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She
was a true classic, a Broadway chorus
girl in the days of breadlines, bootleggers,
and bad gin. She made her way to Hollywood
during the Golden Age and worked with
the comedy greats: Laurel and Hardy, the
Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, Abbott and
Costello, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, the Three
Stooges, Shemp Howard, and the Bowery
Boys. She was Iris Adrian, tough girl
supreme.
I
was in Los Angeles in May 1989, working
with Steve James on the script for our
movie Street Hunter. I called Iris, hit
it off on the phone, and asked for an
interview. I wanted to meet her in person,
but Iris wouldn't let me, she wanted me
to remember her from the old days ...
not as an old lady. I respected her wish
and she talked straight. She was one helluva
dame, see?
IRIS
ADRIAN: How we gonna start?
JOHN
A. GALLAGHER: Let's talk about Wild Bill
Wellman, one of my favorites.
IA:
Oh he was a wonderful man, more handsome
than any of the stars that worked for
him. He was a war hero, he was everything!
He gave me two very good parts, in Roxie
Hart (1942) and Lady of Burlesque (1943).
JAG:
What was he like on the set?
IA:
A lot of fun, but really business, you
know? They used to say every picture Wellman
made was another war (laughter).
JAG:
Lady of Burlesque is a lot of fun, too.
IA:
It had all the wonderful girls in there,
Marion Martin. Marion Martin died, remember
her, that beautiful blonde?
JAG:
You worked with her in New York, too.
IA:
Over at the Hollywood Restaurant in 1928.
She was the head nude there. She was always
lying about her age. When she died, her
husband didn't know how old she was, some
weird setup! The age she gave made her
10 years old when she opened the Hollywood
Restaurant in 1928!
JAG:
Did you like Barbara Stanwyck?
IA:
I loved her. I was with her all through
the picture, playing her girlfriend.
JAG:
Wellman was the boss on the set.
IA:
Oh, you better believe it.
JAG:
Did anyone ever come down on the set from
the front office?
IA:
They did once and he beat 'em up (laughter).
They had a fistfight, him and one of the
producers. I don't know what that was
all about. People drank then, you know?
They had a few drinks at the end of the
day.
JAG:
Dana Andrews told me they had a special
cell at the Beverly Hills Police Station
for Wellman so he could check himself
in on Saturday night and stay out of trouble.
IA:
The guy that told you that oughta know,
cause he was quite a drinker! Everybody
drank in those days, you know, Pat O'Brien
and all of them. They even drank early
in the day. It was just a lot of fun.
You'd make a picture and they made a party
out of it.
JAG:
When you were on a picture you were working
six days a week.
IA:
Oh sure.
JAG:
When did you have time for socializing?
IA:
Oh heavens, nobody had any time for that.
I didn't. When I was in New York I had
three jobs. I slept two hours a night,
which is kind of dumb, but it was during
the Depression, and nobody had any money.
I was keeping my mother and my grandmother.
I was the only one that worked (laughter).
We were living out here and I was going
to school, and all of a sudden they turned
off the electricity. I said, "What's
going on?" Mother says, "Well,
we're out of money. You'll have to go
to work." My grandmother put me in
a Perfect Back contest. I won it.
JAG:
Perfect Back?
IA:
Isn't that the dumbest thing you ever
heard? Well, the chiropractors were having
a beauty contest. So grandmother put me
in and I won it. I think it was fixed
... my grandmother arranged that (laughter).
JG:
George Raft had a big impact on your career.
IA:
George brought me out from New York. He
picked me out of the nightclub and I danced
with him across the country to "Sweet
Georgia Brown". It was fun and he
was nice, and all the gangsters would
come see us. He loved gangsters. Of course
I knew all of them from New York, anyway.
Frenchy and Owney, Owney Madden. I don't
know what the hell Frenchy's name was,
it was just Frenchy. Big fat Frenchy.
And the guy that owned the Chicken Ranch.
Frenchy came out here when I was doing
Rumba (1935) and said to the director,
Marion Gering, "Listen, this is one
of our kids from New York" -- meaning
me-- "and if she isn't good
in this picture there's only one guy to
blame" (laughter). Marion was terrified
of Frenchy. I said, "Frenchy, what
are you trying to do, ruin my life?"
He said "What do you mean, if this
bum doesn't make you look good in this
picture ..." I said, "Jesus,
you can't come out here and do that! You'll
have me out of pictures because he's afraid
of you!" God, he was a big boob.
George was so thrilled they let him live.
He used to work in nightclubs as a dancer
and these guys would come in and see him
and they let him live and he was so grateful
to them (laughter). They came in to see
the girls and out came a guy dancing with
them, they threw pennies at him. So then
poor George tried to rate with them and
he loaned Bugsy Siegel $100,000 and then
Bugsy was shot and he never got back the
money. George threw away all of his money
trying to make the gangsters think he
was a good guy. George died broke.
JAG:
The taxes got him.
IA:
Yeah, I think he got $17 a day to live
on. It was so sad. He turned down all
the pictures, nothing was good enough
for him, High Sierra (1941), The Maltese
Falcon (1941), and the classic of all
time, Casablanca (1942). I think he was
afraid to do them.
JAG:
All the pictures that made Bogart a star.
IA:
Yeah. He did Bogart a good favor. Of course,
Bogart was better than George, really.
JAG:
Raft was considered a good dancer, right?
IA:
Sure. I loved the way he danced. But you
know, he wore a corset, and he wore kind
of high heels cause he was short. He had
a very sad life, George. I mean, what
the hell was good about his life? He had
a wife in New York who was a dental technician
and he wanted to stay married to her.
A friend of mine knew her, and said, "No,
she wants to divorce him, but he says
it's money, so he won't". You know,
there's a certain type of a man around
who doesn't want to get tied up with anybody,
and if you're married, you stay married
and you don't get in any trouble. George
was madly in love with a wonderful girl
named Virginia Pine, who married Quentin
Reynolds, a New York guy. That just about
killed George when he lost her. Then there
was Betty Grable, and she married Harry
James right in his face. He couldn't marry
her because he was already married.
JAG:
Spencer Tracy stayed married to his wife
too.
IA:
That's right, she was a Catholic. Except
that was her excuse (laughter)! Frank
Sinatra got his marriage annulled through
the Catholic Church! Can you imagine?
Ridiculous ... if you have money you can
do anything. They don't have any rules
that keep.
JAG:
Nowadays it doesn't matter.
IA:
No! They just have children, they don't
want to be bothered with the marriage
license. It's too much trouble to go get
it (laughter). Too much trouble to go
and say "Will you marry him?"
Takes a day out of your life.
JAG:
They used to have the moral clauses in
the stars' contracts.
IA:
Well, it didn't do much good (laughter).
JAG:
Let's talk about some directors. Fritz
Lang, Woman in the Window (1944).
IA:
He was a pain in the neck. He was a great
director, though, I guess. He was tough
on actors. They all were. Michael Curtiz
was really tough (laughter). It seemed
I was always working with him. They didn't
tell me who I was working with, they just
said go to Warners or wherever. I'd get
there and it'd be Michael Curtiz' picture.
He was awful to Joan Crawford on Flamingo
Road (1949). She was so unhappy. She said,
"Iris, I'm miserable!" He was
standing in the next room and he said
"Don't give me that one with the
big shoulders and the big eyes! Don't
give me her!" She said, "I know
he means me! He doesn't want me. I can't
give up this picture, my contract will
be broken and I won't do the other three
movies". So she did it. She said,
"I've never been so miserable in
my life". We had this scene and we
did it, and it was late in the day, and
she said, "Well, home to mother"
and I said, "Home and be mother".
She says, "Oh my God if everything
is as rotten there as it was here, somebody's
gonna get it". So I think that's
when Mommie Dearest started.
JAG:
You did Carnival Rock (1957), one of Roger
Corman's first pictures.
IA:
He's doing pretty well now! I don't remember
him ... (laughter ) ... I know
him now! I thought he was much younger.
See, I'm going to be 77 on May 29 (1989)
and it scares the hell out of me because
I haven't died yet which means I have
to die from here on out (laughter). If
I already died I wouldn't have to worry
about it anymore. But here I am and now
I gotta worry about it.
JAG:
You worked with all the great comedians.
IA:
All of them.
JAG:
Laurel and Hardy on Our Relations (1936)...
IA:
They were adorable! They were so cute.
Babe Hardy was just a big baby doll. He
was a darling man. He was so cute, he
said to me one morning, "Let's have
dinner tonight". I said, "OK".
But as the day wore on, you thought "Oh
my God!" I hate things like this
where you think, "Jesus, do I have
to have dinner tonight?" and he's
thinking the same thing". So at the
end of the day, I sneaked out and went
home, figuring maybe he'll forget about
it. But he called and he said, "How
do you feel about dinner?" I said,
"Oh, God, I can't do it! I'm so tired!"
Babe said, "Oh I love you for that!"
But a guy had to keep a date, I don't
know why.
JAG:
Go West (1940) was funny, with the Marx
Brothers.
IA:
Oh, they were adorable too! They fought
among themselves a bit. But oh, Groucho,
I loved him. I thought he was so dear.
I liked them all. The darling of the whole
bunch was the redhead, Harpo. After Go
West I did a show in New York for Kaufman
and Hart, The Fabulous Invalid, and Harpo
came backstage to say hello, not only
to me, he knew everybody else. But I was
so thrilled he said hello to me. I don't
know why! You know, he was a big star
to me. He came back and said, "Iris,
I really like you in this show".
JAG:
He appreciated talent.
IA:
Well, I was good in it (laughter).
JAG:
Chico had a reputation for womanizing
and gambling.
IA:
Well you know, the racetrack ruined everybody,
George Raft, Lou Costello. They had to
be big shots and bet $10,000 on this and
$10,000 on that. Life is so short, you
don't have to be a nut trying to show
off. Who's lookin'? It's so stupid.
JAG:
You worked with Buster Keaton.
IA:
Very nice guy. Quiet guy.
JAG:
The Misadventures Of Buster Keaton were
TV episodes and they were put together
into a feature.
IA:
I don't know. I just went to makeup and
went to work. I didn't care whether they
did them for film or TV. Who cares? How
could
I think of all those things? Buster lost
his money, too.
Why
do they always have to gamble when they
drink? Nobody wants to lose their money
but when they get drunk they get a lot
of nerve and they lose it. Why don't they
just drink and pass out?
JAG:
You did a picture with the Bowery Boys.
IA:
Oh, sure. Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall. They
were great, too. They were fun. They were
all great people. Everybody on the planet's
pretty great I guess unless once in a
while somebody sneaks down to the corner
and murders somebody. Jesus, there's a
lot of murders goin' on. I never go out
at night. People say "Oh, come on,
I'll pick you up". They pick me up,
my God, they could be killed too! That's
one part of my life I like now. I do not
go out at night. I don't like it.
JAG:
In the early days you were out every night
working.
IA:
I went down to Miami Beach to work in
a place called The Palms. Moey Dimples
met me at the train and said "You're
not going to work there. You're gonna
work at The Paddock. They're gonna double
your money". I made $500 a week,
which was the biggest salary I ever made.
So I stayed down there and they wouldn't
let me out of there. I stayed through
the summer but I still was getting paid.
But God! Our first show was twelve midnight.
It was a late spot (laughter), Miami Beach.
Everybody was there. I don't know what
happened to those people. They died, I
guess, from drinking. This was the summer
of 1940.
JAG:
Do you talk to Bob Hope?
IA:
I see him once in a while driving around.
He yells, "Hello, Iris! How are you?
How's Fido?" Well Fido died five
years ago.
JAG:
What kind of dog was he?
IA:
He was my husband (laughter). Fido Murphy.
Raymond Marcus Murphy. He was a ballplayer
in his youth, and then he worked for George
Halas. He saved George's football team,
the Chicago Bears. My husband died. That
screwed me up because I lost my cheering
section, I lost everything. I can't go
to work and come back to an empty house.
And there's no reason for me to work!
JAG:
You've worked ten lifetimes.
IA:
I have, haven't I? I think, "Gee,
the nerve of me quitting!" (laughter).
JAG:
I love that scene in The Paleface (!948)
with you and Bob Hope in the saloon.
IA:
I love that, too. In the scene, my boyfriend
got jealous and they had the fight, whether
they got that or not. Sometimes you watch
a picture and you don't know what the
hell it's about.
JAG:
That's a classic scene in The Errand Boy
(1961) with you and Jerry Lewis with the
giant champagne bottle.
IA:
He directed that, too. You know, he was
a hell of a guy. I loved working with
him. He was real cute. He took me in and
showed me all the pictures in his dressing
room. He was like a kid. "Come here,
I want to show you these pictures"
... of him ... (laughter) ... and his
wife. He was married to Patty. He was
in love with his wife. They got divorced
since, married again. He had a few set-to's
here and there with a few people, but
it worked out all right. Well, everybody
has a few set-to's here and there.
JAG:
I watched The Errand Boy yesterday. That
scene is so funny.
IA:
I played Anastasia Anastasia, the movie
queen. She's been 21 for 23 years. I don't
think Brian Donlevy liked him very much.
Brian Donlevy smelled like Scotch. He
perspired Scotch. He was a drunk and it's
too bad. He was pretty and he was great
actor, but he'd get near me and I'd smell
Scotch! And he perspired all the time
and it was Scotch coming out of his body.
He was mad at Jerry but I thought he was
OK, Jerry. Jerry did everything and I
copied him. That's the way he does it.
He does the thing the way he wants it
and you copied him. I didn't like some
of it too much, but I did it (laughter).
The movie-in-a-movie, the death scene,
Jerry did that first and I copied him.
He's clever. I can get along without watching
him but he's clever! (laughter) Isn't
that awful? That was water in the big
champagne bottle. Come on, you don't think
that was champagne? (laughter) It was
ridiculous but it was wonderful and I
enjoyed it. I was getting a little older-looking
then. What year was that?
JAG:
'60, '61.
IA:
I did the Elvis Presley picture Blue Hawaii
the same year and I looked good in that.
I looked fat in The Errand Boy.
JAG:
Well, Errand Boy was black and white and
Blue Hawaii was color.
IA:
Maybe that's it. We always made the movie
queens out to be boobs, you know. But
Mae West sure wasn't a boob. She wrote
all her own stuff. A smart cookie. No
matter what you do, no matter how smart
you are, you're gonna die anyway.
JAG:
What were Abbott and Costello like?
IA:
They were kind of silly when you think
of it. Now here were two guys who made
it that hated each other evidently. I
don't know what the hell was going on
there. They were like two gangsters. I
did a radio show with them. There was
a big long table and Abbott would come
in with his crowd at one end and Costello
would come in with his crowd at the other
end, all their flunkies, the guys, the
entourage. They acted like they were mad
at each other. But their comedy isn't
very funny. I never thought it was too
hot, but listen, what do I know?
JAG:
I never thought they were on a level with
Laurel & Hardy or Buster Keaton.
IA:
No! They were so unhappy with their comedy,
so morbid. They weren't up, they were
so down. They were mad at each other.
One was waiting for the other one to go
over the lines so he could bawl him out.
They were both like that.
JAG:
Tell me about Jack Benny. You worked with
him for years.
IA:
Oh God, he was the sweetest thing. He
was the greatest thing to ever hit this
planet. You know? He really was. He loved
everybody and everybody loved him. He
loved the whole world. He never lost his
temper. He was just like he is in the
TV shows and the pictures, that's the
way he was. I knew him, I guess, for thirty
years. I worked in television with him
and I worked in radio with him, and then
he wanted to do this act and I worked
in that act for 20 summers. 20 summers!
JAG:
That was the Smithers Sisters.
IA:
Yeah! I thought, Fine, I'll go to Europe,
you can't go to Europe with a better guy
than Jack, you know, he'd been there so
many times. He loved show business, you
know, like George Burns. They just loved
it. Jack was a lotta fun. We played the
Palladium. I came out one day and there
was a lineup and I sneaked around, and
they were talking about me--"Jack,
when is Iris Adrian coming out?"
Jack said, "I'm the star of this
show!" (laughter) But you see, I'd
been seen in a lot of pictures. That's
the power of the movies! In a Broadway
show there was a lot of applause when
it was over, but then everybody forgot
about it. No reruns!
JG:
You were in the very first episode of
Green Acres.
IA:
I was good luck. I was in that show and
I was in the first show of Get Smart.
JG:
Do you know how many pictures you made?
IA:
I have a list from a guy named Jordan
Young and I counted up to 150 and I didn't
go any further. I did a lot of shorts
in New York way back there in the Thirties.
My first picture was with Jean Harlow
in a Charley Chase comedy in 1928. I was
16 and she was 17. You know, she died
at 26.
JG:
Did you have a favorite studio you liked
to work at?
IA:
Paramount. They signed me to a contract.
I felt like it was my home. I worked there
when I was in the chorus, and I went back
to New York and I thought they'd never
let me out of my contract but they were
thrilled to death to get rid of me (laughter).
I told them I want to go back to New York
and do a show. I got lonesome for New
York, because New York was so much more
exciting than L.A. I thought. Well, I
went back to New York and I did some more
shows and they signed me again! So I came
back more of an actress than a chorus
girl! (laughter).
JG:
Do you remember the Three Stooges?
IA:
Howard, Fine and Howard. Larry Fine was
so adorable. I didn't know Shemp too well
but I just loved Larry Fine. He had a
very cute little wife. I went to Joe Besser's
funeral recently, 9 o'clock in the morning.
They spent so much money on his funeral
and nobody was there. I don't know why
they do that. They put these great big
gorgeous caskets in the ground and let
'em rot. isn't that stupid? It costs so
much money and they put all that money
in the ground. You know, the wife could
have used that money to eat on.
JG:
You did a lot of Disney pictures.
IA:
I did ten or twelve of those in the '70s,
one right after another. Just bits.
JG:
With Dean Jones.
IA:
Dean Jones has gone a little bit stupid.
He's a born again Christian and those
kind of people get on your nerves. I said,
"Look, I was already born once"
(laughter) But it's OK with me. I don't
know. The funny part of the whole thing
is I think we're all Jews. We all came
up from Judaism. Christianity is an offshoot
of Judaism. And what about the Lost Tribe?
They said this lost tribe went where it's
all green and plush. I think that's Ireland.
I mean, Gaelic and Yiddish are very much
alike. They taught me to say one thing
that means you should live so long. I
said that at the end of a few songs I
sang and they all loved it because I was
supposed to be a goy or a shiksa or something.
The Jews to me are the best people in
the world because I worked for them all
my life. They do things for you. It's
the best religion, I think. They don't
believe in that pie in the sky crap. Do
it here while you're here now and don't
worry about the rest of it. Just do the
best that you can for your fellow man
while you're here. We got the whole Bible
from the Jews. Written by Jews, for Jews,
about Jews. Jesus was a rabbi, come on!
(laughter)
JG:
Comedy had to be your favorite.
IA:
Well sure. It was all the same, but they
didn't hire me for anything but comedy!
I always did comedy.
JG:
You were in a knife throwing act in the
'30s.
IA:
I met the act at the Hollywood Restaurant,
which was on top of the Ziegfeld Roof
they called it, this was '31 (now the
New Amsterdam Theatre in New York). I
joined it as the girl who steps in front
of my lover to save his life. There was
an apache dance in it and we played all
over, went to Europe with a knife-throwing
act and got to be very popular over there.
I was on all the marquees, we were a big
hit, there was no dialogue so they could
understand it. We played all over the
world and we were going to go to Germany.
We played the Palladium and then we went
on to Manchester and Scotland and Budapest.
We were going to play Germany but they
were throwing things at the American actors.
That was in 1933 and the Nazis were just
coming in. This act came back from there
and told us "Don't go, they threw
everything at us, vegetables, eggs, just
don't go, you're going to get killed".
So we didn't go. We could have gone all
over Germany but Hitler screwed us up,
so we came back to New York and they billed
us as "the sensational act from Europe"
(laughter).
JG:
I really appreciate you taking the time
to talk to me.
IA:
I really enjoyed it. Y'know, the 29th
of May I become 77.
JG:
Happy birthday in advance.
IA:
Jesus, it won't be happy. Nothing happy
about this one or any of the ones that
happened before. I think that life is
a three act play. I'm in my third act.
From one to 20 is the prologue, 20 to
40 is the first act, from 40 through 60
is the second act, from 60 on ... well,
let's hope it's a long act, as long as
it can be.
JG:
You're 39, you're not fooling me.
IA:
Of course! Well, I love ya and I'm glad
you called, darling.
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