Interviews: Those 1970s Celebrities at ‘The Hollywood Show’

CHICAGO – When “That ’70’s Show” was merely a twinkle in the eye of Ashton Kutcher’s pappy, there were real TV, film and music celebrities actually working in that disco decade. Denny Laine (of Paul McCartney and “Wings”), Eric Shea (“The Poseidon Adventure”) and Richard Anderson (“The Six Million Dollar Man”) helped to define that freak show era.

They appeared last March at ‘The Hollywood Show,’ a twice-a-year event in which fans can mingle, take photographs and get autographs from the participants – like the 1970s celebrities – who appear there. There is also a great opportunity to purchase memorabilia from a host of showbiz vendors, all in one room. The fall session of The Hollywood Show will take place at the Hilton Rosemont Hotel on River Road in Rosemont, Ill, on September 7th, 8th and 9th, 2012. For complete details click here. [17]

HollywoodChicago.com was there to interview all three star refugees from the days of Nixon and Studio 54. Photographer Joe Arce took pictures of “Those ’70’s Dudes” at the event.

Denny Laine, Guitarist and Songwriter for Paul McCartney and “Wings”

Take Flight: Denny Laine of ‘Wings’ at ‘The Hollywood Show,’ March of 2012 Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Denny Laine is a historic force in both the British Invasion of the 1960s, and as the third most important “Wings” band member, after Sir Paul and Linda McCartney. After leaving his first band in 1964, he joined the “Moody Blues” and sang lead vocals on their first hit, “Go Now.” After leaving that band in 1966, he played throughout the rest of the ‘60s in journeyman groups, before joining the McCartneys in 1971 for the post-Beatles “Wings.” The group disbanded in 1981.

HollywoodChicago.com: Do you have a story that best defines the period in the mid-1960s British invasion, where everything seemed possible and everyone you knew was part of it?

Denny Laine: We all came from different parts of England at the same time, and met in London in the clubs. We started in a state of friendly competition between the bands and we also toured together a lot, so it was a bit different in those days. Also we saw each other on the road a lot doing tours, so we were playing together and helping each other out.

HollywoodChicago.com: When you did the first bus tour with the band, what kind of backlash if any did you meet up with, and how did it bond the band emotionally?

Laine: Well, it was because we were going through Europe and the South of France in an open top bus made it great advertising, but it was very slow. Many times we had to be picked up by other cars to take us to the gigs because it took so long to get anywhere. We did have a lot of fun, we treated it like a holiday, and so did the kids that saw us. We sat on the top of the bus, playing guitars and writing songs. Although we’d all been in big bands before that, we treated ‘Wings’ as a new group, and since we were also practicing as a new band, we didn’t want all that much scrutiny.

HollywoodChicago.com: Given the legendary stories surrounding ‘Band on the Run,’ which song on that fantastic album do you feel is most miraculous, after going through what you three went through?

Linda and Paul McCartney, Denny Laine of ‘Wings’ Photo credit: paulmccartney.com

Laine: Everyone likes to bring up ‘Band on the Run’ as the main song on that album, but I’m going to plug my song, ‘No Words,’ which I co-wrote with Paul. It was two songs that we put together to make the one song. It was one of the main songs that Paul and I wrote together, so it was a turning point for me.

HollywoodChicago.com: You were close to McCartney during the era of John Lennon’s passing. How did you observe it effecting Paul, and did anything change in your relationship with him?

Laine: No, but it caused him to have a lot more security around him. That forced him to put an electric fence around his home at the south of England. He came into work the morning he found out, and we were talking about it, looking out the windows of the studio and it was very emotional. But I think he felt that if he was working he wouldn’t be staying at home and having it go through his mind.

I knew John Lennon well. We did the second tour with ‘The Beatles’ when I was in the ‘Moody Blues.’ So I knew him very well.

HollywoodChicago.com: Was that 1965?

Laine: If you say so. [laughs] If you were there and remembered it, you weren’t there.

HollywoodChicago.com: After all these years, what still thrills you about taking the stage, and preaching the gospel of rock and roll?

Laine: Nowadays, I write and do my own material, even more than when I first started. And I am getting my songs across more. I’ve been in a band since I was 12 years old, and always the best experience is the live performance. Not the recording or writing, it’s the live performance. I love the feedback of that.

Eric Shea, Child Actor in “The Poseidon Adventure”

Child Star: Eric Shea at at ‘The Hollywood Show,’ March of 2012 Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Eric Shea, for such a brief child actor career, certainly possessed a memorable screen presence. He was “Phillip North Beardsley” in the family classic “Yours, Mine and Ours” (1968) and portrayed “Robin” in “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972). His siblings were also in show business, his brothers Stephen and Christopher was the voice of Linus Van Pelt in the “Peanuts” TV specials, and it was Christopher who voiced the famous stage speech that Linus gives in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the background of your family being involved in show business? How did it all happen?

Eric Shea: My brother Chris started out with Art Linkletter on the ‘Kids Say the Darnest Things’ TV show. They went around to Los Angeles schools and picked him. He made an impression, appeared on the ‘Jack Barry Show,’ and got an agent. When they signed him up, they signed all of us up.

HollywoodChicago.com: You abruptly left the business in 1978, right as you were transitioning into adulthood. What was behind that decision, had you just had enough?

Shea: It was a little bit of that, but also I just didn’t make the transition. At the same time, I was losing interest. I moved to St. Louis and learned the electrical trade, and I’ve been doing that ever since.

HollywoodChicago.com: At what age do you have your first memory of being on a film or TV set? As you got older, did you feel more in control of your acting skills?

Morning After: Eric Shea in ‘The Poseidon Adventure Photo credit: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Shea: It was 1965, when I was five years old, and the show was ‘Felony Squad,’ with Howard Duff and Michael Cole. It was my first TV job, after doing commercials. I remember I had to ride my tricycle up to the house where Duff and Cole were asking questions. That’s all I remember.

I did feel more confident as an actor, as I went on. When you start out so young, you take it for granted. I did what they told me to do, but as I got older I realized that reciting the lines wasn’t enough. I don’t remember when that happened, maybe it never did. [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: Which iconic role do people like to remind you of, once they realize who you are, and why do you think that one sticks out over the others?

Shea: Definitely ‘The Poseidon Adventure.’ It’s always that, but I also get that thing when people meet me, they think they know me, but they’re not sure from where. They think they went to school with me. [laughs]

I do get ‘Yours, Mine and Ours’ often, but not as much as The Poseidon Adventure.’ There was a retrospective in Los Angeles at their museum about Lucille Ball [who played Shea’s mother in the film], and I attended a couple events related to the film.

HollywoodChicago.com: If you could go back in time and talk to that kid actor and give him advice, what would you tell him?

Shea: Why would you get out of this business? [laughs]

Richard Anderson, Oscar Goldman on “The Six Million Dollar Man”

We Can Rebuild Him: Richard Anderson at at ‘The Hollywood Show,’ March of 2012 Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Richard Anderson was not only the unflappable aide de camp to Steve Austin in the ‘70s classic “The Six Million Dollar Man,’ but also began his career in the studio system for MGM and has worked with directors as diverse as Stanley Kubrick, John Frankenheimer and William Wellman over his career. In his second interview with HollywoodChicago.com, we go deeper into his journey.

HollywoodChicago.com: When you were starting out in at Metro Goldwyn-Mayer, who was your mentor through those studio system days?

Robert Anderson: My mentor was Dore Schary [president of MGM], who was running the studio when I came in there. I was asked by his secretary to come in, because Schary had heard of me through the wife of Cary Grant, who at that time was Betsy Drake. I was on a TV show called ‘Lights, Camera, Action,’ which was a dancing show like they have today. I kept winning on that show, and Betsy Drake watched it and mentioned me to Cary. He was working at MGM at the time, and he told Schary about me.

That studio was amazing, they were technically amazing. When I joined it they were going down because of one word…’television.’ All of the time I was there, for six years, they were grooming me for a lead role, but everybody started leaving because it was breaking up.

HollywoodChicago.com: You had a significant role in ‘The Long Hot Summer’ and ‘Compulsion,’ both or which featured Orson Welles. What do you remember about those films, and what are your impressions about Orson Welles, having worked with him in that era?

Richard Anderson (right) in ‘Paths of Glory’ Photo credit: MGM Home Entertainment

Anderson: He was on his way down. Here is the man who made the supposed greatest movie ever made, and famously said ‘I started at the top and have been working my way down ever since.’ He physically and mentally was not the same when I was working with him. On ‘Compulsion’ he had a lot of trouble getting through it, but [producer] Richard Zanuck loved him, but he was on his way down. The world had lost him.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is different for you as an actor when you play a real person like Lyndon Johnson or General George Meade. Do you approach a real person character any differently?

Anderson: I like to get the accent first, especially in the case of Lyndon Johnson, and try to find a place when I can connect to him. In my case, it’s when he picked up the dog. Another was in a scene with J. Edgar Hoover, where I told him to get the hell out the office, that was a wonderful Lyndon Johnson moment.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, which of your films do you think will live on, and have an impact in subsequent generations of movie fans?

Anderson: ‘Paths of Glory,’ one of the greatest movies about war ever made. It was directed by Stanley Kubrick at the top of his game. I would say that will maintain it’s reputation, especially with any study of war on film. To see that movie is to realize the utter needlessness of war and generals, and the meaning of the men who had to do the actual fighting. I read an appropriate quote once from Douglas MacArthur, “The soldier, be he friend or foe, is charged with the protection of the weak and the unarmed. It’s his very existence for being.”

[18]	By PATRICK McDONALD [19] Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com [18]