Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 70. Max Baer, Jr.

Episode Date: September 28, 2015

53 years ago this week, the hugely popular sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies" debuted on CBS (September 26, 1962) so Gilbert and Frank tracked down the last surviving original cast member, actor/director Max Baer, Jr., to talk about his memories of working with co-stars Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas and Buddy Ebsen and guest star Phil Silvers. Also, Max hangs with the Rat Pack, sets the record straight about his famous dad (prizefighter Max Baer) and details his 15-year struggle to build a "Beverly Hillbillies"-themed hotel and casino. PLUS: "Surfside 6"! Doodles Weaver! Max heckles Uncle Miltie! Elly May dates Elvis! And Gilbert tries to get a word in edgewise! MeUndies is offering you TWENTY PERCENT off your first order at http://meundies.com/gilbert. That’s a special offer just for GGACP listeners. Make sure you go to http://meundies.com/gilbert to get twenty percent off your first order of underwear in tons of styles and colors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by FX's The Bear on Disney+. In Season 3, Carmi and his crew are aiming for the ultimate restaurant accolade, a Michelin star. With Golden Globe and Emmy wins, the show starring Jeremy Allen White, Io Debrey, and Maddie Matheson is ready to heat up screens once again. All new episodes of FX's The Bear are streaming June 27, only on Disney+. That's the sound of unaged whiskey transforming into Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around 1860, Nearest Green taught Jack Daniel how to filter whiskey through charcoal for a smoother taste, one drop at a time. This is one of many sounds in Tennessee with a story to tell. To hear them in person, plan your trip at tnvacation.com.

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and just added, I will record a personalized roast of you and only you so you can share with your friends me telling you what a schmuck you are.

Well, I don't have to join Patreon for that. And you don't have to pay me either because you are a schmuck. That I do for free. I want no money. That's my, I just speak the truth. I'm so blessed. You are a schmuck.

So go to patreon.com slash Gilbert Gottfried. slash Gilbert Gottfried. That's Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash Gilbert Gottfried. Thank you for your generosity. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast. I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. Our guest this week is an actor, director, producer, and businessman who's appeared in shows like 77 Sunset Strip, Love American Style, Fantasy Island, and Murder, she wrote. But he'll forever be known as Jed Clampett's slow-witted but ambitious nephew, Jethro Bodine, on the iconic TV series, The Beverly Hillbillies. TV series, The Beverly Hillbillies. He also produced two of the most successful independent films in history, Macon County Line and Ode to Billy Joe. For the past 25 years, he's been a man on a mission to create an elaborate Beverly Hills-themed hotel and casino,

including attractions such as Granny's White Lightning Bar and Jethro's All-You-Can-Et. That's right. Jethro's All-You-Can-Et Buffet. Please welcome the low-key and laid-back Max Bayer Jr. Geez, I didn't even know who that guy was the way you were introducing him, Joe. Now, can you... Shoot. I'd like to meet that idiot.

Now, can you... Shoot. I'd like to meet that idiot. Now, can you tell us, because we had to start the interview a couple of minutes late, what you were busy doing. Oh, you just now? Are we live? Yes. This is it, buddy. I didn't know we were live.

I thought we were taped. We're being taped. Live on tape. Yeah. I feel like, yeah, live on tape, but I feel like I'm on tape. The NSA is taping everybody's ass anyway, so what's the difference, you know? I can't even have a gas break at 77 without having them check me out. I think the public should give the White House a colonoscopy is what I think.

Anyway, what I was doing, Gil, when you called, I live in Lake Tahoe, and I have a hill that's on a little side of a hill, and underneath it grows some wild brush. And the fire department said it would burn like gasoline if it ever caught fire. And it would take my house right with it. So I was out there with a chainsaw and another guy, and then we were cutting the branches and then pulling them down the hill with a 4x4 so that the fire department could come. And then they put them in a chipper, and they chipped the stuff back up on the hill. I said, what the hell does that do?

It just makes it easier to burn, doesn't it? I said, firewet, if you have a big log, it takes a long time to light it. If you have little tiny chips, they go up like, you know, like paper. And he says, well, that's the law. I says, well, it's another good law right out of Washington. This is straight out of the Beverly Hillbillies, your life. Hey, look, my life is worse than the Beverly Hillbillies. I mean, my life is worse than the Beverly Hills.

I make Duck Dynasty look like Shakespeare. Are you kidding me? Jesus, Lord have mercy. I didn't think if I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken a hell of a lot better care of myself, stopped the drugs earlier than later. That's funny. Max, we've got to ask you about the casino, this lifelong pursuit. We're in a lawsuit over the land, and that's more BS.

You know, anytime you deal with cities and the laws of the cities and the zonings and all of that stuff, you might as well just, you know, take a pill and go to sleep, you know, because you ain't going to go anywhere. I mean, they got so many restrictions. You can go to the bathroom, but you can't use toilet paper. You can eat garlic, but you can't take any kind of mouthwash. I mean, it's the weirdest thing in the world. You can chew, but you can't swallow.

It's nuts. The world is crazy. Take us back, Max, just for our listeners and for Gilbert's edification in mind. Take us back a little bit about the history of this project. Of the Beverly Wells. Well, what happened is I retired in 1978, 79. I didn't have to work anymore because what happened is that my partner and I,

we made enough money off of Macon County Line and owed to Billy Joe that we could both not do anything. And we bought a lot of real estate and took them on the Wilshire Corridor, which is from Westwood Boulevard to Beverly Hills Country Club. Now, I think you were saying you're not a has-been with no money. No, what I said was is that I'm a has-been. I used to be and I was. But at one time, I was a goddamn is. But you said now you're a

has-been with money. Yeah, that's right. In other words, if you're a has-been with money, you can open your mouth and you're sophisticated, like Donald Trump. But if he was a bust-out, nobody would listen to him. He was born on third base and thought he hit a triple.

He didn't come out like nobody, like Ross Perot started with nothing. I'm not that I'm a big fan of his, but, you know, he actually had his father was very wealthy, and then he turned his father's wealth into something else. But nobody ever mentions the three or four bankruptcies in the gaming area that he's had. Fred Trump. If he's going to run the country, he's going to be my president. And if he were my president or running for it, I'd ask him a couple of questions. I'd say, hey, look, if you're the head guy, if you're the guy that Harry Truman says the buck stops at my desk,

then you are directly responsible for the three or four bankruptcies that you've had. However, if you just hired the people to run the place and they bankrupted the company, well, then how in the hell am I going to have you get the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Interior, and they're going to all be stupid stew. And you're Max Beyer and you approve this message. I approve this message. I approve it.

Look, I've had my foot in my mouth so many times I go to a cobbler for my dental work. Well, Max, we got off track a second. Tell us about the casino and the plan. It's a pretty grand plan. The plan is online. It's under Jeff Rose, Beverly Hillbilly Mansion and Casino. But I've tried to do it at the Aladdin Hotel when it was the Aladdin in Vegas. Couldn't do it there. Tried to do it in Bird Eye, Nevada, out on Interstate 80. Tried to do it in Sparks, Nevada. Tried to do it in downtown Reno.

I tried to do it in Carson City. As a matter of fact, I was so tired of trying to do it at places, I bought a Walmart that was just going to be empty, and they were moving to a new location. I bought that thinking I could build it there. And then the city has restrictions. You can't build it there. And then the city has restrictions. You can't build it there. So then I went over to Douglas, sold that, took the money, went over to Douglas County, put about another seven and a half million dollars in that property. And they

were going to do a big shopping center there. And then the market changed. The banks collapsed. Nobody would loan them money so that they could do the infrastructure, you know, put in the oil, put in the water, the gas, I mean, the water, the gas lines, the water lines, the sewer lines. So they didn't do anything. So I'm stuck with this piece of property that I can't build anything. I could probably put an outhouse on it, put the outhouse on it and use it. Every time I leave my house, I just say, hey, I'm going to the bathroom. And I get in my car and drive 23 miles, and then take a dump.

Well, I'm glad you straightened that out. Let me tell you something. I was a little confused. It's wonderful to be able to say what's on your mind. Wonderful. As a matter of fact, when I was doing the show, I was Peck's bad boy because it was one, two, three, kick, one, two, three, kick, one, two, three, kick.

And I didn't like that. I said, what the hell? Do you want a bunch of parrots? And then I'd get in trouble with Paul Henning because he was a writer-creator, the genius behind the show, and he really was. Right, sure. He was in all respect in the world. But he would write words in a scene where he's walking upstairs and you've got one line. How do you walk up the stairs saying one line?

You've got a lot of pauses. How are you? It'd take me about 20 seconds, 30 seconds to get up the stairs and I only had one line. I knew that. I can't stretch it that far. I could become like that guy that used to be in the movies. I can't remember his name.

He stuttered all the time. His name was Joe something. He used to have a cigar. He used to... He couldn't speak. Who is that, Gilbert? Do you know who he's talking about? I remember.

He was out of the 40s or something like that, and he would always, you know, like that. He could never get the words out. You know, now you couldn't do that on TV because they say you were making fun of children that are handicapped. You cannot say the word retard. That's the person with the football. of children that are handicapped. You cannot say the word retard. That's the person who's a football player.

If he's a football player, then you can say he's retarded. You can't use that word. You can't use so many words today. You can't say, I was watching TV last night. They had an interview with somebody, and you can't say how tall are you. Because you might have f***ed the short people. I don't know what the hell it is. So you were a troublemaker on the Beverly Hillbillies set, Max. I'm lying to you, but I'm telling you the truth.

What are some other things you can't say? You can't say how old are you. You can't say what sex are you. You can't ask him any questions at all. You've got to hire him and find out that they're frigging idiots. You know what? If these laws were made for airline pilots, nobody would frigging fly. Now, look, can I go back a couple of years?

Go wherever you want to go. You're free. 1865, they freed all of you, even all the white people. Now, your father was the legendary fighter Max Baer. Right. And tell us about the famous historical fight he had when Hitler was coming into power. Oh, when he fought Max Schmeling. Yeah.

Oh, that was 1933. He was set up. Max Schmeling is the only fighter that won the title on the floor and lost it standing up. And here's how it happened. He fought Jack Sharkey. Jack Sharkey fouled him, and he won the title on the floor. Then he fought Sharkey and lost the decision to him, and he was standing up. Then he fought, then my dad ended up fighting, then I should say,

Carnera fought Sharkey, beat Sharkey. My dad fought Schmeling in 33, and that got him the fight in 34 for the championship with Carnera. But when he fought in 1933, my dad's manager Ansel Hoffman knew that my dad had some Jewish blood in him, but to be really Jewish, you have to be on your

mother's side. Well, mine was on, my dad was on his father's side, but Ansel didn't care at the time. He was Jewish, and he just said, stick the star David on there. So he put the star David on there. And my dad was a young kid. He didn't have a formal education. And he said, well, these are the Nazis and this is what they're doing. And he showed them some footage and stuff. And my dad hated Max Schmeling. He didn't know him, but he hated what they told him about him. So he trained very hard for that fight and he beat smelling very badly. And he knocked him out in the 10th round.

And, uh, he actually fought dirty in that fight. I mean, he did, he did everything, but kick smelling. I mean,

he really did. He backhanded him and did everything. And, but, but, uh, then after, after the swelling fight,

when he, he went down to, he'd heard other things about Schmeling. Schmeling was a gentleman. And my dad went down to the boat to see him off back to Germany. And he was totally misguided. The only two people that he disliked in boxing were Tony Galeno and Max Schmeling. Max Schmeling because of his German heritage that they told my dad the untruth that Schmeling was a Nazi, which he was not. And Tony Galeno because he

insulted my dad's mother and father by making wisecracks and bad, I think my dad felt, terrible remarks. So my dad wanted to just beat him to death, basically. But that was before the fight.

After the fight, my dad only had some animosity towards Galeno, but none towards Schmeling. And then years later, when they were all in the war, my Uncle Bud, Joe Lewis, my dad, you know, a lot of people were in the war that were like boxers. And then he and Tony started doing charity things together, you know, for the Elks and the Mooks, Moose and the USO and all that stuff. And then my dad and Tony became friendly. And my dad was hardly one to keep a grudge. He just, he was friends with everybody.

As a matter of fact, Joe Lewis beat my dad. I was the first guy to really beat my dad, and he was a ballbearer at my dad's funeral. My dad were very, very close friends. As a matter of fact, when I was in Vegas one time when I was on the series, and Milton Burrell was playing at the

Sands, I think, and I was up there for a golf tournament, and I was half-buzzed on something. I have no idea what it was. Probably Pepsi-Cola. Anyway, or maybe it was Coca-Cola, but I had an old bottle from the 1900s. It had the good stuff in it before they

changed it to caffeine. That's why they called it Coca-Cola. Anyway, so I said something to Milton while I was heckling him or something, and he introduced me, and I got a nice applause and all that stuff being on the number one show on TV and all that crap, and all that blowing smoke up my rear end, you know, Christ.

It'll screw up the autopsy if they ever find it, you know. Anyway, so what happened is Milton said, he said, Joe Lewis hit your old man so hard you came out punchy. That's funny. Which was very funny. And then on the golf course the next day i was playing with joe in a women's golf tournament and at the desert inn and i told him the joke and i've got the picture here on my dresser uh where joe is absolutely looks like he's going to

die from laughing he's you know joe was so serious and he had he had his grin from ear to ear and i played a lot of golf with Joe Louis. And a bunch of ex-boxers. We used to kibitz and play and all that crap. Yeah, because, I mean, that was a historical fight. Well, it was because Hitler had taken over as chancellor. He wasn't the Fuhrer yet. He was just chancellor.

Hindenburg was still alive. So Hindenburg hadn't died yet, so he just chancellor. Hindenburg was still alive. So Hindenburg hadn't died yet. He was chancellor. When Hindenburg died, then he became the Fuhrer, which was, he was everybody. He was God. And he was a guy wearing a Star of David, kicking this German guy's ass. Yeah, this was, it was pretty ridiculous. It was 60,000 people there, I think, in Yankee Stadium. Very historic.

Greta Garbo called it a victory over fascism. Yeah, well, you know, my dad was under contract. After he beat Schmeling, he went and he did a movie called The Price Fighter and the Lady. Oh, sure, with Myrna Loy. With Myrna Loy and then Primo Carnera, who he was going to fight for the championship, and Jack Dempsey and Walter Houston. And Walter would stand behind the camera and off camera a little bit. And if my dad would do a scene and Walter would look at him and shake his head, then my dad would say, hey, let me do another one.

And if he would gait, he'd wink at my dad. Then my dad would say, oh, that's good. Let's go to the next thing. That's great. Oh, now, now, one of your father's, or a few, after he beat Schmeling, didn't he fuck Greta Garbo? Didn't he fight Greta Garbo? No, fuck Greta Garbo. Not Garbo, Dietrich.

Dietrich. I have no idea, but he was way before his times. As best I know about my dad is he had an automatic zipper. Now I heard Greta Garbo invited him over. Gene Harlow used to chase him around and sit in her car and wait out in front of his house up on King's Road. Wow. Platinum blonde. Yeah.

Well, he was with her then, but he didn't want to be tied down. You know, he was out there trying to, he was like looking for a toilet seat in a shell station. You know, he was looking everywhere. It didn't make any difference. You know, I mean, he was, I mean, he was everywhere. So he was everywhere. He was all over like mud. These famous acts.

And Louis B. Mayer, because one day he was doing something and he took off. I don't know whether it was Brett or Marlena or whoever it was, but he took off. And they went up to Santa Barbara and fooled around up there. And Louis B. Mayer says, he'll never work for me again because he was so irresponsible. You know, he didn't give a damn that, you know, you had to shoot that day. He was in all the shots. So he just says, hey, look it. He says he used to say about himself, he had a million-dollar body and a 10-cent brain.

He had a million dollar body and a 10 cent brain. Now, now here and this this is a thing. You you are very much against that film Cinderella, man. Yeah. Yeah. With Russell Crowe. Right. Well, the reason why is that Ronnie Howard, who directed it, and he's a fine director, and he's a good human being. Generally speaking, Ronnie is a cause célèbre. He's a good person. But why he did what he did to my father in there is unforgivable in my mind. He never apologized, never said anything, never called me, none of that. And neither did Penny Marshall.

Now, Penny was the director of it at first, and then they took either she lost it or did something or did that, who knows. But she became a producer, an executive producer, producer on the movie. She had something to do with it. But it was getting Ron Howard to cast Russell Crowe that got the movie made. That was what it was, and he had worked with Russell before, where he won the Academy Award. Oh, yeah, Beautiful Mind.

No, no, he won the Academy Award in Gladiator, but where he got nominated in A Beautiful Mind. Yeah. But anyway, what happened is that Ronnie, for whatever reason, and the writer decided that to make Jimmy whatever reason, and the writer, decided that to make Jimmy Braddock more of a hero, they had to have an Apollo Creed. I mean, sorry, they had to have a Clubber Lang,

which was the villain in the Rocky movies, in Rocky 3 and 4. Okay, and Clubber Lang, that was Mr. T. He had no redeeming characteristics. He was rude as hell. He said, did the same thing to Rocky and his wife, Talia, Talia Shear Shire when they were having their press conference. Hey, I'm a man. Your wife can come over to my house. You know, he did right out of Rocky, but he could have done it. He could have done the character of Max Bear like Apollo Creed, which was exactly what my father was. He was like Muhammad Ali. He was trying to promote the gate. He was trying to make as much money as he could, and so he would basically say things and all that stuff just to get a rise out of people, just to promote the gate. just to promote the gate. That's what he was good at. That's what Ali was good at.

But what they did, they made him in the movie like he was a killer. He was rude. He didn't disrespect women. He disrespected Braddock. Heck, if you read Braddock's book, he liked my dad. My dad was a good guy. He liked him. It was a bunch of BS.

And if you read the real clippings from the newspapers at that time. So the reason why I was upset is because there is no recourse for anybody saying anything about a dead person. They have no rights. There's a very liberal attorney. I think he teaches at George Washington University. I'm trying to remember his name right now, which is very difficult for me to do because I can't even remember what the name of my shoes are. And I'm looking at the name right as I sit. So I'm a little slow. I think as I get older, when I'm about 130, I will be Jethro.

For real. I'll have an IQ of room temperature. The thing is that my dad was a really good guy. And there were many guys at my dad's funeral that my dad beat, and that beat my dad. They were there at the funeral, either as a pallbearer or as a guest. It's because my dad was friendly with all of these people. Hell, I've got so many pictures of my dad and Joe Louis around here,

and how can you be friends with a guy that beat you? He just was. He didn't care. As a matter of fact, when Lou DeNova beat him in one of his last fights, I think it might have been the last one, which was in 41, he was stopped in the 8th or 10th round because of a cut. And

when he got done, he got to shower, got out, and somebody was having a party. I can't remember who it was. And he goes into Lou Nova's dressing room and says, hurry up, Lou. Lou was in the shower. Because he had to do interviews longer than my dad because my dad says, you

know, it gets cold in the dressing room when you lose because nobody's in there talking to you. But the winter gets all the radio guys are in there talking to him. So Lou was still in the shower. My dad threw him a towel and says, come on, we've got a party to go to. And Lou had just put a bunch of stitches in my dad's mouth and stopped him in the fight. And Lou Nova couldn't figure it out he says this guy's mishugana he just fought me 10 rounds now he wants me to go to a party

hey and also uh one time i i don't remember the fighter's name, but your father actually killed someone. Oh, Frankie Campbell. Yeah. He actually had, supposedly, and I don't know this to be true, the killing of Frankie Campbell was true. They were the two best California heavyweights at the time. And my dad and me fought. And he did hit him so hard in the corner.

I don't know how many punches or whatever it was, but it actually loosened his brain from the muscles that hold it in suspension. And he died the following day. And my dad was totally distraught over that because he was not a mean person. He was doing it for money. My dad slopped hogs. I don't know if you know what slopping hogs is, but it was a way of recycling back before the Food and Drug Administration

says you have to have so much grain for the cattle or the hogs or whatever. And my dad would get up at like 2 o'clock in the morning and drive from Livermore, California to Lodi and Galt and Tracy and all those little towns in central California there and pick up the garbage from the grocery stores and the restaurants and

then he would bring it back in the truck to the ranch because my grandfather was a hog farmer and they would throw it out for the hogs the hogs would root through all the food and eat what they wanted and whatever they didn't want, they didn't eat. They would plow. My dad and his brother would take and plow the field and use it for mulch.

And my dad was getting 25 cents a day. And then he would go back, go to school at 10 o'clock or 9 o'clock in the morning. So he was working five or six hours before he ever went to school. And then afterwards he would work again. But then he would work the pins. Well, they got 25 cents a day. His first fight,

he got $35. They paid him in $1 bills and he thought it took him 45 minutes to give him the $35 because they just stood there and went, you know, Bob, there's one. There's two, you know,

they, well, he had, if you figure 25 cents a day, he had about five months of work in two minutes or five, well, he had, if you figure 25 cents a day, he had about five months of work in two minutes. No, he had, it was the second round. So he knocked out Chief Caribou in the second round, which was like four and a half minutes.

Three minutes the first round and two minutes or so in the second round. Now, in the, you know. That was it. So that was it. And then, so that's what he fought for. He fought for the money. He didn't fight for anything else. He didn't give a damn.

He'd rather have been an actor. He says boxing is a very religious sport. It's far better to give than receive. And in the movie, they kind of make it look like he's showing off. Yeah, that he's not contrite about the boxer who died. Yeah. They played up his villainy. Ronnie.

I got upset with Ronnie because Ronnie knows the business. His father is in the business. Both his brothers are in the business. Rance Howard is a character actor and has been for years. He was in Cinderella Man, too. He was one of the sports writers. But anyway, he always puts his family in the movies, which I think is very good. I think nepotism is excellent. I think you should put your family to work if you can. Who is the most important to you?

Your family. So if you're working at a job and you're working, I'm going to pick you. It's real simple. It's not real hard. If you want to call it nepotism or whatever you want to call it, I just call it good common sense. Well, yeah, Clint Howard shows up in all those Ronnie Howard movies. Sure. He's always in them.

He was in Cocoon and everything. He has parts somewhere. On the podcast, we interviewed Craig Biarico, who played your father. He played my dad. Yeah. Go ahead. He actually did a fine job doing what they told him to do. In other words, he did what Ronnie told him to act and do.

But in the boxing sequences, as far as some of my dad's mannerisms, like wiping his gloves off on his trunks from on the behind, you know, he wiped them from the rear in doing so. He he did it. He did an excellent job for what Ronnie told him to do. But my dad was not like that at all. Not at all. Not at all. What he said was that in the movie, it's made to look like your father was like showing off like, hey, maybe you don't want to fight me because I killed somebody. And that's how powerful.

But your father actually was like, like devastated. Well, he had nightmares his whole life, and he started smoking right after that. He did a benefit. He fought a benefit for Frankie Campbell's widow and her son. And he lost, I think, three of the next four fights that he had because he just didn't have that killer instinct. He didn't really. He would like see Frankie Campbell. You know, in other words, he would have flashbacks about that,

and he just couldn't do it. So that's when he started really clowning around. He'd get somebody hurt, and he'd hit them real hard or something. He'd hurt Staggerm or something like that. And then he'd prance around the ring and talk to the people at ringside and wave at the women and all that shit instead of doing his business. So actually Al Jolson, who introduced Ansel Hoffman, my dad's manager, to my dad, was when he says, you've got to go see this kid fight in New York. He says he's, and Ansel Aubin said, he's crazy.

This kid doesn't fight. He goes and just clowns around. He says, yeah, but you should see him. When he turns it on, it's like black and white. It's like he's clowning around and laughing and giggling and talking to the girls and combing his hair in the corner. I mean, not combing his hair, but you know, brushing his

hair back in the corner and everything. Not paying any attention. Then he walks out in the middle of the ring, and oh, shit, he starts throwing punches from every angle, you know, just trying to kill the guy, you know. Not really kill him, but knock him out, stop him. I mean, he's just like a schizo. Kind of a problem that he was holding himself back after. Oh, yeah, he definitely was he was because he really was not a harmful human being he never had really had a fight out of the ring

and your dad did a lot of you was talking before max about how you said your dad would rather be a movie star i mean he did a lot of work he did a lot of television oh yeah he did he did quite a bit he could have been he could have been big after The Price Rider and The Lady. Anybody that saw that, and that was his first picture that he ever did, and you could see the talent was there. And he was funny, too. Yes, he had to be told what to do. But he was on stage.

He could dance. He could move. He could sing a little bit. He could do everything. He was a very talented person, but like he said, he made the money to buy fur coats for women, and it wasn't to keep them warm. It was to keep them quiet. We got a note here that we just want to read to you, Max.

This is actually from our pal Craig Bierko. He says, Please tell Max that I've always wanted him to know that his kind words about my performance are something that I hold in my heart, and I know that his father was not accurately portrayed in the film. And I have father issues myself, but if my father was reduced to a villain, I would have a problem, and I would also speak on his behalf. And he says he'd like the honor of telling you that himself, but for now it's... What, was he listening or something?

No, he's a friend, and we told him we were going to have you on the show today, and he wanted to get that message to you. You can tell him I liked him in that, and I liked him in another movie that he did with... Oh, he played a bad guy in a couple of movies. And then I thought he was on a cop show out of New York. He's a big guy. I think he's about 6'4", 5', isn't he? Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's a big fella. He's taller than my dad. My dad was like 6'2".

My dad, I think, was about 6'4", 5". He's about my height. I'm about 6'4", 4 1⁄2". We had him on the show, and he was talking about how he felt bad afterward. He felt bad that you felt that his father wasn't accurately portrayed. Well, he probably heard my interviews. And what the real reason was, was that the only kids of today who did not know who my father was, the only thing that they would have to refer to would be this movie. And therefore, they would think that he was an asshole.

And that's what bothered me. And therefore, they would think that he was an asshole. And that's what bothered me. But as far as the actor playing the part, absolutely. When I did the interviews, I even said, I said, hey, I said, Greg Bierko. Bierko, I don't know how to pronounce his last name. I think that's right. Yeah, it's Bierko.

And I said that, I said he did an excellent job in the picture. I said he did a terrific job. He did a good job boxing. He did a good job with my dad's antics in the ring and everything. So he must have seen some of my father's fights and what he did. I'm sure of that. Or he was told that. But whatever, he did an excellent job. We're glad we got to set the record straight about you, Dad.

And we're glad we got to talk to you about that. Let me ask you one thing. How does the son of a prizefighter who majored in business find his way into acting? Well, I didn't want to go to college. I wanted to go to acting school, but my mother wanted me to go to college. Nobody on either side of our family had ever graduated from college. And business school seemed to be the place for me, but hell, I'm no businessman. That's why I have a partner that writes all the checks and does everything.

We've been partners for 45 or almost 50 years, I guess, now. Anyway, and we're still, can you believe, we're still partners. We don't talk that much. We don't see each other that much, but we've been partners all this time. We only play golf together when I'm in L.A., and we talk on the phone and go through lawsuits and bullshit that we're going through. It's just like Gilbert and me. No, the two of us don't have lawsuits against each other. We have them with our company.

Oh, that's good. We don't sue. We're not suing each other. But anyway, I have a business degree, but it's a compulsory minor that you take a religious minor. So I took philosophy and logic and metaphysics and criminal psychology, and all this kind of logic stuff, philosophy, which with a dollar you can get yourself a cup of coffee. I really didn't want to be there, but I didn't have, I didn't have the grades to graduate. I had a C average, but I didn't have the grades to graduate because I didn't have a C average in my major.

So I had to go and have, have a friend of mine that was from Sacramento come down. He drove truck and he would go through San Jose near Santa Clara. And he would, he went and he actually stole the blue books for me from two of the teachers. And I had the blue books, blue books are things that some of the teachers used to give out and they would have like six questions in them. You take four, select your four and 25% of each of the questions. And that's the answer. And you do it while I had all the answers.

I had the questions and the answers and i couldn't copy them exactly because they knew what i would be doing and i got and i couldn't even get an a doing that even cheating even cheating hilarious now gilbert we all know how sexy confidence could be. Yes, with me, it's a curse. The sexy confidence that I have. It's, you know, it looks like a gift, but it's a curse. Well, I want to tell you, by the way, speaking of confidence, you're very fetching today in your creamsicle-colored polo shirt.

Yes. It's turning me on a little bit. Yeah. But how great would you feel if your underwear is wrinkling and riding up? You can't be confident when that's happening. Yeah, I have to tape my underwear. You tape it? Yeah, so it doesn't start riding upwards.

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slash Gilbert to get 20% off your first order and so that they know we sent you. Also, also, in my first year of college, I sat next to Jerry Brown, the governor of California. Oh, wow. And he turned me in for looking off his page. I said, Jerry, I said, Jerry, we're not on the curve. Not cutting anybody out. The only. I'm not cutting anybody out.

The only person I'm harming is myself. Leave me alone. Hey, look, if you fail, I fail. If you get a good grade, I get a good grade. That's just the way it is. Did you jump on a motorcycle and drive to L.A. and crash the Warner Brothers lot? Is that a true story? No, I didn't crash the Warner Brothers lot.

I actually was over there as a guest to somebody and they thought i looked like jimmy garner oh and jimmy had just left maverick so somebody from abc because all the shows i did all the shows 77 sunset trip hawaiian eyes surfside six bronco maverick cheyenne sugarfoot yep roaring 20s everyone did all of them i sometimes I'd play two a day. I'd be like on almost an extra, but I'd say a couple of lines in one scene on Surfside 6, and then I'd be a cowboy as part of a group of bad guys in Cheyenne or something. Surfside 6 with the Green Hornet. Oh, yeah.

Van Williams. Yeah, Van Williams. Yeah, yeah. I remember him. He was the Green Hornet, but, yeah. Van Williams. Yeah, Van Williams. Yeah, yeah. I remember him. He was the Green Hornet, but he was under contract to Warner Brothers, and he was in Surfside 6

with Lee Patterson and I'm trying to remember the other guy. Who's English? They were on a houseboat down in Miami. Yeah, I remember. Yeah, you did all those shows.

Yeah, you did all those shows. All the exteriors were shot in Miami, and the boat and everything and all that stuff, the interiors and some of the smaller stuff was shot on the soundstage in Hollywood. How did you get Beverly Hillbillies? Oh, after I got off of CB, after I got out of Warner Brothers, I did a thing called Follow the Sun with Gary Lockwood and Barry Coe and Gigi Peru over 20th Century Fox.

Did a couple Love American styles and things like that. And then I walked into Schwab's Drugstore, which is like the stage delicatessen of L.A. You know, Gil, everybody, all the actors hang out. Who was Lana Turner, supposedly? Lana Turner was allegedly discovered at Schwab's Drugstore. Yeah, but it was a different Schwab's. It wasn't the one at Schwab's bookstore. Yeah, but it was a different Schwab's. It wasn't the one

on Laurel Canyon. Oh, I see. Okay, so, yeah. I happened to walk in and Rod Steiger was sitting there with a guy named Clegg Hoyt,

who was a character actor and they were roommates in New York. And I was sitting down there having coffee, like, you know, talking shop. And Ross Martin came in.

Ross Martin. From Wild Wild West. Yeah, Artemis Gordon. Yeah. But no, but he played, but before that, he played John Vivian's sidekick in Mr. Lucky. Oh, yes. Which was the, which was the, oh, God, who's the director that married

Junita? Blake Edwards. Blake Edwards. Blake Edwards is Mr. Lucky. It was about a gambling ship off the coast of California. You remember Mr. Lucky? Oh, yes. Yes.

And it was John Vivian and Ross Martin. And Ross came in and said, hey, they're casting for this Little Abner character, whatever, something like that, country boy, in a general service studio, and it's an open call. So I got on my motorcycle, which I had a Triumph 500 at the time, and went over to the studio. And they said, when I went in there, they said, can you do a southern accent?

And I said, yes. And they said, what's wrong with you? And I said, well, I've got laryngitis. I can come back on Monday. And what happened, well, I've got laryngitis. I can come back on Monday. And what happened is I didn't have laryngitis. I didn't have a southern accent, so I went and got an Andy Griffith album, Mrs. Football, so they call it football.

Oh, yeah, sure. And the Jonathan Winters album, like what he'd do in Marty Frickert and all these different characters he would do. And I have a good ear, so I just kind of put a bunch of that stuff together and I went in there and then I did and I did the thing and they called me back for I did a reading and they called me back for a screen test and in the screen test they didn't want me they wanted another guy named Roger Torrey who was about 6'6 and about 240 pounds and blonde curly hair and they kept testing him. And they didn't work, you know, I was just sitting there waiting to be tested.

You know, they tested him two or three times, and they test a guy, or no, they test him once, then they test another guy, the other guy go, and then they test him again, and they test another guy and let the other guy go. They had about five of us there. And Irene Ryan was there. She was testing, too. And so we started talking while we were sitting there wasting time. So I went to lunch with her, and she took me to this little place called The Shack.

And I had, I think I had three double beef eater martinis, and I'm not a drinker. I mean, that's like pouring gasoline on a fire, because I don't drink. So you and Granny are having martinis together. Oh, yeah. While you're waiting. Granny used to say, martinis and I can have two at the most, three or four, and I'm under the table, and five or six, and I'm under the host.

You know. Okay. She was funny. She was a character. Yeah, I'll bet she was. And anyway, so I was bombed. I come back, and right after lunch, they want me to do my scene. So it's a scene where Buddy Epson walks into the cabin, and I walk into the cabin.

Well, they said, well, can you do it, Max, in one take? Because we're out of time, and we've got this. Because I've been through this other kid five times, you know. And so just keep going. Just keep going. You know, if you screw up the line or something, just keep going. So what I did is I walked into the cabin, and I was so bombed, I hit the door jamb with my shoulder accidentally, not intentionally.

And I looked at the door jamb, and I just put a big grin on my face and said, excuse me. And when Paul Henning said that he saw that, he said, that's Jethro. He says, any guy that'll talk to a door jam, that's the guy. Well, it's a pretty impressive performance. I mean, you know, as a kid watching the show, I mean, I always assumed that you were a good old boy when, in fact, you're a guy from Oakland. Well, I was born in Oakland but raised in Sacramento, California.

Well, Sacramento, but Northern California. I mean, I always thought you were... Absolutely, I had no accent. I had none of that. And the other thing is, what I did was I didn't learn the words really well, so I had to take more time. I had to think about the words. So it came out a little differently than if I just spelled them out, you know, if I knew him like so well that I would just do it, I'd have to think about what the hell I was doing. Hell, I did some things on the show.

There were, I miss Hathaway was going to take me birdwatching one day. And she was, she said, I'm Mr. Clampett. I'm taking master Jethro out to, to do some, I don't know, aviary work or whatever.

He said, I'm going to take him out, and we're going to go looking for red-headed nuthatches and yellow-breasted sapsuckers. Well, it didn't come out that way. It came out as yellow-breasted nut scratchers or something like that. I mean, nut hatches. I don't know. And then yellow-breasted T-Sers. That's the way it came out. I mean, I just said it, and everybody would laugh. And then Buddy Epson yelled,

Brent! We'd play a lot of these flubs, all these screw-ups. We'd play all these fuck-ups at the end at a Christmas party. Oh, like a blooper reel, yeah. A blooper reel for all of us, you know. And one time,

one time, Buddy was in, Buddy, Uncle Jed was in bed, and he was supposed to be sick, but he had his clothes on. I knew he had his clothes on. So Granny and Ellie Mae came up, and the idea was for Granny to pull down his, for, oh, I'm sorry, for me to pull down his covers and say, see, he ain't sick, Granny. And if I pull it down, he's got this goddang thing sticking out of his crotch about a foot long, two feet long.

Everybody laughed except Donna. Donna says, that's nasty. But everybody else was laughing. It was Buddy and Irene's gag. Now, I heard Donna Douglas. Well, Donna was a sweetheart. She just passed away. Rest in peace.

She just passed away. And she was like. If only I am the last of the Mohicans. You are, Buddy. And she. No, I mean, of the cast, of most of the guest stars, of all the people who were on there, most of the guest stars, of all the people who were on there, and of the producer, the writer, the director, the editor, everybody's gone.

Now, Donna Douglas back then was like a TV sex symbol. Oh, yeah. Well, Jesus. I mean, she was a very, very beautiful girl. I mean, I took her out. I had found out who she was before, and we didn't have any idea on the series. This was in 1961 before we even went out for the series. And I had seen her picture, and I called her up blind, and I got a date with her.

She took me to the Blessed Sacrament Church in Hollywood, and I said, that was our only date. That's enough for me. I heard she did a movie with Elvis Presley and actually had an affair with Elvis. Well, I can't answer that honestly, but I can answer it dishonestly. And what I know is that something happened between the two of them. And Elvis must have conned her or something like that because she was very easy to con because she was so legitimate. She was very straight. And she had almost an emotional breakdown because of Elvis,

and she wouldn't talk about Elvis. You couldn't ask her about Elvis for the whole time, ever since that movie in 67 or something, all the way up until we were at an autograph signing in the beginning of 2013 in L.A., and the rule of thumb was you don't ask her about Elvis because she won't answer. So whatever happened, I don't know, but it was pretty drastic, and she was very upset for a long time. She wanted to leave the show and everything.

I mean, leave the Hillbillies and everything. And the Hennings took her over to their house, and she stayed there. I don't know what she was afraid of or what the hell happened. I have no idea because Elvis was really a good guy. One time we were at a fair, and I think it was in Memphis where he lived, and we were doing a Mid- i think it was in memphis where he lived and we were doing a mid south fair or something like that and we were on stage going doing some kind of an act our little you know you know song and dance act where i basically played straight man for granny

and donna sang a little bit and we did a little you know soft shoe type crap like bob hope does you know any moron can do as any moron can do. He gave peace to me. I had to do it. How do you step on your third foot? It was very difficult to do. I proceeded to do it. And so anyway, backstage and over the mic,

the big speaker over the place where we were, came, come and listen to a score about a man named Jed, poor man, near-bedder, kept his family there. It was Elvis. He was doing a mic, because that's where he lived, in Memphis, and he was using the mic from backstage. And it was funny. I think that's when Donna first met him.

Wow. That was in, like, 64. But they never got together or anything, and never dated until she did the movie and then who knows what happened there but one thing i can say about donna i never heard her swear and all the time i knew her never she'd say golly gosh darn she i never heard her use any four-letter words other than love and you know things like that, but no foul language at all. And she would always say, Maxie, Maxie, you're being a bad boy. You used to hang out with the Rat Pack, Frank and Dino and Sammy.

Well, the way I got into that was I got into it through Lindsay Crosby. Lindsay was so drunk most of the time he stayed at my house. He couldn't drive home. I remember when, I remember when John Glenn went up into space and Lindsay was at my place and he was drinking Aqua Velva. I mean, that's how bad it was.

He was drinking out of Aqua Velva and his brother, Philip came over and got him. Now who's Lindsay Crosby? Yep. Lindsay was, He was drinking out of the Aqua Velva, and his brother, Phillip, came over and got him. Now, who is Lindsey? Lindsey Crosby? Yep. Lindsey and Gary and Phillip and Dennis. Oh, Bing's kids. Oh, okay.

They all did their act together. Right, right, right. Yes. They all did their act. That was Bing and Dixie's kids. They had four kids. He only had the one daughter, Mary. That was his

second marriage with Catherine Grant. Now, did Bing Crosby used to beat them? That's what he always heard. I don't know. We never talked much about Bong. That's what he used to call him, Bong. So Bing is Bing Bong. So he used to

call him old Bong. Interesting. That's what Lindsay called him. Gary used to call him Old Bong. That's what Lindsay called him. And Lindsay, Gary used to call Lindsay Moon Man. And Lindsay hated it. Because his head was bigger than his body. He had this wheeled, really big head for a little guy. Short, musty.

But he had this big head, and he called him Moon Man. And Gary used to pick on him all the time and belittle him. And that's where Lindsay got his insecurity from but they all drank and Gary's the only one that well Gary's the one that I knew that came out of it he went AA and then he got married

and he stayed pretty straight until he had his heart attack and passed away I think but anyway Lindsay and I were in Vegas and we hung out in the Sam's steam room with Dean and Frank and Sammy. They used to have robes in the steam room. And it used to say, Don Rickles had the rhino on the back of his.

I think Buddy Hackett had fats. Dean had the Dago. Frank had the Pope. Sammy had the Jew. They had these things printed on their bathrobes? Those were all on the white bathrobes in the steam room at the Sands Hotel. I love it. And they all stayed there.

When they were there performing when they did Ocean's Eleven and Sargent's Three up in the desert and everything, they'd come down and do the show. They'd commute in the jet. So, you know, when they were up in Kanab, Utah, doing this Western, they'd fly back down to Vegas and do the show and go back after or in the morning or whenever they would be there. Who knows what they were doing? I have no idea.

I know one thing. Dean did not stay up late because when he was there, he didn't have to shoot or anything. He was just there part of the group. He would get up, he would leave earlier after they'd get done, and he'd go to his room, go to sleep, get up and play golf at 6 or 7 in the morning. He loved golf, so he was always playing golf. He'd go and socialize a little bit.

He'd go gamble a little bit, but he'd get some sleep. He didn't stay up until 2, 3, 4 in the morning. That wasn't his thing. I heard he was the only person to say no to Frank Sinatra. Who, Dino? Yeah. Well, I don't know if he was the only person, but

he definitely did not take orders. I mean, because Frank loved him. I mean, he really loved him. And Dean loved Frank. But, you know, it's like, Frank would say no to people,

and no to Dean, and Dean would say no to Frank. Most all of the other people that I know of. Everything was yes. Although, I was drunk the night that I was there, and I was in the lounge. See, after they get off the stage, they walk out the door from the stage, and they come out. We'll go outside by the pool, then walk back inside, kind of half-jogged, come back inside, and they go into the lounge. And the lounge is all taped off with, like, police, you know, that yellow tape.

And they would have tables set up there with the chairs, and they'd have the Smirnoff vodka, and they'd have soda, and they'd have Jack Daniels, and they'd have, let's see, the scotch was, scotch was, I can't remember the scotch, J&B, I think. And they'd have that at every one of the tables, those three, vodka, scotch, and Jack Daniels at every table. And they'd line up like three or four tables with people who'd sit on both sides.

That was generally the crew. You know, Frank and Dean and Sammy, Stella Stevens, who would be there, whoever was there at the time. And the time that I was there that I remember with Frank, I sat at the end of the table next to Ed Pucci, and the time that I was there that I remember with Frank, I sat at the end of the table next to Ed Pucci, who was the bodyguard. Frank got him as a bodyguard for little Frank when he got kidnapped.

And anyway, we were there sitting there, and everybody was laughing and talking to Frank, and everybody was telling jokes. And I was standing there. I was sitting there, and I turned around or something, stood up and turned around, was talking to somebody else or talking to Lindsay. And I felt these ice cubes go down my back. And I jumped in and I said, God damn it, you know, swearing and everything else. Everybody's laughing. And I look around and Frank's got wet hands. He's drying them off. So I knew that he put them down my back.

So on every table was an ice bucket with the ice in it. So I just took the whole ice bucket and dumped it over his head. Wow, you're a brave man. His piece kind of slid, you know. I love it. I won't tell you this much. Nobody laughed until frank laughed ah of course i it was like he could pull the shit on somebody else but an outsider like me that wasn't really part of the group you know i was like a fringe guy, would not do that.

But then when he laughed, and then pretty soon, pretty soon, different people started to leave the table. And the next thing you know, Lindsay and I were the only two there. We were dead drunk. And there were like 20 places for people to sit. Nobody comes through that line until everybody leaves. That was a rule. So Lindsay and I said, screw it. We're just going to sit here. And then we looked around until we found some good-looking girls hey come on sit down over here there was plenty of liquor to drink it was all free so we just did that we weren't invited to

a lot of places though you know lindsey and i were not we weren't we weren't highly popular do you know anything as far as about the kidnapping, the Frank Jr. kidnapping? From up here at Tahoe? No. I didn't know anything about that at all. As a matter of fact, the only information I ever got about that is when Frank Jr. and I did Hollywood Squares, and he was telling me a little bit about it. He said it was pretty scary.

And I said, I would imagine it was pretty scary. You don't know whether these guys are, you know, wackos. They know your dad's going to pay, but they don't know if they're going to get, they may take you and, you know, feed you to the fish, you know. Yeah, that was very scary. Well, they fish for Italian fish, you know, so it was okay. Max, we have to ask you about your films, about your independent films in the 70s. And Gilbert and I were talking about Ode to Billy Joe, which is a fascinating story in itself.

And it's based on the famous Bobby Gentry song. And how did that fall together? I mean, you bought the film rights to the song. Well, what happened is Roger, my partner, knew Bobby Gentry when she was singing in Westwood as a UCLA undergrad. And she would just sing, like the kids who would sit in the street corners and sing, and you'd give them money. And so he knew her from that, and he liked her as a person. And she was going to school at the time, and I guess she was making some money singing,

and she was singing and having a good time. And Roger knew her, met her, and either took her out or socially just knew her. And so when we did Macon County Line, she did the theme song for it. Oh, that's right. And she did the theme song, Another Time, Another Place. And she sang it. And then when she saw the movie, she asked us, wouldn't we, would we think about doing Oh, the Billy Joe? She came up with it, not us. And she asked us that. And I, Roger said, well,

Max, you can write it, can't you? And I said, no, you know, Maine County line was different. I could write that. Oh, the Billy Joe was a love story. And I was not sure how to write, go about writing that. So one night I said no. We did the McCullers, a little picture called the McCullers, made a little bit of money. It was Forrest Tucker. Yeah, with Forrest Tucker. But it was my

first time that I ever directed. So, I used that directing to get the deal with Warner Brothers on Ode to Billy Joe. But what happened was, is that I couldn't write it. I tried to sit down and write it once, and I tried again, and I just couldn't do it. So I'm watching television one night, and I see Summer of 42.

And I said, it was written by Herman Rauscher and I said well if we can get that guy to write this thing then let's do it so we I sent Herman Rauscher I called him got his number called him he said no I said well at least listen I said do you know the song he said no not really so I got him and sent him the album with the song on it and so forth. And he got back to me and he said, if I can write it the way I want to write it, why the boy jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge, then I'll do it. And so he said, I said, yeah, okay, give it a shot. So we paid him, gave him a substantial sum of money.

I can't remember what it was, but today it would be probably a couple million bucks, equivalent to that. Of course, that was in 1974. Because in the song, Max, there's no explanation for why Billy Joe jumps off the Tallahatchie Bridge. Oh, that's right. So Herman had to come out here and meet with Bobby and talk to Bobby and get all the information. And then, along with the song, he went back to Connecticut, where he lived, and he wrote the script. And that was it. We shot the script.

That's it. We didn't have a bunch of rewrites or anything else. We just shot what he wrote. So it was pretty simple. When we got the right writer that could write something that Bobby Gentry liked, and she filled in the gaps, and that's the way it went. Now, can we ask you a few things? You can ask me anything, Gil.

I don't care. It's a terrific little film, by the way. Ode to Bobby Joe we ask you a few things? You can ask me anything, Gil. I don't care. It's a terrific little film, by the way. Oh, to Bobby Joe. You worked with... Oh, to Billy Joe. Oh, to Billy Joe. Oh, to Billy Joe. Excuse me.

You worked with both Milton Berle and Forrest Tucker. Uh-oh. Let me tell you. Yeah. I didn't work with Milton Berle. I just heckled him from the audience. But I knew Milton pretty well from Hillcrest Country Club and different shows and so forth. And he and my dad were good friends.

Now, I heard Milton Berle and Forrest Tucker had something in common. Yes, it's true. He didn't even wait for you. You saw it? No, well, let me put it to you this way. Ha, ha, ha. Forrest Tucker thought he had water on the knee one time, and he went to the doctor,

and the doctor just told him his aim was bad. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Hilarious. There were three guys. There was Milton Berle, Forrest Tucker, and Victor Mature. Victor Mature, a new name.

A new name to put on the list. Two more. And another one was Bob Fallon. He was married to Marie Wilson, my friend Irma. Bob Fallon, that's a new one. Bob Fallon was a producer, and he was married to Marie Wilson. And he was also known as racing at Santa Anita. And there was another one?

No, well, that's what I said. Bob Fallon. He gave them to you. Oh, yeah. Milton Berle, Forrest Tucker. Milton Berle, Forrest Tucker. Milton Berle and Forrest Tucker. Now, that's a hell of a foursome if you're going to play golf. Yeah, we don't need any clubs.

We were told that the comedian Guy Marks was on that list, too. Hey, wait a minute. You're not supposed to be funny. I'm the one who's supposed to be funny. You're interviewing me. Don't be funny. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Yeah. Frank was just saying, because we interviewed someone, who told us that the comedian Guy Marks.

You remember Guy Marks? Oh, yeah. Tremendous penis on him, too. Bobby Rydell told us that. But the one thing about Guy Marks is when they circumcised him, they cut off the foreskin around his head. Max, let's talk a little bit for a couple of seconds about the Wild McCulloughs, which have this wonderful cast. I just want to talk about celebrity penises.

I don't care about your movie career. Wait a minute. What about Dara? Maybe she wants to talk about them. You shouldn't want to. I don't care about your movie career Wait a minute, what about Dara? Maybe she wants to talk about him You shouldn't want to I don't know She's not a guy, I don't think We keep her in the dark about stuff like that Yeah, in the dark, right

The Wild McCullogs had this great cast Forrest Tucker, William Demarest Oh yeah, William Demarest. Oh, yeah, Bill Demarest was great. I love Bill. Did William Demarest have a large penis? All I know is he stirred his drink with his thumb. That's all.

Hey, look, you can tell a guy is well endowed when he uses it for a swizzle stick. That's it. Oh, Lord. But this cast, Mike Mazurki, Vito Scotti, who Gilbert and I love, and, of course, Doodles Weaver. Vito was great. Yeah, he's a legend. And Doodles Weaver. Doodles was great, too. He was great. Yeah, he's a legend. And Doodles Weaver. Doodles was great, too. He was funny.

And another guy, Billy Curtis. Oh, Billy Curtis, yeah. But Doodles Weaver was the uncle of Sigourney Weaver. Correct. From Andy. Sigourney Weaver, yes. What's the name? Was it Andy?

What's the name that was on Hollywood Squares that was her father? Oh, no. No, I think that's... Oh, Pat Weaver. Pat Weaver. No, Charlie Weaver, that was a pseudonym. No, his daughter... That was a stage name.

His daughter was the Arquette. Right, because his name was Cliff Arquette. Yeah, Roseanne Arquette and David Arquette. That's what it was. Okay. Right. Are you sure now? Charlie Weaver was...

Yes, Charlie Weaver. Charlie Weaver's name was Arquette? Yeah, Cliff Arquette. That's what it was. Okay. Right. Are you sure now? Charlie Weaver was. Charlie Weaver. Charlie Weaver's name was Arquette? Yeah. Arquette. And I know this because Cliff Arquette was a Jew. Charlie Weaver was the stage name. I got you. Right.

I didn't know that. But Pat Weaver, who was the head of NBC or something like that. Yes. Oral K. Pat Weaver. Correct. He was Doodles Weaver's brother. And he was the father of Sigourney Weaver. Now you got it.

And he played first base. Sorry, what? He's doing a little who's on first. And she had a penis. We can do 45 minutes on famous penises in the state of California. Now, I heard Liam Neeson. He's some more of a younger guy. Is that what you heard?

I know who Liam Neeson is. But I heard he has a big penis. Well, you have to ask the women because you have to judge by the octave of their orgasm. It depends upon where it goes. You know, if you have and then you have you know, it depends on what it is, you know.

You get it. You find out. You don't even have to be in the room. You just tape it. You know. Now, Max, tell us before we wrap it up, tell us a little bit about Vito Scotti or Mike Mazurki or Doodles, any of them. Mike Mazurki, I'd known Mike, and Mike had done the Beverly Hillbillies. Mike was a good guy.

I knew Mike for a long time. And Vito Scotti, I would run into him at Schwab's Drugstore a lot. We love Vito Scotti. And he would do just like he does, you know, in the movies, you know, just his little stutter kind of thing. He's the Mater D kind of guy. He's in The Godfather. What was he?

He was in The Godfather. What was he in The Godfather? He was doing something in The Godfather. I don't know. Yeah, I think he's the baker who makes the cake, the wedding cake. Oh, that was it. That was it. That was it.

Right. I can't remember, but was it. That was it. That was it. Right. That was it. I can't remember, but Vito was a good guy. I just had a lot of guys, like Macon County Lion. I had, oh, God, he played in, oh, shoot, I met him in, when I did a movie that was terrible. It was called The Long Ride Home. It was a long, believe me, it was The Long Ride Home. We shot it up in Kanab, Utah.

It was with Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, Inger Stevens. Oh, great cast. And, oh, God, what was his name? Oh, Harry Dean Stanton. Oh, we love him. Let's see, Harry Dean. I'm trying to think of who else was there. You worked with Phil Silvers.

Well, Phil was on the Beverly Hills. He played a guy named Swifty Schaefer. Honest John. Yeah. Honest John. Yeah. Swifty Schaefer. And he sold us the New York Bridge.

The White House. Didn't he sell you the White House? He sold us the White House and the bridge and the zoo and everything. He sold us everything. I mean, you know, Jed was buying that day. What? He was buying whatever he was buying, and Phil was selling. What was Phil Silvers like to work with?

Well, you know, I mean, he's in the Guinness Book of Records, you know. Did you know that? No. Phil Silvers? Yeah. What for? The only living son of a bitch to interrupt himself. Interesting. What about Don Rickles?

Oh, Don is about as sweet a person as you'd ever want to meet. That is his whole character is on stage. He is nothing like that particular character. Nothing. His whole personality is different. He's a Jew married an Italian that worked at CMA, I think it was. She worked as a secretary. They've been married for 50 years. I think Don's 80-something now. I used to see him at the Slate Brothers on Santa Monica Boulevard. Yeah, I think he's 89. I think he just turned 89. He was on Santa Monica?

No. He was on La Cienega Boulevard. Slate Brothers. He used to play there. Jack Jones used to play there. Jack Jones and I, we were in the Air Force Reserve together. We used to go down from L.A., drive together to go down to March Air Force Base for our weekends.

Cool stuff. Don Rickles was a sweet guy then. Oh, Don was a terrific guy. Don was, he just created that character that is so funny. You know, it's almost like Buddy Hackett. Buddy Hackett had a little bit of an ass in him. I mean, he actually had a big ass, but I'm saying he was bright. Buddy Hackett was one of the smartest guys business-wise that I've ever met.

One time he was telling me at the golf course, he says, you know, he says that his attorney read his contract and he was there with whoever he was talking to at the casino that he was doing his deal with in Vegas. And he said, yeah, your attorney okayed this. And Buddy says, but he ain't the one that's shining it. He says, I am. He says, so I don't give a shit what he knows.

I got to know. One night he was on the Johnny Carson show. And Buddy sits, you know, Johnny's on the right of the screen. Or he's actually to the guest's left. He sits to the left of the guest. But if you're watching it on screen, he's to the right. Okay? So Johnny is saying to Buddy, and Buddy is talking to him.

Now, Buddy is now, Johnny Carson is on Buddy's left. So Buddy's talking out of the left side of his mouth like this, you know. You know what he's saying, you of his mouth like this, you know, what he's saying and all this stuff. So Johnny asked him, he says, how come you talk out of the side of your mouth like that, Buddy? And Buddy says, well, if you shed over here, I talk out of that side. I love it. What about some of the other people who were on the Beverly Hillbillies with you, Max?

Like John Carradine or Hans Conrad, Louis Nye? Well, I didn't have much to do with them. I mean, you know, Charlie Ruggles. Right, Charlie Ruggles. I was there with them, but I didn't really. Sammy Davis. Yeah. I saw Sammy more off and on the golf course than I did on the Beverly Hillbillies set.

But I really didn't do many scenes with him, you know, or if any, you know. And Gloria Swanson. He was older and had a lot of arthritis at that time. His hands were really bad at that time. I remember him, I think it was him, was telling me the story that he used to drink, and they used to drink with... John Barrymore? Yeah, with Barrymore and with Flynn, with Errol Flynn and with the director, Billy Wilder,

and all of them. They used to have a whole group that played cards and drank. And one time they had an argument about who could do Shakespeare better, Barrymore or Carradine. So Carradine is supposed to, they set up this scene and they say, okay, John, you just had this great meal as King Henry VIII or whatever it is, and you come out the door and you're just relishing in the fullness of this meal that you've just had that was so wonderful.

And so he does it. He goes and he does this scene, and it's terrific. He'll go by himself and all that. And then they shoot the picture of John Barrymore coming out of the door, zipping up his pants. I love it. Hysterical, man. I guess you didn't get it right away.

Zipping up his fly. Yeah, we got it. Just after this, after you see him relishing in this feast that he just had. Trust me. And then here comes Barrymore. All he does is doesn't say a word. Just walks out and zips up his fly. Trust us.

That's the first thing we think of on this show. That's the first thing that comes to mind. Anyway. Oh, I thought that joke laid deader than a frigging rattlesnake. No, no, no, we understand every dick joke on this show. Every dick joke. Now, anyway...

The other thing is that... Somebody said something about... Oh, the other thing about me. I said, I'm in the Guinness Book of Records, too. They said, what? Ford? I said, with me, if you take a breath, I said, I'm in the Guinness Book of Records, too. They said, what, Ford? I said, with me, if you take a breath, you lose your frigging turn. Well, that's when I have to jump in.

Of course, we got to wrap up now. I said, if your husband, if Gil's got something else to do today, all he has to do is ask me the first question and then leave. I can ask myself questions and answer them. You're our favorite kind of guest. I can insult myself and everything. So I'm going to talk no matter what. I'm Gilbert Gottfried. Did I show up even when I'm not invited?

what I'm not invited. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. And we have been talking to Jethro on the Beverly Hillbillies, Max Baer Jr. The very entertaining Max Baer Jr. The very entertaining

and son of great price fighter, Max Bayer Sr. We've been talking to Max. Well, Max Bayer Jr. has been talking, and we've tried to throw in a word here or there. Gil, is this an unusual position for you to be in? Now, Max, I read that you said you could speak a little Jethro when pushed. I speak a little Jethro? Can you give us a little something to go out on?

Well, the only thing I can do, I can't do it as high as I used to, is... That'll do it. Oh, thank you. It doesn't get up that high anymore unless somebody's squeezing something. So what do you got coming up? You're still working on the casino project. Oh, I have the rights for Beverly Hillbillies. I've got slot machines.

I've got online games. And they pay very well. And it's passive income. I don't have to do anything. And yet I'm still looking at doing a casino if the opportunity ever comes up. But I will not build it because of the fact that you can't build a casino. And gaming is moving so fast to online stuff that eventually, within the next 10 years probably, you'll be able to gamble online, and it will destroy a lot of the

smaller casinos Vegas. It will not hurt really. I don't believe, but it'll hurt the other places. You know, Atlantic city will probably be eventually gone pretty much. Well, we hope we see this casino. There are a lot of the casinos that are on the rivers that are in, in states bordering big states. And I'm Gilbert Gottfried again. Again, this has been Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.

He's going to keep talking, Max. And again, my co-host is Frank Santopadre. And again, we've been talking to Max Bayer Jr., star of the Beverly Hillbillies. That's bullshit, Gil. You've been listening to me. Thanks, Max.

Thank you.