Chasing stars, Part 1

Ruth Buzzi, who was then a big star on NBC's "Laugh In," was one of the energetic personalities to show up on "Catch 22" in Spangdahlem. Here she is in our studio with Col. Jack Albrecht, whom I had never seen before and never saw again. He was the Commander, 4th BTN, 6th ARTY at Spangdahlem. The brass all wanted to meet Buzzi, but she was focused on the enlisted men. I think Chuck Minx shot this picture.

Chuck Minx and I chased stars all over our part of Germany to film interviews for "Catch 22." And every celebrity we approached made time to talk to us. I never had it so easy getting well-known people to talk to me in front of a camera as I did when I was representing AFTV-22. They all wanted to connect with the troops.

Sammy Davis Jr. was probably our biggest "get" for the show, although we didn't have any time alone with him. He was starting a European concert tour at the height of his career -- and at a time when he was firmly identified with Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack -- and his people set up a press conference in Frankfurt am Main, about 200 kilometers away from Spangdahlem. Chuck and I loaded the Auricon and some spare film magazines into a motor-pool station wagon. We knew the big boys from the German TV networks would provide the lighting.

I had read Davis's autobiography, "Yes I Can," in preparation. I knew he had been a hit on Broadway, had a lucrative recording and concert career, had starred in major movies, was well-known to TV audiences, and had written a book. "What's left for you to conquer?" I asked. I suppose he'd been expecting the earlier questions, but he hadn't anticipated mine: It made him think and then reminisce a bit for the cameras. He never did get around to answering my question specifically, but he wanted to know who I was and where our film would be used. When we told him, he insisted on filming a special "hello and thanks" to the troops.

My connections as a medic got us a one-on-one filmed interview in our own studios with Ruth Buzzi, who was then starring in "Laugh In," the hot comedy show on NBC (and on AFTV-22). She got guaranteed laughs every week playing Gladys, a little old lady on a park bench, beating comic Arte Johnson with her black felt purse.

She was actually on a private visit to Bitburg, where her brother-in-law was the top NCO at the hospital's dental clinic. He asked me if we'd like to talk to her (yes!), and then he set it up. She couldn't have been more gracious -- and funny. She brought her "Laugh In" purse, with which she beat me about the head and shoulders at one point in the interview. Then she asked if I wanted to know what she kept in the purse.

By this time, I knew she was in change of the interview, not me, and I just went with the flow. Out of the purse she pulled a slice of Wonder bread, all the while telling me about doing commercials in her early days. One that we all remembered involved her and a talking dog at a supermarket check-out register. "Do you want to know how they got the dog to talk?" she asked me. "Well, sure." With that she began to tear off chunks of white bread and stuff them in my mouth -- lodging them firmly between my cheeks and my gums. By this point, even the studio crew was laughing out loud.

"Now get those chunks of bread out of your mouth without using your hands," she told me. Chuck took a tight shot of me as I gave it a valiant effort. Sure enough, when we screened the raw film, my facial contortions as I worked on getting that soggy bread out of my cheeks looked much like those of the talking dog in her check-out line.

Thank you, Master Sergeant Buzzi, for setting that one up for us. It was a funny, funny interview.

Morey Amsterdam was another star who treated the AFTV crew graciously. Amsterdam was a former vaudevillian who was then a regular cast member of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," a hit TV sitcom in the States and on AFTV-22. He was appearing at Hahn Air Base in a USO show, so we asked if we could drive over and interview him. "Of course," one of his staff said. "Why don't you have dinner with him at the NCO Club, do the interview after dinner, and then stay to enjoy the show?"

Well, yeah, that was okay with us.

I expected to find Amsterdam surrounded by "his people" when we got to the Hahn NCO Club -- but he wasn't. It was just the three of us for dinner -- him, Chuck and me. He knew every old joke and schtick in the book and kept us completely entertained. (He didn't even seem to notice when I dribbled spaghetti sauce down the front of my white shirt.)

After dinner, Chuck set up the Auricon and we rolled film for the interview. With his lifetime of experience in comedy, Amsterdam took whatever questions I asked and ran with them, keeping the laughs coming. (He still said nothing about the spaghetti stain.) Chuck and I both knew we had a great interview for "Catch 22."

Within minutes of the end of our interview, Amsterdam was on stage, telling jokes and looking back on funny incidents in his long career. He had the audience eating out of his hand. But then he switched gears and began to talk about how good he felt about entertaining military audiences. He said that he'd just told a crew from AFTV (that would be Chuck and me) about his respect for us all. Then he pointed out Chuck and me to the audience, asked us to stand up, and told the follow-spot operator to light us up.

"Chuck is the young man who shot the film for the interview," he said. "Don is the one who interviewed me." Then he added, helpfully, "Don's the one with the spaghetti stain on his shirt."