Acting legend Robert Wagner stops by the ‘Our Way’ virtual studios shortly after the 80th anniversary of D-Day so he and Paul can trade memories of making the epic war drama ‘The Longest Day.’ Wager recalls the glorious days during the Golden Age of Hollywood, from getting his big break as Clark Gable’s caddy at the Bel Air Country Club, to getting acting tips from Spencer Tracy — and even acting opposite Marilyn Monroe during her first screen test. Wager also recalls his hilarious turns in two of the funniest movies of all time: 'The Pink Panther' and 'Austin Powers.'
Our Way with yours Truly Paul Anka and my buddy Skip Bronson, is a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, folks, this is Paul.
Anka and my name is Skip Bronson. We've been friends for decades and we've decided to let you in on our late night phone calls by starting a new podcast and welcome to Our Way.
We'd like you to meet some real good friends of ours.
There, leaders in entertainment and.
Sports, innovators in business and technology, and even a sitting president or two.
Join us as we asked the questions they've not been asked before. Tell it like it is, and even sing a song or two.
This is our podcast and we'll be doing it our way.
You know.
Another kick for me was watching You with with Mike Myers.
Oh yeah, I love that. He's a terrific man. He's a truly fan. He wrote that character. Oh, Vidio, I've been in the picture of business. What fault seventy years? I guess seventy years and I'm known as Number two. That's you know a little. He wrote that character for me, So I am now referred to as Number two.
Hello Skip, Hey, glad you're up and around. What you're doing I'm just checking in. You know, we gotta have the daily checking at least once a day or a problem for me.
Well, it's always good to hear your voice, buddy. And how about the voice we'll have on our podcast, mister Wegner. I know, it's amazing. You'll hear a distinctive tonality with RJ. You know, some of those actors have got that. They've all got this certain tone. His has never changed. You're gonna hear a voice and go wow, I've heard that so many times. But you go for the archange. Yeah.
I used to play with him, and in course, he started off as a caddy at the bell Air Country Club for you know, some of the greatest you know stars in Hollywood at the time, including you know Fred Astaire. I mean, this is the whole group of guys.
How about when his father brought him out though there was nothing there. Yeah, No, his father moved out from Michigan and built a home when it was barren. Yeah, I mean the Terra Firma there was empty and this kid grew up there.
RJ.
You know, but you know, I want to talk to them about this. One of the things is interesting. He gets a real leg upbeat, so physically beautiful, such a gorgeous looking guy that he has. He had a face made for Hollywood, right, I mean, this is a guy the women would look at this guy and go, oh my god. I mean the movie poster with his picture on it. You know you're going to buy a ticket and go in and see him if you're a woman, that's for sure.
No, he was one of those guys. But he was an actor. You know, he really morphed into being a very good actor. And not only from uh, I think from film. He went ready television and he's got it together. I mean, he's in his early nineties and I got to tell you, he's one of the sweetest guys and he's never changed. And I've known him, you know since I did the Longest Day with him years ago, back in the early sixties, and we're very close and with our families. But I'm looking forward to having him on. I think he'll really enjoy him. He's got some great stories. Fred Astaire was in his life. I mean, the guys had so many great actors, right down to the Mike Meyers situation. He's worked with some of the best.
And I want to ask my friend Chuck Laurie, who produced you know, of course Two and a Half Men and so many other comedies. I told him that you and I were going to have RG on and he gave me a great question to ask him that I think I'll get a kick out of. So I'm going to do that, you know, because he was he played Charlie Sheen's mother's love interests on the show. And you know, his work has been so diverse, I mean, are you kidding from you know, from one end to the other. So I think that'll be fun to talk about. And the pivot in his life from La and being deeply ingrained in the LA society culture, the whole thing, and now he lives up in Aspen, you know, just a totally good choice and good timing. Yeah, yeah, get out of here, real good choice and good timing. And he deserves it, you know, he deserves to have that kind of life and to doing it very gracefully. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it, looking forward to I also want to ask him if he got, like, if a script showed up on his door. He's ninety four years old, and I'm wondering if you would say, you know, been there, done that, or if you would say, yeah, let's try to do another one. So be interesting to find that out. How did you first meet him? Just did you meet him when you did The Longest Day? You didn't know him until then, or you know him before that.
I didn't know him until the early sixties when we did The Longest Day. I don't remember meeting him earlier with Sinatra, you know, I very very well have because he would come up to Vegas. But where we really spent time was, you know, doing that film, which was an incredible film, Beaches at Normandy Longest Day. And then we stayed together ever since, and our kids grew up together and knew each other, and I just always enjoyed them. He's just he's a gentleman. He's just a sweet guy, and he's got great style. You know, it's from that old school skip that we don't have anymore. That business is gone in every sense, it's not that kind of business any and a.
Very civil and elegant guy, you know, doesn't doesn't seek attention, you know, it doesn't get involved in any controversy in terms of what's happening in the you know, in the zeitgeist right now. He's just just I think he's a guy just as Joyce's life.
You know.
Yeah, i'd love to see and land a great role with the great director. I think it's still be very viable. You know, but those scripts are hard to come by.
But you know, you find these guys like him, you know, gratitude plays such a big part for them, you know, the ones they are fully grounded like RJ. You know, they they you know, some movie stars, if you will think you know, they've got this great sense of entitlement. And I think whenever I've spent time with him, he's very humble, you know, not full of himself at all. Is that a fair statement?
Very very much, very humble.
Yeah, all right, Well anyway, this is as always, this is going to be. I'm really excited about having RJ on. He's such an icon. I mean, oh my god, it's just incredible.
He's all of that.
And we'll have good time with him, and he's just a cool head. All right, my boy, go to bed, wom see, you've got three hours.
Yeah, but I'll talk to you tomorrow for sure.
Well, you know that is a pulp pray, I hope, So for sure, man, you know we're talking tomorrow. I love you to.
So all you folks out there, but it's so general and all the wonderful feedback we've been getting today, we have a very very very special guest on with us. I remember the first time I met this man. It was way back when we were in a foxhole on the beaches of Normandy back in nineteen sixty two. I was but a kid and he was a young man. And ever since that a Darryl Zantik film called The Longest Day, we've had a strong connection through all those years, and not professing to know him infinitely, but knowing him enough to always love him for a long time and close with our families and Amanda and his girls, long long time. And that voice you're hearing is the voice of r J, otherwise known as Robert Wagner, one of our amazing film stars for so many years. And welcome to our show, Robert, say hello to Skip Bronson over there.
Well, it's so wonderful. I have a very deep affection for you and have had for years. You know, our families have been together, and I'm so close to Amanda and Chasing and their weddings and grandfathers, and you and I are grandfathers, you know. Isn't that wonderful?
I'm loving it. I'm loving it. As overrated as it is. I'm loving it, aren't you.
Well?
You had you had a real good shot at you know.
Yeah, and I finally got the boy, right Jie.
Yeah. But you've had such a wonderful career, Paul, and you've had everybody such such joy and you've made so many people happy. It's gotta make thing.
For you, you know, Yes, and you too. I mean, let's go back to the Longest Day. We're going to go eclectically here, and I know, Skip being the avid golfer that he is, go back to the Longest Day because that was a memorable moment in my career, in life. And where did it all fit in for you?
Well? That was your first fixture, wasn't it?
Want to talk about? Yes, I did one with Mami Van during Duran called Girls Town, and then.
Mickey Rooney that was later, wasn't it?
No? I think it was before. Fortunately, I didn't want to follow the Longest Day with that one. I did about two or three before we could have on screen and off. Yes, you would have been very happy south to France, isolated. She was a great gal. I had a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah, she was give me some memories about the Longest Day RJ.
Well, you know, I think we were all very fortunate to be in that film and spent such a success. And you know, Zenik was responsible ready for my career, and I was like under contract to Thought for twelve years. You know, he placed me in some films and he was really responsible for my being in the movies, you know, and he put me under contract there when I was eighteen years old. And it was a great e as you can imagine, you know, to be in the picture and be with all of them, all of us were together and we were having a great time, and it's a remarkable picture. I mean I was watching it the other day. I mean, he already did some wonderful work. Those directors were great, and you were terrific in it.
Really listen, I walked away with writing the music. That was my proud moment.
Yeah, thank god you did. You know, You've always been so wonderful to us and so generous to the family. We've you know, in Vegas, we've gone up there to see you and yeah, you're so great and they all love you, you know, they adore you. You know, I'm doing this show with you, so well, we'll have a few listeners, you know.
Okay, we could use them all. Hey, Jay, do you remember in your memoir there's a couple of pages in there about when you got so on one night that you went to the wrong hotel. When we're doing the longesting, Remember.
I went out with Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher and we went to several places and I came back to the hotel. Let me back this up a little bit. When I went there, I was doing a couple of films and they flew me in special to France, and there was a car going alongside the airplane, and they came on the aircraft and they said, we're here to pick up Robert Wagner. And I got off the plane and got on the car. They drove me to the hotel and I got to the hotel and I walked up to the desk and I said, I think you have a room, and they said, what's your name? I said, Robert Wagner. No. I was kind of shot down by the by the concierge you know, Robert, I said it was good. So that night I went out with Elizabeth and Eddie and we went to several places and got very you know, several bottles of wine and what have you. I got back to the hotel and I walk up to the guy and I said, do you have the key to my suite? He said, what's your name? And I reached over to the conra and grabbed him.
Robert Wagner again again.
You know, it's me, Robert Wagner. Do you remember I'm in the wrong hotel? That was? That was a story. I felt that.
Do you remember what was when we'd go to work every day down at the beaches. Do you remember that while we were at work, someone or a group were going into the hotels and stealing you remember, they're stealing all our valuables and Xenik was very concerned. Never found them.
No, I don't remember that. Tell me about that.
Well, when we were working, there was a group going into the different hotels, as you remember, there were little boutique hotels and they were ripping a they're just taking stuff. But of course we were so involved with making the film and Darryl and keeping us busy. They never ever could find out who it was till Zaik brought down some detectives from Paris and started investigating the point of it. I was in Japan trying to come over and meeting you guys on the longest day, and some guy sold me this box of lighters and he said, I'll give them to you for a penny each, and you can put anything in writing that you want on there. You can give them away his gifts. Well, I'm a kid, and I'm saying, hey, that's great. So he said, what do you want on there? And he shows me a book and one of the scriptings said stolen from He said, I said, that's great. Put stolen from Paul Ank on there. He said, hell, put that stolen from Paul Ank. I said great. So I get over there, I meet you guys over there, and you know, I'm giving these away the camera guys. I'm giving anybody I could give them to. And I handed a bunch of them off. Fade out, fade in. I go back to New York, finished the film. Zanik comes to New York and meets me at the copa and we're having drinks upstairs, and he said, you remember when we were being looted by people are coming down and Robbie were on the basic He said, well, you were responsible for finding us. How did you do that? He said, The detectives came down, They went to each hotel, they checked out waiters, they checked out maids, et cetera, et cetera, And in one hotel they went into one of the waiters rooms at his home and they were going through the place and sitting on top of his dresser, and it was so scripted. He didn't know what the hell it meant. It said stolen from Paul Anka. He said, where did you get that? He says, says said, he said, no, no, no, And that's how they found him for this one set lighter. Anyway, that was the longest day experience of many right, Well, but everybody was in that, I mean, Mitcham and you and Lauferd and Burton and Connery, I mean, oh, it was Yeah, it was just mind boggling experience, you know.
Yeah, that was that was a good time. I've been back to Have you been back to Norman? Decent?
Said, I've been back to the area, you know for years, been on for vacation, be you know, went through Normandy sure, we checked it out, of course.
H fantastic time.
Yeah, that's very, very very.
That's quite a long time ago, you know.
Paul sixty two, sixty three, sixty four, Yeah right, yeah, sixty at least sixty four.
Yeah, a long time you've had. You've had a fantastic career since then.
My god, no, thank you and YouTube listen.
Well you've happy, You've written so much, so many, so much good stuff, and it's just amazing what you've done. You know, I love your family. I loved I love to have your wife, and I loved your girls, and it's so wonderful that we've have this relationship over these years. It's just great when you think of how many people have left us. I mean, we're very fortunate man to have our daughters and our family, which is so important.
Yeah.
I think the most important thing is it is.
The most important thing. Yeah, and it's it's mutual, all right, Jay. We've had so many good times and of course the girls, you know, it's ongoing.
And your grandchildren, how about that?
How about how about nine of them?
I know you have no you got me beat by six.
Oh well I'm not done yet. I've got eighteen year olds son warming up in the bullpen.
Believe me, you're not done yet.
Believe no, no, no, I'm done, but he isn't. How's Jill, how's the wife?
Oh, she's wonderful, She's wonderful. You know, I got very lucky Paul. You know, oh, you know, we did several movies together, and I knew her from the time she was sixteen years old. But we never had any romantic involvement. You know, I was married, she was had, you know, very many boyfriends and was very popular and all that, and we just it just we never had a romance until later on in life. Now we've been married last month. It was thirty four years.
Wow, thirty fuck a long time.
And it's been wonderful and I'm very grateful and for that. And just I lucked out, you know, I lucked out.
We deserved it, and I'm happy for you.
K thank you, Paul, very much, happy for you.
So r JA, let me just get in here for one second. I was just going to say, because you know, Paul, forever and we you and I met in the nineties when Steve when first introducedus, and I was going to mention to you now that you're up in Aspen. Steve just bought a house in Aspen. I don't know if you're aware of that.
And you know what, I'm having dinner with him Monday night.
Oh you're kidding. Oh that's funny, because.
Yeah, I still Yeah, he called us and they moved up here and we're going to their home for dinner to Monday night.
Oh that's great.
I would have seen you. I was on my way up there with him because I'm doing a big concert for him in September. But I can't go up. But I'll see you in September when I come up. You will be yeah. Yeah, we're doing a big birthday party on the twenty eighth of September.
I'll be there, Yes, you will.
That's a good song time there. Do you remember do you remember being skip with Steve?
Yeah?
I do, and we go, you know, taking it all the way back to the beginning. I know you grew up alongside the bell Air Country Club, and there are stories. So many stories at bell Air are apocryphal, but I'm wondering if this is true or not. They say that you actually started off as a young boy caddying for Fred Astaire. Carrie Grant Clark Gable. I'm just curious people. You know, you hear these stories. You never know what's true and what's not.
Well, that's true. I waited there for Clark Dabe, you know. I I saw saw of them walking up, all walking up to Pharao Wind faraway one day, Kerry, Randolph Scott, Clark Dable and FREDA Stair. Wow, four of them afore And I said to myself, man, what I love to be one of those people one day? And look at what happened? What what? What a lucky man?
I am.
Gable got me set up at MGM, and Randolph Scott was so wonderful to me. And Fred Astaire I played it. I did a series called It Takes a Thief and he played my father, and That Takes a Thief. Look at that, Look at the odds. That's amazing.
I know I was going to ask you a funny question. I was going to say, to that spark your love of film or just your love of golf when you saw that.
That's a good question for you.
I know you were. You became a very avid and very good golfer. And everybody at Bellair Country Club always enjoyed when they'd spot you up there, but you know the history of the place, some of those old photographs, you know, we were talking about the new clubhouse, of course, a lot of the old photographs of you know that the group that we just mentioned and Spencer Tracy and Catherine Hepburn and you know, you know, I growing up in Hartford, Connecticut at the club I belonged to, you didn't exactly run into people like that that you do it a place like bell Air.
Yeah, that was a real big, uh, a very big opportunity for me, very big opportunity. And well, of course you knew men's of course.
The fact I was going to ask was was it Joe Novak or Eddie Merons back?
And then well, Joe Novak was the pro when when I was just a young kid, you know, at that time, he and he got Eddie Meron's to come to the club. And then I met Eddie Morons when he first came there, got it. He was a wonderful man. I took quite a few lessons from him. Did you ever go to him for an.
Oh, yeah, swing the handle, you know that whole routine. Yeah, but you were actually a caddy though at the club. You caddied the ballanty.
Oh yeah, well, you know, at that time, the war broke out, and so all the caddies, you know, went to work. They either went in the service or they went to work in the aircraft factories. So you know, all the kids, the young kids took over carrying the bags, and I was one of those kids. Lucky.
You great. What an incredible thing when you think about it. I'm sure you've seen that video actually Fred Astaire when he's dancing and hitting golf balls. It's sort of a famous clip on YouTube. I mean he had a I he you know, of course, he moved on the dance floor like you know, no one else. But he actually had a beautiful golf swing too. Just watching that.
Oh he did have a good swing. He was a good player. Yeah, he was a player. He liked it. Well, he was wonderful in anything, you know. I mean he rehearsed a lot, and I mean all all of that stuffing, all the dance numbers of canes, so oh, amazing, amazing talent.
Did you ever work with him or not?
Oh? Yeah I did. I did a television series called Heart to Heart, right of course, and you know, and before that, I did it takes a thief, and I was a great thief, but he was the greatest thief of them all, Bretastaire, and he played my father and we worked together, and I want to tell you something, It was the biggest thrill of my life to be able to work with Bredastaire. That was that was really exciting. That was something that's funny.
You know. It's funny because we have a mutual friend in Chuck Lourie and I was talking and I was talking to Chuck this morning, course producer of Two and a half, Men in the Big Bang Theory and all these shows, and I said.
Oh, he gave me some good shots on that. He gave me some good stuff, I know.
And I said to Paul that I spoke to Chuck this morning, and I told him that Paul and I were going to be, you know, doing this podcast with you today. And I said, so tell me something that I can say to him that that he'll get a kick out of. And he said, well, you know, when he played Teddy Leopold, you know, the love interest of Charlie Sheen's mother. He said, when it was time to kill off his character, you said, wait a second, can I possibly come back as a ghost.
Yes, I love working for Chuck Laurie. Tremendous south, very talented. He's a tremendous sound of that man. He's great. Yeah. I loved working for him, I really did. I was disappointed that I didn't go on there. There was a I was involved in another television situation he was aware of, and uh, he thought that show was going to go, and so did I. But it didn't go and he let me go out of the out of the show, which I was But I love doing the show and I loved working for him. He was terrific.
That's great.
You know, when you talk about all the great people we've been fortunate to be around. R Jay, I must tell you the eulogy that you gave it Sinatra's funeral, oh so memorable. And he was a buddy of yours and mine, And you know I know that. I think. Weren't you engaged to Tina for a bit, et cetera, et cetera.
Yeah, yes, we went for a together for a while.
Yea, but we were we were so close to him. And give me some takes on Frank, because there's nobody like him, never will be. And I know you were very tight in there as I was in terms of having him in my life.
Well, you know, you were very tight. You were very tight in there too.
Yeah, yeah, you know how special was he?
Oh, he was such a special man. You know. I to him when I was very young. I mean I was like twenty one twenty two when I first met him.
I too, maybe two days old.
Yeah, but there's a little difference between you and me, you know. Uh. And he was always so wonderful to me, so so generous, took me places with him and.
Well, well with him. When he said we're going out, you have to bring your passport. You never knew where you you.
Know, I introduced him one time, he said, he said, I want you to He came to Rome and I was and I was living in Rome and he played there you and you can imagine Sonata and Rome Hello, And uh he said, why don't you introduce me? I said, oh Jesus, but uh so I walk out on the stage and you can imagine how people love to see me on the way to for Sinatra. Right, so, and I said two words, Frank Sinatra, and out he came, and he turned that place upside down.
Yeah, they loved him over.
You've seen that many times.
Yeah, I've been around it all. But he was something special. I mean he was just mesmer.
Yeah, but you've done that too. I've seen you turn it upside down too. I've seen you. I've seen you come out and give performances that are absolutely magnificent. The audience goes crazy.
They had nothing better to do that night. They were probably waiting for him. So, you know, another kick for me was watching you with with Mike Myers.
Oh yeah, I love that.
Are you still in touch with him?
Oh? Yeah, I'm in touch with him once in a while. Yeah. He's a terrific man. He's a truly man. He wrote that character. Oh me, you know, I've been in the picture of business what Paul seventy years? I guess. And I'm known as Number two. That's you know a little He wrote that character for me, so I am now referred to as number two.
It's cool between Myers and Sellers, who you're with, right, How similar are those two guys?
Oh? I don't think they were similar at all. Peter Peter Sellers was a very very special guy and so is Mike, and their personalities are are very very different, very different but did you you know Peter did you?
Yeah, yeah, we were with the same agent and then knew him, you know, in England, met him over here. I didn't know him well, but you know we've gotten together with Dinners et cetera like that. Yeah, very time.
I don't think I don't think anybody could get to know Peter Bury.
Well, no, no, no.
I think it was possible. I spent a great deal of time with him and I had had wonderful fans with him in London. He had a super souped up many Cooper and but that Carr could really move and he loved you know, drag racing with people and knocking him out of the way, and it was quite interesting. You know.
He's a tortured soul though.
Yes he was. Unfortunately he had a lot of a lot of Davis. Yeah, but funny Mike, Mike Myers is do you know have you met him?
You know, yeah, I met only I think Bacrack was involved in the film. Bert was a friend, you know, I'd met Mike, you know, did.
You see that? You know I did that special on Bert back and it was on the other day. It was pretty pretty good. I thought it really They really used.
Is a biography?
R J?
Was it a biography?
Big Heart?
Was it a biography or music? I haven't seen it yet.
It's a music I did. I did it about five years and it came out really well. I admired Burt very much. I saw him first when he was playing at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. That's a long time ago, and I just thought he had so much talent and it was a terrific person. I, by the way, was on the phone the other day with Angie and he's doing well.
And yeah, I knew him back then with her and I met him in the fifties. We were sharing a girlfriend. Her name was Shirley Ornstein, and I didn't know him, he didn't know me, but she knew both of us. So she'd come and visit me and we'd have fun. That she'd go see him and have fun that you can go back and I heard this new song with this guy Bert Bacharak. She started singing it to me, and then that player mid new one, and she'd go back and tell him. I never met him. So finally one day we got together. I said, Hey, we're sharing Shirley. He said yeah, and it was like late fifties and we became buddies. Ever said, right right down to about a month or two before he passed. Very talented guy, very.
Talented, wonderful man. Yet he had wonderful parents, you know his father. Did you ever meet them?
Yes? And then the once in New York.
Yes, very nice people, wonderful people, wonderful family.
Yeah, he was a stylish guy. He was very very cool.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, terrific.
Speaking of cool guys, Spencer Tracy, big part of your life. I lived at What an actor he was? What's the advice he gave your ja? Where did you learn from him?
Oh? There's spent so many, so many they spent so many things said about Spence. But you know, people ask him how does he how do you do it? And you know, how do how do you? How do you be so natural? How do you get that character? He said a lot of things. But one of the things that he said, well try I just heard again the other day was he said, you know, actress, say what what what? What? What? What shall I do? He say? He said, learn your lines, hit the mark and be honest. And that's pretty simple. But that's what he did. I don't know. I mean he was just did you ever work.
With him, Paul, No, never had that pleasure.
He was something. I did two films with him, and it was the first time I went to Europe. I went to Europe with him and Eddie Dimitrick, the director, and we did a film up in Shamani called a Mountain, and we drove up there. Eddie had bought a car, a Mercedes convertible. I mean this is fifty years ago, you know. But just had a wonderful experience being with him. He was such a special man and I knew his children. You know that John Tracy Klinet, which was formed because John was deaf by his mother and his sister excuse me, was you know, such a dear friend. She just left us recently, both of them are gone. But the wonderful organization and the John Tracy Clinic has done. She was responsible for stopping the expression deaf and dumb. She missus, Tracy Louise. She was just a remarkable woman, you know, one of those women be in your life that never leave you. And she was a very very wonderful person. And they formed the John Tracy Clinic and they've done so much for young children who are impaired with herring and and they've been really, really done a great job. Spence was very much involved in that.
Speaking of names from the past, I just went to my friend Casey Wasserman's fiftieth birthday party and his grandfather of course with Lou Wasserman, and he was just curious of any of your memories of Lou Wasserman, the impact he had on the entertainment industry, on Hollywood, all of it.
Well, he was very responsible for my going into television, you know, he was the one that wanted me to do. It takes a thief, and it takes a thief, you know. It changed my whole career. And I was very close to lew and he was my agent at one time and then as you know, he ran at owned Universal Studio. Say, he was a remarkable man. He did so much for me and I'm so indebted to him, and I loved his wife. We were very close, you know, he was He couldn't have been more generous to me. He was great. You know him quite well.
Paul may have known him. I didn't know him, but Paul man him.
Yeah, I knew Wasserman well. Him and Stein. You know, they set a whole new tone back then. You go over those offices, unlike some of the other agencies are j and there were antiques everywhere, and they started that whole gray suit, black tie, very very stylish, and he was. He was one of those great guys with that low tone, never never raised his voice.
I mean, oh, very very very powerful guy.
I hate the equation between Mayer Lansky that I used to sit with at the Fountain, Blue and lou But there's a certain elk of men that they never changed their tonality. It was always one tone and very strong and very powerful.
But he was.
He and Stein did an amazing, amazing contribution to our business. Oh, I think they set the mold.
Yeah, you were talking about his you they'd go to Europe and they'd buy all those antiques.
Yeah.
I have one of a fireplace that he bought and I got it. It was given to me. I have it in my house up there. Yeah, yeah, you'll see it.
Cool. Yeah, they were stylish guys. They were very very cool guys. Great agency.
When are you coming up here, by the way.
Well, I hope to come up within the next couple of months to see our friend and just hang for a few days, but I have to come in before the concert on the twenty eighth. I'll probably get up there into the Little Neils around when twenty eighth of September. At Steve's house, we're just planning the tent and bring an equipment in. You know, Stevie's right on nothing but the best, so we're gonna have a hell of an evening. But I'll come up before that because he just wants me to come up and hang for a few days. And I enjoyed Aspen because my daughter lived up there. She was a ski instructor. So between there and Aspen, you know, I'm very familiar with the turf and I really like it up there.
Oh that's great.
What brought you to Aspen in the first place? Why Aspen?
Well, I first came here to Aspen in nineteen forty nine with two ski instructors of Antache and eve La Tree, And they were both French guys, and they were instructors in France and the top skiers and Colorado and Aspen was the first place that they had the ski lift and the snow was fabulous, and I came with the two of them in nineteen forty nine, and then Jill came in nineteen fifty nine. I didn't know her then, but she lived here. I mean, Jill has lived here for most of her life. And when Jill and you know, and then I'd come back to Asphen on occasions and vacations and all of that. But then when Jill and I started going together, I was up here more often, obviously, and I just loved it. As Paul knows because it's happened to him. The children all grew up and left, and we had this house in Brentwood, beautiful home, and it was just Chill and myself and this wonderful woman who worked for me called Willie May were then. And that's when I see a lot of Paul's kids, you know, they were all together, all of them, and they all left and there was just Jill, myself and Willie May and his home. And so we sold it and moved into a condominium in Beverly Hills and lived there for a while, and then Jill had her house here. Then we saw this house that I'm living in now, and we bought it. I think it's twenty five or thirty years and we now live. We got married and we lived here and it's all his firs and ours, my mothers and fathers and her mother and fathers and tourises and it's all together.
That's great. And I just spoke yesterday actually to our other mutual friend George Hamilton, who told me either just he said he was just talking to you. See I talked to him.
Yeah, is he down in Florida's he he's teas unbelievable.
He's flying to Europe to see a friend of his perform and then he's going to go to the Hampton's. He's going to stay in Southampton out on Long Island for the big part of thee.
He travels a lot. He's a wonderful guy. You know. Natalie and I did a picture together with him. That's when I first met him, called all the Final Cannibals, and we just loved him. And he's been a very good close friend and uh, I love him. You know, he's he's a wonderful.
He got all excited when I told him we were going to be talking to you. I have to say, two of the funniest people I know are Paul and George. Paul's hysterical, but George is hilarious. He's just you know, he doesn't take himself all that seriously. He's sort of he's sort of in on the joke. But you know, he was very close to my mentor, Melvin Simon, who started me in business. And mel mel was backing George and George's movies like Zarro the Gay Blade, mel Simon produced it. And so George has always had somebody he attaches himself to, Like now it's Donnie Sofer. Back then it was Yeah, and before that it was with mel Simon. And you know, George is such a character. He just but he's so entertaining that everybody loves taking him around. So Donnie bought a new plane, bought a Global Express and he said to me, you know, Skip, I had to take four of the seats out of the back of the plane. I said why, He said, so I can get all of George's luggage on board. Yeah, he travels like a Oh, he travels like Elizabeth Taylor.
When he moves in, he moves in.
And he traveled with Yeah.
Well, I know, I know he's so charming. You know the word charming. I mean, you can't find a word charming guy than George.
Oh, he's terrific, terrific.
He still goes to Germany, Skip for those shots. He came to your house.
When you played that practical joke. You have to tell j what you did to him that you.
Know he goes with sofa and they get the juice of a lamb or the urine of a pig. I don't know what it is, but some Germans sold, look like you get this shot once a month and you're gonna last forever. So it happened, you show, Yeah, but he's.
He's so he was.
I think he called you on the phone. He was in town, Skip and he called you, and I was with you. You were screening something for me exactly when he said, hey, George, how are you? And then you whispered to me George Hamilton. I said, tell him, tell him you've got doctor Swing Dangle from Germany. He's here, the guy that gave you the shots. Just tell him, George, I've got doctor Swinger. Then if we hear from the institute, is he there, Yes, she's George. How are you? George? This is doctor Listen. We've got a new serum.
Now.
You won't believe if you and the sofa person you come over We've got a new serum where it takes six months for you see difference. It's gonna last twelve days. You're gonna see the difference, the eyes, the wrinkles. It's this new juice that we got from the colt over in Switzerland. He says, we don't don't worry. I'm going to be waiting for you. You're done, and I'm putting him on like for about what twenty minutes? Skip skip At one point's going tell him that you can't handle this, right, But they go over religiously r J to get these shows.
Do you remember what he's Yeah, R Paul, do you remember what he said to you? He was thought he was talking to the doctor and the doctor said, yes, it's very expensive, but you know it's certainly expensive. And he said, well done, so for having an account with you. He said, oh yes, oh so we can put on his.
Account right, the expensive but Silfa has that count.
Yeah. Yeah, it was so crazy.
I got on some of the stuff that he got me on a really good, good program and I got on to it about thirty years ago. Oh tell us a wonderful doctor called doctor Anna Aslam. Did you her?
No? Here here in Los Angeles.
No, she's in she's in Romania.
Oh, so he's covering you.
The George shipped me off on that. And I started taking those shots. And I gotta say, I went to.
You, went over there, RJ. What's that You went over there to her? She sent them to you?
No, you can. You can buy them. He told me about them, and I got them and started taking started taking them. When I went to this spa in Germany. You know, when you go there, the doctor's examine you and everything else. And he said to you, what drugs do you take and stuff whether as I told him, you know, supplements and things like that. And he said, and I told him, I took this anne Aslan medicine of shots that are like novacane. You know, they hold your your vessels and your organs, and that's the theory of it. And he said, you know, I have several patients that come in here and we can tell the difference. So I've been taking those shots. George got me on them.
When I take them, you're still take you Oh yeah, she's still alive.
She's not alive anymore. But the the company that she created and the laboratories that she has are still functioning under her name.
There you go, these doctors that have their own thing going for them, right.
Yeah, that's it.
Look at you? You look? You have to say you look, you look incredible.
Maybe perfect face for radio?
What you know, it's the makeup. What can I tell you?
Yeah? Well, look, the whoever's doing is doing a good job. What's your day, like, buddy up there? I mean out of winter? In winter? Give me your date? What do you do?
You know here everybody exercises a lot, you know, they ride bikes and do all that. And I go to the gym three times a week. And living you know, in nature is really wonderful. And I read a lot, and I'm just enjoying life, you know.
All and gracefully, right, gracefully.
I'm so fortunate and us so grateful. You can't imagine that. I that I've wound up like this in this beautiful place. And my family is all well and they're doing all right, and I'm healthy, and I'm dealing with a little COPD now. But I'm dealing with it, you know, and it's something you can you can deal with.
Well, it's not easy to die nowadays, are Jay. If you've got good people around you. It's not easy to die nowadays, and we can't afford good people around us. And I hear you. You know, I think we can deal with stuff like that, right.
Yeah, I like that.
Do you get back to la at all? Do you ever get back to La.
Oh once in a while? Yeah, we come back down there because you know, Jill was born in Los Angeles and I was raised there, and we have a lot of friends. And two of my girls are there in Los Angeles, Natasha and Kay. Well, Katie lives in Ohi. We have a lot of friends there. So we go down there two or three times a year and and see our friends. You know, we have a lot of friends.
What about the old haunts like Chasing's, the places, the old hang you miss those places gone?
Yes, that's gone. But I just had a wonderful birthday party. Jill gave me my ninety fourth birthday party at George Hill's at the Beach. And you know, I knew Georgia very well. And his son, Edwardo. He has a restaurant in Beverly Hills called Edwardo's, and the daughter a lot of she runs the Georgia's at the Beach, And we had a wonderful She gave me a wonderful party, just right.
Yeah, we love Ellen and that's one of our favorite restaurants where they're.
Oh yeah, that's quite a bit a lot of us.
Yeah, and never the restaurant never disappoints. It's always great.
Oh that's great. H Well, there's a lot of wonderful places, and we have a lot of good friends there to you.
So, but everybody haspens the happening place now it's incredible, I mean the place.
Yeah, well, it's changed a great deal, like like everything else. I remember when the hardware store had sawdust on the floor and a bell to ring when he opened up the door by the screen with a screen door, you know. So it's changed. But every place that we've all met has changed, you know.
Of course.
Of course, speaking of which, R Jay, you know that the tabloid celebrity culture has changed in the last seven years, and we all go back. I mean, you and I had to Luella Parsons and had a hopper. Who are you dealings with them? Well?
I knew Luella pretty well and she was always I got along with her really well and used to go to the racetrack with her a great deal and she was very kind to me, and you know, the press was really really good to me. And as I you know, I was under contract to Fox and they have very good relationships with everybody, and I never had any problem with them.
You know, such a different system today.
Oh so today, I mean it's just brutal. I mean, they can find anything, they can pay anything about you. It's terrible show pictures and oh my god, I mean it's and none of it is true really, you know. I mean you look at it and you just you can't believe.
It, and you look at the system itself. I mean, today I don't know that the movie business is a business. It's almost like American airlines. It's so changed. But the fact that a lot of these actors, it's the goal is just get an oscar and we're going to sell whatever film we're doing. It's so changed. And you don't have any true movie actors stars like you did yesterday. It's a whole different landscape.
I think that's very well. Football, that's very well. Absolutely, I agree totally on that.
Are you working on any projects right now, any current or No, I'm not.
I'm kind of waiting for you know, once in a while the script hits the door, you know, and I hear the thump, and I hope it's Steven Spielberg or Martin Spressese. But so far that hasn't been.
If you know what I mean, I'm sure you could work plenty with your background, your history. I just saw some pictures the other day of you when you were a really young man. Best looking guy in Hollywood, no question about it. You had good jeans. What do you Your parents were from where? What was their background?
Well, my mother was Norwegian. She was born in America, first born in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, and my father was a German. My grandfather settled in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and he was the American dream, you know. He sold newspapers on the streets and became a salesman, became involved with the Ford Motor Company and became very successful. You know, it's the American story.
That was your grandfather. What about your dad?
Oh? No, that was my father.
Oh there was your father. Oh I see.
Now. My grandfather, as far as I knew, had a like a pub, you know, a bar in Calamazoo. And he came from Mannheim. And I only saw him once when I was already young, just a kid, you know. But I was raised in Michigan, and then we moved to California, and luckily my father built a house bell Air when there was nothing there. There was just mountains, you know, and the clubhouse, the club that we were talking about, was around the corner, you know. So he belonged to there and played golf, and I wound up on the golf course and lucky.
And now bell Air is arguably the most expensive subdivision in America. The prices, I mean is absolutely bell Air. That whole area around you know what they call Lower bell Air. I mean, the prices are just you know, through the roof. It's incredible, right, very expensive. So one of the things I just wanted to throw out. Our producer Jordan indirectly has a relationship through Lou Wasserman. Jordan, why don't you tell R Jay how that worked?
Oh yeah, My my aunt worked for Lou Wasserman when she worked at Universal. He was he was her boss, and he was like a second father to her. He was very very kind to her and was really her mentor.
In a lot of ways too.
So she had just the most wonderful things to tell me about about lou and he was always always referred to in very reverent tones in my household.
Very cool guy. Oh they were good people, you know, they were very good, good people.
I mean, what was it like, because I feel like you've written three incredible books, and I think it was either in your memoir Pieces in My Heart or you must remember this. I forget which one where you talk about how you kind of came in at the end of the studio system in nineteen forty eight when you signed to Fox. What was it like before the studio system kind of started to crumble, And what was it like afterwards when you came back from Europe. What was the difference like in Hollywood once the studio system began to kind of be dismantled.
Well, that's a big question, he just asked me. You know, I mean, I think, to make it as simple as possible, it was a family business. It was family you know people. People really cared about you. They wanted to make you better, They wanted to do things that were fortunate for your career. You know. It it became corporate, you know, and uh, corporate corporate change changed things a lot. It changes a lot of values. When I was signed at Fox, I was the test boy. I tested all of the all of the people came in and I learned, and I learned about the business, about lighting, about the camera. I was diferent front of the camera. I didn't know anything about that. I had a chance to do that. I had a chance to have All that happened to me. And the people that I was involved with with they were really interested in me. They cared about me, you know. They I had a man there that was a sign to just take care of me and watch out for me.
Wow.
And when I went on the road and went out to sell pictures and I was involved with twentieth Century Fox, it was a company that I really cared about. You know. Jill and I were talking about that because she was under contract to Fox and we had we had an involvement with him. We cared about those people you talk about the longest day in Darryl. I mean, Darryl Zanik was wonderful to me.
You know.
He put me in little small pictures and pieces that had fan mail that I the fans reacted to me through fan mail. They had a fan mail department. We took care of the They took care of everything. You know, it was wonderful. It was family.
Not today.
Well, I was there when it, you know, when it when it all broke up and people became independent. And don't no, it's not that today because people come into the business and they want to uh you know, they have money to buy a story, they want to make a movie. It's all it's all corporative, you know, it's it and it's transit. They're not there for a long time, you know, like for me and like with Paul, you know, we came from the floor, We came from the of the stage from them, you know, rehearsals, people involved in making something better or creating something. It's it's not so much like that anymore. You know, it's very budget concert you know, concerns and money and you know, I had a project I took to to some people that have made and I went into the first conversation and I was trying to raise I think the picture was going to cost like a between eight and ten million, And they asked me how much I thought it would cost, and I said, I think it could cost It costs probably about ten million. I said, can you make it for six? You know, that that became a discussion.
And they were like twenty five years old.
Yeah, you know, I wasn't interested in you know, I wasn't interested in carrying the conversation on much longer because it was just two different perspectives, you know.
Jay one of the one of the sizzles for me back then, you know, every time I was up at the Sands Hotel with Sinatra and then anytime we knew Marilyn Monroe was coming in, I mean, everybody was hyped. I mean, and I'm a kid, so to me, it was Bridget Bardeaux who had met and Marilyn Monroe just sing her on the periphery. You did a screen test with Maryland, didn't you.
Yes, I did both.
Tell me tell me about that. Because she's she's just iconic and she was.
Loved well, you know, Paul I thought she was absolutely terrific. She had a wonderful sense of humor. She didn't have every Everybody wasn't on top of her then, you know, and wanting her for something, you know, and she was just great. I've got some pictures with her where we're laughing, laughing like crazy, and she she loved to have fun, you know, she was a really wonderful lady. But you know, you know what it's like. I mean, she couldn't go anywhere. She couldn't, you know. But I I loved her. I thought she was great.
What was the screen test for?
Do you remember on that one? No, that was for her contract at Fox.
Oh so it was with you and her, for her to get a contract with Fox.
Yeah, that was that was for her to be in a contract of the studio.
And do you remember what the scene was from? Oh?
No, I don't, No, I don't. But you know, I always liked her. She was such a wonderful you know, she was fun. She was a fun girl, and she was a lot a lot of laughs.
And well, Frank and the guys loved her. I mean you every time you were around it, you could just see they adored her.
Yeah, I mean she, you know, had a lot of demons running around.
Yeah, she did.
That later came out obviously, But what a loss, you know what, what an unfortunate thing. I just read her house. There's not going to become a monument.
That's right. They won't tear it down. Historic mine in Brentwood. They can't touch it, that's right. Historic like the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Right, yeah, that's what happened to my house in Brentwood. You know where a panda was there a lot. You know that your daughters were there a lot. It's become a you know, not a monument. But because the architect, Cliff May was so responsible for the California Ranch House and you know, he created it. He created this, the flighting, that glass stoor, you know, and he was a wonderful man and that house was was his house at one time. So they're they're going to keep that for perpetuity, which is great. I lived in it for twenty five years and I loved it and he helped me, help me bring it back to what it was.
Amazing. Well, you've you've seen it all, you've done it all, and you're still doing it. You're still doing it.
That makes what I'm doing this podcast.
So I'm loving that, and we loved it.
I can't tell you how much Paul loves you. You know, the way he talks about not just you know, related to this podcast, but whenever your name comes up, man, Paul just he likes right up. He just loves you.
Well, so wonderful man. And there isn't anything in the world I wouldn't do for him.
Likewise, he's a special, very special human being, and he's been so generous and so kind to me over the years and to our family, and we have great love and affection for him.
Thank you, r J.
Well, we appreciate you. We really appreciate your taking the time to do this. You were on our you were one of our bucket list people. So I'm just so happy that this worked out well.
I'm so pleased to be here in the beat with the boot both of you and and Paul. You're the best. I love you.
Thank you, Jay.
It's for a long time and it beings a great deal to me to have you in my life.
I agree with that sentiment and I feel the same way about you. And I'll see you very soon, my boy, within the next few months.
I look forward to Okay, I'm looking forward.
Sarah to Jill for me.
Huh, I sure will okay?
Thank you.
Thanks.
Our Way with Paul, Anka and Skip Bronson is a production of iHeartRadio.
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