THEY SPELLED GOODBYE IN THE DIRT BUT MEANT IT FOR THEMSELVES.
The restaurant in Malibu was quiet, the kind of place where the wine is expensive and the lighting is intentionally dim to hide the passage of time. Mike…
HOW JAMIE FARR NEARLY REWRITTEN FASHION HISTORY IN THE KOREAN WAR
You know, I was sitting at a Q&A session a few years back, and this young kid, maybe twenty years old, stands up. He looks at me with…
JAMIE FARR AND THE INFAMOUS TALE OF THE CARMEN MIRANDA HAT
I was sitting in a small, cramped green room a few years back, waiting to go on for a local talk show. There was this young kid there,…
THE HELMET WAS JUST A PROP UNTIL THE GRAVEL CRUNCHED UNDERFOOT
The sun was beginning to dip behind the soundstages at Paramount, casting long, skeletal shadows across the asphalt of a world that didn’t exist anymore. Robert Clary walked…
HOW THE LOVABLE SERGEANT SCHULTZ SURVIVED THE STRANGEST COMPLIMENT IN HOLLYWOOD
The studio lights were always a bit too bright for a man of my temperament, especially after a long day of filming at Desilu. You sit there in…
THE MAN WHO TRIED TO TEACH LEBEAU ABOUT PRISON CAMPS
The interviewer leans forward, his voice dropping an octave as he asks the question that has clearly been on his mind for the last hour. “Robert, you were…
THE RADIO SPARKED A JOKE… BUT THE SILENCE AFTERWARD MEANT EVERYTHING
Robert Clary stopped walking when he saw the crate. It was tucked away in a dusty corner of the old Paramount lot, a place where the ghosts of…
JOHN BANNER AND THE DAY THE STALAG 13 WALLS CAME CRASHING DOWN
The studio lights were always a little too bright for a man of my vintage, but that afternoon in 1971, they felt particularly warm. I was sitting across…
THE DAY NEWKIRK BROKE THE THIRD REICH WITH AN IMPRESSION
The studio lights were a bit softer than the harsh arcs we used back at Desilu, but sitting there across from the host, I could still feel the…
THE DAY COLONEL KLINK FINALLY CRACKED ON THE HOGAN’S HEROES SET
It was a quiet evening in a small theater in North Hollywood, years after the gates of Stalag 13 had been closed for good. Werner Klemperer sat on…