Yesterday afternoon, my friend Earl Kress and I attended another luncheon staged by the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters to honor a veteran of the industry. This time, the honoree was Bill Dana, who is probably best known to everyone for his role as Jose Jiminez, the famous Hispanic played by a man of Jewish and Hungarian ancestry. Most of the talk, however, was about Bill's extensive career as a writer and producer of comedy, much of it non-Jose. On the dais were Jayne Meadows, Gary Owens, Betty White, Tom Poston, Howard Storm, Jack Riley, Hal Kanter and Shelley Berman. Shelley Berman is still one of the funniest, crankiest human beings to ever appear before a microphone.
The luncheon was emceed by the great announcer John Harlan, and began with a video montage of Dana's TV appearances. There were several clips of Jose that prompted an observation by Earl and me and, I suspect, others in the room. It's that Andy Kaufman's "foreign man" character (aka Latka Gravas) was an awful lot like Jose Jiminez with an unreal accent. There was also a very funny clip from the 1963-1965 sitcom, The Bill Dana Show, which co-starred the late Don Adams. Dana wrote most of Don's early comedy material, including many of the catch phrases and stock jokes that later became a part of Get Smart.
Funniest moment of the afternoon: Bill's colleague from many a Steve Allen Show, Tom Poston, was introduced. He got up and said, "They asked me to be here today to say something nice about Bill Dana." And that was it for Mr. Poston's speech. He sat down and never said another thing for the remainder of the event. Later, when Dana was thanking everyone, he finished the joke. He went down the dais talking about each guest but made a point of skipping Poston.
Most touching moment of the afternoon: Jayne Meadows talking about how much her late hubby loved Bill and how crucial Dana's contribution was to Steve's work. She mentioned that Bill had written the best joke ever for Steve's Question Man character. (The Question Man later morphed, without permission, into Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent.) But Jayne was afraid she'd botch up the telling so she left it to Bill to quote the line. The answer was "chicken teriyaki." The question was "Name the world's oldest kamikaze pilot."
Bill Dana has not been in the spotlight much lately. One speaker said that they'd made a movie about the last twenty years of his life: Without a Trace. So it was nice to have this luncheon and remember what a funny, creative man he was and still is. Also, they served poached salmon and it was pretty good.