Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - GGACP Rewind: Episode #26: Frankie Avalon

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

Former teen idol Frankie Avalon broke into show business as a child prodigy and was soon receiving 12,000 pieces of fan mail per week and working alongside Hollywood greats Jack Benny, Jackie Gleason, Lucille Ball, Groucho Marx and John Wayne. Frankie joined Gilbert and Frank for a look back at his humble beginnings in South Philly, his years as a teen heartthrob and his decades-long friendship with onscreen love interest Annette Funicello. Plus: The Duke makes Laurence Harvey cry! Buster Keaton meets Houdini! “Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine”! Dueling Draculas! And Cesar Romero and Arnold Stang hit a strip joint! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With my co-host, Frank Santo Padre, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast. Today, a legendary singer and actor who's worked with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Groucho Marx, Jackie Gleason, John Wayne, Lucille, Lucille Ball, and Jack Benny, just to name a few. My fellow teen idol, Frankie Avalon. Zero, spelled X-E-R-O is the online accounting software and platform for your small business. With Zero, it doesn't matter if your small business is brick and mortar or online. That's because Zero was born in the cloud and built in the cloud. That means that you can manage your accounting anytime, anywhere from your Mac, PC, iOS, or Android device. Sign up for a free 30-day trial at zero.com slash podcast to manage your invoicing and get paid faster.

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who have signed up to receive a mystery box of goodies. Zero plus from a company that already swears by Zero. Zero. Zero. Beautiful accounting. Our guest today went from trumpet player to a teen idol selling millions of records to sharing the big screen with Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, and John Wayne, not to mention Boris Karloff, Ernie Kofx, and Buster Keaton. Please welcome to the show, the original teen idol, Frankie Avalon. Thank you. Why are you yelling? But a good yell, though. Yes.

Well, thank you very much. It's really nice to be with you and Frank and kind of talk about things that have been part of my life, I guess. Now, we have something in common, both being teen idols. But how did it happen for you? Actually, it happened. I was with a band. I was a trumpet player. I started as a trumpet player.

And I was with a band called Rocco and his Saints. And I played trumpet. And we used to play this one place in, Jersey right outside of Philadelphia called Murray's Inn and people kind of would come up to the stage and say hey Frankie can you play this say Frankie can you play that and Frankie can you sing this Frankie can you sing that and finally Rocco who was the leader of the band said to me you know you got to start singing I said hey you paid me as a trumpet player that's what I do he said I'll give you an extra five bucks I said I'll do it and that's how I really started and of course a new record

company came along uh Chancellor records and they came in to see one of our shows there. We should do five sets a night. We went down to Atlantic City and we started playing these little clubs. They came in and they signed our band and we recorded. The first record we did was called Cupid Shotan Arrow,

which I did the vocal on. And the other side was called Jivein with the Saints. And it came out and nothing really happened with it except that they put me out there. He bought me a $12 suit and they put me out there and I started to go around the country doing these record

hops and things and kids started to say, how can we write to you? What's your fan club? How this? And all of a sudden, my manager at the time, Bob Marcucci said, I think you got some of these kids like. And that started it. And how did the big break come with Jackie Gleason? That happened. I was about 11 years old. And I went to see a movie called Young Man with the Horn. And I just fell in love with the sound of the trumpet. and I guess I related to the young boy who really grew up to be the best trumpet player in the world. And I related to that. And I came out of the movie. I was there all day.

You know, my mom used to pack a lunch. Yeah, Kirk Douglas. And pack a lunch. And I would stay there. And I watched the movie all day. And I came home and I said to my dad. I said, Dad, can you buy me a trumpet? He said, you want to play trumpet?

Because he loved music. My father. I said, yeah. And he went to a pawn shop. He got me a horn. And I took the horn. morning in my bedroom and I didn't come out until I played my first song. That started it. And but the way you met Gleason, Jackie. Oh, yeah. Well, what happened was Al Martino, who is from

the neighborhood of South Philadelphia, was a big star at this time. Johnny Fontaine and the Godfather. Exactly. Yeah. He had this one song called Here in My Heart, which was number one around the world. And in the neighborhood, they were giving him a party for his success, you know, and there was crowds all around, you know, these row homes and little streets in South Philadelphia there. And I took my horn, and I wiggled my way through, and I knocked on the door, a guy opened the door, and I said, could I play my trumpet for Al Martino? They said, who are you? I said, my name is Frank Avaloni. I live around the corner. He said, come on in. And the party was really happening. I took out the horn. I started to play, and it's like an old movie, you know. Everybody

kind of stopped. And I played very. very well for a little kid. And Al Martino said to the guys who, his house he was at said, who was this kid? He said, I don't know. He said, his name is Avaloni. He lives around the name. He said, let's call his mother and father, see if we could take him to New York. I think this kid can play. So they did. My mom and dad agreed, and they took me into New York. And I went to a big agency at the time called GAC, General Artists Corporation.

And Jack Sobel was the agent. and I took out the horn and I played for him. He said, I got an idea. This kid plays good. We handle Jackie Gleason. He's got a penthouse at the Sheridan Hotel. We'll go and take him and he'll play for Jackie. Loves the trumpet Jackie.

So I go in there and the writers are there and this. And Gleason wasn't there. Well, it was a penthouse. I didn't know where he was. But I took out my horn and I started to play. In the corner of my eye, I see Gleason come out of the room. I finished the song and he yells down, write a show I want him on two weeks. And that was it.

So what was Gleason like to work with? He was phenomenal. First of all, you know, his mind, he knew everybody's lines and everything. He was a genius, really, you know. And he was a wonderful guy, very quiet, really a quiet kind of a guy. I worked with him not only that time as a young boy playing trumpet, but I also did his show later on in his life and my life. life out of Florida. Oh, the Miami Beach show.

The Miami Beach Show, yeah. And, of course, I would, and we had just finished doing a picture together, and I spent a lot of time with them. And I had a, I had a, a picture was called Skidoo. And I'll tell you. Gilbert and I are well familiar with. It's come up before on the podcast. Is that right?

Oh, sure. Frank, Frank and I are big fans. Okay. All right. Well, now, Otto Preminger directed, and, you know, I had heard a lot of stories about Otto Preminger as a director being really tough, you know. And I didn't know exactly what to expect, but the first day of shooting, for me, I had no dialogue. And it was where I was supposed to drive this car, and Arnold Stang was in the scene.

And, you know, as I hit my mark and all this, all of a sudden I hear Premiger that everybody talked about saying, what are you doing? You're not an actor to Arnold Stang, to this, to John Philip Law, and all this other stuff. So now comes the second, third day of shooting, and we're up in San Francisco, and I've got a scene with Caesar Romero, Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, and I've got a couple of lines, and Gleason says to me something, and he smacks me across the faces. And Preminger said, go over and practice, you know, to slap him. So I go with Gleason and Jackie says, Pally, he says, Faudville, just, just when I touch your face, just go. That's okay, Jackie, that's fine. Now it comes to the scene and Bremant says, Roham and action, all of a sudden, he smacked me across the face.

Are you kidding? Gleason it. Yeah, wow. My ears were ringing. Finally, after about four or five takes, you know, they had to stop makeup. happened because I had fingerprints all over my face, you know, Jackie. Vaudeville, I said, Jackie, yeah, oh, yeah. Now, we finished the picture, and I'm doing Jackie's show down in Miami, and I go into his dressing

room, he says, have you seen the picture? I said, yeah, he hadn't seen it yet, yeah. He said, what do you think? I said, Jackie, it's embarrassing. He said, really? He said, oh, my God, I listened to Premiger. I went with him, everything he wanted me to do. He said, will I be embarrassed to go to the opening?

the premiere. I said, yeah. I really was that honestly. Because the picture, I felt horrible. It's one of the great bad movies of all time. It's got a tremendous cult following for how bad it is. We had Leon Shamroy, you know, was the lighting director,

he did all Marilyn Monroe pitch. I mean, we had the best, the cast, as you know. Sure, everybody's in it. Frank Clark and Caesar, Frank Gorson. And he just, let's face it, he had no sense of humor. Well, he wasn't known for directing comedies. And I should throw in the John Philip Law quick bit of information that for people who don't

remember John Philip Law, very, very handsome leading man. And he was offered two movies at the same time. One was Gadoo and the other was Midnight Cowboy. Wow. Yeah. What a choice, huh? Yeah. And I guess he felt, hey. Well, listen. Jackie Gleason and Groucho March. And how about Otto Premiger? This guy's credits were incredible. Sure. The funny thing is, he wouldn't even see me for the role.

You played a mobster son, you played Angie. But he wouldn't see me. And my agent, who is still my agent, every film I've ever done, he made the deal for me, is Jack Jalardi. And he said, I got an idea. And he said, what do you mean? He said, well, he doesn't want to see you because he says, I don't want this beach boy in my picture. He said, I'm going to say it's Frank Avaloni. Oh.

So I said, Jack, you can't do that. He said, listen to me. So we go into Paramount Studios. I go to big office, big desk, and Otto Premiger's sitting behind the desk there. And I walk in and Cleeseon's, and Premiger says to me, Vody, you're bringing me this beach boy. So I sat down and in no longer than 10 minutes, he said, okay, you got the part. I'll talk to your agent.

And that was it. Now, you worked there, one of the many times you worked with him, because just last night, I was watching a clip of you on You Bet Your Life singing, I can't give you anything but love with Groucho. Tell us about Groucho, Marks. Well, he was, you know, as later on in years, because I did a lot of the game shows at those times, and a lot of, you know, guys would do these game shows. And Groucho did a lot of them, too, you know. Not only you bet your life, you know, guest appearances. And I always kind of said, you know, he's a dirty old man. I mean, he looked at every dame that was out there.

You know, look at their legs, look at this, you know. And he always had remarks, of course, you know, and all crummy, dirty. When you did, you bet your life, I mean, and he comes back into your life all these years later. Yeah. In Skadoo. That had to be strange. Absolutely. I mean, all through the years, the guys that I've worked with one time or another, it amazes me.

And when I think back in all those things that I've done, I say, say, wow, I was with the best. I was with guys. And, you know, I really became a student of the art of trying to act and watch these guys and how they worked the camera and all this other stuff. I'd sit on my chair there and just watch all these guys and how they did it because, you know, they were pros, all 100% pro. And before we turned the mics on, I remember I was basically saying, you know, Shut up, Frankie.

You save all this for the show. And tell us about Sinatra. Ah, Frank Sinatra, my absolute idol. And, of course, everybody else's too. But he was incredible. He, you know, I got the hang with him, which was really kind of neat, and stayed at his house, you know. And amazing about him is that when I would stay at his house, you know, he had these casitas they were called. And the little houses, and he would call it one, would be My Way, the other one.

Was this the Palm Springs place? Yeah, in Palm Springs. I would stay there. And you had access to 24-hour whatever you wanted. I don't care if you wanted a car or this, or anything that you wanted, you got, you know. And you wouldn't see Sinatra. Frank would only come out about 5.30 at night, and we'd have dinner or go someplace and have dinner. But all day you'd stay by his pool or go play golf or whatever it is.

And, you know, he just wouldn't see you until he wanted to. wanted to see you. And, you know, many times I stayed up with him where he was drinking and you had a stay and you try to sneak out. Where are you going? You know. And you listen to his stories and all this other stuff. He was quite a, well, what an artist. I mean, he was just brilliant, you know. You were telling how he used to learn his songs. Yeah. Jimmy Darren, James Darren, we're from the same neighborhood in South Philadelphia and we're very good friends and he's really close to the Sinatra family. And I said to him, Jimmy, Sinatra. how did he learn songs?

I said because, you know, we're both musicians, so we could read music. And he said, well, they would play him songs, and he would say, I want to do that one. And then they would give him the lyrics. And he would take the lyrics alone for two weeks and just read it like a book. And after the two weeks of really learning what that song was all about and the concept of the writer and the lyrics, then he would get involved with getting a piano player and starting to learn the music. music end of it. And you, oh, I remember a story that hearing Boris Karloff taught Frank Sinatra, he said,

you sing with your voice, you have to learn to act with your voice. And Boris Karloff used to give Frank Sinatra acting lessons. Really? Yeah. I never heard that. Yeah, his daughter told us that. Wow. Sarah Karloff.

Carlop. I worked with Karloff too. Yeah. Was it Mussel Beach Party? One of the beach movies. One of the beach things, yeah. He was in a couple of them, I think. Was he?

I don't. They all run together for you. Exactly. All the same. Did you get to know, Karloff at all? No, no. I mean, I talk with them a bit, but, you know, we were so busy. We did those pictures in 15 days.

So, I mean, I was learning. I was playing dual roles, this, that, and ever. And, you know, I just kind of conversation, and small conversation. Let's go back to South Philly for a minute. We'll get to the beach movies. I'm not sure where that sound suddenly came from. I think that's Karloff.

It might be. So many people came out of South Philly where you're from. Particularly singers, Eddie Fisher, Mario Lanzza, Bobby Rydell, who we were talking about before we turned the mics on, Chubby Checker. What do you attribute that to? Buddy Greco. Buddy Greco, Al Martino.

Yeah, all of them. You know, I don't know. I think, you know, when you're from a... neighborhood, you know, all different kinds of ethnic groups, you know. Music, whether it be Jewish, Italian, black, whatever it may be. Everybody sang. Everybody liked music. And I think it was just the run of the time, I guess.

Now, just recently, your co-star, Net Funnichello passed away. And it's, could you tell you. us some memories. I heard, like, unlike so many movie teams who hate each other off camera, you two actually loved each other. Well, you know, when I first met Annette before we even started doing films together, we were doing a show for Dick Clark at the Hollywood Bowl. And she was about 15. I was older than Annette. And I thought she was awfully cute. I asked if I could give her a call and maybe take her on a date or something, you know. And she gave me her number and I called.

And, of course, I had to go to the house and meet the mom and dad. And I took her to have a slice of pizza. And that was our first meeting. And then later on in years, they cast me to do Frankie in the first beach party. And I said, who's playing Dee Dee? What was the character's name? They said, Annette Funichella, I said, oh, great. And the first scene we did together, I said to the director Bill Asher, I said, you know, this is really going to be a lot of fun.

And it was. And we had the best time. We made about seven, eight pictures together, a lot of television together. And we never had an argument, never a disagreement. It was just a wonderful friendship. And it's a shame that she had this disease that was so debilitating. It was terrible life for her, really. And it's funny, like, Disney always had a habit of finding these cute girls who would later on become objects of lust to any boy out there.

Yeah. Like Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez and all that. And it's like she, I don't think she was trying to be a sex symbol. Never, never. But everyone noticed she was developing each movie. quickly and largely. She was a great-looking gal and never played on it. You know, she had that it, you know, that was it.

And when did you, you said, I think you first noticed something was wrong during back to the beach, which was a takeoff on your movies. Yeah, well, first of all, she had gotten very thin for that role. you know most women always want to look you know lighter pounds wise because of the screen you put some extra weight on you but she was very thin and um this around 87 now 87 yeah and you know she did very well she's very good in that picture and uh we had finished shooting but we had to do a lot of promo stuff so we would go and and and do some things in front of the camera promoting our film and the cue cards and she couldn't see couldn't And finally, she was stumbling around when we were shooting on the beach.

And I said, you know, we don't have our sand legs anymore, you know, whatever it was. And finally she went and got, went to an optometrist for her eyes. And they really, that's when she was diagnosed with MS. And then we went on the road. And her husband said to me, he said, he used to call me little buddy. He said, hey, little buddy, can I meet you a little earlier? Because we were rehearsing, putting our show together for the road theaters. And I said, sure.

So I got there about an hour earlier than our call time to rehearse. And he sat down, he said, I want to tell you something. I want you to be very quiet about this. I don't want you to say anything, not even to her. But she has a disease, MS. And I went, what? And that was it. You guys are a great team.

such great chemistry and such energy. And she was saying before, she was a very vibrant performer, very lively. Yeah, terrific gal. And also, it was what's so funny about that movie, back to the beach, is it's you and Annette, like, poking

fun at yourself. Right. They sort of took the Brady Bunch movie approach where they did a parody of the beach movies. I love when you're using the kids' head as a battery way. Right, right. Funny scene. And everybody turned up in that. I mean, Don Adams is in it, Bob Denver and Alan Hale and Peewee.

Oh, Pee We loved our original films. And when we had asked him to do it, because he was very hot at the time with the Playhouse. Sure. And he came on, and we just loved him. He's a wonderful guy, talented guy, and it was a great scene in there. Another great scene is with Stevie Ray Vaughn. Oh, yeah. And Dick Dale.

Oh, sure. What a combination. Yeah. What a great scene there. The song's great scene there. Great. You can find the video on YouTube, and it's worth watching. Terrific. And once again, I have to ask you about another performer because you worked with all of them.

And that's the great Jack Benny. Oh, Benny was wonderful. I did my first meeting with him and working with him was the Jack Benny show. And it was a nice, cute little show about me recording, and he's never been to a recording session, and he comes in, and he does all these things in the studio. But after that he said, Frankie, I want you to work with me in Las Vegas. I want you to open for me, which I did. And I loved working with him because he would give me such, you know, advice. Like we would do a sketch.

He would say to me, Frankie, now, why is it that all singers are Italian? And I say, yeah, that's right, Mr. Benny. And I say, you know, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Al Martino. And he said, well, you know, we have a lot of. Jewish singers, too. So I'd say, okay. And he'd say, well, like Tony Martin,

Sammy Davis, Jr. So now, he would say to me, now wait until I come back to you to read your next line. Okay? So I would say, no, I would say Sammy Davis Jr., and he would do his little take, you know,

and come back to him. And then he'd say to me, funny his uncle wasn't. He was great to work with, too. And, you know, all that frugal stuff about him, you know, being a cheap guy and all this. At the end of the performance, he gave me a pair of cufflings that were beautiful sapphires and very generous man. And I heard everyone said Benny was like the nicest person yet. Just terrific. Just terrific. He was beloved.

Yeah. And, you know, not as opposite Lucy. Lucy, when you would go in to read for, I did a few Lucy shows, you know, you'd go around with the writers and whoever's in the cast and so forth and pencils are all over the place and you, you know, you make changes and she would make changes constantly. Benny would just sit there and say, that's good, that's good, that's good, that's good. You know, he'd accept it because he trusted the writers, you know. I heard Benny was also like brilliant as far as he would hear a joke. would get a tremendous laugh. And he'd say, that's a really great joke, but it just doesn't fit in with the show. It could be, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, a lot of performers are like that. You know, it's good, but it's not for me. It's not what I represent. You've got to be careful. I mean, if you do have a path and a way for your career and you believe it, you've got to stick with it. You just don't go off and, you know, because there's some off-color.

humor that you're going to do that. I learned a long, long time ago, a cheap joke is not worth it. You know, do something. Well, then I would have no career whatsoever. It's true. One writer that I worked with, and I loved him, his name was Bobby O'Brien,

and he wrote for Lucy and a lot of other people, too. And he would say to me, don't do cheap jokes. Say something that maybe isn't a belly laugh or a laugh, but let them take you home. Let them talk about you and what you said around the table in the morning, you know. And so Lucy was a bit of a general on the set, huh?

Controlling every, everything, every detail. She'd say, come on, come upstage a little more. Frankie played to this camera here. I mean, she knew everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course she learned it from Desi. Of course. She loved Desi to the day they both went, you know.

And he invented the multiple cameras. Oh, yeah, yeah. Format. Yeah, we were talking to, um, Robert Osborne from Turner Classic movies. And, well, I mean, everyone knows, like, Desi Arnaz was like this unsung genius. Everything we know about TV, he invented.

And he said that after they divorced, after he was cheating on her and everything, she still remained in love. In love. I mean, Lucy, I really got to know her. and as an example, I would talk to her, you know, we would come back from a plane trip or something on the flight, and she would talk about Desi and tell me how brilliant he was. An example with Desi Liu Studios.

She told me that, you know, in his broken English on the floor had plans of where cameras were going to go and this. And she was, you know, thrilled to just tell me about all this other stuff. and she really did love him all the time. That love never left. I was doing a show in Vegas, and Lucy came in to see me, and I was doing it. I tried to do something a little bit different, a little dramatic thing in my show.

And Lucy came back after the show, and she said, take that number out. I said, which number, Lucy? She said, the one about the kids. I said, but Lucy, I'm trying to establish something that's a little more dramatic for me. She said, I don't want to hear that song. And neither does the audience.

I said, why? She said, well, listen to what you're saying. It was a song that Sonny and Cher did. Called, you better sit down, kids. I'll tell you why, kids. Your mother and I, kids, don't see eye to eye, kids. It's about a divorce. Yeah.

She said to me, you know how many people are out there that are going through that? she said take it out and she was right interesting yeah we will return to gilbert godfrey's amazing colossal podcast but first a word from our sponsor now i got to ask you about another hero of mine peter lorry oh i love peter he he constantly was saying to me i love italians Of course, he loved wine. He was a big wine drink. And Walter Pigeon, you know, and working on voyage to the bottom of the scene. Yeah, right.

Sure. We'll get to that, too. Okay. Yeah. But I just want to get to all the movies, but let's just go back a second and talk about how you go from Teen Idol to movies. I mean, you make Didi Dina's the first hit? Right, right. And first of all, is it true that you held your nose while you were recording that?

Well, I sang through my nose. Okay. I was in the hall. Okay. I'm a dana-di-di-da-da-da-da-da. That's the way I did it. Right. Because to me it was a very staccato arrangement. And, you know, everybody's, you know, kind of learning their parts and all this other stuff.

And after a while, I'm singing, I love my dada-de-de-di-da. Then after a few rehearsals and the-d-d-de-da-da-da-da-and-a-d-da. And the producer said, what are you doing? I said, I don't know. It sounds very staccato. He said, do it like that. I said, what? You said, yeah, it's a gimmick sound.

Let's do it. But it was a song you didn't like. No, I didn't like it, no. And, of course, they put it out, and it was my first hit. Right. And then how did we get to Venus, which changed everything? Venus happened because, again, in the neighborhood, there was a knock on the door, and I was in South Philly, and I opened the door, and the guy introduced himself. He said, my name is Ed Marshall. I'm a songwriter. Can I play a song for you?

I said, yeah, come on in. I had a piano, and he sat down at the piano, and he played, didada-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. he starts singing this being as goddess of love that you are. And I listened to, so I went, play that again, please. He plays it again. I called the record company right there and I said, I got a song, you've got to hear this song. I'm going to bring him over to because the record company was out of Philly. And I said to him, have you played this song for anybody else? He said, yeah, I just come from Mal Martino's house. I said, well, what did I think of it? He said, he liked it, but he think it would be a good song for an album. So I took it

And they Three days later I came into the city Bell Sound Studios I did seven takes on it I waited Until 4 o'clock in the morning With the acetate

So I could take it back to Philly I played it constantly I just thought the song Was the best song I've ever Had offered to me What was it Was it just that you fell in love With the song musically

Or you sensed a hit Or both? Both Both, yeah I just loved the song I thought The melody was wonderful the message was just great

and when we were going Pete De Anzis wrote the arrangement and of course Bob Marcucci was my manager and we were driving into New York he was driving Bob and Pete was in the back with the guitar and you know learning the song

and more feel to it this that whatever and he said wait do you hear the arrangement I said Pete but what do you mean wait till I hear the arrangement? I said you haven't heard it he said yeah I wrote it I said but you haven't heard it yet he said I got it in my head

It's great. Yeah. And we went into the studio and it was just magic. And how many records did Venus sell a lot? Oh, I wish I got paid for as many as this show. Yeah. And that's the teen idol thing. Basically, HAP starts to happen at that point.

No, before that. Before that. Oh, yeah. Okay. As a matter of, I'll never forget calling Dick Clark on the show live, the American bandstand. And he said, Frankie, you got anything new coming out? I said, I've got a song coming out, Dick. And I think it's, I love this song.

and I hope that the kids like it too. And I said, what's the name of it? I said, it's called Venus. And now what was happening with that movie, the Idol Maker? Yeah. Well, that's based on Bob Marcoochie. Yeah, right, exactly. Ray Sharkey and Peter Gallagher.

Yeah, and critically acclaimed movie. It's a good movie. Yes, very good movie. Taylor Hackford. What happened in that, you know, Fabian had come to me and said, we ought to sue because they really took our lives without any saying yes to, you know, or any kind of a deal, you know. The Tommy D. character is based on you and the Peter Gallagher character.

Right. It's Fabian. Right. And I said, you know, Fave, I can't do it. This guy made my life. How can I do that? Not really knowing that if I sued, it really wouldn't be Bob Marcucci. It would have been Transamerica or the studio, you know.

But for some reason, I said, I can't do it. He made my whole life, you know. And I didn't. Fave wound up suing and got some money out of him, but I didn't. Nothing in the movie is, I've heard you say, you distance yourself from the way the characters portrayed, the things didn't really happen that way. No, no. They made me a pill-popping kind of a guy, and I wasn't.

I was a working trumpet player. Right. And do you remember the song from the movie? I don't. I haven't seen it in years. Baby, baby, I just want to take it. you where I'm going. Really?

Peter Gallagher sings that. Oh, that was the Fabian character. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Interesting guy, though, Bob Marcoochie. Oh, yeah. And he was the idol maker. He really was.

I mean, he took, when he found me and started and had belief, you know, why I don't know, but he had belief. And I was dating a little gal in the neighborhood there. And she was in junior high school. and she said, you know, there's a kid in our school here. The girls just go crazy for. And I said, what's his name? She said, Fabian.

I said, Fabian. All of a sudden, all I know is that Bob Marcoochie found him in the neighborhood. His father had a heart attack. Oh, and there's an ambulance parked on the street. Yes. It's a strange story. Yeah. And Fabian is standing outside waiting for the ambulance or whatever.

And Bob Marcoe sees this good-looking kid. because he was a combination of Elvis and Ricky Nelson, you know, good-looking boy. And Bob signed him and started it. He made... No musical background whatsoever, just a kid sitting on a stoop. Right, right. On a street. But you know what?

He fabe all through his career, and even to this day, because we do a show called Golden Boys, and it's Bobby Rydell and Fabian and myself, three guys from the neighborhood. And he's still as popular as ever. He had a quality that people just love, you know. He says, you know, I'm not the greatest singer, but, you know, he does a great job on stage. They love him. They stand when he finishes his set on the show. He had a big career.

Yeah, yeah. So why was a hit and Venus was a hit and D.D. Dinah was a hit and you're getting mail. Lots of mail. 12,000 pieces like a week or something like that. Right. But, you know, interesting about the song, Why? Uh-huh. That's the last number one song that ended the decade of the 50s.

It was December 31st. It was number one. Interesting. 1959. So with the 12,000 pieces of fan mail a week, the studios come calling. That's what happened. Warner Brothers says, hey, this kid, he's got a following. Let's get him in with a major star, and he'll bring in some young people.

They have something to do with the fact that Elvis was doing movies at that point? Probably. Probably. And I went in and I did my first picture called Guns of the Timberland with Alan Land. That's great. Yeah. Jeannie Crane, Gilbert Rowland. And, you know, it started my whole.

And it was the first movie that was written and produced by Aaron Spelling. Interesting. It was a young producer who hadn't done anything to that. that point. Now, jumping up ahead, how did you get that part in Greece? You know, that's really something. First of all, I had seen Greece here on Broadway. I did a promotion. I was playing the Copacabana, which was like the spot to play. And they had asked me to do this promotional thing, a marketing thing, a tie-in, and I went to the theater, wherever the theater was playing at. And I met the cast at the time and I watched the play and years went by three four five years whatever

and I was playing golf at lakeside country club and I come off the first nine I went in to get some cold drink and my manager was there and he says I got the script Paramount wants you for this picture I said what is it he says it's called Greece I said what role he said teen angel I said forget get it. And I went and I played the back. I come back in. And he's still there. He says, they will not accept no. They said, at least would you please come in and talk with them. I said, all right. So I go to Paramount. And we're sitting around the table with Alan Carr, the producer, and Stigwood, and the director, Randall Klyzer. And he says to me, why don't you want to do this? I said, listen, fellas, I love the show. It was great. But, you know, the

The character of Teen Angel is an extension of Elvis, and I'm not that. I've got a style that I sing, and in the play, you know, he's all in black and long sideburns. They said, we'll change it. We want you for this role. So they changed it, and I got by a piano, and I did my rendition of the song. They put it all in white, I'm all in white, and all this other stuff. six days rehearsal on the sound stage and two days of shooting a five-minute song, you know, so they really took time with it.

And, you know, I didn't think anything of it, you know. I did four takes on it. And you were concerned that they were going to make you look like a joke. Oh, very much so. I said, look, I don't want to be treated and handled like, you know, when I come on this screen that, you know, this is a joke, you know. Well, the thing that just thrilled. me to death was when they previewed the screening in Hawaii, believe it or not, the writer,

I can't remember her name, but a very big writer, wrote the article and review of the picture and said, when Frankie Avalon comes on the screen, there's a yell. When Frankie Avalon leaves the screen, there's an applause. Well, it's a great, it's a great, funny little song, and you sing it, you have to sing it straight in a way, but you also. have to play the comedy, which you do. You're singing songs about a hooker. Your only customer is a hooker. I'm going to the big malt shop in the sky.

But you find the laughs. I mean, it had to be sung by somebody that could do comedy. What's amazing about that, even today, I mean, I'll meet someone who's 12, 13 years old. They know that picture. That picture goes on forever.

It's amazing. I have met people that have said to me, I've seen that picture they count 63 times, 28 times, you know. And if it's on television, if you are serving the channels and you see Greece, you'll stay with it. Oh, my wife's obsessed with it. You don't get off of it. It's an amazing thing.

And now when I'm being directed by Randall Kleiser, second day of shooting, he comes to me. He says, Frank, do you remember me at all? And I said, from what? He said, the beach pictures. I said, no. He said, I was one of the extras. Oh, wow. He was an extra in our beach.

Interesting. He directed the Blue Lagoon, too, and a couple other popular movies. And you worked with another great comedian, Milton Burrough. Oh, another genius. I mean, just terrific. He knew everything. He from the music to the cue cards, to the sketches, he was just brilliant. You know, and not only he would call me at times to say, let's go to the motion picture home.

He was really an advocate of doing shows. And, you know, you'd go in there and I would see Larry Fine of the three stooges, you know, who had a stroke. And, you know, and I would, you know, do, in those days, I was not only playing the trumpet, but I was doing a lot of impressions. I would do. What impressions did you do? Oh, I did, all of them. And I ended up doing, which was the point. We can't let you get away my pitch.

The one that I would do, and I learned step for step, the Kagney dance and Yankee Doodle Dandy. and my whole bit was the fact that we play Bada da da da da da da da da da Hollywood and my piano player would start play boom boom boom boom and I would say but you know

actors have to make auditions to get the part and he would say okay and I would step back and he would say Mr. Wayne Mr. John Wayne and I would do the walk and I'd say well what do you want kid

you'd say are you ready to do your part well you damn right I am and I would do Wayne I would do this one, that one. And at the end, I would do, I'm a yagajudal, Janji. And then I learned how to do the dance. And I was, all right,

I'm a yagajudal guy. So I would do that. I got to twist your arm. And what was some more of the voices? Who would I do? These were mostly visual things. I would do Dracula. Oh, great.

Welcome. I can play the part. You know, Gilbert does a little Dracula himself. Dude, let me hear it. Okay, got to drink some more. Dooling vampires here. Listen to them. Children of the night.

They are. What music they make. I can't believe. Don't be afraid. Sometimes in our dreams. The mind plays strange. Tricks. A spider spinning its web

for a very pray the blood is the life, Mr. Renfield. Mr. Enfield. Spelled backwards what was it? Yeah. Was Dracula? No. No, Dracula was Alucard.

Oh, that's it. That in son of Franklin. A son of Dracula. John Caradine? Lonchaney Jr. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. I can't believe.

That me and Frankie Avalon are doing impression. Yeah, duly and he'll go see. But the best one I do, yes. Nobody does it. And I do this for Rydell, which he falls off his chair. Edwin. Oh, great.

A perfect fool. There he goes. My son, Kenan, well, I'll tell you this. He's really a good actor, you know. And I can't believe I stumbled on a Dracula line, so I have to do it again. Listen, oh, a spider spinning its web for an unwary fly. The blood is the life, Mr. Enfield. It's great.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And remember when he would come down the steps. Oh, brilliant. Yeah, and he walked down, and the girl was always screaming, someone who's been in my room, somebody, don't be afraid. Sometimes in our dreams, the mind. the place. You need the sedative, if you would say.

Oh, yes, yes. You mentioned John Wayne. Go ahead, Gil. Oh, did you ever work with Legosi? No. No, no. He was gone by then, yeah. You were talking about John Wayne before.

Yeah. And so, again, you do the teen idol thing. That's exploding. The studios want you. You do the Alan Ladd picture. And now the Alamo. Yeah. The Alamo, he had called Warner Brothers, and he wanted to see some of the dailies that I was doing with the Allen Latin.

He directed that picture too, Charlie. Produced it, directed. And he liked what I did and thought that, you know, I was about, so we made that picture in 59, so I was like 19, but I was playing like 14, you know. And he put me in the picture and had a great friendship with him. Really amazing is that my wife, sister, was married to his son, Michael, who produced a lot of his film. Interesting. So I really got to know the family, you know. And, of course, working with the Duke, he was tough, boy, he was.

I mean, if you weren't in, didn't know your lines or whatever, I mean, he had Lawrence Harvey in tears. The only guy he didn't fool with was Richard Whitmark, you know. Widmark was such a pro. They were good to you, I heard you say. Just terrific. What was Richard Whitmark like? You know what? He was a very quiet man.

He really only hung out with me and the two guys that I brought with me. Because, you know, I never wanted to leave the neighborhood. I felt very comfortable with Hucklebuck, which was a guy that I loved for him. And a guy by the name of Edombo worked in his bakery shop. And Sonny Troy. was my guitar player. And we're South Philly kids, you know. We're doing a picture in Brackettville, Texas, you know, in the middle of nowhere.

You can imagine. And we would go to the commissary each, you know, they built the whole Alamo, replica of the Alamo. And we would come back from, you know, and we'd say, watch that snake, you know, just to kind of tease one another. Until one time we're coming back and Sonny Troy said, watch that snake, I swear my mother. When he said that, there was a snake, you know, that you knew that he wasn't fibbing. Now, another person I have to get to from all your beach movies was Eric von Zipper, played by Harvey Lembeck. Yeah, yeah. Now, what do you, can you tell us about Harvey?

Yeah, well, I first met Harvey. I worked with Harvey in a picture that I did over at Columbia called Sailor Crooked Ship with Ernie Kovacs and Robert Wagner. Yeah, we have to ask you about Ernie Kovacs, too. Yeah, and he was in the picture. And then finally, when we started to do our first beach party picture, You know, he had been around as a comedy actor, as a serious as style like 17. But what was interesting about him was he created that character. It wasn't written like that.

He took all of those kids that were the rats of On Zipper and his rats. And while we'd be shooting some scene, whatever, he'd be in the other part of a sound stage or whatever, putting all those things together, all those you stupids, give him the finger and all this. He did all that himself. So he created that character, which became very important in all of our pictures. He was a great guy. I'll never forget we were shooting some of the pictures, and he would come in and say, he was also an acting teacher, comedy.

And he would come in and say, Jesus, I got this kid that is just the funniest. What a talent, what a talent, what a talent. Kept raving about him. Finally it wound up to be Ritter. Oh, John Ritter. He said, this kid does pratfalls this, he's funny faces that he just raved about him. Of course, you know, John Ritter became a major, major actor. Yeah, I did two movies.

Yeah, both from television, John, you know, with the three's company and all that stuff. Another comedian that I have to ask you about is Don Rickles. Oh, I love Don. You know, Don was so thrilled to get into the movies. He did one picture, it was called the one with Clark Gable. Oh, Run Silent and Run Deep. And he tells a great story about, you know, he had one line, and Gable turns to him and says, I'm going to tell you, yep.

And Rickles was supposed to say something. He went like this. But Rickles, you know, geez, I loved working with him. And his mother, I just loved his mother. at us, she used to make me the best sandwiches, chicken liver sandwiches. He'd bring him on the set. And we had a lot of good times together. Rickles' mother would prepare lunch for him and you.

Yeah, yeah, in a brown bag, you know. And, you know, every, I mean, for 12 to 14 hours a day, there were nothing but laughs. I mean, he never stopped, you know. And he was just on all the time. There were a lot of great comics in those pictures. And the beach pictures. And I heard Rickles was very close to his mother. Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. And, you know, he would do an impression of his mother. I remember, man, man. You know, she adored him, and he loved her. And it was great. I'd go to, he lived in an apartment at the time. I took him to play golf one time. He took him to the lakeside.

And in those days, you know, they had these anti-Semitic clubs, you know. I take him in. He says, I'm. the Jew. In the clubhouse, he would yell all over the place. Funny guy. Jesse White, Buddy Hackett, Moray Amster,

Dan, Paul Lynn, Harvey Lambeck, we talked about, and Buster Keaton. I mean, there were some many great comics in the beach movies. We sit around the set with Buster Keaton, Mike. Can you imagine it? He would tell his stories how he started his own studio. Sure. You know, he thought up all of the

gags, the things, the comedy routines and wrote everything and how he lost everything and was really broke, you know, and doing our pictures and loved to do movies, you know, and wanted to do his own little pratfalls and off the chairs and things, you know. Wasn't that how he got the nickname Buster? Because as a child actor, he was... From Houdini. That's right.

Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. His parents used to pick him up when he was a little kid and throw him on stage. smash him against the wall, swing them around, and Harry Houdini said to them, you ought to nickname this kid Buster. That's funny. Well, it fit perfectly, didn't it?

This is in the latter years. I mean, he was doing the candid camera shows then. Yeah, I mean, he was the biggest star in the world. He was like Chaplin. I mean, and that... And he was no young man when he was doing the movies with you. You know, I think I figured it out. He must have been about 65.

And he was doing pratfalls and everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he wanted to do his own stuff, you know. And everybody, anything that he did, the crew and the cast would watch him and applaud. That's nice. Yeah. That's nice to hear.

The appreciation of this talent, you know. And there was another young talent in some of the, in a couple of the beach pictures, little Stevie Wonder. Oh. In meeting Stevie Wonder, he was rehearsing and, you know, kind of doing some takes on the song he did. He was little Stevie Wonder. So finally, we're on a break and we're sitting down. He said, can I touch your face?

He says to me. I said, sure, Stevie, because that's the only way you could feel what I look like, you know. And I stayed there and he looked at me, but he. He put his hands all over my face, felt my nose, my eyes and everything, which was kind of really interesting. I always wondered about that. Yeah. Because in movies, there's always the dramatic touching moment where someone says, can I touch your face? And I always thought, the blind people really do that.

Yeah, he did to me. Wow. Yeah. I was watching some of Muscle Beach party with Stevie. You know, Buddy Hackett's the spoiled rich kid. and he's on the phone, he's trying to buy Sicily. And he has that great line. He says, all right, buy half.

Let Sinatra have the other half. And I'm watching this, and I'm thinking it's not every movie that has Buddy Hackett, Stevie Wonder, and a Bond girl. A Bond girl? Oh, Luciana Palucci. Yeah, yeah, beautiful gal. We're doing a scene on the beach, and it's a night scene I'd come in from night surfing, you know. Those days you'd smoke in the scene or something, you know. And all of a sudden, and I'm kind of wandered.

away from Annette at this point, you know. And we get to talk, and she really has the hots for Frankie, you know. And we get to the last part of the scene is where we embrace. And I see, I got a wetsuit on, you know, a big yellow wetsuit. And I take her my arms, and I'm kissing her and kissing her, you know, and I'm waiting for the director, Bill Asher, cut, okay, that's a print, whatever. And we're kissing and kissing and kissing and kissing and kissing. And finally after, I don't know how long it was, I've looked, the crew, everybody left the city.

You were telling us they were quickies. I mean, you made these films in 15 days. 15 days. Each one of them. Yeah, American International Pictures. Yeah. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. And what else do you remember?

about Buddy Hackett. Well, I felt as though Buddy Hackett and Don Rickles were really in competition with one another on this set, you know. We tried to be funnier. And, you know, they were both very funny guys, you know. But they got along well, and Buddy was a little nuts. We've had other guests tell us that. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. I mean, I remember one thing, you know, I come into work. I was doing a picture, too, at the same time. I was doing a picture called Sergeant Deadhead, and I was commuting from Las Vegas. I was playing at the Sands. I was under contract of the Sands at the time. And Sammy Davis said to me,

you're doing a picture and doing this? He said, I got the answer for you. He said, here's what you do, because I would fly in after a day shoot, you know, and be on stage by 815, opening for, because I was the singer, for like Alan King or somebody like that. And I couldn't get on another flight until six in the morning.

So by the time the second show was done, 12.31 o'clock, I couldn't sleep. So Sammy said to me, here's what you do. You call, you get an ambulance. He said, and after your second show, get in the ambulance. It'll be air-conditioned. You get on the cot there, and you tell the driver's six to seven hours, and you sleep. You get to the studio, you shower, and you do your day's work. And it worked for me.

It was really a great suggestion that Sammy gave. me, you know. Now, Gilbert owns a strange item in his house. He has a life mask of Vincent Price. So we have to ask you about Vincent Price. Yeah, I have life masks of Vincent Price, Baila Lagozzi, and Lonchaney Jr. Wow, what a trio, huh? And you worked with Vincent Price on Dr. Goldfoot in the bikini machine? Yeah. What a gentleman. What a gentleman. And again, a pro. And, you know, a connoisseur of wines, paintings, and a brilliant man. Just sit down and listen tell stories or talk, you know, was just

a thrill for me, you know. He was very nice, very nice man. Does it ever occur to you? You're on the set of these movies, and I'm here with Vincent Price and Dr. Goldfoot in the bikini machine. You're thinking, I'm a trumpet player. I'm a serious musician.

How did I get here? I don't know. I just went along with everything. You know, it just amazes me, you know. You know, Gilbert, you get in front of audiences. You play in front of 50,000, 75,000 people, a million people, a hundred million people, you know?

And you just don't think of it. Yeah, you're scared. You're shaking, but you ain't showing it. You know, that's what we do. But, I mean, one day you're in South Philly playing the trumpet, and then suddenly you're fighting a sea monster with Walter Pigeon and Peter Lorry. Right, exactly. Not only that, getting on a horse.

The only horse I got on was at the end of the street for a dime. You went up and down. Did you take acting lessons when the movie career start? Yeah, I really did. I came to New York here and I started with him. A fellow by the name of Wynn Handman. He was a very good teacher. As a matter of fact, he taught Red Button.

And a lot of, a lot of the big. And then when I went out to Hollywood and started doing a lot of pictures, I studied at Columbia. So, yeah. And I heard Vincent Price didn't like Dr. Goldfoot. Is that right? Yeah. I don't know. Oh, see, now I'm letting you in on it.

Yeah, yeah. I wonder why. I mean, he had a lot of fun doing it. We were up in San Francisco doing it. That was a cute little pitch. I loved working with Fred Clark. Wow. Is he terrific?

Another funny guy. Yeah. And you also, because you mentioned. that before, I kind of wonder if you worked with him too, Edwin's son. Keenan. Keenan. Yeah. You worked with Keenan?

Keenan. We did, I think, Bikini Beach, or one of them, you know, where he played the old guy, that, what are these kids doing? Oh, yeah. You know, that kind of stuff. He was always a fun actor. Oh, yeah, very good actor. Like him in the Great Race with Tony Curr.

Oh, yeah. And Jack Lemon. You know, you see some of those old black and white pictures that he was in as a real good actor, very serious actor. And about, since you mentioned Ernie Kovacs, and Gilbert and I know very little about Ernie Kovacs, we haven't had anybody on the show talk about Ernie Kovacs. Well, I don't think too many people really know about Ernie Kovacs, including myself. I mean, I've worked with him, and of course you do scenes with him and all this other stuff.

I played his nephew in the picture, but, you know, he was quite the gambler. And if he wasn't on the set doing scenes, he was in his dressing room, playing jazz. playing gin with some heavy players. They were betting some big Mervyn Leroy, the director, these guys, you know. We'd have to wait for him to, you know, finish a game or something to get out of his dressing room. I just got a flashback. What's that? There was a TV movie about Ernie Kofax starring Jeff Goldblum.

And what's her name from? Floris Leachman as his mother. Really? Yes. I didn't know Cloris Leachman played his mother. I remember Jeff Goldblum playing Ernie Kovacs. And he passed away soon after you made that picture. What happened was this.

I was out promoting for Columbia, Sailor Crooked Ship, was the name of the film. And while I was out there doing television, doing radio, promoting the picture, I had gotten the word that he was in a car accident and died. On Sunset Boulevard, in the rain, he was driving his role. Royce and lost control, hit a tree or pole, and was killed. Yeah. Yeah. Great talent.

He was one of those that's always credited for realizing stuff is on film, and you can do tricks. You could do things that you can't do in vaudeville. Yeah. Well, he was an innovator. I mean, you know, a lot of the stuff that's developed through the years, you know, he did things, you know, silly things, but they were brilliant. things, dripping water

things, and music that come. I mean, you know. The Nairobi Trio. Yeah, yeah. He was brilliant. Other performers were just doing film stage shows. Right. And he took advantage. Yeah, yeah. He was big

in television. He was another Philadelphia. He was from Philly. Started at one of the local television stations and then developed and went on to big networks. And you worked with Bob Hope. Oh, yeah. Yeah. loved working with Bob Hope. did a picture called

I'll take sweet I'll take Sweden yeah yeah yeah That was the theme song I'll take Sweden Yeah yeah yeah I'll take Sweden home sweet home Yeah but he was a great guy

And when we did that picture What really was neat about him That I think about First day of shooting You know everybody's up tight I don't care who you are What you are But you're in the makeup room

and you're getting made up. I was getting made up and Hope walked in and next chair over, he's getting made up. You know, he talks to everybody. He tells a joke this and that. And he looks over to me and then he says, you know, Jesus, I'm really nervous today. I, gee, I just, the first day I get so nervous.

He was trying to relax me and who else, you know. But he wasn't nervous. He was Bob Hope, you know. And every shot that we did, the opening day of, of, of day's work, he would get in front of the crew until at least two to three jokes and then start shooting. Oh, wow.

Now, I have to get to this because I get to this on just about every one of my podcast. You worked with Caesar Romero. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Watch it, Frankie. Okay. Here's the story I heard about Caesar Romero, legendary song and dance man and Latin lover.

that in person he was gay, and to quote Jerry Seinfeld, not that there's anything wrong with that. But I heard, the story that I heard, was that he would gather like these young boy toys around him, and he pulled down his pants and underwear and have them all fling orange wedges at his ass. I wish you could see Frankie Avalon's face, folks.

No. I wish we... Are you making that... I wish we were on video tape. He asked Adam West the same question. The only argument I've gotten, some people say it was trash. Tangerine, with him. You want to get that right.

You know what? I've never heard that. Honestly, I mean, I worked with him. I did the Sergeant Deadhead. I did... I don't know how many pictures with him. Skidoo. Skidoo. But, you know, I had heard that he was gay.

I never saw anything, anything at all. or never saw any young toys around. Nothing like that. As a matter of fact, we went to a strip joint one time with Arnold Stang and Cesar Ameri. You buried the lead, Frank. You're a strip joint with Caesar-A-Merald and Arnold Stank. But is it true that half of the budget of that movie went to buying citrus fruit? It makes sense.

Yes. Tell us a little bit about your part in Casino. And working with Scorsese and De Niro. That had to be... What happened was this? It was a weekend. It was like a Friday or Saturday, and I was at home with my wife and kids, and the phone rings, and my wife comes over to me.

She said, it's for you. It's a Bobby De Niro. She didn't... No. She figures it's a guy from South Philly, you know, is Bobby De Niro. So I get on the phone. He says, Frankie, we're doing this picture, and you were the first guest on Lefty Show. and you know Marty likes to be right on target with the reality of it.

He said, would you come in and do that scene that you did? Because we have the tape of it when you first did it. I said, when you want me to do it? He said, how's Monday? I said, I'm off. So I flew in and I sat with Marty, Scorsese, and I looked at the film. And word for word, I did exactly what I did on the show. So Ace Rothstein was based on.

Right, yeah, right. And De Niro, very much into his character. I mean, when we were shooting all day, it took us about 12 hours, and Pesci and I had been friends for a long time, and Pesci was waiting for me

so we can get some meatballs at Joe Pigsblowers. So as I'm working with De Niro, he's very much in the camera. He says, Frankie, you know, there's cameras all over. Marty's got cameras up there, this, that, whatever. So he's filming us from all angles. He's okay. So all he wanted to talk about,

talked to me about was, how's Annette for the show? Yeah, she's great. You know, cut. She's still married? All he wanted to know was Annette. You know, he must have been a fan of him. He must have been. Yeah.

Or just a fan of the Mousqueteers. Probably, yeah. Can you do an imitation of either Martin Scorsese or Roberton? No, no, I can't. No. Can you? No, I, I'm sometimes. do Martin Scurcese. The man does Cagney and Legosi, isn't that enough?

Yes. And can Edwin? Edwin, yeah. Frank, have you written a memoir? You've got to write a memoir. You've got to write a book. So many stories. Oh, God, I can go on forever, ever. Has it occurred to you? Have you thought about it? At times, yeah. You know, there's so many different aspects of, thank God, a long-lasting career, you know.

We talk about movies. Sure, but I think even people would be fascinated by the idol-maker stuff. And that whole. stuff. And I think you're mentioned, if I'm pronouncing, I can't even say pronounciating it correctly, that you're mentioned in the Wutang Clan. You got it. Wow. Wu-Tang Clan.

What's that? It's a hip-hop rap group that mentions you in one of their lyrics. Oh, really? Yes. I mean, that shows how you're still relevant. Well, good. I like that. Yeah. Well, that's very nice. I mean, you know, I'm a guy that I don't watch much television. I go to a movie now and then and whatever. You did American Idol a couple years ago.

Yeah, yeah, that was fun. But, you know, we'll go out. My wife and I will be out and there'll be somebody and she'll say to me, you know who that is? No, I don't. She said, that's a big star. I said, I don't know. I'm sorry. And they'll come over to me.

Hi, Frankie O'R. I'm a fan or this or that, whatever. It's really nice. But I don't know a lot of the people today. It's been a journey, though, Frank, huh? From crashing a party at Al Martino's house to working with Keaton and Lucy and John Wayne and Groucho and Keaton. And Keaton. And I said Buster Keeton. And Bink Crosby. I mean, do you pinch yourself?

Oh, God, yeah. I mean, just in awe of these people, you know, to work with Bing Crosby. Wow, what a thrill that was. You want to talk about a master. We had been, he had a television show, and I was with Vicky Carr. We were playing Young Marrieds. And after one of the takes that we did, one of the producers came over and said, Bing, you know, we got to do this PS Spot, the public service announcement there.

And they had the cue cards, you know, and he said, okay, let me see it. And they put up the cue cards and the camera on the side of the camera, and he went. Okay, take him away. All right, Bing Crosby here. Well, now, I want to say this. And he started to do word for word. I'm saying, look it. So I said, Bing, you looked at it once.

And you just did the whole thing. He said, well, well, when you get to be doing as long as I am, you'll do the same thing. Not really. Wow. And he does Bing too. And there's one other actor I had to bring up who's known. primarily another actor who's known

primarily as Jerry Seinfeld's Uncle Leo and that's this actor Len Lesser I don't know if you remember him at all Oh wait a minute You know what? I do remember him

He's a neat guy I think Kelly's heroes Clint Eastwood picture He's pretty prominent in that picture Yeah but he He was in a picture we did called Fireball 500 That's right

I played Dave Owens Owens the Fireball whatever was And he, yeah, he was in that picture, yeah. I remember him, yeah. You know who was another wild guy actor? Timothy Carey. Oh, sure.

Oh, yes, yes. Oh, I'll tell you. From the Wild One. Yeah. And the one with Kirk Douglas, the World War I movie. Oh, Paths of Glory. Paths of Glory. Well, you know your pictures, don't you?

Well, I researched the guests. Convix 4 with Ben Gazzara. That's right. He was in. But what was the one where the Roach was, wasn't that where he was in the jail cell and he smacked the road? Yeah, I'm trying to think of which one that was. Yeah, very odd looking.

A strange guy. Strange guy. And we were doing one scene in one of the beach things. And he played South Dakota Slim, Minnesota Fats, South Dakota Slim. Come on, Buby. And we were doing this one scene, and Bill Astor, our director, all he had to do was open a door and everybody would go down this little show. shoot, you know.

But he went, he jumped up, a cut, Bill would say, Tim, we don't need all that. Just open the door, the gag is the fall down there. But he will, okay, and action. Oh, bobe, he wouldn't. He had to let him go. And it really made the scene, I think, you know,

because he stuck to his guns there. Yeah, then Brando used him again in one-eyed jacks, the one picture he directed. Yeah, good actor. He would come in and tell a strange, stories about his wife having a baby and he delivered the baby and bit off the umbilical cord and i mean yes well this has been gilbert godfried's amazing colossal podcast with my co-host frank santo padre and i'm gilbert godfrey thanking my fellow uh teen idol frank is there any want to

plug before we run off um no no Let me see. What am I? No, I'm with the Golden Boys. Dick Fox's Golden Boys. And, you know, it's Bobby Rydell and Fabian and myself. And we do about 15, 20 concerts a year. And I'm still out there myself.

I still do that. I've got a book coming out, not about my memoirs or anything that. But it's a cookbook because I love to cook. And it's for St. Martin's publication, so that'll be out pretty soon. Oh, and you told me that former teen idol Bobby Rydell does an imitation of me. Oh, you. Love you. He does lines, jokes, and everything, and he's perfect.

You've got to have him on the show. I have to do that. I got to hear that. I got to hear Bobby Rydell, Duke, Over. I'll tell you, one of the most talented guys, funny guys. I mean, he does it all. I just love Bobby Ritell. He's a real dear friend. It's been great, Frank.

Thanks for doing it. It's been great. He's still handsome. Still. And versatile. And versatile. And a guy who can. and challenge me to a Lagosia imitation.

And he confirmed the Caesar O'Meara story. Right. Yes. He was there. Frankie Avalon was there when Caesar Omero had orange wedges flung at his ass. He was there, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Frankia. Thank you, Frank.

Thank you, Frank. Thank you, Frank. Thank you.