WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1363 - Al Ruddy

Episode Date: September 5, 2022

Al Ruddy's life as a producer taught him one major lesson: The making of every movie is itself worthy of a movie. That's why there's a limited series called The Offer about Al's experiences making The Godfather. Al tells Marc about the colorful encounters from his decades-long career in show business, including his work with Robert Mitchum, Burt Reynolds, Robert Evans, Marlon Brando and Clint Eastwood. Al also explains why he decided to make The Longest Yard instead of The Godfather Part II and he goes into the details behind one of his most embarrassing productions, the boxing kangaroo movie Matilda. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs and mozzarella balls, yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats. Get almost, almost anything. Order now. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Lock the gates!

Alright, let's do this. How are you, what the fuckers? What the fuck buddies? What the fuck nicks? What the fucking adians? How about that one? Have I ever used that? I don't think so.

I'm here. I'm still, well, I'm traveling today. When you'll be listening to this, I'll be traveling back from Vancouver and Vancouver Island, actually, where I spent the bulk of the time. Most of it is going well, I would believe. There was some suspense,

but how's it going with you people? Is everything all right? I'm recording this from Tofino. Tofino is on, I would say, the west coast, I believe, of Vancouver Islands, of the islands out here. I don't know how exactly it works in terms of the geography. I'm kind of clear. I believe it's on the other side or near the terms of the geography. I'm kind of clear. I believe it's on the other side

or near the top of Vancouver Island. It was kind of a fantasy of mine to come here for years, it seems. I was planning a trip to Tofino. I had talked to Lynn about it many years ago and before her and I became a thing, I was going to travel up here with someone else and then like i don't know it just became it became this uh mythical

aspiration to come to tofino and finally you know i pulled it together and me and kit came up here and it's uh it's beautiful we were in vancouver for a night that was spectacular. I love that city. I'm so relaxed up here. I just, right away, it just rolls off of me. And it just stands in my mind. It's a fantasy, man. Like, I'm not one of these people, I do not believe, who is going to continue working until they're 70 or 80. I don't know that I have any desire to do that

nor see the point unless you need the bread. And I don't know, there's something about the Pacific Northwest that has always stood out for me, always. I think it has something to do with spending time in Alaska during a very formative period of my life. I believe my family, we were in Alaska in 1969, 1970, 1971, which would make me like six, seven, eight-ish years old. My father was in the military, but I have very specific memories that are related to the sort of climate and the tone of the woods and the sky and the weight of the landscapes. I remember going, you know, digging for clams somewhere off the coast of Alaska, fishing for salmon.

But there is something very comforting about the sort of gray, heavy geography up here that is pretty deep within me. And anytime I come up here, I definitely immediately reconnect with it. It's a vibe that I find comforting. the people up here in Canada without that sort of weird weight of self-driven insanity that is kind of eating away at our culture and people in general. Maybe I'm just projecting, but I don't know. I'm sure I'm romanticizing, but needless to say, the time up here has been beautiful. We've had a great time. I will tell you about it, but I should try to get this up front. My guest, Al Ruddy, is on the show today. He's a producer. He produced The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby, both of which he won the Oscar for Best Picture. He was also the co-creator of Hogan's Heroes, the writer of The Longest Yard, and producer of dozens of other movies and TV series.

He's the main character in the miniseries about the making of The Godfather called The Offer. He's played by Miles Teller. I enjoyed that thing. It was fun. I don't know how much of it was essentially true. All in all, entertaining. The guy who played Robert Evans was great. I think that Miles Teller, not knowing anything really about him, I've always thought he was kind of a movie star. We'll see. I guess he does all right for himself. I don't know how he is as a person.

He has not come on my show, but I thought he did a great job in this. So that will happen. Al Ruddy is an old man. and this so that that will happen al ruddy is an old man there was definitely um moments where you could see how al ruddy was a a force to be reckoned with back in his day so you do get flourishes of that so the trip up here has been i don't know we flew into vancouver with enough time to hang out walk around the city uh yeah just planned it. So we had one night there at a hotel that I like a great deal, that Rosewood, Georgia hotel. And we went out to a great dinner at this place called Forage. And we kind of, you know, we just hung out and eased into vacation mode. Now the next day, the plan was to fly

was to fly here to Tofino to spend four days hanging around. We get to the airport. The flight is running late because of fog coming in, an hour. And then some chatter starts to happen in the terminal that they're going to try to get us to Tofino. I didn't know that that was a thing, that that's an announcement. Also, it was very odd, this terminal's an announcement also was very odd this terminal just being it was domestic and within canada uh no security at all which was a strange adjustment kind of made me a little uncomfortable to be honest with you like there's nothing there's no

we just get on a plane but i guess it's not we're not here we're not in america anymore so these little planes a little jet i don't know how many it's seated, probably 20 seater prop plane. But the announcement comes on that they're going to try to get to Vancouver. And if they can't, they'll turn around and bring us back. So not great, not great for me, not great for my anxiety, not great for the type of panic I'm capable of, but we really had no choice. So the plane lands and they decide to take a chance, I guess, to try it out, to fly the 45 or 50 minutes across the island to Tofino and try to land the plane in this fog bank that comes every day and just sits right on Tofino and along the coast.

So we get up in this little plane the prop plane i'm okay it's fine i've been on prop planes before i'm not freaked about flying don't love circling i don't love circling in any plane uh kit's doing fine with it i'm uh in that moment a little more panicky but uh you know we get to tofino and the guy's like i don't know the pilot's literally like we'll hang out a while and see if any of this lifts. But I'm going to circle around once. So we do two or three circles to see if he can see a runway. And we're just up there for like 20 minutes, a half hour doing these big circles around this fog covered island.

And it's not looking good. And I don't know what happens if we go back to Vancouver. I don't know what happens to the room. I don't know if we can get a room. I don't, the speculation was causing me tremendous anxiety and also just lingering in the air over the fog covered island, wasn't a great feeling. So he says, we're going to go around one more time

and we'll see what we can do. So we go around and we feel it. He's going down, he's going down you know he's going you know i feel him descending i still can't see the ground and just uh some guy in the back of the plane goes i think he's going for it and uh and there we we he did he went for it we came in under through this fog underneath this fog bank he found the runway and landed a lot of suspense for a flight a lot of suspense we you know we i i thought for sure we were going to head back to vancouver but we made it applause all around got a car to the hotel this uh this place we're staying is beautiful this wiccanish uh in i guess is it wiccanishish wickenish in right on the beach here and the first day we

hung out took a little hike the second day we went on a whale watching boat i've never done that and again didn't have high hopes even though people were like yeah there's some whales out there people have been seeing them i'm like yeah you're gonna be on a boat getting nauseous for two to three hours and not see shit that's uh that's the way my brain works i don't know what your brain does but there was a little hope there that maybe we would see a whale or something and uh so that more suspense actually just more suspense it's been a suspense filled journey so we get on this whale boat. It's a bigger whale boat. There's inside seating and outside seating. I immediately get excited to get outside.

So we go outside and we sit and we go. He drives us into the ocean. We're out in the ocean a few miles into the deep ocean. I don't love the ocean. Don't love it. We're all life-preserved. We've got raincoats on. We're ready.

Now, I don't get very seasick but i definitely get seasick kit did not think she got seasick but she definitely got seasick so but it kind of happened later in the ride it's it happens when you're sitting there when you're when you're moving it doesn't happen so much but i'm here to tell you we saw two humpback whales many times in and out of the water they didn't come on the boat or nothing but we saw them they were definitely they we went out there and the guy found the whales and the whales were we were kind of following them around for a while and we got we kind of saw them go in and out of the water a little bit you know fins i saw a tail two big humpback whales beautiful amazing awe-inspiring, everything you kind

of want out of seeing a whale in its natural habitat. Then we start cruising around and he said he's going to go look for some gray whales somewhere. And then we see a bunch of sea lions on some little island. So we got, you know, check that out. Check that box, sea lions, humpback whales, check. And then we get to this inlet area and we see gray whales. There were two gray whales.

They eat a different thing. So they're in a different water. Two gray whales. We saw them too in and out of the water. Saw another tail. But it's like they're not going to do a dance for you unless you're, I don't know what kind of luck you have to have, but saw the gray whales. And then we cruised to another part, saw a bunch of sea otters. Yeah. So we spent all that time

in the boat, spent all that time on the boat, got incredibly nauseous, but saw humpbacks, gray whales, sea lions, sea otters. Very rewarding, but I think we're both a little nauseous still a day later. And then we went to, um, is it Mead's Island and did this amazing hike, a little bit of suspense there. Uh, you know, it's a, it was a, it was a loop, but it seemed like there was no one else on the Island. It was this dense sort of Pacific Northwest rainforest loop. And, you know, the trail was definitely present for almost all of it, but there was a little, a little patch where it was unclear. And I had a very rudimentary map.

And we got into a little zone there where it was like, I don't know if it's a trail. And Kit got a little panicky, but I kept my head together. I knew that we would figure it out. And we got back to where the little four-seater ferry was going to pick us up. We made it the full loop. But a little panic, a little suspense. I didn't think we would be living on the island for any amount of time. I didn't think there would be cannibalism necessary or a need to set a fire to get help.

I was pretty clear we would figure it out. But a little suspense there, but little suspense there, little suspense. So it's been exciting, an exciting, suspenseful vacation. Had some good food, took that beautiful hike. Today, we're not feeling great. Kit's not feeling great. So I went to the pharmacy, got a COVID test. A little more suspense for everybody.

Yeah, COVID test suspense. That turned out fine. suspense for everybody uh yeah covid test suspense that turned out fine so all in all exciting vacation with um with suspense we didn't expect uh in a lot of ways the airplane suspense not expected well watch suspense kind of you don't know but that worked out the hike suspense unexpected uh covid suspense didn't didn't need it but used to it at this point and they just give you you could just ask for at the pharmacy for tests they'll give you a box of five here gotta send away for him or we i'm not saying this is a better country i'm just saying i enjoy it here okay is that a problem is that a problem so look al ruddy, I'm glad he wanted to do the show.

We talked in the garage. The offer, the show based on him and the production of The Godfather is streaming now on Paramount+. And this is me talking to the irascible, I would say, at times, Al Ruddy, Hollywood legend. You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs and mozzarella balls, yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats, get almost, almost anything.

Order now. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Are you self-employed? Don't think you need business insurance? Think again. Business insurance from Zensurance is a no-brainer for every business owner because it provides peace of mind.

A lot can go wrong. A fire, cyber attack, stolen equipment, or an unhappy customer suing you. That's why you need insurance. Don't let the, I'm too small for for this mindset hold you back from protecting yourself. Zensurance provides customized business insurance policies starting at just $19 per month. Visit Zensurance today to get a free quote. Zensurance. Mind your business. And listen, I'm a little low-key from being dehydrated. So if I get fucked up, just let me know. What would be the indicator of you being fucked up?

You'll see me. Believe me, you'll have no doubt when I'm fucked up. You just start to drift, pass out. I'm in trouble and I'm straight when I start slipping. Who is this idiot? Well, you know, I can take it. I can take it. If you forget where you are, I'd be all right.

I'm sure you've heard it. And you might have heard worse yeah you know it's funny how long you've been doing this i've been doing this like this since 2009 i am honored to be here my daughter said you can even go in your pajamas yeah i said okay yeah i saw that i appreciated that when he drove up he says those pajamas and i was like yeah yeah i guess they are the pajamas no i put the stri stripe pajamas on thank you for dressing up yes of course yeah i thought god knows what other famous guests should have here at the same time everyone comes in their pajamas but those are the nicest pajamas i've seen yeah i also talked to jimmy kahn before he passed

away and he was uh that was something yeah he started busting my balls right away that guy That was something. Yeah, he started busting my balls right away, that guy. You know what? What? We were cut from the same cloth, Jimmy and I. Yeah. But Jimmy was more obsessed with the gangsters and becoming a gangster himself.

Right. I mean, he was friendly with some of the, I mean, the real deals, you know? Yeah. I think Jimmy had a permanent inferiority complex. Uh-huh. Because he neverimmy became a star obviously yeah but never of the magnitude uh-huh of some of his friends if you know what i mean sure so there's a certain pecking order not that his friends demanded it but it's obligatory yeah you know and Right. Well, he's the king. Right. You're just a fucking prince.

Yeah. Shut your ass. So like Elliot Gould? Oh, I love Elliot Gould. But something like that, is that who you'd be talking to? Would that be a peer? Yeah. No, Jimmy was higher than Elliot.

Yeah. I did a movie with Elliot Gould, which is still. Which one? I did. Don't laugh. I won't. And if the audience Gould, which is still. Which one? I did. Don't laugh. I won't. And if the audience is listening, turn it off. Yeah.

I did a movie called Matilda. Oh, yeah. Matilda is famous. It's about Elliot Gould as a loser who finds the one thing in his life that turns it around. A boxing kangaroo it was a paul gallico book yeah that i bought that i fell in love with yeah so you understand producers work harder on movies that aren't working yeah than the ones that are big hits. I fell in love with Matilda when I read the book. Yeah. And I optioned, and I put the whole deal together.

I had Danny Mann directing him. Yeah. Elliot Gould starring in it. Yep. I called one of my favorite actors in the world, Robert Mitchum. Yeah. To play the reporter. Robert Mitchum was up in the stand of Robert at his house.

Yeah. tending to his flock of horses which he did yeah so i started telling bob what the story was about back the boxing kangaroo yeah he said don't tell me the story i'm not interested is this out of town he said can you get me out of town right away he He said, what do you mean right away? Like tomorrow. Yeah. So I said, okay. Yeah. He says, I'm your man. Yeah.

So Bob signs on. Just for a gig out of town. Oh, God. He needed a break. You know what? What? Have you ever had people here that knew Bob? No, not many. Even Johnny Carson told me, the only man that ever intimidated me on television was Bob.

Yeah. But when I first met Bob, I was putting a Western together with Clint Eastwood and Bob. Yeah. And Clint calling Bob Goose, Goose, Goose. That was his nickname. He he said give it to the goose if we do the goose I'll play the younger guy and goose I said okay yeah so I call up the woman who's running Bob's company she says Bob left already he left yesterday yeah oh I say could

you let me take my script to seek it to Bob Mitchum? Yeah. He says, you want to go to Madrid to give your script to Bob Mitchum? Uh-huh. I said, yeah, for real. I did this a number of times. It's very effective. It really is. Did he just show up internationally with his script?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I go to Madrid. Everyone is staying at the hotel because they go where they get tax breaks at hotels. Yeah. The only one who wasn't at the hotel was Bob Mitchum. Who had rented a house up on the hill with two lovely English girls. Yeah.

So I get up to the house. I get in and there's Bob. He's got a big dish of dope and a bottle of good scotch. He said, you want some of this or some of this? I said, give me a little. I'll taste both. It's been a long trip. Anyhow, he was charming.

I said, well, I get so fucking bombed, I don't know where I am, I swear to Christ. And all of a sudden, Bob says, you hungry? Yeah. I mean, see what I learned to cook here. Yeah. So we go in the kitchen. He hacks a hunk of onion, a can of tomatoes, and some beans, and puts it in a pot. Yeah.

A pressure cooking pot. Right. We go back in, smoke a little a pot. Yeah. A pressure cooking pot. Right. We go back in, smoke a little more grass. Yeah. And suddenly there's a monstrous explosion in the kitchen. Yeah. I thought the revolution had happened because before

Franco was still running the country. Right. There was tomatoes all over the goddamn wall. Yeah. So for three days, I was going to wait for Bob to read the script. I got up in the morning with him. The man is a huge, barrel-chested, tough guy. Yeah. He's up every morning.

He's a cowboy. Yeah. He's got the guns on, the makeup on. He's ready to take on Pancho Villa, right? So that's for the movie, not just his everyday attire. And so this goes on for me with Bob for three days. I'm trying to hang on just to stay alive. I swear to God, I got hangovers.

I'm starting to shake like I got a disease. Finally, I'm sitting there with Bob at his house after three days and just purely a self defense I said Bob I don't give a shit if you're doing this movie or not I can't take this stuff anymore I'm going home

he looked at me and said what are you talking about did you forget three nights ago I told you I was in I I thought you're having a good time. I said, you call this shaking, having a good time? But anyhow, I adore this man. He was, first of all, what shocked me, he was extremely literate. He read a book every day. Really? He had a book with him on set every day. Drinking that much and smoking that much weed? It didn't matter.

Yeah. One of those guys. So now we're signed to do this. Yeah. The kangaroo movie. I had a problem I didn't quite anticipate. Yeah. I have a kangaroo's hard to duplicate in an outfit because they're shaped like pears with little heads on the top.

Are you working with a real kangaroo? Yeah. And I ended up working with Stan Winston. An incident happened before them. Yeah. I take my director out. I've hired the top animal trainer in the United States in New Jersey. Yeah.

And we go out to New Jersey. I said, you know, Danny, we should go and see this kangaroo because the opening scene is he's fighting for the championship with Jerry Quarry, who we made a deal with. He's that boxer, right? He was a boxer. Yeah, yeah. He quit after the movie.

It's Swan Song, the kangaroo. So now we go out to Jersey, and the guy's really good. He said, this kangaroo is the Muhammad Ali of kangaroos. This is the king. Oh, I said, I'm anxious to see him. So Danny and I go in this corral. It's got high walls around it. And in the middle of the floor is this thing that looks like a fruitcake

where they ship grapefruits in. A huge wooden cake. Yeah. And in the middle looks like an overgrown rabbit. Yeah. And there's haunches. Yeah. With red gloves on.

So the guy brings the kangaroo. And the kangaroo is sitting on the ground with the gloves. And he tells Danny and I, now, when I turn around my gloves, I go, ha! He's going to jump up when I start fighting. Oh, I said, great, great. He spins around. Yeah. And he goes to the kangaroo with the gloves flashing in his face.

He goes, ha! And the kangaroo's just sitting there. He says, it's just that he's not used to company. I said, no problem. He does this another time, ha! And it just sits there. Finally, the guy, totally exasperated, turns and tries to explain to me what is going on with the kangaroo. Well, while he's talking, he doesn't notice the kangaroo standing up.

And this son of a bitch hits him 100 miles an hour. He went by Danny and I. Like, I didn't have a plane flying. I said, what the fuck was that? Yeah. The guy was knocked out. The kangaroo. Listen, I love animals.

Yeah. But when this animal stood up, it was six foot three with gloves on and in no mood to do a show for anybody. Danny and I ran out of there so fast. Yeah. I think Danny forgot his script. Yeah. Danny and I ran out of there so fast. Yeah. I think Danny forgot his script. Yeah. I said, holy shit. This kangaroo's going to kill Jerry Quarren.

I mean, he's not trained. When he gets up and he hits, it's devastating. Yeah. So I call Stan Winston, my friend. He explains to me the physiology of kangaroos and why no one's ever developed a kangaroo outfit. I said, look, I need an outfit. I don't give a fuck what it looks like.

No one knows kangaroos anyhow. They're just no pictures. Well, he did the best he could. With the outfit, yeah. We got a kid to get in his kangaroo suit. It was heartbreaking. First of all, the kangaroo had a tail that was just dragging on the street. It wasn't hooked up to anything.

It was going through the dirt and the mud. The kangaroo, the kid couldn't see good inside, and It was going through the dirt and the mud. The guy, the kangaroo, the kid couldn't see good inside. And it was a fiasco. It was a total fiasco. Yeah. Did the suit make the movie? The show must go on. Yeah. Yeah. So I said, so you understand, the backstory may be too boring for most people, but it was done as an english tax deal uh they had a plan a tax plan in england no it is the ed plan and this was being done by guinness ale and stout and was being distributed by american international sam arcoff's company. So now we're shooting this goddamn movie. We're piecing it together.

We're slugging it out. I mean, one foot at a time. Cutting, straightening out the tail, doing this, doing that. We finally get it finished. And it's time to show it to Sam Arkoff, which took a lot of courage on my part. I'm the man who had done The Godfather. Remember that?

Now, I swear to God, Mark, this is what happened. We get in the room. Me and Richard St. John, who was my lawyer and represented Guinness, we get in the room with Sam Arcoff and his wife. And now we start running the movie. I am beside myself. I said, I could leave town when they run it.

I don't have to be in L.A. when it's ever shown. I'm going to work something out. I promise you. Now, three quarters of the way through this screening, somebody starts to cry. I said, oh, you go, Walt, this is a disaster. It's Sam Arkoff, the man who owns the studio. The lights come on. I'm ready to say, Sam, I'll give you back my share of the money.

He says to me, we should start on a sequel right away. I did a double take. I looked at Dick St. John. Let's get out of this fucking place right now. Now, we get out of the place. The end of the story, which shows you don't ever, it's never the end till it's the end.

You know what Kenneth Allen Stout said when they saw the movie? What? They said, we want to be in the movie business more because if you assholes can make money on that fucking movie, we want to be in the movie business more. Because if you assholes can make money on that fucking movie, we want to make movies. We became heroes by doing a bad movie.

They came up with another $30, $40 million to do movies in London. So you never know. What happened to the movie? Did it tank? Did it tank? If I tell you what I had to go through tanking is a nice discussion i did i literally begged because we had done screen the godfather i begged the the radio city people to give us a show yeah with the with the dancers and everything else and we booked radio city if i tell you there were more people on stage yeah they were in the audience yeah then finally

i said i'm getting desperate now i i got i mean i i'll tell you some of the things i do you'll see what i'm not i am i rented a boxing ring, a full ring. Yeah. And in front of Radio City, in front of the statue of Apollo, I staged a boxing fight with two live fighters. Yeah. One dressed as a kangaroo. Yeah.

I tried everything. Everything. But it didn't matter. Yeah. It didn't matter. But we got the money to do other movies, and we kept marching on. So, you know, you can never tell. Yeah.

I mean, I get it. It's so funny. Is that movie, can you see that movie? Is it around? Oh, it's on cable. Yeah? I won't be in town, but you can find it. It's gone.

It's there. Matilda, huh? Matilda. Now, one of the greatest scenes in the book and in the screenplay is before the world championship fight. And there's a love scene that was intended to break your heart between Elliot and the kangaroo. He tells the kangaroo how much he meant to him and how he changed his life. And Elliot says, Matilda, I was no one till I met you

and blah, blah, blah, and I love you more. Elliot's take was beautiful. Unfortunately, we had to go with reverse angle. With the kangaroo suit? The kangaroo. One eye is moving and one isn't moving hydraulically. One ear is drooping. The other ear isn't drooping.

The movie was, you'll see it. Yeah. But Elliot was beautiful. Yeah. He carried on like it was Bobby De Niro, one of the greatest fighters of all time. Yeah. And at the end, it all ended well. at the end it all ended well to this day i'm under such obligation to elliot gould for his persistence and his talent than almost any actor i've ever worked with i mean he made you believe

it but anyhow if it's on television remember i try to my name, but they insisted on putting my name on it. It's called Matilda. Rebellion called. In this show, The Offer, which I watched, I mean, did you create that with Michael Tolkien? Was it the two of you, or did he come to you? How did that work? Michael Tolkien and I

became very close friends. Smart guy. And a marvelous guy. Absolutely marvelous guy. Great friends. Smart guy. And a marvelous guy. Absolutely marvelous guy. Great writer. Great writer. So they hire him. I met him.

Yeah. I liked him right away. And now he started coming up my house with a tape recorder. And he spent 70 hours writing my life. Everything that I could think of. Even the true stuff. When he got through, I didn't realize his father was a big man who was rough on him as a kid. Oh, yeah.

So he's zipping his bag up, and he told me something that I never forgot. I'll remember it for the rest of my life. He said, you know something, Hal? I wish I would have met you 30 years ago. I said, what do you mean? He said, if I would have met you 30 years ago, my life would have changed. I would have done other things I was afraid to do. But now that I hear your life, I realized i shouldn't have been afraid yeah you

were never afraid you were jumping off the cliff yeah i said michael you're a genius writer he understood he was a a man of great passion compassion and i think he'd been pushed around a lot as a kid yeah well you know it's interesting, it's interesting, the show, like, it really moves, you know, and I'm a pretty critical guy, and the look is great, and the weaving of truth and fiction, and the weaving of the actual dialogue from the Godfather movie into the scenes within your life, I thought was very clever. You know, how he built tension, I thought was very clever but you do after some point you realize like now wait a minute well look you know even my wife said you don't have a chance of getting nominated

for Emmy because it's not upstairs downstairs there's no pompous or pre-austral it's not what Evans would call a prestige it's not a prestige picture. Not prestige. It was.

It's entertainment. Right. The plot is a heart simply steaming with text. A gay divorcee who was after her ex. Yeah. It could be Oedipus Rex when a chap kills his father and causes a lot of bother. No death. Like they get.

Anyhow. I don't think that's true, though. I think it could get nominated for something. You know, I thought that he did a great job playing you. I thought that the script, you know, it just kept it moving. It was entertaining. You know what also was amazing was the fucking look of the thing. How the hell did he make it?

The tone. You know, people have been trying to make things look like the 70s for a long time so you got a guy i don't know who colorized that i don't know who the dp was but it was uh very attentive to the the tone of the 70s and the godfather when we started we named we made no offer or effort yeah to try to duplicate anything in The Godfather. We just try to tell the story with a certain economy.

Remember, The Godfather was a long movie and we had a lot to cover. Now, I will say this and you live and learn. You think you're the genius of the world. The people that run the studio, especially Nicole, the president of Paramount, said, we have to have more women in the show.

She said, we can't do nine hours of gangsters sitting around and talking. So we changed quite a bit we brought my ex-wife to Los Angeles to New York and we changed that story completely the one from the Chateau yeah no the one that yeah she owned the Chateau in real life oh yeah my ex-wife will own the Chateau and when I married her she's a marvelous woman. She had over 25 million in cash when that was a lot of money. Yeah it's still kind of a lot of money. Yeah but she told me, she says I want you to treat my money like it's yours. I did a double take yeah i said me don't worry about she was marvelous yeah she was a and so we created that character in new york with her with her yeah as me trying to

explain to her how there's no limitation and there was no limitation on my life doing that movie. I did every goddamn thing, including facing death. And I mean, I'll tell you, for real, and once I got beaten up a couple of times when I was knocked across the room in my house and my face was bleeding. I shouldn't mention his name but he's dead now you know who Lenny Montana was uh-uh Luca Brasi oh yeah yeah yeah he he clocked in I opened my doorbell rang on my house yeah and I opened the door and I got

punched so fucking hard I'm not kidding you I went sailing off the ground about ten feet into the wall hmm over what my face was bleeding some some things happen in Vegas and some people were trying to get even with me oh I'm not to get into, because I never mentioned them because their wives were innocent. Yeah. Well, in order to make this story make sense, I have to go back beforehand.

There was a meeting that took place about a month before me getting my fucking head bashed. I get a call, 11 o'clock one night. Yeah. It's raining in New York. And a guy says, we want to have a sit down with you. Now? I said, it's raining and it's 11 o'clock.

Let me goddamn sit down. He said, you don't have a sit down. You won't have to worry about going to work tomorrow. One of your actors won't be there. I said, okay, God damn it. So now I got dressed and I went to, I can't remember the name of this place. It was a small, real Italian place. I think it was like 43rd or 44th.

It was between 8th and 9th Avenue. All I know is I got there, and on the window was just a big yellow. Remember those old blinds where you could see the light in the back? Yeah, yeah. The whole window was a blind. Yeah. So I knocked on the blind. The guy sees it, takes me in the back.

The restaurant's empty. When they opened the door, I knew exactly who I was meeting. There was a very, very powerful man named Russ Buffalino. Russ Buffalino was not just using, saying he's a gangster was a joke. Yeah. He was a member of the commission. When they were parceling out to all the different families, you were getting the gambling. He was a guy that said, you can have Manhattan.

That's this guy. Yeah. And he says, when the Aractus took $30,000 from a girl who was with us. And we want the money back. And we're going to break his fucking leg. I said, I don't care if you chop him up and put him in a garbage disposal. I'll get you $30,000 back. But just leave him alone until the movie's over.

He said, okay. I got your word. I said, yeah. He said, okay, I got your word. I said, yeah. Now, I wore a copper-haired elephant hair bracelet all the time. It was given to me as a gift. Good luck.

Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like it. So Russ says to me, is that thing good for arthritis? I don't know. I don't have arthritis. I said, why do you ask? Oh, I have arthritis. I said, why do you ask? Oh, I have arthritis. I said, well, wait a second.

I take this fucking thing off. It probably cost $15. I grabbed his hand, and I said, put my bracelet on his hand. He said, I can't take your bracelet. I lock it on. I swear to God, he got up. He went around the room to the three or four guys yeah how runny just gave me his own fucking bracelet now i'm telling you the story because

when lenny punched me out i looked at lenny and i said lenny when i count to five i'm picking that phone up and you know who i know if i do you're goddamn toast and i'm starting right now now he had a guy accompanying him named tommy ricardi yeah who was famous for being a pipe the pipe killer he cracked people's heads. He said, Jesus Christ, I'm getting the hell out of here. What the fuck he's going to do now? He's got me in trouble too. I said,

listen to him. Two, I was plagued to the fucking hell. Three, four, and he looked at me. He still wasn't sure if he should fucking kill me he walked out of my door he slammed it so hard i thought it was come off the hedges so that's who russ buffalino was right yeah he became a close friend of mine to the point that one day when I thought I was in the

clear Russ calls me up and he says you can go home now I said what do you mean oh he says they flew a couple of guys in they're waiting at your house to clip you and but they heard I've it, and I called them off. I said, fuck, I ain't going home. I'm going to go check on him. He said, I told you you can go home. And it would have been an insult to him if I didn't go. Sure.

And I went home, and it was over. But you were dealing on a certain level. I became friendly with these people. Was it all because, not unlike in the offer, was the story about they were perceiving it initially as an insult and you had to build a relationship with the New York Mafia in order to get them on board? No. How I got involved with them, if you'll pardon the expression, the mob. They'll never call the mob a mafia guy. We changed that, which I'll explain. Bob Evans was threatened by the Italian American League.

They were trying to make a deal with Paramount, and Paramount wouldn't come across. So Bob calls me. He says, Al, do me a favor. These son of a bitches are really scaring me. Please get rid of these guys. So that started my whole movement. You know, on a movie, there's two or three different arenas that people are working in. There's the political arena, the studio arena, and the set. I moved 60% of my activity to the political arena and to dealing with the boys. The boys. So when Bob started me, I called up the league. And I spoke to Joe, Joe Colombo.

And I said, I represent you. I know, I know who you are. He said, I said, I'd like to meet with you and discuss what I'm looking for. If I take what he asked me, he'd die laughing. He said, I'm going to ask you one question. If you answer this question right, I'll meet with you. I said, what? What's the question? He says, what do you like more, musical comedies or John Wayne movies?

I mean, you want to talk about a no-brainer? I said, I love John Wayne. He says, I'll meet with you because I want you to make a cowboy gangsta movie. Yeah. I said, come to my office the next day or two. So it started this whole relationship with Joe Colombo. I never was dealing on that level with gangsters. I mean, I was a tough kid in New York.

I was, but not on that level. You know, I had my own fistfights with people. Sure. So I figured, Jesus Christ, who do I know who's on the level of Joe Colombo? Ah, Mario Puzo. He knows everybody. Yeah. So I called Mario up.

I go out and see him. I said, Mario, I have to go meet Joe Colombo. Yeah. Would you come with me? He said, Al, I'm going to give you a word of advice. You are way, way, way out of your league. Do you understand? You will never get out of this relationship with Joe Colombo.

Don't do it. So my answer to you is I am not only won't go with you don't even tell Joe Colombo you ever met me do you understand yeah he says Al don't do it but unbeknownst I had to do it I had to do it no one else was going to do it you go to the cops and they didn't do anything. They did all the normal bullshit. Yeah. So I had to go.

So the next thing I know is I invite Joe to my office. And I'm going to give him the script to read. Yeah. 155-page screenplay. Yeah. Which nobody, this is true, nobody had seen it. Coppola's Impuso script. Absolutely.

The real script. Yeah. So he comes in with his two guys in my office. He sits at the desk opposite me. Caesar's on the window. And the other guy's on the couch. Yeah. Resting.

Man, I assume. I throw this big script on the table, 155 pages. Joe looks at it, he puts on his Ben Franklin glasses. He looks at it for about a minute and a half. He says, what does this mean, fade in? Oh, well, it just means the screen is black

and the fade comes through. You see the faces. Oh, yeah, okay, good. So then he looks at her for another two minutes. He says, I can't read with these goddamn glasses. He takes the glasses off. He says, Susie, you read it. He throws it across the room to Caesar on the window.

He says, why me? He throws it it across the room to Caesar on the window. He says, why me? He throws it over me to the other guy in the window. Now, they start arguing. Joe gets pissed off. He grabs the script and he slams it on my desk. I've reached an impasse.

I got to play my cards. I said, Joe, look, why don't we cut to the chase? What do you mean? I said, why don't you tell me? Tell me. Because no one had asked him. Tell me what you need

to get out of my life and to make a deal. He looked at me. He said, you want me to tell you what I need? If you give it to me, we'll make a deal. I said, what is it? I want you to take the word mafia out of your screenplay. Now, first of all, no one of those three had ever read the book. Mafia guys never called themselves mafia guys.

They're family guys. You were Bonanno. You were Columbo. You're not a mafia guy. He said, the term mafia degrades my people right they say a Jewish mafia there's no Jewish mafia yeah there's Jewish family people yeah and I said I looked at him I said you know I understand what you just said he said you do I said of course I understand her I would probably take exception if every Jewish gangster was called a mafia how do you yeah he says

he would to you would remove it he didn't know as only use one time in the whole movie yeah and that's what Tom goes to the West Coast. Yeah. And the producer, that scumbag producer does a diatribe. No guinea, goomba, wop, greaseball,

blah, blah. I said, I'm dropping the word mafia the one time. Yeah. He says, we got a deal. You're going to take

the word out and I'm going to, okay, here's the deal. He said, just one thing I want you to remember. I said what's that?

He leaned across the table and he said remember I'm no Mickey Cohen. It shakes my hand. He said you understand me? I said I understand you.

The deal was made on the most preposterous level but i understand in a strange way i almost understood it yeah and i was happy to try to facilitate i really was and I said I'm gonna do it well right away my the other guys are saying who is this idiot who you're talking to him where's where's Bob where's the studio head yeah and I lied I said I've been empowered by Matt Paramount to represent him in this negotiation. And Joe looked at me and says, we got a deal, kid. So you had to balance all that between the corporate and the studio and the mob. The mob, exactly.

But what happened when the news of that came out, the mob moves in on Gulf and Western. And there's a nice shot of me with Joe Colombo and the new head of the league, Joe's son, on the front page of the New York

Times. Well, if I tell you I couldn't get out of that room. I got out of the room and there's a call from Charlie Blutron's secretary, who we became very friendly. She said, don't answer the phone. Charlie's trying to fire you right now. Don't answer the phone.

He'll try you all night. You just come and show up tomorrow i said holy shit so now my phone's working off the hook i don't answer i get up and i bike over to gulf and western to the top floor yeah Yeah. The private floor. Right. Which were in the middle of a major board of directors meeting. And I'm watching on, I swear to God, Mark, I'm watching on the Dow dropping on television while I'm sitting there.

The Dow, oh, the stocks were. Gulf and Western. Right. From 16 to 13. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going, oh, dear. So I realize I'm in doo-doo. Yeah.

So I go in, and Charlie is sitting there, and he had a guy named, who was his hatchet man. It was Martin Davis. Charlie, if Charlie had a gun, he would have shot me. Right there, coming through the door. He started screaming, I'm trying to go legit

all my life? Hey, you like my corporation? He's screaming like a mother nut. Now, sitting in the room is Martin Davis, General Westmoreland, Senator from Washington. This is a board of directors meeting. This is a very serious meeting.

So I had no ground to stand on. I said, let's understand each other, guys. I don't own one goddamn share of your stock. I don't own anything on Gulfwood, Winston, and frankly, I don't give a shit about it. I only care about one thing.

It was getting my movie made. I did the one thing which I thought was brilliant to facilitate that acquisition. So you only have one choice, Charlie. If you want to fire me, fire me. I'll thank you for bringing me to New York. I'll leave with my deal, whatever I can get for just being there.

And I'll see you around. And with that, I start moving to the door. And they were happy to see me moving out. The whole room sat there. Well, Charlie owned Consolidated Cigar. And I was a cigar smoker at that time. And he always offered me cigars. So I'm fired now and I'm leaving.

But I had my safari jacket on. Yeah. And Charlie had these great Cuban cigars. I figured, screw that bastard. I turned around in front of everybody. And I went to Charlie Pance's desk to the huge humidor. And I opened the humidor. And he leaned over.

And I put two fistfuls of cigars in my pocket. Yeah. Now, I can't tell you the loathing that Charlie couldn't believe what the fuck I had done. And I walked out. Charlie Boudin was this character, and he was Robert Evans, worked for the studio that Charlie Boudin was this character and you and he was robert evans worked for the studio that charlie boudin owned i just i'm just saying this for the sake of my listeners in case they don't know exactly and evans hired you uh because of your persistence to uh to to to man this the helm of the godfather they were not not really. Bob hired me before then.

I had created Hogan's Heroes. Remember, Hogan's Heroes is the most successful half hour ever done in history. Everyone knows Hogan's Heroes. But it's still today. Yeah. And I wrote Hogan's Heroes. You ready? Yeah.

60 years ago. Wow. And they're still watching it. And so I was hired because they thought I was a boy genius. Yeah. I wrote Hogan's Heroes. So I go to Bob's office and I meet Bob Evans and Peter Barr.

Yeah. And they offered me a deal. I had an agent with me. And Bob said, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll give you a three-picture deal. You can develop three scripts. If any of those scripts go, you can stay.

If the three scripts are on, you're off the lot. And he'll make a long story short, I stayed. He said, you know, when I got this job, everybody made fun of Charlie because I was in the dress business. I'm hiring you with your background because you did a big television deal. But remember, you remind me of a lot of my own personality.

So I'm going to give you a shot. Yeah. I said, thank you. But Bob Evans at the time, how long had he been at Paramount when he took you in? Bob was there about a year and a half. I'm not sure. Yeah.

But the only thing Bob was famous for, thank God it came in time. Yeah. Was a movie that he was involved in called The Love Story. Yeah, big, yeah. Which saved the studio. Yeah. With enough money for them to go on because they were almost bankrupt yeah so bob was kind of had a nice little thing going for himself yeah and then

he obviously married ally yeah which is another thing sure that bob did but so he brought you and you did a little false and big halsey and then i wrote a little false palsy which was another a typical al ruddy thing that i shouldn't have done right but i did it anyhow yeah bob redford and paramount were in the middle of a lawsuit because bob owed paramount a movie and he wouldn't find anything now my writer was a writer named charles eastman yeah who i know bob liked so So I called Bob in Mexico. Yeah. My new secretary. He was shooting Butch and Sundance, right?

Yeah, he's shooting Butch and Sundance. Yeah. And my secretary, I said, there's only one big hotel in Huatla. Yeah. Call the hotel up, and you say, Senor Redford, por favor. And she says, you're a goddamn amateur.

With that, you think Bob Redford's going to run for the phone when they say it's Guy Al Ruddy calling for Bob? I said, will you call for Christ's sakes? She gets on the phone. She hardly gets in the other room. I go to my desk, and now she's calling this hotel. And suddenly she starts screaming. It's him! It's him! It's him!

I get up on this Bob Riffer. I said, Alyssa Elroy. Oh, hi. How are you? I said, hey, listen. I have a script I developed with you in mind that Charles Eastman wrote. I said, I love Charles Eastman. Can you send it down here?

I got plenty of time. I said, can I send it? Why don't I fly down and meet you in Mexico? He said, you're coming down to Coatla? I said, I'll come tomorrow. On my own money, I buy a ticket, I land in Mexico City.

I'll never forget this cab. It was a 1957 Plymouth that was paid to turquoise with a pink arrow. So I go right up to the front. I said, I want to go to them. He said, no, no, no, too long, too far. I got a $100 bill. I said, will this get me there? Get in the back, in the back.

I get in the back. the back i get in the back when i tell you i thought i'd get killed going down we will i think we hit chickens people this son of a bitch was doing a hundred miles an hour round cut yeah i got there just as redford george roy hale and paul were coming location. Redford was great to me. He shook my hand. He said, come on, I'll buy you dinner. I'll read the script tonight, and I'll have breakfast with you in the morning, which he did. In the morning, I go to breakfast.

He said, I think it's a masterpiece. I'm going to do it. I said, what? He said, I'm going to do your movie. I screamed to the cab driver, that schmuck who had left you, don't go back, you've got another rider. Anyhow, when I got to the studio, this was a prevailing attitude in Hollywood in those days.

So now, I'm a hero. I solved the Bob Redford thing, and he's doing the movie. But one of the Gulf and Western guys comes into my office. I bet you think you're pretty good, don't you? Pretty smart. I said, excuse me? He said, I want to explain one thing to you. If I was Bob Evans, you would be out of a job now.

He said, you went against everything everyone told you. They told you not to go to the bar. You bought your own ticket. You went there. You made a goddamn. I would let you make a movie and then fire you because to get along, you have to go along and you didn't do it. I said, I want you to understand one thing yeah I don't care what you just said I'm gonna tell you my philosophy my philosophy is don't ever let anyone stop you and that's what I did I'm sorry you didn't like it and if you would ever you go have Evans fire me but if you're not having to get the fuck out of my office yeah and so that's but that's how I set up myself in the studio. And I handled myself that way.

How did that movie do? Little Foss, Big Hoss? We did okay. It wasn't great. Yeah. Now, that has a history. I won't even bore you with that. Yeah.

Every movie is a movie. Yeah. And it really is. I always say I'm going to keep a record of this, but I never do. So now I'm deeply involved with the part of the expression, the mom. I'm involved with everyone, including going on the set every day. Because what is making movies about if you can't enjoy watching part of it? Sure.

And I love to be there and everyone was great gordon willis was a genius yeah gordon willis was hired because when gordon shot he didn't even use a cigarette lighter yeah he was shooting on the edge so you can fuck with his print you had to print it that way and that way only because of the natural light no he wanted that dark he wanted darkness right he didn't want the studio or anyone last later to push it up into a tooth which you can see everything would be nice and bright and he wouldn't allow that was that a decision that he that well because in that was part of his deal well it when you hired when you got the opportunity to do the godfather evans puts you on that thing and you corral these guys together and you make the decision to let puso write the script with coppola who had written patten and i did that was my

decision yeah right so so that was sort of a unique decision at the time, right? Because they didn't like hiring the guy who wrote the book to write the screenplay because he didn't know how to write a screenplay, right? I'll tell you how that was resolved. I explained to Mario why he couldn't be hired at Paramount. I said, the studio doesn't hire people that never wrote a script, but especially the author of the book, because if the book's 600 pages,

the script's 600 pages. And this is what Mario did. He took the book, and he threw it on the floor of the hotel where the park's sharing. He said, you hire me, and I swear I will never look at that book again. I was stunned.

Well, what can I say? I said, you're hired, Mario. I shook his hand. Yeah. I had to go back and fight everyone. But they were great. Look, they were great. I'm not knocking anybody.

Sure. And did him and Coppola get along that well? Coppola came on. Mario and I worked. Mario and I worked trying to reduce this book into the skeleton of what the movie. There were certain choices had to be made. Not to the least of which is, where do you start the movie?

Do you start with, for instance, the chapter two? Or what I wanted to do, the wedding chapter one. Right. And so this was a constant a constant not battle but referral and a certain good between everybody yeah because we were all on this trip right this was going to be our shot smart guys too all of you yeah we that's what we did yeah So when you cast it, did you know Brando from before? The Godfather? The first movie that I ever did in my life was a movie called The Wild Seed. Yeah.

With Michael Parks and Celia Kaye. Okay. It was done at Universal at what was laughingly called the New Horizons program. It's to do cheap movies. Cheap movies. Yeah. I worked with a director who became my closest friend in the world named Brian Hutton. We did this movie for Marlon Brando's company.

I met Marlon a number of times. His father ran the company. Yeah. They called him Senior. His father ran this company. I had no idea about that. Yeah. But what would happen, Universal was just instituting the tour through the lot.

And they used to go by the Penny Baker lot. Yeah. And the old man would always, he hated it. And when they came by Penny Baker, he'd throw the screen back and go, oh, blah, blah, blah. Try to do some crazy stuff. Yeah. Because he was losing it. The old man, that Brando's father?

Yeah. Okay. Mr. Brando himself yeah so i knew marlon yeah however i would give all the credit in this world all of it yeah to one man and one man only his name is mario puzzo when i met mario puzzo at the hotel, he said to me, there's only one man who could play this part. Yeah. Now, I swear to God, I thought he was going to do all the cliches. I was waiting for Jimmy Conn.

I was waiting for Carmine Caridi. He said, Marlon Brando. I went, Marlon Brando. Where was Marlon Brando at at that point? What was his career like? He was in trouble. Okay. So what Mario had done on his own,

he had sent Marlon, just unsolicited, a copy of The Godfather. The book or the screenplay? The book. Okay. Marlon loved what he read. So now we all get involved having a confab at Paramount. Yeah.

The last thing they wanted to hear was that we were going to hire Marlon Brando, who couldn't get arrested at that point. They had Mario Puzo and Marlon Brando. Things were not pleasant for a long time. There was a lot of arguments going constantly around. And Coppola's in at that point too, right? Oh, yeah. Everyone's jumping in. But Marlon Brando, I must say, now I give Francis credit for what happened.

We went to Marlon's house with Francis' little camera and he did the famous tape of Marlon playing the Don. Uh-huh. Now, he didn't do any talking. He had put cotton in his mouth. Yeah. Pulled his jaw.

He streaked his hair with a little shoe polish. Yeah. He put a pillow in his robe. Got a little DiNoboli cigar, and got a cup of espresso. And he did this two-minute thing. This went to New York with six other tapes that Francis had put together of everyone who should not do the Godfather. And the room was crowded, and everyone's looking at him.

And Charlie says, who's this old giddy? When they said Marlon Brando, they all ran. They couldn't believe it. They ran to the screen. And that's how Brando finally got on the movie. That's how Brando got on the movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That famous film that Francis did, that Mario incited,

was responsible for probably the greatest casting coup of all time. Yeah. Because, look, you know, when you work with genius, when you work with genius, you realize what a gift you're getting. It's like you're buying a Cadillac and you're getting a Rolls Royce. There's little touches.

There's scenes I'll never forget. When he's telling the undertaker, you know, he should have come to him first. But he's the guy I thought he'll take care of. Yeah. So the undertaker's happy. So now he turns to Jimmy. And he's got a little rose on his lapel. Yeah.

And he says, now take care of this guy. Then he starts sniffing the rose. We're not killers no matter what this undertaking is. Yeah. Now, the cat that's in the movie was not in the script. Yeah. Marlon saw the cat, and he grabbed the cat. He said, a man of power saw the cat, and he grabbed the cat.

He said, a man of power with a cat, it's great. He grabs this cat, and he's petting the cat. Yeah. Well, I can tell you this. His test almost didn't work because the cat is purring so loud. Oh, right. You can't hear Marlon say anything. The cat goes, ah, ah. Bob calls me and says,

this thing got subtitles? What the hell did you guys do? Anyhow, that cat was Marlon. Beautiful. But it was a great touch. But that's what you get. So it got very compressed. My life suddenly was,

part of the time I had watched the budget. Our deal with Paramount was very simple. Just to keep Bob happy. Yeah. And us promise that we would shoot the movie, the entire movie, for under $5 million.

That's crazy. And then Charlie told Bob and us, I'm going to let you shoot it for the $5 million. Yeah. If you go over one penny, it's all coming out of your salaries. You, Francis, and Bob doesn't have to worry. So that was our $5 million.

But Bob was fighting every step of the way for us to get what we needed. And there were scenes with Charlie and Bob where Bob put it all on the line. He put his career on the line. Yeah, a couple times, right? A couple times. He told Frankie Blount when Frank McKenna had a distribution.

Frankie said, he does not put any movie out that's two hours and 53 minutes. No movie. Right. And Bob said, this movie goes out at 2.50 or I'm leaving.

Now, Francis cut it down at 220. Anyhow, it was terrible. So now he calls, we're all sitting in this room, and he calls New York up and speaks. And he

tells him, he says, if you don't put this movie out at 2.54, I'm quitting this job, Frank. And Frank was so angry. He said, you put, do anything you want. You assholes out there. I want to watch you crash and burn.

Right. So put your goddamn movie on at 250 and slam the phone down. But we were on our way. But he cared. He cared a lot. Sure. You guys, you sort of created the blockbuster in a way, right?

We did, actually. I didn't. Paramount, we started generating so much publicity. it was ridiculous. When we were shooting at restaurants, we used to hide everyone, and people would just stand around, hundreds and hundreds of people, just watching crowds. Because you had to register in New York when you were shooting on the street.

Yeah. Well, it finally got so bad that the mayor gave us the right not to list where we were shooting. But they found out anyhow. Who was the mayor, Lindsey? Lindsey was the mayor. And Lindsey was great to us. So he helped us all the way through.

Oh, good. And we didn't have to post, but it was getting outrageous. With the people on the streets? Outrageous. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they created this idea. At that time, they used to run movies in bigger cities than bigger markets, sometimes for months, I guess.

And then with The Godfather, they put it all over the country at once. What they did, no one had ever block booked a movie the way Paramount did. For the first time ever and it made me very nervous in New York they agreed to open The Godfather in New York you ready for this? at 25 theaters

I said Frank we'll be out of business in a week you can't run this business you weren't confident with that I wanted to run for history forever yeah i went to play five i said hey i'd rather be famous for years it didn't matter they opened the movie as long as i live i'll never forget it i got up early and i went around to see if there was anyone waiting in line to see the movie. Really?

It was a slight drizzle, and there were people, thousands of people waiting. Yeah. In line, in front of the movie theater, down the block, as far as I could see it. All waiting in line for The Godfather. Amazing. I was stunned. Yeah. I was stunned.

Yeah. Everyone was stunned. Yeah. It was a success. You only dream of that. Sure. That kind of thing never happens. It was amazing.

It was amazing. All the way through to the Oscars. People were paying people to stay in line for him. They did. Yeah. The lines would be good. But anyhow, so it had a life, a life of its own. Now, was that mob screening?

Was that a real thing? Did that happen? Did you screen it for the mob so they could sign off on it? I promised, when I made my deal with Joe, I promised I would give them the charity, a charity screening. Yeah.

Because every Italian has a church or a hospital. Sure. So I gave them the right to, I'm going to screen for them. Well, after I had my blow up, I was going to be fired. I went back. Yeah. And they weren't going to make any more screenings for the model. That was all disavowed.

Any deal I had made with the boys was over. Uh-huh. But I was back on the movie when Charlie said, don't ever talk to. And the interesting thing is, because I didn't try to dump the boys, I got a call from Joe. He said, I wanted to know one thing, Mr. Ruddy. I said, what's that? He said, we all realized you were a stand-up guy. That's important to them.

He said, when we were kicked out, you didn't try to bum us out and so i'm with you no matter what happens anytime you need me all you have to do is call me yeah because you were there for us and he always was yeah he tried he became a close friend of mine. I used to go to his house for dinner with he and his wife and they were just great, great, great to me. And as I say, he never asked me for a penny. He only wanted the word mafia taken out,

which I gave him. And the mob signed off on the movie, right? They liked it. They like it? I'll put it this way. I was having trouble running a screening for them. There was one print under lock and key in the projection room. I could have gone to jail for this, so you know.

Yeah. The projectionist was a friend of mine. I said, you got to get me a print of the movie for night. You got to run it. He said, Al, I can't do that. I said, you have to. You have to. You have to for me.

I can't go back on this thing. He said, I don't know why I do this shit. So they rented a screening room, a little screening room, and I invite the boys. It was about, there must have been

at least a hundred limousines parked on this old side street. And this guy comes, he takes print, and he runs the movie for the guys. Yeah. And then he takes it.

When the movie's over, the guy calls me from the projection room. He says, I'm leaving, but I want you to know one thing. In all the years I've done this job, I've never seen any guy do what you can do. And nobody ever gave me a $1,000 tip. They loved the movie. They loved the movie.

And I owned the boys after that. They loved it. And it was always that closeness based on trust. True. I trusted Joe, and Joe trusted me. And then you won the Oscar Best Picture, and then you won it again years later for A Million Dollar Baby. Well, what happened was we never had any idea we were going to get an Academy Award. Sure.

We were a pulp movie. It was a pulp book. That's why Warren had it, Warren had it, Jack had it. Everyone turned it down. Fred Zitterman said, it's just a gangster movie. What's everyone talking about? Well, when the movie opened, we opened in February, March. Yep.

You don't open Academy right time in the spring. Yeah. You open it, as you know, in the fall. But the movie wouldn't go away. It started dropping off, but it still hung in there. So we said, oh, no, it's crazy. You want to try and get an Academy Award in November? Charlie says, no, you don't spend any money.

Remember, you spend your money. I said, well, let's go. So we started another campaign yeah at the end of the hunt at the end of the fucking hunt that night again which we will all remember yeah we've seen him. Francis didn't get it. Mario got nominated. No big deal. Brando got it, right? Brando got it, but didn't show up.

So now, Charlton Heston was supposed to present the award for Best Picture. But his car was screwed up on the freeway. So they asked Clint Eastwood, who was a friend of mine, if he would present it. So Clint says, I'm only giving this award because I'm sure you're going to get it. I said, Clint, look at it.

You're a friend of mine. When you open up the envelope, the only person that's going to know it's not me, it's you. So he just swallowed the answer and said, the winner is Al Ruddy. He laughed. Yeah, sure. Anyhow, when he got up there, he said, the nominees are dot, dot, dot, dot.

And the winner is Al Ruddy. I said, what a friend. I swear to God, you have a shot at me. Clint has to show me my name. I'm going, he thought he was just saying it. I got it, and

I blabbed on like an asshole, saying, remember, everyone out there has a shot at the big apple sometimes in their life this was mine and i got but everyone out there has that shot remember that sure just unforgettable isn't it crazy though that like years later you win an oscar with clint again he presented you the first one and then you won one with him. I gave him one.

I said, now we're even, Clint. Yeah. Yeah. That's hilarious. Now, let me ask you a question before we finish up. Do you ever look, because I love The Longest Yard, and you've done many movies, but you made a decision when offered to do Godfather II to not do it and pursue The Longest Yard, which was also a history-making movie.

Do you ever regret that decision? Never. That's good. Look at it this way. Yeah. Look, there's a hundred more stories. Sure. But the truth, in fact, is that,

and I respect this, this is the business. Yeah. The Godfather will always be primarily Francis Coppola when people talk about him. I respect it, and I love Francis. Whatever the differences Francis and I had, The Longest Yard will always be Al Ruddy's movie. Yeah.

And when I went to Charlie Bluthorne, I went to everybody. Even the head of the studio today said, come on, you didn't walk away from the sequel to this movie. You walked away from a $10 or $15 million deal to do the movie you wanted to do? I said, you don't understand. It was my movie. Right.

What happened when they talked about doing the sequel? Yeah. I had a meeting with a actor was getting hot named Burt Reynolds yeah he was shooting the man who loved cat dancing up in Salt Lake I went up when I met Bert and I was looking in life at my character and he saidves. And he said to me, I have to do your movie. I have to do it. I want you to direct it, write it. You do everything.

It's my movie. I said, you got it. You're perfect. You're the way I envisioned Paul, hon. So I shake his hand. I make my commitment right there to Burt Reynolds to play the part.

When I came back, I told my lawyer who was very unhappy. He said, I can get you a lot of money to just give him back the rights. I said, Bruce, they want me to do it. I don't want to do it. And I explained it to everyone. I explained

it to Mary. I explained it to Bob. I explained it to everybody. And when I showed up on the set, it was like living a dream. I'm on the set watching this movie of the longest yard being made and watched it all the way through and it became a huge success. We snuck it in Texas because Bob Aldrich, who is a marvelous director, only snuck movies in Texas. So the first time we snuck it,

we took it to his first place. We went to Houston. When I say the audience went ballistic Bert they're throwing popcorn in the air doing mother what I do man Frank calls me up they had a distributor he says Jesus I hear was fantastic I said what you can't tell we had Bert Reynolds there in Bible I said but next week is Houston. We go to Houston, and when I say it's better, people are tearing the screen down. Anyhow, I cannot tell you how enjoyable this has been.

First of all, I respect you so much. Thank you. So you know, I just want to give you one thing yeah you come from new jersey okay when i quit i'm a graduate architect yeah and then i worked at rant corporation before i got into business yeah when i worked after college i got my first job for a building company in cranford new jersey. I left every morning, New York. I got on a train to Cranford. I went to Union, New Jersey. It was one of the experiences of my life.

I learned how to use a front-end loader, and I used to laugh. You know this, but most people don't. In New Jersey, there's a breed of professions known as labor peacemakers. They make peace. And you know what happens if you don't make peace? Yeah. There's a lump under the hat. So every Friday, I had about 10 envelopes that I got in each car.

Yeah. He's the She-Rock guy. There you go. Everyone kept labor peace but I mean it was a great experience I love New Jersey I only left because I had the worst snowstorm in history and my boss

offered me the profit in two houses I said Steve Steve Doody I said I'm not leaving for money Steve I just want to grow up to be you one day walking in money boots. Anyhow, it's been a real pleasure meeting you. I'm glad you do.

I am such a fan of yours. Thank you. If you need any other information on a lot of the happenings, when my life was threatened and stuff, I'm yours. Thanks, man. So thank you for having me on this limited basis. I cannot tell you how enjoyable it's been. Good.

And now that you can carry me out of the door. We're going to do it. We're going to carry you out. There's a few of us will do it. Thank you, Al. Thank you. That was Al Ruddy and me. Wow.

What a life in show business. Again, the offer is streaming on Paramount+. And if you could, please, please, just here's some more suspense. Hang on for a second. Wait, just hang out. It's winter and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats.

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For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton.

The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction. Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 p.m. in Rock City at torontorock.com. All right, look, so this week, Sharon Van Etten on Thursday, the singer-songwriter, Um, Sharon Van Etten on Thursday, the singer songwriter, musician, artist, uh, will be here. Uh, I talked to her last week. Uh, we've been sort of missing each other for, for several months. It was great to, uh, to get to talk to her. Her new album is excellent. Uh, also coming up, uh, I'm going to have an interview with Brett Morgan about his, um, moon Age Daydream documentary on David Bowie. If you want to watch some other stuff he's done before the interview,

you can watch The Kid Stays in the Picture about Robert Evans. He did the Cobain documentary, Montage of Heck. He did the Jane Goodall documentary that I watched to prep myself for Jane Goodall. He also did the ESPN 30 for 30. His was called June 17th, 1994. And it is sort of, I think, one of his best docs just pulled together out of footage, found footage. And it all takes place as the events unfolding

around OJ Simpson's ride in the white Bronco. That day, the unfolding of that day in the world and in the world of sports. It's a pretty genius doc. But Brett will be here next week. I'm in Tucson, Arizona at the Rialto Theater on September 16th. Phoenix, Arizona at Stand Up Live on September 17th. Boulder, Colorado at the Boulder Theater on September 22nd. Fort Collins, Colorado at the Lincoln Center on September 23rd.

Toronto, Ontario at the Queen Elizabeth Theater on September 30th and October 1st. I will be at the Bankhead Theater. These have not been announced for whatever reason. Not sure why, but the Bankhead Theater in Livermore, California on October 6th. And I'll be at the Sunset Center at Carmel by the Sea on October 7th. And then I head to England at the Bloomsbury Theater, Saturday and Sunday, October 22nd and 23rd. I'll be in Dublin, the Bloomsbury Theater Saturday and Sunday, October 22nd and 23rd. I'll be in Dublin, Ireland at the Vicar Street Wednesday, October 26th. And then I have dates in November and December in Oklahoma City, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Eugene, Oregon, Bend, Oregon, Asheville,

North Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee. And my HBO special taping at Town Hall in New York City is on Thursday, December 8th. You can go to wtfpod.com slash tour for all dates and ticket info and links dig it uh both brendan and i are not in immediate uh vicinity of our computers and i had to find a guitar outro on my phone i used to when i'd think of a lick just record them on my phone and this one is this one is an oldie. This is from December 2016. It sounds like it's on my acoustic guitar. This is an old riff. You know, just familiar.

It's what I do and what I've always done. Thank you. Thank you. ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത� Thank you. boomer lives monkey lafonda cat angels everywhere sometimes i even think of butch butchy my first cat he's out there she sorry butch was a she