INT: My name is Dency Nelson. Today is Tuesday, August 14th, 2012. Today I am interviewing DGA Associate Director and Stage Manager Doug Quick, for the Director’s Guild of America’s Visual History Program. We are at the DGA in Los Angeles, California.

DQ: My name is Paul Douglas Quick, and I was born April 11th, 1947. I go by my middle name of Doug Quick. Born in Alameda, California, and glad to be here.

INT: All right, Doug, I’m going to spend a little time here about your early life, like we just heard you were born in Alameda, California. [DQ: Right.] You grow up there? 

DQ: No. Post World War II, you know, we were pretty much on the move, so, I was born there, we went to Buffalo, New York. I lived in the projects outside of Buffalo, with coal heat, and shoveling, and snow, way up to here, even though I was a little guy, to me it was unbelievable. My dad used to swing me around, throw me up on the snow drifts, and I’d tell him he, he goes, "No, those things were only about this high." And then from there we moved to Wichita, Kansas, where I was raised. So we moved there when I was about three, and then about 16 I moved to, 14 I moved to Salina, Kansas, and… During, during Salina, my dad was the head of the 12 ICBM, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles during the Cuban crisis [Cuban Missile Crisis]. I was I guess around 12, and I didn’t… I didn’t--they’re nervous, I have two younger brothers, you know, so they would be at the base a lot, and so forth, and they were very nervous for this time, I believe October. So I really didn’t understand, you know, they didn’t share it with me until I saw Kevin Costner, in the movie that he made, explaining, you know, what was going on in the Cuban crisis. And how close we really were. And then there’s a great documentary by... then Secretary of Defense McNamara [Robert McNamara], who made one called THE FOG OF WAR [THE FOG OF WAR: ELEVEN LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ROBERT S. MCNAMARA], which really told how close we were. So, now from there, a couple of years later, we moved to Thousand Oaks, California, where I finished up high school there, and then off to University of Washington on a basketball, baseball scholarship. And got to have my knees cut, and that was the end of that career.

INT: Moving back to California, I was going to ask that you, pretty answered it for me that--was there anybody in your family in show business? [DQ: No.] Your dad was military? 

DQ: No, he was, of course military in World War II, and then he was an engineer, design and mechanical engineer, so once we moved to California, it was because we left Boeing, and, gosh, what was the... I forgot the name of the company he worked with in Salina, with the ICBMs. And then he transferred out to California because the space race was on. So he went to work, Rocketdyne, which was in the Valley [San Fernando Valley], for a while, and then ended up at Northrop Ventura [Northrop Ventura Division], all on secret missions by then. He couldn’t tell us what he was working on. And so, from there, you know, I was involved in sports, you know, the whole time.

DQ: The one thing that you mentioned that, yeah, nobody was in, we didn’t even know what, television, what? Where’s it made, how do you do it, where’s... I didn’t even know there was a station, you know, KNX, or KNBC or whatever at the time, so. I used to... I was drawn to the television, though, as many of us were when we were all growing up, and it was a new medium. And my first experience was, when we were in Salina [Salina, Kansas], and this goes to motion picture, my brother and I were going to go see some small movie called SPARTACUS. And it was the first time we could walk to the theater, small little town, and walked around the corner, and there was this huge line of people. There’d never been a line, okay? And I just went, "Wow, what’s going on here?" I looked over to the theater, the door opened, I grabbed my brother’s hand, said, "Come on." And we walked right in, went right down to the theater, walked round, took a seat, sat on the side. Didn’t pay for a ticket, didn’t get in line, didn’t do anything. Just, it was... I felt it at the moment. And then, of course I was awed, you know, at the pageantry, and Kirk Douglas, and Jean Simmons, and all that were in the movie. And that was my first real draw into, you know, something that was that spectacular, really at the time. Television, I used to be sent to bed, and I could crack my door, you know, and I could watch all the way through, and see that little TV set, and I’d watch, you know, all the, you know, nice wonderful dramas that were going on in the ‘50s [1950s] and so forth. Close the door, commercial breaks, get back in bed. You know, knew about the timing and I cracked the door open. So, first on, it really comes to mind was TWILIGHT ZONE, which was, I loved. And watching Barney Fife and Andy Griffith [THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW], you know, with my family, it was fantastic. [INT: Did you have a sense, though, when you were in Salina, watching all this, that when you moved to Thousand Oaks, that maybe you were heading to the place where this stuff was made?] Yeah. It kinda was there, but it wasn’t, because I was so involved in sports, and that was pretty much my life. I went from sport to, basketball, football, you know, track, you know, it was pretty much all of that. But I remember one time saying, you know, said, “Doug, oh my gosh, there’s a play, you should be in the play.” And I went, “Yeah, I should be in the play.” So I went to the theater director, and said, “I’d like to be in the play, and I’d like to play the lead role.” And he said, “Well, I’m sorry, the lead role has been taken, you know, you’re, you know, a little, a little late.” And I said, “Okay, well, maybe next time.” And I walked away, and I’ve always regretted that. I should’ve taken some little part, but you know, me, being the person I am, I said, “Well I’ll start off with the lead,” and you know. So, that was the only little theater type of involvement. My major in college was biochemistry. So I had no, none of that. Even though, in the fourth grade, I wrote my first comedy sketch with me and Charlie Bolton, we played clarinets together, and I remember the high, just a natural, wonderful feeling of entertaining, and being out in front. [INT: Did you keep writing at all?] Well, over the years, I still write. [INT: But I mean in school.] Right. I did, you know, for our little comedy, you know, we were in elementary school, so it was then, and then of course then by the time we get to we call it junior high, and on into high school, it was sports, sports, sports. So I didn’t get back into writing until I was in college, and felt that draw, even though I was in a science department, and so forth. And started writing stories, just little stories and ideas and so forth, and then all that translated when I got my job as a page.

INT: Just going back to college, so you went with a full athletic scholarship. [DQ: Right.] Were you thinking about professional sports, that maybe you, especially with, as you say, with your drive, and your ego, wanting to be there, where you gonna be? 

DQ: You know what, I didn’t. My dad--baseball was really, really, really easy for my brothers and I. By the way, baseball story, when we were finishing up high school, I was finishing up high school, two younger brothers. So it was me, my brother Bill and Bob, and Kurt Russell, we all played baseball together at the end of our high school career in Thousand Oaks. Well, Kurt, you know, had become, you know, the Disney star, you know, as a young man, but he loved baseball, wanted to play baseball, baseball was his life. You could tell his house because it was the one off of Gainsborough that had the huge batting cage net that surrounded the entire back yard. So, I got to know Kurt and his dad, his dad was a character on BONANZA for when he played the sheriff, and lots of character roles. Bing Russell was his name. [INT: I just learned that last night watching TCM. Kurt was talking about working with Elvis Presley, and Elvis was a fan of his dad, which floored him, that, you know, I only learned that last night, so funny you bring that up.] And coincidentally, you just jogged my memory here. Coincidentally, my brother Bob is visiting me at CBS. I forgot what year, Kurt played Elvis. Remember that? [INT: Yeah, he went on to talk about that, that all the moves he said he’d learned as being a 12 year old on the Seattle World's Fair [IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLD’S FAIR] movie that Elvis had done, and, exactly.] So we’re walking down the hall, and out of the blue, ‘cause we hadn’t seen each other since high school, I look down the hall, and I go, “Bobby, he looks like Kurt.” He goes, “Oh my god it is Kurt.” And he’s walking down the hall at CBS going to do a promo, I think it must’ve been probably a CBS movie of the week, to do the promo for it, and we all had this wonderful reunion. You know, we hadn’t seen each other in years. You know, by the time I’d seen him, I’d already worked with Goldie [Goldie Hawn], not to jump too far ahead, but Goldie had been a great acquaintance at the time, yeah.

INT: When your knees get all cut, and you know you aren’t gonna be pursuing the sport, so you, they said you were biochemistry, did you graduate? 

DQ: Yep. And just went through, so once that happened I--it was the quarter system, so I just went right through, and said I want outta here, I can’t, I’m not much of a student anymore. The loss of the, I lost the scholarship of course too, but the loss of being able to play was to me, very, it was quite devastating. It took me a couple years to really get over the fact that I was not gonna be able to play. And baseball, I referred to baseball earlier, my dad used to say, “Wouldn’t it be great to wake up every day and go play baseball as a profession?” you know. And we all kinda thought, yeah that’s nice. But, my brother Bobby wanted to play, he was, he was better than I was. He was All--CIF Player-of-the-Year as a sophomore in high school, so. It took me a while to get over it, so I just wanted to get out of school. I went full time, you know, year round, just to get out, and I got out at the end of, right around January, ’69 [1969]. By then I’m lost, I have no idea what I wanna do. I’m working as a porter at May Company, you know, five o’ clock in the morning, sweeping floors, emptying trash, changing light bulbs. [INT: Is that down here, Southern California?] Yeah, yeah. [INT: So you came back.] Right, I came back home. And then moved out immediately, of course. So I moved in with my buddy Jerry Webster, who helped me get this job. And so now, I still don’t know what to do, but LAUGH-IN [ROWAN & MARTIN’S LAUGH-IN], you know, was on the air. So, you know, “Wanna buy a walnetto?” you know, I’m playing all of the characters, Arte Johnson, so forth.

DQ: So I meet a girl, I’m gonna transition here. I meet a girl, who’s... we [May Company] had one of those first hot dog stands, so there was not a mall, per say, where there was a food court, so it would keep people in the store, and so she would sell hot dogs and so forth. So, I get to know her, and she says she’s a dancer. And I say, “Well heck, I like to dance too.” So she, we dated…once. She called me up a week or so later. She didn’t have a car; I still had my 1959 Rambler Classic station wagon, which was running on fumes. And she said, “I’ve got an opportunity to meet a choreographer after a Jonathan Winters show at CBS, will you take me?” I said, “I’m in.” So I put on a suit, not knowing, you know, I put on a suit, and we go down and see the show. When I sat in that audience, at CBS, where I still work, after all these years, and looked up on stage at Jonathan, and all that was happening, I knew at that moment I wanted to be on that stage. What could I do, what would I do, what would come of it? I don’t know, but I wanna be on the stage. Show wraps, now I know what they’re doing. Bobbie Gentry was on, okay. And so, the gal I’m dating at the time, god bless her, I don’t even remember her name, she changed my life though. And, so they’re talking in the back, well it was a little obvious that I’m sitting in the audience, so, you know, didn’t wanna… So I walked up on stage, you know, to kinda see what was happening up there, and kind of a little bit in the proscenium and off to the side, and so forth. And Bobbie walked back out on stage. So, I know now, they’re changing the shots, and fixing whatever was wrong, and they’re doing another take without the audience. So, beautiful, you know, she looks at me, and now she’s looking at me, it’s like, “Uh, hi. I thought what you did the first time was terrific.” And we start this whole conversation. I’m a nervous wreck, you know, I’m not supposed to, I’m on stage, I’m having a, “Okay here we go.” Now I don’t know where to go. So I’m looking for dark, and I see a page off to the side, so I walk over. He reaches out, he’s like, “Oh hi, my name’s so and so, are you Bobbie’s Agent?” “Uh, no, I’m not, I was sitting in the audience.” And I saw the look in his eyes, but I said, “Everything is cool, just, if I’m safe over here, just tell me where to go, everything is cool. The lady in the audience is being interviewed for, you know, dancing and so forth.” So I stood off to the side. Next break I had was, “What do you do as a page? What do you do?” And so I started getting the scoop on what a page does. Called in sick the next day, went, made some calls to Seattle, found out what, you know, affiliate were there. Completely lied, fabricated an entire application, or, resume, made up stuff. Called the college and said, “Was there any major, do you have a major in like, television?” “Oh yes, we have, it’s called mass communications, radio, television, motion picture.” I said, “Fantastic!” Hung up the phone, started typing, and I went oh, I should’ve asked for a minor. Let me see, journalism. I like to write. So I made up mass communications, University of Washington. You know, minor in journalism. So I got their affiliates, I told them that I worked there as, you know, a Production Assistant. You know, blah blah blah, all that sort of stuff. I called up the networks the next day, CBS, I may have had a part time job there, ‘cause I kinda knew what was happening, went to ABC. Oh my gosh there was, at that time, there was nothing much happening. It was… saving NBC for last, why? LAUGH-IN [ROWAN & MARTIN’S LAUGH-IN] was there. DEAN MARTIN SHOW was there. I think Andy Williams [THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW] had started, maybe Flip Wilson [THE FLIP WILSON SHOW]. HOLLYWOOD SQUARES, the original. You know, all of that was at NBC. So I saved all that for last.

DQ: Now, each of the other places, I didn’t get out of HR, you know, I didn’t get out. So when I called NBC, literally, recalling it was, “Hello.” I said, “Yes,” I said, “This is Mr. Quick, I understand there’s an opening in guest relations, and I would like to come down and speak to somebody.” “Oh yes, Mr. Quick, and da da da.” And I said, “How’s one? One o’ clock’s fine.” “Oh that’d be great.” I went down, handed them that, filled out the application, okay. They said well you wanna, the sent me down to the page supervisor at the time for an interview, and I knew I had a chance now. It was, I’m out of HR. So I sat down. This gentleman was just leaving, leaving a vacancy at the bottom of the page staff, so he’s leaving, and everybody’s moving up. All male of course, at that time, future VPs of the network. And he was going to work for MISSION IMPOSSIBLE at Paramount. Which was big, original, the original show was, oh my gosh, it was terrific. So, I said, “You mean, as a page, I could go to work in, you know, Paramount after, I guess…” “No, no, I’m one of the only people.” “Okay, I understand.” So I now turn the interview around, and start asking him all the questions, because I wanna get as much info out of this if I’m not gonna get hired. So, I kinda turn it around, he sees my enthusiasm, he said, “Listen, can you start next Wednesday?” I said, “Absolutely.” He said, “Well, you need to come back on Monday, you know, take a physical, you’ll have to do all of that, and we’ll do all the paperwork, and blah blah blah.” I knew my life had changed. I knew it. So I’m leaving that interview, you know, the big glass doors out of the lobby, I wanted to jump up and scream, so, I, no, no, no, no, got outside the doors, jumped, yelled, screamed. Got in my 1959 Rambler Classic station wagon. Next door I think where MSNBC is now used to be a driving range. I had to hit two buckets of balls before I could drive home. I just knew my life had changed. [INT: Was the page system then as it was through the decades later, you had 18 months to make something of yourself there or you moved on?] Right. We had 18 months. And now, of course, having fabricated a wonderful story here, I knew nothing. I knew no jargon, dialogue, television, what’s what. The blessing was, NBC, part of the page responsibilities were, we gave tours. So they gave me a stack of, you know, this is the tour guide, this is the information. It was like, now, four years of college, right here. Okay, so, think I didn’t memorize that, oh, I had all that down, ‘cause everything was new to me. So by the end of my page career, I was giving the VIP tours, you know, and the network execs, it would be a request for me to do all that. [INT: Besides your learning, you talked about personality as a page, and…] Right, that’s all, I really, because of my background, and lack of background, I couldn’t compete with a lot of the guys. And, gotta think, 1969, a lot of the guys are, not only out of college, they’re out of Vietnam, they’re out of the service, they’ve served. It was an older group. Me just getting around 21, 22, you know, they’re all 27, 28, 29; one of our pages was 29. So they’re all nice, mature, you know, seen the world, or they’ve led a life within the world that I had never, you know, imagined or seen. I was the guy marching with the get out of Vietnam, in college.

DQ: So, I had to work some sort of... well first of all, I loved going to work every day, as I still do. You know, so it’s that enthusiasm that you bring, it’s like oh, wow. I can’t wait to see what I’m gonna see, what I’m gonna learn, how, da da da da da. But the... but I didn’t have any sense of show business. Okay, didn’t have business. So I saw that, you know, competition was tough, so I talked and went back to college here, San Fernando Valley State College, and took economics business, business law, and as much as I could learn about business, and it was on a semester system. Me coming off the quarter system. Trust me, it went on forever. And of course, wonderful subjects like economics. Oh, my god. It was very difficult. But once I finished, and it took a month or two, then I got back on the page staff, and they gave me another 18 months, and that gave me the opportunity. Now I knew, you know, really what was going on. I knew the ins and the outs, I knew all of that stuff, and so by the time I’m coming back, okay, I’m now, you know, I’m a seasoned vet. So not only personality but knowledge of what’s happening, and that’s when I really grew and grew right to the top. [INT: So this was…you actually interrupted the 18 months as a page to go back to school?] Right. [INT: And they let you do that.] Right, Right. [INT: As you say you came back then, and was it basically halfway through, so you had another nine months you knew?] Right. I took about five or six off, and then right back in for the 18. So, that’s when I was started at the top of the page staff, I knew, I was the favorite in tours, and personality, and I was absolutely so thankful to be back too, ‘cause I didn’t want it to end, at, you know, never get back to being at least a page. And that’s when I grew to become, you know, the well-known page that I was. [INT: Did you have, coming back, at the beginning of that second nine months, a focus on just what job you might wanna do in show business?] You know, I was still at a loss with all of that. All we knew was we needed to get, a move up, and production is what I wanted to be. I mean I wasn’t... I mean, I’m still not an office person, never have been an office person. To become, you know, compliance and practices, an assistant, or blah blah blah in an office, and, you know, wear a tie every day was not me. So I knew what I didn’t want to do. But I knew that I needed to be where the action is, just, I needed to be on a stage, I needed to be, you know, in production. Somehow in production, I knew that. And not knowing a lot of what goes on pre-production, you know, when you’re, you know, you’re on the show end of things, all the pre-production’s done, and here you are shooting. So there’s a lot of that knowledge I didn’t have that I picked up, obviously later.

INT: Is it time to talk about Johnny Carson? Is this where at the end of paging… 

DQ: Okay. Yeah. I was Johnny’s page, back in what I would call the most exciting time for being a page because I was picked as Johnny’s page when he was still coming out from New York. He had not settled in LA yet. So when he was coming out from New York, and me as Johnny’s page, you know, I had all my clothes tailored, and you know, the whole nine yards, from you know, everybody knew in wardrobe, ‘cause, you know, you get those page jackets, and you know, I was just, I just had… Anyway, so I’m Johnny’s page. [INT: I think that’s the first time I ever heard about a page having their page jackets tailored, I love it. Good for you.] Oh yeah. [INT: Was anybody else doing that? Any of these things?] No, no. You know, you had a hundred you had to pull off the rack. And back then I was, you know, I was like this. So it was, you know. I just, yeah. So now I, so I meet Johnny. Well I’m from Kansas. All my relatives from Lincoln, Hastings, Fort Carney, you know, in Nebraska. So I knew the first thing I wanted to do when I met him was to introduce myself and let him know I’m from his part of the country as well, and you know, that I have relatives and so forth. And, that’s what happened. So my first introduction, so it was a little bit of a bond, right away, between us. And so, I'd meet him, I’d wait for him, when he would drive in, “Is there anything I can help carry in?” Blah blah blah, you know, wardrobe clothes, anything, and walk him to his dressing room, and we’d chat on the way, and I’d do the same thing on the way out, walk him out to his car, just as a courtesy, and, you know, make sure nobody’s, you know, around, and you know. Gently get him out of, you know, signing autographs or something, for whatever might happen, I’m there for him. So, yeah it was a great time, because it was the hottest ticket in Hollywood.

DQ: Everybody wanted to come to THE TONIGHT SHOW [THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON]. And if they did, you know, they had to come through--I had my clipboard. I knew I could get in so many people over stage without tickets. I knew my quota, I knew how to, you know, handle all of that. So, you know, when somebody would ask for tickets, I know well, I can’t anything until, you know, Friday. You know, I can bring in four. So, story, so I’m... the band is playing, and it does its warm up, and you know, we’re all, pages are all waiting to soon be loading the audience and so forth, which we’re all under me. And I stand--and the band would be so loud, if anybody’s been to THE TONIGHT SHOW, you know how loud the band is, and you could kinda sense somebody beside you, well it was that person inside the building who was coming to see if they could, you know, score some tickets with me, or you know, that kind of thing. Well the guy that came a lot, first class guy, was Tom Brokaw. Tom Brokaw was at then, KNBC, local anchor, you know, so he’d say, “Hey Tom,” you know, and we’d wait until the band finished its, you know, rehearsal and so forth so we could talk. “Hi, how’s it going Doug,” “Oh it’s great, you know, we got, you know,” who was coming when, then we’d talk small talk, and I’d say, “What do you need, Tom?” And he’d say, “I need three.” Three, and I’d look to say, “Soonest I can do it would be day after tomorrow,” or, you know, he said, “That’s fine. Whenever.” And so, over stage meant that they didn’t have to wait outside. Okay, we had a line where we could get them in and cleared by passes through security and so forth. And I’d greet them, and I’d take them to their seats. [INT: Now this was still, though, just the visiting from New York.] Right, right. I never worked on it once he settled here, I’d finally moved on, and I’d go to-- worked on THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW from there. Which I also did THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW. [INT: Right, which I wanna talk about.]

INT: We’re still with Johnny [THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON], you talked about the jokes for Johnny. 

DQ: Right, oh yeah. So, after the first time he was in town doing the show, and I could really tune into him. The rehearsal, I’d understand the rehearsal more, I could see how the cue cards were laid out. I could see how he presented himself, which I didn’t know before, and certainly know now. So next time he comes out, which would be in about four or five months, maybe six, I would have jokes. One liners, blah blah blah, and he was still playing Vegas, okay. So I would have, one would be for TV, and the other would be for Vegas, both sets of jokes. I always had them in a little envelope, and just, you know, as he came in, it was “John, I have, I wrote some stuff. If you have some time, you know, glance over it, it’s some jokes, and you know.” I was gonna write a Tea Time Party [Art Fern’s Tea Time Movie], you know, for a while, and so forth, but I handed these in. He came back out. From that day forward, every time I handed him the envelope with all the jokes, he’d take half an hour, 20 minutes, whatever, and come back out, and have a 100-dollar bill, or a 50-dollar bill in his hand, and shake my hand. And say, “You know, I can’t give you any credit for any of the television stuff.” But he’d tell me the jokes he liked for Vegas. “But the one about the such and such, the so and so, the blah blah blah for Vegas is great. Thanks.” So, that’s the way he, you know, paid me. And so I’d get a little, you know, a little, you know, he used my stuff. To the point where actually I was his guest in Vegas within a year or two after writing and him coming out and us getting to know each other. We used to, we used to go to Dante’s. He loved jazz. So, and he would kindly give me the clue, I said, “Hey, you know, what are you doing after the show?” And he said, “I’m gonna run down to Dante’s, if you’re there, I’ll see you. You know, buy you a drink.” So he would send me a drink. I didn’t go with him, I didn’t want anybody to think that it was he and I, but we would be there, wave, and send drinks back and forth, and I felt like such a big shot, you know. So, it was a great relationship with those 18 months or so that I was there.

INT: Did it make you feel like, well maybe I could have a career as a Writer, did you think about pursuing that at all [referring to writing jokes for Johnny Carson]? 

DQ: Yeah, I began to pursue it though, as creating shows. So by the time, I was still a page, I was already pitching my first game show. Which at the time, was LAUGH-IN [ROWAN & MARTIN’S LAUGH-IN], so I was talking to Gary Owens, you know, I was talking to his Agent. I had all my page staff, so I could do run -through, and develop it, and prepare it, which was the first show that I was really trying to pitch. Then I worked with Johnny’s make-up artist, Ralph Gulko at the time. And we created a sit-com, okay, called THE SOUL DELI, where we were, you know, writing and pitching and so forth, all the time while I was still a page, so... I knew that there was an opportunity, and with the people you get to know, obviously. And a beauty of that time if I may say that, there were no cell phones, there were no pages, there were no that, so while, let’s say, THE TONIGHT SHOW [THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON] is beginning to go, or THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW, or LAUGH-IN and so forth, and you’re the head page, you’re answering phones. And those phones are, “This is Dan Rowan’s, you know, Agent, you know, I need you to get him a message to give me a call.” Well, see that was the big deal, you had contacts, knew names of a lot of people that perhaps today, they have no idea, just tell them to call, and you didn’t know who they were. It was, you had to know, to handle the message properly and discreetly, and you know, all of those sorts of things, so it was a different time then, and you were much more valuable, and you had more of a presence. And you knew you had to get to those folks wherever they were. You know, you had to find them, if they were in a dressing room, or it’s... who, you just, you found them to make sure they got the message, and taken care of.

INT: You talked about the excitement of Johnny [Johnny Carson] coming out from New York, and being the page on that show, but then you started to talk about Dean Martin, and THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW, THE DEAN MARTIN--the other great Greg Garrison… Talk about your relationship with that show. 

DQ: Well, the relationship with the Martin show was different than with Johnny, because Johnny would be out for a week or two. Or two or three weeks, okay? Martin show ran for seasons, okay? So, when I did that show, and you’re a page, you really get to know the entire staff. You get to know what they’re doing, you know, how they’re doing it, as they’re coming into the studio. And you get to know more about the pre-production, which I hadn’t known. So, I hustled, and I knew that I wanted the next opportunity to be on that staff. So, we went through, finished a season, and you know, we’re kind of out, and you know, you’re biding your time, and trying to get the next opportunity. And I remember that I got a call. I was running a nightclub; I was assistant manager of a nightclub called The Point After, at the time, to help fill the financial end of life. And I got a call, and of course by then you’re going to bed at dawn, and you’re sleeping all day, because you’re going to work at night. And I got a call, and it was one of the production, Lee Hale, a musical director, called, and said, “Doug, just wanted to let you know that the job had been filled,” you know, the new gofer job, the bottom of the… [INT: That’s what you were hoping, as you say, you wanted to be on that staff, and there was this gofer spot, entry level.] Right, and I wanted to be the gofer, starting at the bottom, fine with me. And so when he called, and you know, phone rings, and really, kind of really just woke me up and so forth, and he said that the, you know, the job has been filled, but just wanted to let you know, so, you know, I could move on or do whatever from there. I hung the phone up, and said, “That job is mine. The job is mine. There’s nobody going to be better for that job than me.” I took a shower, hopped in my car, went down to the production office, I’m waving to everybody, the receptionists, and I look over and it’s Craig Martin’s office, Dean’s eldest son who was Associate Producer. [INT: Now you’re still a page at this point, you’re still there?] Right. [INT: Or had you moved on? Okay, you’re still there.] My time has running out here. [INT: Okay, yeah.] Okay, so that’s why I need this opportunity. So, I knew I had to express it, you know, it’s been a while since the season wrapped, and here comes the new season, and you know, I’m not gonna be, you know, the gofer, you know. So I went down to see Craig, and knew I had my intention to see him. The door was open, I said, “Hey Craig, got a second?” So I walked in, and I got to sit down and sell myself. You know, an opportunity, you knew I was gonna hustle, you knew I was gonna be the best, you knew I was gonna, you know, do whatever was needed, what it would take, I was there. So a day or two later, I get a phone call, I’ve got the job. Okay, so I went down, fought for it, best I could, got the job, and then it started.

DQ: Well, at that time also, it was early in the season, Garrison Company [Greg Garrison Production] had sold THE JONATHAN WINTERS SHOW. Oh my god. I was, Jonathan Winters in college, and went down to see the show at CBS. We had a Golddiggers show [THE GOLDDIGGERS]. Both--all these ran for two seasons. Plus a new one started a year after that called MUSIC COUNTRY USA, which on the road a lot. So, I started with THE GOLDDIGGER SHOW, THE JONATHAN WINTERS SHOW, which led us right on into THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW. Okay, so then next season, you know, I start to get a feel of what everybody does, and where I might fit into this. And it dawned on me one day that stage-managing just might be a nice fit. So I went in to talk to Craig [Stephen Craig Martin] about it, and I said, “I think, you know, I think I might be able to, you know, I’d like this opportunity if it ever happens.” So he said oh, “Doug, you know, we’ve had the same guys for all these years, you know,” he said, “I don’t think there’s anybody going anywhere, so don’t get your hopes up.” Two weeks later, somebody’s fired off THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW, and Greg [Greg Garrison] is putting me in. And I’d gotten some pre-production experience, you know, shadowing Bob Chick, you know, who was stage managing, who followed a lot of the path that I did, a page, to the gofer, to working up at the production company. And so by now I’d worked up from a, you know, a PA, and then became Production Supervisor, and so forth. And now, Stage Manager. So Greg fought for me, knowing that this is what I wanted to do, I’d expressed it of course to him. So, you know, a lot of, you know, everybody here, at the Directors Guild, had of course worked on shows, and why not them. And I came up from production, so the opportunity that, you know, that was presented in Greg fighting for me to be able to do this was really the next big giant change in my career and life, that he fought for me to do this, I was a Second, and worked up. And then the next season, by then NBC said, we’d like to put you on staff. [INT: Okay.]

INT: I was just going to ask you the question, so you started though, as a…there was the opportunity as a freelancer, you know, to be there and to be working as a Stage Manager on the show [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW]. 

DQ: Yeah. As we found out today, it was August 24th, 1973… when I became a member of the Directors Guild [DGA]. So, yeah, that’s the nice big change now. So Greg [Greg Garrison] called me in his office, and you know, it’s like the principal, or your dad, you know, what does he wanna see me for, you know. So he came in, and he, you know, such a toughie. “Come in, sit down, shut the door, and don’t say a word ‘til I’m through.” So, I sat down, he said, “Listen, there’s an opportunity coming here, I think you should take it.” I said, “What’s that?” He said, “Well NBC has called. They wanna put you on staff as a Stage Manager,” where Bob Chick was gonna remain freelance. I said, “Okay.” He said, “I think you have to take this opportunity.” We talked about the reasons why, and then I left staff. Well, I was getting, like a lot of production, I’m getting two paychecks. I’m getting paid for my mileage. You know, I’m picking up now, freelance Directors Guild plus my paycheck with Craig, and I’d moved up in the staff. And it’s like, to start as a Directors Guild member, with, you know, zero to six months experience, my pay just went down. And that’s what he was talking to me about. This is an opportunity, can’t think about the money. You have to think about it. I was ordering my very, I was gonna buy my very first brand new car, I was, you know, I was gonna get this car. And so, that didn’t happen. I got an old car, and I started at the bottom, with zero to six months. And then NBC, with the dominance of the Martin show and Greg Harrison, they looked for the very first opportunity to get rid of me. You know, I was the bottom of the stage managing staff; I think I was on staff for three months. They called me in, Bob Packham and wanted to see me, and by then I was doing, I was observing DAYS OF OUR LIVES, I was doing the original HOLLYWOOD SQUARES, and THE MARTIN SHOW. And, it was December 14th. You know, we’re heading into the holidays, and THE MARTIN SHOW now is wrapped, we always wrapped early. We did a show and a half every week, you know. We got Dean in and out, and then we’d bank other skits, or music, you know, production numbers, or whatever. So our season is gonna be over by December. And so called me in, and said, “Doug, I want you to, we’re gonna have to let you go.” I remember getting dizzy.

DQ: I didn’t see it coming, I thought I had this new career [as an NBC staff Stage Manager], what are you getting rid of me, I’m, you know. When I came in, I knew I had to separate myself from Greg [Greg Garrison]. Because I knew he wasn’t well liked, and he was so strong and dominant, and got his way. And so, I said, you know, “It’s great, ‘cause I started here as a page,” I told them, “and my loyalty is to NBC, and I just want you to know that that’s where it comes from, I’m thrilled to be back, and this is where I started,” and I gave them, I remember giving them that speech. Well, it didn’t matter, within two to three months I’m being let go. And it was just before the holidays. I’m going, oh, I didn’t see it coming, I didn’t see it at all. So, now I’m freelancing, and Norm Hopps [Norman C. Hopps], god bless him, who was the Associate Producer of THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW, now has segued over to a little old sitcom called SANFORD AND SON. And so now as I begin freelancing, and some time, you know, I’m going, “What am I gonna do? I don’t know… aye, aye, aye, aye,” Norm calls. I go, “Norm, blah, blah, blah.” He goes, “Doug, I don’t know if you know, I’m over working with Redd Foxx on SANFORD AND SON.” I went, “Fantastic!” Not even thinking that, and he said, “Well, we’re gonna need a Second [Second Stage Manager], you know, to come in and help out,” which, “Of course!” So I started my freelancing career. So I started freelancing a little here, and a little there. And Redd Foxx, of course, we all loved Redd Foxx, and the difficulty. Long story short, I stage managed as a Second several shows, okay. Carl McCarthy, who was the Stage Manager for NBC, he was on staff, did a lot of NBC Sports. So now he’s going away to do, I think it was a BOB HOPE CLASSIC in Palm Springs, and so I get the call, I’m gonna be the First [First Stage Manager]. Okay. Well I think, I think I’m okay with that, being the first, with Redd [Redd Foxx]. You didn’t know how hard to push Redd, okay, so now I’m the First, and another Second had been thrown off of the show during a shoot. And I’m going why, what possibly could he have done? Nobody would tell me. So I’m running under that pressure. I think it’s because Redd doesn’t like to be pushed, which he didn’t, he’s gonna do his thing. His thing was he’d finish, he’d finish, you know, we’d yell, “And, cut,” and he’d just walk right to the audience and grab a microphone and start talking. And he knew not to be the Redd Foxx of old, the blue Redd Foxx, ‘cause his show wouldn’t be funny. But the trick is you gotta get him back for a wardrobe change, and you know, we’ve got the next scene. The pressure was, he was going from there, we had to wrap by 10. He’s got three shows to do in Vegas that night. The Redd Foxx X-X-X-X show. So that was my pressure.

DQ: So I think it was around 1976, and at NBC there’s a window up above, so the Director and the Producer can absolutely look down on the stage and so forth [on THE REDD FOXX SHOW]. So I’m getting, Redd’s talking to the audience, and I’m getting, “Come on, Doug. Come on. We gotta go, we’ve got… Doug, we’ve got to go. We’ve got to go. We’ve got to get him out of there, you’ve gotta get him back, we’ve got to go.” So I would go how am I gonna do this, how am I, so, I’d heard this story, so I said, “Hey Redd!” He looked down at me and I said, “Who do you like for president?” He looked at me with a nice little smile, and said, “I think what I like for president, and who I’d like for president is Governor Wallace.” And everybody laughs at Governor Wallace. I said, “Governor Wallace?” He said, “Yeah, what this country needs now is a president that’s already been shot.” So nice big laugh, I start walking toward him. He puts the mic down, we put our arms around each other, as we’re walking backstage I said, “I’ll never use that unless I’m absolutely desperate to get you back. ‘Cause you’ve gotta get going, we’ve gotta get you to Vegas.” And that’s when we really bond--bonded. It was a special time. [INT: How long were you on the show with him?] By Decemb--by… I was freelancing all the way through, and then started picking up a lot of work at CBS in the summer of ’75 [1975] I believe it was. So that could’ve been in ’75, ’76, I forget, but I’m freelancing also at CBS.

INT: Before we move on to CBS, let me make sure we didn’t miss anything back in some of your NBC days. THE FLIP WILSON [THE FLIP WILSON SHOW], was that back, still NBC? Talk about Flip Wilson a little. 

DQ: Well Flip was, you know, a huge emerging star, and with his variety show, he had a varie--everything was a variety show back in the day. And Flip, and the show realized at a certain point that Geraldine, the character who he played, was bigger and more popular than Flip. So they kinda had to limit how often they did that show. Well, I was writing at the time and so I wrote a Geraldine sketch. Kind of as more of a monologue kind of thing, it has a lot of monologue and character stuff about walking bikes, not necessarily with another Actor. And excuse me. And so I knew his manager, Monte, Monte, [Monte Kay] I forgot his last name. And so he comes down to sit down beside me, it’s like wow, okay. So he knew I wanted to write, he said, “Hey, I hear you, you’re writing and you like to write,” and so forth, and I said, “Yeah, I do.” So that was a little bit encouraging. So I really did get serious about writing something for him, knowing I’d written something for John [Johnny Carson]. Knowing that he might be also, you know, want to use some material for Vegas, or other club work, and so forth around the country. But I wrote this Geraldine sketch, and so, I was wrapping up my page career, and I’m down on THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW, and Flip comes out as Geraldine and the place goes crazy. Does a little guest spot. And he starts to speak, and it’s my sketch. It’s my sketch. I’m looking around for his manager; I’m looking around, where is everybody, that’s my sketch. Where’s my little opportunity here? I mean, it’s my sketch, you took my sketch, he’s doing my sketch. So I look for the manager, I try to find the manager. He plays, he throws it off like, “I don’t know where--we had had that sketch.” I said, “Monty, that’s my--I gave that to you. That’s my original sketch.” So Flip I’m sure didn’t know a lot about where it came from, it could’ve come from their staff of Writers. I never got paid a dime, I never got a credit, I never got any of that sort of stuff, and…. you know, you know, you’re ripped off, and a lot of us were ripped off back in the day. I had a game show ripped off with a game show partner of mine when I went back in. The entire unique question format was ours, and you have no strength. Those guys at a network are so much more powerful than a little guy saying, “But I, I created that, that was, you know.” So it was okay with me. I grew to accept the fact that I wasn’t gonna get that, but really wanted the opportunity also to talk to Flip and not, I don’t want the money, I just want him to know it was me, that’s all, that wrote the sketch. Which never happened, and you know, kept it on a very nice, lovely, positive situation.

INT: And again before we move on to CBS, just wanna make sure… Your Greg Garrison relationship was… and the Greg Garrison shows, was that pretty much just the NBC years? [DQ: Right.] Did you… So we pretty much talked… Did you work on the roasts [THE DEAN MARTIN CELEBRITY ROAST] at all? 

DQ: Yes. Yes, they all started, they started as the MAN OF THE HOUR, I think the WOMAN OF THE HOUR on the Dean Martin Show, before they became just specials, which was I believe after the MARTIN SHOW [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW] was canceled. And for that one as a Second [Second Stage Manager], I used to say, well I was pretty much just the bartender. Because, you know, I’d have to go up to, “Mr. Burl? Yes, I’m Doug, Stage Manager, and is there, is there anything you’d like to drink during the show?” And so I’d make him two of whatever. And Buddy Hackett, or Lucille Ball, or Orson Welles, or you know, Dick [Dick Martin] and Dan [Dan Rowan], Rowan and Martin, you know, I mean, the celebrities were just unbelievable. So I would go to the prop man, you know, with my order, like I’d be going to the bartender, right, and now I’m the... I have to deliver these, and I’d have them set at the last minute, so the ice wouldn’t melt too much, and they would have what they needed to drink, and of course we had, you know, peanuts and so forth. So it’d be like, I’d be off to the side. We’re all roaring with laughter, especially in the emergence, you know, from the MARTIN SHOW was Don Rickles. And Rickles now was the most powerful comedian at the time. You know, he was just, he... because of his routine, and his disrespect to everybody, and putting them down. I remember flashing back now to a MARTIN SHOW, and he’s just done a bit on the MARTIN SHOW, and so Greg says, “Get him into his dressing room, get him changed and in wardrobe, we’ve gotta get him back out, he’s got another sketch or something else to do,” and I said, “Okay.” He’s just soaked, he’s soaked. So I go back with him, I grab the wardrobe guy, we’re going back into his dressing room, and he’s just peeling everything off, he knows he has to get back out there, and this is where the face of a Stage Manager comes in. Taking his clothes off, and he looks up at me and he says, “So how was I, kid?” And you knew you had to give an honest, professional answer, or he’d never believe me again, never trust me again. He would never think anything really wonderful of me from that moment on because I didn’t answer that question. I’ve never forgotten it. My answer is more forgotten than that question was, but I knew at that moment, you’re eye to eye with somebody, you know. You’re 10 feet away and changing clothes and he’s asking how the performance was? Well, I said, “Your instincts were so high the audience was screaming, you know they were screaming,” you know. I’m getting into all of that. Go years later, and Don is doing I think THE DINAH SHORE SHOW. I’m in Vegas, we talk to Don, we have some laughs, invites me backstage after the show. We go sit in his room and talk for like two or three hours, drinking after the show, you know, four or five of us. So that’s sort of the transgression, and if I may think about that, that probably came from the answering of that question. Anything else we’re gonna discuss, you’re gonna get an honest, hopefully mature answer. And we talked about politics and everything else at that time. But a lot of those big stars that I met as a page and a Production Manager, and then Second Stage Manager, now years later, I’m gonna run into all of them, but not as the page, or you know, the PA, or giving them changes in their script, you know, gofering. Now I’m gonna transition to be a Stage Manager. So the laying down of that sort of format, that understanding, that relationship, I could remind them later, we could have a little nice little moment about talking about the MARTIN SHOW or the ROASTS, and then get busy what we were doing then, an AFI, or you know, the variety show or something like that.

INT: Some of the other personalities, I presume this was at that time, you can tell me if not. You mentioned Dean Martin, the Rat Pack. All of them, Sammy [Sammy Davis, Jr.], Peter Lawford, when was the interaction with those guys? 

DQ: Sammy, Sammy was quite often. He was involved in a lot of the roasts, of course, and Sammy was getting his own shows at the time. Tremendously talented. I remember speaking to Frank… I was, I forgot what... Friday or something. I’m not working all weekend. You know, I’m talking to a Production Supervisor or whoever I was talking to, and he goes, “You’re not working?” I go, “No.” He goes, “There’s a Frank Sinatra special going this weekend, Sunday.” I said, “Really?” He said, “You wanna do it?” I said, “Absolutely.” So this is a unique show. This is stage, the audience is all invited guests. Budweiser is hosting the show, everybody’s in cocktail dresses and tuxes, and suits and, you know everybody’s all dressed for this. There’s no seating. The stage is, we’re going to move, I’m going to work with the Stage Manager to tell me where I have to move this crowd to for the next opportunity, so we’re out of the camera shots. Remember there are a lot of sort of blocks and so forth. So anyway, we’re getting ready to start. I don’t know if I tell this story--we’re waiting for Frank--nobody’s around. It’s Sunday. You know, none of the execs, nobody’s in the hallway, you know. The shop’s gone. You know, everything, it’s nice and quiet. So I’m talking to the security guard, and we’re talking, he says, “You know, when I was married in New York, I went back, you know, first thing, I took my bride, we went to see Frank. You know, it was on our honeymoon. Oh my god, I haven’t seen him in all these years, fantastic.” So now we look, here comes the door, they clear the door, and boom, here they come. The big guys out front, Jilly, right. Two guys on either side. A guy in the back, and Frank in the middle. So here they come, it’s like oh my god, the presence, you could feel the presence. I mean, oh my gosh. And so I see this, the security guard starts to go, you know, to say, “Frank, I was…” Boom. Gives him a little whack in the chest, moved him out of the way of that. I’m about 10 feet ahead of that, I see that and go, “Your dressing’s room right this way, Mr. Sinatra.” You know, I’m whoa. I was impressed at this moment, okay. The power that we’ve all heard about is the power that we’ve all heard about.

DQ: So I showed him [Frank Sinatra] to his dressing room. You know, and here we go with this big rehearsal. Frank finds out, the orchestra’s next door, so they’re, we’re maybe on stage two or four, and the orchestra’s gonna be set up on another stage, it’s not gonna be on the same stage, and they’ll just bring in their A2s and the big speakers we used to roll in so that he could hear himself well, and so forth. And we could hear the orchestra. Found out there’s no food. There’s no food. Frank said, “I’m not coming out of this dressing room until I know there’s food set up for the orchestra and everybody that’s gonna be here. Crew and everybody else.” I mean, they were on the phone, and they’re calling all over to get food. They’re getting catering. It starts to get set up, so now Frank finally is gonna do a rehearsal. So it’s later in the day. Does the rehearsal, you know, we all get to see, you know, a little bit of it and so forth. And stop the song, “All right, we’ll finish the song there. Then, where do I go,” you know, so he goes to the next block. This is where the prop man has a stool with a beer, a Budweiser set right on top of it, poured in a glass, where he lifts it up and puts it on that, at the right time during a song, so when Frank would finish a song, a lot of the commercials he did live. So he’d finish, you know, he’s gonna, and they’d cross over and grab the beer, and read the cue cards, and say, you know, “Budweiser’s one of my favorite beers,” blah blah blah. Okay. And then he’d turn to another, prop man would take that down, you know. Music cue, we go right onto the next song. Not a full rehearsal, just you know, give him the feeling, Director talking. So now, you know, we’re ready to go, I’ve got the audience all ready, looking for that Stage Manager to give me the cue when to run him this way or that. And so we’re gonna do two shows. Dress rehearsal and an air show, if you will. So Frank came out on stage, and just was getting ready to go, he said, “Let’s get it right on the first take, not gonna be a second one.” And everybody kinda went, “Is he serious about that? Not gonna, not gonna do another take?” So he does this take. You know, the whole special, the entire show. Okay. I’m moving people around, and so forth. Get him down after the show, and Frank leaves. That’s it. He’s done. He’s leaving. Now the Producer has to wait for the executives that are flying in on the helicopter, that are coming to see the eight o’ clock show. And there’s nobody left. They’re striking the set, everybody’s gone. So I, as the page, you know, I kinda go, you know, you can hear the helicopter coming down and we know we have to get this executive, you know, out this door. So I kinda peek through the door and wait for a little while, to see a little bit of a reaction. Oh my gosh. Those guys just sponsored this special and they didn’t see it. So I close the door and get a little more insight, you know, television and production, and the way things are. Frank Sinatra.