Jerry Lewis Telethon and Gary Lewis and the Playboys

So it's the Labor Day Weekend and I'm off on Monday. Hurrah. I'll still do the blog though. I was going to take it off but actually, it being Labor Day, it reminded me of the
Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. We used to watch it growing up cause it was kind of interesting. They had good guests and for some reason it was interesting to watch. Nowadays it's interesting for totally different reasons. Including how big is Jerry's head going to be. I think it is okay now, but one year it was gigantic. Literally. As big as a watermelon.

Love him or hate him, Jerry Lewis is still an American icon. He's been in show business since the 40s. And at one point, along with Dean Martin, was the biggest act in Hollywood. Not very many people can say that. I know the telethon is sometimes hard to watch, but it is occasionally good to switch on from time to time. Over the years, they have raised more than a billion dollars.

My father used to work at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas and the telethon used to be on at the hotel. He used to get tickets and I went one time. The funny thing is that I don't think I saw Jerry Lewis. I would remember seeing him. I do remember seeing Ed Mcmahon. And I remember seeing Rick Springfield sing Jessie's Girl. I remember him practicing because he couldn't get the guitar riff right. My mother was feeling sorry for him, but I thought it was funny. One thing I remember without a doubt is watching the Solid Gold Dancers perform. That I remember. They were awesome. Solid Gold was a TV program that was around in the 80s that featured the dancers and a countdown of the weeks top ten, along with guest performers.

I keep getting sidetracked because the main reason for this blog is to discuss Gary Lewis and the Playboys. He was on a few years ago. One of his biggest hits is This Diamond Ring. That is one of the songs I would like to do a podcast on. I did email the bands management, Rick Saphire, but did not get a response. It's an interesting story in it's own right, but a big reason is that Gary is one of Jerry's kids. A real one. With Jerrys DNA. It would be awesome to interview both at the same time. Jerry actually helped Gary at the beginning of his career. Including getting the band on the Ed Sullivan Show. Several talented people helped record the single, including Leon Russell, who also co-wrote it. And Hal Blaine on drums. Hal has been in more Rock and Roll hits than just about any other drummer.

I just think it would be interesting to hear the story of how the band got hot from the perspective of both Jerry and Gary. It's also interesting that in 1965 Gary Lewis was Cash Box Magazine's "Male Vocalist of the Year," and two years later, he was drafted into the U.S Army. Imagine that happening now. Young celebrities, men and women, getting drafted into service. That would be awesome actually. One can only dream.

Messing up the Podcast for "Oh Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison

One of the songs I wanted to do a podcast for was Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison. I knew a few facts about the song before I started doing the research. And basically it was what most people know. Namely that it was a hit for Roy Orbison in the 60's. Van Halen covered it in the 80's. And that there's a movie by that name with Julia Roberts, Richard Gere and a Jason Alexander with way too much hair. So I figured there was a lot of territory to explore. Little did I know there was enough story there for a whole book. Well, for someone who is capable of writing books. I was certain I could write enough questions for a ten to fifteen minute podcast.One of the things I do is go to Amazon to check out the books on the subject. I found a few and finally picked one called Dark Star The Story of Roy Orbison by Ellis Amburn. I checked it out from the library because for some reason it is too expensive to buy online. It costs $48. It was an interesting book about the life of Roy Orbison. You kind of felt bad for the guy because he saw himself as an unattractive guy . And he had those thick bottleglass eyeglasses. He had this crush on a girl who hooked up with one of the guys in his band when he was a teenager. Which must've been rough. Roy finally got the nerve to ask her out once his band mate and her split up. But only after their first single came out. Anyway, they finally married and she became the inspiration for Pretty Woman and they lived happily ever after. Or did they?

Anyway, it's an interesting story. Eventually, I would imagine, he felt more satisfaction when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and realized how much fans as well as artists like Bruce Springsteen adored him. And of course being in The Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.I emailed Ellis Amburn and didn't hear from him, so I found another book that seemed interesting and contacted the author. The book was Roy Orbison: Invention Of An Alternative Rock Masculinity by Peter Lehman. He was interested. I was on a roll. Two out of three ain't bad. I wish I had those kinds of odds when I was dating. Well, if I had dated. I was actually worse than Roy Orbison. Asking girls out was something I was not very good at.
So a date was set for the interview. I had the host and the back up ready. The host was going to be the woman who liked Nic Harcourt and I was looking forward to listening to her because she had a nice voice. The questions were written. But I had a feeling something wasn't right. I had written the questions from the perspective of Dark Star. I hadn't read the Peter Lehman book and he struck me as a person who would not discuss some of the questions we were going to ask him because he seemed like a huge fan. A few of the questions didn't put Roy in such a good light. He was going to have a symposium about Roy Orbison at Arizona State University where he taught. So on a lark I sent him the questions. Sure enough he emailed me back and told me he was withdrawing from the interview. Some of the questions were too biographical, he told me. And he was not a biographer. I thought of asking someone else but I changed my mind once I saw a website that has Wesley Orbison, son of Roy, writing briefly about his father. So I'm holding out for him. Once we get the website going I would like to approach him for an interview about Roy and his mother, the inspiration for the song Pretty Woman

Picking Hosts

One of the things I learned the hard way, after doing our first interview, was that I needed more hosts. I hadn't realized that I would need a back up for the back up. So I looked at my options. Not having any friends and family that are qualified or would even want to interview people, I chose to place an ad. I checked out Variety first, because, well, it's THE show biz magazine, but they were too expensive. They start out at $225 and go as high as $2250. It was a bit too pricey and not only that, but anyone looking at ads there would probably want to get paid. A lot. On a hunch, I checked out craigslist. $25 sounded perfect to me.

So I placed the ad and got a response very quickly. And not just a response, I got more than I thought I would. It was by no means overwhelming. It was just a good response. There were around thirty or so people who left me messages . The most interesting one was a real live morning deejay from Northern California. We played phone tag for a while and finally connected briefly. But we were having a party at the house so it was hard to hear. She still seemed interested when I suggested we speak again under better circumstances, but I never heard from her again. I called a few times and emailed her but it was just as well. We weren't ready for someone like her.

After all the contacts, I eventually picked three people. Matt, a guy who said he worked for MTV. Jackie, a girl who said she was a fan of Nic Harcourt. He is an influential music director from KCRW, the public radio station in Santa Monica. The third person was a lady who was shot out of a cannon.

She told me I would not regret my decision to pick her. The lady was interesting in a weird kind of way. She sent me her My Space page where she had video clips of her saying that she was at a famous person's house but we never saw the famous person or anything remotely suggesting that this famous person lived there. It was actually pretty funny. She wanted to start right away, but I told her it took time to find the right song and person to interview. Then I suggested that if she was interested, she could pick a song and write some questions about it. I was surprised when she sent me the song and questions in a few days.

I replied to her that it was a good effort and I appreciated her enthusiasm. However, although George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is an American classic, it was a bit too old for what I had in mind for Story of Songs. Even though Janis Joplin did a version of Gershwin's Summertime, it was a rather obscure song from Janis. One of the questions she wrote was a multiple choice question. Now that would've been funny asking a guest a multiple choice question. Unfortunately, I never heard from her again. It would've been a more interesting blog if she had stayed on board.

Louie Louie Part II

Reading "Louie Louie Me Gotta Go Now" actually did help in writing the questions for the interview. I had enough questions to ask just by researching online. Reading the book, however, made the questions more personal. Some of the stuff we discussed in the interview is not found anywhere. Well, except for the book.

So I wrote all the questions, about fifty of them. Then I informed Dick that we were ready and to let us know when he was available. He replied and sent me his phone number. Bam, right there. I got his phone number. I must've been dumb because it hadn't really occurred to me that I was going to have to ask people for their phone numbers. As it turned out, Dick was gracious enough to send it to me without asking. I would imagine he has several phone numbers and one is strictly for business.

Anyway, so we got that out of the way and now it was the computer's turn to get ready. I got a Skype account so we can call out and do conference calls. I got a way to record the calls. I didn't know Skype has a recorder available, so I bought one called Freecorder. They have a free version, but you can only record fifteen minutes. So I needed to upgrade. Once that was done, I set up the computer in the garage. Just in case something happened to the Freecording recording, I also set up the camcorder to record. It actually turned out that the recording from the camcorder sounds better than the one on Freecorder.

So we were set. We had the date set. Everyone was ready. I sent the host the questions. We did a little re-editing to fit his style. I got a back up host ready just in case the first host couldn't make it. The day before the interview is to be done, the first host lets me know he won't be able to make it. Ok, things happen. So I notify the back up. He is ready. Then a few hours before the interview, he informs me he won't be able to make it at seven o'clock. He might be available at 7:30. So I'm stuck. I don't want to postpone it. This is our first interview. For all I know, Dick has cancelled other things from his busy life to do the interview. Postponing it at this late a time will just let him know that we're amateurs, which we are. But we want to act like professionals. Besides it's not like we're Rolling Stone magazine and it's worth his time to re-schedule. Not only that, Dick is giving us credibility by doing our podcast. From now on, we can let other possible guests know that we've already done an interview with a musician from a legendary band. And The Kingsmen truly are a legendary band. Not just because they have one of the most famous songs in rock history, but because of their history. They actually do have an amazing story.

There was no way I was going to do the interview, because as I've said before, I hate my voice and I stutter. So I did the only thing I could think of. I asked my wife. She said ok and said I owed her. Big time. Turns out she did really well for someone who was totally unprepared. And Dick seemed to like her. He was laughing and kidding with her. We called at the set time. He answered the phone. I spoke to him briefly. Very briefly. And the interview was off. At the end of the interview, which lasted less than thirty minutes. I thanked Dick and I'm thanking him now. Now that I'm in a thanking mood. I'd like to thank my wife Yolanda too. She came through for me and for that I'm grateful. (Besides, she might read this someday) Dick was very giving and I will always be thankful that he went out of his way to help us. Especially since we are a podcast that doesn't even exist. Yet. I spoke to him again briefly after the interview and it was awkward. I mumbled something. Then quickly told him that I would email him, which I did. I told him that I put his book on Wikipedia. He thanked me for that.

I will post a clip or two of the interview as a teaser for the real podcast on my next post. I hope you enjoy them and that it makes you want to listen to the whole thing. The whole thing will be available as soon as I get together five podcasts. Then we will get the website going as well. It will be more exciting once we get the website going. At least that is my hope.