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grin About the Caesar's fountain incident...
In Response To: Old Vegas Photo of the Day ()

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From an interview with Shecky Greene, about the famous incident where he drove his car into Caesar's fountain...

Kliph Nesteroff: I didn't ask you about the famous story last time, but I must get you to tell it to in your own words because many accounts of it exist - all from the mouths of other people. But what do you remember about that famous time you crashed your car into the Caesar's Palace fountain - and do you remember anything about the lead-up to that famous moment?

Shecky Greene: Yes. I was completely drunk. I had finished work. I was completely insane. I forget what time it was in the morning. The gave me my car. They always gave me my car when I was drunk because they loved to see what was going to happen.

Kliph Nesteroff: (laughs)

Shecky Greene: I mean that couldn't possibly happen today. You couldn't drive down The Strip like that, but I was driving about one hundred miles an hour. I hit a post. They had just put in breakaway posts the week before. If that other type of post was there I would have been dead. The post broke in two, went across my car, I lost control, swerved across the street, hit two signs and went right into the fountains. And that's a true story. And when the cops came I said, "No spray wax."

Kliph Nesteroff: Right. The famous joke. Was there any fallout or retribution for all of that?

Shecky Greene: Yeah. I had to get a new car. But you want to know something? There really wasn't. In those days we had a different situation in Vegas. Everybody was close. They would just talk to the sheriff's office and that was the end of that. I never even got a ticket. The only thing I felt bad about was, in the back of the car, I had a football signed by the Green Bay Packers who had just won the Super Bowl. Somebody, when they took my car away, stole the football. That's the only thing I felt bad about. But it seems like everything bad I did, turned into a joke. Something I still use in the act.

Kliph Nesteroff: Now was that "No spray wax" joke something you came up with or did Buddy Hackett originally come up with that line?

Shecky Greene: You wanna know something? Buddy Hackett initially told the joke. "My friend Shecky had the accident..." and he told the joke. He called me and told me and I started using it immediately. But that's the kind of humor that Buddy had.

http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/2011/05/interview-with-shecky-greene-part-two.html

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Old Vegas Photo of the Day
grin About the Caesar's fountain incident...

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