#57 Steve Stoliar Loves Animal Crackers

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:15

All right, George, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week, and this week is no exception. And I'd like to welcome everybody to Episode 57 of live from Detroit the Jeff Dwoskin show. We've got another amazing episode ready for you? What another amazing episode? Yes, we have decided to continue the amazingness of each and every episode. We're gonna keep upping the amazingness week after week because that's what you've come to expect from live from Detroit. The Jeff Dwoskin show this week. I have an amazing interview with other Steve Stoliar. That's right, Steve wrote the book raised eyebrows my years inside Groucho's house. Steve was a huge Groucho Marx fan. He saved the movie animal crackers. We'll talk all about that later. He lived and worked for Groucho Marx in the final years of his life, and he's got amazing stories to tell about Groucho and all the people that just happen to swing by gauchos house. Yeah, won't even believe those who have houseguests that Steve witnessed and it's all coming up. In just a few minutes.

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I'm doing fine. How are you doing? Doing great. Can't complain. Oh, come on. Even with a with a little plug. I can confirm I can complain a little bit. Yeah.

Steve Stoliar 8:26

It's 160 degrees here. I can complain. Well, now that we've discussed the weather, I guess there's nothing much left to discuss. So take care. And thanks for having me on.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:36

Thanks, ladies and gentlemen. That was Steve Stoliar.

All right. Okay, well, you've done you've done so much. I don't even know where to start. Because I remember when I was introduced to is that Oh, Steve wrote this amazing book and he lived with Groucho Marx. And I was like, but then as I started to dive into all the other stuff, you've done that that's just like one piece of it. You've got this amazing writing career. They wrote on why you got Simon and Simon murder. She wrote the new Wk RP slider is I mean, like, David, he wrote for Dick Cavett. Yeah. And he wrote back. So question number one is, was the time you spent with grochow Did that help you into this amazing writing career? Or are they completely kind of separate from each other

Steve Stoliar 9:27

I think it did. I mean, in the sense that we were kindred spirits, and he turned me on to the whole Algonquin round table all the widths of the 20s and 30s, Robert benchley and Dorothy Parker and George S. Kaufman. I always had a knack for writing. I remember getting a blue ribbon in junior high for some short story I wrote and I tended to have a set a quick sense of humor. At least back then, when I got the job working for Groucho. I was a history major because I have always He's had a passion for archaeology and paleontology and history, and I didn't really think you could make a career of showbusiness or being funny or writing that sort of thing. But being immersed in his household was so stimulating. I worked for him the last three years of his life, and in that time got to spend obviously quality time with my hero, but also people who wrote for his films, Maury riskin, the net parent and SJ Perelman, The New Yorker, humorist, and people in front of and behind the cameras really pushed me towards that as a career and I shifted at UCLA I shifted my major from history to Motion Picture television, but even a diploma didn't guarantee me even a discount at the theaters. So I went from gauchos to working in the steno pool at Universal from 11 to eight typing code jacks and Colombo's and Rockford Files and all those great 70s shows as I would read the scripts, I would think, you know, these aren't all that fabulous. You don't really have to be George Kaufmann. To sell something in this town. I became friendly with Dick Cavett. Through my connection to Groucho, I used to send him letters about what the intrigue that was going on inside gauchos house. He took a liking to me again, we were kind of kindred spirits grew up in the Midwest and both of our mothers died when we were young, and we were shy around girls and loved all the classic comedians of the 30s and 40s. And then when Groucho died in 77, I figured well, that's probably it for my connection to Kava is one of these Yale New York snobs and I'm just this kid from St. Louis that grew up in the valley. When Groucho died, Cavett called me up and said, Listen, just because he's gone, I hope we're not going to lose touch. And by the way, I hope you don't mind. But I've shown some of your letters to Woody and he says, they're very well written. So I had to empty the urine out of my shoes. The idea that Cabot was calling me saying, hey, let's don't lose touch just because Gracho's gone. And that he'd been sharing me with Mr. Allen. And it was Kevin, who gave me my first break, getting away from being a secretary typist to Universal and going to New York to write for him at HBO.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:41

When you say you were typist. What is that? What does that mean? Exactly?

Steve Stoliar 12:45

What does that mean? That means I sat at a Selectric to and type script after script that came into the steno pool. And then after a couple of years, I became a production secretary for a producer and work on BJ and the bear and Harper Valley, some other shows. And then I got this call to be a writer. And that meant moving to New York and working at HBO and time life building and in Rockefeller Center. And it was just this quantum leap from, you know, I left LA x, a secretary and touchdown at JFK, this writer from Los Angeles that did candidate wants to have on the show.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:26

That's amazing.

Steve Stoliar 13:27

And that's how it started. And my you know, I spent two and a half years in New York, and we'd love to have stayed there, but work dried up. And then I got an offer to come back to LA and very reluctantly, I mean, I just couldn't turn it down because it was a bunch of money at a time when it money was scarce in New York, so I rolled back into California. But the years I spent in in Manhattan were just magical. I only wish there had been more. So when I came back here I was. Now I was the writer from New York, back in Los Angeles, and managed to get different freelance writing jobs, mostly through connections, the 10 those led to people that I'd never met before.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:08

Let me ask you a question about writing for TV shows. And I'm definitely gonna get back to the Groucho Marx Don't worry about I'm gonna circle back when you're writing for like the new WkRP or Simon Simon, we're writing. I'm going by your IMDb so this isn't right or writing. Okay, so when you write two episodes of WkRP right, how do you use right to I mean, were you part of a team or do they bring you in? How does that work? I

Steve Stoliar 14:32

was only on a couple of shows briefly on staff for the most part, I was a freelancer. So you would at least in those days now, it's pretty insulated. And most episodes of shows are generated by the staff and it's much even harder than it was when I was doing it to make a sale but you would get familiarize yourself with the show. And then you would I would sit down with a legal pad and start coming up with it. is a series of robberies in the neighborhood cast suspicion on this and so on. And I would work them up, not in too much detail because the more detail you put in, the less flexibility there is. And then you're locked in if they say, well, couldn't it be in Sweden or in the 17th century, and then you go well, in the maza, variety scene is out anyway. And you go in and you pitch the stories, and you watch them look at their watch, take phone calls, and say, No, no go on. If you're lucky, one of the ideas sparks their interest, and they send you home to flesh it out a little bit. So then you think in terms of a story with a beginning, middle and an end, again, you still don't write anything that's more than a couple pages, just to give them a sense of what the show would be. And then you go in, and is that sort of what they're looking at. And because of the Writers Guild, you're protected against them saying, no, go home and make it blue, no, go home and make it red, no, go home, and then your constant, you have to be compensated, at least for the sale of the story after they've met with you twice. And then if you're lucky, you get to go to scripts, where they send you home to work on it, and turn it into complete with dialogue and business and all that stuff. And then you turn it in and get notes that sometimes are heartbreaking that the things that you thought were the best part they don't want and the things that you didn't think were any good, they want to amplify. And then you get paid for that. And then it's sort of like the last hole and a miniature golf course you reach down to get your ball and it's lost in the system, the network of that long serpentine trip back to the office for the strike involved. Once you have finished your drafts of the script, only then does the staff begin to dismantle it and turn it into something that it doesn't look or sound anything like what you turned in, which is often the case, and but then you end up hearing from people saying how can you put in that scene? Or why do you have them say this and you have to explain that it often gets very rewritten for a variety of reasons. One is that they're much more attuned to how the characters talk. Another is like on sliders every season, there would be a dictum coming down from the network saying we want the stories to be like this. And so one season it would be futuristic. Another one they would say, let's essentially rip off current sci fi films and adapt them to our show. So you wouldn't go in with something gothic horror, you would go in with something that was like, what people were used to seeing. And the fans would get upset and say I don't understand it was better last season. Why did they have switch to these stories, but you're dealing with politics and committees and writing itself as a solitary job. But if you expect to make money at it, you have to please people above you. And then you deal with the egos of the actors. And if it happens to be pouring that day, so much for the Frisbee scene, you know, it paid well and I wish I had done more of it. But it really was getting very insular. And of course, once you get past 35 or 40 they're looking to see who's coming out of film school but we can snap up for a pittance so I you know I got to writing books where no one can say no make this longer or throw that chapter. I also did voice work for radio and for some Charlie Brown's specials and animation, freelance some articles for The Hollywood Reporter. I'm currently This is a really strange but gratifying task. I'm currently editing the letters that my father wrote to my mother during World War Two from overseas because he wrote her essentially every day for two years. lengthy letters that really conjure up the period there's little movie reviews of movies that he saw a camp current songs, I don't I don't think this is any good, or how could it be on the hit parade? And then of course, you know, fighting the Nazis and missing my mom and my sister. I've shown some to people who aren't in our family and they agree that it's really worth putting this together because I grew up taking for granted that everyone's dad was in World War Two. But now as the greatest generation, you know, is six feet under now people will say wow, your dad was you know, like saying your dad was it and tetum and APA max that's so so I come to look at his letters as like those diaries through Civil War soldiers that just happened to be recording these things, but we're grateful they survived. That's what I'm in the midst of right right now that and also the film adaptations My Groucho book raised eyebrows my years inside grouches house, which is a surreal experience, because the book itself isn't the biography of Groucho. It's the story of those last years when I got to work inside his house, so it's basically three main people Groucho, the aging legend, and Steve is impressionable kid, 20 years old. And then Aaron Fleming, the controversial woman, part time actress who came to take over gauchos life and run the House floor. So I will it hasn't been cast yet, but I will have to see someone on the big screen playing Steve at 20 with a full head of hair and mutton chops and mustache, and that's going to be very strange to see someone playing me.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:52

Let's go back in time. Okay,

Steve Stoliar 20:54

we'll get a harp glissando and a ripple dissolve. I remember back,

Jeff Dwoskin 20:59

I said, Let's adapt Back to the Future today. Okay. And that's it, and then go from there. So Groucho Marx, this is somebody who you were big Groucho Marx fan.

Steve Stoliar 21:11

I mean, I think I knew about elements of Marx Brothers movies in Groucho when I was a little kid. And as a matter of fact, I had an Uncle Joe, who was balding, and had glasses, a mustache, and smoking cigar and a good sense of humor and wiggled his eyebrows. So when I finally discovered the real grouch, I was like, Oh, he's just like Uncle Joe. I think it was in high school that my interest really took off when I started catching the Paramount films on television. And they showed Night at the Opera in two sections during lunch period at Taft High School. And I remember eating a very dry bean burrito on a paper plate. But thinking that this movie was really wonderful. It sort of became an obsession. I mean, all of my friends had that in common. They were all into to the Marx Brothers, and of course, WC fields and Laurel and Hardy, but really the Marx Brothers, and we would learn the lines from the movies and, and use them in conversation. And I thought, Boy, I would love to meet Groucho Marx, but I know he's old and in kind of frail health, and so the chances of that were pretty minimal. I did see his one man show in late 72, at the Dorothy Chandler pavilion in Los Angeles, and was kind of heartbroken at how old and frail he'd gotten because the press had protected him in a sense by saying, you know, good old Groucho at 82, just as sharp as ever just as funny as ever. And then this old man shuffled out to the podium and read off of cards, index cards, and on the other hand, it was such a thrill to see him in this cavernous space from the back of the Dorothy Chandler, and I just applauded so hard, My hands were stinging The next day, and in the parking lot of the Dorothy Chandler, I recognize zeppo marxs the Fourth Brother, the straight man who was in their early films, and I thought, well, if I can't be Groucho, I can at least meet one of the marsh brothers. And I went over and I said, Excuse me, Mr. Marxs, I just wanted to let you know how much I've enjoyed your film. And he said, You weren't enjoying me, you were enjoying my brothers. And I thought that was very pleasant. Gee, I'm so glad I went out of my way to compliment him. I had no way of knowing that two years later, I would be working for his brother inside his house, and that I would have dinner with zeppo. And that zeppo would take a liking to my girlfriend at the time and actually asked her out after we broke up. The I mean, the quantum leap from this dismissive you want to join me you are enjoying my brothers in the Dorothy Chandler, and then one, my friend, Linda and I broke I taken her there for dinner one night, and he found her kind of enchanting, and he said, you know, you and Linda otter, come visit me in Palm Springs some time. I said, I don't know, I was there when I was like, eight, and it was sweltering. And he said, Well, when were you there during the summer? And I said, Yes. And he said, Well, you know, Steve, it's cold in Alaska during the winter, too. So she and I broke up. And I had a couple pictures I wanted him to sign so I sent it to him in Palm Springs with a cover letter saying, Do you have any advice for the love? Lord, I know you've been around the block a few times. And instead he calls me, Steve zeppo Marx, I hope this isn't a bad time. No, I gotcha letter and I got the photos. God, I was good looking back then. Anyway, Listen, do you think that Linda would go out with me? And I thought, he said, you know, and I don't want to step on your toes. And if this is at all uncomfortable, and I'm thinking this is really strange I said, I think, you know, she kind of got a kick out of you. But let me ask her because I would never want to do anything that would upset you. You understand that? Yes. Okay. So I asked Linda and she got a kick out of it too. And they went out once they went to dinner in San Diego, and then to a highlight again, and to Juana, I guess that was zepo standard first date that says move

Jeff Dwoskin 25:25

the Zippo move.

Steve Stoliar 25:28

Again, and I saw him afterwards, and he said, I want you to know, Steve, she was very nice, but I didn't even kiss a good night. I want you to know that. And she's very sweet. But all she did was talk about itself. And then I saw her on campus. And I said, How was your date with zeppo? And she said, He's very nice. But all he did was talk about himself. And I thought this is really strange. And then after that, at parties that zeppo was added gauchos. He'd say, oh, and this is Steve, he and I dated the same girl but he got further with it. And I was like my full introduction.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:05

Ever Linda really wanted to stick it to you as you would have slept with him now because I Oh, you met him Mark's brother. I slept.

Steve Stoliar 26:12

With his brother I did. I slept at the home of one but not with him. Getting back to connecting with Groucho Marx Brothers second film animal crackers based on the Broadway show of the same name was made at Paramount in 1930. In the late 50s, universal bought Paramount's old film library, all of their pre 1948 films. And then they package those for TV where it would say MCA TV release and always bugged me. I wanted to go up to the TV and add in and say it's an MCA, MCA anyway. crackers was in the package that they bought, but because the rights had expired and reverted back to the composers and writers of the stage play, they didn't have the right to rerelease it or syndicated to TV station, it was basically a clerical error on Paramount's part, it just slipped through. And instead of becoming public domain, or instead of being renewed the way the contract had been written, it now was in the hands of George Kaufman's estate and Maury reskinned. And Harry Ruby. And universal certainly didn't think it was worth spending money on our old black and white movie that no one's gonna want to see. And of course, my friends are thinking we're dying. This is the great missing link, and they only made a dozen movies. And this is the one with Hooray for Captain Spaulding, and I shot an elephant in my pajamas. And it's been unseen for decades. And they thought, No, we're focusing on Downhill Racer and airport 75 and the important film so I started a committee in a petition drive at UCLA to put pressure on universal release the film and I got in touch with Aaron Fleming who was this woman that really was the guardian of the gate, and she arranged for Groucho to come to campus. And we sat together and talked to newsman as hundreds of UCLA students crowded around trying to hear his Whispery voice. I said, Groucho, I'm very happy to be meeting you after all this time. And he said, Well, you should be. And Aaron said, this is Steve stole your he's the one trying to get animal crackers re released, and grouches said, Well, did you get it? And I said, No, but I'm working on it. And he said, Well, you better I'll fire you. And I said, I didn't even realize I was working for you. How much are you paying me? And he said a little less than that.

Unknown Speaker 28:47

And we were off and running. And I was just pinching myself that I'm sitting here talking to my hero, answering questions from the press. And then universal relented and spent the money to untangle the legal problem and released it in New York and at the UAE Westwood theatre and it's like here will humor you will put it out here and then please leave us alone. And it broke the box office record that had been set by the French Connection several years earlier. And it was very gratifying for me to be in Westwood and see the line all the way down the block of college kids waiting to see animal crackers because I knew it wasn't just my friends and me. I knew it was anyone interested in Marx Brothers has wanted to see this movie for decades. And now you know, we live in a time of TCM and digital streaming and all that and you mentioned a movie and by the time you finish it, someone's looking at it on their iPhone. This was before all of that you saw old movies by reading the TV Guide and circling the ones you wanted to try to stay up past Carson and pass Tom Snyder into the netherworld of Cal Worthington car commercials And you'd finally see it, or there would be a couple of revival houses that would show old movies, but you certainly couldn't pick and choose what you wanted to see. And when so it was very laborious process of checking off even the dozen Marx Brothers movies, okay, I finally saw coke and that's fine. It's a night and costume blonko. But no one had seen animal crackers and they finally did. So after the film came out, I had a couple of summer jobs fall through and 74 for which I remain eternally grateful because with my back against the wall, and my dad saying, I don't want you sitting on your fanny the whole summer, I want you to go get a job. There's a help wanted sign at the Firestone tires place, see if it or go to Taco Bell. And I said, Dad, I didn't go to college anyway, so I thought I have nothing to lose. And I called Aaron. And I said, Is there anything at all that you think I might maybe sort of could? And she said, Well, actually, I used to be Groucho secretary. But now I'm his manager. And we need someone to take care of all the fan mail, which has just been getting out of hand. And we need someone who really knows their marxs brothers to organize all of gauchos memorabilia to be donated to the Smithsonian after he's gone. And in my mind's eye. It's like a Tex Avery cartoon, where she's still talking on the phone while I'm standing at the front door, pressing the doorbell. And

Jeff Dwoskin 31:34

furthermore, you're all packed. Yeah, it's your suitcases. I met his daughter. That's right. I'm here.

Steve Stoliar 31:40

And I actually I thought that I probably be working at some office building on Wilshire, you know Groucho Marx productions or something. And I catch glimpses of him when he come in to sign checks or something. And Aaron said, Oh, no, dear, you'll have your own room to use as an office, and you can make your own hours and I thought, and they're giving me money to do this to go to grandma's house inside have lunch with them. There was you know, it was very Gala. terian there wasn't a sense that the help should eat in the kitchen. So I would sit at the lunch table, and sometimes it was just Groucho and me or Groucho and a nurse and me or Groucho and Aaron and me, or, you know, any number of guests from George Burns to Steve Allen did jack Lemmon and it was so great meeting these people in the comfort of someone's home, because you weren't just some fan going, Oh, you were really funny in this movie. And will you sign this? Because they figured if you're inside gauchos house, they may not know who I am, I could use grandson or something like that. But they figured I belonged there. So there was no attitude. No, please leave me alone. And so I got to spend quality time with this staggering array of people who had been in vaudeville and radio and film and television writers, directors, comedians, actors, Mae West hope, I mean, it's just an extraordinary experience, plus, getting to know my hero and hear his stories from his, you know, 85 plus years. He was born in 1890. So he was literally a Victorian he was 10 years old. turn of the century. I asked him once, how far back he remembered, and he said, I guess the Spanish American law, which was 1898. And because the Marx Brothers started out as singers before they got into comedy. Groucho actually sang as a solo at the age of 15 or 16, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on a bill that included Enrico Caruso, and it was to raise money for the victims of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Wow. So I'm with this living history, someone I mean, in addition to the fact that it was Groucho Marx himself, my idol, he was someone whose firsthand memories went back to the 19th century, and also someone who knew on a personal basis, George Gershwin, and WC fields, and James Thurber. And all of these legendary people that you think of existing in two dimensions are black and white. He was friends with me hung out with them. It was a real best of times thing and then the worst of times was getting close to my hero, as he's fading out and getting hazier and also trying to stay on the good side of Aaron Fleming, who had a Mercurial personality and was later diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. So you basically had a frail old man at the mercy of a volatile young woman who wasn't entirely there. It was a lot for me to handle at 20 because I had never dealt with anyone that had, you know, a really difficult time. personality. There wasn't any yelling and screaming in my family when we were growing up. And all of a sudden there's the slamming of doors and there's the unleashing cussing, having just shit, Fitz. Also, the things that you thought would infuriate her, she would laugh off, and then there'd be something he thought was completely innocuous. And she would fly into a rage and scream. But you know, my priority was Groucho. And, frankly, I didn't want to miss out on any of this ride, even if some of it was rugged, because other people said, I couldn't have stood putting up with her the way you did for three years, or why didn't you just leave? And it's like, what? A I didn't want to miss anything. I'm always the last to leave at a party. providentially wrote a whole thing about coddling. He said, I envy people who can be at a party and say, Well, I guess it's time for me to be titling. And then they leave. Because he says he can never guess that he'll be toggling he can once he gets to toggling is fine. But he can ever guess that he'll be titling. So that was sort of me. And I didn't want to miss out even if it was very stressful at times, plus, whatever I could provide as any kind of buffer, looking at the graph to his best interest. I mean, it was a sort of conspiratorial household where the nurses and cooks and housekeepers and I would talk about what's best for Groucho and how to circumnavigate Aaron do achieve those things. So I stayed in until the end, but I mean, I wouldn't have traded at any of it for the world, because it was just, you know, I knew when it was happening, that it was a landmark event in my life. And another thing I was really grateful for, I don't know if you've had the experience of meeting someone when you're young and then later in life, you learn about them, and you think, Oh, I wish I could have appreciated them. I would have asked them about this and that in my case, I was such a fanatic that as I would meet people, my Rolodex in my brain would flip to their card and it's like, oh, okay, Nat para new Cobra, monkey business and Duk Soo, you created The Addams Family, you were the guy that signs his letters, the deacon and the Groucho letters, so I knew who they were, and could really appreciate it, instead of thinking, you know, I was too young at the time. I didn't know I'd never heard of any of that. And Groucho appreciated the fact that I was a kindred spirit. He wants to call me into his his room, and he said his $20 go down to Tower Records and get me some records. You know what I like? And I was so flattered that he realized that I knew what he said and I and I want change to

I brought back two albums, one of them as Fred Astaire singing Irving Berlin songs, and the other was a Harpo appearance on a radio show. And I got to see him dancing with one of his nurses to the Fred Astaire album and I thought this is really cool. And there were just 1000 moments like that and I put I hope, the best of them and then some and raised eyebrows with the book,

Jeff Dwoskin 38:15

amazing stories. Did you do you have any like, like, with Bob Hope, or jack Lemmon or Midwest or George Burns? Like any stories of could share?

Steve Stoliar 38:22

Sure. I mean, this was at a time and interesting time in Burns's life because it was after Gracie was gone, but it was before the sunshine boys, so he wasn't hot. But being a fan of vintage comedy, I was able to fully appreciate that this was half of birds and Allen so I was kind of nervous about meeting him but he came to lunch and the doorbell rang and I opened it and he said, I want to live a long time become an actor. You live to be an old man like Groucho and me. Okay, let's eat and off. He shuffled into the dining room. It was remarkable listening to them talk because they were talking about vaudeville, and they talk about what wasn't the Was it the the theater manager at Vf keys theater in Chicago, and Chieko was banging the door. No, you're thinking of the Orpheum Theatre in Seattle. Now I'm sure it was Chicago. And it's like it was like the sunshine boys, except that didn't exist yet. And then after lunch, burns took out a cigar and pushed it in the holder and was about to light it up. And he said, I never smoke expensive cigars. All I care about is if it fits the hole. Now Milton Berle he paid $2 for his cigars. If I paid that much. I go to bed with it before I smoked it. And then he lit up a cigar Groucho had given up cigars for his health and I was grateful because I can't stand the smell of them. So his trademark cigar wasn't part of my experience, but many of his friends did continue to smoke. I want to

Jeff Dwoskin 39:57

keep asking you about these people because I'm actually I'm actually fascinated by how you go in and out of the voices. I don't need it. I don't want you to think I didn't notice and under appreciated. The Russians did.

Steve Stoliar 40:09

Thank you. In addition to having written the book, I did the audio book. And I do all the voices on it. Really, it just stems from the fact that when I tell a story, I will slip into the voice to add to it. It isn't like an effort on my part. And as a matter of fact, when we were recording the audio book, The engineer was baffled that I could shift from one voice to another because he said usually when people do multiple voices, they do all of one so they can focus on it and then all of another and then they have to edit it together. But I would just shift from saying and then Groucho said, What are you talking about? George Burns said I know what I've taught. Bob Hope came by gauchos 85th birthday party in 1975. And he was on his way to a testimonial dinner to raise money for St. Jude's for Danny top in honor of Danny Thomas and became in and Groucho introduced him. He said, here's a man who has made me laugh and Bob hopes that all Groucho you know, you don't have to shave. And graphs are said if you if you weren't here, I wouldn't say it exasperated and said it's been like this for 40 years, I can never talk to Scott. And then I thought he was going to talk about Groucho, but instead, he used us to try out his Danny Thomas material that he's on his way to. So here he is in gauchos living room on grandpa's 85th birthday, saying, Hey, how about that Danny Thomas and he you know, he's so religious. He has stained glass bifocals. And I thought this is it's like, you know, being at a Bob Hope NBC specials on book, no cue cards, but it was still was ultra cool to have him right in front of us as we're sitting on the floor of the living room, and he's leaning against the piano, talking about graph show and testing is Danny Thomas Mae West.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:06

I got to hear that

Steve Stoliar 42:09

Groucho was kind of indifferent to having a West come over. I mean, he you know, he was not starstruck by people who were his peers, although he you know, there were a number of people he admired. But he wasn't thinking, gosh, the West is coming over. Aaron was very nervous. And she said, I want you to be sure you're on your best behavior Groucho? And he said, I'm always on my best day. Now. It's sort of like telling a miss to this kid. Whatever you do, don't touch where it says what pain telling him to behave themselves was the worst thing she could do. Two things to know about me West. One is, she and WC fields hated themselves when they were making my little chickadee in 1940, and got to the point where they wouldn't even talk to each other, except when they were filming scenes. And if they had something to tell each other, they would write down the note and have someone take it to the dressing room, because they didn't want to have so they hated each other. The other is that in the 20s, Mae West had been jailed briefly in New York, because they found her play sex in decent demand. Imagine a play called sex in the 1920s. So the first thing Groucho says to her when she comes through the door is what do you hear from Bill fields? And she said, In your dreams, Groucho in your dreams, and then a few minutes later, he said, it may throw you in the pokey once. And she said, it's true Groucho but I always managed to wriggle out of situations like that. And she wiggled her hips and it was just surreal, watching, really the king and queen of paramount comedy in the 30s. And Aaron is dying, because of course, the two things she wanted grouchy to be sure not to bring up were the things he brought up. Of course, that night, Harpo son, Bill marxs, who was a very skilled pianist and composer was at the piano, and they tried to prevail upon Mae West to sing and she said, I don't have my records here that have the backing. I can't really but I can do some reciting. So she stood at the piano, with one hand on the piano with one on her hip, and Bill Mark started playing a Honky Tonk version of Frankie and Johnny which is perfect. And she started reciting a poem called pleasure man, which was a play in a book that she had written and it was this body story about this promiscuous woman. So here is may choose for 11 without shoes on, by the way, very choose a tiny woman that had a huge presence on screen and she's reciting while Harpo son is playing Frankie and Johnny and Groucho and the others and I are watching this Tableau unfold just for us. And Groucho is living. I had a book that she wrote and she signed it sincerely, and she hyphenate she separated the sin from the searly tended to write autographs just an extraordinary rendezvous under extraordinary circumstances.

Jeff Dwoskin 45:26

Sounds like you've had quite late and I if you had just done that, I'd been like, Oh, that's quite a life. And then you went on to just an amazing career after that. I mean, just, you know, completely separate. It's just amazing what all the things that you've done and your entire repertoire Well, thanks. But the book which is called just so everyone has it again raised eyebrows my ears inside gauchos house, I Steve Stoliar,

Steve Stoliar 45:50

you can get the Kindle or the audio book on Amazon with no problem, you can also get the book itself but if you want to get one and have me sign it or inscribe it to you or personalize it, somehow you can order it for the cover price from my website, which is Steve stole your s t o l i a r.com. And I would be happy to sign a copy and send it out to you or you can deal with Amazon making sure that it is on Amazon not along the Amazon because a lot of people ended up flying down to the rain forest looking for my book and were very disappointed. So

Jeff Dwoskin 46:27

there it is. My aunt did that. And she she's still mad at me. She's Emma, you're not gonna leave and we're the word antics comes from is your hand going down. Even hilarious Hey,

Steve Stoliar 46:39

I have had an interesting life. Sometimes I need to be reminded of it because you know, we're only looking at the highlights. I've had tragedy and depression and running out of money and all sorts of stuff like that. So I haven't just been skipping through the flowers and lighting cigars with $100 bills. But really All in all, it continues to be an interesting life. Actually,

Jeff Dwoskin 47:03

I'm really excited about the letters thing because I have one letter from my grandpa that he wrote to his wife during I think it was probably World War Two. And like the pictures like everything about that time is just so interesting.

Steve Stoliar 47:15

I have a lot of snapshots that he took to

Jeff Dwoskin 47:18

I'm looking forward to that. That's gonna that's gonna be awesome. Yeah, I'm excited. I've got a time for you know, I got it. I'm gonna let me do it. Let me give you a roll. Well, here's

Steve Stoliar 47:27

an interesting full circle thing. My dad went to a Bob Hope uso show in Darmstadt, Germany in 1945. And he got to sit about 10 feet from the stage. And he had his dog, Nancy in his arms watching the show. At one point, a tap dancer came out and she was tap dancing. And as she was working up to the finish, the taps were just rat a tat like a machine gun. So Nancy jumped out of my dad's arms and ran across the stage in the tap dancers stopped dancing because she was afraid she was going to get bitten. And then dad had to run over and grab Nancy and sit back. So then Hoke came up to the microphone, and he said, You better not let Crosby see that dog or he's gonna throw a shadow over his crowd. Crosby was buying up a lot of resources at the time. So and dad tells the story in in the letters and he told it to me, you know, in life, but it was cool reading. Hey, look what happened this afternoon. And he also had pictures that he took of hope, and other met Jerry Kelowna and got a picture of him. So that'll go in the book. It must have been about 1990 Dick Cavett and I went to Bob Hope's house in Toluca Lake, to do an interview for one of Kevin's shows. And during a they were like redoing the lighting and changing the tape cartridges and hope was just walking around with his hands in his pockets listening. And I told him that story I said, in World War Two in Germany, my dad went to this and the dog ran on stage and you said you better grab him before and hope chuckled and said, as I said, in that and I thought, this is so surreal, I've gone full circle my dad had this experience in 1945 and in 1990, I'm telling it to the man that was on the stage. So yes, that's great strange Twilight Zone comedy.

Jeff Dwoskin 49:33

I love it cut print Cut Pro I got I got 111 favor to ask you don't have to do it. But if you want to, since you're so good at the impressions, oh, can we say excited about your book excited by anything? I put it on the show notes. anyone's listening. I highly recommend you. Oh, this Since you're so good with the voices. And you happen to mentioned this quote earlier and I had written it down. Can you do the shot and elephant in my pajamas in the Groucho voice

Steve Stoliar 49:59

One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How we got my pajamas? I don't know. Often misquoted as I'll never know. But it's I don't know. from animal crackers from 20 1928 on Broadway 1930 on the big screen and 1974 reissued because of Steve stole us Committee for the rerelease of Adam crack.

Jeff Dwoskin 50:23

And with that, we thank you and say good night. I appreciate you spending time with me. great stories. Love them all. I bid you an odd fondue. Goodbye. All right. How awesome was that? Steve Stoliar Ladies and gentlemen, how cool were those stories can you imagine to be sitting there Groucho Marx's house with all these legendary people coming and going amazing. Get his book, go to Stevestoliar.com he'll sign it and send it off to you. I have my own signed copy. I'll have you know, so I highly recommend it.

But can you believe it? We're nearing the end of a yet another Episode Episode 57 as calm and is almost over, but it's not over yet. Ladies and gentlemen, you know what time it is. It's time for another trending hashtag from the world of hashtag round. That's right. We're making Twitter fun again at hashtag round up on Twitter. And you can also download our free hashtag roundup app. That's right, I said free. We play hashtag games all day, every day. And if you play along, one day, one of your tweets may show up on an episode of alive from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show fame and fortune awaits you this week's hashtag inspired by our guest Steve who saved the movie animal crackers. Steve wrote a book. So we're gonna do the hashtag #AnimalBooks. It's a It has nothing to do with the movie animal crackers. And it has nothing specifically to do with Steve's book. But it has the word animal and it has the word book. So boom. That's what happens when you mash things together. You get something completely new #AnimalBooks. It's a mash up game. You take a book and you kind of give it an animal spin. This hashtag game was brought to you by our friends at Friday fondue, a weekly game on hashtag Roundup. Alright, you ready? Here are some amazing hashtag animal books a farewell to farms for whom the cow bell tolls. The portrait of a Lady and the Tramp Annie of green Gibbons, the great goadsby are that that was not a goat. Anyway, Interview with the Vampire bat. The Girl with the Komodo dragon tattoo you there's some amazing #AnimalBooks, the best in animal book mashups, The Great Gatsby, the apes of wrath, are you there? God, it's me mongoose, Harry popper. And let's wrap it all up with James and the Giant leech. Oh, these are some great #AnimalBooks brought to you by Friday fundu on hashtag Roundup. As always, all the tweeters of the tweets that I read will be retweeted at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter, and will be listed in the show notes. Give him some love and retweet the tweet as well. That's it. Ladies and gentlemen, we're at the end of Episode 57 Thank you once again to my guest, Steve Stoliar. Thanks to all of you. And I can't wait to see you next week.

Announcer 53:35

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