By Ray Shasho
This is another “Classic
Rock Meets Classic TV” segment:
... "I’ve
been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king."
Marty Ingels longevity in show business
may be depicted by Dean Kay and Kelly
Gordon’s unfeigned lyrics popularized by the "Chairman of the Board" Frank Sinatra.
The multi-talented Marty Ingels has contributed to
the entertainment world in various manners.
Gumption, perseverance, and a chance encounter with legends Carl Reiner
and Sheldon Leonard, landed the kid from Brooklyn a big break on television. And
it was Marty Ingels recurring and animated performances as Sol Pomeroy, Rob Petrie’s loud-mouth Army buddy
on The Dick Van Dyke Show that sparked a costarring opportunity with John Astin(Gomez
-Addams Family) on the critically-acclaimed sitcom, ‘I’m
Dickens, He’s Fenster.’ Unfortunately the sitcom, created by the legendary
Leonard Stern (“The Honeymooners,” “Sergeant Bilko,” “The Steve Allen Show,” “Get
Smart,” “McMillan and Wife.”) was cancelled after just one season and 32-
episodes.
‘I’m Dickens,
He’s Fenster’ 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition DVD Set of the
1960s TV sitcom is available to purchase for the first time ever. ‘Volume One’
includes three -discs with the first 16- episodes and never-before-seen extras
and collectable bonuses. The show is about two blue-collar carpenter buddies
and their day-to-day antics. Marty Ingels played bachelor Arch Fenster, and
John Astin portrayed Harry Dickens, a married man who sometimes relished
Fenster’s bachelorism. Harry’s wife Kate Dickens was played by Emmaline Henry
(Amanda Bellows of “I Dream of Jeannie.”)
Marty Ingels has appeared in over
100 TV shows and feature films. Some of the classic TV shows he’s appeared on
are, “The Addams Family,” “Bewitched,” “Adam-12,” “Police Story,” “Chips,” “The Love Boat,” “Murder,
She Wrote,” “Baywatch,” “Walker, Texas Ranger,” and “ CSI.” He’s also had a successful career
performing voiceovers on various cartoon series including, “Motormouse and
Autocat,” “The New Tom & Jerry Show,” “The Great Grape Ape Show,” and was
the voice of “Pac-Man.”
Marty’s latest projects include,
“Laid Off” and “A Strange Brand of Happy.”
Ingels married Academy Award
winning actress and singer Shirley Jones in 1977. Jones appeared in classic
musicals such as, “Oklahoma!” “Carousel” and “The Music Man.” She also became
commonplace on television as Shirley Partridge, the widowed-mom of five
children who then became a successful pop group.
Jones and Ingels wrote an autobiography
based on their oddball relationship called, Shirley & Marty: “An Unlikely
Love Story.”
Here’s my interview with comedian/
actor/ cartoon character/ voiceover artist/ theatrical agent/ Marty Ingels.
Ray
Shasho:
Marty, you’re one of those characters that I’ve always remembered from
childhood and being from Brooklyn, you truly remind me of one of my Uncle’s
from Bensonhurst.
Marty
Ingels:
“Then
go to your room!”
Ray
Shasho:
(Laughing!) How did you first get into show business?
Marty
Ingels:
“My
first few months in Hollywood, no sign of work. But I had a sweet old agent who
just loved me ... and was increasingly more embarrassed with the zero prospects
he came up with. One day (as he tells it) he called a friend of his, who was
then producing a daily show dramatizing recorded criminal trials. He said,
“Randy, you gotta’ get me a gig for Marty … anything!” Randy said, Just happens
our show next week is about a murder that happens in a traveling circus troupe …
and there’s a part for a clown.” My agent said, “Say no more …when do you want
to see Marty?”
The next day… I had my circus clown reading. Nobody
told me that the part for the clown had been written for a Midget. Anyway, the
audition room was packed with little people when I got there … and I stammered
and stuttered when they asked me what part I was reading for. Well… I got the
part and those nice little people were dumfounded by a peculiar statistic… once
every six years, a good role comes up for a dwarf, and a 6 foot 1 inch Bozo
gets it.” (Laughing)
Ray
Shasho:
What was your big break in television?
Marty Ingels: “Guesting on the Dick
Van Dyke Show as his loud-mouth Army buddy.
It was my first TV shot in LA. My other break came after crawling into Jerry
Lewis' office at Paramount. I was aggressive!”
Ray Shasho: One of my favorite Dick Van Dyke episodes was 'Sol and the Sponsor.' How
did you get that role on the Dick Van Dyke Show?
Marty
Ingels: “1961-ish it's about
2:30 a.m., and I'm sitting with a weary date in the all-night Pancake House.
I'm in my mid-20s and mostly jobless. Then I look up and see two couples entering the restaurant and being seated. The two couples are Carl Reiner, Sheldon Leonard and their wives. It's a
miracle mirage… I can't believe it. I say to my date, “Do you know who those
men are?” She says, “Who?” And I said,
"Only Hollywood’s entire sitcom industry in one place.”
“I asked my date if she's got four dollars that she can lend me (I've got six dollars in my pocket). So, she gives the
four dollars to me and I race to the
kitchen and ask who handles their table. I tell the waitress, “Look… I'll give
you ten dollars if you let me serve the dessert.” I
could say… “the rest is history” but not quite yet.”
“The dessert came
and I jumped in and raced over there with the pie and the Shortcake … then I turned it on … Gleason, Berle, Skelton… I did it all. The
wives loved me, Carl and Sheldon crunched up their mouths’ and squinted their eyes.... they
knew exactly what was happening, but it was Carl who saved everybody's day. He
whipped out a business
card and said, “I'll give you this if you please get us our real waitress.”
“And it still wasn’t the rest
is history yet because God still had his
move to make. The next day… when I called Reiner and made an appointment to see him, he could’ve vanished without a sound, but he didn’t. He made the
appointment and when I got there, he was quick to
tell me that they were introducing a new character the next
week and they hadn't cast yet. It was for an old New York Jewish Army Buddy of
Dick’s called Sol Pomeroy …and now the rest of that is history! When I watch it
now… this pushy kid fresh from Brooklyn High School, balancing all that comic
traffic and doing it so beautifully …my
therapist would say… "It's about time you broke down and gave yourself
some credit … I was good! Now I gotta’ take
a Prozac.”
Ray Shasho: What was it like to work on the set with those
hilarious characters, and under the great Carl Reiner?
Marty Ingels: “They’re all
heroes of mine. Carl has an over-the-top presence. His genius for comedy of
simple life was the magic ... and still is.”
Ray Shasho: Do you still keep tabs with anyone from the Dick Van Dyke
Show?
Marty Ingels: “Dick’s a close friend …
Carl too.”
Ray Shasho: (Laughing)
‘I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster’ lasted one season / 32 episodes. When the show came out you had some pretty stiff
competition, but
I'm still surprised it was cancelled after only one season, especially being
created by the legendary Leonard Stern. And I wasn't aware that the show launched
the careers of so many great actors. (Harvey Korman,
Lee Meriwether, Yvonne Craig, Jim Nabors, and Ellen
Burstyn to name just a few)
Marty Ingels: “The
show was an instant smash with the critics. They said it was a refreshing
throw-back to the slapstick comedy era, even Stan Laurel was a fan. The show
got cancelled by mistake before the ratings came out showing us beating our
competition.”
Ray Shasho: Of course… your costar on that hilarious sitcom was John
Astin. (He also played Gomez on ‘The Addams Family’) Do you still keep in contact with John?
Marty
Ingels: “I’ve tried … John’s a college professor now. He’s
a nice guy, but I always overwhelmed
him.”
Ray
Shasho: You did a lot of voiceovers throughout your
career, what was your favorite role?
Marty Ingels: “The voice of
Pac-Man, which everybody thought would take over the world, but it didn’t …the
Smurfs buried us. Voiceovers saved my carcass.”
Ray Shasho: Is
there anything else you’d like to add Marty?
Marty Ingels: “Shirley and I
administer Southern California’s only 911 Memorial Park, across
Big Bear Lake in a little town called Fawnskin. It has a genuine piece of the
Twin Towers in the center of the park in tribute to the thousands of sainted
souls that left us. The
park can only survive on outside donations. Go see it!”
Ray Shasho: Thank
you so much for spending time with me today …Uncle Marty. (Laughing)
Marty Ingels: “You can come out of your room now.”
‘I’m Dickens, He’s
Fenster’ 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition DVD Set of 1960s TV
sitcom is available to purchase at Amazon.com.
‘I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster’ official website www.imdickenshesfenster.com
Marty Ingels IMDb www.imdb.com/name/nm0408733/
Marty Ingels TV.com www.tv.com/people/marty-ingels/
Shirley Jones official website www.shirleyjones.com
Special
thanks to the great Billy
James of Glass Onyon PR for this interview.
Official
website http://glassonyonpublicity.wordpress.com/
Contact columnist/author Ray
Shasho at rockraymond.shasho@gmail.com
Download Ray’s exciting new memoir called “Check the Gs” The True
Story of an Eclectic American Family and Their Wacky Family Business on Kindle
and Nook for just .99 cents!
Ray, raised by a Cuban Catholic mother and a Syrian
Jewish father was 100% street smart. What impressed me most was when
Ray was older, so did his style of writing change into a more mature written
voice. For example, his early years, the first third of Check
the Gs, had observations as seen through a kid’s perspective. I
actually felt a kid was narrating the story in first person! Yet as
Ray matured, his storytelling had more to do with his meeting all sorts of
people, falling in love, but still selling gadgets, and making a PR (profit). ~~Pacific Book Review
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