WEBVTT - Russ Tamblyn, from DeMille to David Lynch 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:04.880 Hello, it's Alec Baldwin. We're going to rebroadcast an episode 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:08.520 from our archives. This week you'll hear my conversation with 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.080 Russ Tamblin, one of the stars of the original West 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:15.280 Side Story. We'll have new episodes of Here's the Thing 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:19.759 beginning March fifteenth. Until then, enjoy my talk with Russ Tamblin. 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:26.279 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:31.800 My guest today is Russ Tamblin. In a long and 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:36.040 varied career, he's been a child actor and acrobat and 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:40.320 MGM studio star who ditched the whole scene to become 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:44.800 a painter. After that, he was a successful choreographer and 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.720 then one of the stars of Twin Peaks. But you 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:53.160 probably know him as Riff, hard bitten, vulnerable and leader 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:57.400 of the Jets. When you're a jan, you're agin all 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.280 the way from your first single rent to your last 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:05.319 West Side Stories. Riff in nineteen sixty one was the 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:09.880 culmination of a long string of classic teen roles. He 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.600 was Elizabeth Taylor's little brother and father of the bride, 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:16.960 and the younger version of King Saul in cecil b 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:22.240 de Mills Sampson and Delilah. His breakthrough role for MGM 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.440 was the youngest of the namesake brothers in Seven Brides 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:29.600 for Seven Brothers, directed by the legendary Stanley Donnin, fresh 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:34.479 off Singing in the Rain, and you can't recount Russ 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:39.000 Tamblin's career without mentioning the long string of young Tufts 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:43.560 before Riff, the young gun slingers, the future criminals, and 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.000 the good for nothing Tony Baker, who's really an undercover 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:51.240 cop in the now classic anti marijuana b movie High 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:57.040 School Confidential. Hey up, look, don't be a dry kitten. 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:58.960 We don't want to get caught with a reefer again. 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:01.120 Had enough of the okay and all of that jazz. 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.400 I'll get my kicks out of you these days. However, 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:07.440 he keeps it classy. You got your martini. This is 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.360 like so old Hollywood said, as they come to my 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.040 podcast and I get here and they're like, he's in there. 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:17.000 He's having a martini. Yeah, well that'll help me to 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:21.600 yak and yak a little. Tamblin spent his earliest years 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:25.679 in the middle class Inglewood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Son 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.680 of a chorus girl and what he calls a Broadway 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:31.919 song and dance man who came West to seek fame 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:36.200 and fortune. The family arrived just in time for the Depression. 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:40.880 Eddie Tamblin made a few movies, though, a good thing 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.959 for his son's future and for American cinema. That's where 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:46.679 I really got turned on. I think when I was 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:49.400 living in Englewood, one of his old movies was playing 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.400 a theater there. So I went to see him and 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:54.680 I saw him up on the screen and he was 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:57.160 just like, you do you know that? Oh my god, 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.840 I want to be there. And my father said no, 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.840 oh no. Um, my father did not want me to 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:06.040 be in show business. So what did he want you 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.120 to do? Well? He didn't care if he was not 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:11.400 doing that well at that point it was in the thirties. 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:13.480 He didn't wanted to end up like him. He had 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.120 a hot dog stand. He sold hot dogs. We had 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.080 dinner that we used to go and eat hot dogs 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:21.920 and his hot dog stand. And why didn't you stay away? 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:24.200 Meaning when he said I don't want you to do this, 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:30.519 why did you persist? Um? There was a theater in Englewood. 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:32.560 I was about ten years old, and I used to 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.400 go to the Saturday morning matinees with all the other 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:38.000 little kids, and it was filled with kids yelling and 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.040 screaming because of seeing my father. I would get so 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:43.840 excited and run up on the stage and I would 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:47.280 just like jump around and go into a and I 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.280 wasn't really dancing, but I would jump around and make 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.480 all the kids laugh, and they were roaring, and I'd 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:55.760 see that the owner of the theater come running down 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.040 the island. I had leap off the theater and I 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:00.480 was very very fast, so I could all into the 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.800 seats and disappear, and he couldn't find me. And I 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.160 came again. It was maybe like the second or third 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:10.560 time Saturday morning. He was waiting for me backstage, and 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:12.680 I got up on the stage and he came out 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:14.839 and he grabbed me by the arm, took me back 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.200 in his office and called my mother. And my mother 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.640 knew that, uh, my father did not want me to 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:25.279 be in show business, so she secretly started me in 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.560 tap dancing lessons. At How old were you? I was 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:32.600 about nine. You're a little kid, nine or ten. What 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.160 was it about your mom? Was your mom in the business, Oh? Yeah, 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:37.320 she was a show girl. That's where my mother and 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:39.839 father on Broadway. That's where they met at the road show, 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:41.799 one of the shows, and she was in the line 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.280 and she um, she was only like sixteen or seventeen. 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.200 She lied to because she wanted to be in the show. 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:51.839 I think my mother had my older brother when she 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:55.080 was seventeen and had me when she was eighteen. How 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.160 many kids in your family? Two brothers, an older brother 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.000 who passed away and a younger brother who has a 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:04.800 group called the Standals and rock and roll group. And 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:10.080 he's still around and still doing concerts. And uh, he 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.760 deaf now, but he goes out, doesn't anything, and he 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:17.880 yells all over. But when you come and you start 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:20.240 making films, your first film as the Boy with the 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.920 Green Hair, isn't that Dean Stockwell? Yeah, that was Dean. 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:31.080 We became friends, and I think that's when I was 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:34.120 like nine or nine or ten. How do they find 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.560 you then to be in a film? Oh? I did 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:39.240 a play at the corn at theater. The first thing 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:43.280 I did was a play directed by Lloyd Bridges called 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:45.920 The Stone Jungle, and I had a great part in 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.880 it and a end up getting killed in it, and 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:50.880 and it was killed a nine year old boy in 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.680 this play. Oh yeah. It was at Kids that go 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.840 to a rock quarry and uh, there were good actors 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:59.799 in it. A talent scout came and then he brought 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.479 me over to audition for a couple of parts. And 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.839 the boy with green hair, Joseph Flosi, I think, directed it, 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.320 and uh introduced me to him, and Uh, I tried 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:11.279 out for a couple of parts and didn't get anything, 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.320 And finally they just said, would you like to be 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.000 one of the kids in it? So I said yeah, 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.240 and so I became one of the background and kids 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:21.640 in it. And that was my first movie. You know, 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:23.960 I always think of young people working in films, and 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:26.039 we have all kinds of protections now when we have 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.159 all kinds of laws and rules with the Union to 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:32.480 protect young people and tutors and how many hours they 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:33.960 can work. But when you were a kid, what was 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:35.640 that like? How did they treat you? Were they affectionate? 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:39.200 And well? It was okay except for for Cecil b 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:51.040 the mill. Working for the mill was Samson and Delilah. Yeah. 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:55.080 How old are you then? About ten? I think I 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:58.400 was ten years old. I played King Saul as a boy. 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:00.880 You did four movies and this you do boy with 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:04.080 the green hair, Rain of Terror, Kid from Cleveland. Your 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:07.760 fourth movie is Samson and Delilah. I mean, I'm a 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.440 sap for those epic movies. And it's de Mill obviously, 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:12.440 so you see the other directors, they might have been 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:14.360 a little more coddling and a little warmer to you. 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.960 What was the mill like? The Mill was like like 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:22.400 you would expect. He wore short pants, I guess, with 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.360 high socks. He had a stick the voice of God. 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.960 Samson and Delilah, Um was the Mill? So that was? 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:33.400 That was what was general? Yeah, And when I went 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.280 in for the audition, I auditioned with a paramount actor 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:40.160 and it was this room. Um, I remember it was 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.560 a room and there was like a big window, one 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:46.160 way mirror. And when I finished the scene, the doors 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:48.880 came bursting open and out came the Mill with his 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:51.840 entourage and he said, you got the part, my boy, 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:56.520 And uh that was That was a big one for him. 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:58.400 You get to spend any time with Victor maturege. You 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:00.960 get to meet the adults much. What was he like? 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.160 He was funnier than hell. Oh, my guard, he was wild. 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:06.800 People told me some I wouldn't even repeat the stories 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:08.560 I've been told about him. I've heard some pretty He 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.160 came in with a black eye one time, and you know, 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:13.240 and they had to put makeup on his eye. And 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:15.720 I asked him, I said, Jesus, like, how the hell 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:17.840 did you get that? He says, I went home last 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.560 night and my wife punched me in the eye. And 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:22.400 I said, what's that for? You said, that's for what 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:28.680 you're gonna do. He was very mischievous. He moved signs 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.120 so that people would drive the wrong way, and you know, 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:34.120 he was crazy. Oh yeah. And then one of the 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.080 things was was Hetty Lamar, and I thought she was 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:42.319 gorgeous in it. I remember sitting in her dressing room 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:46.240 one time and mature. I never forget this. His dog 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:48.040 was with him, and the dog came into the dressing 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:50.120 room and he went over and started to lick Hetty 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.480 Lamar's legs and he says, get away from there. If 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:56.520 I can't do that, you can't do it. Hetty Lamar, 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:03.280 Oh my god. She took me to lunch one time. 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:05.280 At on the lunch you would like to go to lunch? 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:07.079 He said, yeah, you know, so I went to lunch 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.520 with Hetty and she said, oh, let's stop by this stage. 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:12.840 I want you to see something you'll you'll like. So 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:16.240 we go into the stage and it was Dean Martin 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:20.600 and Jerry Lewis's first movie, My Friend Irma, and everybody 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.200 was just in hysterics. Jerry was smoking a cigarette and 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:25.920 he got a bunch of ashes under the end of 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.080 the cigarette, and at one moment he reached down an 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:34.040 unzipped pants and flashes and everybody was just cracking up. 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.120 He was like that constantly, I'm gonna steal that. I love. 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.160 That is then a good one. Now you know, you 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.719 know these movies Boy with the Green Hair, Sampson and 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:44.960 the Live these are straight dramas. But then you get 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:49.360 to do Seven Brides, And had you done much you know, 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:51.000 your mother wanted you to learn how to tap dance. 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:53.679 Had you done much hoofing, and you were much into 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:56.440 the musical world on stage. Well, let me explain to 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.240 you how I got it. To tell me, Okay, I 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:03.400 did a movie at Warner Brothers called Retreat Hell. Joseph H. 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.760 Lewis directed it and I played a young marine in it. 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:10.560 And I had worked for him before in uh one 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:14.720 of his classic film, The Wall Movies. Um, it was 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:18.199 a class crazy. I think we're on a game show here, 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:24.720 and it was. It had one of the classic bank 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.040 robbery scenes in it. I don't know if you ever 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:30.679 saw it, but it was. It was the best. The 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.360 King brothers came and said, hey, I'm sorry, Joe, you 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:35.480 gotta shoot this in like a couple of hours. We 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.280 don't have the time. We have the money broke, so 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:40.720 he didn't know what to do, so he just stuck 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:43.679 a camera in the back seat of the car and 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.640 shot over the back of their heads and they actually 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.680 drove to the bank all in one take, and he 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:51.559 parked the car that kept the camera in there and 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.280 showed him going in and then finally he came out 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:56.160 and there was like a policeman that they kept joked 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.640 in the car and they drove. It was all one shot, 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:01.880 and they said that was one of the best bankrupt 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:06.520 It was by accident. So he took the film that 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:10.920 I did, Retreat Hell, which was a Korean war film, 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.720 and he showed it to MGM, and I guess MGM 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:17.320 was looking for actors to sign at the time, so 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.200 they signed me under contract and the first movie I 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:22.360 did there was Take the high Ground. I played a 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.079 comedy character in it. And it was a basic training 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:27.880 movie where Richard Woodmark teaches us all how to and 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:31.319 Carl mull and teach us how to become good soldiers, 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:36.280 which was great, and uh simn Brides came up. It 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.600 was like the next film there, and Michael Kidd told 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.200 the studio that he wanted all the six brothers to 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.520 be great dancers. And the studio said, wait a minute, 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.120 we have actors under contract here. So I'll tell you what. 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:52.120 You can have four great dancers and two actors that 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.960 are under contract. And I was one of the actors 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.480 that was under contract. And the other actor was Jeff 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:01.600 Richards who was a base ball player before he became 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:05.400 an actor who hated dancers. He's one of the brothers. 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.360 I said, let's go visit our brothers with the rehearsing. 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:10.600 And he says, oh Jesus, do I have to go 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:13.400 over there and talk to all those fags. Oh God, yeah, 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.400 that's how we felt. Yeah, So we go over there 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:18.760 and Michael Kidd came up to me and he said, 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.319 somebody told me you're a tumbler, that you're an acrobat. 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:23.640 I did a backflip for him right on the spot. 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.000 He says, oh my god, we'll use it in the number. 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:28.600 And I said, no, wait a minute. I'm not dancing 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:31.320 with Jack dem Woss from New York City Ballet and 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.160 Mathematics and Mark Platt. And I've never had any dance 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.880 traging except for the tap dancing. I said, I can't dance. 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:40.319 He said, look, this is just square dancing. All you 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:44.800 gotta do is lift your legs. So we do this 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:49.680 number called Going Courting Jennie Powell trying to make gentleman 0:12:49.720 --> 0:13:01.240 out of us, teaching everybody how to dance, and uh 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:05.559 to get a really professional dancer to look awkward, it's 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:07.880 hard to do because they automatically stand up in the 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:11.440 fifth position. So Michael had had the choice of either 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:13.920 putting me way in back of these great dancers. I 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:17.600 ended up in front of all the dancers, looking awkward, 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:21.679 just going crazy, jumping around and then flipping up and 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.760 falling down on the floor and saying keep your dancing, 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:26.640 you know. That was the end of the number. That 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.600 number was just made for me because I was learning 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:33.640 how to go in Courton. Going Courton was the number. 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:35.840 And then of course the other big number was the 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:38.720 Barn Dance number. We were dancing on planks and stuff 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.160 like that. That was up my alley because I could 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:47.640 do flips. I always get the impression that those films 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:50.800 it was a lot of work. Yes, it was all 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:55.200 one take. There were no cuts in it. How was Donna? 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:59.040 I'm a big admirer of his film, you are I 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.520 thought he was overrated? Yeah, well we had to shoot 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.480 a bunch of stuff over again that he did. In 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:07.200 that they put snow on everybody's faces and it just 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.440 looked like they forgot to put makeup on in certain places. 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:13.960 And I know he's done some good films, but it 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.360 was really Michael films. Other people you think made him 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:19.520 look good. Yeah, other people made him again. And Gene Kelly, 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:22.040 you know, he was a friend of Gene Kelly's. When 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.000 we had finished the Barn Dance number and it was 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.200 pretty well choreographed and everything, we came back from lunch 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:31.080 and Stanley came on the stage with Gene Kelly and said, 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.120 I want you all to run through the whole number 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.760 from top to bottom for Gene. So we we did. 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.520 He was wonderful. He just said, hey, guys, all I 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.000 can tell you is there's nothing else for you to do, 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:54.960 but cut yourself in bleed. We'll be back in a minute. 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:02.600 Let me just say this, beyond the music, beyond Bernstein, 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:04.840 who I worship. When I think of West Side Story, 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.360 I think of a young Natalie Wood. And the other 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.840 thing I remember is that you're not the male lead 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:14.040 in the show. And yet, and I'm not guessing you 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:20.120 pop off that screen man like ten million dollars end 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:25.960 to end, you kind of Sergeant Krupkey. You gotta understand, 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.920 it's just not bring an up that gets us out 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:32.120 of hand. Our mother's all a junkies, Our father's all 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:39.680 a drunks. Golly naturally, un j officer, you got old swagger. 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.800 You become one of the stars of the film. Was 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.680 that Robert Wise's intention? Or did that just happen in 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:52.400 the cut of the film? It um, it was weird. 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:56.120 I was in the Army when um uh and on 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:58.920 tour for Tom Thumb when I went to New York 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:00.760 and I saw West Side Story and I said, oh 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.160 my god, I want to do this. I bought the album, 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.840 took it back to UH to Oklahoma where I was 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:08.920 at fort So how long are you in the army? 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:11.440 For two years? You didn't have to go overseas on 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:17.640 Oklahoma the whole time, and I fucked up what yeah, 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.000 that's a good question, shooting blanks at a sign that 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.280 said I am the enemy, you know, I mean the 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:28.240 last thirty days, I took leave and did a simmer 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.360 Roun in Arizona with Glenn Ford, and then I had 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:34.000 to go back to the Army finish it up. And 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.800 I drove back and what happened was is I went 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.720 over to United Artists where they were shooting, and I 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:45.920 auditioned as Tony. And I even auditioned with with Mickey Callan, 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:50.000 who played Riff on Broadway. He played by part on Broadway. 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.920 I auditioned with several girls, Anna Murrial Baghetti, Uh, with 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:57.920 several actresses that were they were up for the part 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:02.520 of Maria. And and I had the same agent as 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.320 as Robert Wise, so I had a really close connection, 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:09.400 you know, and I kept checking, well, how's it going. 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:13.080 They picked Tony said not yet, Bob isn't sure what 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:16.199 he he's not sure yet. But finally he called me 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:20.280 and he said, well, I'm sorry, but they picked Richard 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:24.840 Bamer to play the part of Tony. But they said Richard, Yeah, 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.359 I had no idea who he was. And they said, 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.000 but they've offered you the role. They've offered you the 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.560 role of Riff, and I said Riff. I said no, no, no, no. 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.360 He said, you don't want to do it, and I said, yes, 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:38.159 I do want to do it. You know, it's like 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.480 really really quick. I said, I really want to be 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:42.439 in this film, but I said, I don't think I 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:47.760 can handle the dancing is like incredibly difficult for Riff. 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:49.719 But am I glad I didn't do it. I mean, 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:53.200 it's not a good part, Tony. But when they offered 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:55.240 me the part of Riff, they wanted to see me 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.119 both Bob and Jerry Robbins. So I go to the 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.400 studio and I go in to see them and they're 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.760 both sitting there and the first thing that Jerry says 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.160 to me, he says, now, Russ. He says, I've seen 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.280 your musical Seven Rides and The Fastest Gonna Live, where 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:12.320 you dance on shovels. And he says, on all your films, 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.720 even comedies, you do tumbling. But I kept to tell 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.679 you right now, there'll be no tumbling in this movie, 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:21.440 will be none. And he said, you're gonna have to 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:24.640 do straight dancing. That's the way the part is for riff. 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:28.080 And I said, all right, I'll that's what he told me. 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.159 And I was so Jerome Robbins was fired because he 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.440 was taken too long. We were doing shots in New York, 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:38.760 going like dancing down two blocks, you know, and and 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.200 then of the West sideway. Then then he would come 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:44.520 back and get this and he would say that was fine, 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.840 and Robert Wise he would say that was terrific, that 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:50.439 was great. Printed We're all done, And Jerry said, no, no no, no, 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:52.439 I'd like to do one more, but I would like 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:54.520 all the dancers to do it on the other foot. 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:57.959 So Jerry so Robbins was the choreographer, not the director. 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.479 Robbins well the co director, but but they had an 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:05.040 agreement that Bob Wise would would do the dramatic scenes 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:10.399 and and uh Robin Robins would numbers. So do it 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:12.080 on the other foot. Now you may not know what 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:14.560 that means. That means instead of stepping on the left 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:16.440 and kicking to the right, you gotta step on the 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.159 right kick to the left, you gotta do with the 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:22.320 other way. And so every all these dancers are walking 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.200 around crazy. So we were there in New York for 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:28.800 Oh my God. We are there for a month late, 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:30.720 and by the time he got back to l A, 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.240 they closed the production down. They said that's it. He 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:35.080 had it in his option that if it didn't work 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.080 out for a certain amount of time that he could 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.840 be let go. He was just gone. By the time 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:42.840 we came back to work, he was gone. And all 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:47.320 the dancers were like depressed. They've been complaining the whole time, 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:52.480 complaining about how all they'd rather have Jerry Robins and complaining, Yeah, 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.480 it's not like calling them names or anything. There was 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.600 there's a book written his biography is Dancing with the Devil, 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:00.960 you know. So, I mean, he just was a prick. 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.040 So it was until after he was fired that, uh, 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:08.600 one of his assistants, Tony Mordente, married Rivera, you know 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:12.400 Tony and Tony took over. So Tony said, let's put 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.359 some tumbling back in the in the in the film, 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:17.800 Let's put some So that's when I in the dance 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:19.639 Hall number. I did the round off back with a 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:24.760 full twist, kept dancing and everything. And so later on 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:29.119 Jerry Robins had a show called Jerome Robbins Broadway, and 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.760 the kid that was playing Riff did a flip on 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.280 the stage and I saw that and almost had a 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:36.119 heart attack. I turned to Buy, I said, did you 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:38.680 see that? So I couldn't wait to get back to stage, 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:40.159 you know. And I met him and he was so 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:42.359 happy to meet me, and I said, now I gotta 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:44.560 ask you. How were you able to do a flip 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.160 on the stage? He says, that was part of the audition, 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.359 So I give myself a pat on the back for that. 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.160 Were you ever seriously injured doing the work You've done 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:57.480 only once in a Wonderful World of Brothers Grim, which 0:20:57.560 --> 0:20:59.439 was in cinerama, So it was hard to do. And 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:01.520 I had to down a hill and jump over the 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:03.600 camera and I think I hit the top of the 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:08.000 camera and cut like Tom Cruise and mission impossible. Yeah, 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.280 did you know when you were doing the movie what 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:12.520 the movie was going to be? Did you know? I 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:16.240 knew I was doing a classic movie, but I didn't 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.880 know that it was going to end up history history 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:22.160 and as big as it was, it's an epic film. 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:25.240 And there's a lot of big stars, so like Glenn Ford, 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.159 there's like tons of them that are big stars that 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:31.399 have never really had an epic film. You know that 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.359 they could hang their shirt on a big movie. I mean, 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:38.000 you take Georgia Carris, you know, think what else has 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:42.560 he done? West Side Story is his premier. Because of that, 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:45.640 we got to go to Grummin's Chinese and get our 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:48.720 hands and feet as it should cement, you know, which 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:53.880 was pretty pretty much of a trip. Actor dancer West 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:58.399 Side Story star Russ Tamblin. Another Here's the Thing guest 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:01.600