Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Dini Petty: Toronto Mike'd #662

Episode Date: June 8, 2020

Mike chats with Dini Petty about her years flying the pink helicopter reporting traffic for CKEY, her move to Citytv, hosting CityLine, her move to CFTO and The Dini Petty Show, her brushes with death, and more!

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I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is television broadcaster Dini Petty. Ta-da! Welcome, Dini. Hello, Mike. Love your hair. Thank you. I love your hair. This is a bit of a pandemic neglect look I'm going for here. But thank you. It's really working.

Look, I'm just so grateful that the DNA gods or whoever was responsible didn't make me a bald guy. Like, I'm just so happy to have a thick head of hair. So why not flaunt it? a thick head of hair so why not flaunt it yeah i i would bow to the dna gods i mean i am 70 freaking five can we talk about that because you know you know what it's like in my mind it's still like 1992 or something uh but you okay i know some 75 year old people you don't look 75. You look amazing. Let's bow to the DNA gods. I remember when my mother was leaving us and I was sitting by her bed, my mother was a five foot nine, natural redhead, green eyed, Scottish beauty. And she was beautiful even in her last days. And she maintained her look. So it's the DNA gods through my mother that I worship. But did you, is it all genetics or were you like, I don't know, do you have some secret skincare recipes or anything?

Or is it all just, are they called recipes? No, the only thing I've ever done for myself that's been really good for me is for some reason or other, I started exercising when I was 18. And at that point, you're too young, but there was the 10 BX and the five BX program brought out by the air force. Okay. And I've, I've exercised my whole life.

I do yoga. I swim, I do Pilates and I have a lot of fun and I have a good time. And I'm, my natural state is if you leave me alone, I'm happy. And that's a blessing. Well,

I'm happy that you're here because I, I've been doing this for several years, but, uh, I've, I keep, you know, hearing you,

we keep crossing paths via other guests. And I've always said, I've got to get Dini Petty on Toronto Mike so thanks so much for doing this today. My pleasure. By the way on that note so I spoke this morning with a guy you might remember Peter Gross. Oh my god I adore

Peter Gross he's doing well. Yeah I produced his podcast and we were chatting this morning because we dropped a new episode of Down the Stretch, Ontario's definitive horse racing podcast. And I mentioned you were going to be on, and he said, oh, you know, he had that tone in his voice like, you know, you're a sweetheart.

And he said, say hi for me, will you? And here, officially, hello from Peter Gross. Those were amazing days. Being part of the original City Pulse news team was extraordinary. And I clearly recall when we started the articles that were written. These people will never make it. They are doomed to failure. This is not going to work.

This is absolute crap TV. And then it became a phenomena. Now, we'll kind of touch on it now now and then we'll go in chronological order and get there. Cause I want to talk about, I got questions about this helicopter, but the is it because the, it was a collection of characters like real interesting characters that were kind of assembled in the old city, city pulse or the city TV newsroom. Colin Bond once said, you got to be an eccentric to work here.

So we had Jojo Chinto and Jojo and I are still very close friends to this day. I just saw him a couple of months ago. And we had Peter Gross and Colin Vaughn. We had a collection of really interesting people. And that's what, and of course we had Gordon Martineau. I remember the first time, our very first meeting on Jarvis Street in a hotel. We're all yakking away and Martineau walks in and the room goes quiet. I mean, he was beautiful.

It's those blue eyes, right? They're piercing. Yeah. And it was kind of awkward for me to work with a guy that was so beautiful. But then I got to know him, you know, and then it was just fine. And you guys both appear in Dirty Work, right? Like this is the Norm Macdonald movie, Dirty Work. You're both in that movie.

I didn't know Gord was in that movie because we did it a different time. You've never seen Dirty Work. You're missing out. It's yeah. Yeah. I have to go watch that. You got to go catch up. But OK, so Peter Gross says hi.

But also I tweeted you were coming on. a bunch of people wanted to say hi but i want to uh i i recently got to interview jody vance who's in vancouver and jody vance says love her tell her hi from me yeah she's a she is a fine woman a great broadcaster she's uh it's really you know because i am at this age i look behind me and i gotta say girls we're doing a good job. When I look at women in their 60s, 50s, 40s, 30s, 20s, teens and little ones, I'm like, we're good. We're doing a good job here, girls. Awesome. Awesome.

And TheRealHankSenior says, this is kind of on par with the fact that on the topic of you looking so young and great and fantastic, TheRealHank Hank Senior wants to know if you still like being called Deanie Pretty. Oh, that's cute. Some people used to call me that, and my daughter has to track down a punk band in L.A.

did a song called Deanie Petty. And I heard it years ago, and those are are great compliments and probably the greatest compliment I had, which for me was the biggest thrill that turned out to be quite a story was you win lots of awards and things. And, uh, they named a tulip after me and I always said they were going to name a rose after me, but I was a few petals short, but I was so thrilled that they did this triumph tulip and it was two colors of pink because my helicopter was pink. Okay, let's talk. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you there.

Do you want to start with the helicopter? Oh, yeah. Well, because I don't remember the helicopter era of Dini Petty, but of course, I've seen the photos and the photos are almost, it's almost like, did this really happen? This is just amazing. So you're very young. So tell us about that you had a pink jumpsuit and your helicopter was pink. Like, can you tell us about the work you were doing at CKEY doing the traffic? Okay, it starts with my family. My mother was Canada's first talent agent. My father opened one of the first animation houses in Canada. So my family lay the foundation of the industry as it exists today. So my parents had a friend, his name was Dean Peterson. They went to work for Peterson Productions. Dean Peterson produced the first television commercial made in Canada, and he directed it. Wow. And I was the go girl. Go for coffee, go for this, go for that, go for that. Dean was an extraordinary man, but he closed the doors in Peterson Productions a couple years later. And I'm 23 years old, and I'm out of a job.

So a girlfriend of mine, a model for my mother, Peggy Clarkson, who was stunning, called me and said, Deanie, I'm going to buy you lunch and we're going to figure out what you're doing for a living. I said, Peggy, I'm in. We went to the Castle George, which was kind of above George's, which was kind of the place where the business people from the industry hung out. As we sat down, three guys walked by our table from CKY radio. We knew one of them and he said hello. Now at that time, there was a helicopter war going on in Toronto because traffic reports now were like 24 hours a day, but then they were new. They were being done from helicopters. In each helicopter was a guy who did the reporting and a guy who did the

announcing, except at CKY, where a guy named Bob Carter was doing both. And one day, what's his first name? Paul Harvey walked out of his room and said, I know how we're going to win this war. We're going to find a girl. We're going to put her in a pink helicopter. She's going to drive a pink car. She's going to wear a pink suit and she's going to fly and report, go and find her. Meanwhile, back at George's luncheon, Peggy and I are sitting there. When these guys, two tables away, their problem comes up. Where are we going to find a girl to fly this helicopter? And Tommy Radenburg looked over and he knew I'd done some skydiving.

And he said, see that girl over there? That's Deanie Petty. Now, I know she's crazy enough to jump out of an airplane. Maybe she's crazy enough to fly a helicopter. And literally, as he's walking to our table, Peggy says, so what are you going to do? I said, I don't know, Peggy. I can't be a secretary. This is so long before spellcheck.

I said, but I want to be challenged. I want to use my brains. And there was a tap on my shoulder and I looked up and I heard the words that changed my life. How would you like to be the girl in the pink helicopter? Sure. And that's how it all started. Okay, wow.

Now, you've already answered one of the questions I had. I wanted to confirm since I'm a tiny bit young for the CKEY, Dini Petty era there, but you were flying that helicopter, like you were flying it. commercial pilot's license for helicopters in Canada. I have 5,000 hours of flying time. So you got to figure in those 5,000 hours that I was up there, I must have done, I don't know, a thousand hours of traffic reports, three an hour, six an hour. So what's six times one, 6,000 times I have either said, traveling northbound on the parkway is stop and go, or westbound on the Gardner. And at some point I went, I have to get out of this job or I'm going to lose my mind.

Okay, now before we get you out of there, because we just got you there. Now, I have a couple of questions. One is that I'm looking at the photos. At dinipedi.com, there's some fantastic photos. And one of them, I'm pretty sure you're smoking a cigarette. Could you smoke in this helicopter? In those days, you could. And very few people, when they look at that photo, because it's the pink jumpsuit in front of the pink helicopter, very few people notice there's a cigarette in my left hand. Yes, there is. Yes. Of course you could smoke when you were flying.

Because you could smoke anywhere, right? Yeah, you could smoke anywhere. In fact, smoking a cigarette saved my life one day. Okay, tell me how that could happen. It was my birthday, January the 15th, which is why I remember it. And I was partying at my boyfriend's house and I stayed overnight.

CKY called in the morning and said, we just got a call from the police. There's a guy out in Lake Simcoe lost in the skidoo. Would you go out on a search and rescue? I said, guys, I was up till two. I've been partying and drinking. So I said, no. So I hang up. And about a half hour later, my friend Charlie calls.

He said, Dini, I'm the one who put in the call. That was my uncle. I'm like, oh, my God, Charlie. So we leap out of bed, go up to Buttonville, jump in the helicopter. My instructions are to follow Yonge Street, which ends at Lake Simcoe. And I see the police car, so I land. And I go, what do you want me to do? He said, just fly over the lake and see if you see a guy.

He's wearing a green snowsuit, and he's got on a yellow vest and i'm like well how hard can that be i pick the machine up i head out over to the middle of lake simcoe to discover two things lake simcoe is a lot bigger than i thought it was right and there's all kinds of people on it there's ice huts there's skidoos there's people on skis there's ice huts. There's skidoos. There's people on skis. There's dogs. And I'm like, okay. So Stephen's looking out the right. I'm looking out the left. I'm pretty much in the middle of the lake. And I noticed a big fluffy flakes, snowflakes go by. And I noticed some more. And then I look up and I'm going forward about 70 knots, 70 miles an hour. and it's moving this way, I fly right into a whiteout. I cannot see and I can only fly by visual flight rules. I don't have the instruments to fly. And it's like I'm sitting

in the middle of a snow globe that someone has just shaken. And I'd heard the word vertigo, but it never made sense. If you're sitting down, don't you know where the bottom is? So the only instrument I have that I can use to help me is called a turn and bank. And it's like a leveler with the bubble in the middle. They see if furniture straight, but it's shaped like a half moon, but it's like almost three feet away. And I'm trying to keep the bubble. It's not working. And I'm talking to myself. I'm like, you got to do something. And I sit there frozen. No, there's no one said a word. I'm paralyzed. And now I'm screaming, for God's sake, do anything. And I take the cigarette out of my mouth

and I hand it to Steven. And out the right side of the machine, I see what looks like a telephone pole that's been painted tar black. And that's my only line of reference in the snow globe. So I straighten the machine out and start to lower it. I was about 80 feet when I started. I lower it to discover I'm 12 feet off the ice. Wow. I had been slip sliding from side one, two more of those. I would have gone into the ice blades going 3000 RPM. I'm now sitting in the middle of Lake Simcoe in a blizzard.

It lifted enough. I got back to shore for four minutes later. When I lifted it up, there were, there was no land. I got to the shore, I head south. And then I looked down and checked my instruments to discover I'm almost on empty. I have done everything wrong as a pilot. Didn't check the weather. Didn't check the gas. Ran off to help my friend. And I gave myself three minutes. I said, look, if you don't see something, you're going to fall out of the sky from 100 feet it's not a good idea and every day when i left button buttonville and would drive south and woodbine avenue there was a place that sold carpet remnants with a sign that said factory carpet but the sea was burnt out one minute 30 seconds later i look up and i see factory arpet like i'm beside buttonville Airport. Buttonville,

it's RGQ. They're like, come on in. You're the only one up there. Come on home. I have told that story for years. And years later, someone said to me, if you were in the middle of Lake Simcoe, how could you have seen a telephone pole when it took you four minutes to fly to land? Great question. To this day, I can't answer that question. Some people say you imagined it, which makes me a freaking genius. Whatever it was, it saved my life. Dini, I feel like we need to make the Dini Petty story a movie,

and that'll be a key climatic scene will be this, when we film this pink helicopter in the snow globe over Lake Simcoe. Amazing. There's a couple of, yeah, no, I'm on my second set of nine lives, Mike. Oh, I'm learning that. And when did you quit smoking? When did you quit smoking? I've smoked off and on ever since, probably because I'm so attached to it. I go off for seven years, then I go back, then I go off, then I go back. Okay, now I'm even more impressed by your youthful appearance because I find smokers typically don't look younger than their age.

They might look even older than their age, but you defy the logic there as well. Yeah, I defy my own logic a lot of the time. Okay, I have some questions from listeners uh dale uh wanted me to ask you he says uh and i'm going to quote dale he says she she said she drove that color i think he's referring to the pink uh helicopter because her boyfriend at the time could follow her in the sky is there any there's no truth that. Because it sounds like from your story that that's just maybe an urban legend or some kind of

a myth that's circulating. Tell us. Is Dale out to lunch here? No, it's close. He's got the story a little mixed up. When I went to the station, they said, look, we're going to paint it pink. What color pink do you want? So I went home. I looked in the door and I had a scarf that had several colors

in it. One was pink. So I said, okay, make it it that color what i didn't realize until the color was all over the helicopter and the car and my suits it's pepto bismol screaming pink right but the story he's referring to is my boyfriend uh i put an x on tape on his car. So when I was flying, I could look down and go, ah, there he is. There he is. Gotcha, gotcha. He's got another great memory here.

His mom won a prize in the late 60s. This is him again writing, during a phone-in on CKEY, and the winner was able to take a ride with Deanie Petty. Mom wanted me to go, so I took the TTC and met up with Deanie, but because I was under 16 years old, I wasn't allowed to go. I was given a gift certificate, and I was

happy with that. And then Dale revealed something which we could all probably relate to. I had a crush on you. This is for you, Dini. Not on me, I don't think, although that's fine, too. And I was glad to meet you that day. So Dale has this great memory of you. Oh, thank you, Dale. I'm surprised.

I guess it must have been one of the rules of the contest he entered. Yeah. But he was happy with his gift certificate. So, okay. When was the last time you flew? Tim Perkis wants to know if you still fly. When was the last time you flew? Oh, God.

It's a long, long time. 20 years. But I'm telling you, I'm not not sure remember how to start the damn thing but i could fly it it's just like riding a bicycle i mean 5 000 hours i'd like to fly a huge 300 one more time but i have no desire to go flying i mean i have 5 000 hours up there i've done some gliding. I do not have a fixed wing license. I only fly helicopters. Only helicopters and only pink helicopters as well.

5151 Photography, that's his handle on Twitter, wants to know, did you get to keep the pink pantsuit? I did, you know, and foolishly I didn't treasure any of these things, so I still don't have them. You know, when you're living your life and you're running as fast as you know, and foolishly, I didn't treasure any of these things. So I still don't have them. I, you know, when you're living your life and you're running as fast as you can, because

I left, I, oh, I flew till I was eight months and 10 days pregnant. And if the Department of Transport had had anything to say, I wouldn't have because I arrived at the heliport one day. The guy said, Department of Transport's on the line. They want to talk to you. And I'm like, oh, God, do they know about my landing in that park in downtown Toronto

to pick up my boyfriend last week? I mean, who'd notice a pink helicopter in a park, right? Right. So I pick up the phone. I go, hello. And he goes, Deanie Petty. And I go, yes. He said, I'm just calling to tell you

your license is canceled. And I'm like, oh, my God, they know about the park. And I said, why, sir? And he said, you're pregnant. And I said, yes, I am, sir. But what has that got to do with it? He said, well, apparently it's still a rule in commercial aviation. I think now you can fly till five months and it might've been the same there a little less. He said, it's the law. I said, look said look at this point I've got about 3,500 hours I'm extremely good pilot I am going flying if you want to argue with me we will do it in the press

and I slammed down the phone and I flew but the passengers who would come out of the hangar because it's you know you're gonna you win a ride in a helicopter and you get to the heliport and you see this little pink helicopter and then this eight month pregnant pilot and you're like, God, maybe I've made a serious error here. All right. Help me out. Is this the pregnancy with Nicholas? No, this is my first born, Samantha. So I was 29 when Sam was born. So I flew for a long time. I was 34. I was, quote, an elderly mother when I had Nick. And every time I go to the doctor, I go to Dini Petty, the elderly mother. They now call them geriatric mothers. And I'm like, for God's sakes, there's got to be a better word. Gentlemen. Right. Nowadays, people are pushing off having kids till later in their lives.

So it's pretty commonplace now for geriatric motherhood, right? This is kind of the new normal, I would say. What a horrible expression, geriatric. I mean, there's a better term. She's a pregnant woman. Right, right. So now is the time to get you to City TV. Why do you leave CKEY Radio for City TV?

Because I'd done 6,000 or so traffic reports, and I was like, I can't. I love the flying. The flying, flying that helicopter is one of the most beautiful memories of my life. I loved being up there most often alone, but you know, I just couldn't keep saying the parkway northbound is stop. And I was like, I got to do something. So that's why I left. And I called Moses and Imer.

And I said, you want to hire me? And I did that speech. And he said, why? And I said, well, I'll be one of the best employees, yada, yada, yada. But I had that bit of fame. So he hired me. I think you'd be right up Moses's alley, kind of like different, eccentric in a very cool way, but also attractive and young. I just think you'd be right up the alley of Moses and Amir. Yeah, Moses saw people as they were for characters, and he was most often right.

And it was good that he did that. I'm grateful. Yeah, well, I'm grateful he did that too, because it launched, yeah, quite the television career. Now, I'm wondering if uh you ever when you when you were on city tv doing the news there did you never go up in a helicopter you didn't do the traffic from a helicopter no no i wasn't doing the traffic there but i was still flying part-time so occasionally i'd go up and fill in for whoever was off that day. Okay, I'm going to play a little clip.

My buddy Retro Ontario shared this on YouTube. So this is, I think it's 1977, and it's Deanie Petty on City Pulse. The City Pulse weather report is next with Deanie Petty. Deanie, another dynamite day. How long does it go on? It'll go on for a while, Gord. It's beautiful weather for growing oranges and other things. If you go outside today, you probably saw lots of blue sky and clear skies.

It will stay with us tonight. It'll get down to about 8 degrees. So I'm hearing like a funky... I don't like Ontario. Winds are variable to the southwest at 10 to 20 knots. They'll shift to northwest at, again, 10 to 20 knots. Bring it nice and low. So, Dini, I'm hearing like a funky, I almost want to say it's like porno music or something,

but there's a funky soundtrack. I did a lot when I started at Citi. I did the weather. I was a general reporter. I did consumer reporting, and then it got better and better. And then I ended up, it was wonderful. What an extraordinary career. I love, I loved being a reporter. I still do some running from time to time for the Toronto Star. And for a few other papers. I just did a big article for them. Unfortunately, COVID hit because I wrote about a woman whose name is Valerie Scott, and Valerie Scott is 62.

And while I was interviewing her, I thought, this should be taped. This is amazing. She's still practicing the world's oldest profession, which she started at age 24. But Valerie Scott is a sex worker of some note because she was one of the three people that challenged the Charter of Rights five years,

I think 50,000 pages of documents. And that's what changed the law, which the Harper government said, they struck it down as unconstitutional, that you can do sex work. And they said, okay, in Canada today, sex work is, it's legal to sell sex. It's illegal to buy it.

Right, right. It's called Catch-22 and it's stupid. But I interviewed her and I wrote this big article for the Star, but then COVID hit. I love, I love interviewing people. I miss, I miss that part because I like interesting people. Well,

have you considered starting the Dini Petty podcast? Since I've been talking to you, I have actually, I, um, I own all of the Dini shows that were on CTV. They're all in the archives of York university. And there's a couple

of people there I wouldn't mind following up with, doing a bit of the tape, you know, the audio from then. Sarah, the Duchess of York, I'd like to talk to again. I liked her a lot. And she's a helicopter pilot. I didn't know that. Yeah, Fergie. I saw the picture on your website

of you and Fergie. Yes. Yeah. And Julio. I'd love to talk to Julio again and Father Labar who's going to be your 666 interview I don't even I gotta say plead a little ignorance should I know this name no you wouldn't know this

name and I'm not sure how we got him the first time but are we sure he's around is he still alive I don't know. But Father Labar's from New York. He's a priest, a Catholic priest. My first interview, Father Labar was the man who called the exorcist, because you can still get an exorcism in the Catholic church. If you're in Europe, I understand that you just go in and go, I'm possessed. Okay, we'll do it now. Okay, you're done. But if you're in the

US, it's a huge deal. You go through like a year plus of mental this and that to make sure you're not just nuts. And then they do the exorcism. The second time I had Father Labar in my show, he was the exorcist. He is the exorcist. And he invited me to go to an exorcism because when they do one on a woman, they want another woman in the room. And I said, no. And he said, why? I said, look, one of two things is true. This woman is so nuts, you missed it.

Or number two, she's possessed by the devil. In either case, Father Labar, why would I want to be in the room? That's a good point. That's a good point. But is he literally the inspiration for the movie The Exorcist? No, but he was the consultant on The Exorcism of

Mary Rose. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, well, he'd be a good 666 guest. Yeah, you got to hook me six guests. Yeah. You gotta, you gotta hook me up on that one. All right. But I got more city TV questions here. So I love city TV. I love that whole environment.

Five, one, five, one photography. He wanted to know, was Gord funny or a jerk? That's I'm just reading verbatim. What he tweeted at me.

Gordon was extremely funny. Could occasionally be a jerk. Like all of us. Gordon was extremely funny, could occasionally be a jerk like all of us. Not me personally, I've never been a jerk in my life and I'm sure you haven't either, Mike. Oh, I probably have been. I used to play a very competitive slow pitch. I was quite the jerk. But I've had

Gordon here in the studio for a deep dive and he was very accommodating and rolled with it. It was very pleasant to, to speak with that about, I don't know him nearly as well as you do. So it was good to hear.

He could be funny and a jerk. And another question, how did you view that city TV environment? Like, was it at all threatening? Was it hedonistic? Like we've heard such stories coming out of that, the Moses era of city TV.

Moses and I never really got along. We're very polar opposite. So I, I knew him only in a very specific way. I was treated well. I, I, and I had two kids. I mean, I, I came, Samantha was what, six? And then I got pregnant with Nick. So I was the kid that went to work, did her job, went home and took care of her kids.

I didn't have a lot of time to party, but I found it a wonderful environment. City Pulse News, Stephen Hurlbut is our news director. It was fantastic. Sounds great. I do also produce a podcast for John Gallagher. And every time that name you referenced there, and I don't know him at all, Stephen Hurlbutt, is that how you say it?

Yeah. So he was in charge of the newsroom, I guess, or in charge of City TV? He was the news director for years and a cameraman before that. I don't think John liked him very much. Well, I can tell you, Steve Hurlbut and I are still friends. I did award-winning documentaries at City TV, two or three of them,

and Stephen worked on all of them. His work is brilliant, brilliant cameraman. Well, it wouldn't be the first time that John Gallagher butt heads with somebody who was a decent chap, so that's all right. We all keep going. So, tell me, before we get to City Line, with somebody who was a decent chap. So that's all right. We all keep going. Right.

So tell me, before we get to City Line, what was Sweet City Woman? Besides a cool song, what was Sweet City Woman? It was the forerunner to... It changed names several times. It's now City Line. It was called Help when I started. Then it became Sweet City Woman. Then it became City Line.

The one thing story I was going to tell you about cities supposedly so avant-garde and so ahead of its time. The work that I'm most proud of the documentary is a piece of work. And I was young. I was in my late 20s early 30s and Randy Gulliver who was my director my entire time at City and went with me to see TV was gay but and my gaydar is good I got a lot of gay friends and I I went I I never got that from you Randy but he asked me to front a documentary called growing up gay no one I knew where I stood personally but no one had ever asked me to stand publicly and give my opinion so I went to my family my father's you

can't put your you know and I'm like wow and I went to a meeting at 519 Church Street of young gays and lesbians and they were under 16. Oh my God, Mike, the stories is just, I left and my, my thought was, my God, what are we doing to our children? So I did the film. It, it was so well received to the point that to this day, and this happened seven months ago, I was making a speech and it's happened to me probably 20 times plus a man waits at the back of the room everyone's gone he comes up and he says I want to thank you for saving my life and over the years I've said to Randy Randy let's go find those three kids and follow it up he's like no no no so a couple of years ago because we're still good friends, I said, Randy, why did we never follow up with that growing up gay and bring it up to date? He said, because I have such

terrible memories. I said, how can you have bad memories of groundbreakings that saved so many lives and changed lives? City TV would not give him videotapes to make the documentary. TVTV would not give him videotapes to make the documentary. The only way he got them was that Marcy Martin, God bless you, Marcy, slipped him some used tapes. So how avant-garde were they at that point? You know the British series, what is it called? Seven Up, I guess it's called.

Seven Up and every seven years you follow up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fabulous. Fabulous. And it sounds like this could have been something like that. That was my idea. But Randy, it was so horrible for him to even get the thing made, which is shocking, you know? No, yeah, no.

That is shocking. Wow. And speaking of documentary films and stuff, and earlier I asked you if that first pregnancy was Nicholas, it was Samantha. That is shocking. Wow. And speaking of documentary films and stuff, and earlier I asked you if that first pregnancy was Nicholas, it was Samantha. So Nicholas, child number two, tell us about the documentary camera that followed you throughout the pregnancy and birth of Nicholas in like 1980, I guess. Steve Hurlbut, cameraman, and I worked together on it.

It took, I don't know how long it took Moses to talk me into letting the camera in there for the whole thing, the delivery that, and Steve, when Nicholas was delivered and I'm in the delivery room, anybody who's been there, your knees are up and they're draped. And the camera was behind my head because when it was called having a baby and people said, you had your baby on TV. And I say, you know, that picture you get in your mind when you say you had your baby on TV. Well, that's the last thing I would ever show on TV. So what you saw, Cameron, behind me was Nick being handed to me. Now, I couldn't get this kid to watch the documentary. On his 17th birthday, I sat him down. I said, you got to watch this, Nick. So he watches the whole thing. When it's finished, he says the most, I said, what do you think?

And his response is the most male answer one could think of he looked at me and said the whole city saw my bag out of the room oh nick i never thought of that oh wow that's yeah that is a typical that's hilarious but that this is all groundbreaking stuff in 1980. Like you didn't you didn't have you didn't have a camera with that kind of access of a woman, you know, pregnant giving birth. That was kind of ahead of its time and revolutionary on some level, I would think, in 1980. It was. And apparently I was the first woman who worked in television who was pregnant when I was on TV. They showed The Lump. Wow. the first woman who worked in television who was pregnant when I was on TV, they showed the lump.

Wow. And I had a call from a guy one night after, I guess my first night when I was getting big. And he said, Deanie Petty. And I said, yes. He said,

that's disgusting. I said, what's disgusting, sir? He said, you're showing that on television. And I said, I know,

sir, we have to admit that at least once I've had sex, don't we? I mean, some people were offended. It's amazing what people were offended by back in the day. I know I can't remember which sitcom it was. Maybe it was I Love Lucy where they couldn't say the word pregnant. So she was with child. I can't remember. Like, it's just amazing. And then, you know, I mean, I think the Brady Bunch bunch maybe they were the first parents uh who shared a bed i think on television if i remember so they always had two different beds like uh in sitcoms prior to that but unbelievable yeah so the documentary of nicholas 1980 uh i want to city line i have a few questions but i'm going to play a little bit of let's see if this plays here just a little bit of uh i'm still standing by elton john after all these years yeah

i guess right off the bat um i mentioned retro ontario earlier because he had that he found that clip of you doing the weather on City Pulse. He tells me that the way City TV would operate is they would take a popular song, like maybe I'm Still Standing by Elton John and they wouldn't license it or anything. They would just use it until they were told they couldn't use it. Is that true? You know what? I don't know. I was never part of the executive. I was just this girl that they hired. And then it turned out I was pretty good at what I did. So it sort of grew organically. emotion song, Obsession.

And apparently, you know, this was the City TV way, just think it's easier to, you know, beg forgiveness than to get permission or whatever. But anyway, that was the theme song for years to City Line. Tell me everything you can about, you know, City Line and how you got the gig and just share some stories, if you don't mind, about hosting City Line. Oh, I got the gig and just share some stories uh if you don't mind about hosting oh i got the gig wow i started at city and moses being the clever fellow he is there was a woman hosting a show

in the morning that eventually became help and eventually became city line and he asked me if i would drop in one day a week and so i did one show with her. Then it was two shows. Then it was three. And then she was gone. And I was doing two shows a day. Sorry, who was gone? Who was it? Deborah. I forget her last name. Oh, Kikil. No, not that. No, no, no. You're thinking of... I'm thinking of the athlete,

right? Yeah. Now you've got the Kiki belt. Yes. Kiki belt was the, yes. City sports. Yeah.

No, this was another girl and she was gone. So I ended up doing the two shows. And I mean, tell, tell us a little bit like this, this, I remember city line hosted by Dini, Dini Petty. And it mean, tell us a little bit like this. I remember City Line hosted by Dini Petty.

And it was, how long did this thing run? I know at some point you leave it for CFTO, which we're going to get to, I guess that's in 1989. But how long did you do host City Line? As long as I was at City TV all the time. I was doing City Line line in the morning and, and, uh, city pulse at night. And then, Oh,

I was going to tell you about, yeah, I have to tell you about the time that I, you know, I told you I was lucky. I've had, I'm on, I think I've used up.

Yeah. 10 of my lives, close calls. And then one certain death experience. Okay. Yeah. Tell me. I'm anchoring the news for the 5 o'clock news for Citi,

which we did from a remote location every night. So we get to the Hadassah Bazaar automotive building, C&E Grounds. We've got the signal. Everything's working. We're good. The place has so many people. I have a body card because there are hundreds of tables, thousands of people.

And it's about 10 minutes before air. We've laid the cable down to the camera. People are lining up either side of the cables to watch. The camera's about 10 feet away. About 10 minutes to air, a very handsome man stepped over the cable and walked towards me. He's about six foot gorgeous, brown curly hair, beautiful skin, brown eyes, beautiful gray suit, and a shirt and a tie with a little purple fleck. And he got within three feet of me and he said, are you Dini Petty? And when I nodded

in the affirmative, he took the gun from his jacket and pointed it at my chest. Now the next picture in my memory is I'm not in the automotive building. I'm standing on the edge of a rocky cliff and there's a void in front of me, a black void. I'm not afraid. And the only question on my mind is how is this going to happen? Because this is going to happen. Am I going to walk into this void? Am I going to float into this void? And if I go to that moment and close my eyes as I do right now, I swear I could feel a slight breeze. And there's no doubt I was in shock because it seemed to me I gun and the next picture in my memory I'm back in the automotive building and I'm screaming obscenities and my bodyguard who had frozen found his feet and chased the guy through the crowd the guy got away and I look up and the cameraman looks at me and says okay we're like on air in like 40 seconds can you do this and I'm like yeah yeah yeah there's no business like

you're up three two one good evening Deanie Petty live from the Hadassah Bazaar for City Pulse at five there's a lot going on here tonight tell you more right after this commercial and this is how I ended my first one woman show was with that story and then I'd say we'll be back after this commercial this has been Deanie Petty's one woman show of Broadview story. And then I'd say, we'll be back after this commercial. This has been Deanie Petty's one woman show of broad view. I hope you enjoyed yourself. I did. And I'd walk off the stage and the audience would be like, what? Just say.

Okay. Wait. So it was not a, so we never, do we never found out who this guy was? He escaped? He got away. And four years after, people say to me, why did he do it? I go, how the frig would I know? Okay, you know, the first thought I had when you were telling the story, and I know I did enough research to know I didn't miss any violent incident with you. But I was thinking, on this show, I've had Kate Wheeler on the show. And I was of kate wheeler's story in the uh underground uh the the path in toronto when somebody uh i think a skit someone suffering from schizophrenia uh stabbed her like i was just this this this is a scary possibility when you're

a public somebody i i just thought wow and then your reaction, firstly, that bodyguard freezing up, that's not the right career for him, right? Yes. You can't freeze up like that, buddy. And you, that reaction, I guess, in shock, that's so interesting that you, yeah, very interesting. The whole story is fascinating. I sometimes call that story my John Lennon moment because I think that shock is such an incredibly protective factor. I believe that if that guy had had a real gun, that if he pulled and pulled the trigger, I might have felt a boop, but it wouldn't have hurt. And I do believe that John Lennon stood on the same cliff. But for him, it was a real gun. Shock is an extraordinary protective measure that we have. Right, right.

And then that shock, and I suppose your body starts pumping adrenaline or whatnot to prepare itself for something. Yeah, that's a wild story. Oh, yeah, the show finishes. I drive home. My parents are there babysitting my young children. Oh, Mom, we saw you on TV. It looked like so much fun. Did you have fun? Yeah, kids, it was like a really good night. And I just filed the story away and went on with my life. And I take it no one caught this on camera, like none of the camera people caught this because they weren't running, I suppose, when this happened. No, but the cameraman, the first thing he said to me is, well, you're not dead. You want to do this?

I'm like, you know, typical cameraman. You've had an interesting life, Dini. I really do hope we got to make a movie of your life. That would be another exciting scene when we film that. It would be very cool. By the way, I... Actually, I'm in the process of writing a little memoir. So all these stories are in there.

Awesome. Awesome. So we're getting a little little sneak peek here uh before i move you away from city tv though i gotta ask you about somebody who uh inspired me as a podcast host and that is a brian linehan uh can you tell me any stories about working with brian at city tv brian and i were, oh, I can tell you one story. Well, Brian Linehan

was brilliant. I really admired Brian and we were good enough friends that I said to him one day because he had an offer to go to New York. And I said,

Brian, I got to tell you this, OK? I said, when I watch your interviews, I end up being transfixed by your nose I just it's so distracting he was in an accident as a child and if you recall his nose was so tiny it was a major distraction and I said if you want to go to New York here's the name of this plastic surgeon that I've interviewed and I know really well.

He went to see him and then he said, no, I'm not going to do it. And he didn't go to New York. His talent was obvious and brilliant. But for me, it was a major distraction. Did you ever get plastic surgery or is that too personal a question for me? I just asked you. Of course I had plastic surgery. When you're on TV, they give it to you for free.

And the guy's name is Sandy Pritchard, Dr. Pritchard. And if there's anyone out there thinking doing anything, I would definitely go to him. What did you get? Would you be willing to share what you got done? I'm always fascinated by this. Yeah, actually, I'm a man. So it was a huge, huge operation, Mike. A lot of people don't know this. It's not really Deanie, it's Dean. Well, it's quite because we've seen you give birth on television. So this is quite a surgery. That's what I mean. This guy's a hell of a plastic surgeon. A transplanted wound, the whole thing.

I had my eyes done. Plus, I've had five operations on this tiny nose of mine. I broke my nose when I was five and didn't go to the hospital. When I was 17, my nose bent like a banana. I swear, like a banana in one like i'm swear like a banana i go to the ent guy he goes well you're not breathing for one side and we'll straighten it out and so the guy operated straightened it out and waited till i was over 17 because of your growth period okay did the nose and i was close to 18. I swear to God, Mike, within one year, it bent the other way like a banana. It was, and I'm now 18.

I'm like, oh my God, look at my nose. It took two more surgeries to straighten the mess out inside. Well, it looks great now. You did a good job. Okay. Now I need to know, maybe before I even ask this question, do you feel you were compensated fairly

when you were at City TV? You know what? It's interesting to ask me what I made as a helicopter pilot compared to what they paid the guy because I have no freaking idea. I foolishly would negotiate my own contracts because my mother was an agent. I know when I found out what Martin was making, which was like,

at one point it was like just this huge amount of money that I understood. So when I left City TV, I left because they had promised me it would go national, and it didn't. And then I went to a McDonald's Happy Day. Do you know the Bassett family? Have you ever met any of them? Doug Bassett? No, but I know that this is

the Baton Broadcasting, right? Yeah. Baton or Baton. Baton. Okay, Bat Baton his father started it his brother was one of the boys had some he wasn't schizophrenic he was manic

depressive whatever so Doug took it over and then Doug Bassett doesn't talk like his dad is hey how are you meet him at McAfee, and he goes, Deanie Patty. I always wanted to work with two women,

Sandy Rinaldo and Deanie Patty, and I got Sandy. So I called him the next day, and I said, You know, Doug, that's a good idea, Doug. We ought to work together. City begged me to stay, but I decided that I would be better off going national. It was a better opportunity for me, and it was, in fact. but I decided that I would be better off going national. It was a better opportunity for me. And it was, in fact, I got to interview.

Oh my God, the most extraordinary people. It was what a privilege. And for those who like BBS, this is like the predecessor to CTV, right? This is essentially as a network. Yeah. CFTO. And then it became, I don't remember the whole thing. That bait on broadcasting, then the CTV network and now Bell media. So you had your national show because you're the Dini Petty show, which I think it went at least a decade, I think 89 to 99. 2000. 2000. Okay. 2000. 2000.

Okay, awesome. Awesome. Now, so we have some people I know and work with, actually, were a part of this show. So firstly, before, yeah, I guess I'll start with a question from Brandon, because it brings up one of the guys I know pretty well. I'd be curious to hear her take on the Dan Duran co-hosting years that he did on her show

in its later seasons and do they still keep in touch at all? I remember sometimes seeing her show in summers or when sick home from school which is probably not unusual for a bunch of Canadians also seem to remember she did sponsorship things for peers

shampoo and a cat litter uh invention so let's start by talking before we get to the cat litter we're going to get to that um talk to us about dan duran dan duran i should just point out uh used to produce the humble and fred show and now i produce the humble and fred show so we're very connected there uh tell us about dan duran at a certain point my producers came to me and said we think we need a male co-host things are kind of going that way and i said okay so they went off and they they auditioned three or four or five guys and she said there's three of them that are really really good and i said who's the best looking she said what i said

who's the best looking of the three that are really, really good? She said, Dan Duran. I said, Ira. She said, what? I said, well, if they're all good. Women love good looking men. Right. So give me Dan Duran.

And Dan is a wonderful human being. And we got along really well. And it worked for a couple of years. And then that kind of faded away and I went back on my own. I don't recall why. But we're still in touch. You're still in touch. Good to hear.

Good to hear. He's up in the Coorthas now. Yes, he is. By the way, whereabouts, you know, I don't need an address. That would be, you know, you don't want to do that. Here, I'll give you his phone number, folks. He called Dan tonight and said, Dini told me to call you. I have his phone number, but I was going to ask you,

whereabouts in the world are we talking to you from right now? Oh, I'm downtown Toronto, right near the St. Lawrence Market. I was living in the country for a long time. But now you're back in the big smoke here. Yeah. Okay. You get older, Mike, and you think you should get. Well, the kids grew up and the dog died,

and I lived in the middle of 5.2 acres in the forest, and I'm like, what am I doing here? You know, if it wasn't a pandemic, I would make you visit me in person so I could give you beer and lasagna and Toronto Mike stickers from stickeru.com and get to have you here in person, but because of delivery service, Mike, well, I would bike it to you in a heartbeat. Actually, I would be happy to bike you over some, uh, some GLB. So, okay. Dan Duran. That's great because, um, I like Dan very much. I'm glad to hear that.

But do you remember the name, the guys who, uh, weren't as good looking in audition for that role? Do you have any memory of that? I have no, no, because I just wanted to know if there's three really good ones, who's the best looking. By any chance,

were one of the other guys, a humble Howard Glassman? Not to my recall, but Howard was on my show for a long time. Well, that's, that's where I'm going next. Cause you know,

I produced the humble and Fred show. Humble was Fred show Humble was a regular like a dad correspondent or something what can you tell us about Humble Howard's contribution to the Deanie Petty show I can tell you that I always look forward to

seeing Howard and we always knew it was going to be good TV and that's what you look for you need well you know you're looking for a guest that has stories, is willing to share and same thing on television. Howard had all of that, but he's got that extra thing. He's got that Howard

thing. He's a little nuts, but perfectly so. Right. He's got that. Yeah, he's nutty, but it's a harnessed nutty that works for him. For sure, for sure, for sure. That appears, you notice I don't call it Pairs because I watched a couple of these on YouTube yesterday

and reminded myself that it's Piers. You had a pretty good run as a spokeswoman for Piers Shampoo. I did. That worked really well. It's funny, somebody sent me, I was watching a link or so the other day. By the way, if you put in YouTube Deanie Petty, I put up some interviews besides Sarah. I put up my favorite of all times and the one that I consider the greatest privilege of my career was Mr. Red Skelton. Oh, yes. It's had a million views. And we became very close friends, very good friends.

Okay, I want to hear more about that because my understanding is that's the only deep dive, long form interview that he did in his entire career. Could that be possible? It is true. Wow. So how did you become close enough with him that he would kind of give you an honor that no other uh journalist or interviewer got he liked me you really liked me i flew to bam uh to interview margaret thatcher ivana trump and red skelton i was so excited about red because when i was a kid my parents would let me stay up if i was good but i had to stand behind the couch because i jumped up and down in joy so much.

And I, he came to this cocktail party and I'm sitting beside him on the couch. I've read the research 4,000 times. And at the end of it, I said, could I interview you later? The man's almost 80 when I met him. He said, no, no, Dini, because I'm going back to my room to rehearse because I'm doing a one, an hour and a half show tonight after dinner. And I'm going back to my room to rehearse because I'm doing an hour and a half show tonight after dinner. And I'm like, an hour and a half? Is that going to work? Well, of course, it was amazing. But I promise you, the next time I go to Toronto, I'll do your show.

And a promise is a promise. And somehow we... I mean, if you watch the interview, all I do is laugh. I mean, I'm his biggest fan. It was so easy. He entertained and I laughed. And then about a couple of months later, he was back in Toronto and I look up and there's red standing in the,

in the tunnel, just, Hey, just in town thought I'd come and say hello. Then on my birthday, I see a guy in the tunnel holding a package and he won't give it to anyone. And the commercial, I go, what's this? Red sent me a print of one of his paintings. So we had dinner together the last time I saw him at one of his favorite restaurants, which was Ed's Warehouse. Oh, yes. My grandmother's favorite restaurant.

Yeah. We're with his manager, who's always been his manager. And as we sit down, Red starts yelling, where's the baby? Where is the baby? And I'm like, what? And Tom yells, it's on the floor. And Red leans over and he picks up a woman's evening bag. It's covered in little sequins, silver sequins about the size of a dime. It's folded in half with a big rubber band around it. And I go, that's the baby?

And he goes, yeah. He said, you know, Jeannie, I have a lot of stuff. And I travel so much that when I do travel, I take some of it with me. He takes the rubber band off. He puts his hand in his purse. And he pulls out a watch. The face of the watch is diamonds and around it is rubies. He turns it over and it says to Red Love Howard Hughes. I'm like, whoa, the world. Wait, wait, he says. He puts his hand in the bag. He says, you know,

I had cheapskate Bob Hope didn't give me a damn birthday present until I was 75. He pulls out a pair of cufflinks that are star sapphires that are the size of my thumbnail surrounded by diamonds. I'm like, oh, my God. No, wait, wait, he says. He puts his hand in the bag and he brings out a cross. It's a wooden cross from the Pope to red. And in the middle of this wooden cross is a piece of glass. And under the glass is a little tiny shred of wood from the cross. And I'm like, whoa.

He puts everything back in the bag, closes it, pulls it out, puts a rubber band around it, drops it on the floor, and we have dinner. As we're leaving the restaurant, the manager's taking care of the bill. We're alone between two sets of huge doors. And he looks at me and says, I wish you were my daughter. And I said, I wish you were my father.

So if there's a next life, I know who my father's going to be. Wow. Wow. That's something there. Wow. Oh, okay. Now here's an awkward segue, which is to ask you about competition from Shirley, right?

Because you and Shirley is on doing something similar, right, for the network. We were competitors, but, you know, when I was on air, I was Oprah, Phil Donahue sally just say rafael they were all kind of on at the same time i mean i was beating oprah in numbers so there's all there's always competition shirley and i were different kinds of people so you either like shirley or you like dini and right you had any taste of course you like dini in my humble opinion.

Well, I did come across an interesting old article, which I thought was interesting because you were going on an African safari. And there were consultants busy retooling. The sense I got was differentiating your show from Shirley's. It was a sense I got. But I guess the question is African Safari, was this

sort of a regular vacation for you in the off season? My mother lived in Africa as a child. My mother was born in Glasgow. She had a younger sister. My grandfather was a baker. He was a master Oz baker with many gold medals to his name, but he wanted to be a minister. That was his dream. several years and he became ordained in the Church of Scotland, left his job at the factory because they were going to find him a parish. And a week later, the Great Depression, the church contracts. The bakery won't take him back. Here's a man with a wife and two kids who

needs a job. And there's an ad in the Glasgow paper for a job in Nairobi. He took the job, the family moved to Nairobi and he worked for the mayor of Nairobi for many years and it was all well until they took in a Scotsman from the factory to defray expenses and he and my grandmother had an affair when my father, grandfather found out he left my grandmother there pregnant and took the two girls and went back to Scotland. So I grew up with these stories of Africa. Plus, when I was six, my dad went to Africa with the son of the man who founded Queenie, Edgar Queenie, the son of the man who founded Monsanto Chemicals, now known as the devil in many circles.

Right. But Edgar Queenie was a conservationist of some note. If you Google his name, he wrote a book called Prairie Fowl, which is still acknowledged as an incredible thing. So my father's in Africa for six months on this filming safari. And the film was the first documentary done on the Maasai. So I grew up with this thing of Africa. And the first time I went to Kenya, I felt like I could move. So you returned, you returned. How many trips did you make? Do you even have a number? Or is it too many to count? How many trips did you make? No, no, no, I went the first time I took the camera from city. And then I said to the kids, I was gonna buy a new

car next year, but we're not getting a car. We're all going to Africa. So my son had his sixth birthday at the Mount Kenya Safari Club. Then I worked on third world aid for far too long. And one of my trips, two of my trips were to Africa. So I, whenever I went, I would always go to Kenya because I have a missionary friend there that I've met. There's a gentleman named Stephen Ball.

Stephen Ball writes me, looking forward to today's show. So he must have wrote me today. When I was a kid, I was a big fan of Dini, even though I wasn't in her target market. Went to a few shows and seemed to have been a pen pal based on the photos, autographs I collected. I couldn't find a picture of me with her, but I pulled out the mug this morning. She may remember, but it's been decades.

I would have been Stephen Ball from Oakville to her. So, do you remember at all Stephen Ball from Oakville? Aw, Stephen. You were this adorable kid. There's a picture of you and I and Randy. And he was this handsome.

I don't know how we got to know you, but you were delightful. And of course, I remember you. Oh, that's sweet. You were a wonderful child. I'm so glad because I was hoping like secretly, like even if you didn't remember Stephen, I was hoping you would tell us you did just because it's such a sweet sentiment that you'd remember Stephen Ball after all these years.

Well, you came to the show several times, Stephen, as I recall, and you became sort of like a favorite of ours. So, of course, I remember you. I try to imagine how old Stephen Ball is now. Wow. In his 30s? That I don't know, but hopefully I hear from him again after this. But I'm just tickled pink that I could even be some sort of conduit that Stephen Ball and yourself could somehow communicate right now through the podcast here, which is pretty darn cool.

That's very sweet. There was a kid that I heard from on Facebook, and I had the photo, and I was flying the helicopter, and it was my birthday, and I flew over a field, and he'd stamp out happy birthday in the field. Yeah, there's some really fine people out there, and then there's the rest of them. All right. It's been smooth sailing here,

other than some near-death experiences on your part, but thankfully you're here, you're healthy. Uh, I got to ask you about one, uh, I think, uh, we can, maybe it's a misstep due to ignorance, but I just need to ask you about, uh, life after the, uh, am I allowed to say the word H Y M I E? You use this. Oh my God. I was telling that story the other day oh my god that was awful i was on the show and i was in the audience my mother's scottish right i've mentioned that right

and hymie was a word that was used in my household to mean somebody really cheap had nothing to do with jewish people right so i'm on the show and the woman in the audience said, oh, my friend, she works, she gives her husband her money and he gives her $30 a week. He's really cheap. And I said, he's not cheap. He's high me. Well, one of the people in the control room was Jewish. The show was to tape. Nobody caught it.

It goes on air and I'm on set with that. How do you I say pairs you say peers commercial i get a call from um the station i have to take it uh the jewish defense league is on the phone and i'm like what and i had to go on air and apologize right which i did but now i i have actually gone on their website to see if there's a list of offensive names because there may be others I'm not aware of. It's kind of a good, good case study of why you sort of have to be aware, because that expression to you is what you heard growing up to mean cheap, but you had no idea that it was rooted in anti-Semitism. So you used it because obviously if you had known it was rooted in anti-Semitism. So you used it, because obviously if you had known it was rooted in anti-Semitism, you wouldn't have used it. And of course,

it never got caught. It got to air. And then you issued your apology. But it's true. Sometimes these expressions that you kind of grow up with or you've heard forever, maybe your grandparents used it or something, you just got to educate yourself, I suppose, to make sure it's appropriate for a modern age.

Excuse me, I think that's why we have senior producers. So I take full responsibility, but I'm going to lay a little at the feet of my producers and nobody grabbed it. Right. Nobody picked up on it. But the apology was sufficient. I feel like today they'd want you fired, I feel.

Or not them, not necessarily the Defence League, just the masses, right? If somebody misspeaks on the social or something, it seems to become quite the controversy on social media. Yeah, we seem to... Well, we're in a reaction, extreme reaction. I mean, when the Me Too movement started, boy, it was a huge reaction against everything that had happened. And we're in such a strange time now.

It's very, emotions are so raw and everything, the pandemic is taking such an incredible toll on people. the pandemic is taking such an incredible toll on people. One of the things I find so interesting about this is that if, how long have we been home now? Is it what, at least two months? Since mid, yeah, it's been almost three months. So people in society, all of us, in order to survive, you run as fast as you possibly can to get everything. That's what we do.

You just run, run, run, do your job, be's what we do you just run run run do your job be your family do this run run run and suddenly you're home and you stop running and then you actually slow down and then you slow down more and then then you get to deal with all the stuff you pushed away which is all the all the problems in your life, all your own issues, and you come face to face with them. You either deal with them or they make you crazy. So I think the introspection is good. But I say to people, I was born during a bombing raid in World War II. And my mother was in the British Intelligence Corps and was smart enough to marry a Canadian

soldier. The bombing continued from January until the war ended in June. So after three months, they shipped us out. So you don't have to go to bed tonight and worry about your home being blown up by a bomb. You're safe. You have to deal with your internal. And if you live in the U.S., you've got to deal with those issues.

How have you been holding up? Are you living alone? Do you live in the U.S., you've got to deal with those issues. How have you been holding up? Are you living alone? Do you live with someone? Who's in that pod with you? Who's there with you? I was saying to a friend of mine the other night, I went social distance barbecue in their backyard.

No kids, no cat, no dog, no man. This is free. Remember it used to be Freedom 55 that was a big thing? Yes. I got Freedom 75. I'm on my own and I'm loving it. I thoroughly enjoy my time. And I'm a writer, so I get to do what I want when I want. And there are rooftop gardens in my building, so I get out a lot.

Glad to hear it. Okay, so I want to know what you're up to now, but I need to follow up on that litter box comment. I guess maybe to get there, tell us why does it end for you on the Deanie Petty Show? Well, the way your career ends in television is, show's over, thanks for dropping by, nice to see you. That's pretty much

how it ended. And then we ended up in some legal discussions, which I cannot talk about, but I can tell you that I'm happy. I'm smiling. Okay, good.

That's how it ended. Thanks for dropping by. And then this is, so this is about 2000? Yeah. Okay. So that's like, so this is about 2000? Yeah. Okay. So what, that's like,

Oh, nice. And exactly 20 years. So, uh, get, I do need to know about the litter box. Uh,

is there any other highlights over the last 20 years, uh, that you can share with us? And then we find out what you're up to now. I know you wrote a children's book, like the queen, the bear, and the bumblebee.

That was a bestseller. It was set to music by the children's book like the queen the bear and the bumblebee it was a bestseller it was set to music by the children's group and then i went to the bamf children's festival where it was turned into a play and it is it has a a moral to it and i had trouble selling it because the first publisher said you can't teach morals to children but the morals in the last couple of lines it's a poem it's a what i am in my heart of hearts mike is a poet and the queen the bear and the bumblebee or for those of us in the know the qbb it's a poem that would take me five or six minutes to recite which i can now do backwards i think i've done it so often I can now do backwards, I think.

I've done it so often. And the last two lines of the poem are, and both of them learn that the best thing to do is be who you are, because there is only one you. Wow. And that, I love that thing. That was inspired. Things, I believe in life that you,

first I would define myself as a romantic adventurer and I say yes to everything. Want to fly a helicopter? Yeah, sure. You want to jump out of an airplane? Yeah. Yeah. So say yes to things. And one day at CFTO, a woman called from sick children's hospital. I do not know your name. I wish I did. I would thank you. And she said, will you come and entertain the children in a month's time? So what are you going to say? No, I'm sorry.

Tell those sick kids that I'm far too important. Right. So a month later, I'm driving down the parkway and I plan to go for lunch. And I'm driving on the parkway and I suddenly say, how am I going to entertain these children? I say it out loud. And that's when it happened. I saw in my head a story with a queen, a bear and a bumblebee. I saw the whole thing, like a whole video. Went to a restaurant and I scribbled it out, you know, the poem as much as I could. Went to the hospital up to a large room. And in the room, there was a small raised platform with a microphone which I couldn't

figure out but I figured out quite quickly because the first three kids that came in were in wheelchairs and then kids were rolled in on beds and then of course kids couldn't come at all because they couldn't leave their rooms or their beds so I plunged in did the poem went home the kids liked it I went home and threw it in a drawer and said, one day I'm going to finish that. And one day I finished it. And it became a bestseller. And I'm extremely proud of it. I really, it's a wonderful, it's one of the better things I've done.

But it just sort of like came to you and on the drive, it just was there and you just had to scribble it down. Like, how do you explain that? It was just, that's wild. The same way that creativity works for a lot of people um i interviewed sir george martin and he told me the story about paul mccartney calling him one day he said have you heard this before that i dot that that at times sorrow you know why and he heard it in a dream a lot of musicians will tell will tell you they hear a song like it's coming from a radio.

People get inspiration. I see, you know, in this case, I asked the question, how will I entertain these kids? And there it was. The only song that comes to me in a dream is Baby Shark. Baby Shark, dun-dun-da-da- shark baby shark dun dun dun it's terrible it's terrible okay it is i it's worth noting that you you know so i guess after you leave city line that was taken over by marilyn dennis and then when marilyn dennis left uh for the the bell media world there that uh tracy moore took over and you did fill in for Tracy on City Line in like 2010

when she was on maternity leave. Well, your memory is much better than mine. Yes, I did. I did fill in. I like Tracy. Tracy's fabulous. So tell us about the litter box. I need to know what's up with that

because you were funding that through a Kickstarter campaign. I don't even know how to say this word. There's too many U's for me. LUP? Loop. Loop! L because there are three trays in the shape of a U and they fit inside each other. It's a perpetual

sitting system. So L-U-U-U-P Loop. Tell us. Give us an update on that. I need to know did that make you a multi-millionaire? What's going on there? No, unfortunately. I invested a bit and then

someone else took it over and I got my money back in a little bit. But it all started in, I mean, that's the second round of it. It started when I was where I was at CTV and I went to the hairdressers one morning and there was a guy on the floor with what looked like a litter box. I said, what are you doing? He said, I invented this and I'm looking for an investor. I said, show me. And when he showed it to me, I was like,

I am Deanie Petty. I'm your new investor. And that didn't work out so well because we were a 50-50 deal on a handshake and then he sold it to some Americans and they made a lot of money and the 50-50 kind of disappeared. That's too bad. Yeah, those handshake deals,

you got to be careful who you make those with. I'm sorry to hear that. Tell us, okay. A handshake deal is only as good as the paper it's written on. Right. Right. What, so are you, you're continuing to write, you mentioned you were writing for the Toronto Star and then you had a piece, I guess that COVID interrupted, hopefully that eventually finds its way. Right. So you're just keeping busy by writing again.

You're 75 years old, you me so i mean you'd be well within your right to chill out and uh you know chillax as my kids would say but you're you're still out there writing and uh keeping busy and it sounds like you and i are going to work on a podcast project together i would like that i still do some uh public speaking i have i have always had more energy than most people all my whole life um i and i still do i have tremendous amount of energy i'm i'm blessed my luck is my luck is good 10 lives later and my health is superb i don't take any medication amazing you know and we talked earlier about bowing to DNA and genetics, because most of it is. You know, so I am lucky. That would be the hallmark of my life, luck.

Go to lunch, want to fly a helicopter? Yeah, well, you know, come on. That's just luck. Luck. Go to lunch? Want to buy a helicopter? Yeah. Well, you know, come on. That's just luck. We're definitely lucky that you saw this, what did you call it, the telephone pole or whatever in the middle of Lake Simcoe. And we're very lucky that guy's gun was fake or whatever was going on. We're very lucky. And we're lucky that you took some time to join us today. Dini, I loved this very much.

And thank you again for doing this. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Good conversation. Thank you, Mark. And you're going to tweet again, right? Because in a moment, I'm going to tell people. But you're going to Dini underscore Petty on Twitter. You're going to actually be active there again.

I am going to do that exactly. As soon as I, Oh, look, there's father Labar, Julio Iglesias. Gosh. And then,

okay. What is it? It's Mike. I wrote it down here somewhere. Uh, Toronto, Mike, Toronto, Mike,

Toronto, Mike. And I'll just, uh, do a quick outro and then I'll chat you up very briefly before we say goodbye. But that brings us to the end of our 660 second show.

You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Deanie is at Deanie underscore Petty. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. The Keitner Group are at The Keitner Group.

CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. And Garbage Day are at GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike. See you all next week. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome Phone. Rome Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RomePhone.ca to get started.