Steve Winer, who among his other accomplishments used to write for David Letterman, shares with us the story of Calvert DeForest's unlikely leap to stardom…
As one of the two writers responsible for the film, King of the Z's, I thought you might like a little background on Calvert's rise to fame. All the obits that I've seen seem to suggest that David saw the film and then sent staffers out to find Calvert. Not quite. The film Karl Tiedemann and I made was a parody documentary about the world's cheapest movie studio of the 40's and 50's. We cast Calvert as one of the major players in the fake film clips from that studio. David and Merrill Markoe saw the film and became intersted in us as writers. During our interview with them, Merrill said "We're looking for someone like that little guy in your movie for our show," and I said, "You're not looking for someone like that guy. You're looking for that guy." We were ultimately hired for the show and brought him with us. (The Melman name was Merrill's, as was the Frankenstein bit that opened the first show).
Calvert was a very sweet man who always wanted to be a star and through this somewhat unusual crossing of personalities, became one. I have many great memories of Calvert and "Melman," but the one that comes to mind first is the night Bob Hope and Calvert were on the same show. Calvert was star struck and went up to Hope to compliment him. Hope, who had watched Calvert work from backstage, told Calvert that he thought he was very funny too. And as I watched Bob Hope compliment Calvert DeForest, I remember thinking: "Only in America!"
I'm going to miss him.
We already miss him. A lot of people have written to tell me of encounters with Calvert and how sweet he was to them. I only had two encounters with the guy, one a brief meeting up in Letterman's NBC offices. He was trying to make small talk with the office staff and I remember thinking, "My God…this man really can't ad-lib." Couldn't even say anything bright standing in the reception area. But that was okay because he had some sort of odd quality in front of the camera that made him fascinating to watch, even if he was just cluelessly reading cue cards.
I have to admit I've never been a big fan of humor (or attempts at humor) that come from putting the stagehands in sketches or counting on the utter lack of professionalism on the part of the deli owner around the corner. With occasional exceptions, I don't find these bits funny. I think they're often a substitute for actual writing…and maybe a way of protecting the host, preventing him from having to compete with someone who might upstage him a tiny bit. But Larry "Bud" Melman was a usual exception. He was genuinely funny and not just because he was awkward and inept. When they did bits like "Ask Mr. Melman," Dave's writers knew how to write for the guy and give him lines that worked when they were read right and worked even better when read wrong. The point of the bit wasn't just his clumsy delivery.
And hey, some people said that all Bob Hope did his last twenty years in show business was to read cue cards badly…