myBurbank Talks
Local Legends with Devin - Clint Howard
In a career spanning more than six decades, esteemed character actor Clint Howard has delivered a variety of fan-favorite portrayals. Two years ago, Clint and his brother, Ron Howard, together penned the New York Times bestselling book "The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family," in which they reflected on their unforgettable childhood journeys of show business and growing up in Burbank.
For this episode of "Local Legends," the Burbank native opens up about topics such as writing "The Boys," being guided by his parents, illustrious performers Rance and Jean Howard, playing local sports during his upbringing while being coached by Ron, and forming a new wave band in the early '80s, Clint Howard & the Kempsters.
Follow Clint Howard on Instagram @clinthowardoffical, and learn more about "The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family" here: https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/theboys.
In a career spanning more than six decades, esteemed character actor Clint Howard has delivered a variety of fan-favorite portrayals. Two years ago, Clint and his brother, Ron Howard, together penned the New York Times bestselling book "The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family," in which they reflected on their unforgettable childhood journeys of show business and growing up in Burbank.
For this episode of "Local Legends," the Burbank native opens up about topics such as writing "The Boys," being guided by his parents, illustrious performers Rance and Jean Howard, playing local sports during his upbringing while being coached by Ron, and forming a new wave band in the early '80s, Clint Howard & the Kempsters.
Follow Clint Howard on Instagram @clinthowardoffical, and learn more about "The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family" here: https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/theboys.
From deep in the Burbank Media District. It's time for another edition of my Burbank Talks, presented by the staff of my Burbank. Now let's see what's on today's agenda as we join our program.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone, this is Devyn Harrenda and you're listening to another episode of Local Legends with Devyn, a segment exploring the journeys of people from all walks of life who have ties to the city of Burbank. Our guest today is an esteemed character actor who was born and raised in Burbank. He's taken on a long list of memorable roles in many classic TV shows and movies and in 2021 he revisited his journey as he co-authored the New York Times bestseller the Boys a memoir of Hollywood and family, with his brother, ron Howard. We're very excited to have him here today. Welcome, clint Howard. How are you, clint?
Speaker 3:I'm real well, Devyn, and thank you very much. That's a wonderful intro.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I'm going to give a special shout out as well to your lovely wife, cat Howard, who's sitting in with us today not mic'd up, but we appreciate her so much too.
Speaker 3:You appreciate her, I really appreciate her, and she is the love of my life and you know, together we make quite the rock.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely Well, to begin with, I want to start with your parents. Lance and Jean Howard, both actors from Oklahoma, first went to the East Coast before coming to Burbank, where you were born.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that I mean mom and dad's journey was incredible and so American. They were both from Oklahoma and they both, independently, had dreams of being in the entertainment business, which back in the late 40s and early 50s the entertainment business was really still New York City and primarily Broadway and movies. So I know both. Like I said, my mom and dad did not know each other when they were kids and they actually met at the University of Oklahoma. Both of them were given the direction to go to OU and study in the drama department, and the drama department at OU has always been a really top flight operation and especially back then it was kind of the only game in the area If you wanted to know anything about. You know the business. You first got your feet wet at OU. So anyway, mom and dad met there and then they sparks flew and they ended up together and they went first to Nashville. Actually, the story as we, ron and I, investigated and wrote in our memoir the Boys, a memoir of Hollywood and family that they first went to Nashville looking for theater work and when their little stint in Nashville just ended up not being fruitful at all, they ended up deciding to go to New York City and they were there and they had my brother, ron. He was born in 1954.
Speaker 3:And by that point in 57 and 58, you know, the business kind of knew everything was shifting out towards Hollywood and in fact it was my dad's acting agent who told him you know, you ought to leave town, which my dad always used to joke about it. He was the only actor that he knew that had agents that said get out of town. But what he said, what he was telling dad, was go to Hollywood. There were a lot of westerns. My dad was by nature a cowboy, so the opportunity for my dad to go and work in television, in westerns, was something that you know he wanted to do and he migrated the family out in 1958.
Speaker 3:And, as the story goes, I was conceived in Las Vegas. My mom and dad and Ron were traveling from New York City to California and they were doing so good on their finances and everything that they decided to stop and lay it down in Vegas for a night. And you know the old expression of what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Well, that's not quite true, because I ended up. I ended up being born in Burbank, california, about nine months later.
Speaker 2:And in addition to their talent, your parents were really well loved, well respected in the community and I know they shared a lot of wisdom with you. What are some values that they imparted that have really served you well?
Speaker 3:Wow. Well, a major, major value and it's not so much a value, it's just a position in life is that show business is just a job. You know what Ron and I did when we were children was just, we had a job. You know, like, like kids had paper routes and some kids would work at their parents' restaurants. You know mom and dad, both they had the mentality that, yes, you know, the entertainment business is a wonderful place to earn a living, that's all it is. You know the fame associated with it and the notoriety associated with it is just is something you have to deal with to earn a living. So, anyway, you know that idea of show business is great, but it's not my life. My life is my life, you know, with, with our family, and you know so anyway, they, that's number one.
Speaker 3:So you know my dad, rantz Howard, who absolutely was the light for me. He was my best friend for years and years and years and he was my go to guy in a lot of areas. He wasn't much for imparting wisdom, but he did share a lot of his experiences, and one experience that my dad had was he was not intimidated by anybody. There was not, and that was just something that came natural to him and he didn't do it with force or he didn't do it himself with intimidation, but in fact he could get in a room when he was 30 years old and and Ron was starting to work as a little actor and in fact when dad was, dad was 32 years old when Ron was on the Andy Griffith show and there's a wonderful story in the book about this and I really would encourage people who are interested in me and interested in my brother and our family and how we sort of came to Hollywood and survived Hollywood would be, to read the boys you can also. You can read it. Or now, of course, for people that you know get a little lazy about reading, you can get an audio book where Ron speaks his words and I speak mine and, as my wife proudly says, you know, ron is sort of an orchestral symphony when he speaks and I'm kind of like a rock and roll jazz band and it shows. It really comes off in the audio book that and it comes off in the book, ron. Ron has his opinion about things. I have my opinion. Ron has his position about what he saw when he was growing up and I have a slightly different take on things and that's something that you know. We we allowed that to be part of the narrative of the book. So, anyway, we the story, the stories in the book about dad. Oh, here it was. It was about dad not being intimidated.
Speaker 3:Very early on in the Andy Griffith show they were writing opi to be really bratty. Now, that came from the fact that on the Danny Thomas show, which was sort of the granddaddy of the Andy Griffith show it was that it was under the same umbrella Danny Thomas was a very powerful man and he was the one that originally sort of endorsed and sponsored Andy Griffith to get a television show. But they were writing opi bratty because on the Danny Thomas show, danny son and played by a young little actor named Rusty Hamer, he was really bratty and it got laughs and everybody seemed to really enjoy it. But dad brought up the point very early on. That said, you know, you might be able to get jokes, you might be able to get laughs, writing opi to be a bratty little kid.
Speaker 3:However, I think you're selling yourself short. I think that the better way to build the relationship is have it be honest Now. Here was a 32 year old man from Oklahoma who had no business speaking at all around these people, but he wasn't intimidated and he did it in a really honest, noble way and and that's one thing that I, you know, I take with me all the time is no matter how sometimes I feel like I'm kind of in a pickle or I feel like I'm in a situation that could be intimidating. It's just no. Speak your mind, be honest, stand for what you believe in and you know. Then your rents out for a moment.
Speaker 2:And going specifically to the boys, it has a great mix between you and Ron, a lot of interesting anecdotes throughout and then that foundation of family. What was the process like for you revisiting your story and writing the boys? Oh, I loved it.
Speaker 3:I love the whole process of writing a book and you know, first of all, you know we were, we hadn't created a nice deal, but you know, we went around and shopped around and we found a publisher who was interested in publishing the book and by the time all that got done, we were in a pretty good position of saying, yeah, they're going to like this, this is going to be good. So you know, Ron and I let me speak for myself I really enjoyed dipping back and it meant a lot to me, especially at that point in my life. I was, you know, 60 years old and and I just felt like it was an opportunity for me to put some stuff on the record. And also another thing too. You know, dad had died, Dad had passed away, and so it was a mom had been gone for quite a long time and Ron and I both felt like we needed to do something to memorialize their efforts, and a book seemed very logical. And in fact, Ron and I, throughout the last 10 or 15 years of dad's life, we were cajoling him into writing a book himself. We thought, dad, everybody wants to know. Why don't you write a book? It would be great, People would love it.
Speaker 3:And my dad was a writer. But my dad, he was a writer but he didn't have any interest in writing nonfiction. My dad was a storyteller and you know he wrote scripts and plays but he didn't have any interest in doing a book about being a child actor whisperer. So anyway, you know, after dad passed, it seemed like it was the thing to do, but also to boy that that was about the time that I fell in love with cat and and we came together as a family and then it became he was in the middle of COVID and she was really an incredible boost and support and a foundation for me to continue, on a day in and day out basis, to write.
Speaker 3:You know Now, yeah, I probably would have written the book one way or another, because we did have a deal with the publisher and one way or another it wasn't going to get written. But but my relationship with Kat was, you know, I am immensely helpful and more than just helpful, but the support is something that you know I've always wanted and now I'm getting it. I'm 64 years old, but that's okay, I'm getting it and I'm loving it.
Speaker 2:Very sweet. Another big takeaway from the book too, is how your dad Rance was such a strong mentor with acting and he didn't really instruct at all in a way that would be a child actor just reciting lines, performing, but really taught the emotional elements of scenes and about preparation. What kind of mentorship did he provide in that sense, in regards to acting or the business?
Speaker 3:Well, you really nailed it, Devin. I mean, that's all and in a nutshell, it's not all that complicated and in fact over the years, you know kids and kids, as parents, have asked me about acting and you know I've never really been interested in being a teacher. However, I certainly can sit down and tell somebody, you know, kind of what I was taught, and it's pretty simple. First of all, you got to be prepared, especially as a youngster, and that's one thing that dad really encouraged, and mom too. I mean now we're going to talk a lot about dad when it comes to the acting, because he was the one that took care of the boys, you know. But mom was, you know, awesome. Mom was, was PTA mother and you know she was the PTA president and and she you know, for years and years that her thing was just glue for the family here in Burbank. But as far as the acting, being fully prepared, I always felt like as a child, from the ages of, you know, four or five years old, when I can really start remembering moments of me as an actor all through my, you know, teenage years, I was the most prepared guy on the set. When I was seven or eight years old. I came to the set knowing I knew my stuff. I knew what I was supposed to do, I was prepared, dad and I had done homework that's what we used to call it in the sit down and do homework for about an hour, which is learn not the words, but why the scene is happening and why the character is doing what he's doing.
Speaker 3:Motivation is the number one thing about acting is knowing, as a kid, building a character, knowing what this character wants in that moment, what his intentions are, and and you know, with that he's got motive of how's he behaving to get what he wants, because everybody in life wants something at a given moment and then so. So then you as an actor, you figure out well, what. What is that? And when I was a kid it was as simple as you think. You're going into the kitchen to get ice cream. Is that? Is that why you're entering the scene? Is because you want to get ice cream, maybe saying something else, but what you really want to do is get ice cream, and and you know. So, those kind of little, little lessons and motives that dad, dad, kind of laid out for me to grasp and it was all very simple Was something I still to this day when I break down characters. I have slide.
Speaker 3:I've evolved a little bit in terms of developing what I do as a living, but it still comes down to the same thing as develop what. What's the guy's motivation for being there, what's he thinking and where does he want to go? You know, because everybody's always thinks they got to go somewhere, and those kind of things are just the simple little little processes that dad taught both Ron and I very early on. Also, another thing that he was always big on Maybe it was especially important for children, but is to listen. He really was always saying no, listen, listen.
Speaker 3:So inherently I built up that that you know kind of thing of of look somebody in the eye and listen. Now, sometimes my wife will take exception to that thing, because sometimes she she claims that I don't listen to her quite like I should, and I think she's right. And you know, dave, I'm. You know when I'm, when I'm day to day, moment to moment, living with you, I'm not acting. It's not an acting job. That's a little different, but anyway, you know. So then, there you go. I've spent about you know three or four minutes talking about acting and I, if I charge somebody money for that, I would feel embarrassed.
Speaker 2:You obviously started so young. From your earliest memories, what have been your favorite parts of that process of taking on a role?
Speaker 3:When it's over, when it's over, and I have no problem shedding a character. Now this goes on into adulthood and I've obviously played a lot of really twisted, twisty, complicated people, from from, you know, funny kind of nerdish people to psychopaths, to people that don't know right from wrong, and you got to sort that as an actor to build that. But you know it, it my experience is like, for instance, in particular, I was working on a movie called evil speak, which evil speak has a lot of really dark themes, like this kid is so beaten down, he gets possessed by a demon and he ends up, you know, cutting people's heads off and causing horrible, horrible mayhem. And I was 20 or 21 years old when I did that job and I got, I remember, going into some pretty dark places as a, as a person, developing that character. And yet you know what, when they did the last shot of the day and I wrapped, you know I could get out of that skin in in a minute or two. And every once in a while I'll hear about an actor who says they have a hard time, they have a hard time shaking that, that character, that dude. You know the bell rang. You know the day's work is over, go home, flip on ESPN, put your feet up and relax, and I've seemed like I've been able to do that.
Speaker 3:And another thing Listen, this may go back to me being in gentle been and my connection with animals, because, you know, I was introduced to bears when I was about six or seven years old and and I've been blessed to have an opportunity to be around a lot of animals, not circus trained animals, just animals that have been equipped with the tool of being able to get along in society. And I mean I mean nobody's ever put me into it, nobody ever put me into a situation with an animal is feral or an animal that you know, everybody knows doesn't really want to be there. But I I've gotten to be around these animals and I love animals and I've always been a cat person. My very first pet was a cat that I had named been. After we did the movie gentle giant, you know, and I've been wanting an animal. I was that age, I was seen as seven years old, I wanted a pet. And finally, after we finished with the first run of the gentle been, dad, let me get a pet. And he was a big white cat and I named him been, and so that started my love affair with animals on a really deep level.
Speaker 3:Because when you have a pet, you know, god, I did, you know, I know I cry a lot, but I can still remember the times that I've had to say goodbye to my pets, you know, and it's a horrible, horrible moment. I know it's not horrible, it's emotional. I mean, the little critters only live 10, 12, 15 years. Sometimes they live longer and sometimes a little critter only lives five or six years. It's just the way God made it and you got to say goodbye to him. Anyway, right now in our, in the Howard family, we've got some cats that I just truly, truly love.
Speaker 3:I'm that guy that, instead of whipping out his phone and showing pictures of his grandchildren or whatever, I I whip out my shot, my phone and show pictures of our cats. You see an auto G and anyway they're. And we have other animals, we're big family and I don't know I just get something from animals that there's the simplicity of them, the you know, the look. As we go, as we're here, everybody's flashing pictures of their animals. I just love it. So anyway, you know that was just taking a step back. You know that helps me shed. I can't. What am I going to do? Go home from a day of work, having done a character that you know might not be the nicest guy in the world, and look down at my cat, who wants nothing more than a little attention and maybe a little treat. And what do you want me to do? Bna, hold a him, you know, heck no. So between just what's happened in my life and then the circumstances that I've set up as far as shedding the skin of a character, you know I'm pretty easy.
Speaker 1:So, listen.
Speaker 3:It all spun from that initial question what do you like most about it? I like it when job well done, the day's work is done and that's it. We're done, it's a job. It's a job. I've delivered the last paper of the day and I can go home and now read the paper going a little bit into the Burbank element of the boys, because that's mentioned a lot Obviously.
Speaker 2:For a time when you and wrong were younger a little bit in your childhood you were on a house on Cordova Street and I think Ron mentioned that you still keep in touch with some people from the neighborhood. What was it like growing up on Cordova?
Speaker 3:Oh, listen, I was very little. I was, you know, I didn't. Let's see, I lived there until I was about six years old and then, and then we moved to a house over in the Toluca Lake area and my memories of, you know, being a kid really happened there. But the Cordova, the Cordova Street boys mostly they were friends of Ron's. He had a little pack of like three or four guys that he hung around with and they were all nerds. Ron was a nerd.
Speaker 3:I mean, ron was a classic first child, probably overprotected, you know, he. He was experiencing things for the first time and, listen, being a child actor is unique. I had the wonderful, I had the wonderful position of having watched my, my brother and Ron and I have always been intimately close with each other, I mean my very. One of my first memories of my, of my being, is me laying on his back in the hallway of that Cordova Street house, right next to the, to the floor heater, and he was reading. Remember he was, you know, I was probably four years old when I had this memory and so that he was nine. He was beginning to read the sports section and he would read to me like that Morey Wills had two hits in a stolen base and you know Ron Fairley hit a home run and in Sandy.
Speaker 3:Kofack struck out 14 guys and I remember being on his back listening to all this, and so we we have, you know, we've always had a really, really intimate, intimate relationship and so so when I started acting, I started acting when I was two years old and then really became, I mean, a working actor by the time I was four, working on the fugitive and please don't eat the daisies and the Rato and all these different television programs I was beginning to work on. I saw Ron navigate the dynamic of. You know, ron was sort of leading the way and I was. You know, I was sort of there watching and I wasn't going to let the business turn me into a nerd, I wasn't going to let the business intimidate me, so I just had to. You know, Ron was the first and I really.
Speaker 3:In fact, we had a chance to go to a Dodger game not that long ago and and we had a chance to do a little talking. It's awful, awful noisy now at the stadium. I mean, I love going to the ballgame but they pipe so much damn music. Somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody ain't like Helen Dell at Dodger Stadium, oregon anymore. So but anyway, we had a chance to talk and I told them I go kind of you, know you really what you did being the first child breaking into the business? And I mean you also. I mean mom and dad, they were better. They were better parents of a child actor to me than they were to Ron, because they were very, they were way overly protective of of well, they were overly protective of both of us. But in going back and doing a little psychology, I mean, listen, my mom was of the era of the Charles Lindberg kidnapping and she was a product of that and that was huge. Back then, when Charles Lindberg's baby got kidnapped and killed, you know that left an impression on on everybody and the fact that Ron and I were both public figures now as little kids, they really kept their eye on us, you know, and you know they were protecting us and they did it. They did it a great way. They, you know, maybe, listen, in retrospect they may have could have smothered 10 percent less, but I would rather have them have been who they were than than non-existent parents or parents that somehow got.
Speaker 3:That's another thing about the, about my mom and dad. They did not get intoxicated by the business, you know, when they started being around important people, when they were around. You know, powerful people. It didn't change them, it didn't make them drunk. You know, and I don't mean with liquor, I just mean with, with, with stars in their eyes. And they go oh, the famous famous no, that was not mom and dad, they just you know which. I've seen fame do that to people. I've seen the idea of fame is really mess with people's thinking. You know it's as if they've taken a shot at tequila. Their thinking isn't as good. You know, if you get a little drunk, your thinking's not going to be quite as good. You got to accept that and, for whatever reason, they didn't get drunk on show business. So you know that I'm grateful.
Speaker 2:You went to local schools. You went to Stevenson Elementary, jordan, now to Lewis, where it's a school, and then boroughs. I want to go to Steve Campbell because I know you studied journalism under him at Jordan, and can you tell me a bit about his impact on you?
Speaker 3:Oh, boy Devin, with just a little bit of thought we could do an hour on Mr Campbell. Steve Campbell was an educator that by far and away. I didn't have any teacher that was anywhere close to Mr Campbell. It's hard for me to call him Steve, he just he passed away a couple of years ago and you know, I always knew Steve. Steve always liked me. Steve had a nickname for me, called. He called me Stardust and because I was a working actor when I was in in in the US I was a when I was a journalism student at Jordan Junior High School and he was teaching, I had become the editor of the yearbook. At the time it was Jordan Junior High School and I was voted the by the by the journalism department. I was voted the yearbook editor and then I got a TV series. So I missed. I had to have a co-editor and I wasn't around a lot and and you know so.
Speaker 3:But anyway, mr Campbell taught tremendous amount of discipline in not a military way but in kind of a way of of. There's an expectation If you're going to write a story, it's going to be good, you're going to do it correctly and there's a correct way to write a lead. I mean, my dad had been. My dad was a fledgling professional writer. You know, a screenwriter At the time. You know I was, you know the VAT age. He had written episodes of television shows. He had written. He had written episodes of the Flintstones, which is kind of funny If you go back and look at the credits of the Flintstones, my dad, I think he wrote like five episodes of the Flintstones.
Speaker 3:But anyway, you know, mr Campbell taught me how to, how to write a lead. He also he also taught me the basics of journalism, which is, you know, not just the writing of the lead but asking the questions that help you build the lead. You know I was really. He sparked my, he sparked my interest in writing to the point where there was that point when I was 16 or 17 years old and I had been an actor.
Speaker 3:You know, by that point for you know, 13, 14 years, I started when I was two that I go, well, maybe I want to do something else with my life, and if I was to ever do anything else with my life, it would probably be a sportswriter. And then I'd love to, you know, put a notepad in the back pocket, in my back pocket, and go down to the ball yard and, and, and you know, watch the game and talk to the participants and then, you know, come about 1030 at night, it's time to come up and write your story. You know, I understood all about it. I understood about being a stringer even, you know. But listen it, I love doing it, and he was the one that sparked it.
Speaker 1:Now, later, on in my life.
Speaker 3:I, you know, we, we not just we became friends. I mean, he was a wonderful guy and he actually was sort of on the periphery of the entertainment business himself in a couple of different ways and I want to go into a lot of detail about that, but we just, in fact, I'll tell you what. No, he knew, he, he, he stayed friends with. There was a model named Renee Rousseau who ended up becoming an actress and she went to Jordan and and Mr Campbell had been sensitive to her issues in life and he encouraged her when no one else was encouraging her, and then within a two year period, she was on the cover of Vogue. I believe she made Vogue. I think she made the cover of Vogue when she was 17 years old. Renee Rousseau and Mr Campbell had had her when she was a 14 year old student at Jordan, but anyway, I had.
Speaker 3:Steve was such a good dude and then, you know, getting to be there for him as a friend later in his life when he was going through the process of, of getting tired and and and he, he was beginning to develop little signs of dementia, which you know Mr Campbell was such a sharp guy, was such a bright guy, was that? That when he he really could notice losing little pieces of his mind? And yeah, you know this is the time Kat and I had fallen in love, got married and Kat made sure that Mr Campbell and I would always go and hang out you know we take him to dinner or he'd come over and hang out by the pool and our daughter, rafi was, was you know, being tutored in various areas. Although we never had Mr Campbell tutor Rafi, it was she got to be around him a little bit. And again, steve was a wonderful guy and I miss him and I think about him all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he is a beautiful legacy. You're in Burbank.
Speaker 3:You. I don't believe that. First of all, he, you know he, he taught people's grandchildren. He was, he was an educator long enough. And also, I have a dear, dear friend, gig Kariaku, who's a mediator now and we both had Mr Campbell when we were in the seventh grade and he developed an affinity for Mr Campbell and, and, I think, steve, vice versa. And when it was time for gigs kids to go through Jordan, he made a point. In fact, one reason why gig didn't send his kids to private school is he wanted to send them into the Burbank school system so they could go and be with one of Campbell's kids.
Speaker 3:And by the time gigs kids were grown or were of age, he had moved over to Burroughs High School. He was an honors English teacher at Burroughs, still very demanding and listen, he was demanding to me. He, his, his expectations of me, even as an adult, were high. And it just like I, just in thinking about him right now, devin, I'm straightening my spine, which you know. Wow, what a, what a wonderful legacy If a man can do that for you.
Speaker 2:You also mentioned sports journalism and how that was a passion. You played local sports, ron coached you, he coached your basketball team, the Howard's Hurricanes, and you played baseball at Burroughs as well. So what role did Burbank and local sports play in your upbringing?
Speaker 3:Well, it gave me a lot of very healthy things to do. After I heard the word rap, you know, if I, if I, shed the clothes of being an actor, well then I got to put some other clothes on. The clothes that I really like to put on was that of a ball player, you know, with football over the line at Stevenson, because Stevenson Elementary School had this great summer school program where there was a bunch of kids that would get together and it was just a daily barrage of over the line, sack it. You know, soft ball, when we could get it organized to play a full game, all sorts of stuff. You know, and I've always been a huge, huge sports guy. I like the, I like the relief of it, I like to make the activity of it. I was a pretty good ball player. I pitched in high school. I was a two year varsity pitcher and of course, I played in Parkley Baseball. I played in Toluca Lake Little League. You referred I think you referred to the times that when Ron was coaching me and my buddies, the Joe Taylor's and Phil Bertolies of the world, dan Myers, kevin Edward, scott Green, all my teammates on the Howard's Hurricanes, ron was our coach. He's five years older than us, so this is all in the age of. We were 10, 11, 12, 13 years old. Ron coached us and he was a great coach.
Speaker 3:As a you know, coaching and directing are very similar. Directing a movie is very much like coaching the movie. You have to devise a strategy to best use all the people that you've hired to make the movie. You now have to develop a plan that gets the most out of them, because that's what you got you got. You got talent. If you're a director making a movie, you're. You get to assemble a group of people that are going to help you make that movie.
Speaker 3:The movie business is all about teamwork. You can you can talk about the great actor who's on the poster of the movie. You can talk about the great director who's the genius, but it is an entire team. It's how good does the sound department handle their job? How good do the grips handle their job? How smooth do the makeup people get the actors in and out of the makeup trailer in the morning? It all is a you know. And if it's well oiled like if a coach can make a team well oiled and get the most out of their players that's good, and Ron had that knack.
Speaker 3:And I'll tell you one thing Ron did and I think he still does it. You know, maybe not consciously, but he does do it and I remember I noticed him doing it very early in his career. He would go to the different departments, like he would go to the makeup room once in a while in the morning and he would check in and say hi, as the director, say hi and ask the makeup team Is there anything you guys need there? Any is? Is you know what would make your job better? He would do the same thing to the prop man. He would go into the prop truck and say hey, how's everything going? Are you guys anything going on? That's negative. You know he'd always, kind of on a micro level, go in and try to coach up his crew members and you know that's how you do it. There's a story that Ron tells in the boys too.
Speaker 2:And I wonder if you remember this game. But he mentioned a game where he was coaching I believe that Howard's Hurricane and the opposing team was coached by a then Parks and Rec administrator, bill Burton. His son, future director Tim Burton, was on the opposing team, so it was kind of the Howard lead team versus the Burton lead team. Do you remember the game? Oh yeah, what are your memories of it?
Speaker 3:Well, listen, the team up on the hill, because that's where they were from. They had, they had Tim Burton, they had another guy named Mitchell Prizzi and then they had another pretty tall guy. So they were, they were coming in with this gigantic front line Because at the time Tim was a big boy. He was a big, gangly boy I don't recall him ever really being able to damage us, but he just in sheer size. It was an issue and we really took it upon ourselves. We were smaller, wiry, and we felt it to it. We felt it like it was a challenge to go out and play. We felt it like it was a challenge to go after them and their size. And we did. We beat them. I mean, I'm sorry, I mean I feel bad. I you know, tim, I beat your ass, but we did that day.
Speaker 3:And and listen, I you know, tim was wonderful to my dad. Tim hired my dad a few times. One of my dad's best jobs, most memorable moments, was in a movie that Tim Burton directed, and it was. It was the one that Johnny Depp was in. It was uh, oh, boy, about Edward, and my dad played the investor of Edward's movie and they finally found a guy from Texas that was going to loan him some money to make a movie and he took and my dad gave this great speech about how his son might be a little slow. Something tells me he's going to be a fine leading man and the next thing you know you cut to the shot in this dumb kid from Texas is the star of Edward's movie. So anyway, you know, I think Tim Tim hired Ron, uh, hired dad three times and I haven't had a chance to work with him and I'd love to sometime. I he's a very talented guy and he did come from Burbank.
Speaker 3:You know there's another Burbanker, michael Lanieri, who won an Academy Award. In fact Michael Lanieri won an Academy Award before Ron did and it was a because Michael got into the special effects business. Michael had a little brother named Lou and they were longtime Burbank guys and and Michael was a young filmmaker and then he went into the business and got into the special effects business and ended up winning an Academy Award doing the special effects on Jurassic Park. And then so Michael counts, michael Lanieri counts as a, as a guy kind of you know, let's not get silly Clint, but kind of on the Mount Rushmore of Burbank entertainment people. And there you go. Maybe I'm on the Mount Rushmore. I might be not quite on the Mount Rushmore, maybe kind of off to the side. You know on that hill that nobody sees.
Speaker 2:I say Mount Rushmore, okay, um, I also wanted to ask you about music. Okay, in the early eighties you formed a band, clint Howard and the Kempsters, with some local friends, I believe, um, and your, uh, new Wave punk group.
Speaker 3:You got that right and I'll tell you what they're right. Me and my friend, scott Green, uh, we, we started a band. I was 21 years old and and he had, he had taught himself how to play the guitar and he encouraged me to be the singer and I couldn't sing a lick, but I certainly, I certainly had a robust nature of shouting the lyrics and we were kind of punky. We were a punky New Wave act and, yes, in fact we did. Uh, uh, we rehearsed at 920 Kemp Street. That was the house that I bought from with the gentle been money and I was young, and it was like the Burbank Youth Center. We had the drum kit set up in the living room, we had a PA system set up and I don't know, you know, once or twice a week the neighbors could all listen to the Kempsters play and it was, you know, good memories. Although at the time Burbank didn't have any place for us to play, we played, you know, other places around town and and in fact we had a couple of bandmates who lived down in Orange County and we grabbed some gigs down there in Orange County and we grabbed some gigs down there in Orange County and the good memories and it was fun.
Speaker 3:We had a lot of success for three years, although I'll tell you what the way Scott and I thought about the music is. We really wanted to do it our way. We really didn't care about trying to conform. So the couple of times that we made stabs at taking our music to the business the business, they listened. We had a couple of record. People listen and said it's pretty good, but you should be a little bit more like the B-52s. Or oh, I like that sound, that sound. It's like can you do that?
Speaker 3:And we just simply told the people no no, we're doing our music and you know I hope that you guys support it, but we don't wanna conform. You know, that's one thing I really felt like about music back then in the 80s is there was always a sound that people were chasing and in my opinion that's the wrong way to look at it. You gotta create your own sound, because if you're chasing something you're always gonna be behind. But anyway, you had a good time. And then after three or four years it became painfully obvious that it's, you know, not the healthiest business to be in. You know, there's a lot between the five o'clock sound check and showtime at 10 o'clock at night. There's a lot of idle time, and idle time for a young man is always not the best thing For young men. They were old enough to buy liquor, right, it was fun.
Speaker 3:And listen the Kimsters. It's Clint Howard and the Kimsters. It's in fact on YouTube. If you type in Clint Howard and the Kimsters, there's a couple of videos that were cut together later, much, much later. That show us, show me is the lead singer and it's always a hoot, always puts a smile on my face. And there's also there's a CD out there that got kind of privately done and it's a lot of our music and they're around. When I go do autograph shows or go do conventions, I'll usually bring a couple of CDs with me and if I see the right person that might be a fan, we'll either give them one or God. Sometimes everyone wants somebody actually buys one, which is amazing that people are spending money on the Kimsters.
Speaker 2:And now I understand your daughter's formed her own band, local group.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, listen Katnai's daughter Rafi. She has three other friends and they're all like in the around 14 years old and the name of their band is R August and I've watched them in the last year go from like you guys are gonna have a band. You guys, really, you're 13 years old, you wanna have a band.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:You know, got him a drum set. And, by the way, you know I talk about how the Kimsters played in the living room. Well, r August is playing in the living room of R House. So I guess we are the owners of the rehearsal studio and it's a blast watching them. And you know it blows me away because you know they put it together. It's amazing how they put it together.
Speaker 3:They do mostly covers, they do do a few originals, they're very systematic about their rehearsal and they make an effort to rehearse every week. Although now with kids everybody's got so many activities. I mean it's amazing how kids' schedules now are just completely jam packed and every once in a while it collides and they can't rehearse. But they're rehearsing on a weekly basis and they've got some gigs lined up. And you know I want them, I want it to be, I want it to be a good experience for them.
Speaker 3:So I don't want to throw them to the wolves Cat doesn't want to throw them to the wolves, but we want to sort of get them out there and let them do their thing and let them have that experience, because I'll tell you, the couple of times they have played in front of an audience they have come off the stage beaming and you know I'm a little late to the parenting game and there is like almost nothing better in the world when your child is beaming, there is that satisfaction, you know. The only thing is the opposite of that is very painful, you know, when there's no beaming, but boy, after they play these 14-year-old kids, man they got. It's such a good vibe. It's such a good vibe and I can see, you know, it's kind of an elixir for me, because being around them is, you know, I don't want to say it makes me young, but I don't know, it's just a good vibe.
Speaker 2:That's so fun. We're excited to see what's next from them.
Speaker 3:Yes, our August Cool. Look for them in a record store real soon.
Speaker 2:That's right. You've, throughout your career you've attended fan conventions or conventions, autograph signings, and I'm sure you hear many positive comments from fans along the way. What does it mean to you now to hear about how your work has touched people?
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, it means a lot more to me now than it did 20 years ago. And you know, I've had an evolution of my thoughts about people that come up to me and want to claim their appreciation for me For a long time. I didn't believe it For a long time, when people would come up to me and show their appreciation. You know well, okay, what's in it for you, why are you doing this? And it wasn't until I probably was, you know, in my early fifties that I really began to understand. I don't know exactly why it happened. I kind of remember the day that it happened that I really felt like, no, these people are really earnest. They really they have experienced what I've done for a living and it has affected them. You know, and I'll tell you when it was, it was in North Carolina, and an Andy Griffith Show tribute weekend that they do, they still do it. It's called Mayberry Days and it's in Mount Airy, north Carolina, and they've been doing it for years and years and years and they come together over the course of a week and they do a celebration of the Andy Griffith Show, and they've invited me to come a few times, and there was one particular case where there was an event where it was a Q and A and then they put together some video of me, my few clips that I did on the Andy Griffith Show and the questions and answers. The questions, the questions were, I don't know, they just hit me that day. These people really care and I can see it now.
Speaker 3:You know I have had an effect on people. It's gotta be weird for people. You know they saw me when they were little. I mean, most people that you know we're talking about are now. You know people that come up. They go from ages of, you know, 35 and 40 to my age and over, but they remember me when I was little, when they were little, and now they see me. Now and I'm 64 years old, I got a gray beard and you know very little gray hair and it's a.
Speaker 3:I do understand it and I guess I would be the same way. I am the same way, excuse me around athletes. You know an athlete that I grew up watching. You know I had an opportunity to hang out with a few of my idols. I had an opportunity to meet and he's passed away. He passed away about last year but there was a baseball player that played for the Dodgers and he played for the Baltimore Orioles and his name was Tommy Davis and, for whatever reason, when I was 10, 12 years old, I just thought Tommy Davis was the bomb.
Speaker 3:You know, and one reason why I thought he was the bomb is he went from the Dodgers to my favorite team, the Baltimore Orioles, and he played for the Baltimore Orioles for several years and I was at a charity golf tournament I guess it's been about 10 years ago and I ran into him. He was at the Lenny Wilkins charity golf tournament and I geeked out so bad when I knew that was Tommy Davis. I had never met him and I made a point of going over and talking to him and the guy you know, he was just a baseball player but the guy was built like a tank. He's a big, huge, giant guy and had a great smile on his face and he could tell or not he could tell, I could tell he was genuinely excited that I was excited.
Speaker 3:So if that connection, if that connection, you know, is with fans, I love it and I love going to the conventions. I really do. My wife and I we go and there are times I get worn out to travel. You know we travel across the country. We will go to New Jersey and then two weeks later we go to Philadelphia. You know that can wear me out, but then meeting the people and generationally seeing the effect that I've had because you know I've entertained literally a couple of generations of Americans- and a hobby of yours that I love hearing about is, of course, making snow globes.
Speaker 2:How many of you made? Do you know how many of you made now?
Speaker 3:Well, I've made I don't know 23 or 24. There's a couple that didn't make it. I mean, listen, they're glass and they break. They break in transit, the it's hard to fly them because when they get up to altitude I mean it's just, it's not dangerous, but it's just hard to pack and if they're not packed right they will break. But I made a bunch. I've only made one in the last couple of years and that was to honor a couple of cats that I owned and they were a couple of sisters, lucy and Ethel, that they both passed away and Kat got to, kat got to meet both Lucy and Ethel and especially Ethel, because Ethel lived a few more years and she finally passed away and I made a snow globe about them.
Speaker 3:But I'm we're, I'm poised and in fact it's a wee thing now we're poised to do another batch of snow globes because my wife and I are gonna have kind of an anniversary wedding celebration and we cause we got married in COVID and we really didn't have to, we didn't do anything except, you know, get married by a guy that looked like Elvis in Las Vegas and we had a great time in Vegas. It was a great marriage in Vegas. But we want to have a party for our friends, and circumstances has been such to where now it's been late a few years, and we're gonna do it. And one thing that we've landed on is we are gonna have centerpieces at the table, at the tables, and they are going to be snow globes, and the snow globes are going to be little versions of Kat and I inside the globe, you know one. We actually have two versions One is us holding hands and then one is us. If you can just imagine our two figures. We're both gonna be holding up the glass. We're both our hands are gonna be like above us, like we're holding up the glass. And we've gone to this, this company that we're very friendly with and we know and we like, and they're building us 3D built scale models and it's amazing what they can do now with miniatures like bobblehead dolls and that kind of stuff, how realistic they can make it look. Well, they're doing this for us. So, oh, probably within the net, within this year, we are gonna have to get serious about putting these together, because we're gonna have to make about 25 of these snow globes and we'll put them around at the various tables and you know we have to give a few away for special relatives. There's a couple of relatives on both sides of the family that you know. They don't need to win the table setting a war and they don't have to win the lottery to get one, but anyway, that's gonna be another batch and I enjoyed doing it.
Speaker 3:I, you know, I started doing it in 2015. And it was at a point in my life where I quit playing golf and I needed something to do and I needed to keep my hands busy. And I, I don't know I honest to God don't remember how I really got inspired to start making snow globes, but I made a lot of really cool ones, you know I made, of course. I did an Elvis snow globe and I did a Michael Jackson snow globe. I did a snow globe of Randy Quaid I run the gamut. I did a snow globe of from Christmas story, you know.
Speaker 1:Anyway.
Speaker 3:I don't wanna go into a lot of details, but I think, if people can, they can look on our Instagram page. It's Clint Howard official. That's really. I have a Facebook page, but primarily, primarily, you know our focus, our little electronic newsletter, is Instagram and that's where people can find out about stuff, future projects and and then stuff like look at the snow globes.
Speaker 2:It's awesome. We love to see it. You two are obviously local, you and Kat so I wanna ask as well what has kept you too local and what do you love most about Burbank?
Speaker 3:Wow, well, I don't know. There is something magical about Burbank. It really is, you can. You know, I know it really well. I know where most of the streets are. I also like the weather. Let's be honest 72, 72 and sunny, with light trade winds. This is not a bad temperature, you know. When you really only have to turn your heater on for a couple of months out of the year and you really only need to turn your air conditioner on for two or three months out of the year, it's a wonderful place to be.
Speaker 3:You know we love to travel and you know we do have a dream. Kat and I have a legitimate dream. We've been a few years. When our daughter is done with her education that you know we're going to get. We're gonna get an airstream trailer and we're gonna get a truck. We're gonna take our cats and we're gonna go. We may even take our turtles. We'll have to see.
Speaker 3:But as much you know I was born and raised in Burbank. Like I say to people, I mean, you know we live about a half a mile from girls high school, where I graduated, and somewhere in the neighborhood of three quarters of a mile from where I was born, which was St Joseph's Hospital and outside of a couple of years of living in Malibu, my whole life has been in Burbank, so you know I probably owe it to myself to give something else a try, but it's also. I got this great partner now and it's gonna be. That's a team effort, that's gonna be a team decision of you know where we go, although I'll tell you we'll be holding hands at night and that idea of being in that Airstream trailer, you know, is a pretty damn good idea in my book.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I appreciate it so much. I thank you for coming. It's always so great to hear from you. Clint and Kat, thank you so much for joining us too. I'm so glad you both could come.
Speaker 3:Well, listen, we enjoyed it. And listen, I have a deep affinity for where I'm sitting and who I'm sitting across from, Because you know there's a man in the room, Mr Sherwood, who I've known for. Oh, my goodness, let's see, I've probably known Craig for 58 years, Cause we're right at the same age, and that's about, if you really wanna put a number to it. And then, throughout the years, there was in many years we're thinking where we didn't see each other. But, my God, you know Craig Sherwood and I are, you know, we're old school Burbank.
Speaker 2:That's right. Well, full circle that Burbank connection. Well, we appreciate it. We're so happy to see you both.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you very much.
Speaker 1:My Burbank talks would like to thank all of my Burbank's advertisers for their continued support Burbank Water and Power, Kusamano Real Estate Group, UME Credit Union, the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, Gain Credit Union, Providence, St Joseph Medical Center Community. Chevrolet, Media City Credit Union, UCLA Health, Tequila's Cantina Grill, UPS Store on 3rd Street and Hill Street Cafe.