Comedy legend George Schlatter on pal Judy Garland: ‘Dangerous and fun’
nypost.com“Still Laughing: A Life in Comedy,” recounts his legendary show business career encompassing music, nightclubs — and, most notably, television.“I keep saying this is my first book — and next year I’m going to read another one,” Schlatter joked to The Post in a wide-ranging interview about “Still Laughing,” out July 11 (The Unnamed Press). “They were after me to tell people about my long and illustrious past … so I sat down in the office and I talked into a machine and I talked and talked and flashed back on a lot of memories — some of them more colorful than others.”In “Still Laughing” (“as told to” writer/producer Jon Macks), Schlatter regales readers with stories from his 70-plus-year career in the limelight, including his stint managing Ciro’s nightclub in Hollywood to his years in television, producing five episodes of “The Judy Garland Show” (1963-64 on CBS) and famously creating “Laugh-In,” the hugely popular and groundbreaking quick-hit/groovy/topical sketch-comedy series that aired on NBC from 1968-73 and launched Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin, among others, into stardom. (Tomlin wrote the Foreword and Hawn the Afterword for “Still Laughing.”)Schlatter, 93, who’s been married to actress Jolene Brand for 67 years, reminisced with us about his life and career.When I think back about it, it’s a series of adventures and misadventures, takes and mistakes.
I can’t remember any favorite [period] but whatever it was it was after I married Jolene. Until then I worked at Ciro’s, the Frontier [hotel] in Vegas, and some of that was colorful … but there are moments in my illustrious, suspicious past that are better left not put in a book.
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