Folks used to say it must be easy to book stars for the Show; which was the task for Mike Lansing and myself.  Oh sure!  Just give a call to say – Paul Lynde on the Hollywood Squares, and he would definitely want to help entertain our Military men fighting in Nam.  Guess again!  He was afraid to do the Show.  I knew what he was afraid of, but never told him.  And there were a number of stars who had fears of being before an all-male audience of maybe around 10,000 Marines (that turned out to be the average # per Show over the years). 

It took us a couple years to convince YVONNE DE CARLO to convince her that “those young men won’t know who I am”  …  I knew they would remember – well, maybe not her motion picture starring roles, but I knew they’d know her from her TV and when I introduced her to the audience as LILY MUNSTER, they went wild and she got a standing ovation which bowled her over seeing thousands of Marines going wild for her.  She was on our Hollywood Panel for that Show with (l.to r.) BARBARA HALE, BILL WILLIAMS, ANN B. DAVIS and TONI KELMAN – the great Children’s Agent who got young actors like JODIE FOSTER their early acting roles.

YVONNE answering the Marines questions as BARBARA HALE looks on.  YVONNE posed for this pic with JEAN and Hollywood’s one and only “Mayor”, JOHNNY GRANT. 

And then, there was TROY WALKER!  The #1 Night Club entertainer in L.A. year after year during that era.  He was like a combo of Cher, Liberace & Jerry Lee Lewis … Today, Gaga would have loved him!!  He knew how to turn on an audience for sure … but he was a little leery about performing before 1,000′s of Marines.  Flamboyant may be an understatement.  There was no doubt in my mind the audience would go nuts for his singing performance.  I told him to take his time making his entrance on stage, and since there was a 25′ distance to the mic, if he ambled on, the men would have a chance to whistle, laugh or boo.  He was costumed in a bright, multicolored floral jersey jump suit with flared leg bottoms.  A big feather boa and a wide-brimmed hat with a plume … AND … a foot-long Auntie Mame cigarette holder with an unlit cigarette.  QUITE A SIGHT! 

As he sauntered to the mic, the crowd went heckle wild, like they had just seen their first Drag Queen homo on the planet.  He stood silently at the mic, posing, waiting for the crowd to control themselves.  THEN, in his incredible basso profundo voice, he said: “What the fuck do you expect from Hollywood!?”  They loved it and he had them in the palm of his hand and sang them into standing ovation.