WEBVTT - George Hamilton 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:07.560 Hey, everyone, thanks for pulling up a chair. Today on 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:08.600 Table for two. 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:12.160 We're at the Sunset Tower in Hollywood, my favorite joint, 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:13.840 and this is Bruce Bosi. 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:14.680 Today. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.599 Those are super glamorous, very special day because we're having 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:21.319 lunch with an icon, with someone who's been in the 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.080 business since literally the nineteen forties. 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:26.760 I'm gonna have the chop salad with the exactly. 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:30.520 The way you're DoD He's tan, he's charming, he has 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:35.240 so much charisma. He has started movies, television, Broadway. He's 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:39.720 published books, produced movies. He's been an entrepreneur. 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:41.599 I wish I could eat more of this, but I've 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:42.200 talked too much. 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:53.040 He is a very debonair, very funny, extremely charismatic George Hamilton. 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:56.360 So let me tell you, pull up a chair, grab 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:58.520 yourself a glass of rose, because we are gonna have 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:02.320 some good times today and hear some epic stories from 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:06.640 years gone by, and you'll be surprised. There's a future 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.680 for this eighty four year old. So stay with us 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.880 and we'll be right back. I'm Bruce Bosi and this 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:28.040 is my podcast Table for two. So mister Hamilton, thank 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.680 you for George, thank you for pulling up a chair 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.480 today on table for two. It's a big deal, and 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:36.120 I just wanted to sort of say so, you know, 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:38.720 many of my lunch dates are legends in the making, 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.120 legends to be if they're lucky enough to have the 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:43.959 fortitude to stick around. And we're sitting if you pulled 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.880 up a chair today with a gentleman who is an 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:53.120 iconic man, a true Hollywood superstar, your royalty in Hollywood. 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.800 You are what the definition of a movie star is. 0:01:56.240 --> 0:02:01.200 You've had incredible career. Georgia started in movies, television. You've 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.960 hosted your own successful daytime talk show. You start on Broadway. 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:09.360 You've published two very successful books. You're a successful producer. 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:13.760 You're an entrepreneur, the skincare line, the tanning salons. You've 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.280 been the Grand Marshal of a parade. You've been a 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:17.880 reality television host. 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:18.520 You've been a. 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:22.679 Reality television star. You've had cigars named after you. You've 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.600 been a lover. You've married your father, a brother, a son, 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:30.200 and you in two thousand and nine were awarded the 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.399 two thousand, three hundred and eighty eighth Star on Hollywood 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:37.360 Boulevard Walker Fame. I am sitting with today a legend 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:40.040 mister George Hamilton, thank you for joining me today. 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:42.919 And I was married and divorced only one time you've 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:46.639 been record that is yeah, and remained a friend over 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:50.160 the years. And you know, I got I got a 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:54.200 star in Palm Springs, and I was, yeah, I thought, 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.120 that's a pretty amazing to get a star in Palm 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.120 spring And then I got a it's been there with 0:02:58.240 --> 0:02:59.919 thirty forty years and now I got a note of 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.480 about it and needed repair. And they asked me, yeah, 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.440 ask me what I wanted to do about it? Maybe 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:12.120 running a repair service for stars literally and Bom Springs. 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:13.959 You gotta go down and fix it? Why not? You know, 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:15.760 you just don't want to. You don't want to leave 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:16.200 your star. 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.080 No, you have to keep that. So you are from Memphis, right, 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.200 born of Memphis. So you're younger than Elvis Presley. Did 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:25.520 you ever did you know him growing up? Did you 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:26.400 ever meet Elvis? 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:30.160 Never met him in Memphis in the in the beginning 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.360 when he started. I had already left Memphis and was 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:37.760 in Hollywood when he started. And I met the colonel, 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:40.760 and the colonel was the most extraordinary guy. I became 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.960 some of my best friend and under contract to MGM. 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:45.760 He had a sort of cook house. He liked it 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:48.520 because then the carnival, it was where all the people 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:51.160 met and he made his best deals. And he had 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:57.560 all the guys from Elvis's group, Sonny and Red and 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.240 Lamar and all the guys would come in and see 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:06.760 the colonel, and Elvis would come and go. But the 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.600 Colonel and Elvis were very much in a kind of 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.760 low key conversation all the time, and there would be 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:16.200 like a continuing of it. He would check in with 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.200 him and it would be kind of private conversations. I 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:23.080 would hear, and I would see the boys hanging out 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.120 with each other and with Elvis. The minute they were 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:30.920 walking in or they were leaving, they'd start a song, 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:35.680 a gospel song in tight harmony. And I think Elvis 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:37.920 in love that kind of it was kind of like 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:38.960 a grounding where. 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:39.600 His world was. 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:41.880 All the rest of it was kind of you know, 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.479 this is happening, but and he wasn't making a big 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:44.919 deal of it. 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:46.280 I was a very low key. 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:51.279 Guy, and I didn't I certainly knew him and talk 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:53.960 to him many times, but I don't think I ever 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:56.160 was close with Elvis. When I was going out with 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:03.800 Lyndon Johnson's daughter Linda, Elvis and him Priscilla, and in 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.280 different times we were all together, and I have some 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:12.360 pictures with Elvis were very interesting, but it was Elvis 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.680 was a totally gentleman, very considerate, very kind person. 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.840 That's the definite, Like if someone's describing you, that's how 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:21.040 one would describe you. 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.200 I feel. And do you think it has to do 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:25.120 with being a Southern Yeah. 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.240 I do think I've read something about you once you 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.080 said you the most important thing to use someone who's kind. 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.200 Yes, that's to me too. I was brought up that way. 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:35.520 I don't I'm not. I can. 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:38.320 I can have a funny line and it could be cutting, 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:41.760 but it's never unkind. I don't know how to be unkind. 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:44.840 And people will say, well, you know that shows weakness, 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:46.719 when you know it doesn't shows great strength. 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:48.719 Especially in this town. 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:53.800 I see people in the streets, you know, all messed 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.880 up all across this country now on all the drugs 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:02.360 that are just awful now, and just to be kind 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.360 helps so much in their world, just to acknowledge people. 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.400 When I see people you know who unfortunately are living 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.800 on the streets, they just want to be acknowledged these 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:13.839 It's like, you know, we're just all on this planet 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.120 together for this short period of time. 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:16.560 You know. 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.359 It's so true, And how we look at life determines 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:22.720 our success. And a lot of people think you have 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:25.320 to be tough and killing and crushing. 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:25.599 To get ahead. 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.960 I always resent that, and I always resist it. The 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.840 minute I realize I've got a plan, I hand it 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:33.800 over and let the universe head it. 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.200 It always finds a better way for me, and it 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:38.400 gives it to me in a way in which I 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:42.400 would least expect it. But it comes in perfect form 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.360 when it comes, may come three years later than my timing. 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:47.680 But I've let go of that all my life. 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:50.880 I never did in my mind something cheap or hurtful 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:53.080 to get ahead and a cost to someone else. 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:04.760 So if we kind of flip from Memphis, what brought 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:06.640 you to Hollywood. 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:08.800 Well, they were separate by years. My mother and brother 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.080 were the end of the war, come the Second World War. 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:16.120 The forties in this country were amazing. People were all 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:19.040 of a sudden seeing they were getting houses for the 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.880 first time under the gi Bill of Rights. People were 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.440 actually able to have something for a change. And I 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:27.679 don't know, I guess it was Rosevelt that brought that along. 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:30.720 And people were starting to settle down in these different 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.800 towns and countries and places, and America was becoming a 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.120 place to go and venture into and see now that 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:39.520 the war was over. And my mother and brother lived 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.800 in a little town called Blifeul, Arkansas. My grandfather was 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:46.400 the town doctor. My grandmother was a Christian science practitioner. 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:50.440 They were married and for years my grandfather had done 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.720 all these medical things in a small town, and my 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.040 grandmother has done all of this kind of Christian science 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.600 metaphysical thinking, and at the end of his life he 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:03.360 said that she had healed more than he had. My 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:07.400 mother decided that she had been in love with one 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:09.360 guy who was in a movie and his name was 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:13.160 Buddy Rogers, Butty Rogers and wings, and my mother just 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.000 this was the end all. And he arrived in his 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.480 plane in this little town where they had a huge 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.520 army base, air force base, and it was all wrapping 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:23.840 up and the war was over. My mother knew she 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:26.800 had to get out of this little town. But until then, 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.640 the best looking men on earth arrived in airplanes day 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.520 in this air force base. So my mother said, I'm 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:35.679 going to leave this place, and I'm going to go 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.640 to Hollywood because I have Betty Grabel's legs. 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.600 And my brother, my gay brother, said, I have Betty Gables. 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:45.400 I had a gay brother, and Bill was the most 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:46.559 amazing human being. 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.400 He taught me so much. He had the best taste 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:54.079 of anybody I ever knew. He was had an outrageous 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.320 sense of humor. And my mother and brother were joined together, 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:02.679 and he actually created this fatal my mother by dressing her, 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:07.160 and he had such amazing taste that he gave her 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.720 all of the little my mother great southern bell quality, 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:15.319 but she didn't have that killer, that look of fatale. 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:17.679 My brother just did that, and he knew what he dresses, 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:19.040 he styled. 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.520 He created her, He absolutely created He then said to 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:23.200 me at that. 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:25.880 Age, she said, we're going to California, and I'm taking 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:28.719 you and your other brother. We're going across country and 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:30.160 you get to see all of America. 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:32.480 That was perfect. 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.800 My little brother didn't know where he'd come from. Is 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.440 not like anybody else in the family. He's a person, 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.760 so so he said it in his own words. He's 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:45.400 so meticulous and so worried about what's going to happen. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.880 That he'll read the label of an aspirin bottle for 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:55.000 all side effects, and we will leave for another country 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:56.600 with twelve dollars in our pocket. 0:09:57.000 --> 0:09:59.679 We just don't. We just know that the universe is going. 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.640 To provide right exactly. So my mother and brother set out. 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:06.760 We bought a Lincoln Continental convertible. Yeah it was pea 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:11.559 green but had beige leather and beige top, and Lincolnenttal 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:12.720 convertible forty seven. 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.199 Them were apset doning, yes, dunning, and we you know, 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.280 they didn't drive all the well over they were you know, 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:19.720 four engines in them. 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:24.960 But we drove across country and we broke down somewhere 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:29.200 in Mexico, and in the mountains of Mexico. My mother 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.839 decided to take us short through Mexico. Yeah, if you 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:35.720 can believe that one, and we ended up in Acapusto, 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.000 but not before death almost because we brakes went out 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:42.240 of the mountains and ten thousand feet and my brother 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:45.679 was hyperventilating, and my mother was there saying, oh, we've 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:46.840 got to do something, and she. 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.280 Looked back at me and she said, well, you're all 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:51.040 I've got get out and find help. 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:54.320 That was now at that time, I was a little 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.439 like this is a little later I was I was 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.760 not seven, I was about ten, okay, and so at 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.360 and I had a field commission and I went out 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:07.760 and found I found another wrecker, actually was a garbage truck. 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:09.480 And I went and I put my mother and my 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.760 brother and my little brother in the garbage truck and 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.640 we drove to a Capulco, which was a hell of 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:16.520 a arrival in. 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:20.760 The garbage truck. Thank you that this is a movie. 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.680 The story you're talking about, like, what an adventure. 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.160 My brother was really a lovely human being and taught 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.720 me a lot, but he was always behind the scenes, 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.400 plotting and planning. My mother had all these different boyfriends 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:49.079 that all had fallen in love with her, and so 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.120 every town we go to, she said, oh. 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:51.959 He's divine, you know. 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.520 He went to Princeton and just gonna love him, and 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:56.240 we're gonna have dinner with him, and I were going 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:57.679 to find a father for all of us. 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:00.400 It's just gonna work beautifully. And I'd say, oh great. 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:01.880 We'd sit down and the guy would walk and he 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:04.120 was a complete alcoholic, a mess, and she said, oh 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:05.360 my god, he's let himself go. 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.360 We move on to the next town, right. 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:14.480 She was just outrageous, you know. And Bill would say, well, 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:16.920 you know, it's just not the thing to do the 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.280 way he did. He don't wear brown shoes after six o'clock. 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:21.800 Georgia. 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.040 Now we understand, like how you got such incredible style 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:25.920 and charisma. 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.599 I mean, this was to have a mom like that, 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:29.400 well it was. 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:33.640 It was a bizarre thing because Bill and Mom wanted 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.160 to entertain and know all the and they did because 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:40.800 you know, this swans that whole thing with Truman. 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:41.800 Capodi was at our. 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.320 House every night, really at Beriakman Place in New York, 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.760 and my brother when they ran out quite often they'd 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.040 run out of money and they wouldn't have any more 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:54.079 cabar in anymore cannopages. My brother would go back in 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.440 the kitchen and put together dog food on little ritz 0:12:57.520 --> 0:12:59.959 crackers with an olive and people would eat. 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:01.680 And I said, Bill, you can't do it. He said, 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:02.160 they'd love it. 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:26.040 Welcome back to Table for two. 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.960 Our guest, George Hamilton has been a Hollywood fixture since 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.319 the nineteen fifties, but you might not know that being 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.960 a movie star was not his first choice for. 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.960 A career Hollywood. When we got to Hollywood. 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.440 Yeah, tell me like, you got to Hollywood and you're 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:43.080 how old? 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:44.880 Now, Well, I was about twelve. 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.680 Then it's your twelve, I guess in ten, eleven, twelve 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.959 in that time, and sometimes it seemed forever, but we 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.760 stopped in all these different towns. My mother thought that 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:57.040 Hollywood was where they were going to make it, and 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:58.319 then I realized something. 0:13:58.480 --> 0:13:58.880 They were here. 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.680 We had houses all over, they'd had a little money 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:06.400 from they'd inherited with the death of my grandmother and grandfather, 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.840 and they were living the life they thought movie stars lived. 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:13.040 And they were I mean my mother there was nothing 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:16.000 to see Clark Gable at dinner with my mother. I mean, 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:18.319 these were things that, oh yeah, all the time. And 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:20.000 my mother knew all the movies stars. 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.320 Now was she pursuing the career or she just was 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:22.680 sort of. 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:25.760 So they were enamored from the first day they saw 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:28.360 a movie in her movie house and they saw themselves 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:30.760 in it, both of them. And my brother was pushing 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:34.080 my mother because he wanted it too, and neither one. 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:38.000 He was incredibly good looking, and I. 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.240 Wasn't fashionable to be gay in those days, and very 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:45.120 hard right and Bill and I I laughed a lot 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:46.320 of Bill's outrageous. 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:49.480 It's his sense of humor was so outrageous. And my 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.760 mother was this. She got a screen test and she 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:55.040 used Bill's lane, which was just a foolish thing. 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:57.760 She went and she had this screen test where one 0:14:57.840 --> 0:14:59.960 of these guys was supposed to be like a Clark gay. 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.880 She was supposed to say she supposed to seduce him 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.880 on camera, and she was all right with that, except 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:08.360 she did say exactly what. 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.600 Billy told her. A gentleman doesn't wear brown shoes after 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.040 six o'clock. And that was the end of her career. 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.080 Thank you, thank you. It's very kind. But we're moving on. 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:22.000 We're moving on. 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:26.560 So when you get to Hollywood, you're going into your teens, 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.880 did you have a influence that you looked at like 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.400 a leading man that you were like, oh, and did 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.400 you have the itch you wanted to become an actor? 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:37.640 Brusle? You know what what got it for me? I 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.120 really wanted to be a doctor because my grandmother and 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.120 grandfather was and I thought there's a lot to this 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:46.200 medicine that doesn't people don't understand the mind. The power 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.760 of the mind is huge, and I thought I would 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.000 try to be an actor, but. 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:54.680 I thought, it's not possible the way they're doing it, 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:56.720 you know, just they're failing left and right, and yet 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.240 they're the darlings of the tomb. So years later I 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:03.480 decided I was getting out of school. I was seventeen, 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.320 and I thought, why don't I try that, just to 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:10.440 see if my idea is right. They wanted it too much, 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:13.800 and I figured out the way to handle Hollywood is 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:16.880 let them think you don't need them. So when I 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:22.080 went to MGM, an agent brought me in with ten guys, 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:24.600 and they were all kind of like a yellow dog 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:28.720 casting kanya. So I decided I'd rent a Rolls Royce 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:31.000 and get a chauffeur. And I got an old one 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.480 that was in nineteen thirty nine, Snack of Deville, built 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:36.680 for the King and Queen of England, and I rented 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.720 it for the day and got a dorman from a 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.400 restaurant with some braid on his shoulder and made him 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:44.960 drive it, and I said park it under the window 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:49.240 of Altrasconi, who was the casting director of MGM. And 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:51.120 so while I was standing with these ten guys and 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:53.280 then this agent was doing a bad job trying to 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.520 sell us, I kept going to the window, and I'd 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:57.720 look at my watch and I'd look out the window 0:16:57.720 --> 0:16:59.160 and said, be right down, be right And I said, 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:01.080 what are you doing? I said, these cars downstairs and 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:01.520 I have to go. 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:02.840 This is what do you have to go for? 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.200 I said, well, mommy and I this is not for me. 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:07.320 I don't want to be an actor. I said, God, 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:09.040 I can make much more money in the family, but 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.560 I don't want to do this. And they said, well, 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:13.000 hold on a minute. I said, I'm sorry, must go, 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.639 shook hands with each boy and walked out. I was 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.320 called back an hour later and say, they want you back. 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:21.000 They want to talk to you again. I said, I'm 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:23.040 not working for any three hundred dollars a week. I 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:26.639 better trust about it than that. Anyway, I got my 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.600 first contract up to one thousand dollars and they were 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:32.520 not hired, no one else. And I said to my 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:34.959 mother and brother, the trick is you wanted it too much. 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:38.080 I pretended I didn't want it. I went under contract 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.200 the first day, you asked me. The first person I 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:43.520 saw walking on the lot was carry Grant. 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:44.880 Get out and I walked. 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:47.119 I said, mister Grant, how what do I do to 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:48.840 be like you. He said, why didn't you get a 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:50.160 good haircut. 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:57.400 That? And then I saw I saw fred as stair dancing, 0:17:57.560 --> 0:17:58.480 and I thought, my god. 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.160 He said and I waited finish and I said, mister Stare, 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:03.200 can you give me any tips because I'm trying to 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:07.720 learn about acting and on. And he said, well, they 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:09.520 have a good tailor here, but there's a better one 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.359 in London that you might one day get. Told me 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:14.960 the name of the taylor. I thought, so far, I've 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.920 got a haircut in the tailor. And my first movie 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:23.240 at MGM was with Robert Mitchell. Now mitcham was just 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:27.159 sort of leisurely standing against the wall, I thought, But 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:30.520 then I realized that there's something else going on. He said, 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:32.440 say the lines that I men met the guy and 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:35.600 we were in a scene and they said, Mitch, say 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:38.960 the lines. Vincent Minelli said, say the lines, bitch, and 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:41.400 he said, I know the lines. I'm just too drunk 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:41.840 to say. 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.320 This is just Hollywood. So now he and I work 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:50.119 all day. He never misses the line. We finished around 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:52.320 seven o'clock and he said, we're going to the Sportsman's Love. 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:55.280 We're going to have a drink. I thought, okay. Four 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:56.160 o'clock in the morning. 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:59.080 I'm still drinking with Robert Mitchum and I said, mister Mitchell, 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:00.719 I've got to be on the set at seven o'clock 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.600 in the morning. He said, you know, you worry about 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.080 makeup and being in a wardrobe, he said, tell him 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:08.360 me put the wardrobe in a dressing room and get 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:11.959 a tan. Well for days, that was it. I had 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:16.280 a haircut, a suit, and a ten That's all I knew. 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.280 And that advice was that I never learned anything about acting. 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:32.040 That was another stuff they said to me at the studio. 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.200 This is the best part of okay, They said to 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:38.440 me at the studio. We want you to date only 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.320 the girls at MGM because we put a lot of 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:45.159 money in publicity for you people. And don't go to 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:47.720 Warner Brothers and ask what there's some beautiful girls. Don't 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:48.800 go to Warner Brothers. 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:50.240 Just stay with the MGM women. 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:52.840 So I found a list of them. They were about 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:55.840 seventy and I thought I could get through that in 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:56.400 a month ago. 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.560 So the next thing I would take, you know, sometimes 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.200 three a day, I'd make breakfast, lunch. 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:08.320 I was doing what the studio wanted. 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:12.760 So as it went on, I found out something that 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:15.840 was extraordinary. First of all, there were lots of parts, 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.400 but they weren't telling and the agents didn't have the knowledge. 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:22.200 They had no breakdowns. So the agents, I'm working on 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:24.240 something for you, Because it was always bullshit. You just 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:26.760 knew that the agent weren't going to come up with anything. 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:29.080 So I took it in my own hands, and I 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.440