[Bob Mills 1974 Interviews - RON PINKARD, ANGIE DICKINSON, KAYE STEVENS]

my favorite place Dr Mike Morton on the emergency service on NBC you see him on channel 10 and you've seen him in San Diego you were down there doing something for the hypertension that's right that's right I think we should be very proud of itself because we screamed to the efforts of the Heart Association and the Navy Department the medical Department of the Navy we screened something like 30 000 San Diego for hypertension now that that is a city that's conscious about its own health I understand you found some with hypertension including Ron Pinder yes we did um yeah that's true isn't it ironic um I got you so wound up I've been on the road well it's probably my lifestyle the second time too salt in my diet I'm cutting all the salt out of my diet I think that way too much salt in the first place I think all of our prepared foods already have sodium in it then we dump salt on it we get a taste for salt but salt has a way of retaining fluid in the body and it's not good for you it's just pure and simply not good for you so I don't really have a great degree of hypertension but we have a little bit and so why not work on it now not let it become a problem later in life that's how I look at it but yeah San Diego should be very proud of itself because um I'm proud of San Diego and I've been there since 1959. I joined the Navy you were in the service surface that's right it's actually I got a chance to do something you know when you're in a ranks standing in line you see all the Admirals and all the Big E wigs and the gold and the bars and everything I had the opportunity to go back to the old hospital core School in San Diego where I trained my original medical training which is 1959. and it was nice the Admiral was there and he walked through and he was a great he's retired now this Admiral Strickland retired but he was a man of sensitivity and he painted the Halls different colors and flowers and it was kind of a hippie Admiral if you could use that term you know before Zuma well yeah but he was well that was almost with the Z letters and all that yeah but this this animal Admiral strick was um is a man he's retired now but he was a man who cares about the gray ghost which is Naval Hospital San Diego and he cares enough to make the walls different colors we got a chance to visit with the kids up there and then uh right with me it was a good feeling it wasn't I didn't feel like it was a difference you know I didn't feel yeah enlisted exactly I think we had a common denominator and that was hypertension and that's what we were there for yeah that's terrific Well Ron picker is doing a lot of work outside his career on emergency and runs along the same medical lines yeah okay Andrew Dickinson starts a new series this fall on NBC called police woman and I assume it was because of the role you had in police story wow yes that's right the police story uh turned out quite marvelous and had wonderful reaction and NBC said let's make a series out of it so here I go does Angie Dickinson is an actress-like reaction from the public yes I like reaction from the public and what forms it usually come in before a film star uh well uh when you go to the fair mostly everybody knows you and and if they like you they smile and say hi or just how do you do love you work or something how about letters and that sort of thing oh yeah a lot of letters but I can tell more from Street reactions whether or not my show was watched and a success or not more than from letters that is nice to have the public come up to you face to face and say they enjoy it yes it is it's very touching and sometimes genuinely they actually get tears in their eyes and they just say we just love you and that's awfully nice have you ever taken on a role that you thought was the real Angie Dickinson in any of the movies you've done oh no a larger part of me than others do like in the police woman that was a pretty big hunk of me will this series be so awesome about the same but not not a hundred percent I'd like to do 100 sometimes would you yeah but I guess I'll have to write it myself yes I'd like that very much what uh what's the difference between doing a TV series and doing a movie what's the scheduling like well on a on a TV series you work much faster and uh you know because you've got to get them done you see in a movie they can take longer because they can get their money back uh in the TV somebody pays a price and that's it so if you spend more money than plan to make that there's no way to get it back it's already been paid for for that amount so a movie can take longer which is sometimes better seen sometimes better lit because time is where the money is so it's time in rehearsing and in lighting and in shooting does that make a difference in your working day do you start earlier in the day to do a movie than you would to do a series well on movies you um I think you worked actually a little harder and longer on movies but it's over within six or eight weeks or four weeks as the case may be but with a A series that goes on for many months and you don't get a day off till Christmas I hope you've got your vitamins I'm gonna I'm gonna live on air and vitamins on this one but hopefully it will be scheduled so that so that if I have some scenes if there are scenes that I'm not in they'll do those early in the morning and then I'll come in around nine that's her late is nine o'clock I'll be leisurely for you sure would be tell me it's Mrs Burt Bacharach kind of sometimes San Diego County resident do you ever get involved in his career do you write music perform or play or sing Oh I write music for him no I just listen and I don't play I I mean I know I can read the notes but I I don't play compared to what he does and but I do listen to his songs and he sometimes asks me if I if I like this one a lot or just a little or or who I think might sound good on it after he's written it but I don't help him no except to be quiet when he says who would sound good recording this who do you say it depends who have you said I said on one I said Gladys Knight and he said hey that's a great idea and he took it to her and she recorded it it's called seconds as a matter of fact she just recorded it so I don't know it'll be out I imagine in the next month or so or in her album but that was one example he's done so much for the Diane Warwick has done it oh yes he re-recorded her and you know he didn't record her for a while because he spent a year and a half on a film that's a long time and he also wanted to record himself and the year is just so long you know so he re-recorded her I mean he has recorded her again about a month ago and what I heard sounds great three new songs do you find that he has the creative uh waning times sort of dry time he thinks so he thinks Whenever there is a show such as Lost Horizon which took a year and a half and then absolutely fizzled it really was a failure now songs don't have to be a figure because you know 20 years from now they may pull out those songs that happened even with the gershwin's things that were pulled out of shows but he finds uh he finds where he's not as sharp as he was a year ago and it and then it picks back up well I'm sure your career will help his pick back up too you'll be busy busy I hope mine doesn't effective affect him negatively I hope it'll uh um uh spur him on maybe he'll write police woman or something if it does effective negatively just arrest him he's the he's such a such a great talent he has no fears about that and so is Andrew Dickinson thank you and you'll see her and police woman this fall on NBC nice to be here you see K Stevens is Jerry Clayton in Days of Our Lives on NBC and channel 10 and the last time you were in San Diego not on the TV screen I don't know it's the last time or not but one time you were with the Bob Hope Uso show that's right Airline had lost your luggage remember that lost all the luggage and I have I had no music no costumes that 75 000 worth of equipment gone so what I did was uh I would of course Bob Hope has a fantastic band you know he had Les Brown and I they bought a drape from the hotel and we took the drape we cut it out and sewed it together and I wore a drape with a sash and somebody else's boots and I went on San Diego and I got a standing ovation 73 000 people stood up and applauded me biggest crowd ever in the stadium biggest and I was so excited because I I said do you need to think that I have no music no charts nothing and it just sheer force and sheer willpower got me on that stage to really perform objective it was just wonderful you were you were just I love San Diego no I go there all the time oh yes vacation on there yeah usually when I come off the road I like to rest so I drive right down the coast my drive right to San Diego I have dinner down there I spend a lot of time at the zoo I thoroughly enjoy San Diego it's a lovely Town that's good how about this series that's different than the cafe singing you've done in the past yes well I'm having a little trouble now because I've just come off the road of course I have Jerry Clayton is back in the show in Days of Our Lives and she I guess uh July 11th is the first time Jerry shows up and of course we've been filming that this week but the problem was that I've worked in nightclubs last week and my body time hasn't changed in other words at two o'clock in the morning I'm wide awake and I have to be up at five to be at the studio and ready to film you know seven o'clock in the morning I have to be ready so I'm having a terrible time adjusting from my nighttime career to my daytime a little jet lagged but I love it I love it well how long will you be honest here now I'll be on the series I guess as long as they'll have me I just love it I love NPC I love working there and you like to study work I mean the day the day the day today you know what it does uh day to day and how I got five scripts today as a matter of fact that to work on but the thing is uh the the pleasure you know of a challenge like this because I I do more dramatic I've never done dramatic acting in my life you know I've always I've always done uh you know the nighttime shows and the variety shows so no one really expected me to be able to do this they were rather shocked that I I can do it and now I notice that my nightclub act I'm doing all this dramatic stuff and the people who see me as Jerry Clayton want me to sing the songs that Jerry Clayton sings because you are a singer I'm a singer I Am Jerry Clayton Grill singer yeah right and it's just it's a very exciting challenge did you have trouble convincing anybody that you uh to be an actress yes my age I had a terrible time my age and felt that that uh I should adhere to a nightclubs you know did you know you could do it though oh I always knew I could do it I was always certain that I could do it but they didn't think I could PS the money is much greater of course you know in Las Vegas uh you get a goodly sum of money for for example month's work there and you don't make anywhere near that daytime television so they my of course agency would collect 10 they would rather collect 10 of 30 000 than 10 of whatever so that was that was the problem so they said well they said we just can't get you any dramatic stuff and if you really want it you'll just have to leave the agency that's what my agent told me so I thought it over and I left I left I did exactly what he told me and I've never been happier I've never been happier terrific we'll look forward to seeing you you're very kind thank you very excited seeing you again it's nice seeing you Casey love you I love you