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fal l
The husband is in on the joke. The audience is in on it. The wife,
however, is not.
“In those days,” Milt reminds us, “we didn’t have the ability to do a full
remote; we could only go as far as the cable would stretch and that could be
about a block away; once you ran out of cable, that was it. So, we arranged
this bit outside a nearby restaurant.
“We had a cement mixer parked on the street and behind that was a late
model convertible with the top down; then there was a guy up on a crane
‘fixing a sign’ on the Palladium parking lot.
“Bob Barker, speaking to the audience, would say, ‘The lady in the car
has no idea what is going to happen. Do you see that cement truck? See the
guy on that crane? See that convertible? Her husband, on our cue, is going to
look for a parking space on that block. There won’t be one because we made
sure there would be no parking spaces on that block. There is a small space
behind the cement truck and the convertible where a small car is already
parked. When the husband comes around the block, the man in the small
car is going to pull out and the husband will say to his wife, ‘Oh, I can park
there.’
“Now, the little car pulls out and he begins to pull in, but his car is
bigger than the car that just pulled out. So, it is obvious that he can’t park in
that parking space.
“‘So, what’s going to happen,’ Bob tells the audience, ‘is that he is going
to try to fit into that parking space by moving that convertible a little.
“’So, let’s see what happens.’
“Now he’s coming around the corner and you see the little car move out.
So, he pulls in and nudges the convertible. The convertible pushes into
the cement mixer and the cement mixer’s arm drops down and starts
pouring cement into the convertible. In the meantime, the wife gets
out of the car and the guy up on the signpost comes down and says,
‘What have you done? he says. ’I had my lunch in there!’
“The wife joined in the fray, swatting Jerry with her purse until
Bob Barker interrupts over a loud speaker.”
“That whole concept,” Arlene says, “created another show, called
Candid Camera
.
“The reunions are what prompted Ralph Edwards to create
This Is
Your Life
,” adds Milt.
“I had some of the most fun experiences of my life with that
show. Every day,” he says, “I couldn’t wait to go to work.”
Then he breaks out into a familiar toothy smile that positively
bespeaks of the wonderful life he has lived, and he, Arlene, and I turn
our chairs towards the sea to capture the last rays of the sun as it sets in
the west.
Conversations
Milt Larsen and sidekick Bobby Lauher were bit players in many of the “Truth Or
Consequences” skits. “Writing the show was a daily challenge and a daily joy,” says Milt.
Milt enjoys the installation of his and his brother
Bill’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame