Everything was very precise. This is one of those stories where the servants become more than just the help., Michelle Phillips, the former Mamas & the Papas singer, who was a protge of Janets, recalls, Janet kind of freaked out. Gracie told me that Janet had not been out of bed for several years, with the rare exceptions of a few lunches and dinners. He was memorable as a doleful, philosophical doctor with a three-legged dog in the comedian Louis CKs unorthodox sitcom Louie (2014). Charles Grodin, the versatile actor familiar from "Same Time, Next Year" on Broadway, popular movies like "The Heartbreak Kid," "Midnight Run" and "Beethoven" and numerous television appearances, died on Tuesday at his home in Wilton, Conn. Many houses of immense size were then erected, adorned with columns, paintings, statues, and costly works of art. He was a poor money manager, and I think they always feared for money, because they spent like drunken sailors. They put me in a Betty Grable outfit with terrible hair and makeup. Eventually, however, it led to a contract at Paramount. At the time of their marriage, Freddie was directing Jack Bennys TV program and making good money, but not the princely sum Janet aspired to spending. The NBC network would receive angry letters from viewers who didn't understand the joke that he was playing a persona, trying to be as different from typical talk show guests as possible. After a 12-year-long hiatus from film, in 2006 Grodin returned to acting in the comedy The Ex starring Zach Braff.[25]. I learned later that Fred was over there actually giving him the Wrap it up sign [to indicate that the show was running over]. In 1981, he landed a role in The Great Muppet Caper playing Nicky Holiday, a jewel thief who falls in love with Miss Piggy. I was crying when I heard her voice, but then when we spoke, she said the most lovely thing. She clips them out for me. When a smile did come, it was impatient or insincere. This interview is full of the jokingly passive aggressive digs the two always took at each other, with Grodin playing it all so bone dry that you could be excused for thinking there was real animus between the two. GRODIN--Charles. Below is that full, fascinating article from Vanity Fair: When Freddie de Cordova, Johnny Carsons longtime producer, died in 2001, his wife knew her big-caviar days were over. How de Cordova and Wife Died Broke and Blew Through A Fortune Jul 12 tramscorp@aol.com This is quite a fascinating tale. Anne Douglas had advised Janet to send her favorite furniture ahead in order to re-create her master suite in Gracies house. Though Freddie had made about a half-million dollars a year at the height of his career, they had burned through most of their savings. Javier was removed on a gurney and driven to Cedars-Sinai hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He also appeared that same year opposite Lily Tomlin in The Incredible Shrinking Woman. Charles Grodin, pictured in 2013, appeared in such movies as Rosemary's Baby, The Heartbreak Kid and Midnight Run . From 1995 to 1999, Grodin hosted his own issues-orientated cable news talk show, The Charles Grodin Show. The Bennys were at a dinner party at the Armand Deutsches. Carson number two [196372]Joanneengineered Freddies ascent, says Zehme. Gracie arranged for Janet to have the main bedroom. Irving was more successful. After dinner, back in the living room for demitasse, Janet lit up a joint and passed it around. Of course, Janet was very disturbed when she heard Javier had died, the late Dominick Dunne, a friend of Janets, told me. It centers on Fred de Cordova, Johnny Carson and the final days of Carson's Tonight Show. Grodin had two children: daughter Marion (a comedian), from his marriage to Julie Ferguson, and son, Nicholas, from his marriage to Elissa Durwood. The most handsome man I ever laid eyes on, Janet told me. of Johnny Carson and . According to several friends of Janets, Freddie was too ashamed to tell her that he and Carson had had a very ugly break at the studio a year previously. She took on the problems herself and kept Janets world running smoothly., According to Dunne, In Trousdale, there is a kind of urban legend. Carson teased endlessly on the air about Freddies exotic A-list weekendshe would discuss how he had spent the weekend sorting his sock drawer while Freddie was out hobnobbing with the gods.. Join Facts Verse as we explore why Johnny Carson hated this Tonight Show guest more than anyone.. Johnny Carson was the host of The Tonight Show Starring Carson for three decades, from 1962 to 1992. Freddie was the one I was interested in, said Janet, but he had never been married. And Grodin spent several decades visiting Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show," almost always showing up with nothing to plug or being unwilling to plug it. It was lit like important company could come through at any moment, even when there was no one on the calendar for a social call, and at the end there never was. Husband number two was a prominent P.R. I had scotch, and she would get so mad at Gracie because she poured me J&B. And then his eyes start darting over to where Freddie is, and you can see a little register of annoyance. The "Heartbreak Kid" star's multihyphenate career spanned six decades and virtually every medium. Once, she was naked in bed with the sheet pulled up. At five oclock, Gracie would appear and close the ostrich draperies. However, his last show with Johnny as host was the show mentioned above on 1982-09-21. June 8, 2022; how old was john gotti when he died; cms cameron mckenna nabarro olswang llp contact number . [16] He also directed Simon and Garfunkel's television special Songs of America in 1969. I was so surprisedand I think Janet must have been, toowhen I walked in to see so much of Janets furniture fitting in so well, and the architecture so much the same., Dominick Dunne heard from other friends who went to visit that Gracies house was a replica of Janet and Freddies. The grand staircase, the large seating area with the white, U-shaped sofa, and the indoor-outdoor California feel of the place were all unmistakable Carla Ridge. Grodin had his own popular radio talkshow in the mid-1990s and also became a commentator on the political TV show 60 Minutes II. But I think they wanted to go to all the Hollywood parties, and they needed each other for those occasions., Freddie was known to be an affable charmer in the presence of a star or a V.I.P., but with underlings he would invariably get acerbic. Not knowing how to follow that, he went to the other extreme and affected disdain. B.B. Well, Grodin doesnt fit that bill. This kind of girl no longer exists in Hollywood. He would appear once a month, to the exclusion of all other talk shows. When Freddies mother died, Janet persuaded him to leave the Blackburn duplex, and she found a glamorous house in Trousdale, then the height of contemporary, flat-roofed chic in Beverly Hills. His gaze was flat and pitiless, his mouth a straight horizontal line. He attended the University of Miami but dropped out, opting instead for the life of a struggling actor. We never fiddled with that. Known for his deadpan delivery and often cast as a put-upon straight man, Grodin became familiar as a supporting actor in many Hollywood comedies of the era, including Real Life (1979), Seems Like Old Times (1980), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Ishtar (1987), Dave (1993), and Clifford (1994). Charles Grodin clears the air, Dom Irrera does stand-up about parking lot attendants and Tommy Walton is a world-famous hot dog vendor. There were dozens of them., By the time Janet started to date Freddie, she was in her early 40s. Man in the 1994 limited release sequel to A Christmas Story, It Runs in the Family (a.k.a. Janet did not slave in the kitchen, but she made sure everything was either brought in from Chasens or was the caviar pasta from Le Domeher favorite because it had lots of vodka and lots of caviar. Producer and director George Schlatter (The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, Rowan & Martins Laugh-In) tells me, I think she single-handedly introduced Chteau dYquem to this town., For years, whenever Carson threatened to quit, Janet would make a play behind the scenes. All calls stopped immediately. He was the villain in a new version of King Kong (1976), a dissatisfied school principal in the romantic comedy Thieves (1977) and a scheming secretary in Warren Beattys Heaven Can Wait (1978). In his greatest performance, as a man who falls for another woman while on his honeymoon, in The Heartbreak Kid (1972), he was conniving and cruel, turning courtship into a bloodsport. were johnny carson and charles grodin friends. Alice Lassally [wife of Tonight Show producer Peter Lassally] and Freds assistant, B. J. Freebairn-Smith, went through the house after Fred passed, and they found cash almost literally stuffed in mattresses. Then Janet de Cordova did something that shocked le tout Beverly Hills. It was sort of an arrangement, really. Dunne told me, When Michelle Phillips went to visit her, Janet made a grand entrance down the main staircase, with her signature flower, a gardenia, pinned to her shoulder., I happened to view the same grand entrance when I interviewed Janet in Gracies house, in 2009. He would appear once a month, to the exclusion of all other talk shows. Grodin never breaks his stone-faced routine, and repeatedly mocks Carson for a weak joke from that nights monologue. Grodin, who appeared in such films as Midnight Run, The Heartbreak Kid, Beethoven, The Great Muppet Caper and on TV as a favored guest of Johnny Carson and David Letterman, died today of bone. Grodin studied acting at the University of Miami but left without graduating and won a scholarship at the Pittsburgh Playhouse School. Here are some of our favorite examples of Grodins deconstruction of the talk show interviewincluding one genuinely confrontational interview from late in his career on one of Sean Hannitys Fox shows. Trump avoided . She was very frail from osteoporosis, nearly blind from macular degeneration, but her mind was still quite sharp. Ginny Newhart [the wife of the comedian Bob Newhart] sends me the word jumbles from the L.A. Times. With a later time slot and a edgier approach to humor than Carson, Late Night let Grodin really lean into the abrasive side of his talk show persona, as seen in his very first appearance on a Letterman show. He cultivated a persona through which resentment and superiority were conveyed with calm understatement. [14] It was a tremendous blow to his ego. In the mid-1990s, Grodin retired from acting and wrote autobiographies; he became a talk show host on CNBC and in 2000 a political commentator for 60 Minutes II. A few minutes later the Deutsches butler came by to empty the ashtrays, and when he came to the one in front of Mary Benny, he held it up before her and said, Madam, would you like your roach?, I was no angel, Janet confessed. During the 1970s, he also frequently appeared on Broadway and was involved in producing several plays. Next to them was a photo of Janet, inscribed: To Gracie, All my best, Mrs. de Cordova. Janet raised her glass in a toast: To San Luis Potos! Grodin wrote and directed a Simon & Garfunkel TV special; his radical idea was to introduce into that cosy television convention some political discord. Whats wrong with her?, When you spend it, people say how stupid you are, Janet de Cordova told me, especially later, when you dont have it. The A-crowd in Los Angeles was a mix of Hollywood and society, with the Reagans very much at the center of things. The de Cordovas were among the very few TV couples allowed into that rarefied group. He made me a proposition, said Janet. After a small part in Rosemary's Baby in 1968, he played the lead in Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid (1972) and supporting roles in Mike Nichols's Catch-22 (1970), the 1976 remake of King Kong, and Warren Beatty's Heaven Can Wait (1978). He never looked impressed. Carson good at drinking, dames and being a d!@#. Deadpan comedian Charles Sydney Grodin (originally Grodinsky) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania of Russian/Polish ancestry and raised in a Jewish orthodox home. He was 52 at the time and beat Robin Williams to the part of the gentle mafia accountant escorted across the US by a bounty hunter played by Robert De Niro. Janet and Freddie were among them, and they were fighting the whole time until they left. None of us knew what to think. Johnny didnt want Howard to know we were married, said Janet, going on to explain that the richest man in the film industry would have been jealous. [24] From 2000 to 2003, he was a political commentator for 60 Minutes II. Told her not to take a drink or she would take it away from her., Bloomingdale recalls, This gal from Mexico was someone very special to Janet, and not really a maid as you and I would understand a maid, or a housekeeper. Fox Show. My adopted hometown.. He was not good-looking. Grodin also appeared in the 1986 CBS prime-time-soap sendup Fresno, playing the evil son of a raisin matriarch (Carol Burnett). He was a dialogue director in five films, including To Have and Have Not (1944). Amazon.com: Heeere's Johnny - The Definitive DVD Collection from The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson : Johnny Carson, Dean Martin, Carol Burnett, Dolly Parton, Don Rickles, David Letterman, Jane Fonda, Drew Carey, Charles Grodin, Steve Martin, Ann-Margret, Bob Newhart, Robin Williams, Bette Midler, Richard Nixon, Robert Kennedy, Jimmy Stewart, Tiny Tim, Muhammad Ali, Raquel Welch, Loni . Pamela was a bitch to me, for no reason, because I think shed already given Freddie the heave-ho., Janet and Freddie were married in November 1963, three days after the Kennedy assassination. Charles Grodin, the droll, offbeat actor and writer who scored as a caddish newlywed in "The Heartbreak Kid" and later had roles ranging from Robert De Niro's counterpart in the comic thriller. He was heavyset and bald, but he had a hell of a personality. If you dont spend it, you dont enjoy it, and I think its pretty stupid not to enjoy it. We were living high off the hog, said Janet, whose spending was legendary. He had been the son of a con man during the Great Depressionthey went from first-class hotel to hotel with all their clothes on their backs. Grodin discusses the book on "Today." Here's an excerpt: A HORSE WHO CAN TYPE In the early 1970s, after two brief appearances with Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show," I was asked if I'd like. She was interred next to Freddie at the Holy Cross Cemetery, in Culver City. Hes also rightfully remembered as perhaps the best talk show guest of all time, thanks to a long series of hilarious interviews with Johnny Carson and David Letterman. Though early readers have been shocked, just shocked, by Mr. Bushkin's. I had platinum hair like her, and when she died I cried. He called himself the old queen. I think those days were behind him when he got into his 50s, but who knows? Charles Grodin, actor and writer, born 21 April 1935; died 18 May 2021, Actor, writer and US television talkshow favourite known for his film roles in The Heartbreak Kid and Midnight Run, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. If you say Javier is dead, its like a code for a certain generation. After a supporting role in the 1970 comedy film Catch-22, Grodin gained recognition as a comedy actor when he played the lead role in the 1972 film The Heartbreak Kid. It was almost like a [Don] Rickles effect. Janet also had a sharp tongue, and as a couple they were known as the squabbling Bickersons, a reference to a man and wife in a 1940s radio show, played by Don Ameche and Frances Langford. Well get married, and youll take care of your hair and your clothes, and Ill take care of the house and the expenses. Oh, he loathed how much I had my hair done! [22] The show was dropped by CNBC in 1998, but aired for a final year as a weekly show on MSNBC[23] before ending its run in late 1999. And not one soul here but themselves knew their secret.. Her body was cremated in San Luis Potos and taken to Los Angeles by Gracie and Selene. Hes clearly going a little bit long with the tribute, but there are all these majestic nature shots, and Carson is talking about his sonheart-wrenching. Her skin was already so paper-thin that you could see the veins in her forehead. He came armed with scripted jokes and rarely would engage in any genuine conversation. You said mamas boy or something. Grodin was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Orthodox Jewish parents,[2][3] Theodore (19001953), who owned a store that sold wholesale supplies, and Lena (19071996; ne Singer), who worked in her husband's business and volunteered for disabled veterans. I dont know whether Alice and B.J. That was a big part of her life., The beige rotary-dial phone next to Janets bed helped her monitor the latest gossip as well as peoples movements in the house, says Deamer. She kept screaming, Where is he? But that was Gracie. Michelle Phillips led Robert Wagner, Jill St. John, George Segal, Joanna Carson, Betsy Bloomingdale, Wendy Stark Morrissey, Dani Janssen, Shirlee Fonda, and dozens of others from the dwindling old Beverly Hills A-list in a toast. Accordingly, "Johnny Carson"hints at being a catharsis for its author. He would appear once a month, to the exclusion of all other talk shows. What are we going to do? I knew it wasnt going to happenJohnny loved that show too muchbut she always went behind Freds back to me to try to make sure it wasnt going to end when it didnt need to., The de Cordovas raison dtre, said Dominick Dunne, was to live an A-list life. Charles Sidney Grodin (April 21, 1935 May 18, 2021) was an American actor, comedian, author, and television talk show host. And then his eyes start darting over to where Freddie is, and you can see a little register of annoyance. Why isnt she thinking about tomorrow? They may have thought that Freddie was, but you didnt say that. He continued in this vein for years, transferring his act to Late Night with David Letterman, where he would usually begin by ignoring the presenter before taunting him. So I asked her, Would you like to come to Mexico with me? She said no. For decades, Johnny Carson was the king of late night. She always had wonderful thingsLalique, Baccaratand did wonderful things, always with Gracie behind the scenes, making sure it was the way Janet wanted it., Janet was an absolute perfectionist, says Joanna Carson, the third wife (197283) of Johnny Carson. That was the deathblow.. I said, Think about it. A minute later she put her hand to her head, closed her eyes, and said yes. There are few upstairs-downstairs tales in the annals of Beverly Hills history, however, that have reverberated as strongly as the story of Janet de Cordova and her devoted servant, Gracie Covarrubias. The show was done in New York until we moved to Burbank, in 1972. "Getting Serious Charles Grodin, Veteran of Many Flaky Film Roles, Is Using His Cable Talk Show To Speak Out About Important Social Issues. So everybody thought I had a fat chance and was very stupid to let Irving go., Freddie lived with his mother, and even many of his friends thought he was gay. Pratiquant galement le doublage, il est notamment la voix franaise rgulire de Peter MacNicol, Zach Grenier et John Billingsley, ainsi que l'une des voix d'Oliver Platt et Jeffrey Combs. His father, Theodore, sold wholesale supplies from his store, which was called the Grodin Company despite having a staff of only two Grodins mother, Lena (nee Singer), also worked there. The blond dye job was not just on her head.. Charles Grodin, a versatile comedic actor best known for his roles in movies like "Midnight Run" and "The Heartbreak Kid," died Tuesday at his home in Connecticut, after battling cancer,. The comic thriller Midnight Run (1988) was a late highlight that came long after Grodin might have been expected to land a leading role. She had all of Janets hand-me-downs, recalls Jack Deamer. Between 19792008, writing specials competed alongside, 1990s/2000s: Family films and talk show host, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business, How I Get Through Life: A Wise and Witty Guide, We're Ready for You, Mr. Grodin: Behind the Scenes at Talk Shows, Movies, and Elsewhere, I Like It Better When You're Funny: Working in Television and Other Precarious Adventures, If I Only Knew Then Learning from Our Mistakes, Just When I Thought I'd Heard Everything: Humorous Observations on Life in America, "Charles Grodin, Star of 'Beethoven' and 'Heartbreak Kid,' Dies at 86", "Humanitarian always has been Charles Grodin's main role", "Charles Grodin, Deliciously Droll Actor, Dies at 86", "Charles Grodin, Pittsburgh native and star of 'Midnight Run,' dies at 86", "Playhouse provided training ground for Grodin", "HB Studio - Notable Alumni | One of the Original Acting Studios in NYC", "Charles Grodin, deadpan comic actor known for 'Midnight Run' and 'Beethoven,' dies at 86", "Charles Grodin: Beethoven and The Heartbreak Kid actor dies aged 86", "Saturday Night Live (Classic): "Charles Grodin/Paul Simon", "The Awkward, Hostile, and Absolutely Hilarious Late Night Appearances of Charles Grodin", MOVIE REVIEW: Heart and Souls: Comedy Wins a Few, Loses a Few, "The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder; Charles Grodin", "Charles Grodin on Working With Louis C.K. Today they all seem to get married and have three kids immediately and then divorce., A dame! is how Janets friend Gore Vidal describes her. (An informed source says the network paid him more than three times that amount.) One of the better known was Bedtime for Bonzo (1951) starring a chimpanzee and future President Ronald Reagan. On September 1, 2009, Janet died. If an ice bucket on the bar was one centimeter out of place, she would veer over, pass by, touch it back into place, and say something to Gracie or one of the other girls who worked thereI think there were always three girls, Gracie and two under her. Anne Douglas, the wife of Kirk Douglas, recalls, The dinners at that house were things of beauty. He was good-looking and very funny and entertaining. People should know what a classy guy he was., In our long conversations, Janet was somewhat cold and distant about her late husband. He had also made a bad investment once on the advice of Alfred Bloomingdale, who was his best friend from when they worked for the Shuberts [the Broadway producers] in New York. To be honest, what I really miss is Nate n Als, she said, referring to the venerable Jewish delicatessen on Beverly Drive. Freddie was very fearful of her spending, said Dunne. 's philosophical doctor and mentor in Season 4 and 5. Nobody ever thought Irving was gay, she said. Believe me, I enjoyed it., It was a real blow to Janet to lose the house, says *V.F.*s Los Angeles editor, Wendy Stark Morrissey, a close friend. According to The New York Times, he died at . Early in the morning, Gracie Covarrubias returned to the house, and at eight oclock Freddie de Cordova appeared at the breakfast table. But the real story is: where were all of Janets supposed friends when she was an old lady without her husband and needed to be saved? The films director, Elaine May, later cast him as a CIA agent in her 1987 satire Ishtar. His last film was Frankie and Johnny (1966) with Elvis Presley. Janet Thomas arrived in Hollywood from Kentucky in the early 1940s. He also portrayed the philanthropist and defrauded investor Carl J. Shapiro in the 2016 miniseries Madoff on ABC based on the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme debacle. If it was caviar, it had to be big caviar. Joan Rivers was a regular guest host on Carson's show,. At nine oclock the draperies would openvery special draperies, made from the heart of ostrich feathers, put on a loom, and woven into the fabric. However, it appears as if this can't be further from the truth! Attached at the hip is how Nancy Reagan, another of Janets friends, characterizes it. In 1965, he made his Broadway debut in Tchin, Tchin, starring Anthony Quinn. Grodin told Letterman that his shtick originated when he appeared on Carsons show straight after a medley by Diana Ross of her greatest hits. Charles Grodin had to learn about life with 'Beethoven' in the 1992 film about a family man and his lovable German shepherd. Everything with Janet had to be big and the best, says her friend Betsy Bloomingdale. Gracie fixed de Cordovas breakfast, then, according to a close friend of the de Cordovas, waited until after he ate to approach him, saying, Mr. She built a big power base, and she could do it because of the power of The Tonight Show, combined with Freddies old ties to the Hollywood studio system. Freddie had directed feature films in the 40s and 50s, including Bedtime for Bonzo, starring Ronald Reagan and a chimpanzee, and he made sure to keep the relationship with the Reagans strong. Janets objets were even placed around the house. Did Johnny Carson like Charles Grodin? Some of these houses are said to have cost as much as two million denarii. If you had asked me that 10 years ago, I am sure I would give you a different answer, but my life as I knew it was really over. Certainly there are many stories of ladies who lived in the fast lane and became prominent Hollywood wives. Freddie was better-liked. Johnny had everything but social entre in L.A., so Freddie was important. In 1970, just after Freddie took over the show, to mark his ascendancy as chief producer, celebrate an L.A. visit for Carson, and telegraph to Carson that they wished he would relocate the show to Los Angeles, Freddie and Janet had a party at Carla Ridge, which was described by Dolce in a letter to his wife: When we arrived the mammoth sized doors opened automatically, I thought. by. My idol was Jean Harlow. He said he had no personal relationship at all with his colleague Cybill Shepherd, while the screenwriter, Neil Simon, wanted to fire him. Johnny Carson liked him so much that he put Grodin under contract as a guest in 1973. He hosted late night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982, debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC and ending with the May 20, 2015, broadcast of Late Show with David Letterman on CBS.In total, Letterman hosted 6,080 episodes of Late Night and . I still hear from a few friends on the phone. were johnny carson and charles grodin friendsthe renaissance apartments chicago. I admired him greatly. Finally she said, You two have done it right. Its a Glorious Day And All That (1967), a satire on Broadway musicals that he co-wrote and directed, and The Right Kind of People (2004), a comedy about the board of a Manhattan housing co-operative. Being standoffish and rude to a celebrity talk show host is one thing; here Grodin lets himself look like an egomaniac as he lights into the shows makeup artist and then berates a gaggle of employees, including writer Merrill Markoe. She ran the house, and in Janet and Freddies time it was a very important house for social occasions., Janet and Freddie became the official godparents of Selene. Showing 13 distinct works. This is FRESH AIR. He was 86. She had been sort of an orphan, raised, along with her sister, by an uncle, and not well off, but she was a petite blonde and a knockout with a southern drawl, said Dunne, adding, a glamour girl, who went out to Hollywood to make it in show business but got a lot farther as a kind of high-powered lady friend and wife. According to Janet, after a few weeks in Los Angeles, as a good-looking 20-year-old, fresh out of Centre College, in Danville, Kentucky, she walked onto the Fox lot, made her way to casting director Thomas Moores office, and asked for a screen test. In 1964, he played Matt Stevens on the ABC soap opera The Young Marrieds. And not exactly true, but that is the way it went., Buck Henry, who was a student at the Harvard School for Boys in Los Angeles, and who had a summer job as a gofer at actors Charles Farrell and Ralph Bellamys Racquet Club, in Palm Springs, recalled in a story he wrote for Interview magazine about Hollywood during World War II, The prettiest girl in the area was Janet Thomas, now the wife of Freddie de Cordova. (Video) Charles Grodin Asks Johnny if He Cares About His Guests - Carson Tonight Show (Johnny Carson) Who is Johnny Carson's favorite guest? He also directed Rock Hudson, Errol Flynn, Tony Curtis, Audie Murphy, Yvonne de Carlo, Bob Hope and Humphrey Bogart. There was a thing about the ice. Johnny Carson liked him so much that he put Grodin under contract as a guest in 1973. And even though no talk show host would talk about the obvious 'additions' many of their male guests sported, guys like Grodin, Burt Reynolds, William Shatner, were famous for wearing hair. [4][5] His paternal grandfather had changed the family name from Grodinsky to Grodin. The best music, movies, TV, books, comedy and more. The social columnist David Patrick Columbia recounts that the Bennys daughter, Joan, told of the time back in the 1960s when marijuana had become inside-fashionable. Grodins schtick was a perfect fit for David Letterman, whose entire talk show career was built on ironically parodying the artifice and pointlessness of the talk show and celebrity culture. It was mainly Hollywood. Author Bill Zehme, who is at work on a book titled Carson the Magnificent, says, It was when Johnny returned to the air after his son Ricky died. But actually Freddie had a long romance with James Masons wife, Pamela. In 1989 Grodin published his first book, the comic memoir It Would Be So Nice If You Werent Here: My Journey Through Show Business.