A Living Legend of Old Time Radio | Peggy Webber | Behind the Mic

Hello and welcome to Behind the Mic from otrold.com. I'm your host Austin Vach. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with a living legend of oldtime radio. Born in Larredo, Texas on September 15th, 1925, my guest started her career at age 2 and a half performing during intermissions in silent movie theaters. She began working in radio at age 11 and by 18 was writing, producing, and directing early television shows. She's worked with Orson Wells, Alfred Hitchcock, Cecil Dea Mill, and countless other iconic figures in Hollywood. Among her many thousands of radio credits, she appeared in over 100 Dragnet episodes, playing Ma Friday and many other characters. She is the founder and director of the California Artist Radio Theater, which for more than 30 years has presented dramas, comedies, and musicals featuring renowned actors from all over the world. She celebrated her 99th birthday late last year. And it's my absolute pleasure to introduce Miss Peggy Weber. Miss Weber, thank you for speaking with me today. >> And I'm very happy to be here. This is truly an honor. Uh, I started a YouTube channel where we stream episodes of Draget three times a week and members of my audience kept calling out and typing your name in the comments whenever they heard you pop [laughter] up as different characters. >> Yeah. >> And happened so frequently that I also got tuned to your voice and could tell it as well. And and the fun thing is you never know where you're going to appear. Sometimes it says uh Ma Friday, but other times it's you're the the perpetrator, you're the victim, you you appear everywhere. So, >> well, pleasure. [clears throat] >> I think I think Jack and I met each other at the right time. I met him when I was working on a show with his to be wife Julie London. We were working on a show that featured Eddie Firestone and I'm trying to remember the name of the series. It was a comedy series on Mutual. And I had just come I we we'd rehearsed a little bit and then we had a break and Julie wanted to introduce me to someone and so she pulled me down to the foot lights and she called and this young man showed up. He looked like a college boy. He had uh red socks on. He had uh a kind of college boy cardigan sweater. And he stood down in the orchestra pit and met me, put his hand up to the stage and shook hands with me. and she said that she enjoyed working with me and she wanted me to know him and that he did a show in San Francisco. Well, I didn't know anything about him. I'd never heard his show. I didn't know that the show was a success in San Francisco. But I I thought they were a very nice couple. And when I looked out during the break, the rehearsal break, I saw that they were hugging and kissing each other. [laughter] And so I felt that it was pretty imminent that they were going to get married, [laughter] but I didn't find out about that until later. And I was I was working on a suspense show on CBS and Jack turned out to be the lead on the show. And I was a French spy, a girl that this fellow falls in love with. He's an American citizen but is working with the government. And so the story is about how the two of them get to know each other and he really loves her, but his duty is to kill her, to shoot her because she's a dangerous spy. So that [laughter] was our first meeting where we got to do anything opposite each other. >> I thought it turned out very well. I thought the the killing was very tragic and yet you [laughter] knew that he had to do it. >> So >> I was about to ask what the outcome of that was. I I I'm a fan of suspense, but I hadn't heard that episode yet. I've written it down. We'll have to go look it up. >> Yeah. But >> well, it was kind of heart-wrenching for us, too, because at first it was we were very cold with each other and then we got very warm with each other and then we sang some songs together and [laughter] we got to know each other pretty well and then he finally in in the narration says, "I knew that I had no choice. It was a job I had ex accepted and I had to go through with it. And so you hear the gunshot >> and the music goes starts and so that's it. So after that we worked quite frequently on this is your FBI which right done by Jerry Divine and we usually completed about 9:00. He said Peago can you hang around till midnight? I'm trying out a new show with the executives the top floor here at NBC. And I said, "Of course, Jack. I'd be delighted to help you." And so he said, "It may be boring. You have to sit around and wait until 12:00. That's when we're going to do it." And so I said, "That'll be fine. That's fine." And so he said, 'I know you do early morning shows, so you get here at six o'clock in the morning. It's a long day for you. [laughter] I said, 'Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. And so when we finally did get together at 12:00, there were really no I think he had given them a group of scripts to choose from upstairs where the executive producers and so on. And so they chosen a show that didn't really have a much of a part for a female. just a vocal, you know, on a on a car, a police car radio. So, [laughter] all I had to do was some voices like that, but I was happy to stay. And at the end of [clears throat] the recording, all the group of people who'd come were sitting upstairs in the sponsors booth and they were so joyous and they were all screaming and hollering, "Oh, it's great. It's great." You know, and so I knew the show was probably accepted. So, everybody left, but Jack said, "Peggy, stick around. I want to talk to you." And so, >> this is now at like 1:00 a.m. in the morning. >> Yeah. 1:30, 2:00. >> 1:30. Okay. >> Yeah. So I went over to the sound table, just leaned against it, [laughter] stood there waiting for him, and he came over and he says, "They like it. I think they're going to do it. Can I sign you to a contract?" And I said, "Gee, Jack, you don't have to do that. I'd be happy to work for you anytime you ask me." and he looked at me and his eyes turned around in his head and he said, "Oh, well, okay." And he stuck the contract back in his pocket and went over to talk to some other people. So, he was angry with me that I wasn't pleased that I was going to be under contract, but that wasn't the point. I just wanted him to know [laughter] that I would work for him anyway. >> Oh, man. did. So I I went off and couple of days went by and I thought I might hear from him and I didn't. So I called his secretary who was a girl I knew and I told her what had happened and that I wanted him to know that I would be delighted if he still wanted me. And so about 15 or 20 minutes went by and the phone rang and it was Jack and he said, "You know damn well I want you [laughter] and I asked you and do you want to sign a contract?" And I said, "Well, not really because I don't think it's fair to you. I think you know I'll work for you. I give you my word. I'll work for you anytime you call me." [laughter] So he said, "Well, okay. See you next Thursday." And that that was the way it started. So we recorded the first drag net about five days later. >> Wow. So was that first script that you did as kind of a pilot for the executives? Was that ever redone as part of the full series? And do you remember which episode that was? Well, the first one was nothing. It was just a voice on the car, police car, you know. >> Right. But sorry, but the full story. Do do you remember what the full story was? >> No, I don't. Because it really wasn't wasn't a story that you'd remember. [laughter] >> Okay. >> Just a very average kind of story. I I don't think that I would recall that first one because they played they played the uh one that I was on and I thought that I was finished with him. I thought he was angry with me and I would never see him again, but they played that as the first show. So >> Oh, really? >> I think that was >> So your pilot? >> The pilot was the first show. >> Oh, wow. So, and I don't remember what the second one was, but it was a good part. I know that he gave me a good part. He always gave me the best parts. He He was >> He was my favorite director because he knew what I could do and he'd always give me the part that was right for me. >> Well, what you can do seems to be uh many number of things. So, it was probably a delight to work with you as well back in the time. You can play old and young. >> Well, I played children. I played little boys with BB guns, things like that. You know, those stories, but I did enjoy playing M Friday. I think it was the most fun of any regular part that I ever played. Well, I we I've got some questions prepped about that character, but but I would like to actually start back um just a bit because your career spans >> uh an incredible range of roles from [laughter] television, theater, >> radio, and film. Yeah. >> And I wanted to ask you >> if you had a favorite medium, and if yes, why? Well, I think it is radio, but I didn't really come alive until I was on stage. When I was on stage, I did pretty work I was proud of. >> Now, is that uh is that because you were on stage as a very young child? Are you talking about after you've >> It might [laughter] be. I don't know. I know. I remember that very first the the orchestra was big and they pushed me in the wings and said, "It's your turn. Go on." And I heard this wonderful music. And I thought, "Oh, how lucky. How lucky I am. I'm getting to hear this wonderful music." And I went on and sang my song and did my dance. And that was I the people clapped and I loved that. And I went off and my mother and father were there and they took me to have a milkshake and I had a good time. [laughter] That was great. That was >> great. And they wanted you to sign you to a wanted to sign you to a contract and you said no. I work for milkshakes. >> The milkshake was always a chocolate milkshake. >> Oh, nice. Great. Um, what what were some of the unique challenges and and rewards of working in radio as compared to film or television stage? >> Well, it was it was good for me at that age because I was very young. I was 16 when I got my first break in network radio. And if I could only play teenagers, I wouldn't work very often. But I needed I needed to work. My father had died and my mother and I were living on a very slim amount of money and I had to keep working. And so I made sure that the directors knew that I could do older parts and I could do little boys and I could do all kinds [laughter] of parts with different accents. >> Now that you mentioned that you also did the little boys with BB guns, were you one of the boys in the uh 22 rifle for Christmas episode that they did over and over? >> Yeah. Yeah. And I guess there's two boys in the story, but there's really only one boy that does the talking. That was a role that you played. >> Yeah, it was the bigger part. >> Wow. Now >> later later when I I married a doctor who was in the Korean War and I told him I would come over for I think it was two two weeks. And so during that time he told me he would divorce me if I went back. So I had to end all of my contracts that I did have at that point. But that was a quite a few years later. That was >> that was just before Jack started the television series. He was doing drugged as a television show and he'd already given me the part that he was going to give me to play on television. That was the Mexican woman who stole the baby. >> Oh yeah. I I I remember that episode and I remember when that character started talking that that is Peggy Weber. I recognize >> Bob. Yeah. I failed >> that Ma Friday. No, but I after after a while you start listening for, you know, just your your unique voice and it's >> it's a fun it's a fun game to play. Find >> Peggy Weber in the Dragnet episode. Actually, I I did I did come home four months after I went to Japan. And it was I think my husband realized that I had worked very hard to have a career and that he knew that I was doing this kind of work when I married him. And so it was something that we didn't say anything about it, but he said he thought it was better that I go home and that was it. >> Well, so you you touched on this story a bit, but um I read through your interview with your neighbor Cliff. He posted like a sixparter on and you talked a lot about your your your history and things like that. So that some of these questions I have are follow-ups to things that you've shared with him. And you mentioned already that you initially met Jack when while working on another show with Julie London. Um but uh and but that it wasn't until you were working on This is Your FBI that you worked together. >> That's right. >> Um do do you remember how you landed your part on This Is Your FBI? Well, I'd always worked with Jerry Divine ever since he came to Hollywood. He came from New York. And I was told that this new producer who is well known for many of the famous shows about police detectives and so on. Uh was going to be holding interviews. So I made an interview with him. He told me I looked like my hat was bigger than I was when I came to the interview. [laughter] And he said that he would always remember me as that 16-year-old girl, you know, and he he he liked me enough that he hired me every at least every four weeks to play a leading part on This is Your FBI. >> Wow, that's great. Switching back to Dragnet for a minute, what was it like creating these shows? Were the actors were the voice actors in one section and you had the sound effects people in a different section or were you all in the same >> group? Like what was >> the people who had speaking parts were all in one room at one time the orchestra was separate from us but then later when we had a sponsor they brought the orchestra into the room with us. So, I'm not sure how that how that worked, >> but um >> why was that? >> Usually usually if a show was a successful show and if it was very artistic, if people were concerned about it being as perfect as possible, they would keep the orchestra in another room. But with us, we [laughter] had the orchestra right underneath us all the time. And when I'd get up to go to to the microphone, I'd have to be very careful not to trip over anybody's [laughter] instruments or whatever. >> Now, what what about the Foley artists? Were they >> Well, to begin with, Jack had to talk to all of the actors and tell them not to do what they'd been taught to do in radio. And that was to stand back like three or four feet from the microphone and say your lines so that the engineer has to overhear you. It has to sound like somebody's just overhearing the conversation. Now, he didn't do that with narrators, but he did do that with actors. And he he it was something he decided was going to be his trademark. That was the thing that Jack knew whether he was going to keep you as an actor with him or not. And the two of us had similar thoughts and I didn't like actors sounding like they were being actors and I thought he was on the right track >> so what how how would you describe the mood of the set typically was it pretty >> for for Jack to to be in you know to be a comrade with um he didn't go for a lot of theatrics. He didn't enjoy that. He didn't believe that was part of the game. He felt that it should surprise the audience as they put the story together themselves, what it was coming to, what was what it was going to amount to. He didn't want you to know the story before it came to it. >> Right. But what what was it pretty um laidback or was it was it pretty serious on set? >> Yeah, he he would you know he did he didn't have to correct me very much because he was doing what I already thought should be the way we were doing. But with actors who had been in the business since 1930 or something like that, they were listening to their voices. And he didn't like that. He he would get really good actors, but they were of a different cut. They wanted to sound like they were just being overheard. That was the way Jack wanted it. and they wanted to give it tonal qualities, you know. >> Mhm. And so what why was your approach different than the others? Because if if your first radio job was at age 16 >> by the time Dragnet started, you're 24. So you're you've been >> I [laughter] think I think I think he hit the same notes that I felt. I think the war had something to do with it. I think the the oldtime actors would hold their hands up to their ears to listen to their voices and things like that. So he had a hard time getting them to do his style. And when he finally broke them in, then it became popular with other people. >> Yeah. Has it has it surprised you how big Dragnet eventually became? I mean, it's spawning. >> I was in Japan for two weeks. My husband told me I only had to stay for two weeks and I heard the Dragnet music playing at a little funky Japanese store. And I [laughter] I ran to the thing to hear it. And I I thought, "Oh, isn't this wonderful? It's being heard in Japan." and you know but the Japanese didn't get that [laughter] you know what what was happening they didn't really know about it and al it just surprised me that we were being heard all over the world >> was that >> I think gradually it did change everybody's kind of way of thinking >> oh yeah it's it's iconic now the the approach the the soundtrack, all of it. >> Yeah. Oh, the only time I ever heard Jack really lose his temper was with the sound effects people. And the these were good friends of all of ours because almost every show. It was broken up into, you know, groups of like two actors. I mean, two sound effects men with six or eight actors. So, [snorts] we got to know the sound effects people pretty well. And he was laying into Bud Toliffson and another fellow that was with him. And all of us were seated at a table for six and Virginia Greg was there and uh two or three of the regulars that were usually in the show. And we're kind of embarrassed because we've never heard him get that angry [laughter] with anybody. And he's he's taking them to city hall to run up and down stairs at 1 or two in the morning so that he could get the sound of what it sounds like when police are running up and down the stairs. [laughter] And they aren't getting it. They they went with him downtown, but somehow they just didn't record it properly. >> So, he's very upset. He's saying, "Can't you understand what I'm trying to do here?" You and he's shouting, screaming at them. And everybody's being very quiet over the table. And we're feeling very sorry for Bud Thompson. That was rare. You say that he that he had outbursts like that, right? >> Yeah. >> Or I not I I said outburst. I don't mean to characterize it, but >> he was not he was not a a director who lost his temper readily. He he lost his temper once with me when I was playing a librarian. And I felt the librarian should speak quietly the way [laughter] librarians should speak and he could it was it was on a on a television show and so he was trying to get me to move around and speak at the same time, you know. And so he got pretty angry with me and I I said, "Jack, a librarian wouldn't speak louder. I can't speak louder. She would speak quietly. She's setting an example for everybody else in the room. [laughter] She can't speak louder. I don't know what you're talking about. You're off mic. You're supposed to be off mic." you know, so that was the one time that he and I had a kind of a trouble, but that that was on television. That was not radio. >> Well, and and how did it end? Who got their way? >> Well, we got back together. We got over We didn't pay any attention to it. >> No, but I mean, when when it's recorded, was it a quiet librarian? >> Yeah. >> Or or a noisy liar? I think it was kind of a, you know, I was cutting it down the middle trying to please both him and me. >> Nice. >> But I I've only seen that one time and I thought, well, it's okay. That was the way I felt about it. >> Yeah. I have I have a question about your >> I did about a hundred of the radio shows >> before before I went to Japan. Now, >> when when I went to Japan, he was a little ticked off with me for that. >> Now, were were you under contract for for more? I mean, you you mentioned not having signed a contract at the beginning or not wanting to. >> Well, yeah, he he wanted to contract with me, but I didn't push it after that. >> Okay. So, >> he he didn't bring it up again. Oh, so so you were never under like official contract. You just >> Well, he he he said, you know, to me, you know, I want you on the show and I wouldn't give you a running part if I didn't want you on the show. You So that was about all that was said. >> Okay. Now, how much improv was uh how much improv took place in these stories or in these episodes? You you just mentioned now you you had conversations from time to time about how a character would um would act in certain situations, but [clears throat] >> was did did most everyone stick to the script often or did people throw in adlib? >> Talk to me when Julie was having her first baby. They married at Herb Ellis's house in San Francisco and when she was delivering their first child, we had all been together for about a year at that point. And uh he he said to you know, he said, "Julie's in labor right now. The doctor she went to, she she's not taking any medicine to kill the pain. She's She's just having the baby. >> Superwoman. >> Well, that's pretty popular right now and she'll be fine. She She's a smart girl. So, he said, "Oh, I hope to God, you know," he went on. We were ready to do the show while he was talking to me [laughter] like that. >> Wow. Um, >> and I I was after he after he died, [laughter] some people that worked with him on stage, not not not a stage play, but maybe a presentation of a medal or something like that. He'd met people like that and they had got they had become good friends and they'd phone me every once in a while and we'd talk about Jack and I I remember that uh he had two daughters, not both at the same time, [laughter] but they were about two years apart. heart. And after he died, I said to one of these people, "It's too bad he didn't have a boy. He always wanted a boy." And I did believe that that was he was brought up as a single child by his mother and his grandmother. And I was trying [clears throat] to give him memories of his mother and his grandmother when I played Moth Friday because I knew that that was the only kind of home that he had. He was always a popular person. He was the president of his student body at high school and and whatever other schools he went to. He was always the person everybody followed. But when these people told me that they had found his father and had found that he had three or four brothers, I said, "Oh, isn't that sad that he didn't know that he had brothers?" Cuz he really wanted brothers. He wished he had a family. He wished he had brothers. And this was something that was so sad to me >> because I knew how he felt. >> So people had discovered this after he'd passed away that he had uh So you're saying two have his biological kids or his children. >> They were daughters. He loved them. And he he go swim with them even after >> y >> they were divorced. and he introduced her future husband to her to Julie. And when I came home from Japan and was living here now, I guess it was my husband came with me. We went to see Julie London sing her song, you know, song that she made famous after they were divorced. And it was Crime or River and she was >> okay >> in in a nightclub performing and my husband and I went to see her. And the next morning I had to work for Jack. So I told him when he walked in, he came in kind of late and I said, "Jack, I saw Julie last night. She [laughter] was singing and she was very good. He has a sweet voice." He said, "She has a little voice." [laughter] That was his comment. And at that point Peggy Lee, [laughter] he was he was dating Peggy Lee. That's what broke up the marriage, I guess, >> was him falling in love with Peggy Lee. >> I have some I have a question for you on the rehearsing for these shows. What was the rehearsal schedule like? Let's uh talk specifically about Dragnet. >> Four hours. >> Four hours. And would you get that a week in advance or uh >> usually all of us were working other shows so >> he was aware of that. I came in at 6:00 in the morning for a soap opera and then I did another soap opera at 8:00 and I did afternoon shows. So, we usually didn't start rehearsing until 3 something like that, 3:00 in the afternoon >> for a 7:00 showtime. >> And so, so if if it was a difficult show, which most of them now were carved out just for the people who were going to be playing in them. I mean, Jack had everybody set up so they knew what they were doing after they read the script through one time. [clears throat] That was all we we'd read it around the table one time. Then he'd start working with the sound effects and he'd go in and deal with the engineer and all of us go to our corners. He said he'd go in and deal with the engineer. Sounds like wouldn't want to be the engineer in that case. >> Yeah, I think [laughter] it was something concrete that he could deal with. >> And I'd usually go sit in the front rows of the theater seats. It was always in a big theater where we did this. We were first we are in studio one and no A and then we moved to B and once or twice we were at the small studios H and G but that's everybody pretty much knew their place knew what Jack expected of them And then we'd run the show through with a dress rehearsal. Sometimes later when we were doing it on tape, we just do it one time. So it was I thought I thought the show suffered from that. I thought that it was better when we did a dress and then did the show. >> Well, so Ted, were you going to say something? Oh, when you thought you thought it was better when you did it live rather than recorded. Is that what you were saying? >> Well, no. Although we did we did do recordings later and I thought we were better when we [laughter] were live. But that that is true. But for the first few times when I came back from Japan was he uh he made us go through the the rehearsal but later everybody was so accustomed to the style they do one read through then we'd record it and then they'd play the recording of it and that bothered I thought we were better when we were live. >> Okay. So, so to help kind of set the context, at some point you had the like I don't know if the full radio history yet, but you had, you know, an East Coast Network and a West Coast or East Coast Showtime, West Coast Showtime. Was there was there ever >> orchestra also was with us for quite a while and then later it was in another room. >> Okay. But in but you're recording in Los Angeles. So would would your dress rehearsal how would the uh East Coast broadcast happen? Would you just record difference? Yeah. >> Right. But would you So you get the script. If you can just kind of walk me through if if you can remember the the order of things. You get the script the day of performance. You get it four hours early. You do a read. You do a table. >> We We did We did when when tape became popular >> like Jerry Divine's show, this is the FBI, we usually did that about 6:00 of California time and it was uh it was played in New York at that hour because it would be >> So it went live at 9:00 p.m. then. >> Yeah. Right. It' be it'd be 3 hours difference. So we play play at New York. Then we'd come back and do the show live here >> at 9:00 p.m. again or whenever >> that was just in the very early days early days of of of recording and you know making CDs in the shows. The same thing applied to drag net. That's when we lost the orchestra. When the orchestra was with us was during that interim period. I guess I guess what they did was take the recording of the the stuff and put it in for the second show. >> Okay. because the orchestra always was playing the live music at least one time. >> Okay. And how how did that process change when Dragnet became a TV show? Like how much advanced notice were you were you given the >> Well, as I as I recall it, >> we did The Big Mother at 12:00 at night. >> Oh, wow. during the Christmas holidays. And Julie came in with hot food for everybody, wearing a big fur coat, carrying all kinds of boxes and satchels and everything. Fed fed us all a hot Christmy kind of dinner. And we ate on the stage, you know, wherever we could find a place to sit on next to a table or be comfortable. >> And that and that was when filming the Big Mother episode of the TV show. >> Yeah. We'd we'd be com I played the shows on air on radio and then would repeat some of them when we did them for film. >> Great. Now, how how much input did you have on the the creation of the character? You mentioned Ma Friday trying to draw inspiration from >> the women in Jack Webb's life. It was my my mother and what I heard about his mother >> because he would he would tell me little jokes about his mother and he was he was he loved his mother very much because he felt she'd gone through an awful lot. But she evidently told him that his father was a musician and that he was traveling all the time with his orchestra. And therefore he began to be very fond of playing, you know, pieces of he he'd make a story like the movies that he made where he was young man with a horn. I forget the names of those movies, but he had liked to visualize that his dad was a musician. >> And I think that's why he fell in love with Peggy Lee. He was thinking that was the world he probably belonged in. You know, that kind of thing. >> Now, a a question for you on the inspiration for uh Ma Friday. Whose mother was it? Yes. Or >> or or >> both my both my mother and his mother, >> right? >> Tim Moser wrote the scripts for that. >> And when I came back from Japan, >> the time that I came back once for Christmas and then returned and then later, >> right, >> came back. So, uh, it, uh, I'm getting myself mixed up. >> I think he's wanting to know what the women in your life were like that inspired M Friday's personality. >> Yeah. With two specific questions. That's right. >> I had had I had had a boyfriend that I didn't really like very much. And his mother was the kind of person who was always acting very good, but she was a hypocrite. And I never said this to anybody, but she was she had this cute little way of, you know, talking to her boys where she she said, "Oh, I I like it very much." you know, this is wonderful, but it wasn't [laughter] wonderful. It wasn't something she liked, you know. So I used that and uh my mother would cook dinner and I wouldn't come home and she would have this roasted and everything, you know, made. So I told Jim most my mother would get upset when I [laughter] come home at midnight and she'd been waiting dinner for me. So that's I would be, you know, she'd say, "Well, I had nice roast beef and [laughter] I This is what Ma Freddy said, too." That that was the part I was going to ask about because I I also have a mother that will >> he said there the tears would be running down his face while the show would be playing in New York, you know, and I I think if he doesn't stop that, I'm gonna start breaking up myself, you know. >> Yeah. That that's one of the characterist characteristics of Ma Friday that I that I laugh about every time is she's always trying to feed him no matter what time it is. She comes in at 2:00 in the morning. She's got she's downstairs stuffing food in his face. And I have a I have a mother that's very much like that. So I I [laughter] smile when I hear that. >> So So that was your mother. >> She makes him feel guilty about it. You know, like you know, I had this food ready for you and you you know, you must be so hungry. No, you're going to eat it. You know, she's just >> That's right. >> She just uses the mother's guilt. >> It's very good. [laughter] >> Yeah. Yes. It's very good. Exactly. Oh man, that's funny. So, um, of all the characters you played on Dragnet, did you have a favorite? >> Well, I think The Mexican Woman was I think that that show kind of hit home with a lot of people. >> And you spoke Spanish on that episode, I Well, I felt that I didn't want to treat her like she was stupid or an idiot or anything like that. I wanted her to have have a life that they don't know about. You know, this is a person who came from a fairly good home. She had a sister that was looking out for her and so on. And I I felt people should, you know, we live with Mexicans here all the time and people are definitely prejudiced. Some, you know, people who haven't had the knowledge to know that Mexican people are as good as anybody else. So I was trying to keep that involved in it. >> Yeah, that was a very memorable episode. Now, I'm I said you also spoke Spanish in that episode, I believe. >> I did. I did. >> Is that something you learned when you were living in Texas, or is that something you just >> Yeah, I I'm Luxembourg and Scottish and [laughter] English. I I just I loved my people that my ladies that took care of me, you know, they were all very dear and very sweet. Maria, we went back to try to see her after I had grown up and we found the house she lived in, but all of the children slept in one bed. You know, she had like 12 children and they all slept in one bed. So, she hadn't her life hadn't improved very much. >> Mhm. That's a uh it, as I said, that that was a that was a a memorable and moving episode. So, thank you for sharing that. >> That was my my father had been an oil man, very successful oil man. And then the depression hit and we moved away from Texas, but I was born there and my family was definitely not from there. But I I grew when we came back one time and I went to school, I I loved the Texas people. I loved that they had, you know, kind of an energy that they they were proud of being Texas and they wanted to do the biggest and the bestest of everything. [laughter] >> So I I still happy that I was from there. Yeah, >> it's a happy time in my life. I really loved those years and I I loved working with Jack. And I think I think we both, you know, we had a kind of there's a time when he took me after after my divorce and after his mess and everything, he took me to dinner with 21 men because I [laughter] was working I was working on one of the shows and one of the famous actors, I can't remember the name, but he was very famous, he went to Jack and said, "Peggy's very unhappy. And Jack said, "What about?" He says, "Well, she her husband's tried to get custody of the children and she's just very unhappy." He said, "Well, god damn it." You know, and he said, "I'm going to take her to dinner tonight. She can go to dinner with 21 men and I'm going to take her." And that's what he did. >> He was. >> Now, is that an experience you'd like to try? Is that is that an experience you would like to repeat or was that was that a one and done thing for you? [laughter] >> I don't care. It's it's a true story. [laughter] >> But he really he really seemed to uh from what you've told me, he really seemed just so fond of you and like like an older brother. He really looked he really looked out for you. He looked out very protective. Very protective. >> There was a fellow that came to work. I don't know if I should tell this story, but do [laughter] it. Do it when the beans from New York and he'd been in a movie with Jack. I think it was called I won't say the name of it, but anyway, the two of them came to work together and he introduced him to all of us and I did my usual thing. I studied my character, tried to figure out how I could make it interesting and, you know, so on and so forth. And this fell kept following me around. And he he kept saying, you know, uh, did you know so and so? And I'd say, no, I I didn't work in New York. Did you do this? Did you, you know, finally he said, will you go to dinner with me tonight? And I said, no, it's my mother's birthday. I can't go to dinner, but you could come to dinner with us. And he, oh, I didn't have that in mind, he said. So anyway, Jack evidently got in touch with him about all of this. I don't know that he probably was noticing what he was doing. And so the next week when I was working, this guy was working again on the show. And when it was over, he asked me if I'd go to dinner with him. And I hadn't worked in New York. And I thought, would it be fun to know what it's like to work in New York? So I go to dinner with him. And at that point when he's taking me to the car, he says, "You know, Jack and those guys that you work with on that show, they all said to me that I shouldn't touch you. That if I touched you, they [clears throat] they'd have to be answered to >> Good for them." [laughter] >> And so he said, "What does that mean?" I said, "Well, I guess it means what he said. >> [laughter] >> That's great. Keep them in line. It's good. It's a great story. >> Now, I'm going to scour your ID IMDb profile and try and guess who the actor was. But [laughter] just kidding. We'll we'll we'll we'll preserve the privacy of that individual. >> I don't know. >> Hopefully though hopefully though it was a good it was a good dinner and it was just dinner. That's what >> But well, >> great. What >> it it was typic and you know while he took me to dinner >> one of the men at the dinner place was an entertainer and he'd married Julie London >> and he introduced me to him and he said this is the fellow that's raising my children and taking care of my family >> and that's was that in a nice way that's the way he was. Yeah. Okay. >> It it was sad to me because I just been through it and then I you know he now is finished with it. >> What What type of radio did you enjoy listening to? >> Well, actually Orson Wells Mercury Theater got me started doing radio >> and I fell in love with everything that Orson did. that part. I thought he was brilliant and he was very particular about the people he worked with. Everybody that worked with him loved him as much as he loved them. It was just a big love there. >> Yeah. >> Now, you you got the chance to work with him on the film McBTH. Were was there another time? Oh, actually, sorry. I think you told a story >> when you got called over and were kind of last minute put in one of his productions. You just strolled onto the >> strolled into the studio and got put to work. Can you tell can you re tell that story for us? >> Well, let's see if I can remember that one. Um, >> you you you were prepping to go on >> for a particular show and someone called and said Orson Wells is on the phone and you ran over. >> Oh. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes, I had like three or four soap operas every every day that I did. I played the lead in two or three soap operas and also I did afternoon shows that were like this woman's story. [laughter] They they tell the secrets of their life and so on. And you'd have to, you know, be that person. And those were very challenging to do to keep them interesting. But anyway, um, I was doing my soap offer with Dr. Paul. I was Mrs. Dr. Paul and I was in jail for putting too much sand in the cement when they were building the children's school. >> [laughter] >> So, so she she was pregnant with her first child and she was having birthing pains while this show was going on. [laughter] It was an amazing situation. I I was in in the studio telling my stories on the phone to different people from the cell of the of the prison that I was in. And all of a sudden in the rehearsal, the engineer stopped and said, press the button and said, "Patie, you've got a phone call." And I said, "Well, we're going on the air in five minutes." And he said, "It's [laughter] Russ Wells." And I dropped everything and ran into the booth and I picked up the phone and I said, "Hello, horse." [clears throat] And he said, "Yes, Peggy, get the hell over here." And I said, "I can't. I'm going on the air right now." He said, "Well, finish it and get over here." [laughter] I said, "We need you." And that was my first conversation with Orson. >> And so you first worked with him on that radio program and then later you did the film together. Oh, when when I was a child, when I was about [snorts] 10 or 11 years old, I heard him on the air with wonderful programs that he had every once a week, you know, and on at the same time as [clears throat] Charlie McCarthy on CBS and I think he was on NBC and I always wanted to listen to it and my father always wanted to the tribe of Karth. [laughter] So we had this kind of arrangement when we moved to the desert. [clears throat] I was allowed to listen on the car radio to Orson, but that was all. I couldn't listen to anything more because we had no electricity or anything, you know. >> Oh, so you you would go out to the car and tune the radio and >> I had to go out. Yeah. and the the coyotes and [laughter] everything were howling around me at night. You know, I was just about 11 years old. >> It probably added [laughter] to the >> Yeah. heighten the suspense of some of those shows when you're out in the dark. But they were but they were beautifully done and I just thought he was he was heaven and I thought if I could work on his shows that would be all I need in this world. I thought that was >> well you did all that and much more and I have many questions about uh the the rest of your work. um going >> well I just never got over that but I started as a two and a half year old performing between movies >> silent movies that was how I started >> yeah I >> my mother my mother was very concerned that I should not have to depend upon a man and she wanted [laughter] me to be able to support myself whatever happened so she put me at dancing school when I was two. And at two and a half, I was selected by talent scouts to be in something that was called a Russian prologue. And it was with the big orchestra and all was on between movies, you know, they they they were just beginning to have talkies. And so in between the talkies, they'd have this entertainment going on and it was pretty exciting for a two-year-old. [laughter] >> I I can imagine. I I have >> my my kids range. I have an almost two-year-old right now and the fact of him dancing to any choreographed anything is uh mind-blowing to me that that's possible. [snorts] >> Yeah. >> Well, I that's what I was going to say. When I had my children, they couldn't have cared less. You know, [laughter] I put them in balancing school and they got into recital, but they didn't seem to care about them. You know, they they weren't like me. I was I was just in love with theater from the time I was given a chance >> from the very get-go. Very cool. Um, in in a Time magazine article or an interview that you did with Time magazine 1940, they mentioned how you would uh call up people when you get roles that required an accent. >> That's right. >> Yeah. And you call to listen to the dialects. What what other things would you do to prepare for roles both with accents or without? What was your >> Well, if I if I if I was auditioning, [laughter] which I usually was, um I can't remember. I started driving an automobile when I was about 18. [clears throat] So, prior to that, this probably wouldn't apply. But what I would do was try to remember the last person I spoke with in person or on the phone who came from the country that I was going to have to interpret with an accent. And then I would remember which vowels were pronounced which way and which consonants were pronounced and what the rhythm of this of this particular language was. And I would keep repeating it in the [laughter] car as I'd be driving to my interviews. And I before that when I was in high school, I just seemed to have I guess my mother was somewhat like that. My mother could do accents and she was not interested in performing, but she [clears throat] she had fun with pretending she was different accents. So I think as a child I grew up with that and I I would keep thinking about it and thinking about it and trying to remember the last person I spoke to who spoke that way and by the time I got to the audition I was usually ready. >> Was there was there anything else that you would do to prepare for a role? like did were were you in the habit of creating backstories or things like that? >> When when I was you know going up for the uh Ingred Bergman part in >> Casablanca >> that I went to the motion pictures theaters, you know, where it was playing and watched it over and over and over. I watched the way her mouth worked. I watched it where she turned [clears throat] when she was slowly coming into a speech or if she was emotional about something and how she tried to hide it and you know different things that worked for me. And the fellow that interviewed me was from Chicago. And Chicago [clears throat] was the biggest radio network station in the years of 30 and 40. They had more programs on the air than any other. And this fellow had been hired to do the Dressto Star Playhouse. And so he didn't know the people on the West Coast. And I had just finished doing something that had been had been publicized. I can't remember what it was, but anyway, I knew that I had to go against about 40 women in radio. And so I auditioned and got the job. And we did this we did the show in about six weeks. It was every day, five days a week. I'm sure that was a great role uh to to land and >> sorry I I was >> unfortunately the [laughter] the lady the leading man was I thought wonderful in the part but it didn't help him. The director had me audition with a lot of very famous men and they [laughter] he didn't accept those people even though they were probably better than I was. >> You mentioned you watched that movie over and over. But to remind my audience, this was in the time prevs. Did you just live in the theater? Did you buy like >> Yes. >> tickets in bulk and just sit through [laughter] >> right? stay there all day watching the film over and over and over. >> Was there ever uh an impersonation or an accent or an impression you were asked to do that you found quite difficult? Well, I became known for being able to do that with about maybe 12 or 14 directors who had tried me in different characters in different parts. And so it saved them money if they could get someone who could double well. >> The Swiss Army knife of >> double. >> Yeah. Yeah. If you could double well. They didn't call them voice actors in those [laughter] days, but what they would do, they were allowed at one point to play three parts and only get one salary. But by the time I was getting popular, it was limited to two characters. You were allowed to play two characters. So almost every director [clears throat] in order to cut his, you know, salary that he had a portion for the cast, he he had to get people who could double. >> No. >> And as I said in the in the early days, I would triple but [laughter] later it was just doubling. So that it was very important that you be able to do that and not very many [clears throat] actors from theater had concentrated on that. So the majority of actors who were working in radio were people who had been in theater [clears throat] in New York usually people who toured with with plays. So they usually were not used to thinking about doing >> what >> locally. >> Yeah. Was there ever a time when um the two characters that you played were in conversation with one another and you had to switch like instantly? >> Yeah. I had one one part like that. I can't remember now. seems to me it was a case of twins and I had to have something [clears throat] different between them in order to determine which [laughter] one was which. I I can't remember what I did but I do remember it was difficult. >> Now what >> I think I had to make I had to make one list for something I can't remember. >> Now would >> they were twins. Mhm. >> What was your method for preparing for those types of roles? Was it just taking notes on on the script? >> In the heat of radio, you didn't see your script until you got to the studio and and the call. It was not, you know, you didn't come early, but you had to be there on the dot, otherwise you were reported to the union. So, you had you had to just come on the dot. If you were due at 8:00 or if you were due at it 2:00 [clears throat] or whatever it was, that's when you had to be there and you had to have a pencil that you brought with you [laughter and clears throat] in order to cut the script and all of that. Oh, it sounds so Corey to talk about, but that was what we had to have. >> [laughter] >> You could get thrown out of the union if you didn't obey all of that. >> Thrown out over a pencil. Forget to bring a pencil. [laughter] Leave the union in shame. >> I couldn't believe it. >> Different times. Now, were was was there ever a time as as your career progressed that you were able to to make those kinds of uh crazy demands that that I think are are are more myth than reality when it comes to some well-known actors that they want, you know, only brown M&M's in their dressing room or something. Were >> were there specific things that you started asking for that you that they accommodated you? the the scale when I began working. It was 1941 and the scale was so much higher than I was accustomed to. You know, I worked as a a what do you call them with the flashlight in the movie house, you know, >> in movie houses. I did that when I was 14 and 15. And you know, you couldn't live on that kind of celery. But this celery [clears throat] when I did like the soap operas, each one the minimum was about 38 [clears throat] or $40 per show. And that was a tremendous amount [clears throat] when you were doing maybe five or six shows a day. And then the drag net show when it was sustaining paid I think probably somewhere 78 or $80 something like that and then [clears throat] later FBI be became 100 and that was without negotiating they gave us gave you a hundred if you were on that show and I'm trying remember some of the other shows that paid very well. >> $78, which is what you said you were getting per show up per Dragnet episode in 1950. I know it's started 1949, went beyond, but if I look it up and say $78 in 1950 is worth what today? Do you have any idea? >> Probably about 200. It says according to in 2013.com it's about $1,014 >> in today's money. >> Oh. Oh yeah. Oh. >> So that was a as you mentioned that's a nice >> very high salary. >> Oh no. Yeah. Yeah. >> Well that's incredible. a bit of a that's that sounds like a bit of exaggeration because my weekly check from [clears throat] NBC on each of the soap operas was over 100 and that was for five 15 minute shows. So it was about I was getting paid about 3,000 a week >> in 2050 in 20 in 1950. >> Yes. Yes. 51 and 52. And [clears throat] when I came back from Japan and all of that. >> Wow. So, and the big the big salary, the really big one was when you had to do an impersonation on the air like Ken Murray had a show where it was called which is which and the audience had to choose [clears throat] between there' be two screens on a stage and you'd have to guess the audience would have to guess if it was the person or an impersonator. And I won for the, you know, the director many times so they didn't have to >> pay out the grand prize or something. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, but I did I did win, you know, and so that gave me a a good toe hold in doing radio. That sounds like a That sounds like a game show custom made for your skill set. >> Yeah, >> personally. >> Yes, it was. >> Now, uh how h how strict were the scripts that that you were given? Was there room for improvisation? >> Only as [laughter] far as the director wanted it to go. That's where Jack Webb came in. Jack wanted us to not handle the microphone the way we were originally taught to do. He wanted us to stand back like sometimes six six feet from the microphone or four feet. and he wanted it to be like we were being overheard and then he'd maybe move in on us which meant that we had to move movie and but he would have us sometimes do a whole scene with two or three people off mic which was very aggravating for the oldtime actors who thought they knew what they were doing and didn't want to be told that they of me off mic for for a scene that was important, but he did that on purpose because he wanted people to have to listen more closely. >> Now, what what was that like with him being the director but also a performer in each show? Was most of the direction given during rehearsal and you just kind of >> Let let me tell you, let me tell you. >> Please do. The first show that I did with him that was called Drag Night was directed by William Russo who was a very good radio director and I'd worked for William Russo on other shows and he directed the first maybe six shows. I remember telling my mother when I went home after doing Dragnet, I said, "That's not going to last. Jack is going to take over and he's going to direct. William Russo is not going [laughter] to last." And I was telling the truth. That's what happened. [clears throat] >> Now, what what was it that gave you that impression from from the get-go? >> I could tell that Jack was very impatient. >> [laughter] >> He he didn't say anything insulting to whatever. So, but I could tell that he was trying to set the style for what he wanted. And so, he would do a scene with somebody and pretty soon he was directing the scene and [laughter] that, you know, that would hurt the feelings of a director who was well known and and thought of top of the line. But I knew from the antsiness of Jack, the way he was acting, that he was not going to put up with having somebody tell him how he had to do it. >> So So that's that's interesting because I always thought that drag that uh Dragnet that he directed it from the start. So when when he got the green light and in our past discussion, you you shared that experience where he he asked you to stay late. Yeah. He did the first show. >> Yeah, that first show. That first show is all men and I don't know why he asked me to do it but that voice was coming over the car radio all the [laughter] time that I did. So it was unimportant. But these that the two that [clears throat] he did from for the beginning as I recall I think we did too were all men and they were all the typical police and chasing the you know the person that they were after. So it was not the typical drug. I knew that he was going to go for what he went for because of the way he projected to me what he wanted. I could tell and other actors couldn't. They didn't seem to get it with him. They they'd get angry. They'd say, "I don't want him telling me how I can act." And I I think well you're you're being very simple because this is this is his show. This is the way he wants it. He wants this technique used. And so I I was very good with the common person because I hadn't had the experience in life, you know, to think of myself as a wealthy woman or anything like that. I just always knew what the common man had to endure, what they went through with their lives, and he liked [clears throat] that. It seemed to make him very happy. So, I continued to do it. >> That's great. Now, were were there any memorable onair mistakes that were made by you or by somebody else? And then what what happens in that scenario? Do people just you know, keep >> Well, I I'm not I can't think of anything on Dragnet, but I do You asked me before if I did the child in the thing with the BB gun. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Trying to remember because there there were three three times that he played that show. The first time we didn't have a sponsor and I did it, boy. Second time they brought in a little boy and the third time that little boy I think was the same one that they used on the second show. I played the mother on the second show I believe. But I think he thought he wanted real he didn't want an impersonation of a boy. He wanted a real boy. [laughter] I think that was it. that. Uh, and so was was there a mistake during that during one of those broadcasts or or >> No, no, no, it wasn't a mistake. He was actually thrilled that I could do a little boy, but it probably was not the kind of little boy, you know. >> Okay. Well, I'm I'm just surprised that with the thousands of credits that you have that there wasn't some time where like, you know, maybe it was a mistake with the Foley artist or the orchestra came in late or something. >> There shows Yeah, there was a a show I did with I think it was called Coming Through It Coming Through the R. It was some It was an Irish show and I was doing it. It was one of the big evening shows where they paid better than they did on soap operas and other [laughter] things. They had a sponsor and I was given a lead and the actress who [clears throat] played it on Broadway was sitting in the booth. >> Oh. And she she was now probably 75 or 80 years old, but she did it when she was like 30 or 35. And I had heard recordings of [laughter] how she sounded and I had a big argument with myself [clears throat] about it. I thought, should I try to sound like her since they're honoring her and she's sitting in the booth, you know? And so I I finally decided I was going to try to do an impersonation of her. And I think it was very wrong. I should have done it my way [laughter] because she was trying to do it for the theater, you know, it was a big theater voice and she was trying to make it echo and it made it false. It was just the opposite of what Jack Webb wanted. [laughter] Just the opposite. she was doing it as a theater production would be done and I was too young and too stupid to realize that it was not going to sound right on radio. [laughter] Nobody nobody, you know, said bad things about me, but I when I heard it, I thought, "Oh gosh, how did why did I do that?" >> Yeah. How >> not not a good thing. [clears throat] H how regular was it that you would listen back to your to your own work or or later when you appeared in films? How of were >> was it weird for you to listen to yourself or watch yourself? No, I couldn't in the beginning of anything except this is your FBI because it would be played to New York and then they would repeat it in in California. So I got to hear the performance when I was in the car, usually going home or something like that. And it it didn't help because I I had a wire machine and I I didn't get it until wire machines [clears throat] became popular. [laughter] But but I got it when I was probably maybe 24, 23, 24 years old. And I I would go down to the basement of the NBC studios and ask the type institute they had the script ready for Dragnut. And sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't. But when they did, I would take it home to my little attic room and I would play it over and over again until I got it to sound the way I wanted to sound. So that that was one thing I did that I doubt very many other radio actors were doing. >> Now for for those of uh us that were born in 1988 or later, what is a wire machine? Is that like an answering machine? >> Well, they they were they were little tape [clears throat] machines, but they were wire. They weren't tape. They were just wire. >> Oh, interesting. >> And they were like like a like an old typewriter, you know, it had you could see the rings going around as she as she spoke into the microphone. >> Well, I'm I'm going to go down a rabbit hole after this conversation and watch a bunch of videos on wire machines. sound. >> Well, they may have had another name for it, but I call them wire machines. >> Well, I I I don't doubt that they were called wire machines. I just hadn't. Pre-tape is uh a mystery to me other than like, you know, very early. That was that was I I remember when I came back from Japan, Jack was doing the show on tape. Before that, we had to do it twice in in the early days. But this but it began to be so that we could hear ourselves. But it it did go through. We we had many changes. When we played the show without a sponsor, we were limited to what we most of us could do. By the time we had a sponsor, things changed a lot. People were getting tape machines [clears throat] and things like that. But prior to that, I had a wire machine. I started to [clears throat] I started to tell you something that Jack said when he saw me when I came back from Japan. He said, "Yeah, we've got these damn tape machines now." He said [laughter] that was like I mentioned this that story because when he came in, he said he said I was sitting there before everybody came and he he looked at me and I said, "How are things going?" and he said, "We're going pretty well except for these damn tape machines." >> Now, what what was his beef with the tape machines? Were they just breaking constantly breaking down? >> I I I think I think he was so used to dealing with the oldfashioned way of doing things. He didn't want to change it. He had already made his imprint, you know, people standing far off from the microphone and all of that. I actually really like these uh little tangents where you bring another detail. It It's fun. So, please [laughter] tell you know go down any path you want to. Uh so since the >> I remember when Bart Yarborough died that was that was a real tragedy for all of us and he was particularly a good friend of mine because I worked with him on One Man's Family and One Man's Family was my favorite show when I was growing up. It was a show that taught me what home life should be like. what families should be like. And it was beautifully done by Colton Morse. And I wanted so badly to be on that show. And I finally got a [clears throat] break when I was 18. They put me on as a two and a half year old asking for Langondorf Bread, but I had to sound like a two and [laughter] a half year old. And from that they began to give me really good parts. And I played Elden Jordan, a very naughty girl who wanted to have a love affair with all the men in the family of one man's family. And Margaro was one of the men. So when I got to drag this, I was home with somebody I was used to. We'd worked together for a long time. That's very >> And so when he died, it was very tragic for Jack because Jack chose him above everybody else to be his sidekick. And I know that it really upset him. He died. Incidentally, that first time when I came back from Japan, Jack had saved the show with a Mexican girl who had the baby, you know, stole the baby. >> Mhm. And he had told me, he sent me a letter saying that it had been a a huge success and so on because this was the first thing that I did with him after I'd gone away to Japan. So anyway, to get back to this, he hired somebody to be his sidekick, who'd been in the show, but was not ever the sidekick. And it was it was hard on on Jack. Jack was used to Bart, and Bart and he worked together very beautifully, but it it it worked out. I don't think he said the sponsor did not want to do that show without Bart being in it, but he did finally agree. >> That's That seems >> to show the woman who stole the baby. >> That seems so interesting that they would want to pull out as a sponsor. I mean, you know, Ben that the character of Ben Romero is a big part of Dragnet, but he's not the the only thing that made it a success. So, it seems very strange that they would they would want to pull out at that point, but I'm glad they stuck with it. >> Um, since since [laughter] all >> what was his [clears throat] name from from Mash, what was his name? The actor that did the part, I can't remember. >> That did it after uh that did it after >> he replaced by >> Okay. Um, let me ask. I I know those that are gonna when they watch this replay, they're going to be [laughter] shaking their heads at me because >> I'm doing I'm doing very well from working with him on other shows. >> Um, I'm going to put this in here because they they mention his name all the time in the comments. It's just slipping me right now. So, I'm saying who replaced Ben Romero's character. >> We we were we worked for three years every week with our >> Let's see here. or he >> he died. >> Um, initially Sergeant Ed Jacobs, played by Barney Phillips, took over from December. >> Did the Barney did the TV show? >> Oh, okay. And then, um, Martin Miller. Okay, hang on. I think it's probably telling me the TV show. So, I'm going to say, "What about the radio show?" >> Let's see. Well, the the TV show was the one where when I was getting a divorce, my husband was trying to take the children away from me. And it was not because he thought I was a bad mother, but because he wanted to make me accept no money. That was it [laughter] was it was breaking my heart [clears throat] because it was just you know it's such a terrible situation. The children were being drugged through the courtrooms and all that. I didn't I I thought I've just got to do something and I was in a big part on Jack's show and this fellow from MASH was the sidekick. I can't think of his name. >> I'm trying to pull it up. It keeps giving me TV information, >> but go ahead. >> Yeah. Yeah. At any rate, he saw [clears throat] me crying and he came over and he said, "What's the matter?" And I said, "Oh, I'm in a divorce. Attorneys just talk to me." And he said, "Well, that's a hell of a thing." And so he evidently told Jack that I was all broken up about this. So Jack said, "I want to see you in my office after the after the shoot today." So I went and he said, "I heard what happening and I want to give you my attorney. I wouldn't give him to anybody else. And I've talked to him and he says he'll do it. I want him to represent you. And I thought it was so wonderful of him. But I already had been through three attorneys who couldn't handle the crooked attorney my husband [laughter] had. So they all because they couldn't deal with all the shenanigans that they were going on. And so that was why I was crying was because [laughter] I couldn't seem to find a way to straighten things out the normal way. I was willing to share my children, but I didn't want them taken away from me. I was a good mother. So it just, you know, it was a horrible setup. >> I'm sorry. I'm sorry to hear that. I I know several people who have who have separated and it's it is often a very messy thing. I'm sorry. >> Well, there was a lot of money and he evidently had another woman that he wanted to marry and so you know he already was set up to to do that. H. >> So anyway, Jack when he found out what this story was, said, "Well, listen. I'm taking you to dinner tonight." And I said, "What?" [laughter] He said, "Yes, you're going to be the only woman at a party with 21 men at a banquet table, and I'm taking you along. You need to go with [laughter] me." >> Wow. >> And that's what he's David. God bless you. He was doing that to build my ego up and make me feel better. >> Sounds like a great friend. Um >> he was he was he [laughter] was a great fellow. >> Now s >> I loved him. Well, I'll tell you I'll tell you what I really was sorry I hadn't told you about the last time [clears throat] we had an interview. I have done 150 radio shows with the top performers that I worked with during my career in radio and they they're most of the shows are very brilliantly done by very brilliant actors and I'm trying now because I'm 99 years of age. I don't want to go in like a saleserson and try to pitch a show. I need I need an agent. I think these shows really are the the it's what I aimed for all of my life when I first heard a shows are my dedication to the great directors that I did get a chance to know. I would love to know more about your relationship with your mother because as you've shared before your father passed away when you were very young and then you moved to Hollywood with your mother and you were living in an apartment together when you had when you got your first job in radio. >> Well, that's true. And it was Bob Carol who helped me. He was the fellow that wrote all of the uh I Love Lucy shows. Mhm. >> with what was her name? Meline Pew was his partner. >> His writing partner. >> First they wrote by his writing partner. First he wrote my favorite husband. I think he wrote that without Meline and then it turned into uh you know I love Lucy and all the different other names that they have for the show. Yeah. So, >> but he he was he was a page boy in the lobby CBS the first [laughter] day that I came to Hollywood. He's the first person I talked to and I told him that I'd been on staff at WI and KVOA and that seemed to interest him and I just filled out the regular employment form and he chased me down the street a little ways. He said, "Hey, [laughter] you didn't finish this right." And I said, "What what is the matter?" He said, "But you're an actress, aren't you?" And I said, "Yes." He said, "I think that's what you ought to be auditioning for, not for a not for a clerical job." [laughter] So he took me back in and he redid it and about three days later, the phone rang in the lobby of this rundown apartment building on Sunset Boulevard. [laughter] My mother and I only had the money from selling the car. So, we had to be very careful of, you know, and I wanted to be near the radio stations. So, I sold the car for, I think, $100. And that was all the money we had to live on. So, it was important that I get a job right away. My mother was going to try to be what did they call him? Rosie the River. She'd read in the newspapers about those jobs being [laughter] available. So she went over to one of the places where they hired people because the war was on and she got a very very nice job. It wasn't high paying but it was enough to cover what I didn't bring in. And so when I when I met Bob Charl, it was the first day in Hollywood and I was quite frightened because I didn't know what we were going to do at that point. And maybe he sensed it and [snorts] maybe he sensed the fact that I really had been working in radio and so it was not going to be a new thing for me. And at any rate, he called me on this phone in this raggedy place and I answered the phone. Thank goodness I was there to answer it otherwise I never would have found out. But he said, "Get over here. I put your name in for an audition." [laughter] And so I I said right away and I ran as fast as I could. I [laughter] was 16 years old at the time. I just graduated from high school. I was a senior speaker and I had a job at KVA, the radio station. Didn't pay very much. It's like $5 a show or something. [laughter] Wasn't union. And so at [clears throat] least I was writing scripts and directing adults. I wasn't just working with children. And uh so when I when I thought my audition, I did I did one that I thought of while I was running from the apartment building through CVS. And it was something that I did in high school and junior high school for the amazement of [laughter] the uh a you know what did they call it in school when you have that word >> when there's a high school assembly. >> Assembly. Assembly that's the word. [laughter] Yeah. So, so I I had been doing this assembly thing since I was in the fourth grade or fifth grade probably and it always seemed to please. And so I thought about [laughter] it as I was running over there. And when I got to the door of where I was going to go in to audition, I said to Bob Carol, [laughter] who had met me at the main big glass stores? I said, "Do I am I supposed to have my own material?" He said, "Oh, they'll give you something." >> [laughter] >> And so I went in and they the man who was doing this worked for Selnik. He was one of the main people with the Sellesnik motion pictures. And his name was Ted Wick and he said, "Do you have something you want to do perform?" And I said, "Yes, if you let me." And he said, "Of course, of course." And there were there were three women in the booth with him and they sat there and they laughed and they thought it was great and they came running out after when it was over with and everybody hugged me and kissed me and the Mercedes Mccambridge was in there and she kissed me and she said you'll you'll be very successful in radio and uh the other two women were very well known. They were motion picture women who were stars in the 30s and 40s. And uh both of them were directing. They were doing a little bit of directing. One of them was doing Sherlock Holmes and the other one was doing just straight dramatic programs. >> Well, the the >> Go ahead. I was going to say the the woman that predicted you'd have a good great career in radio was spot on especially at the at the age of 16 to see that [laughter] >> that was Mercedes Mc Cambridge. She [clears throat] works for Arch Obler a lot and I'd been listening to her, [clears throat] you know, in San Antonio and Tucson, the different towns I've been living in and we could get the CBS shows. And it was just amazing that these people that that I had admired so much were doing this. They were hugging me and kissing [laughter] me and saying, "You're going to be a big star in radio." I couldn't believe [laughter] it. I And then Jed Wick said, "I'm looking for someone to voice Ingred Bergman." And he he worked for Salsnik. So I understood that, you know, that was a big deal for for that studio. So she brought me back in and after, as I told you, I watched Casablanca, >> seven or more. [laughter] And I really was able to do it with my young voice, very very close. So, how how >> and so I I got well I I was [laughter] close enough to [clears throat] do it that the Sultage hired me to do dubbing on on pictures this promotion mostly for Bergman. [clears throat] And then I got the lead in the radio series Casablanca which was quite aggravating to all the wonderful [laughter] women who were great radio actresses [clears throat] this little street. [laughter] So that I think there were about 40 really well-known women who were trying out the part. And then after that, I had to audition with many male people, the stars. They didn't call themselves stars, but radio actors. And so I I got to know them that way. And I was getting jobs because they thought I was good. They thought what I was doing was impressive. [laughter] And so they were recommending me to the shows where they were working. Now the directors that I never heard of were calling on me. >> That's great. >> So it it was really was just well it was it was God. I must say I prayed a lot >> and my father died when I was 15 and she hadn't been able to work for about a year or so before that. He had a heart condition and my mother was about 18 years younger than my father. because she was still a young woman. And uh we we we had a good good life. [snorts] And I tried to avoid going out with men because I didn't want to get serious with any man. [laughter] I thought I'd better stay single until I amass enough money to support my mother. You things like that. So, it it took me until I was about 25 to think that that was a time to maybe think about dating, >> going [clears throat] out then. >> Well, what a what what what an incredible story moving to Hollywood, getting a job that quickly, uh getting into the work that quickly, and then being able to support both you and your mother. Sounds like your mother. >> I even I even got got I I got a movie job >> sort of because Girl of the Lumber Lost was something that Ted Wick was casting [laughter] and that was being done at Colombia Studios right across the street from CBS and I won the lead in that was Girl of the Liberal as a radio show and uh I was in Mel Mel Terrer had been discovered in New York by the producers at Colombia and he was given his first job as a movie director before he became known as an actor. So he used to come over and watch a stew the girl of the lumber lost as a radio show. It was a every day we did it five days a week. And so I got to know him. I didn't really talk to him very much, but he stopped me one one day and he said, [clears throat] "How would you like to do the movie Girl of the Never Lost?" And I said, "That's that's unbelievable. It' be wonderful." [laughter] and he said, "Well, I think you'd be right for it, and I'm directing it, and I I want you to make arrangements so that you can come to my office, and we'll work on it together so that we'll both learn something. I'll learn from watching you and you'll learn from whatever I can teach you." And so that was the way it was set up. And I I was a student at USC at the same time. This was what was so maddening. I was I was [laughter] going to USC, which was way across town. I had to take street cars and transfer and everything to get there. And my earliest show was 8 in the morning. And I had to, you know, because I was an ignorant young girl. I didn't know about anything. So, I got myself in sort of a pickle where I really half the time had to walk because I wasn't getting there when the street cars changed tracks and went in that direction. [laughter] So, it was kind of a maddening time for [clears throat] me. I was very happy but it was maddening because I really didn't have the time to go to his office. I had a lot of school work I had to do but I really preferred to be in films you know not as a star but to work in movies and I thought if I had to sacrifice you know my education I would put it second. So he was very very good to me. He took me [laughter] to restaurants that I never would have gone to. He showed me how to ballroom dance, which I knew nothing about. I was a dancer, but I was not a ballroom dancer. [laughter] And he he took me to the biggest nightclubs and introduced me to the biggest stars who were there. He was so sure that I was going to be the star of Girl of the Lost. But he was new. He'd not worked in Hollywood. [clears throat] He didn't know the way Hollywood works. And he thought that he was going to have the say, but he didn't have the say. It was a fellow by the name of Con who ran the studio and he'd already made up his mind what he was going to do. A photographer that'd been with Colombia for many, many years. had a daughter who was the right age to play the part. >> And so it didn't matter that the director wanted me. He he said to me the day that he Mel Ferrero took me up to the office. He was sure I was still going to be in the film as the star. And as we went in, this man was seated like Hitler on a platform so that it was up his desk was up above. You had to [laughter] look up at him, you know. And he he said, "You're a hell of an actress, but God, you're ugly." [laughter] >> That was the first thing he said to me. And I was 17 years old. What a horrible thing to say. >> I I sat down and thought to myself, you know, I'm 17. You know, he said, "You look a little long in the tooth, too." And Mel stood up for me and said I was to way the makeup people. He said, "I took her in early and tried to tell them what I wanted with her, but they didn't do anything that I told them to do." And he said, "I already know who I want." Colombia fellow Cohen was his name. And so he said uh you know good luck and ushered us out the door. >> Wow. >> Mel Pere was heartbroken and I was heartbroken. And as we walked out the door, a fellow who seemed to know Mel said, "Hi, Mel." And then he looked at me and he looked back at Mel and he said, "How's your wife?" [laughter] And I thought, "Oh my gosh, he's a married man. I didn't know he was a [laughter] married man." Going out to nightclubs with him and things like that. I thought he was single. I didn't know. [laughter] That was another blow, you know. So, it took me about a year to come back to normal after that. But he was very kind and he said, "You can come on the set anytime you want. You can come on this." That was important to people in those days. They thought you meet people and you get to know other producers and directors because they go and visit each other, you know, and so he thought that was a good idea for me. >> Mhm. >> And he he he said, you know, very kind things to me. He said, "Gee, I he all through the years." He said, "I will always ask for you when I do a radio show." And he did. And then he also came to see me when I was working with Kirk Douglas in a a stage play >> over in Arizona. and he wrote a very beautiful long [laughter] letter. But at that point he was already divorced from Audrey Hburn. >> But evidently he he was looking for a daughter to take care of because Audrey Hburn was the similar age [laughter] group I think. >> Very interesting. Very interesting story. Um what >> but but I must say it took me a long time. I had to grow up after that because I really believed what you know Mel had been saying [laughter] and he didn't mean to damage me. He did what he would do if he was in New York. A New York director is in charge in Hollywood. It's whoever runs the studio. >> Okay. Well, I'm I'm sorry that didn't work out that way in your favor, but as we know from history, >> did other things did. >> Exactly. You had a very successful career regardless. >> Um, were going back to Dragnet for for a minute, were there ever cases that were or scripts or characters that were emotionally hard for you to portray? I can't remember any. It was the only show that I could go to and relax. I knew that what [clears throat] he wanted was what I wanted. [laughter] It was the same kind of taste that I had. I wanted to make the show sound like real people. The way real people talk, not not actress. And every once in a while, someone would say, "You should hire, not Hans Conreed, but Bill Conrad." And Jack would say, "That actor all he does is listen to himself." Mhm. >> And after I married and went to Japan to live, he, you know, turned over a new lease and he hired Bill and all these people that were not the people that he swore that he wanted in the beginning, but he was smart. He realized that they were able to adapt and that it was not so difficult for them to sound real. Mhm. >> It's just not something that they were trained to do. >> Yeah. Bill Bill Conrad is another legend of oldtime radio. He did a bunch of great stuff. >> Well, I worked the first show that he ever worked in Hollywood with him. He was in the army and he was still in this uniform. He was being, you know, discharged from the army. It was towards the end of the war >> and [clears throat] the very first radio show he did was with me and it was Bob Lee and Jerry Lawren's was it was it true story or or not True Story was my favorite story. My favorite story >> that was that was probably in Joey Lawrence's show and in the beginning I I'm sorry I'm all stuffed up with this cold or whatever it is that won't go away. >> I'm sorry I sound the way I do. But anyway, [laughter] I had to [snorts] cater somewhat to directors, but I didn't do it as much as other actors because I agreed with Jack that people who put their hands up [clears throat] to their ears to hear their resonant tones were not doing the show the shows any favors. you know, they were not sounding like real people, but there were some classics. You know, if you did shows that were basic from the 15th, 16th, 17th century, it wouldn't sound right if you sounded like the average person you'd meet on the street in American. So, you had to be flexible. You had to think about all of those those things. Mhm. Now, >> you had to know you have had to know what generation you were [clears throat] representing, >> right? >> And it's interesting listening to old to old radio announcers back then. There's like a very >> specific way that they said things on on the radio that if you tuned in to Absolutely. a new station now. >> Sounds totally foreign. And that's that's you know Jack and I I guess were the same. He was a little bit older than me. I think he was probably he may have been eight or 10 years older. But our tastes were pretty much the same. So, another funny thing was there was a a music store across from [clears throat] NBC where they usually had interesting guest uh people who were special speakers on one day or another, you know. And one day my mother and I went in while I bought some CDs. [clears throat] I I was recording some of my own showers on a little machine that I had and there was somebody in there who said that they would read my mind or read my future or whatever something and my mother got kind of excited. She said, "Go see what they say. Go see what [laughter] they say." So I did and he said they told me you were working with a dark young man. This is before television. And they said they hadn't [laughter] seen any television shows. And they said, "He's very successful and you're going to be successful because he's going to like you." And I thought afterwards, was that for real? [laughter] How did that happen? >> Very. But my mother she took full credit for it. She just [laughter] Well, that was Jack Rob. >> It It's all credit to your mom and that psychic in the in the record store. >> Yeah. >> No, >> but that was, you know, that silliness, [snorts] but it still rang the bell a little bit. Were there any shows that you Oh, go ahead. >> Yes. Had you started to say something I wanted to answer. >> Okay. Uh I was I was going to ask if there were any shows or episodes that you refused to do for whatever reason like either on Dragon or other programs. >> There was Yes, there were. There were some that were directed very [clears throat] poorly. There were some that hired actors that were not actors. They weren't there weren't very many of those [laughter] people people in radio mostly came out of and touring stage shows. So they were very experienced. They were not. They were not avatars. And I felt so fortunate to work with some of the biggest stage stars and some of the biggest movie stars. >> Yeah, I have a question about that. Where you worked with so many iconic figures in Hollywood, both in radio and on film. Was there any co-star or director in particular who left a profound influence on you? >> Well, I think I tal Wells. >> You mentioned hearing him. >> My main inspiration. >> Norman [clears throat] Corwin was my secondary. You know, I would say Orson number [clears throat] one, Norman Corwin number two. There might have been three or four others that I I like to work with, but those are my main first two people that I admired. And then Janette Nolan, Janette [clears throat] Nolan was mostly a she was basically a stage actress. Lorine Toddle the same way. Lorine Toddle was not the kind of actress that Jack Webb would have liked to use, but she was a theater actress. And when you worked with her, it was like going to see a great stage play. You go away kind of still shimmering and shaking from the excitement [laughter] of the way she performed, what she performed. And I thought so lucky. Those two women were the best actresses I ever worked with. And Janette became my best friend. And Loren was very good to me. She came to my house quite often. And when I had little children, she came and brought presents. And Janette did the same. You know, it's just beautiful women. That's great. It's nice. It must have been uh so fun to have those those those role models and those mentors mentors in your life to help you as you you know charted your own career. >> There were there were I'm trying to think of other directors. Bill Spear was interesting to work with and Bill Robson was interesting to work with. >> Bill Spear of Suspense. both. >> Yes. Yeah. Uh they were both men with great integrity [clears throat] and with a great leadership about them. They put everybody at ease. The the actors in the show, the musicians, the sound effects people, they gave you the feeling that you were chosen because they believed in you. And that I felt was a very important factor for all actors and for all musicians that [laughter] >> when when did you feel that you had made it as an actress? >> Well, I think I said to you the last time I never felt I made it. I thought I thought that I was on the verge of becoming a star when I married Dr. Shinski [clears throat] who was with the atomic bomb counting commission and I hadn't gone out with very many men. I'd had one or two men that were home from the war and they were a little bit crazy and they scared me. They really frightened me. One man said he was going to shoot my mother and shoot me good if I didn't marry him. >> And I I kept it a secret. I didn't want to say it because I [laughter] felt if it got in the newspapers, it would make me look very trashy. So I I didn't want that to be heard. >> Incredible. >> One of the motivations. So, incredible that a story like I'm I'm I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm incredible that a story like that would make you look bad >> versus the the crazy person. >> That's what it did. That's [laughter] what it did to uh Ingred Ingred Bergman, you know, when they found out that she had a fellow that stayed at the house with Roselini that it was Roselini with her husband. She had a doctor husband and uh she uh she never could get over it. It gave her a bad name in those days and everybody wanted to think of her as as the good woman, you know, but uh but she soon became someone that they used vulgar words about and it was not her. [clears throat] was really not very, but her husband was very cold, not not an expressive kind of man. And I think that she welcomed Roselini because he was Italian and probably [laughter] very, you know, very demonstrative and she probably enjoyed talking with him and having him directed, but uh it it gave her a big claws in her career. >> I'm You've given me something to go research because I'm not >> I didn't want the fellow that that came after me was somebody from USC [laughter] and he was u he later became someone of importance. [clears throat] He the government gave him uh what is what is it the the roses? What is what is it that they give you? >> Wow. >> I can't I can't remember right now. What is it they give soldiers you know who officers who have done commendable work. >> There's a medal of honor if you're then if you're injured. >> Yes. like what with with roses of it. I can't remember the name of it, >> but anyway, he was he was a fellow who was very well thought of at USC and William um oh what's his name? the uh the brother of the famous director in films, William uh who who who is the famous MGM and Goldwin director. [clears throat] At any rate, his brother his his brother was [clears throat] are one of the main heads of the department at USC. And so he asked me to coach this fellow in his part because the man who had been playing it was ill and he had to go on the next night. So, I coached his fellow and I guess it made him fall in love with me because [laughter] he he was the worst nightmare I ever had. He, you know, other than that, [laughter] he probably was a fine fellow, but he just went berserk and it was crazy. A lovesick puppy. >> He just [laughter] he everywhere I go, he'd turn up. You know, I'd be doing a radio show and the operator would call the booth saying, "Mr. So and so is waiting for you downstairs." I think, "Oh my god, you I have to put up with that, [laughter] you know." And so that was the reason I got married. There is one of the reasons I thought I needed someone to protect me and my mother. But I never thought that anyone would act that way, you know, that I [laughter] didn't encourage that. I didn't I didn't flirt with men. >> It's crazy. I uh you know, I've never been in in in our, you know, as a man, it's normally me that would would reach out and, you know, pursue women. And I I have thought it's got to be just awkward sometimes when when in reverse because at least >> at least I take the at least I have the option of pursu I'm only pursuing people I'm interested [laughter] in. >> Yes. But for a woman it's like you're just hoping that those that are interested in you pursue >> this this fellow was a nightmare. I thought he was handsome. He's [laughter] a good-looking fellow and he he he had two brothers and he introduced me to the two brothers. They were both mafia people. They were criminals, you know. I thought I don't want to have anything [laughter] to do with his family. I don't want to be involved in this. And he kept bringing them around and showing up at my birthday. You know, I'd have it like my 21st birthday. He showed up there and like he wasn't invited, you know, just it was madness. >> Oh my goodness. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that that happened. >> Well, it really it really it really did destroy a part of my career. And when I married the doctor, he was in the atomic [clears throat] bomb casualty commission during the Korean War. Mhm. >> And so he wanted me to come over to Japan and I I said, "Well, I couldn't come over from one in two weeks because I have running parts in these soap operas." I had about five soap operas and other shows [clears throat and snorts] like Dragnet, you know, the different comedy shows. And I I told him that before we were married that I couldn't leave my career, but he he didn't seem to have any compunction or feeling about that. He was a brother-in-law of a famous writer in radio and they invited me to go to the ballet with him as the guest and and me as the guest. So that was how I met that fellow. But it was uh very very difficult. And you you have uh three children or or four children. And are they from your first? >> I had four. One one one died at birth. >> I'm sorry. Um were were those children from your first marriage? >> Two boys and two girls. My first child was a girl. She was she was born in Japan. >> Mhm. And I I stayed there for four months for Yeah, it was four months. And then I came back and did The Big Mothers as a television show for Jack. And uh there are a lot of things that I'm still hesitant, you know, to talk about because >> I don't the things that that really upset my career were things I don't think I will ever talk about because they're just very sick people. [laughter] I think I was wise to not get involved with very many men. I probably was not a strong kind of woman, the kind of woman that would beat a guy down if he tried to do anything. [laughter] But mostly the men that came came [clears throat] after me were very well educated men with high degrees and everything. So, [clears throat] I didn't expect that I would ever have to be a rough tongue woman. >> Yeah. It's um it's interesting. So, it so as I've shared, I I was born in the 80s in the late 80s. So, we're not I'm not from the same time period of as as you, but looking back >> Yes. uh on on this era of history, it's easy to just kind of put it on a pedestal and like, oh, that was a simpler time. People were kinder. You know, there was a like of there was a time of higher morals and stuff. But then as as we're as we're listening, >> I think >> I think that's true mostly. But then when they saw an older woman with a daughter and knew that the older woman was out of step with the modern world herself. My mother was orphaned at four, so she really had a hard time catching up with her era. And it just I had a strange background. You know, my father was an oil man and multi-millionaire at one point in his life. And uh he was ill most of the time while I I was alive. But uh [clears throat] the he was the only man I knew. And I often said to him, "Daddy, don't lose your temper like that. That's not good for you and it's not good for the people you're dealing with." I kept, you know, I was more like the mother of both of my parents. Well, >> he was he was orphaned at at 18 18 months. My father was orphaned and my mother is orphaned at four. So, [clears throat] neither one of them is a very [laughter] good background, >> but they were well educated. My mother [laughter] graduated from Texas Women's College and my father was an engineer and was well educated. So he he was [laughter] he had hundreds and hundreds of oil wells. I think he had four or 500 oil wells when I was born. And my mother then was quite spoiled because he showered her with fur coats and [laughter] everything that a million ever would do, I guess. >> But then then they had nothing to draw on. They had nothing of their own to remember, you know, about their home lives. So it it was a very strange thing. The most family I ever had were the people I worked with in radio. Some of them were the fierce soul most wholesome people. >> Both men and women. They were they were fabulous. And some of them came out of the 1980s. You know, what do I say? They came out of the 1880s. [laughter] 1880s. My father was born 1881 and many of the men that I worked with in the early days like Francis X Bushman was a big star in the 20s and 30s in silent movies and I worked with them in a lot of shows. But these were very disciplined men and they treated women very nicely. you know, they they had great respect for their mothers and for the women in their lives. >> Okay. Well, I I have just one final question for you and then I again I'm just so grateful for your time that you've taken, but of all the things we've talked about, is there anything we haven't already spoken about that you'd like to share with >> my audience, fans of your work? >> Yes. The >> Go ahead. Oh, I forgot we were recording this to be played somewhere. I was just talking to you, but I I didn't get to tell you the names of my favorite actors, but I think there'd be too many of them. So, I [clears throat] probably shouldn't be doing that. But as far as the actresses, those two that I mentioned, I thought Janette Nolan was the queen. And when she was dying, I told the nurses [clears throat] that because I knew she could hear me. And she smiled, a big smile. They had already told me that she was dying. And she had this big smile on her face. I said, "This is the greatest actress in the whole world. She always was and she always will be. >> And she put this big smile [clears throat] on her face. She died very soon after that. >> It's a very gracious thing to do for her, thing to say for her and thing to >> Well, I loved her dearly and thought she was a great actress. [clears throat] In fact, I know she was. >> Well, thank you very much for your time. I would uh >> Oh, thank thank you. Thank you for your time >> and I'm sorry that my nose has been [laughter] snuffly the whole time. >> It's You sound great over here. I don't I don't know what's going on, but you sound great. >> Well, I I hope I hope [laughter] you can understand me. >> Yes. >> All right. I I can't thank you and all. It was a great joy. Anyway, God bless you. Thank you. And I'm keeping you too long. >> Oh, no. That's that's okay. Thank you very much. Have a great evening and God bless you. >> You too. Bless your family as well. Bye-bye. >> Thank you. Goodbye. >> If you like this episode, please support the channel by liking, subscribing, and sharing this video with someone else who might enjoy it. And if you have any suggestion for a future guest, please leave a comment down below. Thank you.