Grease is still the word at 47: Barry Pearl Remembers the Magic – Episode 376

Jeff Dwoskin 0:00

Alright, everyone. I am excited to introduce my next guest actor, director, teacher, T Bert, seen him in Alfred Hitchcock Presents The Tracy almond show. Bradley hills, cop 902, and oh Baywatch. Days of Our Lives, a million dollar things, but forever, beloved as duty and the movie Grease. Welcome to the show. Barry Pearl,

Barry Pearl 0:22

a nice to be here. Jeff, thanks for having me. Ah, so

Jeff Dwoskin 0:26

great to have you. I have wanted to talk to you ever since I talked to Dinah manoff And she and she said, Oh, Barry. Barry is the Greece historian. He keeps us all together. He knows everything well.

Barry Pearl 0:39

Part of that is true. I do do my very best to keep us all together, like Rama Lama, Lama ka Dinga Dinga dang Oh, did I really just say that? But as far as being the historian and the person who knows it all, I really have to defer to others when it comes to a lot of stuff, because my recollection is different in part to, for instance, Kelly claims that our principal photography and post production was about 12 to 13 weeks, and I remember it as being 15 weeks. So there's a discrepancy there. Michael Tucci is the go to person to talk to, with regard to all of the icons that we work with, Eve Arden and Dodie Goodman and Alice ghostley and Caesar. Although I've I've worked with Sid a couple of times prior to to the doing the film, there are others that are, are a collective wealth of information that I feel I don't have. But it's very kind for to suggest that, and like I say, in part, it's true, I have, through the years, been the unofficial go to Wrangler, if you will, to to gather us together for events, and if there are any kind of business issues off times, I'll take charge there. But we all work together quite honestly. You know, we it's a big family. I mean, it was, and it was fomented when we did the the film, and we just have remained really tight through the years. We have this in we're inextricably bound by this phenomenon, and we all have healthy actors egos that allows for us to include each other in everything that we are able to, that we that we're able to, you know, which is a beautiful thing, quite honestly, get along a little bit better than some families. At times.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:26

Was there something special that occurred on set, like the just the way the you know, the director, or anyone like, because, like you said, it was 15 weeks. I understand, I do understand. I haven't gone to summer camp, that a summer or that short time frame together can create bonds that last forever. Yeah, so must have been just an amazing, an amazing experience overall. And you guys all got along. It's like, I mean, it was

Barry Pearl 2:57

a labor of love. I've said that so often, and nobody was trying to best another, you know, everybody was, was rooting for everybody else. You know, it was really great in that way, I contend. And this goes to, I think, why it is that people like the movie so much. And I have stated before that many non pros, I don't mean that derogatorily, many folks that aren't in the industry who feel a connection to the movie and really, really enjoy the film and have seen it time and time again, but can't necessarily articulate why. They'll say, we love the music. We love John, we love Olivia. The camera certainly loves it, both of them. We love the dancing. We love the comedy. But I think at the core of it, if that's all they all, which is a lot they they attribute to the appeal that the film has to them, I think at the core of it is the camaraderie. Is they see us all getting along even when we're at odds with each other. What zukos turned into a jock, are you kidding? Are you kidding me? But we're still rooting for each other. We still love each other, and like the the song says, We go together like Rama Lama Lama dingada. It is, I think, the essence, again, of why the piece has been as successful, as popular as it has been all these years. It's like people liking to and I've said, said this many times too. We all get riled and we all applaud when we see the Rockettes kicking in tandem that these disparate egos are working together to to show you that so many different egos can do one thing together in exactly the same time. We're sort of doing that we're all working together. It's not that we're all saying our lines or singing the song sometimes certainly dancing steps together, but that we we are all working and acting as as a well oiled machine. I know a lot of that sounds kind of Triton. What do you call it? Multi basically stereotypical, but it it is so only because of. True,

Jeff Dwoskin 5:00

Greece is one of those movies that I'm sure you hear this a million times, but, like, it's as a kid, so I would have been seven eight and, like, I remember seeing it in the theater with my parents, yeah, and it's one of, I mean, other than I have two men or two movies, and there would have been Star Wars in Greece that I specifically remember seeing in the theater as a kid, you know, whereas when you were young and all that, yeah, and so I just had no problem yesterday. I'm like, Hey, Robin, my wife. I'm like, let's, let's watch Greece again. I get

Barry Pearl 5:35

it. We all have those influences. Mine, if you care to know, two films. The first film I ever remember seeing was Imitation of Life, the remake with Lana Turner. It originally starred Claudette Colbert, and it was a film actually that I in my mind's eye. I see my grandmother sitting in the theater that we went to see it because I was taken to the movies all the time as a kid, or the movies, as I used to call them, we're going to go to the movies. That's the first movie I remember seeing. But the two films that impacted me the most were rear window, the Alfred Hitchcock film starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with James Mason and Kirk Douglas. I was a big fan of Kirk Douglas and a big fan of Jimmy Stewart. I wanted to be them. Those films were the ones that really, really left their mark on me, and I think are part of what compelled me to ultimately want to be in the movies and then on television, you know, and Dinah man off Houston. We, the two of us, were paired together to go out on the on the publicity tour. They paired people up. I think Dee Dee went by herself. I really should have gone with Dee Dee, because, you know, Dee Dee and I are the couple the Frenchie and duty in the film. But I went out with Dinah. Dee went out with by herself. I can't remember who Jamie was paired with. She may have been paired with Kelly. I can't recall Dinah. She was so sweet, so cute. But the reason why I bring it up is because we did, like 16 cities in 11 days. We were doing television and radio and print, and I would have a stock line that I would always use, and that is that I cut my comedic teeth on the Three Stooges, which is what I was getting at that on television, though, in those two films, were impactful The Three Stooges for me, and specifically the ones with curly, Joe with curly they really affected me. I did get my stick, a lot of my shtick from them. So I would say that that I cut my comedian teeth. So by the time we were like, at the last city, Dinah would jump it and say, Oh, by the way, Barry cut his comedic teeth on the Three Stooges. Take that line from me, if you will. She's so funny, but it's true. It's you know, and you'll see that you might have seen this written before, or heard me say it before, but much of our work in the film is an homage to the Stooges. Randall KLEISER was a huge stoop stooge fan art director, and he came to me one day and said, I've, I've ordered a couple of shorts from Columbia to screen, so you guys get a real flavor of the Stooges. Not that I needed it so much, but Tucci needed to be refreshed, and Kelly had a pretty good handle on it, too. But we sat and watched a couple of their shorts, and we downright do some of this. We invented that. Yet in the the bonfire, though, that do a split give Yale, I think, is was in the movie. We then patted it. You know, they were allowed to add things. We they let us improv a lot, and we would do that until we found something that we felt was gold, and then we we'd shoot that, or they just, or we just happened to say stuff and do stuff while the cameras were rolling, that they kept, but that in particular is an homage to the Stooges. So, you know, we all have those, those stimuli, those things that assault our senses, that we can then refer to, and in many cases, have them manifest in the work that we do. We're fortunate in that way.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:11

The the movie definitely showcase you got to be really funny in that way, or very physically funny. So it was, it was cool hearing you talk about it and then rewatching it, because there's, there's things like when I rewatch the movie, like when I was rewatching it the other day, yes, it's like, it's different. If I know I'm talking to you, I'm hyper focused on you in the movie. And so it's like, I noticed the squirt gun was was was around a little bit more than I had originally remembered. I it all kind of just flows together when you're watching it, but then you kind of notice some of the little, the little nuances that come out when you do it, like the Three Stooges stuff and all that and, and so, yeah, that was, it was really very

Barry Pearl 9:58

cool. Well, you know what? I. Mentioned just a moment ago about the fact that off times, we would do something during the shot that was improvisational, and they just kept in. One of those things was the squirt gun. When the scorpions are seen driving by and we're all we're all by our by by the grease lightning car. I think actually, before it even becomes Grease lightning, before it changes, I think it's that car. But Jeff pulls out his switchblade, you know, as we watch the and I pull up the the squirt gun that was totally improvised, that happened in the moment, you know, and they kept that in. It just made sense. You know, that was my weapon of choice. And then again, at the beginning of summer nights, I pull out the gun. Tell us where, you know, where you got the what you did last summer. I mean, nowadays using a gun. I mean, the sensibilities have changed. I'm just glad they haven't. They haven't cut that half of the film, because they're gone. As a matter of fact, in post production. You know, when Kelly, as putsy is looking up the dresses of the two girls sitting the bleachers just before we sing summer nights, I bring to the attention of the other the other three guys what he's doing. Then I go over to him, and I pull out the gun, and they say, You're a sick man putts. And then I put the apple in his mouth. Well, at first I I pull out the gun and I go, you're the way we shot. It was, You're a sick man putts. So I made the sound of a gun. They changed that in post production to be a laugh. So I'd go, You're a sick man putts because they didn't want the sound of the gun, because that was a little too over the top, I suppose. But, you know, it works. But these are the little, little inside things now that when you watch the film, you know, oh, yeah, Barry told me about that, you

Jeff Dwoskin 11:43

know, it probably helps that it's clearly kind of a squirt Gunny toy gun. Yeah, yeah, sure. If it was black, I could see where I was, like, because it's so bright and stuff. It's like, it clearly is not real, which is what makes it funny. It wouldn't be funny if it was bullying a

Barry Pearl 11:59

real gun. He pulls out a squirt gun during a rumble, yeah, right. And I had that squirt gun for the longest time, and I think it got stolen. I had it. In fact, I had the jacket. It was in the pocket of my jacket for the longest time. And I used to teach class out of my apartment and teach improv class. I had that gun in a toy box of some sort, and I pulled it out to show somebody, and they knew that it was in the closet, and I think they went in there, probably absconded with the squirt gun. But I still have the jacket and the and the sneakers. So

Jeff Dwoskin 12:30

you still have your T birds jacket. I do, yeah, that's how were you allowed to take it? Or you took it. They

Barry Pearl 12:35

gave it to me when we went on tour, on the on the publicity tour. And then we, you know, I wore it during the screenings, but it's secreted away in a safe place. So at this point, I think

Jeff Dwoskin 12:48

I read somewhere that Olivia new John auctioned some of her stuff off. You auctioned

Barry Pearl 12:53

it off. 1000s of dollars were paid for it, and then the gentleman who bought it gave the jacket, the jacket back to her. That was really cool. You auctioned off again. I don't know if it has been auctioned a second time, but it still may be in a museum of some sort. I don't recall, but there was a beautiful thing that that gentleman did by buying it and then giving it back, giving the jet the jacket back, and she kept the money, of course, for her Wellness Center. Yeah, beautiful

Jeff Dwoskin 13:18

thing. Really, really beautiful. I'm bummed now about the squirt gun.

Barry Pearl 13:22

Yeah, yeah. We were all brought into the prop person's truck. I forget the gentleman's name, but he said, Take whatever you'd like that you feel your character would own would have. So Michael took a rabbit's foot. Kelly took, I want to say, a medallion and a Saint Jude medal. I also had one of those, but I took the squirt gun because I loved squirt guns as a kid, and that that served me rather well.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:49

That shows, love it, love it. You mentioned you taught improv. It was that part of your early training. Did you take improv classes? Well, as

Barry Pearl 13:57

matter of fact, in college, I didn't. There was some improv, but it wasn't a formal class like that, which I took when I first moved out here to California in 76 I studied, studied with Howard storm, who was with a very successful improv company called the committee. Came from this the Bay Area, and when I came out here, I had the choice of studying with him or the Groundlings. Gary Austin of the Groundlings, I remember my mother had some kind of contact with, I think it was Howard Storm's mother, or aunt or friend of the mother, or something. And so I was given his telephone number and Gary Austin's telephone number, and I called, and I wound up studying with Howard and his two associates, Rex and Sherry Knowles. Rex Knowles and Sherry Landrum. They're married, Rex and Sherry Knowles and I learned the viola stolen theater game process, and within about three years or so, I actually started teaching it myself, and I opened a school called the acting lab. So I taught Improv Theater games, improv Don Petry. He who went by the name of Don Robinson, which is his stage name, Don Petry, directed a couple of little films because he became a director. See little films. Let's see Mystic Pizza. Miss Congeniality, Grumpy Old Men. Richie. Rich you know what I'm saying? He's a dear, dear friend. I adore him to death. He's actually now in the Philippines, shooting a film. So he taught the the acting class, the acting technique class, and a late dear friend of mine, Beth loner, taught a commercial workshop, commercial casting director workshop. And so the three of us, we were the teachers, and ran the school for a couple years, bunch of years, actually, but then through the years, I teach master classes, and for 10 years, from I want to say 2014 to actually 2012 or 13 to 23 I was teaching for Joey Travolta's inclusion film company. Now Joey is one of John's older brothers, and his passion was the special needs community and special ed, and he's got a degree in in this, in special ed, so he has a company called inclusion, and he got five brick and mortar schools all up and down the west coast. But in the summers, we would go out for two weeks in each of the cities, about four cities every summer, and we'd go into there were three of us teachers. We grew into a city, and we there'd be three, three classes where they split them up about 15 to 19 students in a class all special needs, whether it's a Down syndrome or Asperger's or autism or blind, deaf people in wheelchair. I mean, it was just a myriad of incredible, incredibly able people, and we would have them write a five to seven minute film, a short film, and a one minute commercial, or PSA that we would help, we guide them into, and there was always a premise, we would guide them into the writing, and then we would shoot these films. So we do this over the course of two weeks, and then in the fall of any given year, they would have these red carpet events where they would exhibit the films along with the wraparound that they would use to expose the films in each area. So there would be like a show within a show, if you will. And so I use my improv training as the basis for my teaching. Came in very handy so that there's a long answer to that question.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:25

We just talked about, the movie improvise. Let's go back a little bit more. You got your start in theater right? Like 11, bye, bye, birdie. At what point do you're like, Oh, I'm going to be in entertainment and landing a Broadway show. It actually

Barry Pearl 17:41

starts before that. Yeah, in my hometown, I as a young, young kid, my mother had enrolled me in a tap dance class, Miriam mentors tap dance school with Miriam answers dance school in Lancaster, where I grew up, at the end of every year they would have a review, and because I was the youngest little boy, they teamed me up at the youngest little girl, Maxine Gilman, and they would build these reviews kind of around us, the story would kind of be around us, and they were singing and dancing. And that was kind of a bug that bit me. And then subsequently, my mom got a lead on who to get in touch with for a little community theater there called the Lancaster little theater. So I did a couple of plays for the Lancaster little theater, and then wound up doing a production of dark at the top of the stairs at the Fulton Opera House, which is now the Fulton theater, one of the oldest theaters in the country. Actually, I did this play Dark the top of the stairs. One of the guys that was in the crew was an aspiring playwright who lived in New York, gentleman named Charles E Miller, Chuck Miller, and he he was aspiring playwright, but he had to pay the rent, so he took a job running lights for this production, and I took a liking to him, and he to me, and he to my mom, and my parents had been divorced by the time I was a year old, so now I'm nine. At this point in time, he got a kick out of us and told my mom, one of these days he was going to get me on Broadway. And two years later, he was friendly with the Secretary of the man who produced Bye Bye Birdie, a man named Edward pedula, his secretary, Bob fed you hear my cat in the background who wants to come in and help tell the story. She's if I let her in, she'll be all over the computer. Chuck was friendly with Bob Fagan, who is Edward doula secretary. And when this young fellow, Johnny Borden, who was playing Randolph McAfee, was leaving to do milk and honey, another Broadway show starring Molly pecan the role, they were going to be recasting the role of Randolph McAfee for the last month on Broadway, then the subsequent national tour. So Chuck found out about this, and he told this guy, Bob Fagan, I think I got the kid for you, called my mom. The next thing I know, I'm on a train into New York, and the following day, Chuck takes me down to the lambs Club, which is kind of like the Friars Club. It was a an actors and directors and people in the industry their hang and there was a piano down there, and he taught me, There's No Business Like Show Business. The following. Day, I went and I sang for margin Gower Champion on the stage of the Schubert theater where birdie was playing out of like 250 kids. I got the gig and went to work the following day, and that was a Wednesday, and by Saturday, I was on stage in the show. My mom actually missed my debut because she'd gone back to Pennsylvania to pack up, and I was staying with Chuck for those for that weekend. And they said they told my mom I'd be on by Monday, but I was on by that Saturday. And by the way, it would have been Monday, because back in the day before their Monday was the day off, Sunday was the day off. And before it became equity, Monday send and curtain was at 830 in the evening, rather than than at 737 730 or eight o'clock. So anyway, so that's, that's how that all began. And I got enrolled in Professional Children's School, which catered to the kids that were in the business, or whose parents were in the business, and who traveled with parents. And that began

Jeff Dwoskin 20:57

the career. Did you have aspirations at that time for TV, film? Or where you're like, oh yeah,

Barry Pearl 21:01

oh I, oh yeah, I, I wanted to be a doctor, but, you know, who doesn't at that age, I wasn't academically that inclined, so that wouldn't work. But yeah, I was, I was an only child in the center of attention, and I was precocious, and, you know, I had a modicum of talent, and it was seen, and I was rewarded for it by getting these gigs. And very fortunate, you know, there's a lot of luck that plays into it, too, but I had some goods, obviously, that, you know, allowed me to be hired and and then I continued on past that, did a couple other Broadway shows. Oliver was, I was in the original production of Oliver and a bunch of other theater back east and television and commercials and such, until I moved out here to California on spec, and the first gig that I auditioned for was a Don Rickles show. It was a week and a half after I got out here CPO Sharkey, which I was then written out of, and was told on my birthday that spring when we were waiting to be picked up or find out whether we're being picked up for a second season, and I get a call saying, yeah, it's being picked up, but you ain't coming with it. I was devastated. But had that not happened, I wouldn't have been able to do grease. So one door closed, another opened. Class didn't feel like a gift, but it was a gift that's right at the time. As I've said, when it happened, the light at the end of the tunnel looks like a truck coming at you until, you know, then something else rears its lovely head and, oh, that's why that happened. It's

Jeff Dwoskin 22:33

got to be higher, you know, because, yeah, oh, I got a series. And then it's like, oh, no, I don't have a series.

Barry Pearl 22:38

Oh, and by, by the end of that season, I was despondent. Anyway. I was on top of the world at first, but it was weird, because initially they seemed to be writing for us, and then they kind of stopped. We each had our own episode, but then so much of it was given to Don who would have liked for more of it to be given to us, because it would make him crazy learning all these lines every week was because he wasn't used to that, and I was unhappy because I didn't I didn't care for how they weren't using us, and they knew that I was unhappy. So they also, I think they felt they made a bit of a mistake in that when the pilot was shot, if you are you familiar with the Rickles show with CPO Sharkey at all? It was no, it

Jeff Dwoskin 23:22

wasn't until I was researching with you and I saw it, and I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, so

Barry Pearl 23:27

Rickles played a chief petty officer Sharkey in the Navy, and he had this cadre of of recruits. And you had the the Norwegian recruit, you had the black recruit, the recruit, the the Jewish The Polish Guy, the Italian guy. When he would he'd go down the line and berate us based on our ethnicity, which you could kind of be it's Rickles. He got away with all that stuff. So when he got to me, they didn't write a lot of stuff berating or making fun of the Italian guy, because, as Don said to me, what I said to him once say something about my italianness. He looked at me and said, Barry, I got family. I mean, he was friendly with Sinatra, and he had to be careful. So I get it. I replaced a guy who was also a an attack the Italian recruit. The name of that character was Pellegrini. They named me. They named me mione, who actually was the last was actually the last name of bond Don's bodyguard, Michael Mignone, and it didn't work. So when they replaced me, they replaced me with Phil Sims, an actor named Phil Sims, who played the Greek Greek recruit, apadaka. And then after that season, it was done. Maybe that was part of it. Who knows? I think there were a lot of elements that went into them not asking me back, and I think that was part of

Jeff Dwoskin 24:43

it. How was working with Brickell? So, oh, great. I mean,

Barry Pearl 24:46

yeah, you know, if he didn't like you, he didn't make fun of you, you wanted to put you down, and we remain friendly afterwards. It was really lovely. In fact, they they released the two on two CDs. This the two seasons, and in the second release, the second CD, I haven't even watched it yet, they flew us up to Vegas to see one of Don's performances. And we had been up to see Don many times in Vegas at this time, it was pretty much towards the end where he was doing his acts, seated at that time, and he they had us up, and then they filmed us backstage, meeting with him, and they put that as a featurette in this DVD, which, again, I've never watched. I've got it, but I've never watched it. So we all remain friendly after the show and after the show was shot, that was another one where we all got along so well. It was a great group

Jeff Dwoskin 25:39

of great group of people. It's awesome that you have that guy, even if you haven't watched it. But it's like, it's nice, must be nice, just to know it exists, sure, sure, yeah. He's so funny. The clips of him like, tearing into Clint Eastwood, oh yeah. Oh my god,

Barry Pearl 25:55

it's so you know, the same. The story of of him wanting to impress this girl that he was dating, was at a restaurant, and Sinatra was having dinner there too. Do you know this

Jeff Dwoskin 26:04

story? You know I might. So

Barry Pearl 26:08

he's sitting there with this girlfriend that he's trying to impress. He says, Excuse me, a second. He goes over to Sinatra's table. Says, Frank, I'm out in the first date with this girl. I really want to impress her. Can you come by to the table and say hello, sure, sure. So a couple moments later, Don's sitting there talking to the gal, and Sinatra comes over and says, Excuse me, Don Hi, how are you? And Rickles looks up at Sinatra and says, Frank, can't you see I'm involved here, for crying out loud, but

Speaker 1 26:37

that was him. That was it was all in great chest, great. So

Jeff Dwoskin 26:41

funny. I want to go out of order for a second because I want to talk about Greece, the play, but I feel like that's going to lead in the grease again. But I wanted there's which is great. But I just had a couple other questions for you as I was digging into some of your stuff. So I've noticed in your IMDB, you've worked with all the great Barneys, Barney Miller can Barney for the great Barneys, all the great, all of them. Barney Miller is a classic. Is the Barney the Dinosaur role professor, tinkerput? Is that like, big, like, with, like, if you go on these comic cons, I know grease is gonna be huge, but it's like, is that like a sub genre for you? No, no,

Barry Pearl 27:19

I mean, I have, I have a picture that I that I have of me in the in the Dinos early on. It's black and white when I when we shot that 94 we shot that bedtime with Barney imagination Island. And that's, that's one of the pictures that I can sign for you. But not a lot, some, but not, not a lot. It's funny, because we were in, we were out with Barney's big surprise, which was the live, the live show. The after I had done the special, the NBC primetime special that JC Penney had had produced, had had sponsored in 94 they decided to bring Tinker putt into a live mix. So for two and a half years, we did a national and international tour of Barney's Vic surprise in one day. We play huge venues like the Tacoma Dome and 10 Tampa and get Radio City Music call the LA Convention Center. 6000 kids per show. I was coming after the after one of the shows, I was coming out of the venue, and walking towards our tour bus. And there was a family of five that was standing there, obviously wanting to say, Hello, get an autograph, whatever. And the mother was holding like a three year old in her in her arms. And I walked over to him through them, and I introduced myself, and they just seen the show. And we were talking for a little while, and the mother says to the three year old, referring to me, she says, Do you know who this is? And he says, Yeah, duty. So the three year old knew me as duty, having just seen Tinker putt, because obviously the parents were playing the grease over and over again. The grease VHS or DVD or whatever, or whatever came on TV. So the little three year old out of the mouths of babes. So that kind of in reverse has happened. You know,

Jeff Dwoskin 29:05

that is too funny, actually, because that was probably the last thing you expected. Yeah, truly, obviously Greece was the thing. But, like, and I was, like, so excited talk to you about that, but then I'm like, Oh my gosh, she was the voice of Smokey the Bear. What?

Barry Pearl 29:22

It's funny. I really was, yeah, smokey as a teenager or as a kid. I just watched that again. Recently, I was in, I was in Australia doing a couple of their supernovas, which are basically our Comic Cons over here. And there was a little side gig that I did in Melbourne. I want to say this guy, oh, he's, he's passed now, just such a wonderful man who had written a book called you can be what you want. Oh, I should I have it here somewhere where it is, because I really need to mention his name to hold first. It's a book by Lee gambin called. Because we can be who we are. And it's movie musicals from the 70s. And he highlights Greason here, Lee gambin, the late Lee gambin. He did a an evening with Barry Pearl, and he compiled all of these clips from all of these television shows and films and such that I did. It was so impressive. I actually have a copy of it, and in it was that Smokey the Bear clip, and it was narrated by Jimmy Cagney. Did you see that by any chance? Yeah, no, I didn't work with Cagney, but because we recorded it separate times, but you were on screen together, I actually have the page from the TV guide of the day that has me listed with Jimmy Cagney, you know, and I have that in a portfolio somewhere. But this gentleman, Lee, may he rest in peace. Did this evening, like I said, that had that clip, and all from eight is enough. And I think all kinds of different pieces that, you know, you step back and say, Wow, I did all that work. I mean, even you enumerating the pieces that I've done, I have to stand back and say, Yeah, I got, I guess I have a body of work here, you know, I just, it's just not part of my consciousness, so I just don't think about it that much. But yeah, there's a lot of stuff on that resume that I'm, I'm actually very proud of.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:17

Yeah, you got a lot of amazing stuff. You have quite the scrapbook in addition to James Cagney and I, I know, like, when you do voices, you're not really in the same room as I'm usually, but the other two people of notes, yeah, in that is Rosemary June and herb Duncan, who were the the beaver couple who went on to Be the famous voices of Jane and George Jetson, is that a fact?

Barry Pearl 31:44

Is that a fact? That's great? Oh, I haven't I never knew that. That's great. They would Jane and George Jetson, which were the parents? Right? Right?

Jeff Dwoskin 31:52

Yeah, me, George. George Jetson,

Barry Pearl 31:55

his dog, Elroy, and his boy, Elroy, right? Something

Jeff Dwoskin 31:58

like that daughter, Judy. Judy, my wife, taking all the money.

Barry Pearl 32:02

That's right, I remember him. I love the going down, getting up out of bed, and going down that assembly line and being like, popped into a toaster, like contraption coming out, all washed and dressed. I thought, God, I would pay a million bucks for a contraption like that. I gotta make my bed and I gotta get showered and shaved. Well, if there was a system I could just walk through and just come out all clean,

Jeff Dwoskin 32:29

it'd be amazing. How do they not have they not invented that yet? I know the technology's gotta be there somewhere. Now I don't know what this is another one that you worked with Sid Caesar on, but I don't know how big a role you had in this one or not, but it was, but I love that it was on your resume the monsters revenge, which I think was the last time they played those characters, yes, when and stuff. So, yes, I just thought that was cool.

Barry Pearl 32:52

It was very that's, I was just talking about this the other day that Sid and I had worked together before Greece in 1970 I directed him in a production of of Oliver. He played Fagan for the Saint Louis municipal opera. And the story goes, there is that, you know, I, as I'd mentioned, I had done the original production of Oliver on Broadway, and then in three subsequent summer stock productions, I played the Artful Dodger. And we used to audition and mass. In other words, my manager at the time, Muriel Carl, had a stable of boys and girls. We I would direct the audition by having the young fellow who played, who we were, who was auditioning for Oliver, sing, where is love, and then I'd come out as the Dodger. We do the scene where Dodger and Oliver meet in Paddington green, and then we'd break into consider yourself, and that's when all the rest of the boys would come in, and we'd audition like, I say, like as a group, and invariably, we would get the gig. So the first one we got was like, in 66 or 67 Kansas City, Starlight. It starred Jules Munch in his Fagan. The second summer of the three, it was a tour that we did of Oliver. And the third, again, was with Jules for Dallas Summer Musicals at the State Fair in Dallas. The fourth time I went to audition, I was now 20 years old, the gentleman who was running the Saint Louis Musa Bob, or was the same gentleman that ran Kansas City three years prior, the late Glenn Jordan. He said, Look, Barry, you're too old to play this role, but how about you come out and CO direct this, knowing how well I would direct the kids in the audition, felt that I had the goods and and come and CO direct this. You'll do all those scenes that the kids are in with begin. So it started. Karen Morrow, the late Michael kimoyan, played Bill Sykes and and Sid. So I worked with Sid that summer of 72 and he, he really got, we got on. Well, he then had me, I was finished opening night. And then he had me go to Indianapolis to mount the show there, because it was going there at that point. And then seven years later, somebody said, here we are doing grease together. So that was a treat. And then subsequent, I guess that was in that same year, Cindy, he. 77 somewhere in 77 that we shot monsters revenge again, we weren't in the same scenes. I played one of Maryland's boyfriends. You know, she would bring a boyfriend or a potential boyfriend in, who would get spooked by by the monsters, by the family. I was one of those guys that had his glasses shatter when spot their pet dinosaur blew fire at me. That was the, that was the, the special effect they did for that. But it was great. I got to work with Gwen to Carlo and Al Lewis and Bob. Edmonton played cousin fan of the opera. It was a new character. And, of course, the Maryland was new and the and the Eddie was new, or the, yeah, the Eddie was new. He had that piece on Lee had that piece on there too. What a treat that was to work with them. My gosh,

Jeff Dwoskin 35:48

yeah, that must have been just amazing to win.

Barry Pearl 35:50

Was just fantastic. He was so sweet to me because he I was told he could be a little grumpy, and I had a dear friend that had worked with him, so I had an end to conversation with him. Say, I hear your friends and my buddy, Joel. Joel Higgins, you guys work together, yeah? Told me that you're an illustrator. Yeah, I am. Illustrate kids books, and that we got into relationship. And then when he saw me work in the scene, he, I'm sure, thought to himself, okay, well, this guy knows what he's doing. And then this thing happened with my glasses? We were, they were initially, the effect was, there were two pieces of sugar glass, and they had, it had me hooked up to a machine that would suck out the exterior portion of the glass, so it was a vacuum they'd create. But that wasn't working that way. So they decided to blow it in, or blow it out, or reverse when, and while they were making that change, one of the eyes popped. Could have blinded me, actually. And so I went through that, and I was totally cool. Didn't get hurt or anything. So Gwen, I think, saw all this, and I think he started to respect me a little bit. So by the time we were done, this is amazing, Jeff, he walks over to me and understand he's in Catherine, I that, you know, these huge lifts, and he's tower I'm I'm coming up to, like, just below his navel. And he says to me, I swear to God, he says, when you're famous, will you remember me? And I looked up at him. It was he serious? Of course, I will. Then I went to hug him. And, you know, they had to call HR because I was hugging his stuff, I kid, I kid he was so delightful with me after that that he, I mean, he was serious, I'm sure, basically complimenting me, I think, on the day's work, and we got along so So, because the day before that, when I went in for my costume fitting, I was my girlfriend Universal Studios, I said, Well, let's go down and let me see if I can meet some of the people before actually work with them. And there was, there was Gwen leaning against a tall director's chair because he couldn't really sit down. And he's in that mustard get up. And he did have a cool suit. This is before cool suits. So he had a an air hose like down his pants just to cool off. And I walked up to him said, I'm Mister, Gwen. I'm Barry Perman, working with you tomorrow. And just looked

Jeff Dwoskin 38:04

at me and went,

Barry Pearl 38:06

I thought, oh, gosh, oh my gosh, I'm in for it. And then subsequently, it turned out to be golden.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:12

It's so funny. Like Fred Gwen, to me, is Herman monster, like, if I picture him in my head, and then second is My Cousin Vinny. In my head, I know car 54 but that was a little before my time and then, but the for some reason, if I hear his voice in my head, I hear, sometimes dead is better. It's pretty honor, no, from pet cemetery. Sometimes Pet Cemetery. Oh,

Barry Pearl 38:36

okay, but now, was it Cousin Vinny, or was it Pritz? Honor you're

Jeff Dwoskin 38:40

talking about, was he cousin? He was the judge in in my cousin. Oh, that. Oh, right, right, right. Yeah. Pritz

Barry Pearl 38:45

honor is the one that blew me away, because I actually said to him, you know, you go from being a clown and then you do this amazing dramatic work. We actually had a conversation about that, making that adjustment. You know, acting is acting, ultimately, and but I was so impressed with his work in princes honor, specifically. But that's right, he was a judge in, right, he was a judge in Vinny, in your My Cousin Vinny, that's correct,

Jeff Dwoskin 39:05

alright, so let's begin movies. So alright, before Greece, you were in Greece on the play, heard you tell the story. You don't have to go through the whole story, because I know you've told a million times, but I do know it's I just wanted to call out that you were your debut was in Greece. Was at the Fisher theater in my hometown. That's where I've every play I saw growing up with my family. That's where I was. So were you start? I didn't see you, but, like, but I've been there, is my point. Yeah. When I say, like, I know that place, yeah, it's a great place. Still there. It's still there, still Yes,

Barry Pearl 39:37

yeah, I had actually performed at the Fisher would bye bye, birdie in 61 in, I guess it was, it was, yeah, it was around Christmas of 61 and then went back Christmas is 62 to do Oliver, and then toured with, I understudied Barry Gordon in 1000 clowns. I actually left Oliver to understudy Barry. And again. That play 1000 clowns went through the Fisher and that's when I became friendly with Skippy Nederlander, because the Nederlanders were renting that theater for 20 out of 25 year lease on it. And here are these two young kids running around the aisles and up in the balcony and just carrying on having a grand old time and and then staying overnight at their mansion at the New York I didn't know from the Nederlanders. When Skippy was just a he became a buddy, you know, and hanging with him, then Skippy actually moved next door, across the street from where I lived in in New York, apartment in New York City on 45th Street. And so as adults, we hung for a little bit as well. But yeah, the Fisher theater. I We love Detroit. And again, it was always around Christmas time that that we would be there, stayed at the Seville hotel. We might have talked about this, which I think is in kind of a dicey area now, but at the time, Detroit was really it was gorgeous. Was not Shaker Heights. What's the, what's the the upscale community there. Do you recall,

Jeff Dwoskin 41:02

sir, so the G, oh, God, I do. I had it in my head, and there was a film, grand blank, grand point, gross point, gross point blank, growth. Point

Barry Pearl 41:14

Blank, yeah, gross point, I think was, was the Shaker Heights of, I think Shaker Heights is in Ohio, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, that's right. So, yeah, we loved it there. And then there was a, I told you there was a restaurant right down the street called to Pincus. This is kind of an upscale restaurant that we used to go to that was spectacular,

Jeff Dwoskin 41:34

yeah, yeah, yeah.

Barry Pearl 41:35

And then I guess I was there with Barney. We played the Cobo center. Cobo,

Jeff Dwoskin 41:40

yeah, it's, I think it's called something else now, but yeah, it's huge that, yeah, that's, that's where we played the played the Barney's big surprise. Well, yeah, very true. Touring with dinosaurs. That makes sense. You would go, yeah. So, alright, so this is the original run of Greece. You're at the end of the original run. You're with John Travolta playing duty, playing duty,

Barry Pearl 42:01

and Jeff Conaway, playing Zuko and Jerry Zaks, playing Kenickie and Mary. Lou Hunter, playing Marty. I think it was Jimmy canning might have been doing duty at the time. He was the original duty. Actually, Marius small, who was the original Frenchie. Ellen March, had played it the first time. I mean, I stepped on stage again. You You've heard the whole story about how I went to see the show. And this guy, Michael lembeck, comes out on stage. Michael lembeck, who many people have told me, I reminded them of. And I see this guy playing sunny as the show came to Pittsburgh. Friend of mine was an understudy there who had met when I was doing the Chicago free street theater this summer, six of 73 had me down to see the show. And when that came out and thought, Oh, my God, I gotta get on. I gotta be the in the show, called my agent, got a general audition, got a call back when Glen Beck broke his ankle and they wanted me to come up to Toronto right away. I said, Well, I got two weeks of my senior year to finish, first. Did that, then they brought me up to Detroit, and that was where I was basically understudying the understudy. It wasn't to go on necessarily. They threw their understudy in. But then when Jerry Zaks became ill for one performance, I'd actually gone to him and said, Hey, can you pretend to be sick so I could, well, yeah, stage manager saves, okay, well, of course, they didn't. But then a couple days later, May 19 of 1973 I get a call in my hotel room. You're going on as sunny because Jerry Zaks is sick. So the understudy played Kenickie, and then I went. And then four years to the day later, this is the puncher to the story. So that was May 19 to 73 four years to the day later. May 19 of 77 I got cast as duty in the film, and we all got cast on fact, the anniversary is coming up. The for the 48th anniversary of our being cast is coming up. So

Jeff Dwoskin 43:47

you're doing the play. This is new, like the play in the beginning, I talked to Adrian Barbeau, so she was the original Rizzo, and I, I'm just trying to, I've also talked to Adrian's Matt. That's my grease universe. Well, grease too. But like he was, he did. He's played Zuko, I think, more than anyone, more than

Barry Pearl 44:01

anybody, and and he played my teen Angel. When I directed the show with Kelly ward, who plays putsy choreographing, did a production a couple of years ago. In fact, it was 2013 more than a couple, and Adrian agreed to play play teen Angel. And he was fabulous, just fabulous. But, yeah, he was the eternal greaser. He was the Dick Clark of that dynamic, if you will. Yeah, eternally Young. Eternally Young. Great voice, yeah. Oh, so Adrian, and you talk to Adrian's men, yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 44:31

yeah, all the A's working my way through the A's, not B's, B's. So I guess, uh, who's next? So I got Diana, I guess DD, I gotta get DD, alright? So what's you're doing? Grease. It's fine. Is this point, is it catching on? Because I remember in the beginning, like, when the play came out, it was kind of like, didn't have the best reviews, but like, now it's probably catching on a little bit. Now they're gonna make the movie, must been because they're gonna make, well, yeah,

Barry Pearl 44:57

because it did become the longest running. Uh, show on Broadway in in theater history for the longest time. And then it was surpassed, I think it was chorus line, and then grease, and then Fiddler was in there too. Ultimately, was it Phantom? It's like 35 years. I think cats was in there for a while, and then, and then Phantom. I don't think that'll ever I mean, 35 years on Broadway,

Jeff Dwoskin 45:21

that's a lot. It's a lot. Yeah, how did you guys feel when they said, Oh, we're making a movie before you knew you were going to be cast, right? I mean, well, at

Barry Pearl 45:29

first we we were told we wouldn't be cast. Anybody that had done the play was not going to be because we were too old, so we had no hope. And then the next thing you know, Joel therm, the casting director said, let's call these people in, called Tucci in, called me, called Jamie Donnelly, and of course, Jeff, at the time, probably was, well, he wasn't precast, because I think he was there the day we found out he was at the audition when we all got our final call back, because we're all standing around the piano when car Alan Carr came up to us, says, Okay, you're the guys, you're the T birds. Oh, but initially we had no hope, and then when we got cast, I mean, we were on top of the world, what I would have liked to have been was a fly on the wall backstage of the Royal theater when it was announced that Barry Pearl was playing duty, because I'm not a duty. I'm a Sonny putsy In the movie is duty. Sonny in the movie is really Roger from the play. And what I'm doing is duty is really Sonny from the play. So get all conjured up. So the the people backstage at the Royal must have thought Barry's not a duty, you know? Then when, when I don't think air

Jeff Dwoskin 46:41

duty, no, I'm kidding. Oh, the clear, yeah, sorry I lost. Yes,

Barry Pearl 46:46

no, it's gay. So kidding, yeah, no, it's right. But so that's how that all rolled out. We were just thrilled. And then it became what it became. And initially, the film was not the the autistic artistic success that it has since become. You know, it didn't get smashing reviews, and then all of a sudden, boom. Here we are, all these years later. I think it was after the 10th year we figured, oh, this, there's something happening here now, whether it continues past us, who knows with with technology, the way it is and how they're they're making films look so pristine. Made it look like it's been shot today. I think that may help films like this maintain, have a bit more longevity. Who knows?

Jeff Dwoskin 47:32

I feel like with some point, there's going to be like, it's going to be kitschy to watch a movie like it was, yeah, yeah. So when you're filming the movie, because there's, there's differences between the play and the movie. So you and Jeff and John, oh, when they were like, you're all too old, was John Travolta in the back going, yeah, yeah, we're probably too old, yeah. Because, I mean, it was his vehicle, right? I mean, it was, like, it was part of his movie deal. When you're making it, are you like thinking, Oh, this was better in the play. Or, why didn't they do that? This had to been going through your head, left and right. Oh, they got rid of these songs. They're adding these songs. I mean, all the songs they added were great, but, you know, but, yeah, but you must have had, after all those months of being in a play, an affinity to it, right?

Barry Pearl 48:15

Sure. Well, what we were able to do is Bronte Woodard, the late Bronte wooder wrote the screenplay, and when we were doing the table reads, we had the scripts on our laps, the script from the play. So we would do our best to incorporate stuff from the play. And Randall was great about that. Our director was great about allowing us that kind of latitude. You know, there was no race car race in the play, you know, and grease lightning never transformed into what it transforms into now, in the play, I just directed a production of it last year, last summer, and in the play, they have wedded several of the tunes from the film. Look at me. I'm I beg your pardon, uh, Hopelessly Devoted, Sandy, and you're the one that I want. They are not in the play, though. Now they are when they get produced. Now, a lot of the times they'll use those songs, they'll use you're the one that I want instead of all choked up. And they'll throw Hopelessly Devoted in. I usually do it at the end of Freddie, my love, which is another song that's not in the movie, and then Sandy is done, instead of alone at the drive in movie, which I love, alone at driving movie. And I loved all choked up. But that's just what it's become. Because people want to see that. They want to see that wedding. But there really is no race, although when I did it this past, when I direct this past summer, we did a whole thing with projections, and the car did transform into the grease lightning car. But back in the day, it was a shock to see a car drive on stage. It was actually a modified golf cart Kennedy would drive in after talking about having. This hot automobile and pulling in, boom, and there's this piece of junk. And then that's the that's how the song begins. What is this candy apple primer? Roger says that you got it painted with the one, and only agrees, lightning. And then we make a choke out of it, basically, you know. So it got changed up in the film and it, you know. But again, we were able to incorporate a lot of the stuff from the play into the film.

Jeff Dwoskin 50:22

How did you feel about the theme song? Because I think your director hated it. Yeah, grease well,

Barry Pearl 50:27

because he felt that it didn't have anything to do with what we were doing. And Barry said, No, it's got a lot to do with it. That's the one you that's the one I'm writing for you, and that's what I've written for you. And then it became a huge hit, and then we were fine with it. It's a great tune. I love that song. Yeah, it's a great turn. The whole time is the motion. Greece is the way we are feeling. Greece is a life of illusion. What?

Jeff Dwoskin 50:53

Okay, I think, I think it's good, but it said that he also hated you're the one that I want.

Barry Pearl 50:59

Oh, I don't know if he hated it. I will tell you a little bit about Yeah. Go ahead, yeah. Before we went before the cameras, we rehearsed the piece like a play for three weeks on the Paramount lot. On the last day before we went before the cameras, we did a performance of it for everybody that was on the lot, which included Jack Nicholson, who was there doing going south, Michael Landon, who is doing Little House on the Prairie. Whole bunch of other dignitaries came to watch us, and you're the one that I want was not in the mix. I can't remember whether we had rehearsed all shook up, or whether or what was happening at the time, but they came out to us one day in the carnival segment. When we were shooting the carnival, they said, here's what we're doing. And Pat birch choreographed it on the spot. Randall did a storyboard of it, I guess on the spot, unless he knew what was happening, then he figured it out beforehand. But we kind of did that all on the fly, and it turned out to be really fabulous. That's not us singing, it's people. I think they went in and sweetened it. Because when I'm there with the dog, I think that is my voicing, your the one, the 101, who. And I'm really over articulating, because it wasn't really me in the playback. I kind of overcompensated where, when you hear yourself in the playback, you don't do it so much, but just naturally, it's crazy I'm going, but then I kind of do hear my voice, so I must have done it in post production, or there on the set. Who know? I don't recall, but yeah, that was something that it just happened all on the fly.

Jeff Dwoskin 52:32

I don't know, your phone listens to you so like, and I knew I was going to interview you, all of a sudden I get a Tiktok. It's like, Hopelessly Devoted to you. Was filmed after the fact. And like, like, yeah. It was like, what? Yeah, I

Barry Pearl 52:49

remember briefly being on that set, but it was, I think, shot and at the same time, you know, they plugged it in there somewhere. It wasn't in post production that they did that. They actually did it. I want to say, during the course of, there may be some truth in what you say. I don't, I don't recall,

Jeff Dwoskin 53:06

or maybe it was right at, you know, there, it wasn't like, it was like a afterthought. They came up with it later because I needed to have a song for her or something. And then it's

Barry Pearl 53:15

possible, because she says, there's that scene with with Dinah. She can I have a paper and pencil here. Have one of mine. But what's that little and that's just before the song starts. Marty's there lying in the bed writing a letter to a fan or to to a boyfriend or whatever, and friend she and then Sandy asked for pencil and paper or something. She says, you're having one of

Jeff Dwoskin 53:41

mine. I know Jeff Conaway gave in, but like, he had to been, I mean, because he was Kenickie, and then wasn't, I mean, I'm sorry he was Zuko, and then wasn't Zuko in the movie, and then was Kenickie, but then didn't get to sing, getting this all gone. Yeah? No,

Barry Pearl 53:57

he that wasn't. That didn't make him happy, yeah? But then none of us got our songs. Dude,

Jeff Dwoskin 54:03

a song too. Duty had a song too right now, that would have been

Barry Pearl 54:05

putzi Once again, not me, necessarily. But no, we didn't do that. And Roger and Jan did not sing mooning. It would have been sunny. And Jan, in the in the movie, did not sing mooning. Although mooning is in the background, so is a magic changes in the background during the dance contest. Those are two songs that were cut, uh, rock and roll party queen, that's in there somewhere. But in the background,

Jeff Dwoskin 54:27

I didn't realize John had taken the song, and then when I was re watching it, having known now I know it, I was like, oh, it's interesting that the line he says just before the song doesn't sound like something he should have said,

Barry Pearl 54:39

right? It could be high dramatic. Yeah, well, you like

Jeff Dwoskin 54:43

the t up to the song it sounds like because it's Kenny's car.

Barry Pearl 54:46

Yeah, I know I exactly, exactly in the play. The same thing, it still remains Kenickie song in the play. But you're absolutely right. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense that all of a sudden Zuko is singing about. Out this car, when it's Kenny's car, and then they add, I'll get the money, I'll kill to get the money that was all added on the spot, basically, you know, I'll kill to get her ready, or whatever those Interjections are that Jeff did. They allowed for that. And they cut to him as he's, as, no, he's. And that whole scene was improvised that all seen before. Oh, yeah, that was all improvised. And then there was some stuff that happened in the moment, but then some stuff that we improvised and then solidified, and that's what we were going to shoot. But that whole, you know, what do you drive? Well, I don't go ask duty. What is well, I dip up, no even saying, Well, what do you drive? That's supposed to be a comeback to us saying, you know, this is a rubber band engine. You're gonna have to change. We we're putting the car down, you know. So what do you drive? In other words, you're dishing on this hunk of junk here. So what is it that you drive? That's that, you know, makes you such a an authority. It's just you had to fill in the blanks, in a way.

Jeff Dwoskin 55:57

So in addition to Sid Caesar, Jody Goodman, Alice ghostley, Shawna, Eve Arden, Joan blandell, Frankie Avalon. I mean, there was, like, some real I did read that, like Harry reams, they originally wanted Joel therm, I think, talked about, yeah, probably before they they got it, got it got axed, and they brought in Sid Caesar. They wanted him to be the coach or something, yeah, yeah. Keep it a little friendly. Keep a little kid friendly. Besides Sid Caesar, like any specific stories, like of any of these classic actors, I gotta say, Jody Goodman is the funniest. I mean, so wonderful, so physically funny, yeah, oh,

Barry Pearl 56:41

yeah. Always had been, yeah. I don't not about her specifically, but I will tell you that when we, we were on set, on in rehearsal, the first day or so, I guess it was, it was the first day, and Olivia, when we were introduced to Olivia, I remember yelling at her from across the room, saying, Olivia, don't want to make you feel at home. And then I'd hop around like a kangaroo doing stuff like that. I'd always wanted to fly in something, and here now we were going to fly at the end of beauty school dropout, well, they didn't use a professional rig to fly us. They just put this thing together that was spitting mud. It was basically a pair of jeans that were cut off at the knees and then sliced up the center and then laced so you could tie them real tight around our thigh where the thigh meets the knee, so as to take the pressure and the weight off the groin. Because I had us hoisted up by these cables that came down and then attached to our sides. And we hung around there all day, and it was uncomfortable. And then when you flew, it was hard to fly straight across, because you could tip up and over. You wouldn't fall, but you'd spin around. So I kind of come across a little bent, as does putsy. You know, we're coming across this way, but then Michael, all he's doing is coming down in the center and being hoisted back up, we actually had to fly across, and that was tough. And even Kelly, who has had a great control of his body, he's a major dancer, he couldn't even flatten out, because otherwise he would have spun around just that. At

Jeff Dwoskin 58:14

least he got the fly. At least together, they come in at the air, coming at the end real quick. At least you didn't hurt yourself. You had the, I gotta say, I wrote it down, and then I found out I read that you improvised the line, the beautiful blonde, pineapple line.

Barry Pearl 58:28

Yeah. So we were standing there. Now my recollection is that we were trying to come up with something right then and there. I don't remember if it was Randall that said, you can say she looks like a beautiful blonde, and I came up with pineapple. Or I said, You're a beautiful blonde, and he came up with pineapple. Or I came up with the whole line. He defers to me having created it. I don't fully remember, and I don't want to take complete ownership, because my recollection is fuzzy, and I don't want to lie about it. So I think was, I think was a group effort. Quite honestly, it's, it's on my demo reel. I just put my new my friend Sean Spence just put a new comedy demo and a drama demo reel. And the comedy starts with duty. How do I look like a beautiful blonde pineapple? And then we go into other things after that.

Jeff Dwoskin 59:19

Yeah, DD guides are right where all the the cool colored wigs. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's funny when you we watch something because so I was watching the the dance contest and the national bands dance scene, and you know, it's John and Olivia, and they're dancing, and then Sonny really awkwardly, which I'd never noticed before, but only because I knew to look for this time. Otherwise, I never really noticed. It was sunny, awkwardly, like, removes Olivia from the scene, yeah, like, yeah. Like, like, what? And like, yeah. And I know, and him and ChaCha is in there. And, like, she

Barry Pearl 59:58

had to get gone. So that's what. He did. She key comes in and dances her off. Now, you know, in the play, son doesn't dance, and Jim really also didn't have a song. Jim gorelli, as I understand it, he was perfect for the role, but didn't have the vocal chops or the dance chops. So in the in the contest that's got, he's sitting off to the side getting drunk, and then he stumbles up the stairs during the scene change, and he encounters chacha, who scares him. And the reason why she scares him because in the play, chacha isn't a hot, gorgeous Latino woman. Cha Cha is an overweight, not so attractive girl, and this is because at the end of the first act in the play, when Kenickie and Rizzo have a fight in the park. Scene. Rizzo asks Zuko to the dance, which leaves Kenickie high and dry and duty encounters Frenchie. You go to the dancing? Yeah? Why? Dude. He says, oh, okay, I'll see you there. Roger asks Jan, you got any you got a date for the dance? She looks in the calendar hurricane. Oh, let me, let me look in my No, why you want to go with me? He says. And then finally, Sonny walks up to Kaneki and says, Hey, why don't I pick up a well, let's pick up a couple of broads at the dance. And Zuko says, with what a Meat Hook. And then kenneki says, Now, I got a hot date from across town, and I'm bringing you know, because he wants to show off, because he just had this fight with with you're going to Zuko, I'm bringing a hot date from across town. And then when he shows up in the beginning of the second act with this hot date, it's not such a hot date, and that's the joke. And then we all make fun of her during the course of that scene. So at the end of the scene when Sonny stumbles up the stairs because he's drunk from having been drinking the whole dance, he looks at her, and then he does a take and he falls back down the stairs or does something else. It wasn't until the late, great Annette Charles came along as the hot cha cha, that it became that you know, what was

Jeff Dwoskin 1:02:00

your favorite scene to film that we haven't really talked about? I mean, it can be one that you talked about, but is there any that we've talked not that late summer.

Barry Pearl 1:02:08

Summer Nights is pretty great. We need we've been asked that question before, and it's hard. I'm hard pressed, because I had such a great time doing them all. The one that was most uncomfortable, as I mentioned, Beauty School dropout, which we really not in except for the dance was tough, because we were working in a building that wasn't air conditioned, and it was next to a food processing plant, a meat processing plant, and when they opened the windows, in between takes that that would waft in, and it actually made people ill. In fact, Michael Tucci had to be taken off. He had a bit of heat prostration, or whatever you call that frustration? It was taking an emergency room. So that was a week, I think I want to say at least a week that was tough. So that wasn't as much fun as it was exhausting. Summer Nights is great because it was the first number that we shot. Grease lightning was great because of that beautiful sound stage and just how cool the whole thing was to transform. We go together, was out in the hot sun, but nevertheless, it was still so much fun to shoot that and sing that song. And so each number had its thing, either that was a real pleasure to do and or tough. But, you know, it's a job. You do your gig. We were just blessed to be working. So it all was all okay. In the end,

Jeff Dwoskin 1:03:27

was grease two meant to be an actual sequel.

Barry Pearl 1:03:30

The original idea, the original idea was meant to be a sequel. Yeah? What happens? Yeah, was

Jeff Dwoskin 1:03:36

the sequel degree? It's meant to be a sequel degree? No, let me go, yeah. It was a good question, because

Barry Pearl 1:03:42

the real sequel would have been the real sequel. So do you recall what happens at the end of the movie, at the when the carnival scene starts to recall the dialog between the three of us, the three of us guys, when you're throwing pies before that, just before that. And then the reason why we throw the pies. It is that we have failed phys ed, that's right. That's right. Then we go over to the pie throwing contest, and of course, I'm, you know, we miss. And then Eugene throws the pie, and he hits him. And there's a story about that I'll tell you in a second. The coach says, you know, he he says to Eugene. I want you on the team. You say, why'd you fail us? Because you know what, you can come back to summer school. The sequel was going to be called Summer School. Allen came to us couple of weeks into the shoot, the principal photography the first film, and said, Paramount loves us so much. We're going to do a sequel, and it's going to be about you guys coming back to summer school would be a great idea. And then that all fell away, because Bronte had passed away, so it would have been a new script writer, and John and Olivia pulled out, so that just put the kibosh on everything. And then it became what it became, and which is unfortunate, because I think the summer school idea had it been fun, so we were all then axed the. You know, out of and they had a whole new group of T birds, which include, of course, Adrian's Med and friend Chris McDonald, and one of my students, Leif green, he was, he was, it was that was cool to have one of my improv students actually wind up as a T bird. And by the way, the in the pie throwing contest, pie throwing sequence, so we miss right? And then Eugene is supposed to throw, and it hits him. Well, what they had to do is, course, Eddie wasn't going to be able to make that throw and actually have it. So they come in close on Sid behind that deal. I said, I can. I'll, I'll be the person throwing the pies. You don't see me. I'll just be off screen and I'll, I'll just a couple of feet away, I'll throw it. Boom. So they call action. I pick up one of the pies, throw it and I miss. Pick up a second pie, throw it and I miss. I'm about to pick up a third pie. They go, hold it, hold it, hold it. They want me to waste the pie. So they had a grip come in and actually throw it and it hit him. I wanted to be the hero, but that's not my pie that hits him. It's somebody else's pie.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:05:59

Well, you do smack Eddie in the face

Barry Pearl 1:06:02

with a Oh, then, yeah, well, that happened that that that's right here, that that was fun to do, yeah, that was really fun to do, that, that particular sequence. And then my take afterwards, I enjoyed that take, actually, that I did,

Jeff Dwoskin 1:06:15

right? So the only people at DD con Patricia birch, who was your choreographer, went on to direct, that's correct, grease two. And then I think grease two, when I was talking to Adrian, grease two is one of those movies. It probably it didn't do well, but is now a cult classic in itself as well. Yeah,

Barry Pearl 1:06:32

yeah, yeah. Oh, and my friend Lorna Luft was in it too. She played, yeah, yes. Actually,

Jeff Dwoskin 1:06:39

I remember Adrian's met, very specifically, talking about her Judy garlands, yeah, we went to high school together saying, like the big waste of grease two was that she didn't have her own number, like her voice blew any of them away, right? And they did not take advantage of that at all. No,

Barry Pearl 1:06:58

they did not. They did not. Bunch of years ago, there was talk of us really doing a sequel, see what where we are now. And we all contributed to the story, what they call the Bible, which they would have used as a reference to write the script. And we had three different sets of screenwriters, including zayden and Marin, tried their hand, and nothing, nothing happened, but in the Bible, what I contributed, what Michael contributed was that he and and Marty get together and they open a pizza parlor, and they have a couple kids, and everybody else had different things. In fact, Didi Frenchy, and in one version, Frenchy and kaniki get together, and Zuko has died in a car accident. He becomes a race car driver and gets killed. And so that way, if Travolta didn't want to be in it, he didn't have and I don't know where Olivia was in the mix, whether her character was in the mix, but what I had contributed was that I get together with Priscilla, and we have kids. So that was, you know, what my contribution was going to be. Then again, like I say, it never really came to be. Unfortunately,

Jeff Dwoskin 1:07:59

yeah, well, fortunately, amazing,

Barry Pearl 1:08:04

yeah, yeah. But then dee, dee and I did Grease Live. So that was kind of cool to be able to kind of go home again, if you will. Was

Jeff Dwoskin 1:08:10

that fun because they created that character for you? Yes, for me to create a character,

Barry Pearl 1:08:13

but it was so great that Didi comes back as Vi, playing the character she played opposite in the film. And of course, Carly, Rae Jepsen was playing Frenchie. That was very cool. Tommy Kail, brilliant director, having cast her as a vice was struck a genius

Jeff Dwoskin 1:08:29

when I was preparing for this. The one moment of that I had was, was like, oh, Grease Live, awesome. And I'm looking at it. And I remember watching Grease Live, because it was a whole run during that time where they were doing some really great live events. And this is the first

Barry Pearl 1:08:44

one that was as successful as it was because I had a live audience, yeah. Well,

Jeff Dwoskin 1:08:49

the only thing was when I realized that was almost 10 years ago, yeah? So I was like, I was like, There's if you would ask me, yeah, I would, I would, that was like. I was I was like, I cannot believe that was that long ago. I remember, like it was, yeah, that's a

Barry Pearl 1:09:04

blink of an eye. Oh my gosh, a real blink of an eye. I didn't realize that either 10 years, yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 1:09:10

maybe it was 2006 maybe so coming up, maybe on 10 or something. Yeah, 16. Harry, so many great stories. I can't even thank you enough for sharing them with me. Thank you so much.

Barry Pearl 1:09:24

So welcome my pleasure. It's it's fun to talk about them and you, you know it's you guys and the fans, and you're a fan to keep us relevant. I've said that many, many times, and when I go to the autograph signing conventions, I will let people know that that we're here because of you guys. You made this all possible. You like the film, alright, we did what something you guys like, but you like it so much you've kept it around generation after generation. And it's the gift that keeps on giving to us. We all feel so blessed about having been part of this no greater gift, really, for those of us that are artists, to have. Something like this. Well, any any artist whose work stands the test of time, you know, is the perk is that which transcends the paycheck, and it's you guys that are responsible for all of that. So on behalf of my fellow Greasers, thank you the fans. Thank folks like yourself, Jeff, for allowing us to voice our memories to you and the fans. We get a big kick out of it, so thank you. Well,

Jeff Dwoskin 1:10:29

thank you. I'm honored that you spent this time and shared and thanks for putting so much goodness into the world. Appreciate you. Thank you. Appreciate you too. Don't know how to do

Unknown Speaker 1:10:41

it. You're awesome. You.

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