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Its latest version is "My Buddy: The Other Side of Oz,"
and it was originally inspired by a desire
to know more about my dad's career before I was born.
So he was 50 when I was born.
He was already established and just about
to start the "Beverly Hillbillies," which is a very,
obviously his iconic role of Jed Clampett.
So after he passed away--
I mean, I knew a bit about his history, of course.
I'm the youngest of six girls and we knew he was in Broadway.
We knew he was a dancer, and he was in "Davy Crocket,"
and all those other details.
But I didn't realize just how extensive his career was.
And I didn't know much about "The Wizard of Oz" as well.
There was a big buzz about the "Wizard of Oz"
because it was a big budget movie.
And it was going to be in color.
And anyone who was cast in that movie,
it was going to be a major career advancement for them.
You know?
It would be huge, a lot of publicity.
So Arthur Freed, who was LB Mayer's right-hand man--
they came up to dad and said, you're
going to be the scarecrow.
And you know, kind of came out without-- it was unofficial.
And dad was like, this is great, you know?
I mean, I made it.
So he went and started practicing
his moves, the wobbly dance and the whole thing.
And then I guess a little while later,
Ray Bolger came to the set with his agent.
The agent said, Ray Bolger is going
to be doing the scarecrow.
So dad's kind of like, oh my god, you know.
He goes back to Arthur Freed who says, don't tell anybody.
I said, I told you you were going to be the Scarecrow.
You're going to be the Tin Woodsman.
So they switched the parts.
They built the costume out of real stovepipe originally.
And he was expected to dance in these metal parts, which were
very, like, in the joints very close to, you know,
very delicate parts of his body.
So he said, I can't dance in this.
So they turned it into cardboard.
And the makeup, basically, they covered his face
in white clown face makeup.
And then they dusted him--
his face and his hands--
with aluminum powder.
So it's like real aluminum dust.
And so it was just in the air.
And because the lights were hot and his makeup melted,
several times a day he had to be applied
with this aluminum dust.
And he inhaled it.
Over time, it coated the inside of his lungs like paint
and he could not get oxygen to his blood,
but he didn't know this was happening.
He just knew that he was cramping up during the set
and during the shooting, and he was having trouble breathing.
But he didn't want to complain because the set was already
plagued with a lot of problems.
He didn't want to be that one guy that says, oh here,
I'm not feeling good.
But eventually, about 10 days later
in the middle of the night he woke up
and thought he was dying.
He was-- absolutely could not breathe.
His fingers and toes were curled back on themselves,
and he was completely cramped up.
So they rushed him by ambulance to the hospital,
to the emergency room.
He stayed there for two weeks under an oxygen tent.
And it took him another six weeks to recover.
So he had, again, a toxic reaction-- well,
it wasn't even a reaction.
He actually couldn't get oxygen to the blood
and his blood fermented.
And they actually, the doctor, described it
as a as a nervous breakdown-- the breakdown
of the nervous system.
It's like he had just taken as much as he could in his body,
and it just broke down.
So he spent six weeks recovering and eventually went back
to his job.
But he always had a feeling they didn't really believe him,
and that they gave him some pretty bad films to act
in before his contract ran out.
They also spun that story that he'd had an allergic reaction.
And it's not an allergic reaction.
It was a toxic reaction to aluminum powder--
poisoning, basically.
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At the time, she was 20th century's greatest asset.
You know, she had already come up a little miss marker.
And she was really well-known and a big asset,
and a pretty big star by the time "Captain January"
was being filmed.
And dad and his choreographer were given
the task of choreographing.
And I don't know if you've seen that dance clip,
but it's adorable.
You know, with all the--
it's on the docks of Maine and he's sashaying her
around all these barrels and ropes, and lifting her up
and they're dancing.
And all the while, knowing that the executives of 20th century
are looking at him going, if you drop her,
you're in so much trouble because she's
so valuable to us.
He was trying so hard to get her to rehearse with him
so he could work out the dance.
Dad finally convinced her to come to the rehearsal studio
for 15 minutes just to look at the dance
and maybe comment on it.
She walks in with her Assistant Director and sits down.
And looks at dad-- and he's about to show her the dance--
and she goes, is it set?
Meaning, is it finished?
And he goes, well, no.
We might make a few changes.
She gets up, turns on her heel, goes out the door
and says, call me when it's set and I'll come back
and learn it.
And he was mad because, like, I want to work some things out.
Then you realize she's six years old.
She does not have the time to learn a dance
she's going to have to relearn.
So when he did get a set, she came back and in one hour
she learned that dance with him.
All in all, I think he was surprised at the success,
you know?
He was supposed to be retiring, that was his goal
before he got the meeting with Paul Henning
was-- he was going to semi-retire
to the place in Balboa Island and write musicals and plays.
And his agent convinced him to have lunch with this writer
named Paul Henning.
And by the end of the lunch, they
were just in hysterics over the idea of the characters.
And he signed on.
I was getting ready for a recital
and I was extremely nervous.
Like, I couldn't sleep.
I was beside myself.
So he takes me by the hand in the evening,
and he takes me outside and he just said, Keek,
which he likes to call me Keek.
K-E-E-K, that's his nickname for my nickname.
Look at the stars.
So we take a moment and I look at the stars.
And he just says, we're all just specks on a speck
on a speck in the sky.
You know, don't worry.
Everything's OK.
And it put it in such perspective for me.
And here is this, you know, larger-than-life man--
not just my father, but who's just sort of been there--
and I hadn't even gone into his past.
But the comfort that he gave me in that, it's
something I'll always remember and always just take.
It's not-- we're just a little speck
and we're here for like this much.
Have fun, do what you love.
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