Interviews: TV Stars at the Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show

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CHICAGO – The Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show is back in Chicago this weekend, September 25th and 26th, and the last time it came around some popular TV stars of the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s participated. Dawn Wells, Willie Aames, James MacArthur and Ken Kercheval were there.

HollywoodChicago talked with them all, and HC ace photographer Joe Arce put the finishing touch on the interviews with his vivid shots.

The Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show is a biannual event where attendees can meet and greet the stars, collect autographs and find cool collectibles at the comprehensive memorabilia market. Click here for details about the show.

StarDawn Wells, Mary Ann on Gilligan’s Island

The most famous castaways in television history were only on the air in their original run for three short seasons, 1964-1967, on CBS. But in an explosion of syndicated popularity “Gilligan’s Island” in essence has never left the airwaves. One of the shorthands for the type of woman that men of that TV generation loved was the eternal Ginger vs. Mary Ann debate. Ginger was the Movie Star played by Tina Louise, and Mary Ann was the fabulous Dawn Wells, forever young.


Verdict, Mary Ann: Dawn Wells at the Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show,
Chicago, March 13th, 2010
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: You were in the Miss America pageant. Since you lived through the modern feminist movement, are you glad to see those types of pageants become less relevant, or do you see them as a way for a woman to still advance her career?

Dawn Wells: The Miss America in my day focused on college education, talent and scholarship, which was very different than just a beauty pageant with women parading around in bathing suits. The Miss America pageant is a classic, and should be held up as such. But they were in Las Vegas last year, but I don’t know what that means.

HC: What was your journey from the Miss America pageant as Miss Nevada to the decision to become an actress and go to Los Angeles?

DW: Actually I was pre-med, I wanted originally to be a pediatric surgeon. I was also studying drama, and transferred from a woman’s college to the University of Washington as a drama major. I was tiny and short, and I just wanted to see if I could get up in front of a bunch of people. In fact, I did Rosalind from Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” in the Miss America Pageant, which was a big mistake. [laughs]

When I went to Los Angeles, after the first three or four interviews I stopped saying I was Miss Nevada because then they thought I was just a beauty pageant winner and I came to Hollywood just because I was pretty. I was theatrically trained with an MFA in theater.

HC: What role or person paved the way for you to get the audition for Gilligan’s Island?

DW: I had a little agent named Bob Payton, he handled about eight people, and he sent me on the audition. There was about 300 people testing. I kept going back five, six, seven times. Today I’d be totally intimidated. But I was at CBS Television City for one solid week testing with all the different Gingers and all the different Professors.

HC: I know you were basically a ‘straight man,’ but what Mary Ann comedy moment on the show is your favorite?

DW: The dream sequences, for example when I did the Eliza Doolittle character with a cockney accent or I played Ginger. We all liked doing the dream sequences because we got out of our characters.

HC: Gilligan’s Island was sexier than that many of the sitcoms of that era – guys in my generation still use the Ginger vs. Mary Ann comparison for types of women – was that intentional from the producers or did it just come naturally because you and Tina Louise projected that sexiness?

DW: He [Sherwood Schwartz, the Producer] wanted a glamourous girl and a farm girl, but I don’t think he had any idea it would become that comparison. I think the short-shorts did it. Had I just been a normal country girl in a country skirt, it wouldn’t have worked as well, there was a sex appeal to Mary Ann because of the way she dressed. So then it became, what did you want, a Ginger or a Mary Ann? I cannot tell you how many men have told me, ‘I married a Mary Ann.’

HC: Were you satisfied with the sequels made in the 1970s or would you have approached them differently if you could do them again?

DW: Ninety minutes of Gilligan’s Island is waaaay too long. [laughs] Thirty minutes in and out with the Harlem Globetrotters would have been fine. Although it was the highest rated program of the year, the only two things that beat us was a Muhammad Ali fight and the World Series. That’s how high the rating was.

HC: Finally, tell us something about Bob Denver that nobody knows.

DW: I don’t think anybody realized how bright and intellectual he was, he was a genius. He disliked the celebrity part of it, he was a creative soul and it was hard for him to be in the public eye. I think he just didn’t like it, even though he was great with the fans. He was a wonderful guy.

StarWillie Aames of “Eight is Enough” and “Charles in Charge”

Willie Aames in both famous and infamous. A prolific child actor in the 1970s, he morphed his regular role in “Eight is Enough” to a brief film career (most notable in the Blue Lagoon rip-off “Paradise”) and then became a regular in the syndicated series “Charles in Charge” from 1984-90. Afterward, some personal problems, including monetary issues and substance abuse, made him more a tabloid favorite than a performer. He has since got it together and is currently a financial adviser and cruise ship entertainer.


He is Enough: Willie Aames at the Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show, Chicago, March 13th, 2010
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HC: You had pretty steady work as a child actor before Eight is Enough. What do you remember about some of those legendary adult actors on shows like the Odd Couple, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Wait Til Your Father Gets Home or any other of the classic ‘70s series you appeared on?

Willie Aames: The thing about guys I worked with, like Tony Randall, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, those guys were all class acts. I think the bigger they got the nicer they were.

HC: You were recently reunited with the cast of Eight is Enough on the Today Show. What was the nicest moment personally for you about that, and what is your best memory from that popular show?

WA: I have tons of great memories from Eight is Enough, and at the latest reunion everybody’s demeanor was just we were happy to see one another. Seeing Betty (Buckley) for first time in 20 years and feeling the warmth between everyone was really special. We realized after losing Lani [O’Grady, who passed away] and missing a few cast members, that these were rare times.

HC: You and Phoebe Cates did the infamous cable favorite ‘Paradise.’ What was the attitude of the production, were you, the director and cast mates striving in the outset to just outdo ‘Blue Lagoon’?

WA: The thing about Blue Lagoon is that I had originally been cast in that movie by director Randal Kleiser while I was doing Eight is Enough, opposite Diane Lane. And Diane couldn’t do it, and I got in trouble with ABC, because everybody was leaving all the shows to go do movies. Randal wanted me to leave Eight is Enough to do Blue Lagoon, and I wouldn’t do it.

When we did Paradise, I literally would take pages from the old Blue Lagoon script I had and told the director, ‘you can’t do it.’ This should be about a chase thing in the desert. Phoebe [Cates] and I both refused to do many scenes that were too close to Blue Lagoon or over the top, which is why the body doubles did most of the scenes.

On the set it was interesting because it was a Canadian project through Avco Embassy (US studio) in Israel with the Israelis and some of the Bedouins. Everybody was at each other’s throats at some point, except Phoebe and I, we just sat back and said ‘wow.’

HC: What is the origin of your relationship with Scott Baio? Did doing ‘Zapped’ with him lead to ‘Charles in Charge?’

WA: Actually Scott and I knew each other from way back, I met him on the auditions for ‘Bugsy Malone’ [1976], plus we knew each other on ABC, with ‘Happy Days’ and Eight is Enough, and both did ‘Battle of the Network Stars.’

Then Scott and I did a magazine show called ‘We’re Moving’ together, and then did Zapped. Then when Eight it Enough finished they asked if I’d come on Happy Days to support Scott for the last couple seasons. But the show had been on for so long I couldn’t see bringing anything to it that would extend it. I’m glad I didn’t do it, because later on I got to do Charles in Charge.

At first, they wouldn’t even let me in for Charles, wouldn’t audition me. When I finally went in and did it, the network asked me where I had been. [laughs]

HC: Your circumstances and life’s journey has led you through many experiences, both glorious and challenging. What internal survival instinct has served you the best through both the good and the more challenging times?

WA: I think earlier it was just straight determination, as I got older it became more about faith and determination. I think there is part of all of us that loves a challenge. I love a challenge. Last year, I went from homeless to financial advisor in nine months. I think I need those challenges in my life.

Star James MacArthur of “Hawaii Five-0”

When Jack Lord, Steve McGarrett on the original “Hawaii Five-0,” intoned his famous catchphrase, “Book ‘em, Danno,” he was speaking to James MacArthur, who played Danny Williams on that 1960s CBS show. The son of Helen Hayes, the first lady of the Broadway stage, MacArthur grew up in a household where it wasn’t unusual to see Harpo Marx galavanting about. He made his own Broadway debut in 1960, and went on to appear in several Western TV shows during the era. He appeared in the film “Hang ‘Em High” with Clint Eastwood, which led to Five-0.


Book ‘Em: James MacArthur at the Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show,
Chicago, March 13th, 2010
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HC: When you were starting your career, what advice did your famous mother, Helen Hayes, give you either about acting or the business in general?

James MacArthur: Show up on time and know your lines. [laughs] It was a start.

HC: You were fortunate enough through your mother’s connections to meet some of the greatest actors and literary figures of the 20th Century. Which of those legendary figures made the most impression on you, and what advantage to you have knowing them as individuals?

JM: Well unfortunately when you’re young everybody older is just an adult, you don’t necessarily know their credentials. My mother might point somebody out and say he was wonderful, but I’d always say, ‘yeah, right.’ I did meet a lot of great people who I got to know later, but how was I to know then? For example, I knew John Steinbeck through my father.

HC: Since you were a star athlete, how is acting and performing in athletics similar and were you able to apply those similarities to your early career?

JM: Not such a star athlete, but I did compete in everything. Same old thing, once the kick-off is up, and you’re running down the field and you hit that first player, the butterflies are gone. Same with the stage, when you say your first line, if you get it out, then you’re okay. [laughs]

HC: In your early theater career, you also learned the ropes as a behind-the-scenes technician. How important, in your opinion, is it for an actor to know a little bit about all the contributions to a production?

JM: Every little bit fills you out a little more, you learn more about the process. Lighting, backstage stuff, it’s part of the whole thing. I did all that stuff backstage and loved every minute of it. I was even chief of the parking lot. [laughs]

HC: Your appearance in the Clint Eastwood movie ‘Hang ‘Em High’ led to the role on Hawaii 5-0. What is the story about that circumstance?

JM: My agent called me up and asked me if I wanted to do a cameo in an upcoming Western. I said I’d never done a cameo, but he said he thought I should do it. It was two days on the backlot of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Eight months later, Leonard Freeman [Creator of Hawaii Five-0] called me after saying he’d seen me in the film. The next thing you know I was in Hawaii.

HC: Finally, tell us something about Jack Lord that nobody knows.

JM: There is something nobody knows? [laughs] Jack was a controversial type of person. His one trouble in life was getting along with the press. If you didn’t get along with them, one would say one thing, and another would say another. And it wasn’t even as bad as it is today.

Star Ken Kercheval of “Dallas”

“Dallas” was a breakthrough nighttime soap opera, which ran an incredible 13 seasons from 1978-1991. The only actor besides Larry Hagman who was in the entire run of the show was Ken Kercheval, as the scheming Cliff Barnes. Kercheval was a classically trained actor in New York City, and appeared in the original Broadway premiere of “Fiddler on the Roof.” From there he got his start on TV on the soap opera “Search for Tomorrow,” and followed that up with film roles in “The Seven Ups” and “F.I.S.T.” before landing Dallas.


He Was in a Shot with J.R.: Ken Kercheval at the Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show,
Chicago, March 13th, 2010
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HC: You started with famed acting coach Stanford Meisner. Who were some of your notable classmates and what was it about the Meisner technique that you connected to?

Ken Kercheval: I owe everything to Stanford Meisner, I think everyone who studied under him would say the same thing. Who was in my class? Suzanne Pleshette, Bobby Duvall and Sydney Pollack.

HC: How did you get from small town Indiana to Sandy Meisner classes in New York City.

KK I walked. [laughs]

HC: How were the early 1960s for an actor in New York City? Was it better then than what you observe today?

KK: I don’t know. The ‘60s were the most memorable time in my career. Working in New York on the stage is the ultimate. If I could afford to live in New York City I would be there right now. It’s incredible.

HC: What was the strangest thing you experienced at the height of Dallas-mania?

KK: It was all kind of strange in a way. The magnitude of the popularity of the show was hard to measure. But I think if being wise, we just became very insular. Do your thing, and it’s nice to be nice.

HC: Tell us something about Larry Hagman that nobody knows.

KK: [Pause] He’s a nice guy. [Laughs]

The Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show is currently in Chicago, September 25th and 26th. Click here for details.

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2010 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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