Angie Dickinson Stops "This is Your Life" on Live TV

Good for her. lol

That escalated quickly...

Mo Rocca interviewed her about it recently.

The video s blocked in my country - what did she say

She handled it VERY well. She did not blow a fit, she was firm in her refusal and was very pleasant to Sajack and Edwards, who were quite funny talking to the studio audience after Dickinson left.

She's a classy broad.

I always liked her and now I think I love her. And she did keep it down to an agreeable slow boil and I think the reasons she gave later in the MR interview are and were and continue to be perfectly valid.

Oh wow, how did this clip manage to see the light of day? I thought this was deeply locked up or destroyed.

LOVE HER

R3 at 2:13 -- "Well, it's a stupid show!"

I so love Miss Angie Dickinson.

Are there no Pat Sajak-hosted episodes of this show available on YouTube?

‘Rona, you had better stay the fuck away from Miss Angie Dickinson!

I"ve never been an Angie Dickinson fan -Until now. Good for her for sticking with her principles! I totally agree with her about the show's format -Her idea would be much more interesting!

No wonder Blanche Devereaux claimed to be her.

Where has this footage been? I've heard about this for years, never knew this footage existed. I'm guessing Angie was fearful of any JFK relationship mentioning. She once agreed to write her autobiography, but eventually decided against it and returned the advance. I heard her once say in an interview that she had been keeping a diary, but burned it when she and Bacharach hired live-in help after their daughter was born.

They were going to ask her if it was true JFK liked to make his girls do ass-to-mouth.

They got here there on the pretext that she would be in conversation with Brian DePalma. I loved the moment where she said ...

"Is Brian DePalma coming?"

"Uh... well... I don't know...."

"IS. BRIAN DEPALMA. COMING?"

"Uh, I can answer that. No, he's not."

And when she learns Brian DePalma won't be there, she's like, "Aight, THAT'S IT, I'm out!"

I wonder what she thought of Marilyn.

I wonder what Marilyn thought of her.

I think I can guess.

Angie looked so fabulous and chic during this period. You have to respect her for not caving in.

I loved that she admitted in the later interview that she hadn't combed her hair properly.

[quote]Angie looked so fabulous and chic during this period. You have to respect her for not caving in.

Agreed. And her interactions with the crew beforehand show her to be polite, professional, sensible and brisk. She also doesn't make a fuss when she finds out DePalma is running 10 minutes late (supposedly), and even suggests to the makeup guy that he wait so he doesn't have to touch her up again in 10 minutes.

I like that even from the beginning she states her boundaries. Like r21 said - polite, professional, sensible and brisk. She gets to the point. Her face though when she hears "This is Your Life" basically is HELL NO.

I have a feeling this will be a huge viral hit this week.

She's cool. This is Your Life was cornball shit.

I like Angie Dickinson but when you are broadsided as she was why would she let it go on for 10 minutes. Say good night and walk off. Why suffer fools at that point?

[R23] I remember seeing a satire of the show on Sesame Street (I was a kid) where a loaf of bread was on This Is Your Life and the loaf next to her came back as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

That seemed about right.

I've always loved her (maybe partly because my mother looks a lot like her) and now I love her more.

DL, who remembers the movie where she was a midwife in Italy, zipping around the countryside on a Vespa?

[R24] She had to disengage slowly - storming off would have been seen as a bitch move (although justified, in my opinion). This was a live show. She had good friends standing right behind her. I think she handled it well.

It wasn't a live show; it was live to tape, scheduled to air two weeks later on NBC.

The Associated Press covered the incident at the time.

This was subterfuge.

I can relate a little. My ex threw a surprise birthday party for me with an assorted mishmash of people from my past. I was horrified and so angry at him.

Cute memory, R25, Love Guy Smiley.

Wow - [R31] - thanks for that!

Really cute spoof, and had Henson's touch of making the thing spoofed obviously ridiculous without being mean-spirited at all.

I remember Bette Davis was furious when she got cornered into doing This Is Your Life. She didn't want to do the show either. Why did people hate it so much? Was it that bad?

It’s an ambush, R33.

I think it was corny and I can see where people with strong personalities and possibly checkered, or at least unhappy pasts would not appreciate being submitted, without their knowledge, to a program of schmaltz where simpering acquaintances told them how great they were.

Fuck, imagine Lauren Bacall or Ava Gardner or Barbara Stanwyck on this thing. They would have ripped poor Pat a new asshole. He was lucky with Angie.

I was a kid at the opening of the Kennedy Library in MA; I asked her for autograph and she gave it to me. I had it for years.

She was a doll. I loved her and I love her even more now.

You can tell Pat was trying to shift the blame away from him when he mentioned her agent and manager.

I doubt Bette Davis was furious since at the time she was doing crap like Bunny O'Hare and Madam Sin.

At around 7:47 she gives her opinion on the #MeToo movement.

Let's just say she's not exactly a fan of it.

Oh wow, those recent interview clips ... she's still an (elderly) beauty. No Madonna/Faye Dunaway post-match-boxer look for her.

Re R39:

Angie was likely propositioned by producers in Hollywood, but she clearly didn't allow herself to be mistreated.

She worked hard and did "everything right," and still ended up with a failed marriage and a disabled child who suicided.

But she's at peace and not bitter. I'll have whatever she's having. I wish she'd write that book.

Wow, truly a "classy broad" her whole life. I once heard a rumor that someone asked her what sex was like with JFK and she responded, "It was the best 2 minutes of my life". It obviously wasn't true, but sure sounds like something she would say. She has a great attitude about life, sex and Hollywood with no bitterness or remorse. Always liked her, now even more :)

This thread led me to a 1993 British version of the show where David Cassidy was the subject. And, lo and behold, DL favorite Susan Dey makes an appearance at the 18:59 mark. I remember there be some chatter here that she was silent at his passing, but I don't recall if there was also talk of bad blood between them.

Good for her.

But someone should have told her they weren't going to ask, "So, did you really fuck the president in a plane?"

I fucking worship this broad. Wouldn’t it be great to have a boozy dinner with her?

She stated her bounderies.

For some reason all these years I had thought she was the one being eaten out by Jack Nicholson in "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and not Jessica Lange.

[quote]But someone should have told her they weren't going to ask, "So, did you really fuck the president in a plane?"

Oh yes we were.

This was "The NEW This is Your Life," motherfuckers!

[quote] even suggests to the makeup guy that he wait so he doesn't have to touch her up again in 10 minutes.

Actually, she said to him, "It will just come up again" and she motioned to her mouth, Not sure what she meant.

[quote] "It will just come up again" and she motioned to her mouth

Isn't that what she said to JFK?

[quote] Actually, she said to him, "It will just come up again"

She says it at the 1:35 mark. Odd.

She said to get a freakin' VPN, r4

Note the large JFK photo in the background at 8:06 and then again at about 8:16 of the Sunday Morning interview video. Angie must still be a fan after all this time.

Lets think of celebs who would love to get this kind of attention and adulation. Angie didn't need or want it.

Lisa Rinna Kim Kardashian Patti LaBelle Joan Collins Suzanne Somers

Ralph Edwards, New York Times, 1987 . . .

Not all of those experiences were pleasurable. 'Lowell Thomas gave me my worst evening,' Mr. Edwards recalled. 'He was master of ceremonies at an event at the old Astor Hotel ballroom in New York. After it had started, I walked in with an NBC camera, a 'This Is Your Life' book under my arm, and went up to him and said, 'Tonight, Lowell Thomas, this is your life!' He said, 'This is a sinister conspiracy.' The show went downhill from there. As I took him up toward the stage, I said to him, 'You're going to enjoy this.' He said, 'I doubt it very much.' And he didn't.'

Mr. Edwards said that in all the years the show was on the air, he knew of only one guest who was tipped off in advance. 'Gloria Swanson found out about it and called me the night before she was supposed to be on,' Mr. Edwards said. 'Her sister had inadvertently told her that she was arriving in Los Angeles. So I said to Gloria, 'All right, will you come to the show anyhow and expose that to the audience? We'll see how it works.' The rating was only so-so for that show.'

Helen Lawson stopped it too, using more coloful language, when they told her they would bring up the wig fight.

Wow Pat Sajak looked different.

One hell of a broad.

R20, She once said in an interview that she does not brush ALL her teeth every day, just certain days.

R58, Why does she continue to publicly deny that she and JFK fucked when everyone knows it's true?

That would be like Milton Berle denying he had a big cock.

R58, Legend has it that JFK sent an exhausted Jackie home to the White House the night of the Inaugural Ball while he rendezvoused with Angie.

Wouldn't you be embarrassed to have been fucked by JFK? He was infamously awful in the sack, and probably suffered the Irish curse as well as STDs. What at first seemed thrilling ("the president wants ME!") would soon lose its luster and be something you didn't want to talk about.

Sajack is actually very smooth on-air talent. But also harsh right-wing conservative. So I'm glad he got a taste of Angie's fuck-you-clout.

I loved it. Now there's a woman who knows her own mind. It was a stupid/shit show and I don't blame her a bit for not wanting to participate in it. There's probably a ton of others that felt the same way but never had the heart (balls?) to just refuse.

I have heard that she was one of those women that straight guys just went crazy for. Beautiful and sexy yet completely approachable and easy to talk to.

R62 In my dreams.

I’m still shipping Pepper/Bill ❤️

Yes, I know Earl is gay but they had nice chemistry on the show.

As a Millennial who likes old TV I felt like a dummy for not knowing about This Is Your Life. It seems predatory as hell, but the prototype of all reality TV to come. She was right to walk out. Here's an episode of This is Your Life where an atomic bomb survivor, there under the pretense to take other survivors to the USA for plastic surgery comes face to face with a guy who helped drop the bomb... WTF?!

What do you think about the dynamic between Doris Day and Angie in this video? Doris is clearly the alpha and comes across as slightly dominating to poor Angie. I like how she corrects Angie's inappropriate order. Angie clearly doesn't like not being in control of a situation and being put on the spot.

I Have the "Dressed To Kill" DVD signed by her. She cool to meet and like said above, a natural beautiful older woman.

Angie worked with John Wayne and Frank Sinatra. She had a great reputation with the boys for always keeping her mouth shut. Wow. The men she must have known (and I mean in the biblical sense)! It made no sense how she wound up with Bacharach unless he was her 'beard' while she diddled real men.

I’ve always liked Angie, and loved her in Dressed To Kill. I respect her now more than ever.

Wow, OP, how did you find this??? I thought that was just legend.

She stated her boundaries, didn’t she?

R70, was Burt Bacharach gay?

wow, r68, Doris got her to change her drink order! Why the hell do they have to order the same damn thing?!?

poor Angie seems like she's been court ordered to do so

She had every right to stop the taping. I would have too.

The whole idea you would ambush someone and force them to watch a retrospective of their life was pretty ridiculous.

They did a hilarious parody of it in the 50s on "Sid Caesar's Hour" called "Surprise Wedding" with Caesar, Audrey Meadows, and Jose Ferrar.

When I was a young gayling I was friends with the founder of a major recording studio in the 60's. She was friends with Angie when she was married to Burt Bacharach who was under contract to the studio. She knew them both well. She told me Angie was a "saint " Bacharach was a "sumofabitch" She said Angie was a great mother taking care of their retarded daughter. The marriage broke up when Angie caught Burt " schtuping "their retarded daughter. She added Burt also had a thing for underage black girls. Like around 12 yo. She said he was a real putz. That's what she told me.

In 1953, they tricked Dinah Shore into thinking she was there to ambush Eddie Cantor, but the victim was her and she seemed angry at being fooled.

Wow, r78. This really casts a pall over Burt’s image for me.

And their daughter Nicki had Asperger Syndrome. She ended up killing herself a couple of years ago.

I don't believe the incest story. Angie contributed to Bacharach's autobiography - various sections are recollections from others, including Carole Bayer Sager. Bacharach doesn't come off great but I don't believe Angie would agree to be interviewed if he'd fucked their daughter.

I saw Burt on one of the holiday skating shows. They were rehearsing the songs that Boitano and friends would be skating to. He was with one of the Isley Brothers and he was in the studio with the Isley who has the really bushy eyebrows. While he was singing, Bacharach kissed him on the shoulder several times... I thought that it was odd. I know that folks in the entertainment industry are touchy feely an all, but the way that he kissed him was too intimate for television, let alone a cheesefest skating show.

Just for the record, Burt Bacharach was a major pussyhound in his prime.

R78, Burt did fuck the daughter, but non-sexually. He had her hospitalized against her will and she resented it to the point of not speaking to him after she gained release.

DL fave Timi Yuro said Burt Bacharach came to her opening - the Copa, perhaps - and afterwards said the only thing that could make the evening better would be to top it off with a fuck. He also offered her "What the World Needs Now" but that's another story that ended with Timi telling him to go fuck himself.

Looks like she scared Mo Rocca too - I've never seen him drop his twit act like that. Love it!

I've always heard she's a much smarter person than you would think given her screen image.

Fun fact: she's close friends with Betty White. When White was developing "The Betty White Show," about an aging TV actress, White wanted to make the protagonist the star of a scifi show, since she was a huge fan of them in real life. (She loved Star Trek and Space: 1999.) The network told her that would be prohibitively expensive, so instead she had her character be the star of a TV show called "Undercover Woman" as a tribute to her friend Angie's "Police Woman." (Unfortunately, "The Betty White Show" was not very good, and folded after airing just a few episodes.)

I can't stand Mo Rocca and have since college. We had many friends in common (and I should say, they are very loyal to him and adore him), but he was always "on" and putting on his act.

The Betty White Show had potential...her one liners were funny and I loved the fact that her character had a stunt MAN who always wore the same costumes as Betty. And she and Karen Kaye would go back and forth with that bitchy repartee. I was disappointed that they cancelled the show.

R88, Are the rumors true that Mo is very well hung?

I saw Burt Bacharach forcibly knock a glazed doughnut from Karen Carpenter's hand at a movie premiere. Called her a fat cow and didn't need the damn thing.

I never liked her, in part for the superficial reason that to my eye she had a very hard look. But, as others have said, this changes my mind completely. I respect her for not appearing on This Is Your Life, and her explanation in the Mo Rocca interview makes perfect sense but also it rings true, without any hint of embellishment or selective memory to support an agenda. In the Rocca interview she has charm and wit and quiet confidence and perspective, and no hint of a made up character playing herself, and she even looks great (87 at the time of the 2919 interview.)

Thanks for a post that changed my opinion.

[quote] [R88], Are the rumors true that Mo is very well hung?

Not having slept with him (I found him annoying), I cannot say.

For a very awkward, 1950s approach to mental illness, take note of the original franchise's "honoring" of Frances Farmer.

I'm an older Millennial and have heard her name. Never watched her in anything. Damn! What a classy lady. A good soul too. Watching the first clip I thought WTF is up with her hair. Then seeing the recent interview and she said something about it. That's great. She seems very down to Earth.

R68 - I wanted a fucking iced tea!!!

R96, No, Angie, it's much too chilly for iced tea. We're both having hot coffee. Oh, and I forgot my pocketbook, so you'll have to wash dishes to pay for our lunch. I hope you don't mind. Oh, and have you met my friend Pat Sajak?

As a brunette she had as sort of Jackie Kennedy je ne sais quoi .

[quote]When I was a young gayling I was friends with the founder of a major recording studio in the 60's. She was friends with Angie when she was married to Burt Bacharach who was under contract to the studio. She knew them both well. She told me Angie was a "saint " Bacharach was a "sumofabitch" She said Angie was a great mother taking care of their retarded daughter.

I read Bacharach's autobiography and he admits he was a lousy father and Angie was a terrific mother. He also says he couldn't "relate" to their special needs kid and had her committed.

I'd never read an autobiography before where the writer admits he was a shit to most of the people in his life. Burt does, but not at all in an apologetic way.

I love the part at 2:43 where Pat tells her "I trust your professional input" and Angie replies "You know I"m blunt." She wasn't kidding.

Who the hell does Angie Dickinson think she is? A Star? Yes, a second or third tier one. She is totally arrogant and rude to those people who wanted to thrill her with seeing some old friends. Well, I guess they aren't friends anymore but they are better off. She doesn't have any awards, her TV show .....well, let's just say it sucked, Not a Hit, never on Broadway, no recordings, Not A Star. She ought to be disgusted with herself.

Go away Bonnie...

Sad to her she wasn't happy in her marriage. I grew up on Long Island and Burt had a few restaurants and one The Dover House they advertised thru the entire 70's with happy smiling pictures of Angie and Burt every week. A happy part of my childhood was a sham!

But didn't they divorce by the mid 70s?

What a sadistic show. They should bring it back with Ellen as host since she loves surprising the shit out of people.

It would be especially surprising if Ellen's first guest was Anne-Celestia. Would she do what Angie did?

I would pay to watch a celebrity tell Ellen off and hopefully call her a sadistic cunt.

Both Frances Farmer and earlier Lillian Roth were informed about the show.....though they didn't know what "friends" would appear.

R107, Ellen has been getting a lot of bad press lately. Now, the queen of mean ala the new Rosie O’ Donald

Angie Dickinson was a sexy woman who excelled in movie parts as the girl or wife. She also had a lovely body, natural and trim with spectacular legs.

Haha

Angie was a stop on the bus.

He stopped for me first.

Always liked this picture!

The moped Angie movie mentioned above is JESSICA and it can be seen on EPIX this month if you have that service.....Angie is a young midwife that all of the old hags in town hate......until they don't.

Angie was great and even Oscar worthy in Dressed To Kill. I saw it again recently and was surprised by how little she has to say in the film. A lot of it (like that wonderful museum sequence) is all said with her eyes and facial expressions. She says that, in the original script, De Palma had filled that scene with voice overs from her character, so that she'd always know exactly what was going on and what she was thinking every step of the way. When the film was finished, she asked when they were going to record the voice overs and De Palma told her that they didn't need to do it, because her face had said everything. Pure visual storytelling.

Didn't know about the voiceover--that would have really changed the tone.

That they blacklisted her from "The Tonight Show" because of this fiasco show how the business ALWAYS was shitty, and especially so to women.

And she's the one who's still alive. HA! Fuck you, Bob Hope, inconvenienced because he was heading to the studio to be a guest for her "Life." And fuck you, Johnny.

Angie poured so much time and love into her daughter--it must have been even harder for her than most mothers of suicides when her daughter killed herself.

I'll do it, Mr. Edwards!

No mention of Big Bad Mama till now? She shows her tits and lets Captain Kirk fuck her.

She's definitely an interesting woman.

May God continue to keep her.

She and Earl Holliman do commentary tracks on a couple of POLICE WOMAN episodes on one of the DVD sets.

They are pretty funny together.....and Angie says: "Look, Earl, you're wearing your favorite jacket in this episode......oh....wait.....you're wearing it today, too!"