| Pia Zadora on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson Pia Zadora sings a live version of 'Come Rain Or Come Shine' Well, here we are on the Tonight Show! (Laughter) How are you? I’m terrific! How are you? That’s nice stuff. Thank you Johnny, and I’m very proud and honoured to be here, I really am. Thank you for having me. I’m kinda surprised you showed up. (Laughter) Why? Well, you know, you know, over the past few years there have been a lot of bricks thrown your way, by not only myselfs, by other comedians. You see, Johnny, I’m very practical by nature and I understood where it was coming from. First of all, I had a funny name which became your answer to Rula Lenska. Do you remember Rula Lenska? Yes, I remember Rula Lenska. Well, for a while that was my claim to fame : I was the Rula Lenska of Johnny Carson. But I understood. I didn’t have a film, I didn’t have a good product. I was just, kind of, being a celebrity for celebrity’s sake and I knew that it was my job to hang in there and try to do my best. And either I would find my niche or fade away into the horizon. You did hang in there. Because, I mean, some of the critics really took some shots at you. I read an interview of you the other day and somebody asked you about Harold Robbins’…what was it…’The Lonely Lady’. Gosh, don’t remind me! Well, you màde it, I mean, if you weren’t happy about it… I made it, but I wasn’t happy with it. At that particular time I wasn’t offered a serious thing. There was a lot of negativity attached to my name, a stigma, so I think the majors were afraid to give me a shot. And I was offered Lonely Lady. I wanted to do something more serious like a ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’, or even a good comedy. But I did Lonely Lady because I wanted to work. And unfortunately… I never expected to win an Oscar, but… So you hung in there. Leonard Feather had a review in the L.A. Times after you opened in the Beverly Theatre : She has it all, the range, expert intonation, a sensitive feeling for lyrics. What was your reaction when you read that, when you were used to a little less than that kind of a compliment? Well, I was very excited about it, because this was a whole new thing for me, the singing. I mean, it wasn’t new, but I was taking a new turn in my career. And I knew this was gonna be my last ditch effort. I wasn’t gonna keep banging my head against a stone brick wall. I’m a mother now and I didn’t want Kady to hear about those things. That’s your daughter, right? But I knew when I stepped ont he stage in beverly Hills at the Beverly Theatre that this would either be the beginning or the end of something. Because they were probably ready to kill you. I think that I filled the house because they were ready to throw tomatoes at me, because nobody really knew what I was about to do. They had no idea. So I was very thrilled for the acceptance. And I don't take anything for granted. I learned my lesson and take each day as it comes. I take some of the jokes back. Thank you. Some of them were pretty good though (Laughter) You can keep those, Johnny. You have been performing since you were very young. I started when I was six years old. Most people didn’t know that. It was an accident. I was going to parochial school and the nuns considered me socially retarded, ‘cause I was very shy, so they sent me to a dramatic school. I went to the American Academy and Burgess Meredith was looking for a little girl to co-star in a Broadway play with Tallulah Bankhead. (Laughs) That was my mug shot. Mam loved that shot. I used to do commercials, so we used those shots for... Here’s one glamourous shot at the age of, what? About seven or eight? (Carson shows a photo of a young Pia in a glamourous pose) Right. Eight years old. I’ve seen some shots of you where you were wearing less than this. You made poster once, if I remember. Right. A bathing suit, French cut. Well, you might call it that. Was that part of a calculated attention getting. It was an attention getter for sure! It was a poster that I did. At that time, it went along with my record and was part of the direction I was going in at that particular time. Would you do something like that now? No! It was the right thing at the time I guess. I’m to old to do it now, Johnny! I’m a mother! You have cute, little buns for a mother. (Laughter) A lot of people said the reason you were working that time -that might have had somebody else stop their career- was that you are married to a gentleman who could help your work. Right. He was very supportive of me and it kind of backfired on him. And it was though, because he wanted me to work, and I wanted to work, and I had to overcome… And people were saying,”Oh, she’s working because of Meshulam Riklis”. Right. But who knows what would have been different, hòw it would have been different. But I wouldn’t have changed a minute of it. Well, what are you gonna do for us now? I’d like to sing The Man That Got Away and it’s a Don Costa arrangement. OK, the stage is all yours. Thank you, Johnny. Pia sings a live version of 'The Man That Got Away' Good song! That’s my style. Thanks for doing that! Pia, come back and see us again. I’d love to. It was really quite marvellous! |
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| As I mentioned before, Pia Zadora has never been on the Tonight Show, and she had some ups and downs in her career, but lately, she’s the darling of the critics. And she’s got an album out currently which has received some tremendous reviews, called Pia & Phil. Do you know what the Phil stands for? The London Philharmonic Orchestra. Would you welcome Ms. Pia Zadora! |
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| It went back thàt far? (Carson shows a photo of Pia with Tallulah Bankhead) What was this play? That was Midgie Purvis with Tallulah Bankhead. I was six-and-a-half then. I was silly looking, wasn’t I? Not really. I mean, at six-and-a-half non of us were stunning I guess. (Carson shows a photo of Pia from Fiddler on the Roof) Is this from Fiddler? This is from Fiddler On The Roof. I was in that with Bette Midler and Julia Migenes, who was in your show the other night. I was the youngest daughter and she played Huddle, the fourth daughter. That was when she was getting started. What is this? (Carson shows a photo of a young, funny looking Pia) |
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