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Johnny Carson’s former lawyer writes poison pen tell-all book

November 3rd, 2008 by Scott Marks

He-e-e-e-e-e-re’s the book about Johnny Carson we’ve all been waiting for…

Hnery ‘Bombastic’ Bushkin, The Tonight Show host’s longtime lawyer, agent and manager gave Johnny’s body three years to cool before spilling his guts in an upcoming down-and-dirty memoir. Bushkin is shopping a book that paints the beloved funnyman as a sad guy and serial cheater who was tormented by his mother and refused to visit Ricky during his son’s 4 1/2 month stint in Bellevue.

No wonder he got along so well with Bob Hope. HEEEEEEEEY OOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Here are a few excerpts from Bushkin’s upcoming tome:

“He was a great star, but not a great man. Many great comedians were miserable human beings… Johnny suffered a great many demons brought about by what I call a toxic sort of mother. His mother couldn’t give a compliment. He’s the biggest star in the world and she couldn’t even acknowledge it.”

Nice guy Carson refused to visit his son, Rick, when he was thrown in the clink at Bellevue with severe emotional problems. “The kid was there for 4½ months and he never went. I had to take care of everything and was there almost every day. Rick [who died in a car crash in 1991] was a lovely human being.”

He “took advantage of every inch of a 10,000-square-foot penthouse with a private pool at Caesars Palace when he played Vegas and routinely entertained the “18 beautiful girls in the chorus line that opened his act . . . and he was certainly involved with some of them.” Ya-Ha!

The most successful man in late night television history was so insecure that he constantly “questioned his own ability to have happiness in his life.”

Johnny dumped many of his closest friends, including Bushkin, who says, “At one time we did everything together. At the end, he treated me like everybody else - like I didn’t exist. At the end, it was like I was an irritant. In many respects, he was the saddest guy I ever knew.”

This is not the first warts-and-all bio of Carson. Howard Stern keeps talking about a book that his first wife, Jodi, penned that alleges spousal abuse. I’ve yet to track down a copy.

Johnny’s delivers his greatest performance in this tribute to his late son Rick:

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Filed Under Gossip

Dig A Hole: Dody Goodman

June 23rd, 2008 by Scott Marks

Dody Goodman as Martha Shumway in MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN

Dody Goodman, the pixyish Southern belle comedienne/character actress know for her appearances on Jack Paar’s couch as well as the mother on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Blanche Hodell in both Grease movies died Sunday at the age of 93.

Born Dolores Goodman in Columbus, Ohio on October 28, 1914 where her father ran a cigar store. For years Goodman successfully shaved 14 years off her age by listing her birth year as 1929. This minor discrepancy was upheld for decades before the past eventually caught up with her and shattered the myth.

She arrived in New York to study dance in the late 1930s. She studied at the School of American Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School, and later graduated to Broadway musicals.

According to the Associated Press, Goodman gained a measure of success for her dancing solos in such ’40s Broadway musicals as High Button Shoes and Wonderful Town. In 1955, she stopped the show in the off Broadway production Shoestring Revue with the novelty song Someone’s Been Sending Me Flowers. She returned to Broadway in 1974 to appear in Lorelei with Carol Channing.

Jack Paar & Dody Goodman

Goodman first appeared on television in the recurring role of a waitress on The Phil Silvers Show. Adopting a scatterbrain persona, Goodman eventually caught the attention of talk show pioneer Jack Paar. Her ditzy aura and seemingly spontaneous malaprops delighted Paar and gaine national attention for Goodman who was soon invited to become a semi-regular on The Tonight Show.

“I was just thrown into the talking,” Goodman said in a 1994 interview with The Associated Press. “I had no idea how to do that. In fact, they just called me up and asked me if I wanted to be on ‘The Jack Paar Show.’ I didn’t know who Jack Paar was. They said, ‘We just want you to sit and talk.”‘

Jack Paar did not take well to being upstaged and Dody’s impeccable ad-libs eventually resulted in a permanent falling out. In 1958 she was dropped from The Tonight Show’s roster, but invitations from other talk shows soon began pouring in.

She began making regular appearances on Virginia Graham’s Girl Talk, Merv, and The Mike Douglas Show. In 1970, with Paar safely out of the picture, she once again began appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

She hit her stride plating Louise Lasser’s mother on the dotty serial Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Her high-pitched voice could be heard announcing the show’s title at the beginning of each episode.

Following Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Goodman’s career gained momentum. She picked up where Marion Lorne left off playing addled neighbor ladies or eccentric housekeepers on TV’s Diff’rent Strokes and Punky Brewster, as well as movie roles in both Grease films and cartoon voiceovers on a slew of Chipmunk Adventures.

Goodman, who never married, is survived by seven nieces and nephews, 11 great nieces and nephews and 15 great-great nieces and nephews.

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Filed Under Obituaries

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