Jeannie Out of the Bottle - Barbara Eden [57]
When Sammy arrived on the set for the first time, intensely professional, friendly, and cheerful, I knew better than to mention the fact that I’d been in the chorus at Ciro’s and that he’d sent an emissary to invite me out on a date.
Sammy was bright and funny, and we laughed a lot together. When I alluded to the news that although some black-and-white photos had been taken of us, they were now going to shoot some more, this time in color, he joked, “So now you’re starting with all that racial stuff.”
So far, so good. But when Larry strolled onto the set, you could immediately tell that Sammy was in for big trouble. Larry started by ordering Sammy around and telling him where to stand. Sammy, his own man in every sense of the term, was far from amused by Larry’s overbearing manner.
It came time to shoot Sammy’s most important scene, which required Larry to feed him his lines from off camera. As Sammy started saying his lines, Larry expressed his feelings about him in no uncertain terms by opening his mouth and letting loose a long, thick string of drool. I was in the scene and, against my will, couldn’t help being mesmerized by the sight. Sammy, however, took it as a personal insult, which, of course, it was intended to be.
Quite understandably, he was incandescent with rage. He slammed off the set and shouted, “If I ever have to see that —— again, I’ll kill him.” Sammy was a big star, probably the biggest star who would ever guest on I Dream of Jeannie, and after a hurried, whispered conference, the director, Claudio Guzman, hustled Larry off the set and had someone other than Larry read Sammy his lines.
Afterward, Sammy took me aside and asked, “How in the hell do you work with this guy, Barbara? He’s a total asshole.”
Sammy’s words, not mine.
Legendary comedian Milton Berle was one of the I Dream of Jeannie guest artists in Hawaii, where we shot “The Second Greatest Con Artist in the World” for season three. By now, Larry was well established in the series and popular with the public, and so he felt safe flexing his muscles even further, flatly refusing to appear in the show with Milton. Which was probably just as well, because had Larry provoked him, Milton might well have resorted to his favorite party trick, exposing himself. His, um, endowment was rumored to be impressive, but I can’t confirm that from personal experience. However, I do remember being unnerved when I caught sight of his bare feet. (And not because of the size!)
In the tropical Hawaii heat, most of us went barefoot whenever possible, but when Milton did, I couldn’t help noticing that all his toes were crunched up. I didn’t say a word, but he caught my expression and volunteered, “I was the last of six kids, Barbara, so I always got the smallest pair of shoes.”
I wasn’t quite sure that I had completely grasped the logic of that remark. But from then on, I understood why, during the shoot, Milton kept changing from one elegant, expensive pair of shoes to another pair that was even more elegant and expensive. As they say, you can take the star out of poverty, but you can never take poverty out of the star.
Nor can you take the bluntness out of someone who is congenitally blunt. At that time, Larry was probably the least diplomatic actor on the planet and would openly tell Sidney how much he hated his scripts.
Looking back, I don’t think Sidney could have written I Dream of Jeannie any other way. The show was fantasy, light and fun entertainment—we weren’t intending to be didactic in any way or Shakespearean in either language or scope.
Larry, however, was aiming higher and wasn’t going to be satisfied by the perfectly serviceable scripts Sidney continued to churn out. Consequently, he let out his ire not just on celebrities but also on harmless “civilians” visiting the I Dream of Jeannie set. I’ve recounted the story about the nuns, so it followed that when I took the risk of inviting my mother to visit me on the set, I was terrified at the thought of what Larry might pull while she was there. At first he was at his most charming (and Larry