This week's guest:

James Curtis, author of "Comedy is a Grim Business: The Making of 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'"

Topic: How the film got started; Stanley Kramer and "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T"; The reception of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" on the heels of the John F. Kennedy assassination; Casting the Fire Chief; The origins of the Big W