Episode #255: Donavan Freberg (Stan Freberg)

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Nikki Nash, daughter of musician, trombonist Dick Nash. Now, you may not know the face or the name, Dick Nash but you certainly know his work with Henry Mancini, or should we say Hank Mancini with some of his best known work. Before the Wrecking Crew, Dick and a small group of side-men WERE the Wrecking Crew, playing on hundreds of studio dates for film, TV and major label albums in the 50s and 60s. But as we learn, Dick Nash didn’t take every date offered for a very specific reason. Our conversation with Nikki centered around her new book, Collateral Stardust: Chasing Warren Beatty and Other Foolish Things, an autobiography about her life in and around show business that is one hell of a read. Some of the things we talk about in our conversation with Nikki include notable run-ins with everyone from the aforementioned Warren Beatty, as well as Dennis Miller, Louise Lasser, Don Cornelius, Robert Hays, the Black Panthers, Robert Altman and many others. We also discuss long-lost LA restaurants like The Old World and The Luau, the best toast, the job of an A.D. behind the camera, addiction, painting, depression, growing up in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and much more. Nikki was open, honest, funny, matter-of-fact, attentive and gave us all we could handle in discussing her life and her book. And like her book, our interview was breezy and also had a lot of depth below the surface. But don’t take my word for it, take a listen to this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast and see for yourself. Everyone has a story.    

Today on another encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are speaking to Donavan Freberg, son of the genius humorist, comedian, advertising executive and writer Stan Freberg. Donavan was a guest we had tried to get on the podcast for quite some time and thankfully he finally agreed to be in the hot seat and we can’t thank him enough. Our conversation with Donavan was frank and not always easy but at other times wonderful and whimsical. You’ll see what we mean after you take a listen. Our chat with Donavan often started with the almost Wonka-like existence of growing up with a dad who had a fondness for Christmas, often took his son out on adventures late at night and sometimes not requiring him to go to school was part of his daily existence. It was more like a movie or an adventure that most of us ever get to experience in our own childhood When you mom breaks you out of school, you know you are living in rarified heir. We get into that hilarious story and a lot more on this episode. We learn from Donavan that his father was a genius ad man who created some of the funniest, most memorable commercials of the 60s and 70s which garnered him 21 Clio awards, the ad biz’s equivalent of the Academy Awards for commercials. We also talk about our Frank Sinatra connection that likely brought us to this interview in some ways. We also learn from Donavan that a very, very rough change took place in his father’s life after his mother passed away which is both heartbreaking and remarkable at the same time. Heartbreaking for the loss Donavan felt with his father and remarkable that he still has such affinity for his dad. This episode is all about duality. Take a listen. Everyone has a story.  

Today on another bonus episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to a lost, family friend. Our guest today is actress and voice over actress extraordinaire, Pamela Dillman. How we connected to Pamela actually thanks to one of you, our listeners, Barbara Bassett, who alerted us to an interview with Pamela on another site and mentioned she was friends with Mia Kovacs, sister to host Josh Mills. What? Yes really. So we reached out and lo and behold, Pamela could not have been nicer, more kind, more loving in her effusive answer to, did she want to be a guest on our podcast. An emphatic yes! Pamela spoke to us about growing up the daughter of actor Bradford Dillman and the step daughter of one of the world’s most famous models, Suzy Parker. Our conversation with Pamela involved everything from growing up with Mia and attending the very proper John Thomas Dye school in Los Angeles, to remembering going to Las Vegas and being in the wings when Mia’s & Josh’s mother Edie Adams was performing her cabaret act at Caesar’s Palace on the strip and much more in between.. We also discuss Pam’s working actor dad (her words, not ours) who is known for roles in everything from Escape From Planet of the Apes, The Enforcer, his breakout role in the film Compulsion and much, much more. And of course, how could we forget about Suzy Parker, a woman so famous, none other than The Beatles wrote a song about her? We seemingly split our time talking as if we were in group therapy or the grousing about the ridiculousness of Hollywood acting auditions, how her dad became a scout for the San Francisco 49ers football team as well as a truly harrowing story involving her sibling that you won’t soon forget. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast. Get ready for an emotional one.

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast, we have a first! Our guest today is a sibling of a prior guest from just a few weeks back. Our guest today is Karen Crane, the sister of Robert Crane and the daughter of Hogan’s Heroes star actor Bob Crane. While you may have thought we hit all the high notes on being the child of Bob Crane in our prior episode, well, guess again. Karen has her own, very unique story to tell. Born a decade after brother Robert, Karen spoke to us about her story from her own perspective including the details of her parents’ divorce, her father’s ‘wandering eye’ as she puts it, as well as his obsession with photography and cameras that ultimately led to his murder in 1978 when she was just 17 years old. We also spoke to Karen about what it was like dealing with her father’s second family and the difficulties that entailed both while he was living and well after his death. What’s more, Karen spoke to us about a book she is writing on her own life. She’s one chapter away from finishing her autobiography, some ten years in the making. What once was a nice story about family life and the best things about being Bob Crane’s daughter has gone to a much darker place. What started out as one thing became entirely something else once she started to examine her own emotions and the events surrounding her father’s murder. Along the way we did manage to squeak in some light moments including what kind of car her dad drove, his favorite ice cream and the one thing that she and her father did together that made her feel closest to him. We also learned quite a bit about things in her life that were difficult fifty years ago and are still difficult to this day. Karen held very little back in this episode and we appreciated her honesty and trust in sharing some truly difficult moments so we could share them with all of you. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and everyone has a story. However, none are like this one you are about to hear. Take a listen.    

Today on another episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Phil Crosby Jr., son of actor/singer Phil Crosby and grandson of Der Bingle himself, Bing Crosby. And if that isn’t enough, he’s the nephew of Gary Crosby, the stepson of Jack Klugman, the grandson of 1920’s and 30s film star Dixie Lee and we haven’t even told you all of his familial connections. Gee, ya think he was born into this? Phil spoke to us about his family but also his career as an in demand singer of jazz and songs from the Great American Songbook. As you will soon hear, we learn how he went from a blues, prog band 11:11 playing at spots like the much beloved The Palamino Club to in Los Angeles to a jazz club in Borneo, We get into it. Not one to pull punches, Phil also spoke to us about the troubled family history that has made the rounds over the years. He’s quite open about it in fact and is fine talking about some of the claims his uncle Gary Crosby made in his tell-all book years ago. We also hear the flip side of that as he later found peace at the end of his life when he got sober. Along the way we hear about how his mother, actress Peggy Crosby Klugman, dated Dean Martin, how a trip to McDonald’s turned Dino’s car into a sardine can, how he and his father were estranged for much of his life until the birth of his first child, why he never met Bing, the two Christmas songs he’s currently working on with another guest of the podcast and much more. This is the Rarified heir Podcast and everyone has a story. Take a listen.

Today on part two the Rarified Heir Podcast, we continue our conversation with Sharyn Felder, daughter of the late, great songwriter Doc Pomus and trust us, this episode is as jam packed and fun-filled as part one from last week. Last week we spoke to Sharyn on the release day of a new box set of her father’s music, You Can’t Hip a Square: The Doc Pomus Songwriting Demos on Omnivore Recordings, a six-CD set of lost, archival tracks. We continue that conversation today and learn that there just may be more tracks in her father’s archive that have never been released co-written by a very famous musician from New Orleans. We also hear more about her father’s second career as a card player when the royalty money dried up in the 1970s and the characters who inhabited that word – the mobsters, the octogenarians, the hypochondriacs, the gun-toting security and more. We also learned why the games stopped (take a guess) and how Doc began the second phase of his songwriting career, years after his career started. Sharyn’s colorful stories on this episode include two very popular music business folks who absolutely hated each other, Doc Pomus’ connection to a massive film in the 1970s that launched a comedy duo and became part of pop culture icons, how a bathhouse singer gained massive fame via Doc’s help but never acknowledged it publicly and much more. Part two is every bit as good as part one as you will hear right now on this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast. Everyone has a story.  

Today on part one the Rarified Heir Podcast, we speak to Sharyn Felder, daughter of one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century, Doc Pomus. While you may not know the name Doc Pomus, you absolutely know his songs. Everyone from Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, Leonard Cohen, Dr. John, B.B. King have all recorded Doc Pomus songs…the list goes on and on. And we’ll get to those songs he wrote shortly. On the day we spoke to Sharyn, it was release day of a new box set of her father’s music, You Can’t Hip a Square: The Doc Pomus Songwriting Demos on Omnivore Recordings, a six-CD set of lost, archival tracks that are a fascinating look into Doc’s music and his voice. We also get to hear the back story of how the music survived, the family archive  as well as some famous people who also sang on the demos as well as the famous names whose sides didn’t survive. Along the way we discuss more famous and infamous characters who were part of Doc’s inner circle and those who sought out his help when the ships were down. And let us tell you, it’s one hell of a list. Like who?  Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm when they were in Ronnie Hawkins band, Bob Dylan at a creative low point , Dr. John when he was struggling to quit heroin, Phil Spector, Bobby Darin, Otis Blackwell and many more. Somehow we concluded part one with a tale about the Runyon-esque existence her father lived to the fullest and the literal death of a clown. It’s funny/not funny. Take a listen to this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast.

Today on another encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast we are talking to returning (or is it returning, returning, oh well, whatever, never mind), guest Eric Bonerz, son of actor/director Peter Bonerz. We had such a good time talking to Eric in our first conversation, we brought him back to discuss more of the wild and the wacky things we connected on the first time around. Of course, like many of our guests, we discussed the weird and wonderful connection we have to the Oakwood School like so many of our past guests. Be it Peter Rafelson, Carnie Wilson, Jason Everly or many others nothing bonds us closer than Gorilla Glue like Oakwood. But this time around we delve deep into more on his dinner with cartoonist Chuck Jones as a small kid, what it was like mixing a track with Trent Reznor at the infamous house where Sharon Tate was murdered (really),  befriending director Harmony Korine while running the X-Large store in New York for The Beastie Boys, and drumming for Free Kitten from then Sonic Youth’s co-hort Kim Gordon & much much more. This is the Rarified Heir podcast and everyone has a story.      

Today on another encore episode of Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Noopy Rodriguez, daughter of comedian, actor and singer Rose Marie & musician Bobby Guy. Noopy (not her real name as we find out on this episode), let’s us in on the lives of her larger than life parents. When your father is the first trumpet player with The Tonight Show band and your mother is a comedy icon for her role as Sally onThe Dick Van Dyke Show, there is a whole lot to dig into. Noopy was incredible generous with her time and her stories as many veered from nostalgic to downright difficult in talking about her father. But somehow through it all, we learned quite a bit about her parents and what it’s like keeping a legacy alive as we dig into her efforts to bring us the CD Rose Marie Sings: The Complete Mercury Recordings & More which was from found recordings in her mother’s possession for years. Along the way, we hear about her time on The Tomorrow Show with Ton Snyder, haunted cars, Rosalind Russell, Phil Silvers, Morey Amsterdam, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and a guy named Popcorn who you have never heard of, unless of course you were connected….if you know what I mean. We get into Broadway, film, television recording, what it was like being raised by a single mother and much more. It’s incredibly familiar territory for host Josh Mills who connected with much of what was discussed. Take a listen to this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast. Everyone has a story.

Today on another episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Robert Crane, son of actor Bob Crane. Sadly, more has been spoken about the unsolved murder and the details surrounding the life of Bob Crane, the star of the hit 1960s television show Hogan’s Heroes than about his actual career. Be it autobiographical movies like Auto Focus starring Greg Kinnear or books like My Unhollywood Family and Crane: Sex, Celebrity and My Father’s Unsolved Murder both written by his son,  our guest, the mystery surrounding Bob Crane’s death somehow has eclipsed all else. Today, we spoke to Robert about not only the devastation of losing his father in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1978 but also spending time with at KNX radio where his dad’s massively popular radio show in the 1960s made him one of the most popular DJs in the country.  We discuss what Bob was like as a father  (both the good and the bad), the fractured family dynamic of Bob’s first marriage and the fractured relationship with Bob’s second family. We also change gears and discuss Robert’s connection to SCTV via a book with Dave Thomas and his professional relationship as John Candy’s publicist and assistant for more than half a decade. So yes, on this upcoming episode, we dig into the hard stuff as well as the personal stuff which made Bob Crane a fun loving dad as well as the tough stuff which never quite leaves you, even close to 50 years later. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and this is one interview, you wont forget. Take a listen.