Kirk Douglas Made My Day

Movies starring Kirk Douglas were a memorable part of my youth as I grew up in South Central Los Angeles. My all-time favorite family pastime was when we packed into dad's big Plymouth and went to the drive-in movies. To me, from the time I was learning how to read in school, seeing movies at the drive-in was always a magical experience. And a bargain. Two movies plus a cartoon and coming attractions for a low ticket price. Kids under 12 got in free. Mom and Dad were Kirk Douglas fans. We saw him in Disney's "squid pro quo" adventure, 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA.

If I was too young to understand the maturity the film's action, I was thrilled to see the movie and I could tell if it was important by the way my parents reacted to it. Kirk Douglas movies, at the drive-in and on TV, were entertainment and an education. My parents were the first -- and still the only -- people who said that SPARTACUS had relevance to the Civil Rights movement.

We saw it when the movement was in full action. Spartacus is a slave leading a revolt again oppression and bigotry. He and his followers are treated as equals or as humans. They're treated like animals. In the relationship of Spartacus and his wife, we discover their humanity. With America's history of slavery and the Civil Rights movement, my parents were absolutely correct. We also went to the drive-in to see TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN. I didn't understand that one when I was a kid, but it sure was cool to watch. Mom and Dad talked about SEVEN DAYS IN MAY a lot after we saw it. They found that political thriller fascinating.

Mom coaxed my sister, our little brother and me to watch a Kirk Douglas movie with her when it aired on network TV. The movie was LUST FOR LIFE. That was my introduction to the biography and art of Vincent van Gogh. It sparked enough interest in me to seek out picture books with van Gogh paintings at our neighborhood library.

On TV, I was a thoroughly happy kid watching Kirk Douglas in YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN, DETECTIVE STORY and, especially, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL. Man, how I love that 1952 Vincente Minnelli Hollywood-on-Hollywood film with Douglas as a gifted yet manipulative movie producer.

I was also keen on THE BIG CARNIVAL. Billy Wilder's prescient journalism smackdown aired on local L.A. television a lot. It was a public domain feature that had been retitled. It was a flop with critics and movie audiences when released in 1951. Now remastered, restored and considered a classic, it's available with its original title -- ACE IN THE HOLE. 

In college, I came to appreciate Kubrick's PATHS OF GLORY and Douglas' modern-day western, LONELY ARE THE BRAVE. I was captivated at how Douglas could pull off almost primitive masculine outbursts and also express tender, vulnerable emotions. Look at the jealous. unsympathetic outbursts that ruin his marriage in William Wyler's DETECTIVE STORY. Look at how he plays his relationship with the overly macho Gauguin in Minnelli's LUST FOR LIFE like a gay male marriage that he's desperately trying to hold together. Douglas plays the relationship (opposite brawny Anthony Quinn) as if they're in a romantic domestic partnership.

September 12, 1988 was an extremely special Monday for me. I had my own half-hour weeknight celebrity entertainment talk show on VH1. It was a prime time Monday through Friday show that premiered on September 12th.

My first and only guest for the premiere edition was Kirk Douglas. We'd taped it the previous week. The taping day was wonderful and nerve-wracking. Kirk Douglas showed up early. Two days early at our studios on West 57th Street across from CBS. He was schedule for noon on Thursday. He arrived for noon on Tuesday. We had just done a lighting and sound check on the set and were about to break for lunch, when I got a call from the receptionist in the lobby. She whispered into the phone "Can you hear me? Kirk Douglas is here. Alone. In the lobby." I said, "He's not booked until Thursday." She replied, "You want me to tell Spartacus to go home?"

Of course not. I dashed into the studio. Told our great crew that Spartacus was early and in the lobby. They all postponed lunch and prepared to tape my show with Kirk Douglas. My love and knowledge of his films and co-stars carried me through as we also discussed his book, THE RAGMAN'S SON. When I got to the lobby to greet him, I saw that he was indeed solo. No publicist. No entourage. He had his itinerary and showed it to me. I realized his mistake -- which I never told him was a mistake. He mistook a handwritten "Th" for a "Tu" and, thus, figured he was due Tuesday. He was gracious, charming and complimented that our young crew was aware of his old movies. He had Old Hollywood class and charisma. You could tell he was quite at ease with his Hollywood legend status.

Here's a clip of him on my VH1 show talking about his son, Michael Douglas.

Here's a short reel with another clip of Kirk Douglas from our VH1 interview. He's up after Norman Mailer.

I never forget how lucky I was to work on VH1. Three of the best years of my career. I was never, ever offered another national talk show host opportunity. And I really wanted another talk show host opportunity.  I loved that VH1 job and the crew. I will always cherish my time with Kirk Douglas.

One more thing. Kirk Douglas starred in a 1979 comedy western called THE VILLAIN. Ann-Margret and Arnold Schwarzenegger co-starred. It's not one of Douglas' better efforts. He plays a bank robber and the movie basically is a stretched out version of a Warner Bros. Yosemite Sam cartoon. But, one hour into the story, the film is completely stolen by Paul Lynde on horseback as a Native American Indian Chief called Nervous Elk. I live to hear Nervous Elk, on horseback, say "White woman is crazy."