George Wendt recalls Paul Newman, life before ‘Cheers’
George Wendt never met Elvis Presley, but he will put “my brush with greatness” up against anyone’s.
It was the late 1980s, about seven seasons into “Cheers,” in which he played Norm Peterson, a wisecracking beer connoisseur.
In the offseason, Wendt signed up for a show at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Mass.
One of Wendt’s cast mates was James Naughton, “a great buddy of Paul Newman. So Paul comes to see Jimmy Naughton, and Jimmy asked me if I wanted to go out after the show.
“And I said, ‘Yes-s-s-s-s.’ So I just sat there for an hour. I was just all ears. I didn’t open my mouth. I was just thrilled to be in his company,” Wendt said.
“Then the waitress calls last call, and Newman sort of frowns. He gets up and goes over to the bar, and he orders 18 bottles of Beck’s and he comes back carrying 18 bottles of Beck’s on a cocktail tray to our table.
“He put it down next to me and says to me, ‘The waitress doesn’t think we can finish this before closing time.’
“So I get to sit there and pound Beck’s with Paul Newman,” he said.
Further proof that life sometimes imitates art.
Wendt is in town to play a zombie in the play “Re-Animator: The Musical.” It opened this week and runs through Jan. 18 at Troesh Studio Theater at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts.
Before Wendt was famous, he was “completely clueless about what to do with the rest of his life.”
To clear his head, he took the advice of a friend who said, “Then you go to Europe.”
Off Wendt went, with a backpack, sleeping bag, a tent and very little money.
“Truth be told, I was very, very budget-minded,” he said.
Wendt spent most of 1972 and 1973 touring Europe, returning to Chicago, his hometown, long enough to make enough money to head back across the Atlantic.
He and some college friends slept in open fields, on beaches and parks. They stayed in the southern regions — Spain, Greece and North Africa — to avoid cold weather.
“We’d roll into town, and I’d just go into the public baths with clothes on to wash my clothes, you know, in the shower, then take them off, wash myself and wring them off and put them back on wet. You couldn’t buy your way out of a bad situation,” he said.
A year after sating his wanderlust streak, he caught the theater bug.
From Second City, the legendary incubator of theatrical talent, he landed in “Cheers.”
That, he said, “was far too easy. If only the rest of show business was that easy.
“These guys were the best comedy writers in Hollywood,” he said. “They just handed me slam-dunk joke after slam-dunk joke. It was a dream come true. I just sat there. It was Babe Ruth. Every joke was upper deck.”
Ticket information: 702-749-2000 or the Smith Center websitesmithcenter.com.
ELVIS REMEMBERED
On what would have been Elvis Presley’s 80th birthday, members of Elvis’ inner circle shared stories during a two-hour segment Thursday with Alan Stock on KDWN-AM, 720.
Sam Thompson, a member of Elvis’ security team, brought up Joe Guercio, The King’s band leader from 1972 to 1977.
Guercio, who died Sunday at the age of 87, was watching “2001: A Space Odyyssey” with his first wife, Corky.
When the soaring theme song played, Corky leaned over to her husband and said, “Don’t you get the feeling that Elvis is about to walk out?’”
“Guercio got up and went back (to The International hotel) and played it for Elvis, and Elvis loved it,” Thompson recalled.
“Elvis said, ‘Let’s use a recording,’ and Joe said, ‘No, we’re not going to do that.’ ”
The music, from “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” became the iconic opening song during Elvis’ record-setting Las Vegas run.
Thompson was joined by Sam Grob, head of security; Cynthia Pepper, who kissed Elvis in “Kissing Cousins,” and Jimmy Velvet, a former singer who operated an Elvis memorabilia museum in Nashville, Tenn.
SIGHTINGS
Nicolas Cage, celebrating his 51st birthday with his wife, Alice Kim, on Wednesday at “Jubilee” (Bally’s). … Rock guitarist Carlos Santana and his wife, Cindy Blackman, at Vintner Grill on Wednesday.
THE PUNCH LINE
“In Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronics Show is going on. It displays new technology that makes you already hate the TV you bought two weeks ago for Christmas.” — Jimmy Kimmel
Norm Clarke’s column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 702-383-0244 or email him atnorm@reviewjournal.com. Find more online at www.normclarke.com. Follow Norm on Twitter @Norm_Clarke.
