#34 John Eimen: Former Child Star

Announcer 0:00

Looking to sound like you know what's going on in the world, pop culture, social strategy, comedy and other funny stuff. Well join the club and settle in for the Jeff Dwoskin show. It's not the podcast we deserve. But the podcast we all need with your host, Jeff Dwoskin.

Jeff Dwoskin 0:15

All right, Tommy, thank you very much for that amazing introduction. You get us going each and every week. Welcome, everybody, to the final episode of 2020, Episode 34 of the Jeff Dwoskin show. I can't thank you enough for coming back week after week. And here we are ending the year together. And we're ending it strong. I've got an amazing guest, john Iman. He was a child actor in the 50s and 60s is going to talk to us about that experience. It's a great conversation. He was on the untouchables Leave it to Beaver wagon train and my favorite show of all time. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the original Twilight Zone. great stories coming up with john Iman and just a little bit. You know what I'll say great stories. Last week's Christmas episode with Scott Schwartz from A Christmas Story. If you haven't checked that one out, definitely check that episode we talk a lot about Kidco, A Christmas story, the toy. great stories about Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleason and so much more with Scott Schwartz. That's Episode 33. Check that out.

I also want to thank everyone for all your constant support of the Jeff Dwoskin show means the world to me. If you haven't already, please subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, amazon music wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, don't forget to share it with a friend. Tell a friend. It's the greatest New Years and holiday gift you can give them is the gift of the Jeff Dwoskin show. That's right. Just when you see their eyes sparkle. You know, you did good in this world. So brighten someone's 2020 the last minute and tell them to subscribe to the Jeff Dwoskin show. also go to our website. Jeffisfunny.com join our mailing lists. That's where I be on the cutting edge of everything. Jeff Dwoskin Jeff Dwoskin show we got so much going on. I want to keep everyone aware of the special episodes and live shows and all that good stuff.

So go to Jeffisfunny.com also check out our YouTube channel the Jeff Dwoskin show on YouTube. It's one of the best places to watch the live show that I do every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern the live show is called crossing the streams I do with my buddies Ron limpid Howard Rosner, Bob Phillips and salads Emilio we talk about great shows that you should be streaming binge away and all these great suggestions. Our last episode was our biggest one yet it was the Christmas episode we talked about elf Bad Santa a very Brady Christmas Green Book and California Christmas. Yeah, I didn't see it either. But Sal did. So check it out. We're live every Wednesday at 9:30pm. Eastern crossing the streams.

And now it's time for my social media tip for the end of 2020. I wanted to do a flashback and pick my favorite tip that you may have overlooked. Just in case you didn't hear this episode. But I know you've heard every episode. Why wouldn't you have my favorite social media tip? The one thing I think you all got to be aware of is bookmarks. That's right bookmarks. You know, I'm on Twitter all the time. You know, I love the Twitter, would you know that any one of those tweets, you can just click the Share button and click bookmark. And then there's a whole bookmark section under your main area that you can reference at any time. That's right. It's the greatest thing you see a tweet, you're like, Oh, I need to watch that later you see a video or an article. Oh, I need to see that later. bookmark it, just bookmark it. You can also save on Facebook, you can bookmark on tik tok, or save it to your favorites. That feature is the greatest feature across any of the platforms that have it. Instagram has a version of it too. So just use that it's a great way because you'll never find those things again, oh, I'll find that again. You'll never find it again, use the bookmark feature. And that's the social media tip.

Since it's the end of the year. See end of 2020 I wanted to do something really special for this episode. So you know many of you know I'm a professional stand up comedian, and I've been doing comedy forever. And I happen to be going through some of my old notebooks. And I found notes from a show I did in 2011 where we roasted on New Year's Eve we roasted the year 2011. I wanted to read those to you. I figured it's not worth roasting 2020 we've all lived through this horrible, horrible year. There's no reason to make fun of 2020 but let's go back to a simpler time and I want to share with you some of these jokes from the roast of 2020 It's a full reenactment. I don't actually have any video from that or audio from that night. So I asked my friend Bob Phillips. He's the star of Sal and Bob show and also one of my co hosts on Crossing the Streams to do a little introduction, and then I'm going to read to you some of the roast of 2011.

Bob Phillips 5:10

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Jeff Dwoskin show comedy club. I'm your MC Bob Phillips of the selling Bob show. Wait a minute, was I supposed to plug me? Well, I guess I just did. Hey, it's 2020 but we're going to go back in time to a simpler place and Jeff Dwoskin is going to roast the year 2011. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Jeff Dwoskin.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:34

Thank you, Bob. Thank you all please sit down. Sit down. Oh man. 2011 What a crazy year. Am I right? I was reading about the US Mint officer he admitted taking $2.4 million in coins. Well, it is so much admitted as one day showed up with really really large pockets.

JC Penney is no longer selling its t shirt that said I'm too pretty to do homework realizing if you're really that pretty. You're probably not shopping at JC Penney's

Will and Jada Smith were rumored to be divorcing a 2011. When asked about her parents split Willow Smith simply whipped her hair back and forth.

So I just watched the preview for the upcoming movie battleship. Hollywood. You've sunk my confidence.

Maria Shriver filed for divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger. She looked at him and said, I won't be back.

In the news, I was reading more Tylenol extra strength pills had been recalled. After too many men complain their wives headaches were not disappearing.

Kim Kardashian got above X ray to prove she didn't have butt implants. What's sadder the fact that she did that or that I watched the video 100 times.

June, the hacking group Anonymous infiltrated Iranian Government mail server stole over 10,000 images of women completely covered up.

A lot of buzz around the NMS NBC story of a TSA worker who left a note on a woman's vibrator that was in her travel suitcase. Lots of buzz, and a break. And more buzz. Another break. more buzz.

Thank you. 2011. I have been Jeff Dwoskin. See you next year. Oh wow. 2011 What a simpler time. When the news was just the news. Man. All right. Well, here's to a good 2021.

Well, it's time for the sponsor. We're excited for this week's sponsor. As always, we hope you support our sponsors like you have in the past. It's what helps us keep the lights on week after week. This week's sponsor is the elite dry cleaning shop. That's right, the elite dry cleaning shop hats, shirts, pants, custom tailoring prices that are untouchable. That's right suits only 25 cents, overcoats cleaned and press only 30 cents. That's right, folks, a hot press buy a machine for only 30 cents. As for Mrs. Johnson, and tell them that the Jeff Dwoskin show sent you the elite dry cleaning shop. All right. Well, that's where I take all my clothes. So if you've ever seen a picture of me, and you think I look damn good, then you should also check out the elite dry cleaning shop for all your hat shirt suits, pressing needs. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, you know what time it is. It's time for my amazing interview with john Iman. All right, and I'm excited to introduce everyone to my next guest was a child actor in the 50s and 60s on Leave it to Beaver Ozzie and Harriet Twilight Zone wagon train and a million other shows that we're going to talk to I want to welcome to the show, john, I'm in charge.

John Eimen 9:10

Hi. Hi. Nice to be on with you.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:13

Oh my god. You were like on every show. I grew up watching.

John Eimen 9:17

Great.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:19

This is so nice to talk to you. I love to hear about everything Really? I just every one of these shows is is is so iconic. Petticoat Junction. Oh, yeah. There's Lloyd Bridges show, love American style. What got you into acting? You started at such a young age.

John Eimen 9:37

Yeah. What happened is we had moved from Chicago, the South Side of Chicago to LA when I was about five. After a short time we moved into the San Gabriel Valley and my first grade teacher there. Her best friend was an agent, a kid's agent and she often came by the school and she and my teacher often went out after school for dinner. or something. And she saw me at school and at that time, I had bright, ridiculously bright red hair and the freckles, you know, a really real all American boy type kid, six years old, and she asked my teacher if maybe she could contact my parents and see about representing me and my parents were all for it. Actually, my mom's kind of that way. She's always been a little bit starstruck, she was glad to go along with it as well, as was my dad. So she began sending me out on stuff originally, you know, as an extra for the first years. So I did the very first episode of Leave it to Beaver. Nobody knew who these kids were, didn't know who the beaver was, or anything because it hadn't been on TV yet. So good that I was in a classroom scene. And the funny thing with that one too, being the very first episode, which was beaver gets spelled as an expelled. And I was just sitting across from him. In a couple of scenes there many years later, my wife and I were watching a movie called, uh, what was it Waiting for Superman in that movie? They had that scene. So it was kind of funny to see it you know? This is like night What 2015 2016 or something. So that kind of extended my career up to that age, I guess. But anyway, yeah. So I did a lot of these shows and many times I would just get called that I would have to be at a certain studio at a certain time in the case of you know, working as an extra especially and not that much was really required just show up and be dressed a certain way. Unless it was Western where you'd have to go to the Western costume company and be costume for a show. But anyway, so often, it was a spur of the moment deal. A lot of those early shows Ozzie and Harriet, fury, Lassie, the millionaire a lot of these basically you show you show up and and you do your little bit you get in here three hours of school which was required there on the set so pretty print addict for there for a while, and part started getting better when I was about eight or nine when I started getting featured roles like with have Gun Will Travel with Richard Boone. I did a couple episodes of that and wagon train with Theodore beckel and Ward bond and some others so I gradually started getting better parts over time. It's That's awesome.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:30

So here's the here's a here's my question. Do your your kid How old were you when you're on? Leave it to Beaver?

John Eimen 12:36

Oh, first time six.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:37

Okay, so you're on it six you're shooting it. You have no idea this is gonna be a thing. Right? You probably right. So it's probably tons of shows get shot and still and even back then went nowhere. So okay, but now it is a thing, right? It's Yeah, the beave and Molly and Eddie has gone. Right. But it's now 19 it's the 50s right? So it's there is no VCRs there is no there's no way to tape stuff. You either see it or you don't write to as a kid and six year old kid you're like, you know the show starts going you're like it's all of a sudden now popular. Like how do you go? I was I were the first episode. Episode Six. I was on the first episode. I was right next to the beef. Can you prove that? I mean, you know, I mean like kids they watched it. No, I say you're like why sitting there going and Johnny and then the phone rings up with Johnny on the phone.

John Eimen 13:26

Well, another thing we often get, you know, we had the trade papers and not so much for that. But when I started getting featured roles, my mom would put something in The Hollywood Reporter or the daily variety, say watch Johnny tonight on this or that and then it was other than that it was all word of mouth with my schoolmates and whatnot.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:48

So it sounds like your mom was extremely supportive of you if she went out of her way to do that. That's me. That sounds that's pretty cool. So much of it must have made it easier for you. So you were on how many times and Lassie one time,

John Eimen 14:01

just one time I've only recently become Facebook friends with john provost and his wife Jimmy

Jeff Dwoskin 14:10

so it was Timmy every actually in the well.

John Eimen 14:13

Yeah, well he got out somehow he's doing pretty good now

Jeff Dwoskin 14:17

it was always what yeah That to me is it though the funniest kind of classy thing from the show will fulfill what?

John Eimen 14:25

I think something about the well.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:30

Too funny. Okay, cool. So okay, now I watched a clip of you on the untouchables. Oh, yeah. Which right so which was awesome. Now what bothered me about it is on your IMDb it says you're on credited. But when I watched the clip, it wasn't like oh, there's john Eimen for one second. John Eimen is pretty much Yeah, the star this five six minute clip you have up there. So how did they get away with shafting you as a little kid and not even giving you a credit on the untouchables.

John Eimen 14:58

I'm not happy about that. You And, you know, like you said it was a pretty decent part. I'm in a few scenes they're both with Claude Akins and then inside the dry cleaners and then later with Eliot Ness himself, identifying the guilty guy. They just I don't know what the deal was. But I think sometimes that seemed to happen with kids more than with adults beats me why that was a Quinn Martin production to the same people who did the fugitive, you know, what can I do about it? Another thing that happened to me quite a bit was a misspelling of my name when it got on the credits that sometimes had it as Ei m a n instead of Ei, m e n, this came up pretty recently, when last year, I was asked by one collector card company to sign some cards for the Twilight Zone. I signed 500 cards with my picture on it for the Twilight Zone series of collector cards. But they said, Well, you know what, on this on the credits at the end, your name is spelled Eiman. And we Yeah, that's true. You know what? Maybe you should keep it the same way. Keep it? Yeah. It doesn't matter that much to me, so that it would be consistent with the credits. If they ever went back and checked it out.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:12

I can see where they'd make that mistake. I was gonna say that it was a stinking double cross. Yeah. They left the office. But But seriously, like you were like, is pivotable. Okay, you are more than Robert had more to do in that than Robert stack did. And in that particular clip. I mean, so I would we should do we need to start a internet campaign or something we need to write. And we got to work with Claude Akins there. I mean, that was

John Eimen 16:39

that was great. And if I didn't already know who he was, I would hear it from my mom because she was so up on all the different people and she'd sometimes let me know in advance. Oh, you know, you're going to be working with Claude Akins and he was in this and that some I would have known anyway, Frank Sinatra I worked with and Louie Armstrong and Danny Kaye and people like that just in case my mom usually kept me clued in about who they were.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:06

Because the untouchables the whole time I'm thinking like so just so everyone knows the clip is Claude Atkins is a mob guy he gives John's character character's name was Albert in the show, it gives him pants and he just takes the pants to get the dry cleaners. I my old man needs this to be dry cleaned, and then they cut away. And the dry cleaner pulls the thing down on the pants. And it explodes like good. So I guess it kills the guy. But the whole time I'm thinking myself that that's pretty heavy. Because the whole kinds of the whole thing I kept thinking maybe because I have kids is like, oh my god that would have just destroyed a boy to know he just was on you know, for a quarter just accidentally got that guy killed. So it was I get the other.

John Eimen 17:48

He was gonna give me another quarter. That's what really got me. I never got that second quarter. I think that's why I turned him in

Jeff Dwoskin 17:55

another stinking double crown. Yeah.

John Eimen 17:59

Well, that was a hard show for me, because we were under a lot of pressure to get to that scene where they're gonna blow up that dry cleaners. And my scene we were filming just before that. And I was having a heck of a time getting out some of the lines. And so Howard Koch was the director, he became much more famous as a producer later on, but he was really pushing me to get out the lines correctly. And I was having a tough time with that. It was a lot of pressure. It worked out. Okay. And then I got to go over to the side after we finally got it done. And I got to watch them actually blow up that dry cleaners. So that made it all worthwhile,

Jeff Dwoskin 18:35

that I might have been really cool, though, like one of your more is that? What would you content is one of your more memorable things? It's probably one of the few that you have clips for too. Right?

John Eimen 18:46

Okay, well, actually, uh, over the years, I've been able to get quite a bit here and there, I'd find something where a collector would have it and I'd be able to get you know, some scenes like have Gun Will Travel. I did a couple of those with pretty decent parts too, and some others as well. So I've gotten to the point where maybe about 90% of the stuff I did I have a clip of some kind.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:09

Well, that's cool. Did anyone else in your family ever going to acting like your kids and anyone?

John Eimen 19:14

No, none of them did. My goodness. Say my my sister. When she got a little older. She was a Go Go dancer. That's about as close to showbiz as she got my oldest brother studied to be a priest. And that's another kind of performance art, I guess. But he eventually left seminary and had four kids. Yeah, I'm the only one in my family and you know, after a long drawn out story, but, you know, after all my years of working, eventually I ended up going to Japan for 10 years. Married over there. Both of my kids were born over there. When we did come back to the States. We went to Seattle rather than la so we weren't really in that scene to where even if they had wanted to, I don't think it would have been as easy as it was for me.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:57

Got it. So back to you though. You're on Ozzie and Harriet, good handful of times.

John Eimen 20:05

Yeah, four times.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:06

And then what was that like that? What did what was? What was that said? Like, who did? Who did you get to connect with there and

John Eimen 20:12

Well, that was the very first show I ever did. And it was a Christmas special Ozzy was dressed up as Santa Claus. And he's handing out presents, and I'm one of the kids that gives the present to Lyle Talbot, who was also in it. He was like the neighbor. He was in a lot of episodes of that I later worked with his son, Steven tell, but in a few different shows Twilight Zone, McKeever and the kernel and so just being on the set, that was my very first time to be in that environment. And I was six pretty clueless about what was going on. But

Jeff Dwoskin 20:46

so you mentioned Frank Sinatra was that Ocean's 11.

John Eimen 20:49

You know, that was a funny one because I had a pretty good scene in that movie, the original Ocean's 11. And I took a couple of my friends to see it when it opened, and they cut my part out. I was on the cutting room floor, so I never got to be in the movie itself. But I didn't know that when I brought them there to see it. So they figured I'm just telling him telling him a tale or something. I don't know.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:11

We like I swear it was

John Eimen 21:15

we were good friends. I was on his lap.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:18

They were 12 of us and like, then they cut me and they cut it Ocean's 11. no stinking double krotz.

John Eimen 21:26

I did other stuff with him, too. I did. Frank Sinatra special Thanksgiving special live Hollywood at the El Capitan theatre with special guest, Dean Martin. And I got to watch the rehearsals and everything, which was pretty cool. But my little thing again, I was really small at the time, I was on stage with him while he was singing, what was it called? That's America. To me, the house I live in. He's singing it. And I've got my back to the audience kind of in the shadow. But I'm looking right at him while he sings the song on the stage. And that was pretty cool. I got to do that. And I did another show with him too. He had a drama. What was it? I think it was called a gun at his back where he did a drama. I think for a year or so he had a weekly thing where sometimes he did a live TV show. And other times he did like a film program. And this is one where he played a cab driver. Again, it was just a little part but I got to be there. The same with working with Danny Kaye and Louie Armstrong on a special. I got to watch the rehearsals that when they were practicing, when the saints go marching in doing a duet my bit with him was back then I guess it was pretty common that they would do a little thing, like doing the song. And then he'd walk over to the side and he'd break into a commercial where he's actually talking that was a commercial for GM. Me and maybe three other kids were talking to him about the many cars available through GM and he's reading and they warned me in advance. They said no, don't get freaked out if he doesn't give you your exact cue. So I'm waiting for my you know, to do my lines, and he was coming up with different stuff all together. I just had to go No. Okay. And I you know, say something to work my way into whatever my line was gonna be said. But I liked Louis Armstrong. Yeah, Danny seemed to be wound up pretty tight. Louis Armstrong was more relaxed and a little bit laid back. And she just seemed like the nicest guy.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:29

Cool. So you were it looks like the longest run you had on one particular show was McKeever and the colonel. Yep. And you got to work with Soupy Sales on that.

John Eimen 23:39

Yeah, Soupy Sales. I've worked with him when I was younger. He did a pilot for a series called where there's smokey, where he was a volunteer. fireman and the other star of that pilot was Gail Gordon, who is another one who is on TV all the time. I worked with him on that when I was maybe eight or nine. And then I worked with him again, when he was the guest on McKeever in the kernel, where he played a kind of prankster. He had his own TV show, like kind of like the CP sales show. But basically, he had been an honor student at our academy. But actually, unbeknownst to the colonel, he was responsible for most of the pranks that had gone on while he was going to school there, but they never caught on that he was the one responsible. So working with him was a real joy because, well, you know, as kids, we just loved soupy sales. And the nicest thing of all was after we finished doing the recording of the show, after we'd finished filming, he brought all three of us to watch him tape one of his soupy sale shows so it was really a treat. He was huge in Detroit, which is where I'm from.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:50

Yeah. A legend. soupy sales is a legend.

John Eimen 24:53

Yeah, he was terrific. He was so good on different levels because you could tell I mean, even as a kid I realized no I think he's slipping something in there for the adults. As well as for the kids, he could just kind of tell even as a kid

Jeff Dwoskin 25:07

isn't you earn Wagon Train. I mean, you Yeah. Was there any shows in the 50s and 60s, you were now maybe a shorter list.

John Eimen 25:16

But the only aside from McKeever and the Colonel, which was a big break for me, because I finally had a series I didn't have to go rushing from studio to studio for interviews all the time. You know, I had a weekly gig, also the recognition, suddenly, I was doing, you know, interviews on radio and TV was in the Hollywood Santa Claus lane parade, along with the other two kids in the back of the convertible waving to the people, you know, stuff like that. So it's like you really arrive when you get a series for the brief year of that show. It was a really big deal. It was just great opportunity to do that. One other one, I had gotten a pilot with Jane Wyman acadamy award winning actress, and I was playing her son, and it was going to be a weekly series. It sold it was a really good show. We we had time to spend together because she was trying to make me feel comfortable with her being my mom in the series. So we got along great. And then the series actually sold, and then she backed out of the deal. I think what they eventually did is they turned the pilot that we did into like a TV movie. So I eventually did get to see it. At least it's good.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:30

You were in the alphabits commercial.

John Eimen 26:32

Yes. Oh, yeah. Talk about a money maker. That thing was, you know, you work per day, residuals just kept coming in and in and in. It was terrific. It was a big moneymaker. And that put me in a better situation for waiting between roles. I had some at least had some money coming in.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:50

That's fine. Say you made most of your money just doing one day and a serial commercial. I mean,

John Eimen 26:56

yeah. But you know what's funny about that one, too, is I remember we had filmed it and we went to lunch in the cafeteria, and The Three Stooges came in which version of The Three

Jeff Dwoskin 27:07

Stooges, which, which version Are we on?

John Eimen 27:09

Well, with curly Joe, so this is not Joe basher. It's better it's not sharp. It's Larry, moe and curly. This is I guess they're out 1957/58. Maybe. Anyway, they came in and sat down at a table. And my mom said to the waitress, do you think you could ask them if they'd come and sing happy birthday to my son, it wasn't my birthday. And she didn't say it was my birthday. She just said when they come over and sing the song, you know? So good old stage, mother. Anyway, a minute later, they came over and they sang Happy birthday to me. What was funny about that is they said, So how old are you today, Johnny? And I said, nine same as yesterday.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:52

I gotta say your mom was the best. I mean, she

John Eimen 27:56

we had a lot of fun and, and it was not like like Gypsy rose leaves mom or something like that. It was a pretty nice, nice situation. I never felt like I was being pressured into it. It's more like, let's have fun. Yeah, I

Jeff Dwoskin 28:09

got that just when a couple stories that you mentioned real quick. So I'm looking at a picture of carnation instant milk ad that you did. Now. That's what you should be signing

John Eimen 28:21

that you know, and I've seen it on the style, just sites where they are actually selling it for like 10 bucks or whatever. Yeah, I've seen that around. And it's it's a pretty iconic picture, you know, and it's color. It was the whole, you know, a whole page in color in Life magazine in February of 1959. So that was that was really great. Unfortunately, you know, print ads don't pay hardly anything. You basically you just sit for the model for the ad. And that's that there's no residuals or anything involved in it.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:54

I am going to find that and I'm going to send it to you as he goes, sign it and send it back to

John Eimen 29:00

February to you know, Life magazine.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:05

I got it. That's that would be incredible. I have other I have old Campbell's Soup add a wall. So that would look really nice, right?

John Eimen 29:16

Oh, I like that. And it Boy, you know, it helped me too. Because I put that page in my little book that I showed to the casting people. I think it helped me get a few roles.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:26

It captures Exactly. All American boy right there.

John Eimen 29:31

And it was color. You know, that was the thing you know, I had this bright red here, freckles. But most of the things I was doing were black and white didn't quite come through as much but later on, I finally got to do a few things in color.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:45

Awesome. And you were on Petticoat Junction.

John Eimen 29:48

Oh yeah, that was a special one for me because I had just turned 18 and that meant that I didn't have to have any Guardian with me didn't have to have the three hours of school anymore. It also meant that I had to take care of my own business. I had to get there on time and do everything myself without relying on anybody else. As it happened, I got to the studio. I was there on time, but I was having some trouble getting through the gate and parking. I ended up getting there. And I think I was a few minutes late getting on to the set, and the director was furious, because who am I? To show up late, but be benna Derek was on my side, and she kind of cooled him down. And it all went fine. I had time to explain myself a little bit

Jeff Dwoskin 30:35

and say, Hey, I'm the guy from the alphabet. You

John Eimen 30:39

know, you know who I am.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:41

Don't make me pop this wad of alphabet cash money from my pocket and throw your face. So you you were in a band with Ed Begley Jr. Oh,

John Eimen 30:50

yeah, now that was spot. Well, what happened is when I right after I graduated from high school, my next step was to go to LA Valley College, which was my high school was grant High School, and they called La Valley College, Grant high school with ashtrays it was right across the street and got into the theater arts department. And I 17 just about to turn 18 and so is Ed. Ed's about two weeks older than me. We met right away. We're both in theater arts doing stuff together, and we just hit it off right away, became really good friends. Then we had this chance. Another guy in our Theatre Arts Department, the nephew of Don Drysdale from the Dodgers, he Don Drysdale was setting us up with all these gigs to play for the private parties of the Rams and the Dodgers, and some other celebrities would show up to but they were mainly at people's homes. We got to play one special gig that was very special. It was a New Year's Eve party, and Sonny and Cher were among the guests, and we got to back them up on a song. And I got you babe. We had a few other football players, especially who got up and sang his song, you know, and it was just a fun night. Ed was the drummer. I was the lead guitarist. And I don't know if you know this, but Ed later went on to be the to be the drummer in this is spinal tap.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:15

Yeah, yeah, he's

John Eimen 32:16

spontaneously combusts yet, so we've been friends we're still friends to this day, was with him when he got his first electric car and we drove it into the Hollywood area from the San Fernando Valley, over koanga pass along the Hollywood freeway, but it would only get up to like 30 miles an hour. It was a glorified golf cart. But it was his first electric car. So that's 1970 you know?

Jeff Dwoskin 32:44

Hi, now I save my favorite for that. Oh, so the twilight zone?

John Eimen 32:49

Oh yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:51

So I'm a fanatic with this. I wouldn't say I'm a fanatic. I I passionately love The Twilight Zone like

John Eimen 32:57

oh my great stories.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:59

my bookshelf. I have one third of one of my shelves is the entire DVD collection and toys and books in the companion and like growing up I I was obsessed with the Twilight Zone. I love the twilight zone I I even credited so I with my comedy like just like you just do the twist at the end. You know what I mean? Like, like that, that always stuck with me. Rod Serling to me is genius. I want to hear I want to hear like you were part of this. You were part of this,

John Eimen 33:28

if anybody ever asked me so you were a kid actor back in those days. So what did you do? I always mentioned two shows. One is Leave it to Beaver. The other is the twilight zone because everybody knows those two shows. Working on it was great. We filmed it at my scenes at Griffith Park. Great, great Park. And of course, I'm in the beginning there as the pitcher on The Sandlot baseball team there. Along with Jay Pat O'Malley, another great character actor I work with a bunch of times, Steven Talbott, who is also Leave it to Beaver, Susan Gordon was a little girl she worked in a lot of stuff. She did some science fiction stuff Other than that, too. What happened is we filmed the scene or so the first scene where we're arguing about the baseball game and the old man Ben hits a home run so far away that we can't retrieve the ball so we have to think what we're going to do next to play. And he suggests playing monsters before we go to do that scene. The little girl Susan Gordon gets faint she gets really weak and so I think it was a hot day when we filmed it. They decided to take her over to a clinic to have her looked at while that's going on. We had a kind of low I you've seen this episode, I'm sure But anyway, Rod Serling is sitting on a park bench right off the place where we're playing baseball. He was already sitting over there after Susan was going over for the clinic and he was just sitting there by himself. So I went over to him. The other kids didn't. But I did. I don't know if I was pushy, but just I wanted to meet him. So I went over and talked to him for a minute or two sat with him on the bench. Nice guy, and very soft spoken very nice. And I didn't notice I expected him to be a lot taller. When he stood up. I thought he'd be a lot taller than me, but he really wasn't he wasn't a big guy. I enjoyed doing that. And then now we did the other scene with where we're playing monsters. The old man, Ben goes behind a bush and he comes out as a monster, he can change into any shape, he comes out and we shoot him and he falls falls down. And that's when Rod Serling comes into explain what the story is going to be about. What also got me is, thank goodness, those old shows were black and white, because they could get away with murder. As far as costumes go, Ben's monster costume wasn't that great. But because it was black and white, you know, you didn't get the detail that you might have gotten if it was all in color, they would have had to do a lot more work on that costume. I think if it had been in color, it was a great one. And also Nancy cope was in it as like the mean step mother or I mean, Aunt Nancy called from The Beverly Hillbillies. Yeah, and playing a mean lady. That was a little different, too. But anyway, like I said, years later, just last year, this company that produces those memorabilia cards, contacted me they've done series on they've done an earlier series of cards on on Twilight Zone, signed by people way back when but they decided to do a new wave of cards from more recent well compared to that and more recent people who've been on the series who were still alive to sign the darn cards. They contacted me Rittenhouse Corporation, they sent me 500 cards with my picture on it and it's saying Twilight, so they had me sign 500 cards and they they paid me to do so again. That was just a little something out of nowhere. I've now got the card with my name on it misspelled last name from that series.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:08

He should have insisted on a full set. Yeah, I know. I want one of those cards. You're jealous, john. You're just making me john.

John Eimen 37:15

Yeah, I wish they you know and they didn't even give me any I've got like I had like two extra after signing 500 that's all I ever got. I've never contacted them about maybe just getting some to give to my friends or something you know

Jeff Dwoskin 37:29

the episode just so anyone who wants to it has CBS all access or anything weird that has all the episodes is called the fugitive. Yeah, it is starring Johnny Eimen. And j pat O'Malley as a alien

John Eimen 37:45

when one other nice thing is you can probably find that on YouTube as well.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:49

Yeah, I do. Most of most of them probably are I I happen to have cbsl access. And I think some of the other ones might another there might be another streaming service that has all the Twilight Zone episodes as well. But it's nice to kind of watch. It should have a convention where they get all the surviving people together. You'd make a fortune.

John Eimen 38:09

Yeah, while we're still around. I know like I said Steven Talbott was used to be on Leave it to Beaver two, he also signed two cards for them because we're both survivors to this day. So many of them are no longer with us now.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:22

I'm very impressed. amount of television history that you john I'm in we're part of it. It's very, very impressive for the amount of time that you are an actor and the impact that you made very cool. And you walked away being Ed Begley Jr's best bud. So yeah, that's pretty win win for you. This is great.

John Eimen 38:40

Yeah, it was a great experience. And you know, I know some people do have regrets about having done that as a kid but in my case, it was pretty much a positive experience from beginning to end tons of yet an amazing experience a very supportive family structures during

Jeff Dwoskin 38:56

it. Yeah, then when you have a guy he got married, had some great kids great family doing what you love now. It sounds like you had it all married for 46 years so far. That's impressive so far. Geez, that was you in the room y'all have so far.

John Eimen 39:14

That's me after dinner. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:18

It's like when you joke around I go and introduce this my first wife.

John Eimen 39:24

Well, when I tell somebody I've been married 46 years they say to the same person. cumulative total,

Jeff Dwoskin 39:31

you just go but not in a row. This is so much fun. I really appreciate you sharing your stories and hanging out with me. Thank you so much.

John Eimen 39:40

Same here. I've enjoyed it. So

Jeff Dwoskin 39:42

do you ever do hang out on social media at all? You got a Twitter, Instagram, anything you know,

John Eimen 39:46

I've got a bunch of stuff up on YouTube, including things you know little clips of shows I was on. Also I write songs. It's been something I do on the side for many years. A lot of music under john Iman. Oh, So I'm on Facebook under john Allen. I'm in LA and

Jeff Dwoskin 40:04

I'll put a link to it in the show notes. Everyone can find it. Well, thanks again, john. I really enjoyed hanging out with you. Right? How cool is that? So many great stories, not I think about it. Last week's episode, Episode 33. with Scott Schwartz, he was a child actor in the 70s. In the 80s. This week, john, I'm in a child actor in the 50s in the 60s, got a theme going here. But you can tell like kind of the difference in in some of the experiences that they had, but all super amazing. It's fun to talk to someone who was part of all these shows that as a kid I watched growing up so much fun. And just as a little side note, I did find that carnation ad in the magazine, I found it on eBay, bought it, sent it to john, he signed it sent it back to me, I'll post a picture of of it with this signature. It's really cool. Very excited for it.

So that was awesome. So I hope you enjoyed that little trip down memory lane. Speaking of memory lanes, it's time to skip down the memory lane of 2020. But Jeff, didn't you already purposely avoid that topic by making us listen to jokes you wrote in 2011? Yes, but you know what time it is. It's time for that hashtag round up trend of the week. Yeah, that's right. It's time for the hashtag roundup trend of the week where we go to Twitter and find a fun hashtag game that was featured on hashtag Roundup, download the hashtag roundup app on iTunes or Google Play. or follow us on Twitter at hashtag Roundup, tweet away with us. And one day one of your tweets may show up on a future episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show. That's right fame and fortune awaits you this week's hashtag summary of 2020 by the @KatterdayFunny weekly game run by my friend @Kattfunny.

That's right #SummaryOf2020 wrapping up 2020 and once a week and here we go #SummaryOf2020 masks everywhere, which of course leads us to glasses always fogging up. I live that daily summary of 2021 drank a lot to gain some weight three lost faith in humanity. Oh man, the Lord Voldemort of yours that does summarize 2020 pants went out of style. That's right. I think that summarizes 2020 amazingly, I'm not even wearing pants while I read this a world full of Karen's unfortunately that is true as well. Summary of 2020 81 million people shared a voice Joe we did a summary of 2020 coughing is seen as an offence if done in public. Copying is only for private now folks summary of 2020 the year we've finally finished Netflix. That describes me as well summary of 2020 Today is December 26. And yesterday was March something hands have never been so clean. TP was the MVP. These are some great summaries of 2020. And I'm just going to finish with this one which I think is the perfect #SummaryOf2020 unsubscribe. That's right. And those are some great #SummaryOf2020. Thank you tweeters from the hashtag roundup game #SummaryOf2020

Don't forget all these tweets will be retweeted at Jeff Dwoskin show Follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show retweet all these tweeters there also be in the show notes check out the show notes retweet them from there if that's easier for you. Also, don't forget to like and subscribe to the Jeff Dwoskin show on any of your favorite podcast apps subscribe also to the Jeff Dwoskin show on Youtube go to Jeff is funny comm sign up for our mailing list if you want to buy me a coffee go to buy me a coffee calm slash Jeff Dwoskin show I'll drink a coffee and I mentioned on the air so much great stuff. I wishing each and every one of you a Happy, happy, happy new year. And here's to a great 2021 see on the flip side.

Announcer 44:11

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. Now go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai