owned a barber shop in Beverly Hills, and cut the
hair of all of the famous comedians: Milton Berle,
Harry Ritz of the Ritz Brothers and many more.
Most of them were Jewish with the exception of
one… Amos Jacob. He is better known as Danny
Thomas. Danny had his hair cut by Harry. Harry
kept telling Danny that his son was going to be a
comedy writer and playwright, and wanted him to
look at some of his jokes, even though he was still
in high school. Danny agreed, he liked the jokes and
bought them from Larry Gelbart. I believe when
Larry created Klinger, he made him Lebanese as a
payback to Danny, who bought his first material.
There were many details of your Toledo
background which you shared in common with
How do you feel about being so strongly associated
Klinger. Did the writers base his background on
with the character of Max Klinger?
your life? How much input did you have in the
shaping of Klinger’s story?
I am quite proud of the association. However it does
sometimes play a negativity when I am currently up
Yes. They used many of my real life names and
for a role in a film or TV show. Because of his zany
places, due to a show we did where we ad libbed the
nature it was an indelible character, and it stuck to me
dialogue. It was the black and white episode with
as the actor. The series is still on the air all over the
Clete Roberts. He was supposed to represent the
world and it reminds the producers and directors of
CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow, who went to
that nutty character I played. It adds to a negative
Korea to interview the fighting troops. We did not
typecasting. Fortunately I have managed to fight the
know the questions Clete Roberts was going to ask
image with some success. I have done a great number
us on film, but we had to answer them as our
of live theatre performances with rave critics’ reviews,
character. Since they made Klinger from Toledo I
and have managed to get some interesting roles here
used all of my past resources for references. That is
and there in film and TV. Although they are getting
how the hot dog place (Tony Packo’s) came in to
more infrequent. But I am still in there “pitching” and
mention. The minor league baseball team the
not “bitching”.
Toledo Mud Hens had already been established in
earlier episodes.