Charming memory. Thank you.

Me too Chad, I Love the classics! Sadly, the reason we saw very little of our favorite stars, later in life, I that Hollywood always has valued youth and beauty over experience and talent.. The quality rolls just weren't there for older actors.

he was a dope

@@moncorp1 You are an asshole.

I hate spunk

Either drunk, or gay.

@@jeffw1267 both

no he is not He was always super chatty a real character

@@jeffw1267 no just a real character

Van would often get ugly when he was drunk.

I'm reminded of how people got so mad at Charles Grodin for how he would act on Carson and later Letterman. He would act like a complete asshole but it was a bit. The guy was uncomfortable being himself on a talk show so he did this over the top jerk that would be acerbic to the host. People thought it was the real deal without even thinking that if it were, the two shows would not consistently keep having him back. It made him one of the all time best guests, it was so funny.

@@Beeznitchio the best are the ones that challenge dave lol but like this or grodin where he can play off of - even Pekar.

True, it's just Van's "way of banter." But, it's awkward and unfunny, because he's not reading the audience or the host. His comments, while understood, are not catching on with Dave or the audience, yet he continues. When that happens, smart guests would pivot to Dave to re-direct the show.

That’s one way of looking at it. Another is calling him a Hollywood weirdo.

Yeah ... a lot like Paul Lynde XD.

He definitely has a stage presence! I like characters like him.

Come out? Of where???

That is because 99 percent of the audience did not know who Keenan Wynn ng.was.....they were too young.

robert szvetics Keenan Wynn's wife left him to marry Van, at Louis B Mayer's direction. Van needed to be married to forstall rampant rumors about his being gay

The woman was really a piece of work, Van being the honorable gentleman he was after their split. Paid her child support and the allotted money the court demanded he give her. But due to her mismanagement and bad luck in her later years, when she was virtually poverty stricken. She was forced to sell off her vintage wardrobe which she had always been known for. Blamed Van for her predicament full heartedly.

I bet 80 percent of the audience didn't know who Van was.

You're wrong. At the time, 1985, he was probably well known to the Letterman audience. His movies were on TV quite a bit and had been since the early 1960s. Limited channels on TV in those days. The audience applause on his entrance proves you wrong.

It's not really a talk show with Dave, if you want that watch Cavett on PBS

I kind of think they are both in on the bit. Maybe not 100% but they get each other and they allow each other to have these bizarre exchanges with an interest to the absurdity of it.

she was a beard. he was gay

Wynn & Johnson were gay or bisexual so they didn't mind who their former wife ended up with! Strange that Walt Disney fired child star Tommy Kirk for being gay but kept Wynn also gay.Note: Disney did hire Tommy back for at least one picture. Not prejudiced because you can't help what you are but to keep so many others as well hidden from fans etc for so long was amazing.

I'm 43, GenX. I TOTALLY AGREE

He got a lot of roles in the 40's when many stars were in the war.

Thanks! As soon as my You Tube "strike" is removed in October, I'll be able to post more than 15-minute clips, and with that, more compilations.

@@dongiller youtube is a lot worse now lol

The night I started watching the Letterman Show ended any chance of me getting a good night sleep in High School - I had to watch it every night. When he strung these stories together over multiple nights, I felt rewarded as a fan of the show.

I doubt anyone under 70 has seen any of his movies..

Thanks!

viviandarkbloom100 I think his daughter said he liked both.

Definitely, but what a delight! You don't stick around as long as he did for nothing.

INTERNETWORK: Triggered.

it takes one to know one!

@@captainactionman01: Right up there with "I know you are, but what am I?", the classic fallacy that confounds any 6-year-old who expects minimal logical thinking in his fellow man.

He doesn't look a day over 80

He was 69 or 70 in 1985.

A VERY GOOD ACTOR IN THE 1940S AND 50S

It was one of the first made-for-TV movies, from 1957; Claude Rains was hilarious as the mayor.

IsaDesOsiers dude... NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU THINK. You’re So wrong anyway

don't listen to her. i care! that's what happens when you let lesbians run loose on the internet.

He should have had Oliver Reed on at the same time. Those 2 together would have run the show.

Van was joking about being born in 1900. He actually was born in 1916 so he was 68 going on 69. I thought he was serious at first, but thought he looks no where near 85. I remembered he was good friends with Lucille Ball who was older than he, I had to google it myself to get dates.

Me too. ; he was beefcake back in the day. But, he was doing La Cage aux Folles at the time and no doubt was in the swing of it. Also, I think when people get older they get to a point where it just doesn't matter any more. In a good way; I'm there myself.

+worsley1 There were only two "Johnny Graham" shows on LN -- the one included here from October 5, 1989, and the other two weeks later on October 19. I haven't digitized that one yet. The Johnny Graham Show was a parody on "John's Cabaret," a Manhattan Cable show, with John Wallowitch, who took requests over the phone. John died in 2007.

have been in love with Van since I was a little girl, and now I am in my mid 70's........

awww

That was Gene Kelly who danced in Brigadoon. Van played his wingman.

That was pretty good.

Dave has admitted in the past that he was a jerk (Dave, not Van)

@@angelhairlaser i think maybe cher gave it away.

A bloody Mary and a beer.

Definitely liquored up.

A few drinks of LSD

He was a showman through and through. He had lost most of his hearing, but he was very aware of everything and extremely witty. David was a jerk here. Van Johnson was a longtime star with over 100 movies under his belt and he should have been more respected. This would have been a much better interview if it had been Johnny Carson interviewing him.

@@angelzap100 He definitely had a nip or two before coming out onstage. Dave did just fine. The only difference with Carson would have been one of power dynamics - everyone either respected or feared Carson because his viewership was enormous and he had this veto power over Hollywood. You should read Kenneth Tynan's portrait of Carson. That power changes things in how a subject and interviewer view and treat each other, but it didn't necessarily make Carson a better interviewer.

That's Van Morrison. Different people.

He should have performed with them in character as the Minstrel from Batman.

@Adam Donaldson Why what? He was (I imagine) very nervous, and afraid, so he was trying waaaaay too hard and the audience was not picking up what he was laying down. If he had slowed down the interview wouldn't have been so fucking ugly ... That's why.

prokesuk Now that was funny

Wiki has him in hospice care when he died in mid-December 2008 at 92. So it’s tough imagining him sitting at a bar then.

I did happen and i'll never forget it.it was in November 2 weeks three whatever.why would I lie.but I don't care whether you belive me or not.

I didn’t say I didn’t believe you. I said, “it’s tough imagining him sitting in a bar” while he was then in hospice care.

I couldn’t agree more. The more I see of him, the more I enjoy his talent--even when it might go awry!

The Johnny Graham sketch was a great way to wrap up the Van Johnson saga. "Why were you so mean to Van Johnson when he was on your show?" Classic Elliott bit.

p

Gall ery ... TELL US About Shirley McClain and Dave shell I never heard anything about that

I read his bio. He wasn't a pleasure chap with this family. Completely 180! ohnson married former stage actress Eve Abbott (May 6, 1914 - October 10, 2004) on January 25, 1947, the day after her divorce was finalized from actor Keenan Wynn. In 1948, they had daughter Schuyler. By this marriage, Johnson gained stepsons Edmond Keenan (Ned) and screenwriter Tracy Keenan Wynn. A statement by Eve was published after her death at age 90. She said MGM had engineered her marriage to Johnson to cover up his alleged homosexuality. "They needed their 'big star' to be married to quell rumors about his sexual preferences and unfortunately, I was 'It'-the only woman he would marry. In contrast to his "cheery Van" screen image, Eve claimed that he was morose and moody because of his difficult early life. She reported that he had little tolerance for unpleasantness and would stride into his bedroom and seclude himself at the slightest hint of trouble. He had a difficult relationship with his father growing up, and he was estranged from his daughter at the time of his death.[3]

@@KP-go4rp You should read the biography by Van's stepson, Ned Wynn, called "We Will Always Live in Beverly Hills". It's pretty good.

@@hensonlaura Thank you. Will do!

“They” aren’t; I am.

@@dongiller thanks for clearing that up. i wondered that, too. lol... i bet you've posted a lot of cool stuff over the years. ^5

That's Van Morrison.

Stan was the Man. Stan Musial.

@INTERNETWORK Craig Ferguson was the best by far, then Dave.

Dave won an Oscar for his cameo in Cabin Boy. Epic performance

But David could pound a pussy.

@AbsoluteTruth shut up you ignorant moron

@AbsoluteTruth you're a classic idiot.

I thought maybe it was because Joan Rivers voiced Letter Man on Electric Company.

@@TS-qq7vr it's a bird? It's a plane? No, it's...Letter Man!

Actually it was a reference to a picture he'd been in called"Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" which was about the Doolittle Raid just months after Pearl Harbor.