Well, actually, this isn't so much about Dom DeLuise as it is about me. A friend e-mailed last night to ask why I hadn't put up the photo I have of myself with Dom DeLuise and his grand wife Carol. Excellent reason: I forgot I had it. It's from my pre-Gastric Bypass days and it kinda shows you why I had me reduced. It was taken at a party where, as I usually did in any room, I made a point of staking out the sturdiest chair. A bit later, when Dom arrived, I gave it up for him…and took pity on how much trouble he had walking or standing or even getting up from the seat when it was time to go.
I felt skinny around the guy that night because I didn't have trouble walking or standing or anything, and of course I wasn't as wide as he was. But later when I looked at this photo, I thought, "Hmm…I'm not that much smaller than Dom." Factor in that he was nineteen years older than me and it was hard not to think, "Hey, that's me in two decades if I don't do something." Also, Buddy Hackett was just off-camera when this shot was taken…and he passed away six months after that party. There were other people and incidents that convinced me I had to get serious about the problem but Dom and Buddy were two biggies…and I do mean "big."
And I have to stick in one more namedrop about a recently-deceased show biz friend. The late Howie Morris was like a crazy uncle to me. Once, we were in a lunch group when someone asked him to name the scariest thing he'd ever seen and he said, without hesitation, "Dom DeLuise naked. We shared a dressing room for that Mel Brooks film, History of the World, Part One." Howie was always nagging me, long past the constructive stage, about my weight and I think he gave that response for my benefit. It worked, at least to kill my appetite for that meal…as the mental picture may have killed yours for the rest of the day.
Dom DeLuise had a long list of accomplishments of far greater importance than serving as a reverse role model for me. He was in a lot of great movies and TV shows and everyone else is itemizing those. I just thought I'd mention this one other thing about him that mattered in my life. It's great when you can learn from your mistakes but it's even better when you can learn from other folks' mistakes.