Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 167. Larry Kenney

Episode Date: August 7, 2017

Radio personality, actor and voice artist Larry Kenney (Lion-O, Sonny the Cuckoo Bird) stops by the studio to trot out his array of impressions (Richard Nixon, Paul Lynde, George S. Patton, et al.) and to talk about some of the industry's legendary voice talents, including Mel Blanc, Paul Frees, Bob McFadden, June Foray and Paul Winchell. Also, Larry hosts "Bowling for Dollars," Don Imus clashes with Howard Stern, Peter Lorre tries to sound like Peter Lorre and William Conrad cleans up the Old West. PLUS: Jerry the Bellybutton Elf! Vaughn Meader returns! "The Great American Dream Machine"! Lauren Bacall praises Larry's Bogie! And Count Chocula meets Dracula Gottfried! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried and this is Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. I'm here once again with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, and we're once again recording at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Bertarosa. Our guest this week is a disc jockey, radio personality, former game show host, and one of the most active and recognized voice actors of the past 40 years he started out his career at the ripe old age of 15 just like someone else we all know and love as a dj at wirl in peoria and would go on to host shows on top 40 and country music stations everywhere, from Fort Wayne to New York City, developing a collection of character voices as he went

from 1973 to 2007. He was the essential part of the popular Imus in the Morning show, entertaining audiences with a vast repertoire of celebrity impersonations, including Richard Nixon, Andy Rooney, John Wayne, Howard Cosell, and General George Padden. In 1978, he replaced former podcast guest Chuck McCann as the voice of Cocoa Puffs mascot Sonny the Cocoa Bird. Cuckoo Bird. A cuckoo bird, yes. And a year later, he was replaced. He replaced the original actor, Jim Dukas. Dukas. Dukas. You really should read these before.

Jim Dukas. Jim Dukas. Yeah. As the voice of the Lugosi-esque serial pitchman Count Chocula. He's also lent his voice to dozens of commercials from everything from Skittles to Mighty Dog to the Game Operation and Hungry Hungry Hippos, but to millions of kids who came of age. In the 1980s and 90s, he'll forever be known as the voice of Lion-O, the leader of the humanoid alien super team. Thundercats, voicing numerous characters for this show,

as well as Rankin-Bass follow-up companion series, Silverhawks. And if all this wasn't enough to earn her admiration, he also served on the one-time host of the legendary TV game show, Bowling for Dollars. game show bowling for dollars please welcome to the show a man of a thousand voices our very own pin pal larry kenny oh my god thank you gilbert you know i some some of those things were accurate well i'm i'm listening to him do that and i'm thinking who is this guy this is the guy i want to meet he did all of that you know but when you think about it it's not that much but uh you know i i uh my son tanner tanner is here with us he's here in the other room he's not allowed in the studio with his wife katie they're here that's right loving people and um he he got me on he's been listening for since you started i think and he just always you know going on and

on you got to listen to gilbert's podcast so i listen and and then i knew i was you know i was being invited to be on the show and as i'm listening to the shows i listened to uh just last night to Richard Benjamin. This is a great show. Yeah, it was one of our best. Tony Orlando. I listened to quite a lot of that. And as I'm listening to them, I thought, what the hell am I doing there?

Because, you know, you would come on at the beginning of each one saying, Our guest today is an actor who's won 14 Oscars and as a singer, has been on the charts for 37 weeks in a row. He'll be opening later this week on Broadway in the title role of Waiting for Godot. way in the title role of Waiting for Godot, and he invented oxygen. So why does he want me there?

What am I going to talk about? Well, you've got plenty to talk about. That's an accurate Gilbert impression, except for the fact that you did the copy straight and clean. Ah, yes. That's pretty good, Gil. Thank you. We've had several people do you on this show. He didn't misread oxygen.

No. Or waiting for Godot. Yes. Welcome to the show, Larry. Thank you, Frank, very much. Now, since you were the voice of Count Chocula, and then at the same time, they had a Boris Karloff voice for Frankenberry. Wasn't that McFadden? No, no.

Bob McFadden did Frankenberry. Yeah. Yeah. There were three. They called them the monster cereals. And then there was a Peter Lorre. It was a Boo-Berry. That was Boo did Frankenberry. Yeah. Yeah. There was three, they called them the monster cereals. And then there was a Peter Lorre. It was a Boo-Berry. It was a Boo-Berry.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I did Count Chocula. Yes. I'm still the voice of Count Chocula for that cereal. I mean, I'm still the voice of Cocoa Puffs and Count Chocula, although we haven't done any Count Chocula voices although we haven't done any Count Chocula commercials for quite a while. See, because we had on Bela Lugosi Jr.

Really? We did. And he's a lawyer. And one of his biggest cases that he's always after is people doing imitations of established actors. Especially Bela Lugosi, I would imagine. Yeah, yeah, Lugosi. Yeah. Yeah, that used to be just every cartoon, every commercial.

Well, I remember when I started doing it, it had been done for years by Jim Dukas. Yeah. And when I was a kid, he was doing Count Chocula, and Chuck McCann was doing Coco Puffs. Oh, Sonny. Yeah, we had Chuck here on the show. Sonny the Coco Puffs Bird, yeah. So in 78, I think, I got a chance to start doing Sonny the Coco Puffs Bird, which if you haven't heard of him, then you don't have children

because he's all over the television, usually on Saturday mornings and after schools, during cartoon shows and things like that. And he sounds like, up here, I won't go cuckoo for my favorite cereal. Munchy, crunchy, chocolatey, Cocoa Puffs. Yahoo! I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. How do you get up that high? You were-

Oh, I don't want to go- Let's don't go into that. You're obviously a deep voice fellow. Because I remember as far as like doing known voices, years ago, you know, there was like Columbo Yogurt. Yeah. And they had a guy doing a Peter Falk imitation for all the radio. I don't remember that. Yeah. I don all the radio cars. I don't remember that.

Yeah. I don't either. Yeah. I don't remember that. Yeah. Yeah. Columbo yogurt. Yeah.

So they were ripping off two things, him and the Columbo series. The series. Yeah. He probably said, I don't want to bother you, but try Columbo yogurt. Yeah. Yeah. Stuff like that. Yeah. How did Count Chocula happen? Well, Sonnybo yogurt. Yeah. Yeah. Stuff like that. Yeah.

How did Count Chocula happen? Well, Sonny happened first. For me, Sonny happened first. Because McCann was doing it for a long time. Yeah. Yeah. Chuck McCann had been doing it. And then from what I understand, he moved to California from New York to do some television

and some movies out there. And it became too difficult for him to fly back, you know, back and forth or too expensive or whatever. It's funny. In those days, you couldn't just do it on a computer and send it across the country. That's right. Yeah. Wow.

Now you can. And so they auditioned, you know, again, I don't know, probably a couple hundred actors. And it was actually pretty easy because they wanted to maintain the same established voice of Sonny. They didn't want to, you know, because the kids were used to it, and they didn't want it to be obvious that somebody new was doing Sonny. So all I had to do was listen to, of course, I had grown up with it, you know, the voice, and I just had to listen to it over and over until I got it well enough that I got the job.

And then a year or two later, Jim Dukas retired, and I won the audition for Count Chocula. So it's interesting. You said that Bela Lugosi Jr. Yeah. Yeah, he's cracking down on all these people who imitate established stars. The Stooges, too. Yeah. Yeah, I can understand that.

With Count Chocula, I remember them telling me, even at the audition, we don't want it to sound just like Bela Lugosi. We want it to sound more cartoony. So my Count Chocula was more like, Count Chocula cereal with chocolate-flavored marshmallows. It's frighteningly delicious. So that wasn't really a Bela Lugosi. A happy Lugosi, like Lugosi on Prozac.

Oh, yes. No, no, Lugosi on Cocoa Butter. I heard that one of the greatest stories I've ever heard, Richard Dawson told it many years ago, many, many years ago. I remember the interview for two reasons. And I forget who was interviewing him, maybe Dick Cabot. And I'm watching on television. And the first reason that I remember it so well was I was amazed. I was only probably a high school kid at the time I was amazed I had never heard anybody

a foreigner a British actor for example do an American accent and he did an American accent very very well and I sat there and I thought well of course they can do it too but I never before had thought

it went both ways we do accents, French accents and German and Spanish and all that but to have them do us freaked me out and the second part was it was such a funny story that Richard Dawson told and he swore at the time

it was true, I can't, I don't think it really was but it's one of those stories that you wish you hope it is, you hope it's one of those stories that you wish it. You hope it is. You hope it's a true story. This whole show is based on a true story. If you go back into the archives and listen, every story we tell. I always say if it sounds good, then it's true.

The hell with it. Print the legend. Good enough for me if it sounds true. So Dawson tells this story, and I haven't told this in, you know, 50 years, so I hope I get it right. But it's Bela Lugosi has died. And as you probably know, he died penniless, really. He had had a severe heroin problem. Yeah.

Lingered for many years and did some movies he wouldn't have done otherwise, you know. Yeah, he got tied in with the Ed Wood stuff. The only guy who would hire him. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Well, he died penniless. And Boris Karloff, the story goes, was a dear friend of his. Oh, I know this one.

Oh, you know this story? And you want to tell them? I don't know it. No, no. This has to do with Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. Well, no. No? A different one.

This is maybe a different one. Okay. Yeah. I'll tell mine, then you tell yours, and we'll see how they... Okay. So he died, and Boris Karloff is just devastated. His friend has passed away. And he's more devastated that he's probably going to...

If he doesn't do something, he's going to have just a funeral with three people there, you know, in a wooden box or something. So Karloff gets on the phone and calls every major star in Hollywood and says, you owe it to Bela to be there. You know, he was dear friend of all of us. all of us. Well, it turns out that Lugosi had at that time the biggest funeral Hollywood had ever seen, all because of Karloff, who also, the story goes, bought hundreds of maybe probably thousands of dollars worth of flowers. They had like 20 cars of flowers in the funeral line heading out to the

cemetery. So they out to the cemetery. So they're at the cemetery now, and Legosi's religion, whatever it was, or from his culture over in Romania, wherever he was from, provided that the casket be left open at the cemetery. And that's where you would file by and say your final goodbyes. And then they would, you know, lower him down to the ground. So the story goes, according to Dawson, that Karloff stood there for hours

while this eternal line of stars walked by and paid their last respects to Bela Lugosi. And when the last person had gone, and the only people there were the gravediggers and Karloff, Karloff walks over to the casket. And they had Lugosi with a cape on his cape. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yes. I don't think they had the teeth, but that would be a little taggy. But Karloff walks over, looks down in the coffin and says, Bela, if you're putting me on. That's the story. I heard it with Laurie. Where Karloff was standing with Peter Laurie. And depending on who tells the story, either Boris Karloff says that line, or Peter Lorhe says that line. And I don't think Karloff and Lugosi were ever friends.

Well, and Ed Wood, he calls him a cocksucker. Oh, yes. But we asked Bela Jr., and he said, my father never used that kind of language. He was actually very upset when he saw the film. when he saw the film. And now, Septy Wolfrod, a word from one of our sponsors.

It's Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Podcast! Now, unfortunately, we return to our show. As long as we're on the subject of Count Chocula. Well, thanks a lot. You've just destroyed a story that I've, you know,

it's been dear to me for most of my life. Maybe Karloff walked over and said, good. Don't get used to the stories on this show being factual. Here you go. Now this, we're going to just try something fun. All right. What the hell is this? Famous last words.

Now, Gilbert, you were known for doing Dracula Gottfried on The Howard Show. Yes, on Howard Stern. And you do a pretty mean Lugosi, and we know what Larry does. Now, the only person missing would, I guess, be Joe Flattery. Oh, you mean Count Floyd. Yes. But what we have here is Count Chocula and

Dracula Gottfried. So I thought we'd give this a try. And your parts are clearly marked. You are too late. Van Helsing. My blood now flows through her veins. She will live through the centuries to come as I have lived.

Kids love watching the hidden marshmallow ghost appear in my delicious... I'm doing the wrong damn voice. You're doing the wrong voice. Yeah, I thought... We're supposed to be dueling Dracula. I don't remember at what point in Lugosi's career he ever actually sounded like that. That's a lot of morphine. I don't remember in any part

of Dracula him going, Oh, I'm Count Dracula! You mean you don't remember that famous line? Listen to the children of the night. What music do they make? I'm sorry. Take two.

Take two. I'm cuckoo for blood. All right, you're doing the real Dracula. Set him up again. And I'm doing the Count Chocula Dracula. Yes, yes. Now I've got it. Set him up again.

Okay. We can edit this later. Yeah. It's too good. We'll keep it. All right. Give him the last line, Gil. Yeah. It's too good. We'll keep it. Alright. Give him the last line, Gil. Okay.

As I have lived. Kids love watching the hidden marshmallow ghost appear in my delicious Count Chocula cereal. The spider The spider spinning his web for an unwary fly.

The blood is the life, Mr. Enfield. Now you can let Igor guard your Count Chocula cereal and get a pack of fun gummy spiders inside my shiny spider box. A shiny spider box? Yeah, I wouldn't touch that line with a jigsaw. That is actual Count Chocula copy. I'll have you know. That's when Lugosi was doing porn later in his career.

The girl with the shiny spider box. Yes. What music she makes. Go ahead, Gil. You're up. Your line. To die, to be really dead, must be glorious. There are far worse things awaiting man than death.

Cal Chocolon offers even more chocolatey marshmallows for a chocolatey fright in every bite. Listen to them, children of the night. What music they make. All right. Very good. That's a great Lugosi. Oh, thank you. That's great.

It worked. I just got a compliment on my Lugosi. Oh, thank you. That's great. It worked. I just got a compliment on my Lugosi from Count Chocula. I have to admit, you're scarier than me. But you see, I am not allowed to be scary or frighten the children. Were you also almost lucky the leprechaun? Almost lucky the leprechaun. The story of my life, I was almost lucky. Oh, yeah.

Well, I had been doing Count Chocula and Cocoa Puffs for a number of years. And the guy who had been doing Lucky, the Lucky Charms leprechaun. Yeah. I forget his name now, Arthur something, got very old and could no longer perform as well as they wanted him to. So they, again, held auditions, 200 people. And I didn't think anything about it, but the next couple of days later, I had a recording session for either Couch Ocula or Cocoa Pops.

And I walked into the studio, and the director was the same guy, Deed Meyer, from the agency, the ad agency, who directed all of these, they call them the monster cereals, Cocoa Puffs. Well, Count Chocula. Frankenberry. Frankenberry and Booberry. Don't forget Yummy Mummy. Yummy Mummy for about six weeks that last year.

And Fruit Brute. Fruit Brutes, that's right. Yeah, the werewolf. So those were called the General Mills Monster Cereals. But they also made and still do Lucky Charms and a couple of others. So I walk into this recording session for one of the other two cereals. And Dean Meyer says to me larry dear boy you won the audition as uh lucky the leprechaun i said oh really good yeah yes but i poo-pooed

that idea because i told him he's already doing the count in Sonny. If something happens to him, we're out three mascots. And I said, well, okay. I understand. But in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, oh, thanks. You just cost me like 50 grand a year. But, you know, that's the way it goes. Let's hear a little bit of what your lucky would have been. Always after me lucky charms.

It's a little Barry Fitzgerald, right? Of course. All my Irish accents are Barry Fitzgerald. Toot toot, my boy. Now, are there, I mean, I remember it used to be like for cartoon, I mean, major animated Disney cartoons and commercials, there were the voiceover guys. Yeah, yeah.

And now it's like voiceover guys are like, you know, Gene Hackman, Sean Connery. Gilbert Gottfried. Yes. Jon Hamm. They used to be those voiceover guys. You mean the cartoon guys like Mel Blanc and Dawes Butler? Yeah, or they were like, there was this actor, Norman Rose.

With the deepest voice in the world. Yes. Norman Rose. We called him the voice of God. Yes. I thought John Fazenda was the voice of God. Well, later, after Norman. Norman died about 15 years ago.

But Norman had this very, very deep voice. There was one commercial, some commercial he did in New York that were indicative of that. I'm the Hemlock Farms deer. So I'm at an audition one time with Norman Rose for I don't know what product. It was a radio commercial. I don't know what product. It was a radio commercial. And so it says in the script, voice of God and then other guy, you know.

Well, obviously, Norman's going to do the voice. Yeah. So he does. We go one take with him as the voice of God and me as other guy. And the director says, what was her name? Nancy Field. She says, okay, good, good, guys. Switch it around. Larry, you be voice of God.

And I thought, what? I'm in the studio with Norman Rose, you know, the voice of God. But we do it. A few days go by, I get a call from my agent. Larry, you're booked on this commercial. Good. I go in there and I grab my copy and I start rehearsing the other guy role. And Nancy says, no, no, Larry,

you're doing the voice of God. I said, what, Norman was busy? She said, I said, how can I, Norman Rose is the voice of God. She said, yes, Larry, but you are the God of voices.

How nice. How sweet. You know, it's funny. I remember going to a voiceover session, and there was a guy in ahead of me, and it was Norman Rose. And you hear that voice, and it's so funny with these voiceover guys where you go, holy shit, there's an actual person? You see it coming out of him. That's not a machine doing that? Yeah.

Yeah, because his voice would rattle the walls. Oh, yeah. He could only be God. You know, he wore a codpiece, Norman. Are you serious? I swear to God. That's the first time in 170 shows we've brought up a codpiece. Most people probably don't know what it is.

You explain it. Ian Anderson, the lead singer of Jethro Tull, famously wore a codpiece. Oh, yes. That's right. It's an external, how do you describe it? It's an external piece of clothing that goes over your member. Your thing. Your thing.

And there was another voiceover guy I knew. Oh, God, watch me forget his name now. Lenny Maxwell. Lenny Maxwell. Oh, I knew Len Maxwell. He did great voices, too. And he was, I remember him telling me, and it's a funny thing about voiceover guys,

is aside from like crazy voices that they'll do they'll have like like he said i've got about five or six uh normal voices yeah yeah and and it's funny like they'll have these voices where you'd say, oh, no, that's just the guy talking. But they'll have, like, variations. They'll have just a guy talking happy. Yeah. Just a guy talking serious. You know, it's very, very incredible. It really is the same as being a dialectician in a way.

You know, it's doing different voices and different, as in a way, you know, it's doing different voices and different, as you just described, you know. You reminded me of something when you mentioned, oh, you mentioned that it used to be just voiceover guys who did the cartoons and things like that. The reason for that was up until 20 or 25 years ago, big actors wouldn't be caught dead doing commercials.

Oh, that's what you told me on the phone. Yeah, because it was considered beneath them. Yeah. And, you know, there wasn't that much money available back then too. You know, because they didn't have to pay us union people that much money. It's funny. Like now, you see like Academy Award winners in commercials. But then what started happening, all these people who were too big of artists to do a

commercial would go to Japan. Yes. Frank Sinatra did commercials for some car in Japan for years and years. And then it was stipulation was hard and fast that nobody outside of Japan can ever see these, you know, can't be put on television anywhere else or whatever. But, yeah, they didn't. I think I think they felt most of them that it would seem to the public that they needed the money you know oh yeah yeah and there was also oh this is a question i always wondered with the exception of one episode of family guy where they did a takeoff on um bugs bunny and elmer fudd, and they had Noah Blank do the voices, but he never did any of the Warner Brothers.

I think Mel was trying, you know, getting him ready. He was trying to brush him up, but they never hired him to do those. I remember, pardon me, when Mel Blank died, I remember hearing that his son, I didn't know his name was Noah. I think it's Noel. Noel. I remember hearing that his son was going to take over Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam and all those things. And then the next thing you hear is that somebody else has been hired. In fact, we started auditioning for all those voices.

And I just assumed that the guy didn't do them well enough. They wanted somebody else to do them. Yeah, I always wondered what Noel was doing all those years. I can't believe you brought up Len Maxwell. Oh, yes. Who I believe, and I hope I'm right on this, was on the Milton the Monster show with your friend McFadden. Probably. Bob McFadden, who we should also talk about now that we're on the subject of these guys, because you

worked with Bob on Thundercats. I worked with Bob. He's a legend. Yeah, Bob and I worked... His name's come up on this show. Has it? Well, we were talking about a show called Cool McCool. Yeah. With Bob Kane's show from the 60s. Cool McCool. And that was Bob McFadden. I think he was also... He was Milton the Monster. Some dog.

There was a dog. And there, Milton the Monster, that was a Jim Neighbors imitation. Pretty much. He was also Frankenberry. Yeah, he was Frankenberry for many, many years. Yeah. And here's one after your own heart, Gil. He was the voice of the parrot in the famous Whisk Ring Around the Collar commercial.

Oh, my God. Ring Around the Collar. That's Bob McFadden. Yeah, he was a great guy, too. I worked with him closely for years because, like I said, we worked on the General Mills cereal commercials. And when I first started doing Cocoa Puffs and Count Chocula, they were doing commercials with all three cereals,

all three monster cereals in the same commercial. We wouldn't do individual commercials for Couch Ocula or Cocoa Puffs or – Boo-Berry. Boo-Berry, thank you. They would all appear in the same commercial. So Bob and I worked for years on those, and then Thundercats came along, and that took us a year to record that and then we did Silverhawks the same company Rankin Bass he was on that he was on another one we did called Tiger Sharks and then he and I and most of the same cast of those cartoon series did a series of

holiday specials for Rankin Bass some of them still get aired every year. Yeah, I found some of them on YouTube. Yeah, one of them is called A Star for Jeremy. They're out there. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. I remember working with Sir Alfred Drake on that one. Oh, wow. Sir Alfred Drake.

Speaking of deep voices. That's cool. Yeah. Since you said Alfred, I want to throw this because I wrote it on a card. Apparently, Count Chocula has a first name. Oh! And it's Alfred. I didn't know that. Did you know Alfred, I want to throw this because I wrote it on a card. Apparently, Count Chocula has a first name. Oh! And it's Alfred. I didn't know that.

Did you know that? I did not know that. The show is educational. Because, you know why? Because most people just call me the Count. Who's going to say, hey, Alfred, I love your cereal? McFadden was also in Vaughn Meader. He was on Vaughn Meader's first family album.

Oh, wow. Yeah, he did a lot of cool stuff. Produced by Earl Dowd, who hired me years later to do a Richard Nixon album. Oh. Yeah. Because I was doing Nixon on Imus' show. Right, sure. This was back in 73, I think.

Yeah, 73. I was working in Chicago as a disc jockey, and Earl Dowd called me. And I knew his name, you know, from, I mean, the first family album, for those who don't know, was about John F. Kennedy and his family. Yeah, it's come up on this show. And at the time, back at that time, it became the largest selling album of all times. Not just comedy albums. The largest selling albums of all time. Oh, he was very big.

He was very good, too. Who in the old Warner Brothers cartoons, the Bugs Bunny ones, who did the movie stars? Like, you know, where they visit a restaurant? Clark Gable and people like that. Bogart and Gable. I don't know. We'll have to dig that out.

We'll put that out to our listeners. Yeah. Somebody will come up with it. Yeah, I don't know who that was. I remember hearing a story that one time they hired Peter Lorre to do a Peter Lorre imitation. And they said, okay, your first line is, hi, I'm Peter Lorre. And he went, hi, I'm Peter Lorre imitation. And they said, okay, your first line is, hi, I'm Peter Lorre. And he went, hi, I'm Peter Lorre.

And the guy goes, no, no, no. Hi, I'm Peter Lorre. And he goes, hi, I'm Peter Lorre. And he couldn't do a Peter Lorre imitation. Yeah, because people who do imitations, usually, impressions, they exaggerate. imitations, usually, impressions, they exaggerate. That's how you get the, you know, like when I started

doing Nixon, people who were doing Richard Nixon, most impressionists were doing Richard Nixon's, I'm going to be the president, you know. My name is Richard Nixon. Well, he never talked like that. Yeah. You know. He talked more like this, you know. Oh, yeah. People wonder if I'm

a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I look like a crook. I act like a crook, but I'm not a crook. So you did an album. Yeah. Earl Dowd called me and he said, and I knew who he was, and he said, I'm doing this album called The Honest to God, We Really Mean It, very last Nixon album. And this was in maybe August of 73. So I fly to New York from Chicago. And by the time I get, he's got the rest of the cast.

Julie Newmar played Pat Nixon. Wow. Oh, man. Yeah. Marshall Efron was... I remember Marshall Efron. It was David Eisenhower. Oh, Marshall Efron.

Marshall Efron. There's a voice. Oh, okay. He used to be... There was that show like Great American something. That was his... The kids' show. Yeah, I know what you're referring to.

And Marshall Efron was also in a movie I like very much, Bang the Drum Slowly. Correct. Yeah, he worked a lot. Was that about the baseball player? Yeah, with De Niro. And De Niro played the character. And Michael Moriarty. Yeah. So we

recorded it at Media Sound on 57th Street over two nights. We did it four times with four different audiences. And it actually was a pretty good album. But by the time we finished it and got it out, it was like April of 74. Well, by that time, everybody knew he was a crook. The clock was ticking. The clock was ticking.

We knew he was going to be gone. So it was kind of a bad timing to come out. it was a pretty good album i'll look for that yeah it just for the record just so no one has to correct me i think it was the great american dream machine that sounds right yeah that's right yeah nice yeah nice reference trying to remember one uh one of the bits on the album a couple of A couple of the bits on the Nixon album, of course, were like parodies. Remember on the first Family album where the little girl comes to the White House door and she knocks. Somebody opens and says, can I help you? And she says, can the president come out and play?

And they say, I'm sorry, dear. He's very busy. Oh, well then, what's Lyndon doing? So we reprise that on the Nixon album where the little girl knocks. Can the president come out and play? And I say, why, yes. Yes, I can. And she says, oh, shit.

What's the name of this album I got to find? It's called, get your pencils out, The Honest to God, You Really Mean It, Very Last Nixon Album. By the producer of First Family. By Earl Dowd. It was on Brunswick Records. You know the bowling ball company? Sure, sure. Brunswick Records.

There was another bit where, I remember it was David, with David Eisenhower, Marshall Efron. Marshall comes up to Nixon and he says, Mr. President, I really hesitate to bring this up. What is it, David? Just spit it out. Well, sir, it's kind of embarrassing. He said, look, David, I don't have all day all right got the water of the gate thing going on and all that so what what is it he says well sir if you recall uh two weeks ago um you didn't have any cash when we were out and i i lent you twenty dollars

he says oh yes yes yes i remember that i'm so i'm so sorry here uh i've only got singles he said that's okay there you there you go david i'm sorry and you hear david walking away going one two three four and then you hear it's all there, David. You know what else I thought as far as getting back to imitations? It's like it's already accepted that we all believe that John Travolta in every one of his movies or in real life sounds like Vinnie Barbarino. And that was only once in his career. But people do a Vinnie Barbarino imitation. It sticks. And we just accept that in the same.

Yo, Mr. Cotta. Yeah. Yeah, Mr. Cotta. Or another one like that is we all accept that Keanu Reeves sounds like Bill and Ted's excellent adventure no matter what. One role sticks to them forever. I want to ask you something about character voices. Did you ever audition for anything like that, like a character mascot?

Well, obviously. Oh, yes. Oh, boy. Apart from the duck. Yes. I'm in an animated. Oh, I just remembered that. I'm in an animated one. Did you do a to duck. Yes. I meant an animated. Oh, I just remembered that. I meant an animated one.

Did you do a toaster? Yes. I was a toaster for a Pop-Tarts commercial. Can anyone find that? Do you have that? I think you could find that on YouTube. You can find all those little things on YouTube. You always do your own voice.

Yes. I was an elf for something like Federal Express. Maybe Keebler Cookies. Was it Keebler Cookies? No, no, never got that account. But let's see. There was that and that. Oh, one time, this is one of those things that I lost the job without being responsible for it.

A fluke. Yes. Exactly. They were going to make a full-length animated Betty Boop. Oh, you never told me this. Yeah. And I was looking. They had me come into audition for The Clown.

And while I was waiting, I was flipping the pages, and they go to a party where Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson and Clark Gable and Cary Grant are there. And I said, can I audition for these? And they said, okay. And I did all these different celebrities. And they wanted me. But the movie never got made. Yeah. And I thought, boy, how much

I would have loved to have done that. You probably hadn't done a movie before that, had you? That, yeah. Would that have been your first movie? Yeah. That's why you're probably so disappointed. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Boom Boom Burmese from Karate Cat sounded a little like edward g robinson am i mistaken no no boom boom burmese it sounds like he bailed a ghost

what i just did sounded like mel brooks i don't know where that came from no no no no wait um i think now i think the boom boom was he was this big fat cat there was a show called um like Mel Brooks. I don't know where that came from. No, no, no, no, wait. Now, I think that Boom Boom was, he was this big fat cat. There was a show called... Was it Karate Cat? Karate Cat. Bob McFadden was Karate Cat. That's right, right.

Karate Cat here. And I was one of his gang. He was, you know, like nefarious. Right. And Big Mama ran the the mob so i remember lines like uh oh karate here comes big mama and she's not happy there wasn't a character with you doing an edward g robinson impression yeah i don't think so. I'm mistaken. The frog

on Courageous Cat was Edward G. Robinson. Do you remember him, Gil? Oh, yes. And I was telling Larry on the phone that what's his name? Simon Barr Sinister on Underdog was Lionel Barrymore. Oh, yes, yes. You do a great Barrymore. Oh, thank you.

I do it because there's a lot of kids in the audience. Oh, thank you. I do it because there's a lot of kids in the audience. He said he does Barry Manilow. I heard a great story about Mel Blanc. Well, this first part's not great. He almost died in a car accident.

Really? Mel Blanc. Way to lighten the tone up. Oh, yes. But he was in a car accident. Really? Mel Blanc. Way to lighten the tone up. Oh, yes. But he was in a coma. They thought he was going to die. He was in a coma for the longest time. And the doctor kept saying, you know, Mel, Mr. Blanc, can you please talk to me?

Can you please say hello? And then finally the doctor went over to him and he said, I'd like to talk to Bugs Bunny. Oh, wow. And he immediately. That's a great story. Lying there in his hospital bed, immediately Bugs Bunny's voice came out. That's amazing. And then he said, now I'd like to talk to Daffy Duck.

And he started doing his Daffy voice. I was certain you were going to say. They told him he wasn't going to make it. He said, that's all, folks. I think that's on his headstone. Yes, that's right. That's all, folks. Do you ever work with any of those guys? I'm not that old. June Foray or Dawes Butler or Don Messick or any of those? No, June Foray was one of the greatest.

He's still with us at like 99 or something. For those of you who remember Boris Bedinoff and Rocky and Bullwinkle. Sure. Paul Freese. Paul Freese. Yeah, it was Boris Bedinoff. Paul Freese was also for about 30 or 40 years the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy. That's correct.

And I was just down at the Haunted Mansion in Florida in Disney World, and I still have Paul Freese's voice. Oh, wow. When you walk in, and he's been dead 20 years or something, when you walk into the mansion. Paul Freese also was the voice of the Cyclops in the movie The Cyclops with Loncini Jr. He had an unmistakable voice. But his voice in this was like, it was ridiculous. For this, the Cyclops is too big and dumb to talk. So it was like,

Do, do, do, do. Didn't have to have a script, right? Yes! As long as we're talking about some of these characters, I'm just going to run through. Can I interject one thing first? Yes, sure. Of course, you're the guest. This is a little bit of a trivia question.

Probably not to you guys, but do you know who was the announcer on most of the segments of Rocky and Bullwinkle? Oh, William Conrad. William Conrad, that's right, from The Fat Man. Cannon. And Jake and the Fat Man. Jake and the Fat Man. That voice. Oh, he had a great voice.

I believe he was Marshall Dillon on the radio. On the radio he was, but for obvious reasons, he's not on television. Right. Yes. The Fat Marshall Dillon. There wasn't a horse that big. But he was the guy who would say, and so moose and squirrel go to the bottom of Veronica Lake.

Oh, that's pretty good. Thank you. I like that. And now, let me throw some of these characters in. I used that voice. It just occurred to me. I'm sorry, but I used that voice for years without realizing that's who I was doing on Mighty Dog commercials. Oh, that's right.

Well, that was in your intro, so let's hear a little Mighty Dog. Carnation presents the adventures of Mighty Dog. That's all I remember. I love that. Recognize that one, Gil? I've had more than one voiceover guy say to me, oh, I was up for a voiceover gig, and the director said, could you make it more Gilbert Gottfried? Really?

Yeah. And I thought, I'm available. Should we get that direction, Larry? I bet not. No, no. But I have been to, and probably a lot of voice actors have had the same experience. I have, on more than one occasion, showed up at an audition where it said, sometimes they give you an idea of the type they want or even who they want to sound like. And they said, think of someone.

And they said, like Larry Kenny. Oh. And I didn't get the job. It's like Peter Lorre. Yeah. And to this day, I wonder who in the hell sounded more like me than me. I took the liberty of writing out some of your characters, tracking down some of your characters.

I have your list here, too, Gilbert. Boom Boom Burmese, we talked about. Lion-O, of course. We'll have you do some Lion-O before we sign off. You were Jackal Man. Yes. We must get the Thundercats, yes. And what are you doing there?

Is that just sort of like a sinister? It's almost a little Paul Winchell. Well, you know, yes, Paul Winchell speaking of voices. You know what my inspiration for that was? I mean, it sounds to say my inspiration for this cartoon character uh i brought deep from within me i've the name of the character was jackal man jackal man and the show was half cat and half human character you see so i remember at the audition i was thinking what would the jackal sound like what jackals are supposed to be like very wily i think and you know sneaky and then i got this thought in my head of speaking of rocky and bullwinkle

of um not boris badenoff but the other villain remember um hello now oh snidely whiplash snidely whiplash yes so i combined the two and kind of made it, I kind of combined them and it came out. We must get the Thundercats, yes. What about Safari Joe? Oh, well, that's pretty obvious. Safari Joe, he was Australian, you know. I don't know why I'm not doing an Australian voice, but. It was good enough.

I'm doing. Alfred Drake again. East London for some reason. And Snarf Egbert. Snarf Egbert. Well, Snarf on Thundercats was just... He didn't talk. It was just...

Oh, it was just a meow. Snarf, Snarf, Snarf. And Wizra. Oh, God. You know, I don't remember. Well, we did. There were five of us in the cast of Thundercats, and we did 130 episodes. And there were always new characters, you know.

So each of us in the cast over the term of the series probably did 50, 60, maybe 100 voices, you know. In fact, I recall a number of occasions where they would come up with a new voice, and we would all try it. And it took us a while to get one that didn't sound like a voice we had done before as one of the lunatics or whatever. Or one of the robo-burbles. And also, there were characters who appeared, let's say, early in the series and then didn't appear for 30 episodes and came back, you know, in episode 125. And who remembers then what you did for it? It was a minor character. It maybe had two or three lines, you know.

But the kids remember. Of course. You know, I go to these Comic-Cons all the time and people come up, who were kids then? Now, you know, now they're 35 years old. They'll say, like, Mr. Kenny, remember in episode 126? And I'm going, oh, Jesus. That's the one where Lionel jumps out of the tank, the thunder tank, and he's got the sword of almonds

in his right hand, right? Okay, next shot, boom. Sword's in his left hand. What's up with that? They're upset about continuity errors in Thundercats. I would answer something like, well, you see, one of Lion-O's other superpowers was that he could transform into a mirror image of himself.

Figure it out. What was that? I think we've discussed this cartoon. There was a cartoon that took place in the jungle, and there was a bird that sounded like Jack Lemmon. Jesus. Yeah. Well, Carl Reiner did an animated show that I think was Jungle Characters.

Would that be the one maybe? Maybe, but the bird was a jack lemon. We'll throw it out to our listeners. Somebody will definitely. Or our crack researcher, Paul Reburn. You did a bird in. In Aladdin. Aladdin, yeah.

Sure, yeah. Sure. I remember that. I was a small child when it came out. All right, Gil, here we go. Here's some of your repertoire of animation voices. Iago, of course, which Larry just brought up. Mr. Peabody in the Problem Child cartoons.

That cartoon was made, I think, in Spain or something. Wasn't that a part of Rocky and Bullwinkle? It was. Peabody here. Oh, yes. Sherman and Peabody. Sherman. Sherman.

Set the Wayback Machine to 1847. Pretty good. Thank you. Pretty good. Edward Everett Horton also did those voices. Oh, yes. He was the announcer. Right.

How about this? Two Bits. You played on a show called Bonkers. Any of these have any memory for you? Oh, yes, yes, I did. I did do a voice on Bonkers, my usual. Mike McNasty? Mike McNasty.

It sounds familiar. You played Mr. Beetle? Mr. Beetle? That was in Thumbelina. Okay. How about Jerry the Belly Button Elf? That was in, what's the name of those? Ren and Stimpy.

Ren and Stimpy. Ren and Stimpy. I have it on the card. I was Jerry the belly button elf. What the hell is a belly button elf? What the hell was that? He sees this elf that lives in a belly button. He's made out of lint.

And they originally, they wanted Jerry Lewis, and he wouldn't do it. So I came in, and I would do my regular voice, and then I'd go, and I'm going to go in the belly button and live and eat my lint loaves. Dinner! Dinner! Hurry up, boy! I want my dinner! Right away, your majesty, sir. Stimpy, before I eat, a toast to you, my houseboy. A toast to you, my houseboy. My man, Friday.

You came into the emptiness that was your belly button, and you filled it with the love and the joy and the thing. And as we all know, an elf without the love and the joy and the thing is no elf at all. And so, a toast to you, Stimpy, and this lovely meal of lint loaf. Lint love. Lint love. I once did a, Jerry Lewis was on Broadway in Damn Yankees. Yes. For a while. And at that time was doing a lot of Broadway show commercials for Nancy Coyne, Serena Coyne and Nappy.

And we finished one, got the tape they liked on it. So call and tell a charge to see Jerry Lewis on Broadway in Damn Yankees. Call now. So they said, okay, Larry, we got it. And I said, okay, good, but could we just keep

rolling? Because I have an idea. In case he ever comes back, you know, Nancy knew me and she went, Larry wants to play. Okay, go ahead. So I went, So see Jerry Lewis on Broadway in My Fair Lady.

You couldn't resist. Couldn't help it. You were Art DeSalvo in Duckman. Yes. Okay. You were Alfalfa. This may be my favorite of your credits. The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange. Yes.

Yes. That's a Cesar Romero motif. Of course, Horace the Rat, your Krang subprime on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Digit on Cyber... Cyberchase. Cyberchase. And this may be my favorite. Well, of course, Mr...

How do you say it? The Superman's enemy? Mrs. Pickleck. Mrs. Pickleck, you were. And last but not least, Odiferous Stench on a show called Bump in the Night. Oh, yes.

Yes. I think I was a stink bug. Gilbert, you should be a guest on this. And I could do, if you would, I could do the announcer saying, You've seen him as the elf in the belly button elf. He was in the bump in the night thing. It's Gilbert meets Sher night thing. It's Gilbert means sherry there.

It's like a hybrid. And now he's here. Alright, you guys want to try something crazy? What? This hasn't been crazy enough? Let's see. Gilbert, you can do Grandpa Joe. This is a scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. But we're going to change it.

We're going to recast it. Okay. Uh-oh. So, Gil, you can either do, I guess, Jerry. You could do Jerry. You could do James Mason. Or you could do Jerry Seinfeld, whatever you're feeling. Oh, okay.

I'll do Seinfeld. And I thought our guest of honor would do his wonderful George C. Scott. Oh, okay. Well, my George C. Scott that I did on IMAS for 35 years was actually an impression of George C. Scott. Yeah. Pat and doing George C. Scott. Doing George C. Scott. Oh, no.

It'll work here. I said I'd do Seinfeld. You're going to change it? But I had a couple of people say they were very angry because on a recent episode, we mentioned James Mason. Yeah. And I didn't do my James Mason imitation. That person was mistaken. He just didn't listen to enough of the episode.

It was the Benjamin episode. Oh. I got the same tweet. Oh, okay. So which would you prefer, Mason or Seinfeld? I think I'd like to hear you do Jerry Seinfeld there. Okay. And I'm Grandpa?

You're Grandpa Joe, which was, I think, Jack Albertson. Yes. Oh, and I'm Willy Wonka. And Larry is Willy Wonka. As George C. Scott. Yeah. Okay. All right.

You'll indulge me. Of course. Mr. Wonka. I am extraordinarily busy, sir. I just wanted to ask about the chocolate. The lifetime supply of chocolate for Charlie. When does he get it? He doesn't.

Why not? Because he broke the rules. What rules? We didn't see any rules, did we, Charlie? Wrong, sir, wrong. Under Section 37B of the contract signed by him, it states quite clearly that all offers shall become null and void if, and you can read it for yourself in this photostatic copy,

I, the undersigned, shall forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein, and herein contained, etc., etc., fax mentis incendium gloria cultum, etc., etc., memo bis punitur delicatum. It's all there. Black and white clears crystal. You stole lifting drinks. You bumped into the ceiling, which now has to be washed and sterilized, so you get nothing. You lose. That is all. Good day, sir. You're a crook. You're a cheat

and a swindler. That's what you are. How could you do something like this? Build up a little boy's hopes and then smash all his dreams to pieces. You're an inhuman monster. I said good day! Good day! That's here for the writer.

Rags. I didn't write it. I just pulled it for the writers. Yes. Rags. Cinepadra. I didn't write it. I just pulled it off the internet. And I looked for a movie scene that I thought would work. We had some success with Gilbert and Mario Cantone doing Carol Channing and Irvi Vilaschazz and When Harry Met Sally. So just talk a little bit about Imus as we wind down and how you got there. And you had been developing these voices in radio

over the years, impressions before you ever got to Imus. Yeah. Yeah. As a matter of fact, because you were a DJ forever before you got to Imus. Seems like it. Yeah. Yeah. As you mentioned, as Gilbert mentioned, I started in radio when I was 15 and very soon thereafter began using character voices and cartoon voices on my disc jockey show. And, you know, I worked at Peoria and Fort Wayne. And then I went to Cleveland, Ohio on WKYC, an NBC owned and operated 50,000 watt station. I was there for three years. And for the first year or first two years, I was there. Don Imus was at an opposing station doing the morning show. I was doing afternoons on KYC. He

was on WGAR, I think, doing the morning show. And so then he left to come to New York to WNBC. And I left to go to Chicago to do a morning show. A couple weeks after I'm there in Chicago, I get a call from Imus' engineer, who had been my engineer in Cleveland, because it was NBC. Oh, that's fun. Walt Ryan. And he said, hey, I was talking to Don during the show today, and Don said to me, you were at KYC, right?

He said, yeah. He said, Larry Kenney was there. I used to listen to Larry Kenney all the time. And his voices were fantastic. Where is he now? And Walt said, I think he's in New York. And I said, why don't you call him and see if he'd want to do bits on my show on the telephone. So Walt called me.

And for a year, right, almost to the day, Don would call me every morning during the newscast. We both had a newscast on here at the same time. And he would call me, and he'd say, let's do a Nixon today. Do something. We'd ad lib it. He'd say, do Nixon. This was during the Watergate thing. Yeah.

This was in the 73s. And, okay, let's do a bit, improvise something about what happened yesterday, you know, when they found you do have tapes or something like that. So we would do that. He paid me 50 bucks a day, I remember. So I did that for a whole year, and then I got a job in New York

on the radio, WHN. Sure, I remember when you were on there. Yeah. So I came out and was on WHN while he was on WNBC. And, um, then after a while he hired me to, you know, start doing bits on a regular basis on his show. So had you brought all those characters with you? I mean, had the general Patton and Nixon and Andy Rooney? No, uh, no, Charles McCord, who was the newsman on the show, wrote every script I ever did on IMAX. And we would just come up with new characters whenever they popped into our minds.

You know, who can we do this guy as? Right, right, right. You know. Cosell. Howard Cosell, yes, did him for years. There, right there. Look at that little monkey running. He got in trouble for that. Oh, jeez. He got in trouble for years. There. Right there. Look at that little monkey running. He got in trouble for that.

Oh, jeez. He got in trouble for that. Yes. Alvin Garrett was the player. Which was really a shame. I know. Because, you know, that's what Howard Cosell called his grandkids, the little monkeys. Right.

And he was anything but a racist. He wasn't thinking about the ethnicity. But times as they were, you know, he got, you know, probably ruined his career. Yeah. You didn't do Imus? You never did the Imus show because you were a Howard guy? Oh got, you know, probably ruined his career. You didn't do Imus. You never did the Imus show because you were a Howard guy. Oh, yeah. It was different camps.

Yeah. How long were you there? You were there. Good, good run. With Imus? Yeah. 35 years. Yeah.

73 to 2008. Yeah. Yeah. Now Howard, I remember the day that Howard started at WNBC doing afternoons. And there was some, they did, they were oil and water, those two. Yeah, well, what happened was I was sitting in the office when it happened. And this was at a time, this was in probably, I don't know, 82, 82, something like that. I forget when Howard came.

But we were sitting in Don's office at 30 Rock. And at that time, Don was having some issues with drinking and drugs, you know, and things like that. And he was not pleasant to be around. And one day, Howard, this new kid, strolled into the office and said, hi, guys, how you doing? Well, I went ballistic. He said, get the F out of my office. Who the hell do you think you are? Get out of here. And we were all shocked at what he would do.

So Howard left. And to this day, from what I understand, has not forgiven Don Imus. Oh, no. He hates him with passion. Yeah. And Don over the years has expressed regret for what he said because he doesn't drink anymore and do drugs. But Howard really hurt Howard badly. You know? I don't think that's

a piece that's going to be easily brokered. No, I don't think so. Why bother? I got a question. This comes from one of our listeners. We have a new feature on our Patreon page where people get to donate a little bit of money and ask the guest

a question. We call it Grill the Guest. So Eric Rhein, R-H-E-I-N, wants to know from Larry, where do you rank Gilbert among celebrity impressionists? Number one. With a bullet.

Does this guy really think that I'm going to sit here next to Gilbert? Well, I would say top 50. I don't know. You know, Gilbert does one of the best James Masons in the business. I've heard that. Have him do it a little bit. And he did it for Rich Little.

Oh, yeah? And Rich Little actually said, Gilbert, don't quit your day job. Really? Which was really unfair. Yeah. Considering your James Mason is stellar. A few people. Yeah, and our fans were in uproar.

Tanner, my son, has told me about your James Mason. Tanner is, yeah. Do a touch of James Mason for. Hey. Dr. Mengele, your plan has been canceled. Isn't that great? That is great. I think I heard you doing that on the Benjamin thing, Richard Benjamin thing.

Oh, yeah. He did a little right. Because you did two different things, and he said, well, now you're doing the later. Oh, yes. The early one. Oh, well, the later ones was James Mason with, It's your destiny, Joe. You can't be Joe Fonsworth anymore. That's good.

That is good. So before we get the hell out of here, we've got to ask you about Bowling for Dollars, because you and I talked about it over the television. And it's a legendary show here in New York. You told me it was a regional show. Before we turned the mics on, you were saying that there were hosts all around the country. I didn't know Wink Martindale hosted it. I'm pretty sure he did.

Jim Lang of the Dating Game. Yeah, I know Jim Lang did in San Francisco, I believe. You filled the shoes of the legendary New York Mets sportscaster Bob Murphy, who I grew up on. Literally. The day I walked in, the first time I walked into the—we filmed at Madison Square Garden Bowling Center, which is not there anymore. And my dressing room was the manager's office. So the first day we're taping, I go in there, and he shows me to my little room. And I open the closet door to hang my, you know, I had to have five suits and sport coats with me.

We taped five shows in one day, every Friday. Because the show was on every night, Monday through Friday. I remember. And so I open this closet door, and I put my hanger up and I looked down and there's this little tiny pair of men's shoes, loafers, with enormously high heels. I don't mean high heels like a woman's high heels. Lifts. Lifts.

Oh, yeah. He was a diminutive fellow. He was a small guy. Yes, he was. Yeah. So I literally followed in his footsteps. You were probably just in the Bob Murphy Memorial record. Well, Gilbert was at a game.

Gilbert was at a Met game, and they brought him into the booth. You were probably in the Bob Murphy Memorial broadcast booth, and you didn't even know it. But he was the first host, and then Larry came along. And Gilbert was asking Larry before we turned the mics on if the contestants were ever boozed up. Gilbert was asking Larry before we turned the mics on if the contestants were ever boozed up. No, but we got, I mean, the thing is, unlike the big game shows on television where you have to audition, you know,

sometimes three or four times you have to audition, and they want people that are just right for their show. They want enthusiasm. I auditioned for Jeopardy twice, and they never called me. And I passed the test both times. No kidding. They never put me on the show. Did you ever find out why? Because white males in their 30s, which I was at the time, they have a lot of those. So they're trying to create diversity in their contestants.

Payback's a bitch. Yeah, I was too typical but this show uh all you had to do to get on the show is send in a postcard and if your postcard was picked out of the pin pal barrel you would be on the show and we never saw the guests until the day they arrived at the taping. I mean, there was no pre-checking of them or any background checks, you know. So we got, you can imagine, all kinds of people. We got one kid, I remember, he was only about 19 years old, and he was scared to death. I always, before the show, I would sit down individually

with each contestant for a couple of minutes, asking them questions, you know, so that I could ask them questions when they came out on the show. And I had cue cards, and I would write, you know, he's from Brooklyn, Vice Namus. Okay. So this kid, I could tell he was nervous at the pre-interview, but not terribly, you know. So he's the first contestant on the show. So the show opens, and I do my little spiel, and I say, okay, so let's meet our first contestant tonight on Bowling for Dollars, Paul Martin from Brooklyn, New York. At that point, the door would open behind me.

There was a guy back there, actually, who opened the door and closed it. Somebody's job. Yeah. A union job. And then the guest was supposed to walk out. So the door opens and he's standing there like. So I walk back and I reach out to shake his hand so that I could pull him out. You know, I had to drag him out.

It's like Ralph on the chef of the food. Oh, yeah, yeah. Hummin' and hummin' and hummin' and hummin'. Oh, it can curry apple. Yeah. So I pull him out there and I said, Paul, welcome to the show. What kind of work do you do? And he goes, you know, different kinds.

Two questions I realized I'm not going to get anything out of this kid. So the last thing we did with each contestant is say, who did you bring with you today to cheer you on? And then the camera would go on their people in the audience. He said, well, Larry, I brought my mother and my father. I said, all right, let's meet them. The camera goes on these lovely old couples and they're waving, you know. I said, introduce them, let's meet them. The camera goes on these lovely old couples and they're waving, you know. I said, introduce them to us, Paul.

And he goes, okay, that's my mother. And that's my father. It's time to hit the jackpot on Polling for Dollars, New York's big money and big prize game show where everyone is a winner. And now for all the fun and excitement, here's the man with all the dollars and all the prizes, the kingpin himself, your host, Larry Kinney. Hi, everybody. How you doing?

Oh, we've got a large crowd here tonight. And a good crowd of people coming Madison Square Garden Bowling Center. We're going to go bowling for dollars again. A lot of them, $760 for jackpot already. We'll keep climbing until somebody breaks it. By rolling two straight strikes, that's all it takes. Then they go back to the lane and try for that third consecutive strike. They get the jackpot money they've already won and get a place to spend it.

To a fantastic vacation for two for an entire week in Monte Carlo on the famous French Riviera. The prize includes round-trip jet transportation and accommodations at a four-star hotel. And our contestant will tour Monaco, the jewel of the Côte d'Azur. And so will the pin pal, because when that happens, three straight strikes, the bowler and

the pin pal at home win the same prize. And that happens all the way through the show. And one more, if I can. Go, go, go. There was a guy who I recall that I didn't have much time to speak with him because we were on the last show of the day and we were running late, you know, so I only had time to ask him a couple of questions. And he comes out with this and this, what kind of work do you do, blah, blah, blah.

And I always ask in the pre-interview, are you married? But I didn't have a chance to ask this guy. So big mistake. I said, so Tyrone, are you married? He said, well, yeah. And I said, what's your wife doing? He says, I don't know. I ain't seen a bitch in three years.

Good thing it wasn't live. Oh, yeah. Oh, two things. Did you ever know it wasn't live. Oh, yeah. Oh, two things. Did you ever know Paul Winchell? No, no, never met him. Oh, and I don't think you told your Bogart story on the air. Yeah, tell it. No, we had the mic off.

You told us before. Oh, is that right? Yeah, we weren't on. Oh, okay. Worth telling. Well, it's not a great story. It's just, it's, Bob Fosse was doing a movie with Dustin Hoffman, and I forget, it seems like it was Bette Midler, but I don't know.

I don't think the movie ever came out because I've tried to find it, and I don't know what the name of it was. But apparently, Dustin Hoffman was supposed to, he had a line in the movie that he was supposed to do as Bogart. And the line was, stick with me, sweetheart, and I'll have your tits in cement in front of the Romans Chinese Theater. So I do the audition, you know, and Bob Fosse likes it. And so a couple of days later, I get a call, go back. He's going to, I go back and record again. And he says, I want to use this later Larry, but I have to get Lauren's approval.

Lauren Bacall. So I said, okay. So I went to lunch and come back, and I see her leaving the building, Lauren Bacall. Okay. I go up there, and he says, I said, did she like it? He says, Larry, I played it for her. She turned around, and there was a tear in her eye, and she said, my God, bogey's back. Wow.

Yeah, wow. That's what I thought. Wow. You can't get much better than that, right? I'm going to put this out to our listeners, too. Find this movie. This Bob Fosse. I've looked. It wasn't Lenny.

It wasn't Lenny, which came out. No, it wasn't Lenny. With Dustin Hoffman. Something in development. Something that kind of died on the vine, I guess. That's right. It was Hoffman and Lenny, but it wasn't that one. It was after that. Interesting. Yeah.

Alright. Now we're going to go out on a song. You guys up for one more? Sure. Alright. Frankie, this is going to be a Paul Lynn duet. Oh, Frank! Oh, wonderful! This ought to be good. We'll try to keep it

to the karaoke track, but if you go off of it, don't worry about it. Yeah, I don't know if I remember how the music good. We'll try to keep it to the karaoke track, but if you go off of it, don't worry about it. Yeah, I don't know if I remember how the music goes, but I'll try. We've got a little accompaniment. Gil, you want to start us off? So this will be very anti-Semitic. This is what I heard. Paul Finn, he used to get drunk on Hollywood

squares. Oh, yeah. As Katie and Tanner are toasting us outside the window and and like everyone else was would drink too but they'd be lovable drunks joking back and forth paul lynn was extremely anti-semitic really and he would get drunk and he'd be sitting there at the table with the nice celebrities and he'd be going how those fucking jews they're the reason i don't have a career we've had that confirmed i remember my favorite line he ever said when he was the center square is that paul for the win uh why do cowboys wear leather chaps he goes oh because taffeta wrinkles i think there was a great line one time they had

don knots in the original hollywood squares and the question was, you have trouble sleeping nights. Are you a man or a woman? And he goes, that's why I have trouble sleeping nights. Fantastic. He was incredible. Oh, you want to give this a whirl? Oh, you're the G and he's the L. Oh, is that how it goes?

You'll each read a section. Mine's going to sound like L anyway, no matter how I do it. Okay. Maybe if you're Paul Lynn, you can do the cuckoo. Let's see. Okay. No. Okay.

Here we go. We both do Paul. Here's Paul Lynn. Okay. Okay. No. Okay. Okay, we both do Paul. Here's Paul Liu. Okay. Okay. Kids, I don't know what's wrong with these kids today. Kids, who can understand anything they say? Kids, they're disobedient, disrespectful, oh, noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy loafers.

While we're on the subject. Kids, you can talk and talk till your face is blue. Kids, but they still do just what they want to do. Why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way? What's the matter with kids today? Oh, don't get me started. Kids, I've tried to raise them the best I could. Kids, laughing, where's the music?

Laughing, singing, dancing, grinning morons. And while we're on the subject. Kids, they're just impossible to control. Kids, with their awful clothes and their rock and roll. Why can't they dance like we did? What's wrong with Sammy K? What's the matter with kids today? That's a hit.

That's a hit. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. It was so far removed from the music It doesn't even matter Frank, if you can sew that together, you're a genius Oh my God This was fun It was great Larry, good time

Thank you We want to acknowledge you that your son, your talented son Tanner is here. Who's also a great impressionist. And your daughter-in-law, Katie. Yeah. Talented people. And your daughter is a comedian. She was on the stage.

She was on Viva Variety. Yes. Currently on Two Broke Girls occasionally. A talented family. Yeah. Yeah, we think so. And I want to thank Frank Rotarosa for suggesting Larry as a guest. Larry said he'd give me a 50, so I...

Do they still make those? Did you do Lion-O on Family Guy? Yeah, one episode I did. It was kind of a funny line. The idea was the star of the show, what's his name? The old man, the guy. Seth. Seth MacFarlane.

No, no, no. I mean, no, I know he's the creator. Oh, well, Peter Griffin. Peter. Peter and I think one of the other guys is in San Francisco. And they're in the car and Peter says, Yeah, but you find a lot of weird couples living together in this town, huh? He flashed to an apartment where Lionel and Chitara and Snarf were living.

So Lionel is standing there deep in thought, and Chitara walks through the room, and she says, What's going on, Lion-O? He says, I don't know, but I have a feeling that Mumra's up to something. Whatever it is, it can't be good. She says, I'm going to the john. So she goes in the bathroom. Lion-O takes out the sword of omens, which gives him sight beyond sight.

And he points it toward the bathroom door and says, Sight Beyond Sight. And Snarf comes through and says, What you doing, Lion-O? And Lion-O says, Oh, nothing, just, you want to get stoned? So you were a horse on Family Guy. Yes. So you horse on Family Guy. Yes. So you both did Family Guy. Yeah. I remember, like, the horse shows, like, the horse saves Peter from being lynched down south.

And then he goes, horsey, you saved my life. And I go, no problem, Peter. And then he goes, wow, Gilbert Gottfried. Oh, that's great. I love it. We could go on, Larry, but. Well, it was great. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. I'm exhausted from laughing. Did you have fun? I had a great time. I really did. Thank you both, and thanks, Frank, out there. Thank you, Frank. Thank you, Tanner.

Thank you, Andrea. I'm Gilbert Gottfried. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, and we've had one of the greatest voice over guys in the business,

Larry Kenney. The God of Voices. Now that's funny. Thanks, Larry. This was a kick for us. This is Gilbert Gottfried on Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santapadre. And Frank Verderosa is our engineer on the control board. And our special guest today, the wonderful, incredible, well, he's not bad.

Incredible, well, he's not bad. Voice-over artist extraordinaire and all-around nice guy, Larry Kenny. Thank you and good night. Thanks, Larry. That ought to hold a little bastard. You know where that's from, right? Yes. What's that?

Uncle Don. Yes. Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast is produced by Dara Gottfried and Frank Santapadre with audio production by Frank Verderosa. Our researchers are Paul Rayburn and Andrea Simmons. Web and social media is handled by Mike McCadden, Greg Pair, Nancy Chinchar, and John Bradley Seals. Photography by Charles Eshelman. Special audio contributions by John Beach. Special thanks to John Murray,

John Fodiatis, and Nutmeg Creative. Especially Sam Giovonco and Daniel Farrell for their assistance.