i said yeah i come back i fly me in they bring me down the bottom and i must say they nobody knew about this i was in the basement i come up and i'm standing back there and i'm standing with some cop who who was a very nice guy and he said when you walk out look right at him don't be intimidated i said i'm not gonna be intimidated he said look right at him i said i don't worry about it so i came out and i looked right at him and he looked like o.j simpson would read for it and be too much of a fairy the guy was i mean his nick was big in his and he lifted weights he'd been in prison about 23 years of his life and did nothing but lift weights so i sat down in the chair and i'm looking at him and he's looking at me and he's smiling so i smile back at him and the public defender gets up and he says you know who this is and i said he said how do you know that i said because i saw him and he had my clothes on he said what do you mean you're close i said well that was my serape that clintus would gave me from the good the bad and the ugly that's right and i said i recognize it and i said there's a clean slip inside if you look i never could figure out why they did this instead of reynolds it says r-e-y-o and the guys blanched and they they took it up and the judge said hmm so then he said well you're an actor aren't you and i said well the jury's still out about that i got a very nice laugh and and the judge said this is not the tonight show mr ellen just answer the question i said yes and and so we went back and forth and he had my identification bracelet on so it was very short but i i had nailed him significant as i got up as i'm walking by him i look and as he's looking at me he's writing but he's not looking down he's looking at me and writing and as i came behind him i looked over his shoulder and it said probably about 125 times kilbert reynolds killed burt reynolds killed burt reynolds kilburn but they they put him away forever and ever ever now he's right next to i know when this guy you know plucks his eyebrows but the story the end of the story is if i hadn't been with you i would have come home probably at nine see and he would have been there and uh i'd have my shoes pointed at me right now and they said the best movie he ever did was um i wasn't even in that picture yeah it was it was before anything good happened to me and it was because i was with you that's right see i knew that the tonight show has always been a very important factor in your life but it changed my life really yeah when i did deliverance uh i was in georgia as you know and uh got a call to do the tonight show and had to fly from clayton georgia which was not easy to to new york because johnny was in new york then and as you remember then in those days nobody hosted the show but comics if johnny was off that's right and new york comics and i was on the show and the first commercial he leaned over and said will you host the show and i said sure because i was too you know too didn't know anybody i didn't know yeah i said sure so i came back the following week and hosted it and uh it was that show that john barman saw why and when i was called out to to read for borman i said what film did you see that you thought i would be right for this movie and he said i didn't see any film i saw the tonight show where you were in control of four people and you have to be in control of these three men yeah lewis had to be so all-pervasive so the tonight show really got me deliverance yeah which was my deliverance out of yeah b movies when you were doing uh uh wwe or was it uh white lightning uh a director came down to see two directors in two days because i remember i was cooking in the morning wwe you you were there when emilio's foreman came that's right and we had breakfast and i came back and i said i'm not going to get this picture and you said why and i said well i went to breakfast with this farm and it was about a movie that i wanted to do so bad my teeth ate called i've never before or since wanted to part that much uh it was one fluid cuckoo's nest and one flew over the cuckoo's nest folks and emilio's foreman said in the middle of my pancakes said it's between you and another actor i said who is this other actor there's this guy he said jack nicholson [Laughter] i got a real bad headache right so yeah yeah and and that day was the day he was nominated for for a picture of the year before sure and i said i'm not going to be at this movie he said well no it's between i said i'm not going to be in this movie he just got nominated today i'm not i'm never going to be in this movie and uh but it was nice having breakfast with you you're a foreigner i like you anyway and and he went away and jack nicholson did the picture and i came back and told you and and then somebody else came down oh peter mcdonald peter came down and said i i have this uh musical and musicals hadn't been done in a while at long last love yeah and he said you sing and dance and i said i don't do either one of those things but dinah does she could teach me he didn't want me no but i mean this is how stupid i was i thought i'm an athlete she can teach me sure i never did learn how to do either one so i was just drunk the whole picture oh you were not you the whole picture but you know what i was i was cute you're always cute no but i mean i i had a certain you know i remember the first day of the picture i was over there trying to learn how to do this shuffle or the soft shoe or whatever i was working so hard and i looked up and there was steve mcqueen and william holland and they were doing um the towering inferno and they were standing in the doorway and they had ballet shoes and they went yeah i was a little incensed about it i said okay this is going to work out fine cary grant did a lot of those you know that stuff yeah and and maybe not fred astaire but no i i tried real hard and you know how hard i worked and everything and you yeah you were so wonderful and you would you were so encouraging and you'd say you're on pitch honey you're on pitch which only happened about three in the morning no you're on pitch get that get the cameras over here and then he's singing it because the civil shepherd was then living with the director and it was done live you know this movie the show was done live we had little little things in our ear which every once in a while i got a mexican radio station and and you'd be in this thing would be in your ear and the piano player would be in another room that's right and you would do it live it was all in one take and if she got it right that's it if she got a if she was in pitch or was monkey we printed it yeah it didn't matter if i fell down got a nosebleed stuck a banana in my ear that's a print so wait a minute i was it's a print i like the shot with a banana i tried to go with him after that he didn't wasn't he didn't care about you at all i know well would you work so hard with me and i yeah but you've been i love you for that it was so wonderful that you tried and i i have never been able to sing before or since wait a minute you made your singing debut on our show i know that's what i'm saying would you like to see it no please no don't do that how much don't do that today how much no april showers you bet you're great they come your way oh a jerk would you let your daughter go near this guy i had no waist flick it was all wrapped in elbows again i'm trying to talk so you don't hear the singing it isn't raining rain you know it's raining by all that sun when you see clouds [Music] april showers see we'll be right back whenever april showers come [Music] along [Music] you haven't you directed uh evening shows oh yeah yeah i do just about every other show or every third show you direct it and you wrote one um you produce it yeah co-produce it well co-produce it with the thompson um you got to be exhausted and you're acting i mean well you react in it you i mean everybody you're talking about picking on you but it is so funny the premise of that show is very funny a real losing coach yeah well it really is my brother jim yeah who lost every game and bless his eyes the school that he coached in west palm beach and um and me i mean i would have i would have been a football coach if i hadn't been an actor and uh what's important is what he teaches the kids about losing yeah that life goes on and the sun still comes up tomorrow and it's not everything yeah but he is in in fact a very good coach and a very good teacher but he doesn't have a lot of material in this little they're not buying players for him no not buying players and it's uh it's very easy for me to identify with this guy yeah you know when you were doing you directed gator yeah that that was the first thing first thing the first movie i drank and orson welles was always a big friend and fan a real big fan of yours and he said a popular favorite of burt reynolds magnitude is not always a favorite with cinema schnobs blinded by his blazing commercial success they find it hard to take him seriously as an artist yeah you know i was with orson the day before he died and i went out this is a kind of a comment on this town i had gone to spielberg and said you know i i would like to do an amazing stories but i'll only do it if orson directs it and he said he thought about it for a moment and then he said okay and i went to tell orson at mommysong yeah he was going to direct this show why would orson welles have to be excited about getting direct that was one of the greatest well because that's moments in this this town is sort of about what you did yesterday and not about what you did before it isn't about um i mean o.j simpson will will always be the heisman trophy winner and will always be remembered for the greatest runs they ever did an actor or a singer or whoever is remembered for in this in in this era that's right for what they did in the last five minutes it shouldn't be that way it should be about the finest hour they ever had sure barney mcnulty is here i have to tell a barney another story okay who you introduced me to barney mcnulty who's the sweetest man in the world is the man who invented cue cards and uh you and i were going together and i was hosting the oscars and i was scared to death and uh for a lot of reasons and david niven was hosting the last half i was hosting the first time right and i went and said a lot of what i thought was clever irreverent things about the academy and stuff like that and an hour before it was live of course uh walter mearish god bless him very nice man came to me and said you can't say those things and i said none of that what things he said all the things you've been rehearsing i said well what am i going to say we'll write you some stuff because he said you'll never work in this town again i said i haven't heard a line like that since the famous movie the oscar which nobody went to see so i said i'm going to say what i want he said you can't so he went to barney and said you're fired he's fired everybody's fired if he says these things so i walk out now this is like the highest rated show in the world in the world oh yeah i'm slightly nervous and i look out and standing by the camera like this camera here is barney mcdonald my my friend and he's got one set of cue cards which were walden marriages which went and pulled out mine and i said everything you know what i never worked again you know what that that that's a that's a lovely story it's a lovely story about about barney because it took a lot of courage on his part and i'm sure he took a lot of heat from it afterwards and it was i i got blasey-eyed when it happened and you know david living god rest his soul i loved him so much i went to his dressing room just before the show and and he said what if there's a streaker because that was in the time of the streakers you know oh that's right it happened in david that's right and i said thank you very much i just and i said i said uh i said what do you mean he said what if there's a streaker what do we say and i said well i have two jokes so i gave him my two jokes i said he showed he showed his shortcomings and he's not jewish and uh and so he he said oh i like that i like that so i went out you know this guy was standing rolled up in the curtain the entire first my whole act or three acts or whatever it was i was out there he was rolled up with no clothes on behind that curtain i leave david nimmin comes out hello how are you and he burst out of the curtain and david said well at least he showed his shortcomings became the most quoted line in the history of the industry i was on my way back to oxford drive just going away i don't know i don't know where he got his material [Music] look at that oh that's quentin yeah your son oh oh look at that you're singing this look at that face [Music] [Laughter] oh that's so sweet that's oh he's precious [Music] oh that's a darling picture he doesn't like you much look at that hug well it's a it's uh mutual i i um you know last night i mean there's a clinton story every day but last night he uh he said tell me a story you know so i i said okay i'll i'll i'll read you the three bears he said no and it went to three bears i don't want the three bears i'm up to here with the three bears so so i'll tell it different you know and i mean i acted my buns i mean george c scott would have been a little pressed to follow me and i was huffing and puffing the house down the whole thing and i finished he went oh come on yeah does all that stuff he does all his show business oh does he when he comes on the set does he break it up over there he's amazing on the set he he's um first of all he says don't go in the red lights on he does oh yeah i mean he stops people and he's two you know and then when i go up and get him and i i if i'm directing especially i'll take him behind the camera and i'll be directing and he doesn't say a word he's amazing he's just he doesn't walk in on that i mean no he's amazing i mean he he understands i don't know how he understands that but he doesn't understand that but he does he differentiate between that daddy that's on the screen and the one no the the first thing that was confusing to him was when he saw me on television and i wasn't there and they went to commercial and he he looked all over the room for me he looked behind the set he looked under the table looked under the couch and he couldn't figure out yeah what happened to me you know and then we came back on i was i was there and then unfortunately the show was over and then he really had a hard time with that oh now he now he he's figured out that there's something back there they squeeze you in i know they take you out you know i always wonder why it wouldn't be more confusing to kids you know because they used to come up and they'd ask me are you dinosaur in the records and on the television i said yeah how do you get out of it i know you know that's that same feeling well you had that problem when you were on the oh yes except she was in the studio and jody was tearing up the studio you know working the cameras but she they were there every sunday like you have or every saturday whenever whenever we do it yeah you you you you probably spoil him rotten right well i tried just like big bird spoiled you yeah this little thing i love florida drama award my lord outstanding performance by an actor 1956 buddy reynolds palm beach college junior college outward bound yeah i told you i did outward bound yeah you did outward bound with me the whole three years uh six the three years that you were out with the three years you were in this is uh this is my first award as an actor and it's i'm amazed that it still looks it holds up very well well yeah sure outward bound i played an alcoholic it was typecasting oh sure one teacher all your teachers had great influence on you your coaches particularly but one coaches yeah but teachers know i only had one teacher that changed my life would this be the gentleman watson b duncan jr yeah and let me read you anyway we just lost him last week and i i missed oh he adored you buddy you are the greatest human being i know i love you watching duncan jr you have this capacity for making friends and keeping them forever no you don't have any ex-friends i have some ex-acquaintances but i don't if they're really friends and you you treasure them yeah try to hold on to them you know i mean i i think that uh as you do that when you you have somebody that's uh been a part of your life for a while you it's important that you keep that in place never forget what it was that brought you down we were talking about don meredith who we both love so much and god i miss him so much oh you won't the new york giants were playing the cowboys and i was sitting on the bench with him and it was the last game of the season and we went to a party afterwards and he introduced me as don meredith because you know he's very big oh yeah he's a quarterback he's huge you know and this very rich society girl from park avenue said which one of you is dandy don meredith and he said this one do you think it was me this big dumb lunch this guy right here the big dumb one was with this i represented him well i did the best i could did everything come out all right everything came out thank you fine i have a gift for quentin you do yes i do oh you can open it for quentin i imagine he's not into boxes each day no he is actually actually oh my gosh you have keystone camp keystone oh that was when you were a counselor i was a counselor you took care of all the kids and you taught them a lot of drama well actually i taught the two things that go together very well boxing and drama which is certainly coming good use to me oh yeah that cost me 400 000 when i hit a director but that's okay it's another story all right here we go there it is camp keystone can't go yeah there i am right there in my little cam keystone shorts uh i'm teaching drama there with a football in my hand yeah let's draw them i'm teaching boxing believe me that's boxing my brother taught there too you know you teach football no i had football jim had the baseball and basketball yeah but uh i i love that time it was wonderful i realized that was my first realization i was about 19 that i how much i love kids and yeah and that i could communicate with that you could do all those wonderful things and and inspire them to do i felt that way about summer camp that was my first big change it's not a nice time oh yeah yeah singing in front of you i lost my virginity and they uh it was actually on a trampoline yeah i was alone [Laughter] very nice we'll be right back we'll be right back probably that too stand up straight take a deep breath okay what does this do for me i'll tell you later take a deep breath bring it up isn't that amazing went from a size 36 to 42 right before your eyes special conversation with burt reynolds could you identify with the guy and starting over because up until that time you played every romantic lead and this is a guy who could not get a date candy bergen and jill clayburg got nominations for the and you did not i got very uptight about that well that's children's but i i i think it's my best work and that was um closer to me than anything i've ever done uh and i had to really campaign to get that part as you remember yeah you and i went to a party at um many many parties but there was one particular party where the director was at and you kept saying to me go on and talk to him be funny with him go ahead be funny be vulnerable be vulnerable be vulnerable that's it yeah but you are vulnerable you're the only actor i know and i can say this it's my show so i can say something you have revealed so much of yourself your vulnerability i don't know any other actor that has allowed this much of himself to be revealed there are a lot of actors who did action films going back to the old days they did action films they did romantic roles they did all kinds of comedy things perhaps but they never combined it into one person uh and directed and produced and acted in the same property what are you going to be when you grow up you've got to leave something no i i thank you but i i think that's that going back to starting over was was a a real challenge because they said you can't play a guy that vulnerable you won't you won't bring it off and i thought i did bring it off and um but i think your humor reveals your vulnerability you know well you know being being uh uh quick or being being able to uh handle yourself at a cocktail party has nothing to do with being vulnerable and and that's the confusion that people have i mean your sometimes your wit or your or or your aggressiveness in terms of being with people is a shield to keep them from hurting you you know and that was always my shield my shield was always my sense of humor because i knew that if i didn't grab the guy and get myself in a lot of trouble i i had to to to fight my way out with humor and you you used to take me to these parties oh it was way over my head i mean dinah would take me to parties that were in bel air and i would say i'm not ready for this and we would be with you sinatra's and the people and i was scared to death and and nobody knew it the only thing that could kept me from you know jumping out the window was the fact that i i sort of made fun of of the whole situation but most of your humor is self-deprecating well they like that they don't want you to make fun of frank you know so i made fun of me yeah you but you that shows a vulnerability that you know on all the talk shows when you go on you are you are very funny very vulnerable and very honest and for a person as private as you are uh to to where you're honestly my point you're honest about you're honest about your career you're honest about your your vulnerability i'm not honest about a lot of other things that i've said today i don't usually say but you don't get into your family you don't get into other things because that's they're not entitled to that you know they don't have a right to that as far as my career is concerned it's been so open booked beat up stomped on and sometimes praised that it's it's it's a fodder for me that i can i can use it as i as i would like so i can have as much fun or not and it seems that there's a there's a thing in this town or in this this country now where we're so jaded about about what's about love about life about what's real what's good and so you have to cut through all that and say this is who i am and i'll make fun of me and then you're allowed the luxury yeah the only thing good about getting old is that you say sage things every now and then [Laughter] profundities little pearls drop out of your mouth and nobody gives a damn until you're my age but you you know it's not going to go away now you don't get the feeling that you wake up some morning and it's over you know like no i don't think that's bad two and a half minute stars yeah i don't think it's you get nervous before you do concerts and of course you do i tell diana's short story all the time i told this story the other night to ginger rogers and jane powell june allison and esther williams who are who've heard a few stories right and we're sitting around the table and i said this is a conversation yeah i said i've done a short story she's 18 years old and eddie cantor brings her to new york and she goes out she knows 11 songs and she sings the 11 songs and eddie counters behind this glass wall and says can't do that he can't says do it again she does it again he says do it again she does it again do it again so she does like eleven songs like seven times and finally said mr canner mr kenner is there something wrong and he said no there's nothing wrong it's just the last time anyone is ever gonna hear you sing for free yeah i just want to say something to you and i and i've said it to a lot of people and i haven't said it to you if i have any class in my life in my career this is hard to say in my life in my career or anything it's from you and um uh i mean that you gave it to me no i didn't yes you did honey you were born with it no i wasn't i didn't have a i wasn't anywhere near it and i remember one time i was in such trouble as i was in trouble most of my life but i was in real trouble at this particular time and the press was writing some horrible things and you said a lie will die yeah and the truth will rise to the top yeah and it did and you were right as usual but i i uh every bit of dignity and whatever that i have to draw upon every now and then uh i i look in my dynabag and it's there can i add just a little addendum to that we gave each other so much you gave me wonderful confidence in myself as a woman as well as a singer and if i gave you any tiny vestige of confidence in yourself as a posh figure on the hollywood scene that's in no measure as important as what you gave me or what we gave each other i think it was a really nice thing i'm grateful me too i love you i love you too honey tennessee it's home and that's where part of my heart will always be you know nashville may be the home of country music but you don't have to be there to get the feeling just stay right here on tnn the nashville network the heart of country you're wondering a joke there somewhere but i'm not going to touch it thank you very much for letting me be here and be fooling myself you thank me no i do thank you because i i remember the last time i did your show they uh henry jaffe jumped out of the window well yes he's been seen since then he jumped right through the window he said this is this show was going right in the toilet well every time every time we did one they said that and fred liked it yeah and every time we did a show henry jaffe jumped out the window and murray said i think it'll work yeah and fred says oh my god how am i going to cut it what am i going to do well they figured out something he liked lucky lady yeah that's right i like lucky lady i like you too will you tell your whole family and everybody hello yes i will i will i will and and you do the same i will give my love to lonnie quentin a big hug today plus your precious thing i sure will i get involved all the time but i'll give you yep give him one and tell him that's for me [Music] okay [Applause] you

Channel: Alan Eichler

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Id: sI-pDqAe2do

Length: 68min 58sec (4138 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 04 2021