An Interview with Dick Curtis - Part Three

Kliph Nesteroff: Couple of weird - probably awful gigs you did in the 1950s... You performed for "1300 grocery store employees" in Lubbock, Texas and you performed at the Miss Wool Pageant...

Dick Curtis: (laughs) Yes, that was in a geodesic dome! They had a huge one next to the hotel in Porter, Texas - which smells like paint thinner. By then I was so big in Texas that they would book me into anything. They'd say, "Dick can't fail. Book him for it." At the same time my agent booked me into an industrial show that was rehearsing up in the Catskill mountains at Grossingers. It was a show for Chevrolet or Ford or something like that. You know what industrial shows are, don't you?

Kliph Nesteroff: They're sort of self-contained musicals about a particular product - done for the employees or people within the company, right?

Dick Curtis: They were like a Broadway show except they were about the product. They would hire guys like me because I could work in all phases of the show and then do my nightclub act later that night for the dealers and their wives. Also, I was a writer so I could fix things that didn't work. I got a lot of work that way. My God, I get a pension from Actors Equity because of it.

Anyway, we were rehearsing in the Catskills at Grossingers. I would rehearse all day then drive back to LaGuardia, get on a plane, fly to Dallas, charter a plane and fly to these dates that I had. Then I'd fly back. I was really worn out - rehearsing and flying and driving. I got down to Porter and they said it was the "Made of Cotton" Festival and this was the beauty contest. 

I said, "Who's on the show?" They said, "It's you, a girl singer and that game show host from New York that does Who Do You Trust. I think his name is Johnny Carson." I said, "You hired Johnny Carson to do this show? What do you need me for?" They said, "Well, we know you. We don't know him at all." Johnny got out of the car with Ed McMahon and I was sitting on a bench in front of the hotel. I said, "Hi, Johnny." He said, "What are you doing here?" I said, "You and I are doing the Made in Cotton show together." He said, "You're on the bill with me? Jesus, what does that tell you about what they think of my act!" We did the show and I flew back to the show at Grossingers. That night I did my nightclub act in the main dining room - and the audience was a convention of FBI men!

Kliph Nesteroff: Oh, wow.

Dick Curtis: Now I'm so tired from flying and driving and rehearsing - I was falling asleep standing up. I went out and for some reason, this happens with a lot of performers, I did the show and I could have belched and people would have screamed and applauded. It was just one of those nights. I did about an hour and I was thinking, "Now I can go to sleep." I was walking down the hall and this girl ran up to me. She said, "You are absolutely sensational! Do you know who I am?" I said, "Yeah, you're pretty, perky Peggy King." Do you remember who that was?

Kliph Nesteroff: Yeah, she was on The George Gobel Show...

Dick Curtis: Yup. She said, "You must replace Dick Van Dyke in Bye Bye Birdie!" I said, "I must?" She said, "Oh, yes." We were both staying at Grossingers and there was a phone in the hallway there. She picked up the telephone and she said, "I'm going to call Gower Champion and his wife because you have got to replace Dick Van Dyke when he leaves the show." I said, "Don't mention my name." Because she was calling them at three o'clock in the morning. 

So she calls and says, "Hi, Gower! It's Peggy (pause) Well, that's a hell of an attitude! I'm calling to do you a favor! Yes, I know what time it is! I found you your replacement for Dick Van Dyke in Bye Bye Birdie! If you want to hear the name you better stay on the line. Dick Curtis. Yeah? Well, I never heard of him either, but I just saw him destroy an audience tonight!" 

She said, "Uh huh. Okay. Well, remember who told you when the time comes! Good night, darling." She hung up and said to me, "You have an audition tomorrow at 10am at the theater in New York." I said, "Okay... thanks... I think." I had never auditioned for a Broadway show in my life. Auditioning for a Broadway show is very special. You have got to cover the stage - you know what I mean? You have to show them that you can dance, you can sing, belt it out to the balcony - all of that. 

But I didn't know that! I went to the theater with my manager and there was a line-up at the stage door around the block because they were having an audition for all the teenage kids in the show. I walked up to the stage door in my blue suit and the first guy in the line goes, "Hey, hey, hey! Where you going?" I said, "Oh, I have an appointment." He goes, "Oh! Hey! This guy here's got an appointment! Listen, I got an appointment too, pal!" We went back onto the street because I didn't want to get killed. Should I get into the end of the line? A lady walks by carrying two shopping bags. An old woman. She goes, "What the hell is all this?" I said, "It's an audition for a Broadway show, ma'am and we all have to wait in line." She said, "Oh!" And she gets in line!

Kliph Nesteroff: (laughs)

Dick Curtis: (laughs) I walked around to the box office and fortunately there was someone there and they let me in through the front. There was a guy on stage with the piano and I walked up on the stage. I looked out at the footlights and I couldn't really see. I shouted, "Anybody here?" Gower went, "Good morning." I didn't see him - he was sitting in the back. He said, "You're Dick Curtis? Ms. King seems to think you're quite talented." I said, "Well, she's a nice girl." He said, "Uh huh." I said, "Would you like to see me do something?" 

He said, "That would be nice." I thought, "I'm not starting off very well here." I did something from my act, but it didn't show me singing or dancing or anything. I finished and they said, "Very good. You'll hear from us. Thank you." I never heard from them again. Everyone who replaced Dick Van Dyke from that day on - and even Dick Van Dyke said it to me, "You should be doing this part because you're right for it." I would just say, "Oh, shut up."

Kliph Nesteroff: And one of your most legendary credits was on The Dick Van Dyke Show just a few years later.

Dick Curtis: Yes. That was an accident. I had just been fired by a television station in Dayton, Ohio. I took my three children and my wife and we moved to the West Coast. I said, "I've got to get out of this nightclub business and into television. I'm getting too old. I'm almost thirty-five!" We drove to California. I went to Los Angeles, rented a house in Beverly Hills, and went directly to Desilu. I thought, "Maybe I'll bump into Desi and he'll remember me." I made my way to the office of the guy who managed Andy Griffith - and everybody else. I sat down at his desk. 

He said, "What can I do for you?" I said, "I want you to manage me." He said, "I can't. I've got too many clients now." I said, "I know, but you must - because you're the best there is and I don't want anything less." I showed him a brochure from my television show in Dayton, Ohio and it was full of good pictures. He said, "Wait here." He went down the hall, came back and said, "Walk down to the third door." I went down to the third door and there was Carl Reiner sitting with the writers Persky and Denoff. They were looking at my brochure. I said, "Hi, I'm Dick Curtis." 

Carl said, "It's so fortuitous that you came here today - because we're looking for a guy just like you to do a new series called Good Morning, World. Would that interest you at all?" I said, "Oh, yes." They called me a few days later and asked, "Would you do The Dick Van Dyke Show for us? We'd like to see you in a part." I said, "Oh, sure." Who would turn it down? And that was Coast to Coast Big Mouth, which won Emmys for everybody.

Kliph Nesteroff: It's a great episode. You have a such a great part in it.

Dick Curtis: Oh, yes.

Kliph Nesteroff: In that episode you play a game show host. And later you went on to host a couple of game shows in actual life. Had you ever hosted a game show before you played one on The Dick Van Dyke Show?

Dick Curtis: Not a game show host, but I had hosted a lost of television. I did a show called AM New York. I hosted television in Cleveland, New York, Boston and a lot of different places. I was hosting television shows that weren't very important.

Kliph Nesteroff: Carl Reiner hired you for that episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, but you never ended up doing Good Morning, World. Why not?

Dick Curtis: You know, I never knew. Goldie Hawn was in it and Ronnie Schell. We all knew each other because we were all looking for work at the same time. Regis Philbin was around too. We used to always say, "Poor Regis. He can't do anything."

Kliph Nesteroff: (laughs)

Dick Curtis: And he becomes a millionaire! I used to audition for a lot of the same things that Regis did.

Kliph Nesteroff: And the man whom you demanded be your manager must have been Dick Link.

Dick Curtis: Yes. Dick Link.

Kliph Nesteroff: You put out a comedy record and it's interesting because it was pressed by a label best known for releasing eccentric albums by black comedians during the nineteen seventies - Laff Records. Your album was Live at the Horn - Santa Monica on Laff.

Dick Curtis: Right. Well, the Horn. Rick Ricardi owned it and he had been a voice coach at 20th Century Fox for twenty years. He was a great opera singer himself. He retired form 20th Century Fox and he was a great chef - a gourmet chef. So he opened a place called The Horn in Santa Monica, near Wilshire. Opening night, everyone who was in show business was there. His meals were so wonderful and he'd get up and sing and then Jimmy Cagney would get up and sing and everybody else would get up and sing. From then on it was a celebrity place. But they found that they weren't making money selling food so it just became The Horn where people came and sang. By the time I got to The Horn it was probably 1962 or 1963. Larry Hovis was a good friend of mine. You familiar with Larry Hovis?

Kliph Nesteroff: Hogan's Heroes and all the rest...

Dick Curtis: Yes. Larry Hovis was a drummer in the Bill Gannon Trio. I thought Larry was one of the most talented people. I almost quit show business to become his manager because I thought he was so good. We became fast friends until the day he died. We were very close. He introduced me to Dick Link because he managed him too. That's how I found Dick Link. 

Larry Hovis introduced my to Rick Ricardi at The Horn. By then The Horn was a place where if you were a hit - you were almost ensured to get a television series - because everyone in show business went there to see the show. It was mostly singing and comedy was slowly introduced into the place. It was hard to find comics whose act fit that room because it only seated maybe one hundred people. That's for me. When it's like a living room I couldn't lose. I became a regular at The Horn and I worked it for the next ten years. 

I treated it like a gymnasium and I used it to keep my act in shape. One night while I was working at The Horn a guy came up to me and said, "I'd like to put out a record of your act." I said, "Okay. Who are you?" He said, "I own Laff Records." This guy had just moved over from selling jazz to comedy because Shelley Berman and all of them had become such a success. Comedy records were in. He recorded me at The Horn and some other places. I think it sold... seven copies. I bought five. My wife bought one. I never heard from them again.

Kliph Nesteroff: Do you remember exactly who that gentleman was?

Dick Curtis: He owned Laff Records... but I can't remember his name.

Kliph Nesteroff: Was it Lou Drozen?

Dick Curtis: Yes! Lou Drozen, that's the guy.

Kliph Nesteroff: Laff Records had an interesting run and I think you were one of the first people that they pressed. Then they went exclusively to black stand-up comics. They were the first to record Richard Pryor. Years later he sued them. They cashed in on his fame by releasing all the old outtakes.

Dick Curtis: Oh, yes. The record business in those days was Mob controlled. It wasn't a fun business to be in.

Kliph Nesteroff: The Mob taped Bill Dana's act off television with a reel-to-reel and then turned it into a comedy record and made a lot of money off of it. He had nothing to do with it and got no money for it. His manager tried to do something about it - but they started getting threatening phone calls.

Dick Curtis: Right, crazy stuff.

Kliph Nesteroff: You played the Vancouver nightclubs in the nineteen fifties. Do you have any stories about The Cave Supperclub or Isy's Supperclub? Those were the two big ones.

Dick Curtis: Yes. I got booked in 1956 and it was the week of The Grey Cup - between the Montreal Alouettes and the Edmonton Eskimos. There was a headline in the newspaper that said, "Eskimo Fan Greeted With Punch In Nose." I worked for an agent named Joe Rollo who was a hard-talking New Yorker. I said, "Joe, I need you to change my contracts." He said, "To what?" I said, "Put that I'm to be called 'comedian.'" He said, "You're the emcee." I said, "I know. I don't want to be billed as 'emcee,' I want people to know that I'm a comedian."

I went up to Vancouver and it was cold as hell and I went in for rehearsal. There was a wonderful five piece jazz band at The Cave at that time. They were wonderful. The show that Isy Walters booked... he was sitting down in front of the stage. He has got a pencil and a stopwatch. He's timing everybody's act and assigning them their time. The show consisted of Japanese Can Can dancers... about ten of them.

They sang, they danced, they did acrobatics. Their manager was a guy who looked like a sumo wrestler... and behaved like one! Isy was timing these Japanese Can Can dancers and cutting and slashing pieces of their act. Their manager was very upset about that - because they were stars to him. But the real star of the show was Yogi Yorgesson. Yogi became one of my best friends in life before he died. Yogi was one of the most wonderful, humble guys you would ever meet. He was a big star and he was the star of the show. He's sitting there and we shake hands. 

I said, "Hi, I'm Dick Curtis." He's says, "Hi, I'm Yogi Yogesson the Swedish Hindu Mystic." (laughs) That's what he called himself. Isy was making notes and I said, "I'm Dick Curtis. The comedian." He said, "Oh, yes, the emcee. You do six minutes and then you do..." I said, "Yes, I know how to emcee, Isy, but that's not what I do. I have an act..." He said, "Well, you do six minutes." I said, "Isy. I am ready to go to the airport right now if I don't get twenty minutes for my act." Yogi was sitting there and said, "Isy, it's all right. I'll just take a couple things out." Isy said, "No! You're the star! Dick, I'll give you sixteen minutes." 

I said, "No, I'll do twenty minutes and I'm going to emcee the show. Without that I am going to split and get on a plane." I didn't even have the money to take a plane - I was bluffing. Opening night came and the Japanese Can Can dancers were a sensation! You couldn't have asked for a better opening act. I did twenty minutes of jokes and introduced Yogi. After the first night Isy conceded, "That's a good show. Stick with it. It works." 

We all stayed in a hotel in downtown Vancouver and we all hung out in the coffee shop. In the coffee shop was a jukebox and the little girls [from the Can Can act] would sit in the booth and they'd put nickels in the jukebox. The big song at the time was Shake, Rattle and Roll. The girls were singing, "Sake, lallal and loll! Sake, lallal and loll!" Suddenly, I got an idea. We got the band together at The Cave - I said, "When they're singing [the traditional Japanese song] - right in the middle you guys go [fanfare] and they'll jump into 'Sake, lallal and loll!" Oh, it was so cute you wouldn't believe it. That night they destroyed with that.

Kliph Nesteroff: Right.

Dick Curtis: The day we were rehearsing that number, a guy came up on the stage out of the audience. He was in jeans and a t-shirt and he looked like a kid. He was a midget. It said on his shirt, "Davy - Midget Wrestling Champ of Canada."

Kliph Nesteroff: (laughs)

Dick Curtis: He said, "Are you the comic?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "Good. Cause I break up shows." I said, "What?" He said, "Yeah, I come in and break up shows. It's real funny the way I do it." I said, "You break up a show here and I'll break your nose." He said, "No, no, I'll see you tonight." Two nights later I'm doing my act after sake, lallal and loll has destroyed them. I look down the aisle and here comes "I break up shows" running toward the stage. He runs up the steps and I just straight armed him. 

He flipped backward. Isy was sitting at the table timing everybody and he starts laughing like hell. I brought on one of the Japanese dancers or something and I went down to the front row and sat with Isy and this midget runs up and says, "Hey, I helped you, didn't I!?" I said, "Yeah, you son of a bitch." The guy with him took a swing at me and a fight started like you wouldn't believe. It turned into a riot. 

Isy and I ended up under the table. They tried to tear my tuxedo and the waiters tried to stop it. Fights were breaking out all over. I went to the dressing room to take care of my tuxedo, which was torn. Yogi asked, "What are you gonna do?" I said, "I'm gonna go out there and introduce you." He said, "Do me a favor. Don't." I said, "Yogi, I can't leave it like that. I have to go out and talk to this audience." 

So I walked out onstage and there was dead silence. I got to the microphone and I said, "Ladies and gentleman during World War Two I was in the Marine Corps in the South Pacific. I worked alongside a lot of Canadian kids. They were good men then. And they're good men now..." I did a whole thing to calm them down. I don't remember what I said. Then a guy from the back shouted. "You're right! It's Isy Walters who is wrong! That little guy should be kicked out!" And then the whole riot started up again! 

Isy was sitting in the front row holding his head. It's the end of the night and I head out the door and a real tough looking guy walks up to me and says, "You're in real trouble." I said, "Really? Who are you?" He said, "My name is Phillipone."

Kliph Nesteroff: Ah ha.

Dick Curtis: He said, "You're going to be glad I'm here because they're waiting for you out front." In those days I had a busted up nose because I had been a fighter. The Phillipone's [1950s Mob family that ran Vancouver nightclubs] liked me because I looked that way. He said, "I'll walk out with you. It'll be okay." So we walk out the front door of The Cave - and here is a line of guys waiting to beat me up. They saw The Phillipones and the crowd disolved. They left. The Phillipones took me up to their club and we were best of friends from then on.

Kliph Nesteroff: The Penthouse.

Dick Curtis: The Penthouse, yes. Oh my God, they were like old time Chicago mobsters. And tough. Oh my God, were they tough.

Kliph Nesteroff: Well, one of them died like an old time Chicago mobster. He was assassinated while standing in front of his club smoking a cigar.

Dick Curtis: Yeah, they shot him, yeah. The day after this brawl at The Cave the headline in the Vancouver Sun said "Eskimo Fan Greeted With Punch In Nose." There was a whole story about what happened. The next day I walked into Isy's office and he was sitting at his desk with that newspaper in front of him. He was on the phone. 

He put it down and I said, "Isy! I was in the wrong. I'm sorry. I'll get on the first plane out of here." He said, "I know you're wrong and you know you're wrong, but that goddamn phone won't stop ringing and everyone is saying that if I fire you they're gonna boycott my club! So you can't leave!"

So from then on people were shouting, "Don't start any fights until we've seen the whole show!" And the Phillipone's were there every night and we went to their club afterward. When Isy Walter's opened his own club, Isy's, I called him and said, "Good luck with your new club." He said, "Yeah, if you're booked in here - no fights. Okay?" Oh, I've got a million stories.

The Andy Griffith Show with special guest stars Jack Nicholson and Dick Curtis (1967)

An Interview with Dick Curtis - Part Two

 

Kliph Nesteroff: You worked with washed up cowboy actor Hoot Gibson in the early fifties.

Dick Curtis: I worked with Preston Foster and Hoot Gibson at the restored Last Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. There was a guy named Doc Bailey who had a bunch of motels and I used to work in them. I was a big hit in his places. He wanted me to come to Vegas and open the new old Frontier. He bought the Frontier from the Mob and leased the new Frontier out to them for a great deal of money. He just played with the old Last Frontier. He brought in a show with people like Beatrice Kay, Hoot Gibson, Preston Foster, The Buffalo Bills and me. I was supposed to be the director, emcee, host, comedian. Doc was a terrible drunk. He gave me the script. He said, "Here. Take a look at the script and tell me what you think." It was the worst script I had ever seen in my life. It was full of dirty jokes and... he said, "Now, this is the show I want you to do with Beatrice Kay and Hoot Gibson and Preston Foster." 

We were sitting at a table over breakfast and I said, "Doc, did you even read this?" He said, "Well, yeah, I glanced through it." I said, "You sure this is what you want us to do?" He said, "Yeah! Why?" "It's the dirtiest piece of junk I have ever seen!" Two people next to us stood up and stormed out. I asked Doc, "Who were they?" He said, "They're the writers of the show!" I showed Doc a page and he looked at it. He said, "Oh, you can't say that on the stage here!" "That's what I'm telling you, Doc!" He said, "Well, you fix it." He walked out. We did the show, but we just did our [own] acts... in Gay 90s costume. Out in front, Doc Bailey had a sign built. It was immense. It read, "DOC BAILEY PRESENTS - HOOT GIBSON, PRESTON FOSTER, THE BUFFALO BILLS, BEATRICE KAY!" And then way down at the bottom it said, "dick curtis."

Kliph Nesteroff: (laughs)

Dick Curtis: After the first show Doc didn't talk to anybody. But he had a chow line in the room that was free and, God, it was wonderful. Everybody used to come from all over Vegas to eat at it because it was so good. One day I was in the chow line and so was Doc Bailey and we weren't talking, of course. He turned to me and said, "Hey! Do you know there's buffalo meat on this chow line?" I said, "Uh, no, I didn't, Doc." He said, "Goddamn rights you didn't 'cause it's not on the sign!" The next day the sign out front read, "DOC BAILEY PRESENTS - HOOT GIBSON, PRESTON FOSTER, THE BUFFALO BILLS, BEATRICE KAY AND BUFFALO MEAT!"

Kliph Nesteroff: (laughs)

Dick Curtis: Hoot Gibson at that time - he was one of the funniest men I had ever known. He told stories that were absolutely wonderful. He started every story with the same line. He'd say, "We were running wild horses out of Wyoming in 1912..." And then he'd turn to me and say, "Did I tell you this one before?" Every story. There was nobody in the audience after opening night. Doc Bailey said, "Do the show anyway." So we did it to chairs! I used to walk out, "Good evening, chairs. My name is Dick Curtis." Hoot came in one night and said, "Hey, kid, I'll sit back here and be your audience." "Good evening, Hoot and chairs. My name is Dick Curtis, but you wouldn't know that because this week I'm working under the name Buffalo Meat." Well, Hoot fell out of his chair laughing. He says, "That's the funniest goddamn thing you ever said!" From then on he used to call me Old Buff (laughs). "Hey, Buff. Do you remember Tom Irvine?" He told me this story. Tom Irvine owned half of California. "We was running wild horses out of Wyoming in 1912. Tom Irvine gave me a call and said, 'Hoot, get over here! My cattle are frothing at the mouth.' So I went over there and by God they was. They was eating something off the ground thar that made 'em froth at the mouth. We started jerking that stuff out the ground thar and piled it up. When it dried we burned it. We came to find out we had burned up 'bout three million dollars worth of marijuana! Loco weed!" 

Kliph Nesteroff: Now, you were also a guest on the popular Los Angeles television program of the nineteen fifties - The Spade Cooley Show.

Dick Curtis: Yes. Bobby Sargent was a comic of the time and a very good one. Spade Cooley had the hottest television show in town against Lawrence Welk. Lawrence hated that people were tuning in cowboy music instead of his music. This was around the time I was working the Crescendo club. Bobby Sargent was a friend of mine and he had become a writer on The Spade Cooley Show. He told Spade about me and they booked me on the show. I did a cowboy character called Leroy. It was one of the big things I've done all my life in film and television and it was a big part of my nightclub act. 

I did it on Spade's show and he said, "Okay, all right, you're going to be a writer on this show too." So Bobby Sargent and I used to write for Spade, but Spade was a very nervous guy. I mean, he was very, very nervous. We'd be sitting at the typewriter and he'd come in, "Look, look, look, guys, I need an opening joke! I need it right away!" He's staring at us waiting for it! Bobby Sargent says to him, "Spade. A watched pot - doesn't boil." Spade said, "Watched pot doesn't boil, a watched pot doesn't boil. Okay, that's funny! That'll do!" And he walked away (laughs).

Kliph Nesteroff: (laughs)

Dick Curtis: (laughs) That show was live. He couldn't actually afford two writers so he kept Bobby Sargent and I left. That was my time with Spade.

Kliph Nesteroff: Was it a shock to you when Spade Cooley murdered his wife?

Dick Curtis: Yes. It was a terrible story. He went up to Bakersfield and he was investing a lot of money in oil fields up there. His wife owned part of it. Spade was a terrible tyrant with his wife - and everybody, but his wife particularly. He just killed her... because she wouldn't sign over all the papers for the oil wells and for the money that he wanted. He sent his children in there to wake up their mother. He said, "Your mother is in there and she's pretending to be asleep." So the children found her.

Kliph Nesteroff: Wow.

Dick Curtis: Pretty bad.

Kliph Nesteroff: You mention Bakersfield - I have an advertisement here for Dick Curtis performing at The Saddle and Sirloin.

Dick Curtis: Oh my God, you have that? That's great. Well, I got booked in The Saddle and Sirloin in 1952. It was a wonderful little room. It only seated about one hundred people and had a great trio and I was an immediate hit there. It became like my home room for a few years. I was back there at least twice a year. In those days we all wore tuxedos and it was very formal. It was owned by two brothers. Izzy Lions and his brothers from the Lions Tea Company in London. Usually they'd book a girl singer and me. She'd do eight songs and wiggle and I'd get up and do my act. I was doing a crazy act in those days - I did everything. The biggest part of my act was this character Leroy. So, one day I get booked into Bakersfield and I said, "Who is on the show with me?" They said, "Oh, well, you'll meet him when you go out there. It's some kid that plays guitar and sings." So I went over for rehearsal and here was this skinny young kid with a guitar. I said, "I'm Dick Curtis." He said, "I'm Jimmie Rodgers." 

I said, "What do you do, Jim?" He said, "Play guitar." He was in jeans and a t-shirt. He got up to rehearse and the boss said, "Where's his tuxedo?" Jimmy had been working in coffee houses up North and was singing kind of folk style. This place was not a folksingers kind of place. That night he just bombed terribly. The audience turned away from him and didn't listen. Well, I was listening. The boss said to me, "What do you think?" I said, "This kid sings like nobody I have ever heard! He's going to be a big star if he gets a break." He said, "But where's his tuxedo!?" We were having breakfast the next morning and I said, "Jimmy, do you have a tuxedo?" He said, "Oh, God, no!" 

I said, "The boss would like you to work in one. I'll get you one." So I bought him a tuxedo. The boss said, "Now straighten out his act!" Jimmy and I lived in a motel with my wife and two kids. We were on one side and he was on the other side and there was a kitchen in between. Jimmy got all his meals from us because he was dead broke. During that period of time we became fast friends and we are friends to this day. He lives over in Palm Desert now. When he left town I put ten dollars worth of gas in his car, gave him a tuxedo, and he went off and recorded Honeycomb. That's when he did it - right after that booking. The rest is history.

Kliph Nesteroff: The ad that I have for The Saddle and The Sirloin says you're playing with "Charming Song Stylist Joanie Wilson and the Jack Ordeen Trio. 101 Union Avenue."

Dick Curtis: Oh, God, that's great! I also used to work the Maison Jaussaud there. A beautiful place, but I was never as successful there as The Saddle and Sirloin. I worked a place in Tuscon called The Talk of the Town. It was owned by Jack Ensley who was a racetrack driver. And he was crazy. He used to tell the people that worked there, "I'm going home - don't forget to turn out the lights!" And they would forget to turn out the lights. So one night he's headed out the door and he says, "Listen! Never mind turning out the lights!" He pulled out a gun and he shot them out (laughs)! Jack Ensley's Talk of the Town. I worked it with a girl named Tracy Randall. I was billed as Dick Lane in those days, by the way. I was Dick Lane when I first got out of the Marine Core, but there were three or four Dick Lanes in show business, so I changed it to Dick Curtis when I went to Bakersfield for the first time in 1952.

Kliph Nesteroff: We mentioned Talk of the Town, but you also appeared on Toast of the Town - The Ed Sullivan Show - once. Right?

Dick Curtis: Yes, I did. I went to a club in Houston. I worked all over Houston from the worst place in town in 1952 to the best place in town where I was a big hero, but that took about ten years. So I was booked into this place ten years later called The Tidelands.  It only seated about one hundred and fifty people and I always did well with a small audience. That was my thing - the intimacy. I go there and the bandleader was the same guy I worked with at the worst joint in town ten years earlier! He said, "Good to see you, man! We both made it!" On the bill with me was a little Italian girl who sang songs. 

She was a prodigy of Frankie Laine. The band was busy rehearsing and they had been rehearsing with her for two hours. I went up to him [to rehearse] and he said, "You're on the show too? We don't have anytime to rehearse you. We have to go home, get dressed and come back for the show." I said, "Fine. We'll fake it." Frankie Laine was appearing that night to introduce her. Frankie, at the time, was next to God in popularity. Nobody knew who I was at all. I put on my tuxedo and had a hard time getting in. They didn't believe me. I said, "I'm on the show!" They said, "Uh huh. Sure." I had to call the manager to come out and get me and bring me in. The show starts. They introduce Frankie Laine. Well, he almost took the roof off the place just saying hello. He introduces the girl and she sings twelve songs. As soon as she is finished, the bandleader is ready to introduce me. But then they start yelling, "Frankie Laine! Frankie Laine sing! Frankie Laine!" 

Kliph Nesteroff: Oh no.

Dick Curtis: The bandleader keeps saying, "No, no, no. We can't!" Finally, the audience was so loud that Frankie Laine had to get up and he sang. Well, in those days when Frankie Laine sang one of his hit songs - the walls fell down! I am standing there thinking, "What the hell am I gonna do?" Frankie Laine gets off and people start putting their coats on to leave. The bandleader says, "Wait a minute, folks! Hold it! Hold it! Wait! Goddammit! We've got another act! Here's Dick Curtis."

Kliph Nesteroff: (laughs)

Dick Curtis: (laughs) So, I went out and the audience looked at me like, "You've got to be kidding." I don't know what I said. I can't remember. But they all sat down. The opening bit was a song that was kind of funny. I went on and did... an hour and twenty minutes. I was afraid to quit. They were screaming [with laughter] and Frankie Laine was screaming! I finished the show and the audience came forward and lifted me up on their shoulders like I was a football hero! Frankie Laine was screaming at me, "I'm your new manager! I'm your new manager!" Frankie Laine and I were friends from that day until the day he died. He said, "Anybody that can follow me - I have got to know them real well." So that was that. Frankie Laine's brother was in the management business. He made a phonecall that night and booked me at Harrah's in Reno and on The Ed Sullivan Show. 

That's how I got on The Ed Sullivan Show... but unfortunately... I went to The Ed Sullivan Show and Ed said, "They tell me you do a funny cowboy character." Everybody liked this bit, but it did not work in New York. People that were raised in New York or Brooklyn they were dese, dem and dose guys - they had no concept of what this cowboy character was. I said to Ed Sullivan, "I don't think I should do it for your audience. I don't think it will work." He said, "Oh no, Frankie Laine said it's wonderful. Do it." They had two shows at Sullivan in those days. A full dress rehearsal for hardcore New Yorkers and then the show was done for tourists. My audience was that tourist audience, but I did the cowboy bit for the hardcore New Yorkers - and I got canceled.

Kliph Nesteroff: Oh no.

Dick Curtis: The people just stared at me and had no idea why it was supposed to be funny. Same thing happened to me on Jack Paar when he first started. You couldn't explain what was funny about this character to these people. 

Kliph Nesteroff: You were listed in the TV Guide, but you never actually appeared. Did you stick around to watch the show you weren't on?

Dick Curtis: No. I was so heartbroken over what happened. It was a great opportunity that set me back with some people. I flew out of New York the next morning and I opened at Eddie's in Kansas City and destroyed the audience. Could do no wrong. People in the audience said, "We watched you on Jack Paar last night [when you bombed]. What happened?" Same thing with Ed Sullivan. People tuned in to see me and I wasn't on! That was the Ed Sullivan story. I don't know if you know who the first Tonight Show host was...

Kliph Nesteroff: Sure.

Dick Curtis: Who?

Kliph Nesteroff: Well, Steve Allen was the first host of The Tonight Show, but before that there was a program called Broadway Open House...

Dick Curtis: No.

Kliph Nesteroff: Jerry Lester was the host of...

Dick Curtis: No. It's an unknown story. There was a guy popular in nightclubs named Creesh Hornsby. 

Kliph Nesteroff: Yeah and he died before he hosted the first episode...

Dick Curtis: He died. Pat Weaver had come down to see him and booked him immediately to work on The Tonight Show as the host. He called the only writer and said, "I'm sending you Creesh Hornsby." "What does he do?" "You'll have to see him to believe it." Creesh did the craziest things you had ever seen... but he died! Pat Weaver called the writer and said, "We can't send 'em. He died. We'll send you another guy." "Who?" "He's a piano player and he writes songs. His name is Steve Allen." 

Kliph Nesteroff: What happened specifically with you and Jack Paar?

Dick Curtis: One of Jack Paar's writers had first written for television in Dallas. I was never as big anywhere in the world as I was at The King's Club in The Adolphus Hotel in Dallas. I opened there in 1958 and on drums was Mickey Scrima, who used to be with Harry James and Frank Sinatra. I was so big in Texas. This writer who was from Texas was on the new Jack Paar show. They asked him, "Who do you know from around the country who is real good and we could introduce or discover?" He said, "There's a guy down in Dallas named Dick Curtis. He's huge." And I was. 

People would line up down the block to get into the club - because of this Texas character I did, that's really what it was. It was one of my biggest things. Jack Paar said, "Well, get him!" It's a long story but... I never got a rehearsal with the band and that was extremely important for me. I had drum effects for this thing I did and I didn't get a rehearsal. So, Jack Paar introduced me and I went out and did the act to New Yorkers that didn't understand. The music was terrible. And I just died for nine minutes. And I mean, die like you will never see anybody die on television in your life! Jack Paar wrote a letter to the agency the next day. "In the game of baseball - three strikes and you're out. Consider Dick Curtis - two strikes against you." I never met Jack again.  I died so terribly on his show.