GREAT SCOTT! 40 Years Behind A Mike - By Richard (Dick Scott) Pratz
CHAPTER: Tonite Not Tonight (Continued)
One of the more affable guests on The Tonite Show in ‘73 was Canadian actor Larry D. Mann. Born in 1922 in Toronto, Mann appeared in numerous movies and television shows. He was known for his characterization of “Uncle Chichimus” on early CBC-TV long before I came to Canada. Mann is probably best-remembered as the train conductor in the 1973 smash motion picture hit “The Sting” starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. He was in Sudbury to plug the movie and he did a good job of it. His role in the motion picture may have been small but the insight he gave viewers into the making of movies was fascinating. He brought with him a clip of his scene as the train conductor in that memorable train poker game between Newman and Robert Shaw. But if I thought his appearance on The Tonite Show was memorable, his departure from Sudbury was more so. He and his wife rolled into town in their pickup truck camper which he parked in the CKSO lot. After his appearance on the program, he said to stop by his camper around noon the following day to say goodbye. So I took him up on his offer. Larry and his wife were perfect hosts in that tiny camper as he cracked open a beer and we sat for about half an hour in the station parking lot talking about broadcasting and such. He was one guest I was sorry to wave goodbye to. Larry was a good actor and more importantly, a nice man. Ten years later I spotted Mann in the role of a judge on TV’s popular “Hill Street Blues”.
Few screen actors during the 1960s and 70s personified the changes in the American spirit of the age as did Elliott Gould. Born Elliott Goldstein in Brooklyn, New York in 1938, this curly-haired leading man, whose engaging portrayals of wry, cynical, and often confused characters made him a counterculture favourite, was one of my favourite well known guests on The Tonite Show. Upon seeing the set of the program with its blue carpet and four velvet-like fire engine red chairs, Gould said out loud what many of us had thought from the beginning of the program. After the standard greetings and “I’m glad to be here” remarks, Gould blurted out upon seeing our set that it was like being in a “Las Vegas whorehouse!” Myself and the crew immediately burst into laughter and his ice-breaking comment set the stage for an offbeat hour. We talked about the fact that he got his start in show business as a stage performer and Broadway chorus line dancer while still in his teens. Gould, like many of his contemporaries, had some lean years. He told me he sold vacuum cleaners and operated elevators to supplement his acting income. His starring role in “I Can Get It For You Wholesale” (opposite Barbra Streisand, whom he married in 1963 and divorced in 1971) made Gould a Broadway success. His first film, “The Confession” (1964), didn’t advance his career and it took his Oscar-nominated performance in “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” (1969) to bring him a measure of screen stardom. Once he’d played Trapper John in Robert Altman’s anarchistic, antiwar “M* A *S*H*” (1970), Gould was fixed in the minds of youthful moviegoers as a counterculture hero. Because I was a big fan of the TV series (1972-1983), we discussed the making of the M*A*S*H* movie at length. One might think Gould would minimize the impact of the television show compared to the movie, but he praised it instead. Gould made a number of less than memorable motion pictures in the 70s and 80s and didn’t come into his own again until the 90s with Billy Crystal’s cable sitcom “Sessions", and the film “Bugsy” (1991). Although his acting legacy will probably be his portrayal of Monica and Ross Geller’s father on the award-winning “Friends” television series.....I will always be grateful for his appearance on The Tonite Show and the huge ratings boost it gave us.
