Something in the book I found weirdly interesting about a brush Woody Allen had with Henry Morgan aka Harry Morgan, Colenol Potter on M*A*S*H* and Bill Gannon on Dragnet. Morgan had started out playing the heavy in movies. I saw an old movie in which he was frighteningly convincing as a constantly angry abusive father. The teenage boy in that movie must have been wetting the bed for weeks after working with him.
I don't know if Morgan was in character or what, but Allen writes:
I'm on Merv Griffin with Henry Morgan, that nasty, cantankerous curmudgeon. He steps on my opening punchline. He goes after me. I try to go to a routine about my childhood. He says "Don't gimme that. I had two parents, too." I said, "Really? What were they?"The audience went wild. Morgan shut up.
But some time later, Morgan came to Allen's stage play Don't Drink the Water. The play was in trouble. Morgan came back stage and talked to Allen. He came to it several times and they would eat and walk around together, Morgan making suggestions on how to improve the show.
So strange. Like Mel Brooks being friends with Dick Van Patten. Showfolk aren't snobs like we are. Like I am, anyway.
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