It's Night Side with Dan on WBS Causton's new radio.
Good evening, everybody. I have a nice four hours of comfort, fun and trolic plans for you. And before I go any further, Nicole, thank you for plugging that I am on tonight and I've enjoyed working with you this week. We've got one more night, Nicola, you want tomorrow night as well.
I believe it or not, AM off tomorrow night.
So this is the last night we have together this week.
Darn it. And I'm sorry. I had a subject for tomorrow that I'm leading with that I think it would have been great to incorporate you to start it off, but that we're going to be talking about breakfast cereals that we when we were kids. I love breakfast cereal on corn call in.
You know I very well, mind, I'll give it my best shot. You know the inside numbers and I know the outside number two and I'll be traveling so I'll be listening on the iHeartRadio app.
So I'll give it a shot.
I look forward to it. You take care and have a good night. Likewise, my friend. All right, everybody, I've promised you on Monday or last Thursday, I promised you every time I try to fill in or we'll be filling in for Dan Ray, which periodically happens, I promised to get somebody that I've never had before, and this
is a good get. Pardon the grammar. You all used to watch this show and the line that blurred between what we saw on the TV screen and reality, and this actress, because of the character she played on TV, periodically was attacked, physically attacked, cut nasty letters from people, all because of that little Nellie Olsen out on the prairie. I've got Allison. I'm grim here, Allison, thank you for coming on. This is a true pleasure.
Thank you so much. I know I'm terrible. It's like Nelly also is holding out on you. I just you know. I was running around carting people from hospitals to pharmacy to back and going, oh my god, I'm never going to make it out.
No, no, I'm not even I'm not even going to go there. You're here now, and that's all that matters.
But I'm here and here, I'm live. It's happening, and.
If people want to call in. Normally, the first segment we take right after the news and go to about quarter pass the hour, and after that I take phone calls. I'm going to give the phone number now because I know that there are a cartload of people that would love to say booty you Nelly Olsen six.
I think they should two.
Five four ten thirty or eight eight eight nine, two nine ten thirty if you want to speak, I have my producers speaking to make sure I give the right phone number. And oh he does and he is a fan of yours. I know you got to speak to
him as he called you to set you up. And for those of you who don't clearly remember, her character was the daughter of the woman that owned the general store in town, and all kinds of storylines would grow from little elementary age school Nellie Olsen and how she interacted with the Ingles kids and the other kids in the community, and trouble ensued every Monday night. And it's been fifty years since that show came on our TV sets? How does that feel when you hear that fifty years ago?
It is absolutely like mind blowing after just you know, all of these years, if you had told us fifty years ago that people were going to still be watching the show, let alone discussing the show ad nauseum, being excited about the show and coming to fans later. Never in a million years, we didn't remember when we started the show. We're in nineteen seventy four. We started the show. There was no cable television, There were no DVDs. There was no such thing as a VC or VHS tape.
There was a cable TV hadn't been invented yet. There or three channels, and certainly there was no such thing as streaming, et cetera, et cetera. We didn't know how someone was going to watch the show fifty years from now, let alone that they would.
You had to see it that night or wait five six months later, maybe for the rerun of your favorite episode. And that was it.
Summer reruns. Summer reruns, yeah.
Oh my goodness.
And then and then we had like they started doing stuff. We're okay, there was enough of it. It made syndica, you go best fives. Oh, now they can show it like in the afternoons after school. That was like a big jump that they did that. And then they invented cable TV and suddenly we were on that. And then they came out with VH and suddenly started selling TV shows at VHS tapes like, oh my god, what is happening?
We had no idea, And I'm telling you it is more popular now fifty years later than it was where the damn thing was on. I mean, we are also floored.
And I'm going to say this, when I mentioned that you have been physically attacked, that's.
True, can you It's crazy.
Stories for us real quick.
Before that, I mean, the dumbest thing I did was go in costume once I was. It was for this big charity thing for an Eastern fair, and Catherine McGregor the Brilliant would have played missus Olsen. We were talked into, oh yes, it'll be fun. I think somebody from the network's kids went to the school. So we went in costume. They got us all done up at the studio and everything well, people were terrified of us. No one wanted
to autograph, no one would come near. And then two little girls ran it behind me and kicked me in the button, knocked me to the pavement. And then there
was a time I was in the Christmas parade. Mind you, I was about sixteen at least I was older, and I going down the street yelling Mary Christmas had a great time, and someone threw a McDonald's cup of orange soda at my face direct hit oh my goodness, and I mean, of course, my reaction was like, you know, first, okay, well list it's not a beer bottle, so I'm not dead. But then I was like, oh my god, this thing's like half fold as a buck seventy five of centa left.
Someone's just so angry at the sight of me, and that's what I still damn. I must be good doing something, right.
We can't go after Godzilla at s gwiff Nelly Elson right right?
People were I thought, what am I doing? And it did occur to me even at a young age, because he came from a family of actors, went what am I doing that? People think this is so real that they're flipping out when they see me and doing crazy stuff like this, What the hell did I do?
Well?
And you're interpreting a writer's words on page, a director's telling you do this, don't do that, but you were doing it in such a way that you are tremendously convincing, and thank.
You, thank you. I went all out. I did my best, and well.
There you go.
I'm going to take my break when we come back. I also want to bring into the conversation your parents, because your father managed people like Labaraci, Debbie Reynolds and what can Chariton do for you? Miss Susan Antone, that was one of her commercial lives. And aren't cloaky? How many people raise your hands? If you know who are cloaky? As people raise your hands, Nancy sitting next to me,
raise your rams. Aren't cloaky? Helped create Davy and Goliath, Gumby and Pokey, and your mother was the voice to Davy and Gumby can't and Casper the Friendly Ghost and Casper.
The Friendly Ghost and sweet pallidirr Bread Underdog's girlfriend.
Oh where, oh where has my underdog guard? She had to sing that every episode.
Let me she did, and she would do it. She would do it for friends. My friends would go, could your mom do? Could she do the voice? Could you do the voice? She would go, where where is what? She would do it? It was great.
Let me let me take my break. People, if you want to call in, we're gonna have fun right here. Alice yes and arm grim a r M. I am is here, so come on give us a call. Six one seven, two, five, four, ten, thirty eight, eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty Time and Temperature at w b Z. Oh my goodness, I'm late eight seventeen sixty five degrees.
Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World Night Sike Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Alison arm Grim is my guest here. Remember Little House on the Prairie. It's thing the fiftieth anniversary, nineteen seventy four, That show hit NBC and it just hang on and people love it, loved it and do love it now. And my producer just told me my headphones there are stations dedicated to a single show twenty four to seven. All they do is a show. Now, Rob said, there's a network that plays Happy Days of Vernon Shirley all
the way through. But there are I'm gonna say, there's at least a station that does nothing but show Little House on the Prairie morning, noon and night.
This is true. This is the one that just blows our minds, all of us in the show. So you've got your channels that show a lot of Little House and a few other shows here, the Hallmark, Cozy TV, me TV, I those a Little House and like and the Waltons and nn but there's a Little House like Mad the Marathons, but now with Roku and all and Pluto and all of these things, there is an all Little House all the time. And I think there's now at least two of them that are literally all only
show episode of the Little House in the Prayer. I mean it streams on Amazon, you can order it on the streaming networks. But there's a couple where literally this Little House in the Prey all the time, twenty four hours a day, seven seven days, three week.
Oh my goodness. And you know I had one of your co stars on roughly four weeks ago. I had Dean Butler on he as well.
Was we lovely. We loved Deane.
He was talking about fifty years of Little House. How were you chosen? I know, anything and everything to do with that show went through Michael Landon would every single half there was to wear on that show. Tell me about how you get chosen to be Nelly?
I it was so incredible. We had you know Susan who was a Susie Suckman and later married Kent McCray, a Producerus McCrae, and you know Kate McCrae produced an ed friend Lee, who had first tried to make a show in the books than Michael Lenna. So I go in, God, I was about love it, and I read for the part of Laura, and I read for the part of Mary. I think everyone did. I used to call out the search of Scarlett O'Hara for eight year olds, so everybody hears this. I go in and I don't get it.
And I know I'm a kid actor. I go to auditions all the time. I go, well, that was nice, but I was I knew I was not a country girl. I went, this is so not me. And I think I read form one of the worlds girls like dah no, and so I didn't really think about it. And I go about my business and they make the pilot with of course Melissa Gilberts and Melissa to Andrew, so they go, well,
they're perfect, Okay. So I go on with my and then I get a call to come read for The Little House on the Prairie again at Paramount Studios, and I'm like, how many people are on the show. I already did this, but I at least may make it the series. It's more people. I like an idiot, have not read the books. I have no clue. I have no idea. I don't know there is an Ally Elson. I don't know what annlly Elson is, no idea. I get there and I'm handed these pages for something vanlie
Elson that this character in the show. And I sit there and I start to read these pages. My father is sitting there with me out in the waiting room, and I look and I start reading and I turned to my father. I said, this is not a normal part. He said, what are you talking about. I said, she's awful, this girl, she's a bitch. And she said, just a total bitch. Might like that. In fact, don't rehearse it again,
don't read it again. And then he snatched the page and said, put the pages face down, don't even look at them. Don't even look at them. Go in and do that. Just do exactly what you just did it. Okay. I go in and there's Michael Landa, there's Michael Landon and get McCrae said friendly. And they're all sitting there on a couch and I I say, go ahead, and
I'm like, oh my god, okay, it's Michael. I knew who Michael Anna was from Bonanza, and I wasn't like a Bonanza fan, and I knew all these people were. And I start reading and these three grown men are sitting two feet away from me in this couch, start laughing and laughing and laughing, and they're just dying over every word I'm reading. And remember I'm like twelve years old. And they said, could you do it again? Please? And I said, oh, yes, very trained little child actor. What
would you like me to change? And they said, no, just read the thing about That was the get And it was that scene in Country Girls at first episode where she talks about her how my home is the best home in all of Walnut Grove, and it is hilarious because she has no idea how fool she sounds.
And she rattles off all this bragging about the house and she talks about how there's three sets of dishes, one for every day, one for Sunday, and one for when someone's very special importance comes to visit, which we've never even used yet. And she doesn't even realize the insanity this statement, that like, how you don't know anybody important you live in walder Grove, Minnesota, And she doesn't get.
And Nellie never understood that in the run of the show.
Her that she's obviously your Minnesota, nothing is happening here, and she doesn't realize she's just told a story on herself. And the fact that I could play that joke that I like, what, Oh, that's really funny. Oh my god, that's hysterical, and I did. They couldn't believe that a twelve year olds had like got the joke, and so
they laughed again. They were like crying, they were laughing so hard, and then they said thank you, and my father and I got out the door, into the parking lot, into the car, drove home, maybe half an hour away. Back and my agent was already on the phone saying that he'd already heard from them and they'd made a deal. In wardrobe fitting was tuesday. Yeah, boom, that was it.
Job.
I walked out the door and they were like done, Yeah, let me take a call, because I wanted to try to get this call in before I have to take a news hit.
As maybe Harlan told you, I hit thirty eight states. I'm based in Boston, but our first call is from believe it or not, Michigan and Matt and Michigan has called in to speak to Alison matt.
Hello, Hi Morgan, Hey Allison, it's a pleasure to speak with you.
Hi.
How are you.
I'm fine, thank you. As Morgan mentioned, he had Dean Butler on a few weeks ago, I was able to speak with him. So now I've got you, and it's an extreme pleasure. And I'm also pleased to remind you that I was a while I am a resident of the state of Michigan, and we were pleased to have Melissa Gilbert as a fellow resident for about four or five years. She I know, I know. She lives in a town where my daughter lived in time Howell, Michigan. And were you ever out to see her over there?
I'm sadly no, she took off to the Catskills before I could get over there. But the pictures at that little house on the lake, oh my god, it's fabulous.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was hopeful, you know, to run into her sometime and I could tell my daughter, Rachel. I said, it's half pint. I never got that opportunity, never got that opportunity. But anyway, I just wanted to congratulate you on the job that you did on that show. And
I saw you on an interview with a fellow. His name was Anthony, and one of the things that you touched on was that you were able to continue your education, not as a you know, with a tutor on set, but that you you stayed in the schools that you were going to. And I've always heard that, you know, the hours are so long when you do a series.
How were you able to do that?
Though though not everyone follows the rules, they did on the set of Little House, they followed the code, and the code in California was if you were under eighteen, you could only work a total of eight hours plus an hour for lunch, so nine hours you were out. And during those nine hours it was three hours of school, four hours of work, one hour rest and recreation, and an hour of lunch. And that was your schedule. So they would break it up and it could be very confusing.
It was still very difficult because you'd bring your work from school and you'd shoot a scene and they'd say, well, we got to go set up the next scene. Why don't you go to school, and you'd go to the school room. You'd get all engrossed in writing a paper work and they'd say, well, now, come back and shoot,
and you'd stop doing. You go back and shoot for and a half an hour, and then you go back to school for half an hour, and then you go back and this would go on all day, and sometimes you'd be a few minutes in there, but as long as you got to three hours in there somehow, and I stayed enrolled in the regular school. I was going to Bancroft Junior High and in Hollywood High, which Holly has very good school. And they what I would do is come to them say, well, because I was I
was seven out of thirteen episodes. So I would come to them say, Okay, I'm in next week's episodes. I'm going to be gone for a week or two. I need my assignments, and they would give me that, let me know all the stuff that was supposed to be done in that time period, and I could get makeup exams and all of this. But it was still difficult because I'd leave and go, Okay, I know I need to get from page nine to page thirty two, but you know, if it's algebra and you're not there for
the lectures, it's like really difficult. I slogged through, and then I'd come back to school too. It was It was great because I had friends I'd had my god since the third grade, who I knew in junior high in high school, who knew me as me long before I got Little House, and they just didn't care. They would, oh, Alison got a job. They were Hollywood kids, people got jobs on TV. They went, oh, that's nice. I'd actually
got work, but they really did not care. I'd come back to school and say, well, I've been filming, and they'd say that's good. And then they kept me caught up on like who was dating who, and who'd broken up and who took her to the dance because that was the important news.
Naturally, Matt, I know.
And man, I hate to do it. I'm already late to my news hits. So thank you for coming again.
Okay, good evening, Allison. Keep by the great work and the partners speaking with you.
Thank you, thank you so much.
Take care of Allison. Let me do my news hit. I'll be right back, I promise, and uh, Peter in New York, you will be next, I promise you. With Alison Armgrim here, I'm busy with the time and temperature eight thirty one sixty five degrees.
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
I'm going to read this off stage. She's an activist for AIDS, also on the board for the National Advisory Board of the National Association to Protect Children, giving children a legal and political voice in the war against child abuse. Alison Armgrim is here from Little House on the Prairie and I was told to tell you hello by mister William Keck.
Oh.
Hi, Oh, he's he's such a terror. He has a book out though he's marvelous, where he's confessed to everything he has. He has begged all everyone's forgiveness for everything he did at a national.
And he mentioned that he was on a show with you and you apologize. No, he apologized to you and you accepted his apology.
Did We had a complete, complete, like throwdown on my show because he said he's on this like forgiveness work. Basically it's kind of hilarious. But I said, okay, here's what happened. He's like, oh my god, okay, I am officially sorry. As he said, yeah, the National inquire mentality and he was in this whole zone with the tabloids and they asked him to do outlandish things because a page true when they worked for the Inquirer is and he has now lived to regret many of the things
he did at the time. And yes, we've we completely kissed and made up.
He was armed with me Monday and he was on the first hour eight and you obviously you know you were scheduled for nine. So this is kind of disjointed, this hello from three days ago. It would have made more sense on Monday, but it still makes sense.
But still but still, yes, we we we have fully forgiven William. We shook and made up.
Let me tell I promised Peter and New York he could be next. So Peter, you've got Allison.
Allison, Michael. Did you know Michael Wandon's nickname?
Yes, well, because his full real name was Eugene Maurice Rowitz, and they called him movie.
That's right.
My friend Hebrew school with him, and she, oh my god.
Because when he would win, they would you know, they had football betting pools on those guys had bet on everything him in the crew and I even bought a square once in a while, and he won and they took his cash and they put in a bag and they hung it from the ceiling with a note saying for Oogie and told him to jump up and get it because he kept winning all the time.
They got mad.
And Walgan.
I got another story for you. You mentioned Casper the Friendly Ghost. Yes, indeed, that was my uncle, Myron Woltman's cartoon.
Oh wow, did he started it? Because my mom came in around they were you know, it started wearing TV in Josh Like Well movies the thirties, and then in TV in the fifties, sixties and in the nineteen sixties. Really all through the late fifties, sixties, early seventies. My mom was the voice all the Hanna Barbera ones, all the Harvey tunes.
That's all my mom, and if I'm not mistaken, it was a comic book first and then a cartoon on TV and movie.
Some of the comments.
He was also the first animator at Fleischer Studios.
It was a comic book.
Yeah, I have the comedy.
Casper Baby he we all those were under the title of Harvey Casper the Friendly Ghost, the Friendly Ghost. Do you know, though grown up to might look at him in fright, the children all love him.
So I could do the whole thing word for word do you have the album?
Do you have that?
There's a they put out a cast musical album and it's basically my mom and one guy playing a cast of thousands because you know, cartoons, and it's available. You can get it like on Amazon's It's like it's out there. It's totally out there and get the CD or downloaded.
And it's this hilarious album of all these that like it's a giant musical extravaganza with my mom and this guy playing all these you know, Casper and the Ghostly Trio and Nightmare and Wendy and my mother has one song called I'm Boo Boo the Beautiful Ghost where she does like a marily Monroe ghost, freaking hysterical. I've not heard that Casper album is out there. You must get it's right.
He always says hello, He's really glad to meet you wherever he may go. He's kind to every living understand why children love him the most because the kids don't know that he loves them. So Casper the Friendly Ghost. I had to get that out. I'm sorry.
That's it's terrifying things imprinted imprinted on our minds.
Yes, Peter, A lot of voices she.
Did, she did, She did Casper and she with Casper things she did do Wendy, Nightmare, Spooky, and then she was Davy and Davy's mom, Davy's sister, Davy's friends, and then Gumby, and then she was also Goo when they brought in Prickle and Goo, and she was in a bunch of other cartoons. And then so she's Gumby and Casper and Uh Davy and then Sweet and then she did some other cartoons and she was on the first Family album.
That's great, Alice.
In Wonderland in Paris, which is a darling little cartoon. She did that.
That's great.
And I'll tell both of you. The first person that I ever interviewed on the radio in nineteen eighty was Dows Butler, who was for Hannah Marbera. So many voices, Yogi and Hock and Hoki Wolf.
My mom worked with him like crazy. She loved Does Dog.
I loved Does as well. He was He was supposed to come on for one hour. He wound up doing three hours with me.
Wow.
He also in Little House we had Chuck McCann who was one of the great voices. Yeah, of course he played a deaf mute on Little House. But there you are go.
Figure, you couldn't take advantage of Chuck McCann's character characterizations in his voice.
I know he played it, and you know he did that a lot. He did a lot of voiceover, but many of the characters he played on camera did not speak.
He was in the medicine chest. Somebody brought this up on my show the other day. That was right guard commercials, Hi guy, Hi guy.
The medicine chest.
There was strack, my can Oh my goodness, Peter, Thank you for the call.
Thank you, have a nice night, keep it up.
Thank you for the time and some of those stories. Let me go to Grutten and speak with Mike. Mike, you've got Alison Armgrim here on night Side.
Well, hello Morgan, and hello Alison. Wonderful to speak with you. I am also I'm Morgan's producer, and Morgan notes this, I am twenty four years old. Biggest fan of the show, you know, for someone my you know, just super fan.
Amazing.
Well, well, I always say we're on like our seventh generation of viewers. It's just incredible. But I love it when I meet people in their teens and twenties who say Oh, yes, I watched Little House of the Bird's Great.
Yes, Mike produces my show. I have a show separate on Saturday nights. This week I'm filling in for the night side host Dan Ray. But my show has been on busy for years and years and I do Saturday nights and Mike is my producer then and he does an excellent job and he as the theater bug. Maybe you two should speak about.
It's something I definitely, yeah, want to pursue on some level, you know, and I love radio, so finding a way to sort of combine both of those things. But Alison, my question for you, so I have so many favorite moments of the show. I wanted, you know, because I listened to your book and you know, love the podcast. Could you just break down a little bit into the wheelchair going down the hill scene because I think, you know, as someone watching that show, now like how did they let that happen?
So it was amazing. Now there was a stunt woman involved, as they explained in the book, it was it was actually a feat of editing. So they first I'm in the chair and there's a steel cable on the back and they start to let it go down the hill. So she has a shot of me going wait what, Oh, you're such a good friend, Alley, and it starts good and they stops it. Then a very well trained professional stunt woman puts on the wig in the ninety and she does that thing when she goes bouncing out. She
does that like somersault in midair into the pond. I definitely get to them. Then they take me to a different hill. It was actually over by the little house, because we're had the area of Seaeye Valley, Big Sky Ranch before we shot where the town isn't he go up the road about a mile in it's a little house. So we went over there and there was a hill and it was like longer but much less steep because the hill by the mill it's straight down. It is
straight down. It's like, I don't know how that woman survived that fall. So they take me that hill which is longer or less steep, put me in the chair and just say go. There's nothing stopping the chair. They've got a camera on a track. Follow the cameras on a track. I'm not on a track, and I'm in a nightgown and a wig, and well not even the way because they did you know it was my hair because I just had the nightcap and curls. So I'm
in a nightgown, bedroom, slippers, underwear and nothing else. I have no seat belt, safety equipment, no padding, nothing, And I had a real broken arm because I had managed to break my risk skateboarding. So the eighteen hundreds cast is over the fake cast. So I've got a real broken arm and I am bouncing completely out of control with no seatbelt or safety equipment down this rocky hill in this antique wooden wheelchair, hanging on for dear life. No,
I'm screaming bloody murder. I did not no acting required, and I'm like, holy wrap, how am I going to get through this? And I get them They go those great, can we do it again? I'm like, you want to do it again? As they did again, and they were like, going, oh, the rope broke, trying to scare me. I'm like, I don't please. The rope wasn't holding anything any way, you guys.
So I get through this and then we go to the pond where the woman had landed, and they have me get in the nighty and the thing get into
the pond. Now, remember I have a real cast, and this was the you know, plaster cast of the day, so I had to They had the plastics and they had the wood and the thing over And what they did is I then put the cast and put the plastic trash bag over my cast it wouldn't get wet, taped it up, then put the eighteen hundred spandages in wood over that, and then got in the water so it looked up. They had a trash bag on and I'm getting in the pond and it's so dirty and
there's algae floating on the top. And Michael linn And says to me, give a swimming pool at your apartment. And I said, no, no, I don't, and he says, well, after this, you can swim in your toilet. It's not clean. And so I did the thing where I put my face down and come up spitting. And they edited all this together to the point that people go, I saw you go down, and the wheel chair I could. And the same episode, remember I'd run face first on the
horse into a tree branch. Right again, brilliant freaking editing. I'm never on that horse. I'm standing on a ladder, hitting the ladder with the riding crop the horse is off having a cigarette. You know, the horse is fine. Nobody's doing anything but the horse. Horse is totally fine. Fake in the whole thing. And when you see the stunt, lady dresses me on the horse and the horse is rearing up, and you hear the horse screaming. People like that,
poor horse. The horse screaming are special effects that were put in later in the recording studio. The woman is on the horse and the only sound you heard when she did that was up, and the horse would go up as you go, good boy, okay, up again. Literally they're doing that, and then they put it so it looked like this terrible thing is happening like nothing. So
they put me. I'm sitting on a box going like Gidea up, and these two guys are holding a piece of plexiglass in front of my face and I pretend like gide up, gideaop, bouncing and then on cue, a third guy swings a tree branch even to the plexiglass, at which point I go oh and fall over.
And that's the magic of folly people and editors, and I can.
Watch that footage and goo damn, that looks like I just went face first new treat branch. It looks so good, and I mean there were windexing the thing, so there's no like marks of the plexiglass. This is nineteen seventies technology. We had no CGI, there was no way to do this. This is nineteen seventies technology and editing, and it was freaking brilliant.
Now, Mike, you know, Mike No by being a producer that I am well beyond my break time.
So I'm going to be done. All right, I'll speak with you, Alison.
I'll speak you on Saturday night. And Rob, I am so sorry for being this late for my break time and temperature here on night Side eight forty eight, and Dennis, you'll be next, I promise. After Reese take our break time and temperature again, eighty eight sixty five degrees.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
My guests here at night Side, Allison, I'm grim and she has a one woman show, and I'm going to tippy toe around one of the words in the title. Allison, you gotta remember I'm on AM radio confessional of a Prairie witch. Take out, take out the W and put in the B. Okay, and this is on a national tour and it as well is the name of her book. And did you get in any trouble when you put that title on your book?
I did not.
When I came went to Harper Collins with that title, and they said, best damn title anybody's brought in all week. Yes, they thought it was great. They were like, this, this is fat, this will sell. And it's true because people who came into the store. There were people who bought it because he knew who I was, or people bought it he knew. But Little House and the Prairie Nellielson, And there were people who came into the store and said, there's a hot pink cover with this face and the
B word on it. I need to copy that book right now.
It's so.
Yeah, And it was as people went yet that's pretty accurate. I mean, she was the Prairie I being okay, confessions of it. And the only time I remember, we were at in Minnesota, Wisconsin, at one of the sort of prairie sites. They said, okay, we have a gift shop. We sell a lot of stuff here, but you know, we are out here in the country and not sure what the title like, obviously want to sell your book. Would you die if we covered just that part of
the cover like on the display rack? I said no, I mean people know what it is, they'll figure it out. But you know, do what you have to do, they said. Finally, the woman the said, Okay, rather than sit here and feel I'm censoring something stickering the cover of their book, let me put several of the books on the counter next to the cash register for three days and see if people complain or what the her comments are.
And she did.
She put them in full view, uncensored, and phone the cash register and waited and people came up to the counter, looked at it, did a double take and then started laughing hysterically. She had like one person go oh my. And then when she said, well it sounds who played, she goes, oh, well, she was, I mean that's accurate. And she at no point did anyone say oh my god, no, no, you can't have that out there. That's bad. Why A couple of people express shock, and then they went well
it is. Nellie al said okay, well that's totally accurate. That's fine.
And you you you used that word a half hour ago when you talked about going into the original reading.
Because it's I mean, it's true, She's awful. And then of course you know, I mean, my god, I tried to go about my business at school. In the first day at school, I get yelled at. I mean, that's what people started calling me. And I was like, Wow, okay, this is really gonna stick. I guess, I guess this is my new nickname.
Yike, let me take let me take one run with it.
I'm so let me take this last call, because had been holding for about fifteen minutes four things, so I can say two or three minutes for Dennis and Lowe. You were nervous. Dennis. You didn't think I was going to bring you into the conversation, did you No?
Morgan, but you always do me great favors, good evening, Morgan, and Allison, great stories, Allison. Love it. My question for you, I was a big football fan and I was wondering about your relationship with Merlin Olson fourteen year old remember of the Los Angeles Rams, fearsome fulsome I was wondering, Yeah, I was wondering what type of relationship you might have had with Merlin Olsen.
Merlin was a wonderful person. And yes for your football fans. Indeed, Merlin and Rosie Greer in the Gang the fearsome force in daily rams, and he was the least fearsome person you could possibly meet in person. He was so sweet. I mean, when you say gentle giant, I mean that's the guy. He was big, and Michael liked that because you know, Michael Anna was quite short. He was all the side, very cute, very adorable. Want to pick him up,
put him in your pocket. And he liked the idea of having Charles's friend, this enormous guy who towered over and he said, oh this is this is hilarious, and they went all out with that. Well, Merlin shows up and he's so quiet and so just sensible and sweet. And we kids adored him because we would go we would watch him eat at lunchtime. We get in line and we'd all get a lunch dead wonderful catered food on locations and of course to brun enough to have
enough calories for him to just even like breathe. It's a lot of food. He ate very healthy, had huge salad and then some kind of protein chicken. He ate very healthy. But my god, that was a lot of food, and we kids would line up and we'd follow him to his table and we'd sit down and next to him and watch, and he's like, what are you doing? We just want to see if you're really going to eat all that?
That was your lunchtime entertainment to watch Merlin.
Is Merlin seriously going to eat all that? We would literally sit there and watch him eat lunch because we couldn't believe the exactly and he did very quiet, Lincoln, he was very sweet. We just adored him. And you know, when Michael died, it was Merlin who presided over his whole funeral. Into the eulogy. There was a rabbi, many people spoke, but it was it was Merlin who really ran the show.
It's just incredible, all right, Dennis, I got to let you go.
Yes, So thank you for your car. Thank you, Thank you Alison, great guy, you.
Have tremendous energy. I wish I could go see your One Woman Joe tomorrow if we're playing here.
It was great fun, great fun. We just I just did San Francisco and it was a smash.
Do you ever come to Boston?
I do you know? I was just in Provincetown, Okay, a couple of weeks ago and was a smash there, and I have performed in Boston, and I love Boston. I have friends. Okay, shout out in Boston to Howie Green.
Hi.
Howie Halloween has a company called Howie Green Design. He is an artist and he's done He's done some art for the city of Boston. There's been some murals for the city and miss the ballpark and whatnot. That's all Howie stuff. He's marvelous and he teaches art, and so I often stay with him when I'm in Boston. So we love Boston. I have many, many friends from Boston, and I do try to go there whenever I can.
Alison, thank you very much. Tell Harlan that I'm glad we stuck with this. You were a home run for me and I will have you on again, probably in the fall, I promise.
Thank you. Go get a lobster roll for me.
Oh please. Now you and I are best friends, Alison, get a.
Good lobster roll. Get a good lobster all.
There you go, Allison, I'm grim everybody, Alison, thank you. News is next year. Bus's the night Side Time? Oh good Grief eight fifty nine sixty five degrees