Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - GGACP Classic: Beverly D'Angelo
Episode Date: March 30, 2023GGACPÂ closes out its celebration of Women's History Month by revisiting this lively (and then some) interview with actress and singer Beverly D'Angelo ("Hair," "National Lampoon's Vacation," "Coal Mi...ner's Daughter"). In this episode, Beverly looks back at her long, strange trip through show business, her gig as a Hanna-Barbera storyboard artist, her enduring friendships with Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher and her on-screen collaborations with Woody Allen, Alan Arkin, Eddie Bracken and Peter O'Toole. Also: Beverly reads for "Raging Bull," Gilbert reads "Fifty Shades of Grey," Burgess Meredith puts on the moves and Bela Lugosi directs a Marx Brothers movie. PLUS: Lurleen Lumpkin! "The Sentinel"! Remembering Patsy Cline! In praise of Andrew Bergman! And Beverly favors the boys with "The Girl from Ipanema"! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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TV comics, movie stars, hit singles and some toys.
Trivia and dirty jokes, an evening with the boys.
Once is never good enough
For something so fantastic
So here's another Gilbert and Franks
Here's another Gilbert and Franks
Here's another Gilbert and Franks
Colossal classic
Hi, this is Neil Sedaka
on Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast.
Don't miss it. Don't miss it. hi this is gilford godfrey
it's gonna be a rough one
i'm drinking coffee for this Godfrey. It's going to be a rough one.
I'm drinking coffee for this.
Yeah, okay.
This is Gilbert Godfrey and I'm here with my co-host Frank
Santopadre and our
engineer Frank Furtarosa
and this is
Gilbert Godfrey's amazing
colossal podcast.
Our guest this week is a singer, occasional recording artist,
and one of the most popular and respected actresses of her generation.
You know her work from TV shows like Entourage, Law & Order, SVU, Family Guy,
Frasier, Mom, Cougar Town, and The Simpsons
as country
songstress
Laureline Lumpkin.
She's also
delivered memorable
performances and features
like Hair,
Coal Miner's Daughter,
Every Which Way But Loose, Honky Tonk Freeway, High miners' daughter, every which way but loose, honky tonk freeway, high spirits,
Illuminata, American History X.
And then everything from 2000 is shit.
Sorry.
Wait, sorry.
No, I'm just worried that people will be going, when, what was that like?
Oh, yeah, that was last century.
I'm sorry. Have we will be going, when, what was that like? Oh, yeah, that was last century. I'm sorry.
Have we started?
Did we start yet?
He's just going to wrap it up.
Okay.
Okay.
It really.
We'll get to that.
And of course.
I am working.
I am alive.
I am working.
Okay, go ahead.
I am working.
Okay, go ahead.
And, of course, as Clark Griswold's long-suffering wife,
Ellen Griswold in five National Lampoon Vacation films.
In a long and celebrated career, she's shared the big and small screen with Clint Eastwood,
Alan Arkin,
Peter O'Toole,
Woody Allen,
Jack Nicholson,
Robert Preston,
Christopher Plummer,
and the late Burt Reynolds,
who calls her a combination
of Gene Arthur and Gene Harlow.
They're dead, too.
and Jean Harlow.
They're dead too. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
In a lot of...
She's also...
She's also worked with several...
It's... I know, it's...
Keep going.
Okay.
She's also worked with several
of our previous guests, including Chevy Chase, Amy Heckling, Buck Henry, Ileana Douglas, Keith Carradine, Paul Dooley, Ed Vigley Jr.
Oh, yes.
And John Astin.
And Andrew Bergman.
And Andrew Bergman. And Andrew Bergman.
And Andrew Bergman.
I'm like three degrees of separation.
But wait, there's more.
And listen to the guy she slept with.
She's also a gifted son.
Thank you for tuning in. Bye. She's also a gifted songwriter and singer.
Even I'm laughing at this, doesn't it?
And the winner of I Lost My Place Here.
Oh, the winner of Country Music Association Award.
The Golden Reel Award.
No, wait.
The Golden Globe Satellite Award Emmy nomination.
I've been getting some Lifetime Achievements Awards lately.
You know, and I really, I just show up,
I don't even know why,
and they really don't either.
It's just, you know, they had to get somebody
they couldn't get, Brenda Vaccaro or something.
Brenda Vaccaro.
Let them explain who you are here.
Okay.
They should have figured it out by now.
Nobody cares.
And you could hear her perform in her own voice.
There's no Marnie Nixon here, folks.
Oh, how did you know about Marnie Nixon?
We know a lot of stuff.
You know, she was in the repertory company I was in, in Canada.
And I would, when you're in a repertory company, you do, like you star in one show.
It was my boost to Broadway.
That's the story.
Marnie Nixon was in the company and she gave vocal
lessons on the weekends. Yeah.
I knew Marnie Nixon.
Okay. She knew Marnie Nixon.
Yeah. In hair,
coal miner's daughter, honky-tonk
freeway.
In the mood. What?
I did the soundtrack for In the Mood.
Yes, right. In the Mood. Put that in there.
The Mood. In the Mood. In the Mood. Yes, right. In the Mood. Put that in there. The Mood.
In the Mood.
In the Mood.
The miracle.
Patrick Dempsey's debut.
Yes.
Good little movie.
The miracle.
Who cares?
Daddy's back.
Everybody, you've lost everyone.
No, they're all this long.
You've lost everyone.
They're all this long, Beverly.
You've moved on to another podcast now.
It's not...
Let's cut to that part.
Okay.
What's the last step?
What the hell was the other stuff you've done?
Please welcome to the podcast a performer of numerous talent
and a woman who says that despite being as Italian as they come,
she's never been offered a real Italian role.
Never.
Am I supposed to not be talking?
That's okay.
Beverly D'Angelo.
I'm exhausted.
It's nice to meet you, and I'll see you next time.
Okay.
Thank you.
That was very kind. That was really, really sweet and very, very flattering that you would go to so much trouble to try to find something that would make people want to listen.
I appreciate it.
I really appreciate it.
You're far too modest, Beverly.
Now, I don't think we ever officially met.
We didn't.
No.
We didn't officially meet.
But we both took part in the Friars Club roast of Chevy Chase.
Yes, we did.
Which.
When was that?
That was like, I know it was right after I had kids.
So I think it was like 2000, because I was like weighing about 500 pounds, strutting around the stage.
I think it was like 2000, because I was like weighing about 500 pounds, strutting around the stage.
And it was right, was that like 2001 or 2002 or something?
Right around there. It was a while ago, certainly.
Yeah, it was a while ago.
But those kinds of burns, you know, leave scars that one doesn't forget.
That was deadly.
2002, actually. that one doesn't forget that was that was deadly it 2002 actually it was it was very weird because
i mean i guess you know it's funny chevy who i don't know him as well as you do but
i worked with him once and i've socialized and what oh what did you what did you do with him
oh i did one scene and one crappy movie that nobody ever saw.
What was it?
And it was never released.
Jack and the Beanstalk.
Jack and the Beanstalk.
Oh, with James Caron.
Yes.
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah.
That's cool.
Yeah.
And you socialized with him?
Yeah.
with him yeah and with with chevy i can use that classic line which is well he was always nice to me good for you yeah good for you and and uh but but see i i know i he certainly had a reputation in the business.
You know, I've known Chevy since 1982.
And I've worked with him not just on the five vacation movies, but on a national campaign for Old Navy.
And also we were like this figurehead or whatever it is for some rental company, home away or whatever.
And we're close friends socially.
He has a place close to mine in Los Angeles.
I mean, our paths are linked.
I'd say we're very, very close friends.
I say that I think I know him very well.
He always called me his movie wife or something like that.
But, I mean, I've been with him as long as his wife has been,
and at the professional level only.
But I have a lot of theories about Chevy's behavior.
I have a lot of theories about the dynamics that he creates.
I've always been fascinated by how he can kind of always get to the same place no matter what he's doing.
But, you know, here's – should I go into it?
Yes, yes.
Okay.
Well, here's the thing.
You've got to remember that I met – I'd just done Coal Miner's Daughter.
And there was a lot of stuff happening.
You know, I'd hit Hollywood and I was like lot of stuff happening you know i'd hit hollywood and i was like
on fire and so i got this script and um uh it was like you know i was 29 at the time and i was
supposed to be mother of teens and and uh there was a dog in it you know you're supposed to work
with kids or dogs and and i thought that's kind of fast to go to mothers. Like, I haven't even
starred in a movie yet. Oh, I'd done this movie
with Burt Reynolds, but that doesn't count. It's kind of
like on the same level as Jack and the Beanstalk, probably.
But, um...
That's right. Like those films.
The cinema, the shin.
So,
anyway, um, but I was
married to an Italian duke
at the time.
And he read, he said, Beverly, this is so hilarious.
Look at this cousin Eddie.
He's so funny.
And look at this.
A dead woman on top of the car.
Ha, ha, it's hilarious.
You do it.
So I did.
And we shot it all on location. So we were kind of in a bubble.
So my introduction to Chevy and Harold and John Hughes was in this bubble of, and I actually saw that film.
First of all, I wasn't the only person.
It was a satire.
It was a satire, and the anticipated audience was going to be the Saturday Night Live crowd who'd made the National Lampoon's Delta House, you know, a big hit.
And it was a satire as opposed to just like a comedy.
But I saw it as a romantic comedy.
And I saw it as a love story.
I always saw it as a love story.
Yeah, so that really, that helped me make the character real.
I just thought, well, this is my mom.
You know, I can do that.
Even though my personality was so different, my lifestyle was so different, everything was so different.
But I met him in the context of this was a guy who, when we did that first vacation,
if we were driving down the street for a driving shot in the car,
people would go, I'm Chevy Chase and you're not.
In every restaurant, the waiter would go, I'm Dave, you're waiting for the night.
I'm Chevy Chase and you're not.
Or I'm Dave and you're not.
You know, I mean, just it was, oh, you know, he was really peaking.
And second one, we were in Europe, not so much recognition there, but still everything
was built around Chevy.
up, not so much recognition there, but still everything was built around Chevy. So I saw a lot of people who, you know, his humor, he has a humor, his style of humor is, I'm smarter than
you. And if you don't get it, you're a dope. And, you know, it's kind of like Waspie, you know,
he has a style. And I did watch a lot of people around him over the years kind of go, yeah, and laugh at the put downs of them to go along with it.
And then he had the talk show.
And it was like, to me, it was like Captain Cook.
You know, like everybody had idolized Captain Cook so much they thought he was a god.
And then he stumbled on a little stone and he bled.
And all the natives just pulled out knives and started stabbing him.
They were so furious.
But they were the ones who had catapulted him to that godlike status.
And once they saw he was human and the talk show didn't work, he didn't work in that format, it was like the knives were out.
And I think as a performer and as a person, it'd be hard not to react to that.
Chevy was a writer. Chevy started out as a performer and as a person, it'd be hard not to react to that. Chevy was a writer.
Chevy started out as a writer.
And all the cameras, like, you know, how they have all those cameras on a baseball field that are all aimed at the players.
And then whenever there's a celebrity in the crowd, you see all the cameras turn around.
All the cameras had turned around to Chevy.
You know, he was really under scrutiny.
And I don't think he ever prepared for. And I don't think he ever prepared
for that. I don't think he ever thought of himself as a performer and just was kind of
winging it. But I do love Chevy. And I've worked with him forever. We even tried to do a pilot
together. That was bad. And the thing that's weird is he was so mean. He was so messed up on the
pilot. And I was like, what? And everybody around him was really mean
to me too. I think they were like,
you know how a dog, if he can't,
like I have these dogs, okay?
I have a bunch of dogs.
And I observed this
and I thought of Chevy because
and they're little dogs. I keep them inside a lot.
But I have gardeners too. And so
I had this one dog and the gardener was
really close to the back door.
He was trying to like, you know,
mow and blow, you know, like,
I don't even know why I pay him.
But anyway, so there were all these leaves
and they're getting rid of the leaves
and the gardener's really close to the back door
and my dog was growling and leaping at the door
trying to get at this invader, right?
But he was frustrated by the door and he couldn't. And I
saw him start to gnaw his paw, you know? So I felt like there were many times when I was working with
Chevy over the years, many, many, many times that I would get the kind of anxiety and the anger even
that really wasn't directed at me,
but it was kind of like the overflow from things that they were afraid to deal with Chevy over.
So Chevy really never even had realistic,
or it's hard for him to have realistic relationships with people.
They're anticipating, they know what he's going to say,
or they know who he is.
There's a lot of prejudice going to that guy.
He's a good guy. He's a family man. He's got three daughters, a who he is. There's a lot of prejudice going to that guy. He's a good guy.
He's a family man.
He's got three daughters, a wife he loves.
He's been married to her for 32 years.
You know, I mean, there's a lot to say about his core values.
But, yeah, he can be a dick.
And I mean, and I'll just have to say once again.
He was nice to me.
Yeah, he was nice to me.
We had him on the show. He's great yeah i i've i've only
seen his good side i'm happy to say yeah he's got a good side and but the roast was really oh my god
i i i've never seen anything like that it was it eviscerated but i think it's because the people
didn't know him enough to make you you know, really pertinent jokes.
It was just, they look on a piece of paper, see he's been busted for that.
The recurring theme of the back pills joke was like, how many times can you call somebody a drug addict, you know?
Ha ha ha.
You know, it just, I don't know.
Gilbert, you were there, but you didn't perform?
No, I don't think I performed. No, I think you had to have said something. just, I don't know. Gilbert, you were there, but you didn't perform? No, I don't think I performed.
No, I think you had to have said something.
Oh, I did?
You must have.
Oh.
Paul was the roastmaster, as we talked about.
Yeah, I guess I performed then.
Well, it was also, that was the second time he'd done it.
Yeah.
He had done it before, so maybe they were kind of like fresh out of the fresh jokes.
He's done it before, so maybe they were kind of like fresh out of the fresh jokes.
But I think that he was really hurt by – because the resounding image was, here's a guy who's addicted to all kinds of drugs.
Ha, ha.
You know what I mean?
There wasn't like – you know, didn't have the – I don't know. It's pretty direct.
Yeah, it wasn't like a roast where it's your friends tearing it to shreds.
Okay, you've said it.
That's it.
I hear I'm talking 55 words per one.
Well, the only people that really knew him were you.
You and Lorraine were really the only people that had history with him.
Paul did.
Well, Paul.
The roast master, you and Lorraine Newman, and everybody else was sort of a Comedy Central comic. It's like a typical roast.
A typical roast has old people you've known, your cronies.
And so you can really say something funny, but there's love there.
Yes.
And they can just cut you open.
And it's fine.
What did you mean by really when you said you had Chevy's number when you first met him?
Because I've heard you say that in interviews.
Did I say that?
Yeah.
I had Chevy's number when I first met him.
Well, I know that when we met, he sure looked familiar to me because he was – I saw – my background was very different from his.
How I ended up in Hollywood is very different from his how i ended up in hollywood is very different from his
and um i'd kind of like come in through music and even just like you know singing in bar bands and
strip clubs and all this kind of i mean i saw a whole different way of life than like a college
graduate would sure but there were these really really bright like i like to say that i was
singing in a topless bar when meryl streep was in the Yale Repertory Company. We know about the topless bar with the trapeze.
Yeah, that was my college.
But anyway, my art studies.
But anyway, you know, there were all these really, really smart guys
that just kind of invaded Hollywood from Harvard.
And although Chevy didn't go to Harvard, they loved him.
I think he won the aristocrat
joke which gilbert has like the best version of in history thank you yeah it's true but chevy i
think you know won one of those things and endeared himself to all those guys i i probably
not getting the history right but the point is these were smart, upper middle class white boys. Doug Kenny, Ramis, all of those guys.
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Miller.
I got that.
I knew who they were.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
How did you wind up with an Italian Duke?
Because I starred in the film of Hair, and the film of Hair opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1979.
And we went, and like, you know, when your film opens, the Cannes Film Festival,
it's a really big deal, and everybody gives you yachts and stuff.
So kind of en masse, Milos Forman, the director,
and myself and most of the cast took a yacht to Saint-Tropez.
And this fantastic woman arrived.
Her name is Princess Claudia Ruspoli.
And we were sitting there having dinner,
and Milos started singing, you know that Italian song?
Oh, sure, everybody knows it.
Stromboli.
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, right.
Okay, so Milos started singing,
Claudia Ruspoli, she spreads her legs for me,
and then she comes on me, just like a stromboli, which is a big volcano.
And she threw a glass of wine in his face.
Wow.
And I just thought, this is the most fantastic person in the world.
I want to be her best friend.
So I befriended her immediately, and we started talking.
And she said, you know, my cousin, Lorenzo, goes to school at USC studying economics there. You should look him up. And so when I went back to LA,
it was really not much longer after that. I was at a birthday party at the Roosevelt Hotel and
there were a lot of crashers there. And I was talking to this gorgeous man who looked like a Greek god. And the birthday boy came
in and he said, it's midnight and I don't want to sell. I want everybody that I know in that room
and everybody that I don't know has to stay in this room. There are too many crashers.
And he goes, Beverly, that means you. Leave this room. And I looked at this guy beside me and he
goes, don't go. And I didn't. I took him home. And it was Lorenzo, the cousin of this woman that I'd met in Cannes.
And we just kind of, we eloped seven months later.
Does it make you a duchess if you actually become, if you're married to a duke?
That's pretty cool.
Yeah.
That's pretty cool.
Oh, no, I'm in the, I'm in like the books, you know, like the heirs of Europe.
Sure.
If you look it up, yeah, I'm there.
We actually stayed married for 15 years.
Nobody in Hollywood knew that.
But I was married from 81 to 96.
I did live with other people during that time.
So did he.
Because the thing is, when we got married, we were young, you know.
I mean, I'd only had one film out when we got married.
And I always thought I was going when we got married. And I always
thought I was going to be a singer, and I didn't know
if the acting, I mean, I didn't care that much
about acting. So who knew?
And he was a student, so our vow
was that we would end up together.
But the culture owes him a debt of
gratitude for you being in the vacation movies.
And so do I.
Right, right.
You know, yeah, yeah.
And so do I.
Right, right.
You know, yeah, yeah.
While I nudge Gilbert awake, listen to these words from our sponsor.
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It's Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Podcast! and now we return to the show you said something in an interview that i really identified with
that you were basically saying i because i always say i had stupidity on my side when i was
starting out yeah and you were saying something basically like that way too you're just blind
and courage yeah courage i i i wasn't afraid of anything i I hadn't learned, you know, what to be afraid of. There were just so many interesting things to do and try out and be, and I just seemed to be one of those people who could, you know, go, I can do that. Oh, I need to tap dance? Okay. Oh, I need to sing? Okay. Oh, I need to act? Okay. That kind of thing. But as things got more, I really kind of honestly, by 81, I was pretty well done with
Hollywood. And I lived in Italy. I was based in Italy. I kept working all the time, but I was
based in Italy from 81 to 86. And then I was based in Ireland from 86 to 90. So I was out of the
country, just kind of flying to wherever i'd have a job um for whatever reason
i wasn't really i'm not one of those ambitious kind of actresses i've heard you say that you
never had a career plan a real a plan that just sort of things happen you're you're essentially
lazy well a lazy girl in town yeah i've claimed that before but um parallelsels, Gilbert. They're parallels.
I know, that's why I said I should do the whole thing like this.
I'm a Gottfried.
I came out here
to be an
I came out here to work in cartoons.
Yeah, well let's talk about that because we're both
fascinated by your Hanna-Barbera experience.
Because I knew Bill and Joe.
You did? Yeah, I was an animation writer foranna-Barbera experience. Uh, yeah. Because I knew Bill and Joe. You did?
Yeah, I was an animation writer for a time.
Bill's dead.
They're both gone.
What do you mean you were in animation for a while?
I wrote Saturday morning cartoons for a while.
Do you think it was the Italian connection?
Is that why we caught the job?
I have no idea, Beverly, but I had a shingle there for a while, and I got to know Bill and Joe.
What years?
Oh, God, in the early 90s.
Oh, wow.
When they weren't speaking to each other anymore.
I'm so old.
I heard that Hanna-Barbera, they were in the same building, but they had two separate floors.
My last day, I wanted a poster sign, and I had to come back two different days to get built.
I know.
I got a cell signed by Joe for a Penelope pit stop.
Oh, yeah, Wacky Racers.
Because I used to do the thing on Wacky Racers.
And he was so old.
He put, to the original Penelope pit stop.
And I was like, well, okay.
You know, I'll take that.
I just wanted the cell signed.
How did you get there in the first place?
It's fascinating.
I don't know how fascinating it is.
There's a little bit of nepotism involved, as it turns out.
I was, okay, if you really want to know how I got there, it starts with Grady Poe.
Okay?
Because Grady Poe was my best friend, Ginny Poe's older brother.
I fell in love with them, lost my virginity on the night of the junior-senior prom because his parents were chaperoning.
And my parents figured that out.
And I was really young.
And so the next thing you know,
I'm going to school in Italy for the summer.
Ah, convenient.
And so I took art courses
at the American School in Florence.
I know they just want,
I mean, this is all retrospect,
and they both,
may they rest in peace,
Priscilla and Jean.
I know,
I kind of know what they're doing
because now I have teenagers.
But anyway, so I got a portfolio there. I had an art portfolio, you know. And so when I was
my senior year, instead of applying to colleges, I just sent that portfolio to Hanna-Barbera and Disney, but I sent it to Hanna-Barbera because
even though my dad had been a musician,
you know, kind of like a stay-at-home father
before they invented that term,
until I was about seven, he got into broadcasting,
and by the time I was 17, I was 17 when I graduated,
by the time I was 17, he was vice president of Taft Broadcasting, and Taft Broadcasting purchased Hanna-Barbera.
Nice.
Now, Hanna-Barbera paid $1.25 an hour, and Disney paid $100 an hour.
What did you do specifically for them?
I was a cell cleaner, then an inker and painter, and then I ventured into backgrounds, but then I was a hippie, and I was living on a commune, and it was seasonal work.
So you'd work for eight months, and then you're in the union, so you get paid.
Well, you must know this.
Do you remember this?
Yeah, sure, sure.
This was before computers.
Yeah.
This was 1969.
Right, right.
Okay.
So I had edged my way up to you know clouds of dust
on the wacky races and stuff like that but i didn't uh when that hiatus came i uh took to the
road myself and i wanted to be a singer so i just sang all the way all over the place right across
canada and back and what did you call it? The commune circuit?
I did the commune
circuit. I had a square dance band
and won. Right.
Tell Gilbert about it. He wants to
know about the topless bar with the women
on the trapeze. Oh, it's fabulous.
Okay, here's the deal.
So I was on...
I know I'm long-winded, but anyway,
just come to my show instead. But anyway, okay, here's what happened. So I know I'm long-winded, but anyway, just come to my show instead.
But anyway, okay, here's what happened.
So I went, well, actually, you know, I don't care.
I'm going to tell you this.
On one of those communes, I got pregnant, and I was very young.
And this was just shortly after I was out of high school and had left California.
And I had to go to New York to get this done. And I had a
friend in Mamaroneck and she arranged it. So I drove down there with a bunch of hippies and had
the thing done. And then my friend Jackie said, let's go into the city. And so she said, listen,
there's this really great band that wants a singer. So that night, I went into this club on 113th Street and auditioned.
They said, yeah, you're in.
So that band was pretty cool.
And we played an outdoor gig at Bard College, opening for Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
And the speakers were from Woodstock.
They were gigantic.
So we're like, oh, let's plug into that.
But the guitar player was wearing tennis shoes.
We were on grass.
He got electrocuted.
It was a disaster.
We drive to a diner, and they said, Beverly, you know, and I thought it was funny.
They didn't think it was funny.
And they said, you know what?
You're too green on stage and off.
Bye-bye.
At the same time, my friend Patches Eisenberg was taking off to go across the country to British Columbia, where a couple
of the mass marauders that had been busted with Ken Kesey had set up this fantastic commune.
So we go all the way across the country, and it was just like we'd get like a letter from
Owsley that was just a big piece of windowpane.
It was crazy.
We weren't allowed to tell the kids no there.
That was one thing they were doing with the children there.
It was crazy.
We weren't allowed to tell the kids no there.
That was one thing they were doing with the children there.
But as all communal life goes, I'm getting to the topless bar, Gilbert.
As all communal life goes, you know, each person has to do what they can do.
And I could sing, so I formed a square dance band.
And because there were musicians there, you know, Ding, ding, ding. And I was in that square dance band when somebody from,
because the world was so transient in those years.
Everybody was hitchhiking, connected in some way.
And it was like a subculture.
I was in the subculture.
And so this guy wanted me to come to Toronto to sing backup on an album.
So I go, yeah, to get on the train.
Toronto to sing back up on an album. So I go, yeah, to get on the train. And so now I'm in Toronto and I want a gig and I'm ready to work anywhere. So in the newspaper, you could like,
you know, singer wanted, I'd get those gigs. I joined the musicians union playing castanets
because they would guarantee you a job. Like you could sing at New Year's Eve at the mental hospital or something.
But my first real professional gig was at the fabulous Zanzibar.
The Zanzibar was on Yonge Street.
And it was a, I wouldn't say 24 hours, but I think it opened like around 2 in the afternoon. And it closed at, well, it was Toronto the Good, so it probably closed at midnight or maybe 2 in the afternoon and it closed at well it was toronto the goods so it probably
closed at midnight or maybe two in the morning but anyway and the best jazz players in town
were there and i wanted to sing with them because the thing about those drummers that have worked
behind strippers is like you put your arm out like this and I go. So everything you do, they're used to backing strippers.
Now, I performed fully clothed, I might add, in a full-length gown.
Very classy.
And on either side of me were these giant oil drums with the tops cut off,
replaced with plexiglass that served kind of as like an uplight that illuminated,
you know, their twats.
And every, it's true.
Now, every 20, every 40, that's not even funny.
Oh, my.
But anyway, every 40 minutes, I would say, so I mean, it was like an eight-hour gig or something.
I think I sang from like 2 until 10 at night.
It was like insane.
Is that eight hours?
Yeah.
So every 40 minutes,
I'd say,
and now, gentlemen,
it's swing time.
And these trapezes
would drop down
and the gentlemen
sat in these raked,
you know,
like kind of,
what do you call that?
Raked seating,
you know,
when it goes up real steep.
It was popcorn.
They gave them popcorn.
Like a movie theater.
So the trapezes
would drop down.
The girls would get on in their G-strings and swing for 20 minutes across these guys' heads,
like, you know, watching this stuff.
And I'd sing the most extended version of Girl from Ipanema you can imagine.
I'd love to see that.
There'd be drum solos.
Girl from Ipanema is like a samba. But we'd have a drum solo. We'd love to see that. There'd be drum solos and a girl from even it was like a samba.
But we'd have a drum solo,
you know,
we'd have a guitar solo.
But Ham and I,
you know,
we just,
but the real,
the real hot spot was down the street
with Ronnie Hawkins.
Ronnie Hawkins was enjoying,
this is about 72,
Ronnie Hawkins was enjoying
a big flurry of fame.
A big rockabilly singer.
Yeah.
He was one of the
original rockabilly singers.
He's still around.
Yeah, he is.
But he had gone to Canada where they'd never heard of rock and roll,
and that's where he found Robbie and Ricky and Levon,
who would end up in Coal Miner's Daughter.
Thank you, Beverly.
Yes.
Yeah.
So anyway, those guys had left him to go on the road with Bob Dylan.
They'd become the band.
But Ronnie had a way of pinpointing great players, and he could form bands. So I heard they were looking for a
singer. I walked down after my gig at the Zanzibar. I auditioned with like a Les McCann jazz tune,
which is, that's how I, I'm in an evening gown, and I've walked into rockabilly heaven. But anyway,
I sang this song, and he said to me, I swear to Godilly heaven. But anyway, I sang this song and he said
to me, I swear to God this happened. He said, stick with me, honey, and I'll have you farting
through silk. And that's the God's honest truth. So I entered into, even though rockabilly wasn't
my thing, I entered into this very exciting world of musicians really, really playing this
roots music, to tell you the truth.
And it was a very fundamental part of me, so much so that when I did come to Hollywood,
even though I'd been cast as a debutante, you know, in hair,
I think I just exuded so much of my kind of past experience, that kind of crunchiness.
That's interesting.
That it was all country and western stuff for me.
People can see you singing with Ronnie Hawkins. Yes, they can. Itkins it's on it's on youtube yes there's some clips of you singing
crazy now can i hear a little bit of you singing girl for me panema
can you hear that? Yeah, it's good. Tall and tan and young and lovely.
The girl from Ipanema goes walking.
And when she passes, each one she passes goes, ah.
When she sways, it's like a samba.
I never learned the words.
She doesn't see.
Anyway, it goes on.
I never really learned the words.
Lyrics by Norman Gimbel, Charles Fox's old partner.
And tan and young and lovely.
You know, I really tried to get that into it.
But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Thank you for favoring us with that.
Well, that's very kind of you.
I wouldn't consider it my finest rendition,
but you get the picture.
Yeah.
You get a picture.
You know what?
Listen to this.
Listen to this.
This is true, too.
One of the, so that was the thing,
the trapeze,
that was basically, you know, the gimmick.
But that and the popcorn.
One of the strippers, well, they didn't strip.
They just wore G-strings.
They were dancers.
They're topless dancers.
It was already off.
But so one of them said to me, you know, Beth, I've got a special, yeah, I can.
And what she wanted to do was...
Is this too gross?
Well, you can cut it.
Yeah.
She said that the act that she wanted to do,
she'd learned it in Hawaii at a place called the Stoplight Club.
And she could...
What she wanted to do was gather quarters from everybody in the audience,
make a stack, kneel down,
take it up into her, and then walk
around and deposit them in the
guy's hands. And she said
to me, you think I
should tell the owner?
And I said, why? What, you're trying
to class up the joint?
Yeah, it was that kind
of place. It was fantastic.
The characters were fantastic.
She could pick up quarters with a pussy?
Yes.
She could squat her way.
You know, I have children, but you know what?
This is my story.
And I was doing that and listening to that while Meryl Streep was hearing.
Now, when we approach Shakespeare
first we know that his
words, the words themselves will take you
where you need to go emotionally. I was hearing
You think I ought to introduce this as a
classic? That's hilarious.
So she wanted to pick up quarters
with a pussy one after the other
Squat! Like here are the
quarters
Beverly is acting this out.
Down like that, and then keep them in, and then pop them out.
Haven't you ever heard of that before?
Let's see her try that with Susan B. Anthony dollars.
Are they going to do that?
Are they going to do the Susan B. Anthony dollars?
I hope not.
What about the Harriet Tubman bill?
I hope not.
Beverly stood up in her chair,
lifted her leg up,
and demonstrated.
I was trying to show you.
By the way, Beverly,
about those days...
Does this make me look bad?
Not at all.
No.
Working with me, Michelle.
It's my truth.
Did you bill yourself as Beverly Moses at one point?
Yes, I did.
Were you trying to pass yourself off as a Jewish singer?
Yeah.
You know why I did that?
That's interesting.
Talking about Gilbert, referring to I had stupidity on my side, I got the bright idea that I could get more work if I had a Jewish name.
See, I just threw that in there for him because I knew he'd appreciate it.
So you went as far as Moses?
Beverly Moses.
That's what sprung to mind.
You couldn't have just gone to Goldberg?
Beverly Disraeli.
No, I just said Moses.
I mean, how could you question Moses?
It didn't work, so I went back to D'Angelo.
But I did put an extra E in Beverly once because somebody told me that the numbers of my name added up to a bad number.
And I needed like another five or something.
So for a while, I spelled it with an extra E.
Nothing, you know, whatever.
I'm super stupid.
I have another note here, Beverly.
The benefit of stupidity.
Were you Miss Ponderosa Steakhouse?
Wouldn't you love a steak tonight?
Tender and juicy, tastes just right.
A meal that'll satisfy your appetite
At Ponderosa
Get a steak and a sandwich
And a salad
Mashed potatoes too
You can get a square meal, square deal
At Ponderosa
Now you tell me
How did that happen?
Miss Ponderosa
I'm singing low, I'm resting my voice Now you tell me if I was Miss Ponderosa.
I'm singing low.
I'm resting my voice.
That's fantastic.
So I guess the answer is yes.
Yes.
A resounding yes.
She was Beverly Moses and Miss Ponderosa.
Hey, I've got some claims to fame.
That is versatility. You're not the only one, Gilbert.
Oh, by the way, wait a minute.
Speaking of claims to fame,
I don't know when you're airing this,
but can we just have like a round of applause?
Aladdin has like,
has had the biggest opening
in the history of electricity, practically.
I mean, congratulations, Iago.
No, but I'm not in this one
Oh you're not
This part will cut out of this show
That's a good one
That was hilarious
Oh god I'm so sorry
I didn't mean
That's really the wrong
We can cut that
No it's too good
We can cut that I wanted, it's too good. We can cut that.
I wanted, oh gosh.
The first one was a success too, Gil.
Yeah, that's terrible to tell somebody, hey, the movie you weren't in made a lot of money.
I didn't mean it like that.
I was just trying to.
You could make it up to him by telling him what you told us about Aflac before we turned on the.
Please.
Well, I'll tell you. Let me make it up to you because I him what you told us about Aflac before we turned on the Well, I'll tell you. Let me make it up
to you because I'll tell you one thing. I wouldn't
buy Aflac insurance if you fucking
paid me.
God bless you.
I'll take it. God bless
you. That's hilarious.
And the best thing about that commercial was you.
That's what made it. It didn't
exist. Who in the world would go, hmm, let's see.
There's this insurance company and that insurance company.
There's Aflac.
Nobody's even going to go with that insurance company.
You know why they did?
Because of you, Aflac.
Because of you, right?
Isn't that nice, Gil?
God bless you.
No, but I think it's true.
No.
And I think that these, you know, I understand how stuff goes down.
I do.
I mean, I get it.
I know that when you're living in a country where you cannot exact any, not demand any repercussions or consequences for an amoral president, it will leak out into other
parts of the population. And you will find, like that dog gnawing its paw, people brought up on
things that maybe if we had more moral order coming from our president, we wouldn't pick on,
you know, we wouldn't look on. It's like we have a desire. We have a desire for a morality
in this code, in this country,
but it's not being satisfied by our
present president.
Are you a Republican?
No, not me.
He was in prison
when I got fired.
He's got no excuse.
You got what?
It was coming. Obama was in office was i just had to get it in well they were scared in advance
speaking speaking of amorality can we ask you i'm ruining everything now the aladdin now
i'm just trying to tell you how much i love you
speaking of of uh of amoral things can we ask you a little bit about The Sentinel?
Just for a laugh
Oh, The Sentinel
It turns out I won an award for it
I think it was the funniest masturbation scene in cinema
Okay, here's how The Sentinel went
So I starred in this Broadway show that closed
I was in this teeny repertory company in Canada
And really, Gower Champion, who had directed Mame Sure, everything show that closed like i was doing i was in this teeny repertory company in canada and really gower
champion who had directed name and sure everything choreographed yeah big big broadway deal came to
see the show beckoned by colleen dewhurst who had just uh done moon for the miss eugene's moon for
the misbegotten she had a summer home in prince edward island she brought up her producer who
brought up gower champion what's his this charming little Canadian provincial rep company.
This was one of the things.
You were doing the rock version of Hamlet.
No, no, it wasn't.
It was not so rocky.
It was just musical.
It was called Kronberg 1582.
Okay.
And Gower said, fire everybody but that girl.
And boom, I opened on Broadway.
And they totally redid it when
they took it to new york they built the sets into the they were so confident they built the sets
into the stage of the minsk off theater held 3 000 people they didn't even take it to boston
they figured well it's toured all the provinces in canada anyway they added meatloaf was a priest
they made i they made hamlet black on purpose that was a plot point and and uh i sang
for my uh for ophelia's death scene of suicide i strangled myself with a microphone cord
and died on stage times okay yeah so it bombed right closed in a closed closed in a week we
previewed for three i mean for three weeks I was getting standing ovations every time I'd strangle myself.
And then it opens, and it's like, you know, the minor version of show business.
No business like show business.
So, I'm in, now I'm in New York.
I really didn't have enough money to get back to Toronto.
And I kind of, there was no, what am I going to go back to?
Like, ding, ding, ding.
Sure.
So, but the movie's beckoned. And I kind of, there was no, what am I going to go back to? Sure.
So, but the movie's beckoned.
And this director named Michael Winner, who everybody said, he's a big deal, he did Death Wish.
Yes.
And the cast, because there were so many casting directors and a lot of people like kind of found me in this Broadway thing.
It was evidently very legitimate, except it sucked.
But I got a lot of attention. And so all the casting directors, you know, reaching me and stuff.
And so I went in to meet Michael Winner.
And he said, oh, Beverly, now I'm doing the film.
And I want you to take this script home.
I'm offering you the part of Sandra.
So I had a little apartment up in Spanish Harlem.
I go up to my apartment.
I read it. I don't have anything else to do.
I read it.
I go, huh.
And I called the office back, called the casting director,
and I said, oh, it's Beverly D'Angelo.
I need to come back in.
I need to, I can be there in about 15 minutes.
I need to talk to the director.
And she was like, oh, this is highly unusual.
I mean, you should call your agent.
Well, Lorraine, I said, no, no, no, no.
I got to talk to him right now.
It didn't occur to me that, like, there was all this machinery, right? She goes, no, no, no, I got to talk to him right now. It didn't occur to me that like there was all this machinery, right?
She goes, well, just a minute.
She said, Michael said to come down.
And so I went down and I said, okay, look, I don't know if I want to be an actress, but
if I wanted to be an actress, I don't know if this is how I would start.
I said, look at this.
On page 50, on page 30, I'm eating the brains out of a guy's head.
And he said, oh, but my dear, you'll be eating the brains out of Chris Sarandon's head.
And he's just been nominated for an Oscar.
And I went, oh, okay.
But look over here.
I'm a deaf-mute lesbian with a masturbation scene.
And I'm,
I'm part of a couple.
He said,
Oh yes,
my dear.
Your,
your partner is Sylvia miles and she's been nominated twice.
So I thought,
well,
okay.
You know,
I guess in the movies,
you know,
Oscars mean something. Sure. He's a big deal. So sign me up. And, well, okay, you know, I guess in the movies, you know, Oscars mean something.
Sure.
He's a big deal.
So sign me up.
And so I did it.
I've never seen a larger crew in my life than when I did that thing.
And I've seen it because on YouTube, there's a hilarious thing that I'm going to steal and show in my multimedia show.
I'm stealing it, just telling you.
It's called the Dykes Downstairs.
And they've taken
the scene and they've put a laugh.
Well, you can see people are watching it
and laughing. And it's really
hilarious in retrospect. It's just
ridiculous. And even the masturbation
part was ridiculous because
I didn't have any qualms about it.
Personally, I figured I masturbate.
What's the big deal?
Whatever. Nobody was saying, Beverly, don't do that. I didn't know those people. Personally, I figured I masturbate. What's the big deal? You know, I mean, just whatever.
Nobody was saying, Beverly, don't do that.
I mean, I didn't know those people.
But when I look at it, I was a bit rambunctious.
I did kind of overdo it.
I mean, that's, you know, I was like, you know, it's like some.
The moment of you topless playing the cymbals.
Oh, yeah, that was a good one.
It stays with you.
And you were there with Burgess Meredith.
Oh, because I was a zombie.
I wasn't just a mute lesbian.
I was also a zombie.
A zombie mute lesbian.
Did you have to be careful with the cymbals?
No.
I just put my arms out.
It was okay.
What about those actors?
Eli Wallach and...
What about...
Oh, God.
John Carradine, Ava Gardner?
Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, John Carradine, the guy who was in Arthur Kennedy.
Arthur Kennedy?
Yeah, I mean, it would have been like if we cast me in a movie now.
I mean, you know what I mean?
It's like all the greats from another era. And everything that I did took place in this, I think they'd taken over a brownstone in Brooklyn, I think, Brooklyn Heights or something. And the first floor of the brownstone was designated for costumes, and I had to go in for costumes, which was basically like a leotard and some wisps of chiffon for the symbol act.
A lot of makeup, you know.
So I go in, and lo and behold, in walks the majestic, the beautiful, the perfection, the woman I watched every afternoon in black and white as a little kid on Harwich Road in Columbus, Ohio, Ava Gardner.
And she came in.
She's smoking cigarettes.
She had on a pink Chanel suit. She sat down kind of like this. She said, where is everybody? And I said, Iva Gardner. And she came in. She's smoking cigarettes. She had on a pink Chanel suit.
And she sat down, kind of like this.
She said, where is everybody?
And I said, I don't know.
I'm waiting for them, too.
We were surrounded by racks.
And she said, what are you doing in this?
And I said, I'm playing Sandra.
And she went, oh, yeah.
And I said, yeah, I'm playing the lesbian.
And I said, look, I've got to tell you And I said, look, I got to tell you something.
I don't know if I even want to be an actress.
But if I did, you know, Ava, I think I called her.
What would your advice be?
And she went, keep the clothes.
And it turned out that when I – and then I devoured all these biographies about her and autobiographies.
And that was always in her contract.
How about that?
Every article of clothing that was designed for her belonged to her, and that was her thing.
So that was her acting advice, keep the clothes.
Good advice.
And didn't that movie, I think, got in trouble?
Yes, it did.
Yeah.
Two reasons.
Well, one of them, they use actual handicapped people as the creatures from hell.
They weren't just handicapped people.
It wasn't like, let's give an opportunity to people with abnormalities.
These were institutionalized people.
Wow, I didn't know that.
Yeah, these were people that were institutionalized and were taken from an institution and carted there.
And there were
burn victims. There was a guy that, you know, they called Harry the Lip. It was terrible.
He had a lip that came down to here. You know, they had inoperable things, but also, you know,
other things about their being that required institutionalization. And there was a big thing,
SAG did that, but there was another thing that happened too. And it had to do with the
masturbation scene. And what happened was, when when they released the film now you know how films go the producers make it the studio in that
case makes it and then there's a distribution process and the the various distributors use
various theaters and then they're the theater owners right you know about that right yes sure
okay so anyway but by the time it gets down to the theater owners, they're just accepting the opportunity to to show the film.
They get most of their money from the first couple of weeks. But anyway, what happened was I think it was Utah. It could have been Colorado. But what happened was a couple of theater owners cut the masturbation scene.
And so there was legislation passed that any actor who was in a film
could only be cut by the director or the studio or whoever had the cut,
that theater owners could not,
they either had to take the film in its entirety or not.
So I think I kind of won one for our side in that.
Wow.
Because actors can't be, you can't, a theater owner can't cut out a performance.
That's interesting.
Did you have good parents?
Are they with you now?
Are they still around your parents?
No.
But were they, did you have a good childhood?
Yeah, yeah.
I had good parents too.
My parents loved each other.
I kind of grew up witnessing a wonderful love affair, and it was in the Midwest, and those core values, they really socked them in there.
And I really, more and more, I'm so grateful for the parents that I had.
I didn't have whack jobs at all.
My mother joined the circus once, though.
Your mother joined the circus?
Yeah, she did.
I was reading about your parents, too.
Your dad was a local celebrity in Ohio.
Yeah.
That sounds like a real character.
He was a musician who worked with big bands.
He just passed away.
I know, I know.
He was the greatest.
I'm sorry.
Our condolences.
He was the greatest.
Gino the Giant Killer.
Yeah, yeah.
Called Everybody Babe, I read.
Called Everybody Babe. Yeah. He built a replica of theino the Giant Killer. Yeah. Called Everybody Babe, I read. Called Everybody Babe.
He built a replica of the Santa Maria and floated it in the Siam River.
Yes, I was telling Gilbert that story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A talented family all around Beverly.
Very talented.
My mother was a, she got a full four-year scholarship to Smith College as a violinist.
And then she ran away to Sarasota and joined the circus.
Very impressive.
Yeah.
They brought her back, though.
Shocked me a little bit.
And they brought her back.
They did.
I remember working with some of these great old characters, like Martin Balsam.
Well, I mean, I remember meeting him, but you have to understand that when I entered
into film, it was kind of on my way, I thought, to being a singer.
Just a stepping stone for you.
It wasn't a stepping stone.
It was an opportunity.
It was like another opportunity to express myself, because that's what I was going to say to you, is that I started out thinking, well, commercial art.
And then I discovered I could sing.
And when I sang sang it changed the molecules
around me and the way that the atmosphere was and it felt good and i could express myself through it
and then that led me to you know singing and dancing on broadway and that led me to films
even though it was the sentinel but you know it's just kind of i just always musical films
yeah yeah but and then the musical films yeah Hair and Goldmutter's Daughter.
But to me, life has always been and continues to be just kind of like an expanding thing,
and you just look where it can be. I had my kids very late.
I got pregnant when I was 48.
You know, nice date.
But anyway, I got surprised.
It didn't happen like that.
We used all kinds of science, Al and I.
But the point is that for me, motherhood was not a casual thing. And I saw that as an opportunity to expand myself too in expression. And this had to do with being a parent and a teacher. And I pulled back from movies.
I think it's interesting you say it's sort of a philosophy of life. You know, a door opens and you walk through it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's the way hair –
What else are you going to do?
Well, that's –
What are you going to do?
And when you're talking about – Gilbert was talking about –
The curtain is closed.
Gilbert was talking about being too stupid to know the difference or to know any better when he started his career.
What were you too stupid about?
Because that's – yeah.
any better when he started his career what were you too stupid about because that's yeah well it it's one of these things where well first of all i went into it not thinking the odds against but
you were like 15 yes he was when you started doing stand-up right what got into your mind too i i
think i'll go do stand-up tonight yeah what was What was that? Well, for a while I was just kind of joking around, thinking I wanted to be in the business.
But was there some person that you said, I want to emulate that?
Or did you make it up in your mind, too?
Oh, there were a million people I'd watch on TV and in movies.
Jack Parr?
Well, I didn't want to be jack par
you're jack par now yeah and and the funny thing but now when people say to me oh i'm an aspiring
comic or actor or when they say how would you feel about your kids doing it? I think, you know, now I think realistically, like the odds are ridiculous.
The odds are off the charts.
Yeah.
The odds are ridiculous.
Like, how did that happen?
You're right.
And I think, like, I can only imagine what my parents thought back then.
Because it's like, here I was, this kid failing at school and and it was like so
but i did they did they recognize that you'd found your spark or was it just so foreign to
them what i think it was foreign to them and i think now it scares me to think back on it
where i think does it make you feel so grateful that they
understand that even even though they didn't understand it they didn't like
say you can never leave the house or anything like that yeah they never did that yeah well
that's pretty cool yeah but it's i think of it now and i think like I think like if my kids said they wanted to be in show business,
I would think like I understand reaching into a trash can,
taking out bottles, and turning it in for a five-cent deposit.
That at least is logical.
Right.
So I went into the business like an idiot and i kept doing it
like an idiot nothing but you did it because you loved it right yeah do you remember that one
moment when you were standing on a stage and it all went and kind of carved a neural pathway in
your brain that made you want to get that again and again and again oh i would remember that but then
it would be followed by the next night when you bomb like it's the time it's like i mean isn't
the stand-up comedian like the boxer of sports you know what i mean yeah just it's a one-on-one
interesting analogy it's it's it's one-on-one you know know? Yeah. So I would always, I would do great and think, oh, that's it.
I'm a star now.
Right.
And then the next night, I'd bomb like no one else.
With the same jokes?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so what did that teach you?
Did you learn to read the audience more or timing or how did you get around that?
Did you learn to read the audience more or timing or how did you get around that? I guess years and years later, but still, you're up there not knowing what's going to happen.
Isn't, is that exciting?
Do you like that?
I, it, I'm, I'm excited when the show's over and they give me the check.
It cuts to the check.
Well, Beverly, you said, I saw an interview with you and you were saying that specifically
one of the times
where you said
you were too stupid
to realize
what you were taking on
was taking on Patsy Cline.
Oh, that was just blind.
Yeah, I can do that.
That was just blind.
I can do that.
It didn't occur to me
that there was,
it just,
it was like,
I met the casting director.
I told him my background.
I said,
I've been singing
these Patsy Cline songs
forever. And, so I've been singing these Patsy Cline songs forever.
And so I knew who she was.
But you've got to remember, when we made Coal Miner's Daughter, people didn't really know who Patsy Cline was.
Singers knew who she was.
Yeah, that's interesting.
But she was not popular, and none of her records were in release.
She wasn't, you know, it was just, it was, she was a, if anybody knew about her, it's because Loretta Lindsay said, this is my mentor.
But she had a very brief career.
Very brief career.
She stopped when she had kids and then she started and then she died.
You know, I mean, it was very brief.
By the way, I'm the docent of the Patsy Cline Museum.
Yes, I'd heard that.
The video docent in Nashville.
Very cool. Yes, I re-record.
And so he sent some tracks of, I think it was Sweet Dreams or I Fall to Peace, something like that, minus her voice, and I sang on that.
That's great.
And so that's how I got it.
If I would have had any inkling that it was being vied for,
or that if I would have had the ability to look at me through anybody else's eyes,
I probably would have said, oh, I'll never get that.
But it just didn't occur to me.
The courage of youth.
The courage of youth, and also, you know, the casting director, his name was Michael Chinich.
You know, he was very, he was a big fan of Ronnie, and he was a big fan of Levon Helm, too.
He was my friend from back in the day, and so Levon got cast, too.
So it was very, and also the director, Michael Apted, he was coming from a documentary background.
So he just kind of created an atmosphere, and we were just who we were, I think, to tell the truth more than anything. Oh, yeah, sure. like, for example, so I had Owen separate the track, and there was a song, she was singing,
oh, oh, Crazy, and so I'm listening to the track, and the very last, and I'm crazy for
loving you, well, on the track, she takes, when she comes to that part at the end, she goes,
And when she comes to that part at the end, she goes, loving you, like that.
And I said, what's that weird breath in there?
And I said, was she crying?
And Owen said, no, she'd gotten in a car accident.
Her face was all banged up and her ribs were broken.
And when she took that big breath, it hurt.
How about that?
So that led me on the trail. Well, tell me about the car accident. Tell me, it hurt. How about that? So that led me on the trail.
Well, tell me about the car accident.
Tell me about the thing.
What about this?
So I kind of approached that all through the singing, which is what I could really understand.
I could hear the way she breathed.
I could hear the way that she attacked certain words.
And that can tell you so much about who a person is when you hear them up close with no other music singing.
So that was – I got way off the subject probably.
No, I just want to recommend to our listeners that they get the Coal Miner's Daughter soundtrack because your tracks are on there. Available in vinyl.
Well, the ones that didn't end up in the movie, the ones that got cut, they can listen to.
We shot a scene with Walking After Midnight, but it got cut.
It's on YouTube. A lot of stuff got cut find it yeah they're worth hearing thank you good movie too just watched it again by the way
and just and who knew leon helm could act wasn't i mean i love the band he made it he made another
movie too uh the dollhouse right right but no wasn't called dollhouse doll maker doll maker it was good yeah great
documentary good film all around yeah good film good film holds up yeah we will return to
gilbert godfrey's amazing colossal podcast after this tell us too this is gilbert will enjoy this
where is my card you were going to tell us before.
Frank, you are so thorough.
I'm so grateful and impressed.
Oh, it's just.
I really am.
Oh, it's just stuff I do, Beverly.
Okay.
I've got my own pathology.
Ooh.
Tell us about screen testing for Raging Bull.
I want to know about your pathology.
Oh, it's a whole other show.
Oh, okay.
So what happened with Raging Bull was, I was up for that.
I remember going to an apartment to meet Marty and Robert De Niro, and we improvised a little bit.
Oh, it was the same casting director who did The Sentinel.
I'm not kidding you.
Oh, interesting.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Anyway, so I was really interested in that.
You would have been cast as an Italian, as we said in the intro.
You never get any Italian parts.
Well, she was Irish.
Oh, Vicky.
The character was Irish.
Vicky was Irish.
That's right.
Vicky was Irish.
That's right.
But anyway, so what happened was it was going kind of well, and they wanted me to screen test.
And it came down to me and one other person, and I got offered Coal Miner's Daughter.
And I said to my agent, no, I want to go for this.
And so when you do a screen test, you have to sign a contract.
And this particular contract said that if I got the role, I wouldn't be allowed to appear in any other movie until this was released.
I see.
And it was going to take a year to shoot because De Niro had to do the weight gain and the weight loss and all that kind of stuff.
So I was ready to do that.
And I said, no, no, no, no, no.
I want to do the screen test.
Tell him goodbye.
I'm not going to do Cole Miner's daughter.
Right?
And so I went to do the screen test
in the morning
and put on the little 40s stuff
and we did this one scene
I improvised a line
the line I improvised was
I sucked your brother's cock
it stayed in the movie
but anyway it was a fight scene
between the two of them
and then Kathy
who by the way is a good friend of mine
then they did Kathy everything was over by the way, is a good friend of mine. Then they did Kathy.
It was over.
Everything was over by about 10 in the morning.
And the next morning, Marty called me and he said, listen, Beverly, if we were going to go with an actress, we'd go with you.
But we put Kathy on film.
We didn't know what would happen if we filmed her.
And she just is this role.
And I said, great.
Picked up the phone and and I called my agent.
I said, you know how I said I didn't want to do it yesterday?
Can you get it back?
And the call manager started thinking.
Good timing.
And he said, I never told him, no.
Oh.
So I took off and went to Nashville, and I had, it was wonderful.
That was wonderful.
It was meant to be.
Yeah, it's great the way it worked out.
Yeah.
Well, I was going to go with Gilbert, it's great the way it worked out. Yeah.
Where I was going to go with Gilbert because he has a monkey obsession.
Yes.
I wanted to ask about working with Clyde in Every Which Way But Loose.
Oh, oh, oh. And you know something?
I think, like, I mean, I worked with this act.
The Berlusconi brothers?
It might be.
Berlusconi, I think. They were three orangutans you work with orangutans yes yes and it was the brisk we got to look this up because they got arrested and everything and
and this was on thick of the night okay brisconi or something like that then a year after i'm off
of thick of the night i auditioned for a show called Mr. Smith, which I think were the same orangutans.
Wow.
Probably.
And I think those are the orangutans that are in Any Which Way But Loose.
Every Which Way But Loose.
Yes, probably.
I'll tell you something about that.
They then got arrested for animal cruelty.
Oh, God.
Because they ended up doing an act in Vegas.
And I know why, because this is the truth of what happened.
It's terrible.
Should I tell you this, too?
Yes.
If it's terrible, we'll cut it out.
But you have, you said, I want to just establish this first.
You have a monkey obsession, or you just, your past is tied up with monkey?
All right, tell her the chimp.
Tell her your chimp tell
your chimp theory from sunset boulevard oh okay oh right he started it the dead chimp well according
it's his funeral in in sunset i'm ready for my close-up now what in sunset boulevard there's a
funeral for her right for her chimp Exactly. And the story that I heard is
Billy Wilder said to her,
okay, now remember,
the chimp is your lover.
You're fucking the chimp,
Billy Wilder said to her.
And the story I heard,
and I talked to Jackie.
So then my stories are nothing compared to that.
Oh, yours are plenty good.
The deal about the quarters.
We talked about this.
And there's a theory that back then, rich women would buy chimpanzees.
And fuck them?
No, no.
Who were trained to perform cunnilingus.
Really?
With their giant mouths and tongues.
Yeah, because if you look scientifically, chimps do have a very small penis.
That's a fact.
Yeah.
So these chimps... Wait, wait.
What's the origin of that?
What's the origin of the cunnilingus?
Gilbert dreamt it.
I mean, Billy
Wilder did say, remember, you're
fucking the chimp. Okay, but
that's not cunnilingus.
Yeah. Well, I guess
he meant you had a relationship with the chimp.
That's an interesting point. So is the word fucking for you like a catch-all for just sex?
Maybe.
Or maybe chimpanzees are considerate,
and they like to warm the woman up first with cunnilingus.
Like a star.
What do you call it?
A fluffer.
A fluffer.
They're the fluffer.
Yes, yes.
Okay.
The orangutan was named Manus.
I'm still missing the link here.
I know what Billy Wilder said, but where did you hear this rumor about the-
Well, me and, of course, Jackie the-
Joe and Martin.
Oh, Jackie the-
You guys made it up.
No, no.
This is a popular belief.
It's out there, Beverly.
It's out there.
I've got my iPad.
It may be an urban myth, but it's floating around out there. It's an urban myth.
And you know, when I'm on a movie set, to keep my heart on, they bring in a female chick.
He insists on a chimp.
It's in his rider.
I didn't know you were now in porn.
You've done so much in your career.
You have a chimp rider? Yeah, a chimp rider. porn you've done you've done so much yes in your career it's wonderful you've reached the point
yeah a chimp writer well what what happened and and the music my story this is not my story cannot
follow this and the music that's played while a chimp is eating a rich woman's pussy? Tall and tan and young and lovely.
The girl from Ipanema.
Right?
Is that what you were going to say?
Well, that's good.
That's certainly.
But there's another one.
We'll put it in after.
Yeah.
I know what you're thinking. By the way, do you know that my son, I got to say this, my son is so excited about this.
He sends me stuff of yours all the
time and and he knows that i'm like i'm rocky going to sleep you know what i mean it takes
about an hour but i really tried i set my alarms and everything to get my eight hours and blah blah
and he sent me your meditation oh my god yes it the greatest. It's the greatest in the world.
The absolute greatest.
Yeah, the meditation tape on the comedy channel.
Calm down!
Relax!
It's just brilliant.
It's really brilliant.
So maybe you should make one of those seduction tapes, like how to speak to your lover.
Roll over!
Have you seen his Fifty Shades of Grey narration, Beverly?
No, I haven't, and I didn't do my homework as much as you have.
That's okay. We'll send that to you.
I'm sorry. I know it's there. I'm ready for it.
We're going to move off the orangutan.
Tell us about, you were starting to tell us before we put the mics on,
about Big Trouble and our friend Andrew Bergman.
You interviewed Andy Bergman. Did he talk about it? Briefly. Did he say anything
about it? Briefly. We love Andrew. Well, I remember... I love him too. Good guy.
I once worked with Alan Arkin. Who we love.
Yeah, he's a real actor. Terrific. Terrific.
And he was talking about making... Into reincarnation when I worked
with him.
Oh, interesting. He would look at me and say, does Russia mean anything to you?
But go ahead.
He was talking about making big trouble.
Yeah.
What did he say?
He said, of working with...
We should really do a documentary about that.
Cassavetes as a director.
Yeah.
He said it was like the Marx Brothers being directed by Bela Lugosi.
Okay, I gotta tell you something.
I've also heard that John Cassavetes referred to it as the aptly named Big Trouble.
I'll get rid of the tragic stuff first.
But when he turned in his cut, they said to him, this is way too long.
It's comedy.
It's got to come in at 90 minutes.
And he said, over my dead body, he had cirrhosis.
And it wasn't his cut.
It wasn't his cut.
But here's what happened.
And this is my point of view.
I love Andy
Bergman. And when I and that was, it wasn't exactly an audition, but that was a meeting,
a chemistry meeting with me and Andy and Peter Falk and the producer, Mike Lobel and Alan
Arkin and Alan Arkin said, I can see you with these guys like that's it's going to work.
I was very excited about it.
It was a parody.
It was, as Andrew wrote it, it was a parody of Double Indemnity.
My character's name is Blanche Rickey.
Anyway.
Blanche Rickey.
Yeah.
Good joke.
So, Andrew had written a script that was, you know, the earmarks of Double Indemnity and that, you know, innocent Alan Arkin is pulled into an insurance scam and he's hoodwinked and blah, blah, blah.
So anyway, we had rehearsals where the sets were taped off and we ran some stuff and we did that for a couple of weeks.
a couple of weeks, and then we went to shoot.
And this is what I remember, that the first night we shot,
it was a night shoot and we were on a bridge and this particular scene was post-kidnapping Charles Durning
and we're fighting in the back seat,
Alan Arkin, me, and Peter in Peter's in the driver's seat or something,
but there's a fight going on,
and Peter stops the car and he goes,
that's it, and he gets out of the car,
and he goes, everything's my fault.
That crack in the road, that's my fault.
And then, and I think,
and Alan Arkin gets out going another way.
Anyway, I've never seen the movie,
but I'd have to watch it anyway the point is that
uh oh wait a minute i'm telling the wrong story can we go back
can we go back i was gonna tell the story about how the director quit how andrew that's fine yeah
tell that one we'll We'll trim all this.
Okay, okay.
It's not live.
So what happened was, so I get the thing, and I was living in Italy at the time, so
I rent a house, and I'm all down for it.
It's all great.
Costumes are going to be great.
Fantastic turbans, fabulous clothes.
And the script was funny.
It was all good.
And Alan Arkin and Peter Falk are great.
They're just great.
So we're doing these rehearsals, and then I don't even think we'd shot anything except this scene that I'm telling you about.
I am telling the right story.
I'm telling the right story.
Thank God.
So we're shooting this.
Thank God.
So we're shooting this scene.
It was at night.
And what was happening was
peter falk would do it differently every time different to the to the extent of the window
would be rolled up or rolled down and he'd go in the car door one way or and get back climb back
into the window or open up the car door and turn around and you know matching was very important
in the days of of 35 millimeter film a because it was expensive so you know, matching was very important in the days of 35mm film, A, because it was expensive. So, you know, when they said action, you had a finite amount of time to get it done, and they traditionally cut on the move. So, you would stop and start a take with like a move, like you move into it. And so, if you got your coverage and you open up the door, chances are you'd start the next take on the door opening.
Anyway, Peter kept doing things differently and changing things and saying different lines, and Alan wasn't happy about it.
And so Alan said something to somebody.
The next thing you know, I'm looking over here, and I see the wardrobe man getting, like, shaken like that.
Something had happened.
Alan would have to tell you what happened.
I don't know, but I know that he wasn't happy about Peter not matching. The next day, I got a letter
that said, Dear Beverly, I've talked this over with my wife and I've decided that I'm not going
to continue on on this film. It's been wonderful. Thank you for understanding. Andrew Bergman.
I got a call then from the producer, Michael Bell, who said, look, here's the thing.
We're just going to be down for a couple of weeks, just a couple of weeks.
I think Howard Deutsch is going to direct it, but don't leave.
It's still all happening and all that kind of stuff.
Four days later, I'm called back to set, and now John Cassabetis is directing it.
And I'm in the makeup trailer, and John comes in, and there's just, to know that guy is to love him, and it's just, it falls off of him.
So he walks in, and he says, you see this?
And he goes, and he throws the script out.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
Oh, no.
So the set was, we had two continuity women.
One who had the, there were four scripts at any given time.
The original script, the rewrites, the days, the revisions for that particular scene for the day.
And then we had one woman who just wrote down what we actually shot.
Oh, boy.
And John said that famous
line matching is for sissies which it is now that there's digital but you know there were so many
gifts on that movie i i i remember i remember uh peter because i did say to him like what what
did you do to make alan so mad i mean mean, what's happening and everything? And he said, listen, he said,
it's all okay. And he said, every person has to do what they need to do to make that their set.
And it's true. I've seen it again and again. It's kind of tied into maybe even Chubby a little bit,
but everybody has a different way of working there. I've worked with an actress who just eviscerated everybody. And she would just say, I remember being in her trailer once,
and the director knocked on the door. She said, whatever you want, the answer is no,
which she, brilliant actress, but she had to do that. Because unless she took everybody down to
a certain level of like being beaten up or treated badly, she didn't feel strong enough.
being beaten up or or treated badly she didn't feel strong enough and everybody has a different way of approaching that creating that space that you need to really be like that's fascinating you
know creative and and and and to do your thing and it doesn't happen all the time and it's it gets
harder and harder as the the concept of acting becomes more and more um you know uh corporate gilbert are you that diva on
your film sets oh yes are you the one that won't come out of your trailer and yeah and not unless
you're not you can't do that anymore unless i have my own personal hairdresser and chimp yes
unless you have your chimp your chimp writer unless i have a cunnilingus chimp a train
beverly can we ask you about some of the other uh famous people uh icons that you work sure uh
we're just throwing this out here uh eddie bracken in the let that wonderful oh my god
the sweetest man in the world okay vacation the original ending of the first vacation, National Poon's vacation, ended with Eddie Bracken, famous song and dance man, but it ended with we? Anyway, he does a song and dance, and it was great.
He was a song and dance man, but at gunpoint.
So then I get called back from Italy because we're reshooting the ending,
and we're back at Magic Mountain, and we're getting on the roller coaster,
and I look at, it was for a rehearsal,
and Eddie had on a tie with all of his grandchildren's name on it.
You're like, Bobby, Betty, Sue.
Oh, that's sweet.
So sweet.
And I said to Maddie, hey, what's the deal?
Why are we changing the ending?
And Maddie Simmons always smoked a cigar that was kind of attached to his lips by these couple of strings of saliva.
And I was always fascinated, like, how far is he going to take it out of his mouth? of attached to his lips by these just a couple of strings of saliva you know and you and i was
always fascinated like how far is he going to take it out of his mouth are the strings going to break
or stay intact so he goes the thing he said well he said the first ending was you know we tested it
and it's uh it's a bit too tasteful and i looked at eddie and he was just like you could tell he
was crestfallen because he he wasn't going to get the song and dance. Oh, I didn't know that.
Because it was too tasteful.
Yeah.
It was too much of a golden moment, evidently, because he was so great.
But what a sweet man.
Well, this was, if you watch the documentary about the making of the movie, I mean, the first ending.
Oh, I didn't see the documentary.
Was I in it?
Yeah, you're in it.
They previewed it and the audience didn't like the original ending.
And that's when Harold.
I know, but it was Eddie singing and dancing.
Right, right.
And what about working with woody allen yeah you went in and you told him that you'd had a dream
about him with bob yes here's what happened again this was on the overflow of the of the broadway
show and um uh mary and doherty called me in to meet him and i had uh i had i i have kept diaries since I was maybe 15, and I still have them.
But I kept a diary at that time, and I had had a dream about him.
So I took my diary, and I said, I had a dream about you.
And he goes, oh.
I said, I brought my diary.
And so I read it to him, and the dream was that we were at a party, and I went outside in the snow, and Bob Dylan was there, and Woody Allen came out, and he was playing the tuba.
you know, I'm making this movie.
Can you be in it?
And I'm going to shoot.
It was like either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow or something.
And I said, yeah, great.
But I wasn't in SAG.
And he said, you know, we'll do the thing, whatever you have to do.
Because I had already done the deaf, mute, lesbian.
So I think there's something taffed.
Whatever it was, I needed to have a card to be in his movie. So I got the card.
And I went to shoot with him.
And we spent the whole day.
We shot a little bit.
And then we went out to lunch.
And then we went back and shot.
And it was a scene, from my point of view, it was a scene.
He shot it on video.
And this was 76 or 70.
I think it came out, whatever it was.
It came out in 77.
Well, it's video.
I mean, it's like this great big thing.
And I played the wife of a guy who ended up being Cole Miner's daughter, by the way.
A wife of a guy on a sitcom.
And in the film, when Woody Allen comes out to California and Tony Roberts has gone all Hollywood.
The laugh track.
He takes him and they're putting him.
That's me saying, you know, my cousin, the Neanderthal man, ha ha, or something like that.
But the thing that happened was I knew nothing about film.
In fact, I remember going to meet him and I was so cold that I actually did this really cool thing where I cut these really colorful socks off and wrapped them around my knees so they were up to my thigh, over my boots.
It was a cool look.
But I mean, I was free.
I didn't even have money to buy clothes.
I was making them up.
So anyway, I then thought, well, I spent the whole day filming, and a movie's only two hours long so stupidity um so
from then on i said to everybody oh i'm in the woody allen film and you know he always kept
people so um like in awe and so quiet about you know like everything was under wraps i didn't even
i think i was told that the name of the project was Anhedonia.
Yeah, that was the original working title.
But anyway, I didn't even get a script.
I mean, it was just like pages and it was all super secret.
So, in other words, when I would say to people, oh, yeah, just shot the Woody Allen movie or whatever, you know, they thought I was starring in it.
Because for all I knew, for all I knew, he'd shot me for eight hours, nine hours.
I mean, going to cut it down, that'd be two hours of me, you know.
I had no idea.
You thought you were the star.
But I think, I didn't know what else to think.
Right, right.
What about Peter O'Toole and making high spirits?
Peter O'Toole.
Peter O'Toole was, was Peter O'Toole.
I mean, he was very, he was magnificent. I don't know how happy he was, you know, during the filming. But he also had, he was on a, you know, I worked with Richard Harris and Richard Harris did the same thing. There was some program going on where you would stop drinking, but you always had
to have a bottle in the room with you. That's interesting.
It was a method. I think they just did it in England. I don't know. But I know that he had
that bottle and there was this fantastic singer named Mary Coughlin, a friend of mine when I
lived in Ireland. Beautiful singer, fantastic person.
And she liked to drink, so he would always have her in his dressing room.
And she'd like sit there and she'd get drunk while she was talking to him.
So he'd at least be around drunk.
I never made it into the dressing room to get drunk.
But he was, you know, he was just, he was such a creature, such a cinematic creature.
Just the way he lifted his arm was poetic visually.
Go ahead, Gil.
Oh, what about John Carradine?
I had no contact with him because I was only there.
Well, no, wait.
I must have.
I don't know.
I'd have to watch the movie if I was in a scene with him that I was there. I remember having lunch with Arthur Kennedy and Burgess Meredith.
Burgess Meredith kept saying, I live in Malibu.
If you're ever in California, I live in Malibu.
And I was thinking, why is this guy telling me he lives in Malibu?
It's in on you.
Yeah.
Now that I look back, yeah.
But I was a kid.
Burgess Meredith was working you.
I live in Malibu.
So the penguin wanted to fuck you.
I don't.
In retrospect, maybe.
I don't know.
He told me he lived in Malibu a lot.
But I don't know.
Who knows?
Here's the thing.
Do you know I was going to start a hashtag, why not me too?
Because I was never me too'd.
No one ever tried to me too me. Interesting.'d. No one ever tried to me too me.
That's interesting.
Wow.
No one ever tried to me too me.
Now, one of the reasons is because by the time I came to Hollywood, I'd met criminals and real, you know, like I was at the, I'd say certainly working with Ronnie, I was at the core of show business.
I was at the direct. You sing a song, they're standing there, you gotta do this, you know what I mean?
But when I met these wealthy and well-dressed boys and men who were running Hollywood, it was like, oh, yeah, those kind of guys.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
But you were no babe in the woods after experiencing guns. I was no babe in the woods when I was 17.
But it just never came up.
And also, here's another thing.
Here's another thing.
I never slept with anybody that I didn't want to. It never would occur to me that if you slept with somebody, you could make a guy do what you wanted to do. All I wanted out of, you got to remember that love child background. All I've ever wanted out of men that I've had affairs with was them and that relationship and that love.
So the idea, I couldn't even look at a guy and think,
oh, if I blow him, then I'll, you know,
he'll give me the Empire State Building.
It's not in my, it's not.
No, you know what I mean?
I wish I could say the same, Beverly, about my career.
It really wouldn't have occurred to me.
So maybe I never put out the thing that I was even open to that kind of exchange.
Now, also, we're not looking at an amazing career, really.
I mean, I didn't go after stuff.
I just got offered stuff.
It's still kind of like that.
And you were really close friends with Carrie Fisher.
Yeah.
Yeah. Very. 32 years with Carrie Fisher. Yeah. Yeah.
Very.
32 years.
Best friend.
Very.
What do you remember about her?
Her last text was, we were talking about whether it was going to be Christmas at my house and New Year's at hers or vice versa.
And she said, I'll see you tomorrow.
I was devastated.
I loved Carrie.
Everybody loves Carrie.
And she belongs to everybody.
But my friendship started with her in the most amazing way
and it reached a level of intimacy that never ended i never thought
of myself as a single mom when i broke up with al because she was there oh that's nice and uh i mean
she was there she was my kid's godmother uh but anyway the way we met is fantastic okay so what
happened was now remember i told you i was married for 15 years but i guess it was an open marriage
you know for him and for me.
So I guess that makes it open.
With the Duke.
With the Duke.
Yeah.
And so it's 85.
And so I was fucking a rock star.
I mean, I don't know how else to, well, I was having an, I thought I was having an affair.
I thought I was having an affair.
And so he called me on this Friday, and he said, God, my son's going to listen to this show.
Well, hi, this is it.
Anyway, he called me on a Friday. Tell us what to edit, Beverly.
Yeah.
He called me on a Friday just to edit anything that isn't entertaining.
You want to reach people.
We'll go over it together. So anyway, he called me on a Friday, just edit anything that isn't entertaining. Okay. We'll go over it together.
So anyway, he called me on a Friday.
It was about five o'clock.
And he said, I'm at this charity event and it's really boring and they're going to break
for dinner soon.
Do you have anything to eat?
Now, I want to point out that do you have anything to eat there is rock star language
for, do you want to do it there is rock star language for,
do you want to do it?
So I said yes.
And so I was making some pasta or something like that. And he shows up, yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then he's lying there and goes, you know, I got to go back to this thing.
I got to go back.
Okay, he goes, but look, I want you to spend the night with me.
I'll call you when it's over.
I'll meet you at the house.
Because he just slipped on my home.
Not far from me.
And so I go, okay.
Fine.
And I'm kind of luxuriating in the afterglow.
And it's like 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Nothing.
So I pick up the phone and I called him
and I hear like
hello
like you know the sleep thing
and I said oh did I wake you up
yeah I'll call you first thing
in the morning
so I hang up the phone and I thought
no no no no no no
cannot be here when he calls
so I first thing in the morning I called Murrieta Hot Springs, which has these mud baths, and I booked myself in and got in the car and drove down to Murrieta.
And a lot of people would go to these health spas on the weekend and eat health food and be very clean and work out.
And then they'd go back during the week and snort a bunch of Coke or something.
But anyway, so everybody in the industry was always at these places on the weekend.
So I go to Muriel Hot Springs.
No phones in the room, but there's one pay phone by the cafeteria where you get your lentil and your lettuce leaf.
So everybody's eating dinner.
And now there's a big long line for the pay phone. And I'm in long line for the pay phone too because i had one of those services you know i just wanted to hear
him say hello are you there anyway you know for voice messages anyway so in the line there's like
john peters all these like you know big big deals you know like pop knobby people and there's carrie
and she goes be Bev, Bev,
we had met earlier at a party where
she wanted me to raid somebody's bathroom
with her for the medicine cabinet.
I was like, no, man, that's not cool.
No, it's great, it's great.
Come on, let's raid Sue Menger's house.
And I was like, no, you can't.
No, you can't do that.
Anyway, so we didn't
bond then, but now, here we are in the middle of nowhere
you know eating lentils and and soaking in mud she goes come back to my room come back in my room
so we're walking back she said what are you doing here oh it's a long story what are you doing here
she opens up the door i'm gonna put this in my show by the way so if you see my show and this
repeats it okay just dig it just dig it just dig it so anyway she opens up the
door in her the floor of her hotel of her bungalow was covered with these uh big yellow uh legal pads
and this loopy writing of hers and she was there with a guy who was editing her book with her paul
slansky and she had gotten a deal on the tail end of Mommy Dearest.
You know, there were like these tell-alls about horrible movie star mothers.
So she'd gotten a deal to write a memoir.
It was 1985, so what was she like, 25?
Anyway, 28.
It doesn't matter.
The point is that she was writing a memoir and she said she was going to call it Money Dearest.
Right?
So she was down there just starting to get it together.
It was destined to be Postcards from the Edge.
But anyway, so she goes, so why are you here?
And I said, it's too long a story.
She goes, come on, tell me, tell me.
So I said, well, you know, I'm having an affair with this guy. And he called me yesterday and came over.
And he said, you know, I'll call you when I get done and spend the night.
And he didn't.
And he said he was going to call this morning.
So I came down here instead.
And she said, wait a minute.
He called you yesterday?
What time?
And I said, I don't know.
It was like 4 or 5, something like that.
He said he was at a charity event.
And he, you know, wanted to take a break from dinner.
And then he said he had to go back there.
And when I called him, he was asleep.
So I just don't want to be around for that guy.
I'm playing.
I'm going to be hard to get for this, you know.
And she said, what was the charity event?
And I said, I don't know.
She said, I was right beside him when you called last night.
He went to the charity event with me, and he left saying he
had to go somewhere, and he came back, and I went home with him, and I was eating a hamburger when
you called at midnight. So, we realized it was the same guy. I'm not telling you who it is.
Okay, so we realized it was the same. So, then we were instantly best friends and we made this plan
that whoever he called first when we got back to town on monday would bust him so he calls me first
i'm lying there and and he's going so what what happened to you this way where'd you go and i
said oh god i met the most fantastic woman in the world she's my new best friend she's amazing her
name's carrie fisher and he anyway it was
literally like like one of those movies like okay okay bev bev okay and it wasn't like he was saying
like i can explain it was basically like okay that's it you know like i'm not gonna be busted
like this and she because she's so fabulous she he kind of petered out with me and he was like hi
you know across the room from me i i didn't care that much. Plus, I was married. But Carrie was just so fascinating that it didn't matter what happened. It didn't matter what happened. There was no leaving her. I mean, yes, he was busted. But, you know, even if she told him, go away, he wouldn't have. Nobody would have because she was just a there is no it just doesn't exist
you know this is this is this is this is a very very singular person with an engine and with a
battery that was so unique and so brilliant that it set off sparks and they burned her up you know
i'm glad you got to have that wonderful friendship though for all those years
changed my life did you meet craig through her because we obviously craig bierko introduced
yeah introduced you to us yeah she i think i think she she said something flattering to gilbert
didn't she go yeah before we get out of here we were at a roast together and at one point she just says to me she looks at me and smiles yeah and she goes you are
just my type yeah and and i said to her what type is that and she goes little cute and funny
oh it's true it's true absolutely true didn't you autumn didn't you fall in love with her never to fall out then
oh yeah
I mean it's just
poets must describe it
novelists must describe it
I wrote a song about her but I don't have a piano
so I can't play it otherwise I would
okay
tell us about the podcast
you're going to do
I'm insane.
I need help.
Help me.
Well, what happened was a year ago, a friend of mine, Moon Zappa, said,
you've got to do a podcast.
You've got to do a podcast.
You're a talkaholic.
It's your medium.
Plus, I really do believe that podcasts are what's happening right now.
This is like radio.
Yeah.
I think it is your medium, by the way, Beverly.
Well, I'm into it so anyway i couldn't figure out what to focus on and then i got this obsession
about steve perry before his album came out and i was just obsessed with him and my friend charlie
wester said he said that's your podcast i said about steve perry my obsession with steve perry
he said no just you're just the way your mind works.
And so originally I was going to call it, I'm Beth D'Angelo and I'm obsessed and then have dot, dot, dot with.
But as it evolved and I became more adult about it and discarded the Steve Perry thing because a horrible thing happened.
I'll tell you later. Anyway, I think I'm going to call it specifically or specifically speaking.
Okay.
Because the guests that I interview, I like to do a deep dive into them, like a really deep dive into them and their profession.
And I've done eight so far, but I just want them to be so good.
And the next one I want to do is I'm going to call it the Council of Women.
I've got four fantastic women that I'm going to get together to talk about.
These are all women who have really achieved in their field,
which are all male-dominated fields.
One is the world of coding, computer coding.
The other is management, managed all
the acts in Motown, modeling, Lauren Hutton. And I want to get Lorraine, because what I
want to talk about is that stuff that you learn just in living that isn't taught to
you, but it's like internecine, you know, it's like deep inside knowledge that I think women should be sharing with other women.
Because if, for example, Harvey Weinstein had jerked off in front of somebody and that actress was coming from a culture where she had women saying, hey, listen, watch out for that guy.
Or if a guy does this, do that, that, and that.
You know, who knows what would have happened?
do that, that, and that, you know, who knows what would have happened?
Because I think that, you know, especially now, women are being so, it's like a moment where women are saying, listen to our experience, listen to what happens to us, in general.
You know, I'm actually working with Alyssa Milano, so.
This sounds like a good idea for a podcast.
I don't think anybody's doing it.
And we love Lurleen Lumpkin, by the way.
Isn't she the best?
And talk about Full Circle.
Bless your heart.
That's one of my favorite characters on one of my favorite shows.
Me too.
Yeah.
Me too.
And those are terrific songs you wrote.
Gil?
Thank you.
Well, this has been Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.
I'm Gilbert Gottfried with my co-host, Frank Santopadre.
And we started out.
I was a little disappointed because we had a guinea on this show.
I don't like to talk to them.
About time.
But it turned out that she was.
We're good people, right, Frank?
Absolutely. But it turned out she was actually Moses.
But it turned out she was actually Moses.
So she won me over.
That I'm talking to Moses.
So for a Jew, this is quite an accomplishment.
It's been my pleasure.
I just love you.
I love you.
And now I'm in love with you too, Frank.
Oh, you're... Bring out the gems. Be still my heart. I love you. And now I'm in love with you too, Frank. Oh, you're... Hey, bring out the jumps.
Be still my heart.
I just blushed.
We've been talking to the wonderful Beverly D'Angelo.
Beverly, we got 12 cards here.
We barely got into the deep woods.
So when you launch the show, will you come back to plug it?
Not only will I come back to plug it, I'll come back with bells on.
I mean, I'd be absolutely thrilled.
This has been a wonderful, wonderful afternoon.
I can't think of anybody else I'd want to spend it with.
This has been heaven.
You're a doll.
Thank you for doing this.
And thank you to Bierko for setting this up.
I know.
Let's hear it for Craig Bierko.
We love the guy.
And now, to lead us out,
the cunnilingus chimps.
Oh, the music?
The music for the chimps?
Play it. Ketua kota I go out walking after midnight
Out in the moonlight
Just like we used to do
I'm always walking after midnight searching for you.
I walk for miles along the highway.
Well, that's just my way of saying I love you.
Of saying I love you I'm always walking
After midnight
Searching for you
I start to see a weaving willow
Crying on his pillow
Maybe he's crying for me
And as the skies turn gloomy
Night winds whisper to me
As lonesome as I can be
I go out walking
After midnight
Out in the moonlight
Just hoping you may be somewhere a-walking
After midnight searching for me
I stop to see a weeping willow
Right on his pillow
Maybe he's crying for me
And as the skies turn gloomy, dark winds whisper to me
As lonesome as I can be
I go out walking after midnight
Out in the moonlight
Just hoping you may be
Somewhere a-walking
After midnight
Searching for me