Marty Ingels

[on Buddy Hackett] . . . a prick. A real prick! But he was funny. He did his dirty stuff, he wasn't a good actor and he was a prick. He wasn't nice to the people who helped him in the old days and wasn't easy to get along with. Show less «

[on Sandy Baron] I never understood Sandy Baron. I know he had psycho bouts of depression that were very bad. He would go into a clinic or else people would have to physically come to his house and feed him. He had some very bad things going on. Show less «

[on Don Adams] Ah, he was such a putz, Don Adams. He was such a cold hearted guy. A real cold hearted guy.

[on Dean Martin] One thing I admired about Dean Martin--[Frank Sinatra] would say, "Suit up. We have to show up for this thing." "What thing?" "The Mob is doing this thing." Dean used to say to Sinatra, "You owe them. I don't." They all had money in Cal-Neva. The Mob had a part, Sinatra had a part and Dean Martin had a part. Dean thought he was just in it with Sinatra. When he found out he was in it with the Mob he brought a lawyer and said, "I'm out." I admired him for that. Show less «

[on Red Buttons] Red Buttons was a nice guy, but don't ever get him onstage when you're supposed to be equals. He'll cut both your legs off and jump on you. Show less «

[on Jackie Mason] He's a cold guy. Hard. Not loving. He's not the kind of guy who puts his arm around you. Not giving. He's a very, very cold businessman. He came to Hollywood hot as a pistol after his Broadway show and did a few movies and two or three series. The sparks flew. He left this town with more enemies . . . he's a brilliant comic. He really is brilliant. Show less «

[on Jerry Lewis] He is still suffering the pangs of the self-esteem problems of a comic. Jerry never evolved as a person. He just got old. Jerry is still brilliant, but . . . he has never evolved as a person. That's why nobody likes him. It's too bad because he was brilliant at what he did. Shirley [Shirley Jones], my wife, never liked his comedy. But when he was on top he changed the entire face of comedy the world over. Show less «

[on Frank Sinatra] He was supposed to do the Gordon MacRae role in Carousel (1956). Let me tell you, Shirley [Ingels' wife Shirley Jones] did all her prerecording with him! . . . They went out to Maine or wherever they did it. First day of shooting Frank shows up in his big limo. He gets out of the car and he sees two sets of cameras. They shot some scenes twice because they were using some process for theaters with big movie screens. So they did some of the dance scenes twice. There was a big mystery with what was going on in his life. A lot of rumors were about him and [Ava Gardner] when she was shooting Mogambo (1953)]. She said, "You get your ass over here you son of a bitch or I'm going to sleep with Clark Gable". He was just starting "Carousel" and he saw those two sets of cameras and he said, "What's this?" They said, "Well, Frank, we're going to shoot some of the scenes twice." He said, "Am I getting paid once or twice?" They said, "Once." He got right in the car, slammed the door and left. Nobody knew what to do. Shirley said, "I know a very wonderful singer named Gordon MacRae." So she went to a phone booth right then and called Gordon in New York: "Listen, can you come do 'Carousel' with me? You have to lose 15 pounds. And can you do it in two days?" Shirley thinks he had the best voice of any singer ever. What a dream team they made. We have all the wardrobe pictures of Sinatra wearing all those Gordon MacRae striped jackets. It's hysterical. Show less «

[on Shirley Jones] I'm very lucky to be married to a woman that is a real icon. Everybody loves her wherever we go. Me, everyone thinks I'm crazy. She doesn't have to pay the dues. Nobody has to worry about her running down the street naked screaming that she's Woodrow Wilson. Show less «

[on Bob Hope] Bob Hope's writers took a lot of shit. We were close with Bob Hope. His penny-pinching bothered me a bit. We once went to a party at Bob Hope's house in Toluca Lake [CA]. He expanded this little house so that he had this 12-acre place. This big giant estate. We went there and we were curious that there was nobody to park the cars. So we had to park way out in China and walk 11 miles to his house. It was a party for one of his adopted children that was running for office. We asked one of the security people, "How come there was no parking people or anything?" The guy says, "There was no budget for it." What!? We went to Bob Hope's again for some charity thing. He had tables outside. Hundreds of tables and people. Word came that he wasn't there, but they were going to run this film. They ran this film and he's all dressed up and it looks like he's somewhere in Europe. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there. I really wish I could, but I want you to know I love you all. I'm out here and its cold and we have to do this show tomorrow." We were sitting there again with these security people and they said, "You'll never believe this. You wanna hear something? He's upstairs in his bedroom right now". "What?" "He didn't want to come down to the party so he had this film done". He was upstairs in his house! Show less «