http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/articles/2005/06/22/lifestyles_and_entertainment/c601.txt
'Lost in Space' robot Bob May to appear at Expo
By Tim Hudson
E-E County Reporter
One of the classic sci-fi television shows of all time was certainly
the perennial favorite "Lost in Space" and one of the beloved figures
from the show was the Robot played by Bob May.
May will be appearing at Trek Expo 2005 on June 24-26 at the UMAC -
John Q. Hammons Arena at 6836 S. Mingo in Tulsa. More information may
be obtained by logging onto www.starbase21ok.com or calling
918-838-3388.
Before May's appearance at the 2005 Trek Expo, Tim Hudson had the
opportunity to sit down with him. What follows is their conversation.
What reasons do you attribute the continuing success of "Lost in
Space?"
It was a family show that didn't bring a message, it just brought
entertainment plus everyone in the world wanted to be the robot
(laughs). It's nice you know it's the kind of show that when you have
children you don't have to concern yourself about what's on there so
there for you don't have to worry about what the children are watching
on TV. I know, I have a grandson and it's kind of neat in that respect.
It was made in the 60's right?
Yeah '65 through '68.
I think that it still has that kind of 50s holdover optimism, you know
it's a prosperous time, the space race is just beginning, people are
still looking forward to thing optimistically and not pessimistic,
Vietnam had not happened yet ?
Science fiction has always been ahead of its time, for instance the
backpack that John Robinson flew around in, that was from Bell
telephone and the real astronauts used a backpack similar to it to go
around and work in space, so we were really ahead of things. And of
course you had the comedy team of Smith and the Robot which very simply
is if you took all the great comedy teams in the entertainment
industry, rolled them into a ball and put them into space, then you'd
have Smith and the Robot.
And you don't get much better of a straight man than the Robot.
It worked very nicely because there were times that the robot was the
straight man and Smith was the comic and then there were times when
Smith was the comic and the Robot was the straight man. It was a
marvelous chemistry that happened between Jonathan and I and it
happened immediately.
>From what I have read about him it seems he was pretty well liked.
Let me say this about him ? Jonathan Harris was a superb actor, that's
number one, and he was a marvelous man and a superb actor. What I loved
about Jonathan was that he was a perfectionist, and he didn't stand for
people that wouldn't come in prepared for their days work, and this is
good, but he also was so good that as an actor your level of
performance became even better because of him, and I've been in the
business all my life. I was raised in the business with a theatrical
family.
I read that the first thing you did you were like two years old.
Yeah two years old! The first thing I did was with my family on
Broadway and my family being Chic Johnson of the comedy team Olson and
Johnson and from Hellzapoppin. My mother and father were both in it and
my grandmother. My dad was a big Broadway star with "Annie Get Your
Gun," and "Best Foot Forward" and everything like that.
Along those lines, how did it culminate in you getting the job as the
robot?
I was at 20th Century Fox for a motion picture and a casting man called
me and asked me to come up and see Irwin Allen so I did. Mr. Allen said
didn't you work for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and I said yes I
did sir.
The movie or the TV show?
The TV show. And so he said we're going to do a series called "Lost In
Space" and there's this part of a robot. He says I don't know what
we're going to do with it or what it can do so coming from Olson and
Johnson, I said yeah (laughs). I accepted it and he says there's only
one problem - you have to fit into the costume because it is almost
completed. So we went down to the mill at 20th and that's when I met
the designer Robert Kinoshita, a brilliant designer who also designed
Robby the Robot from Planet. Strangely enough, just to bring
up a bit of trivia the actor that played Robby, Frankie Darrow, he was
an actor from MGM studios. He grew up with my mom, so it just
culminated into a marvelous situation. I fit into the costume Mr.
Kinoshita said he fits into it fine and Mr. Allen said you've got the
job. So he gave me the job and looked at me sternly and said "make
something out of our robot will you Bob" and I did.
The first episode I had to walk it (the robot suit) and it weighed 300
pounds with me in it and I came out bloody. I was cut up all over the
place so Mr. Allen had the legs bolted together and from then on they
pulled me on cables. Sometimes I walked the outfit when I was in just
half of the costume in a parachute type harness. Even with cut off
legs, it weighed 250 pounds.
The most asked question I get asked however is "was it hot in there?"
I answer it the only way I know how and that is due to my comedic
background and that is that I am the only actor in showbiz that has had
his own Jacuzzi and sauna built into one. It was a marvelous thing
because Mr. Allen who was a genius, he really was, and how he was a
genius was simple because he knew how to put together an ensemble cast
of actors and technicians that would enhance each other and it was
marvelous because we really enhanced each other. And then Mr. Allen
went a stop father and he let Jonathan Harris and myself develop our
characters.
He would always say to Jonathan "do more" and with me he would love
what I did. He would ask me how do you do certain things? Well I
wouldn't tell him because I was a young kid in my 20s and I thought
that if he finds out how I do certain things he's going to replace me
so I didn't tell him.
Did the suit create problems ever? Did it fall over or anything like
that?
There was only one time that it fell over and it was a total accident.
We were going up the ramp into the spaceship and I said to the director
I'd really rather do it in the cut off legs, the Bermudas as I called
them because in the 60's Bermuda shorts were the big things. I said I'm
concerned because there were too many people on the ramp and he said
no, no, no, I want the full outfit and that was a mistake because when
they pulled me up one of the actors, I won't mention his name, Mark
Goddard, (laughs) stepped on the cable accidentally and it took up
slack and when he realized what happened he took his foot off and it
acted like a slingshot and I did a 360. I could have been killed. I
crashed down but that was the only time there was an accident because
the crew were so magnificent. Johnny Begazy and Bill Myett oh, also one
of the other crew guys that took care of me was Red Skelton's brother
Paul Skelton. They had that thing back in working order in 30 minutes.
Did Irwin use the same crew on all of his shows?
No, and the robot crew were specialized guys and they really took good
care of me except one time when Bill Mummy and Mark Goddard went to
them and pulled a prank on me. I had to be locked inside of there so
that anytime I would spin around or anything like that it wouldn't come
unattached. So I'm inside this thing and they convinced my guys to keep
me there for lunch. So everybody went to lunch and I'm inside this
thing, so I lit up a cigarette. So smoke was coming out of the collar
of the robot and Irwin Allen happened to walk on the set for some
reason and he sees this smoke coming out of the robot so he goes
running for a fire extinguisher.
I'm sure the robot was a fairly expensive piece of equipment.
It was and I told him no no it's only me Mr. Allen and I told him what
happened, so after lunch he told our special effects guy Stu Moody he
said "now listen that if smoke has to come out of the robot get Bob a
cigar."
They really watched over me that if it was too hot or too long they had
the right by Irwin Allen to stop shooting and get me air
Was it a fun set?
There was good fun, but there was a lot of work. Jonathan Harris and
myself would do about 15 , 16 pages of dialog a day and we shot a 7 day
shoot for a one hour show and we did what was called back to back which
meant that if we finished a show in Tuesday, Wednesday we would start a
new one. The schedule was very tight and usually is on television.
There were times when we would get the sillies, it happens. Bill Mumy
was superb too as a young kid, he never blew a line. We had an
excellent cast when you think about it.
I mean here was Guy Williams right from Zorro and he did features
before that and you had June Lockhart who was Jean Lockhart's daughter
you don't get much better than that, she was a Tony award winner, and
plus Lassie's mom. I just saw her the other day on the new show Vegas
with James Caan and James Caan plays this casino owner and everyone is
afraid of the casino owner and he is afraid of his mother
She seems so classy.
She is the quotation of what class is all about. She is just a lovely,
lovely lady who is so talented and she radiates a class all the time.
And then you have mark Goddard who came to us from the Detectives and
Johnny Ringo and then Marta Kristin did a lot of beach pictures. In
fact I did a beach picture with her. She was a mermaid and I was a
surfer. I think everyone in young actor Hollywood did beach pictures at
one time or another.
You did some Elvis movies.
I did two Elvis movies. I danced in "Jailhouse Rock."
Did you get to meet the man?
I did, I did, I also did Roustabout with him; he was a wonderful guy.
He was raised properly. My wife dated him before I knew her but I won
out because I'm shorter.
But he was always a gentlemen. Another one who I adore is Jerry Lewis.
You are in 9 Jerry Lewis movies?
I'm in Nutty Professor through Hardly Working. He's a dream of a guy
and I adore him. We also had Bill Mumy and I have praised him all the
time.
I loved him in the twilight zone, that is my favorite episode.
I did a picture with him called Palm Springs Weekend when I was at
Warner brothers and I didn't know him then but he was magnificent. Then
you had Angela Cartright with training from Danny Thomas, come on, and
then to the Sound of Music and then to us so we had something very
special.
So what was the feel on the set? In my opinion one of the best things
about the show is the production design.
Some of the aliens were coming from Voyage to Bottom of the Sea. Irwin
used everything, it was fun. We used two sound stages. One of my
favorite episodes was "war of the robots" where our robot went against
Robby. But I did the killing sequence the first day because Irwin
wanted to give me confidence to go on with the rest of the week. I got
Robby...
I smoked him- I went around and shot him in the butt. And then my other
favorite is "junkyard in space" which was our last one because that
showed the kids that a love for your family can conquer all.
Do you get a lot of kids coming up to you now?
I sure do, we're entertaining our fourth generation now. I've done
several TV shows and they finish and you're happy that you did them but
with "Lost in Space" we're in the record books in the history of
television. I was inducted into the television museum, what a thrill,
and my grandfather who is a major world star is not there but I am.
What do you think of the movie version of "Lost in Space?"
I'm going to be as nice as I can ? The thing is, it wasn't "Lost in
Space." "Lost in Space" was a family but it was a fun show.
Gary Oldman is a magnificent actor; I loved him in "Air Force One."
He's an academy award winner but he's not Jonathan Harris.
Exactly everybody in that case was magnificent but it wasn't "Lost in
Space." Call it any other title and it would have been great but trying
to do "Lost in Space," you know Irwin was too much of a genius and you
don't change a classic. That's like trying to change "The African
Queen." Irwin Allen knew what the public wanted and he gave it to them.
The movie they try to go into the dark side and there was no dark side
- it was all great fun and great family.
I agree with that, I think that's a good synopsis of the movie. It did
seem like it renewed some interest in the show.
What it did was drive everybody back to the classic. I mean they had
toys out there and our toys sold off the shelf and theirs are getting
cobwebs to this day.
So where is the robot now?
It hurts me to say this but my original costume was taken off the lot
at 20th century fox and sold to a private collector. I'm very proud of
this though. Our stunt robot, which was called that because that was
the robot that we put on wires when it was floated outside the
spaceship and when it was hung upside down in "junkyard in space" and
it was purchased by Paul Allen the billionaire and he honored us and
put it in his museum in Washington and he also has Robby there, too.
This man has done something wonderful because generations to come will
be able to see the robot. I'm really thrilled.
So what happened to the other one, it's just sitting in someone's
collection hidden away?
Yeah and that hurts. What I'd like to see and I'm sure if Irwin Allen
were alive it would be done and that is that the robot costume should
be in the Smithsonian next to Archie bunker's chair and Fonzie's
jacket. It deserves to be there. With all that said and done there is a
club that is worldwide that is called the B-9ers builders club that
builds their own robots. I have judged different contests where some of
theme have built robots and some of them are better than the one that I
wore.
from Dave Berry <memfiss99@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/toyslostinspaceandtime
http://www.geocities.com/memfiss99
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