We’d be roller skating or something we say oh we’re bored let’s go climb the sign we’d go up the hill and the back part of the letters there was a lot of wooden scaffolding and it was all splintery right we got splinters and all this a Wonder we didn’t break our necks
Yeah climb up and the O’s were my favorite and I’d lean over the O’s and I’d say Hollywood uh you’re great in the show I loved it oh great uh it looked like a a good time making it as well when they I got the call from the director and um producer
About being in this project I all I had to do was hear who was in it Kristen wig Laura dur Allison Janney Ricky Martin on and on and on and I said I’m in I don’t care what you want me to do I didn’t even read the script and then finally
When I got the script well that was the icing on the cake so because it’s a great great script and but then to work with all of these people so I have a whole bunch of new friends yeah I even Wordle now with um Allison do you know
What Wordle is what’s your what’s your opening word oh I I change it all the time my my mom’s was a j for a while oh yeah and audio is always good yeah get all those vowels in there I have the distinct h saying within the
Past 3 months I’ve gotten it in one six times no way how do you do that I it was just total crazy do you into it yeah it was just that my husband and I were doing it and this one morning we were talking about the fact that my mother years ago
Had a parakeet and my she from she bought it for my little kid sister and my kid sister wanted to name it tweet TW and my mother said oh for heaven’s sakes every parake and bird in the world is name Tweety come on let’s be original let’s let’s call him stash we were
Talking about that so I said let’s put in stash and that was the word no way you’re like you’re like a crystal ball for the world you got like a real we did six more time five more times yeah I’m going to start getting the opening word from you I’m going to
Start I should you know what strikes me is that Alison Janney and and and and Kristen wig and and all these people they’ve all and not to you know not to put you on the hot seat here but they’ve all talked about you as a great inspiration to them have they did they
Get the opportunity to tell you any of that stuff yeah they have but you know what my response is to that and I’m flattered believe me I’m very flattered but Tom if I’d never been bored they’d be doing what they’re doing has nothing to do with me I’m glad they had looked
You know I’m kind of embarrassed about it but uh no they’d be doing what they’re doing if I’d never been born I get that you’re a bit embarrassed you know you I know but still it’s nice these people grew up especially you know women in comedy
Growing up watching the show I used to say that to Lucille Ball say what thank you you’ve inspired me and she didn’t quite say what I am saying now but she said oh come on kid you know she didn’t have any sort of like you’re welcome she kind of poo pooed it you
Know getting to know your your uh life as well as I have over the past you know oh yeah I got a lot of hard questions for you about that but uh the past week or so you know doing research for this what really strikes me is that I’m kind
Of in your home like you grew up in Hollywood like what a block from Hollywood Boulevard but a million miles away from Hollywood what do you mean well I was never thought I would do this I was I never thought of being a performer at all yeah I thought I would
Be a journalist I was editor by Junior High School paper and Hollywood High School news and I thought well I’ll go to UCLA and major in journalism good good thing you didn’t well what happened yeah was I got to UCA and they didn’t have a journalism major you could take a
Course and join the School paper but they didn’t have a major so I got the catalog out and I’m looking through and there’s Theater Arts and in different things Theater Arts English theater arts film Theater Arts Theater so forth and I thought theart English because I love to write
They offered playwriting courses so I thought okay I’ll I’ll major in theater I English join the daily Brew newspaper and still pursue being a journalist and but I didn’t know at the time that if you majored in Theater Arts whether you wanted to write or produce or direct
Or right you had to as a freshman take an acting course yeah a scenery course costume and something else I can’t remember so I was terrified so I got into this acting class and I had to do a scene and my Texas and Arkansas background help me
Because I had a monologue to do that was a hillbilly woman do you remember any of it oh well all I remember is I said one part I said I’m back something like that I don’t know what and the class laughed and I thought where they should
You know and I thought I this kind of a good feeling and and so then a couple of the kids were doing some one acts they called him at uh UCLA and asked me to be in some soy got and some of others and I started doing comedy yeah but I was
Always a nerd in school I was very quiet but this I don’t know it just came out but weren’t you a performer too like the stories I heard was that like you and your grandmother would go to these movies eight a week but I was I yeah and
You would come home and act by myself some of the scenes out yeah by myself but no I would just pretend to be Betty gyel at one point was a great movie star yeah and but I never thought of doing it for real in front of anybody right what
Were you doing like what what movies were you acting out oh I would do there was one called the dolly sisters yeah that was Betty grael and um I don’t know we’d make up stories with the kids and in the in the block we’d play Sheena Queen of the Jungle
And naoka which was another Queen of the Jungle yeah and we would uh and then we’d fly kites right and roller skate and climb the Hollywood sign oh wow we we’d be roller skating or something we say oh we’re bored let’s go climb the sign we’ go up the hill and
The back part of the letters there was a lot of wooden scaffolding and it was all splintery right we got splinters and all it’s a wonder we didn’t break our necks yeah and but I climb up and the O’s were my favorite and I’d lean over the O’s and I’d say
Hollywood but that that was my fantasy but as far as being any kind of a actress or performer or singer yeah never occurred to me until accidentally there wasn’t a journalism major if there had been I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you now about what I’m doing it’s a lot of weird
Um like interesting Fortune throughout that story too like the stories that I I was reading about like it feels like there’s so many like you’re right if you didn’t take a journalism class and you didn’t act uh you you wouldn’t have ended up talking to me you wouldn’t end up in
This in this show you wouldn’t have ended up in the you know inspiring all these people but also there’s a lot of stuff that’s not as linear than that like when I heard the story about the person giving you like your tuition randomly in the mailbox no what happened
Was I wanted to go to UCLA yeah but um my grandmother said we can’t afford it how much was that what do you think uh tuition was in 1951 to go to UCLA like $500 $500 $400 $43 43 bucks was it and we didn’t have
That money a lot of money back then well our rent was $30 a month a dollar a day yeah and we could kind of hardly make that so she said we can afford $43 that’s crazy but we lived in this one room at uh at this apartment building
With a Murphy pull down bed I slept on the couch and every morning I would look out across the lobby and there was these pigeon hole mailboxes and to see if there was a letter in our slot this one morning there was and I went I brought it back
In envelope had my name type written on it and uh address and I opened it up and there was a $50 bill and to this day time I don’t know where that came from you never got any clues or anything like that everybody in the neighborhood was poor yeah and if
Anybody I knew it just said look I’m going to give you you know they would it was totally Anonymous but that was my ticket to UCLA but that’s one and then in UCLA that that businessman comes over and he offers you what he well I then
After I got started to perform at UCLA I got into the music department yeah and I started to sing I had sung with my grandmother and mother in the kitchen Mama playing the ukulele yeah we sing and harmonize but I never belted you know or anything like
That but somehow I started to do that and I wound up doing working in what they called a musical comedy Workshop so we were going to do the finals and uh our professor was going to grade us there were nine of us in the class and
He said you know my wife and I are going to be at a party in San Diego next weekend and uh it’s formal and why don’t you kids come down and do your scenes as entertainment for the party yeah and I’ll grade you yeah instead of having to
Do it you know in in an auditorium who party s wow so we all went down different cars and uh it was lovely it was a the know very formal black tie affair and we were the entertainment I did a scene from Annie Get Your Gun which was a very popular musical comedy
On Broadway at the time and and then I was going to the urv table and I’m stealing ordures in a napkin to take home to my grandmother to put in my purse and there’s a tap on my shoulder thought oh my God I’m busted you’re G to
Get kicked out and it was this gentleman and his wife and he said um I really enjoyed what you did I said thank you very much said so whatat do you want to do with your life I said someday I’d love to go to Broadway be on musical
Comedy like Ethel Murman and Mary Martin who were the big stars at the time and he said why aren’t you there now said well I hope someday I can go but I I I’m trying to save up hope to have the money to go he said I’ll ler the
Money and I thought maybe the champagne was was talking yeah and his wife said no he me he what he gave me his card and he said be at my office uh week from Monday 9:00 and we’ll talk about your career well I didn’t tell my
Grandmother I got down there and um he had this big wonderful office in San Diego major businessman went in big beautiful mahogany desk and you know I was very intimidated yeah and he said I really enjoyed what you did my wife and I you
Want to go to New York I’m going to lend you $1,000 which was an ungodly it’s like $100,000 today and lend to you by the way well and he said I’m lending it to you he said hoping that if you do make it uh you pay me back no interest and
Other stipulations are you must never re Ral my name you must use the money to go to New York on yeah and if you’re successful you must help others out I thanked him and I went home and I showed my grandmother all this money I thought she was going to have a heart
Attack she said you know what we can do with $1,000 and I said nanny I have to go to New York that’s what this is for that’s what he said I have to go to New York and she said she said you’ll be dead in a week your blood’s too
Thin so encouraging yeah right no you can’t go to New York I said I have to so that’s how I got to New York what do you make of that like what do you make of it like I don’t know if you’re a spiritual person I don’t know if you’re
Like a believer in you’d have to be something going on it was like there’s an angel on my shoulder I don’t know for two Anonymous well to me Anonymous one definitely anonimous yeah people to just believe in you and give you yeah a lot
Of you know well I got to New York now this is how stupid I I was so naive yeah because of all the movies I used to go to it was like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland would say we’re going to put on a show in the barn and it’s going to go
To Broadway and of course that’s what happened in the movie so I’m thinking I’m going to be in New York I’ll be there and then I’ll be on Broadway easy easy peasy so anyway I’m on the plane I don’t even know where I’m going to stay
That’s how naive I was 21 years old and I’m reading the New Yorker magazine and there’s an ad for the AL ganin hotel which is where the round table was with Dorothy Parker and and uh Robert benchley all these brains who used to whole Court there I thought well I’ll go
To the alanu first so I had a little bit of money left after the plane ride and all of that and it checked in and it was $9 a day I mean our rent was $1 a day right so I thought oh my God okay anyway but I
Had to stay somewhere so I checked in and I called home and talked to my grandmother collect yeah and my mother and they said come home I just got I just got in there I said I’m here I where you going to stay well I’ll I’ll
Be okay and I hung up and I started to cry what am I going to do and I’ve always loved rain not when it floods of course but nice rain you all and it started to rain MH and I turned on the radio in the hotel room and it said swear to
God hurricane Carol is landing in New York yes she has yeah yeah Dad look at up August 1954 yeah and I thought whoa put something spooky about that c i told tell me you’re talking about spook yeah then I had one phone number yeah in my
Wallet of a girl who had gone to UCLA ahead of me and she was in New York she said if you if you ever get to New York give me a call so I called her the next day and she said where are you I said
I’m at the alanon hotel she said get away come get come to where I am and she gave me the address and I’m in my cardboard suitcase and I’m rain it’s raining get up to and it was a West 53rd Street between 5th and 6th Brownstone
And it was a place called The Rehearsal Club yeah and it was for young women who want to be in the theater very on the up and up had a house mother strict rules yeah all of that $18 a week room and board yeah because it was sponsored by some
Very wealthy ladies in New York right so who subsidized it they had one vacancy it was a cot in what they call the transit room room on the first floor yeah and I so she showed me into the room there were four other girls in the room five of us now one
Room one closet one bathroom I had a cot and a dresser and a couple of blankets a pillow I was thrilled I had never slept in a bed you on a c a couch slept on a couch next to a Murphy bed so for you that was
Luxurious wow yeah she said I’m sorry it’s just a c I said it was beautiful to me that’s beautiful Carol I thought it was great how do you deal with the um because when you get off the plane you think I’m going to be a Broadway Star
Right away you weren’t a Broadway Star right away you faced that rehearsal Club those stories is unbelievable to think about that everyone just living going to these big cattle call Auditions and then you but as is the life of any performer most of it in your early days is getting
Turned down how did you what how did you deal with like rejection how did you deal with that part of because I only imagine you got all this money people believing in you your your grandmother’s saying like this better work out or you got to come home and people are saying
No to you how did you handle that a lot of us were being turned down and then some would get a job just depended on luck you know and so um at this one point I I remember I auditioned for something and it looked
Like I was going to get it it wasn’t a big deal with another girl it was between me and this other girl yeah and I thought I had it but I didn’t she got it and it’s really weird Tom instead of being discouraged I thought well you know what it’s her
Turn yeah it’s not my turn my turn will come so that helped me from being just discouraged yeah so I was never that and then finally I got into see the problem was if you got saw an agent they said let me know when you’re in something
Said how do I get in something you have to have an agent right so it’s Catch 22 so this one time I got in to see an agent I showed him my scrapbook with good reviews from UCLA you know like I going to be a big
Deal here’s my report card and he said okay let me know when you’re in something and I I said how do I do this he said oh go put on your own show bingo I went back to the rehearsal club called a meeting with the girls and I
Said we’re going to put on a show and we wrote it and each girl had a certain thing that she could do one was this Spanish dancing and another was an opera singer another this s so what we did was we put it all together and we wrote on Penny postcards
To every producer director agent in town saying you’re always saying let us know when you’re in something well the famous rehearsal Club is putting on the rehearsal Club review March whatever so forth this Penny post card is your ticket so come and see us and the the rich ladies who
Subsidized gave us $200 to rent a curl Fisher concert hall on 57th Street we did it for two nights and we were packed they came they saw and three of us got ages yeah beautiful hey but it’s make your own breaks yeah yeah obious had a bit of hunger about you he
Obviously had a bit of ambition about you a bit of you know what I mean you know I I was never not optimistic I I think it was the movies yeah that I grew up with it it was that was a time when none of the movies were cynical yeah everybody the
Good guys made it the bad guys got their Just Desserts yeah it that nothing was impossible that’s why I I was so naive but I think think being that naive is what helped me of course and optimistic of course it’s going to work out I it has to that’s that’s the way it’s
Written yeah yeah uh to skip ahead because there’s a part of the story that I find really interesting so you end up on the Gary Moore Show which was this sort of like very similar to The Carol Bernett show what ended up becoming you know musical
Sketch comedy uh uh live to tape I think like live you know and um you get this deal I think I have it written down here this get this deal where if you wanted to do a variety show you had five years to ask and CBS had to
Make it but what I find interesting is not like the details of the deal itself is that when you actually called them and said like okay I want to make good on that it didn’t go as smoothly as he thought it was going to go well they
Forgotten that that that was a part of the contract that I had with them and they didn’t remember so I said I want do it it were required me to do a 1our comedy variety show for 30 shows they would have to put us on whether they
Wanted to or not yeah so the the vice president that call he had forgotten about it because it’s five years AG gone by and he said let me get back to you and I’m sure he got a bunch of lawyers out that evening and call me back the
Next day and he said yeah Carol you know but comedy variety it’s a man’s game right it’s not for you gals right it’s s Caesar it’s Milton Burl it’s Jackie Gleason now it’s Dean Martin then he said we’ve got a sitcom we want you to do call here’s
Agnes here’s Agnes yeah he writes itself oh please and I said I don’t want to be Agnes every week I want to have music I want to have guest stars I want to have a rep company I want dancers I want to Orchestra the whole and they had to put
Us on the air but they only thought we were going to go for 30 shows yeah we wound up doing 276 yeah but but don’t you now but doesn’t that make sense that like when people like I mean we mentioned the the the stars of palm Royale earlier but like like Julia Louie
Dfus you know I heard her talking to you not that long ago that like they talk about you especially for women in comedy and women in Show Business is this real icon this feminist icon I mean you have uh you mentioned there was Sid Caesar and and Dean Martin and you really
Changed TV so like how do you feel when people say that kind of thing to you I’m I’m flattered of course you know I’m flattered but I I don’t think that I I never thought when we were doing it that would be called a Trailblazer that never
Occurred to me it was what I knew how to do because I learned it on the G Moore Show yeah and I just transferred it onto my my own show but but I wanted a rep company even though it said Carol Bernett I it was a true rep company
There were sketches where I would be supporting Tim Tim would be supporting Vicki Harvey would be supporting me it was all a a a group as I said a real true rep company and to have variety and music and guests and I was in heaven because it was more fun actually than
Doing Broadway I know about the the tugging at ear it was your left ear right my grandmother yeah to say hi to your grandmother it said originally it was hi nanny I’m fine I love you and after I got successful it was hi nanny I’m fine I love you your checks on the
Way but the question I have is that she cracked me for WR she passed before the Carol Bernette show yeah but she did get to see me on Broad way and she did get to see me doing uh Gary show so was there some meaning that you kept you you
Still do it yeah I just still do it why I don’t know it just became a thing I think I transferred it when Nanny passed away I transferred it to my kids yeah you know it’s just something I think there’s something really beautiful about it that even though she’s passed
On to me I was like oh I wonder if she’s still you know if she’s still kind of passing that on you know well it’s to her and to my kids yeah that’s a beautiful thing yeah I um I I was sort of thinking a little bit about I mean I
Sort of came in going like hey so you know you’ve been on this whole roller coaster and you’ve been this really groundbreaking artist and you’ve done so much for so long and I had all this sort of like looking back ending you know like oh how do you feel when you sing
The song now and how do you when you look back on your career how do you feel and all that but what strikes me from watching this show and from talking to you and getting to know you a little bit is you’re not really stopping you’re not really you haven’t really slowed down
You’re still it’s really funny this is I’m 90 years old now so it was just like two years ago I I did better call Soul yeah and I adored doing it it was such fun it was like a family and I thought well that’s fine so I’ll do anything
That comes along that it looks like it’s going to be fun anything else I’m fine staying at home you know and then this came and if was like Wow slam dunk you know here better call Sal which I adored and now here’s another one with another family and it was a
Family and fun to work that that’s my point if I’m healthy enough and it looks like a good project and if it’s going to be fun I want to have fun I don’t want any angst I want to be with people that feel the way I do about life and about
Performing and I have I’ve LED out now two times in a row Better Call Saul and now pal Royale I got to tell you you know um getting to uh uh uh talk to you getting to look into your life um getting to spend some
Time with your work in very in a very cynical time um has given me such a a great joy and that s talking about it so I really appreciate it thanks so much for making the time when do you go back not soon enough
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