WQED Weekly
Frank Gorshin Interview
Clip | 4m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
This segment features an interview with actor Frank Gorshin about growing up in Pittsburgh.
This segment of WQED Weekly features an interview with actor, comedian, and impressionist Frank Gorshin. Frank walks around his old neighborhood, visits his childhood home, and meets with former neighbor. He talks about growing up in Pittsburgh and how he became interested in performing. A neighbor tells a story about Frank as a child.
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WQED Weekly is a local public television program presented by WQED
WQED Weekly
Frank Gorshin Interview
Clip | 4m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
This segment of WQED Weekly features an interview with actor, comedian, and impressionist Frank Gorshin. Frank walks around his old neighborhood, visits his childhood home, and meets with former neighbor. He talks about growing up in Pittsburgh and how he became interested in performing. A neighbor tells a story about Frank as a child.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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This Randy Gorchmans house, who used to live in this house.
Yeah.
How do you do, sir?
All right.
Nice to meet you, sir.
Yeah.
I used to live here.
How many years ago was that now?
I was in high school.
I was, see, that's what, 25 years ago, I guess.
I was 17.
My kids won't believe this.
Oh, it can't be that long.
Yes it is.
Yes.
25 years ago.
Yeah.
Doesnt this bring back memories?
I won't.
Oh, it was all done over, was it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is, I tell you what, I was 17, there was in this house.
I had a brother who was, who was two years younger than me, and he was killed in a car accident.
And, It was two nights after that.
I had just won.
I had just won a talent contest in town, and, the prize was a week of Jackie Heller's carousel, which isn't here anymore.
And, my brother was killed two nights before I was supposed to open, and I remember that.
It was.
It was strange because it was, there was so much happiness and so much sadness at the same time.
But it was while we lived here in this neighborhood that I discovered that I had a talent for singing and doing impressions and so forth, and I found that people enjoyed what I did.
Al Jolson, I did, Southern Jolson, in fact, it was France.
That's right.
It was.
It was a kid that lived upstairs.
Not upstairs, but he lived on the other side of the street, up on a terrace up there next to this.
This lady we just spoke to, Spanbar, Francais Spanbar was his name, and he, he and I used to play ball together out in the street.
We used to go to movies a lot and so forth, and he wanted to take me to a movie one time because he had the money to take us to a movie.
He wanted to see The Jolson Story, and I didn't know what, you know, Jolson Story was or could have been to me, sound like a love story.
I didn't know, and but I had to go, you know, I didn't have much choice because he had the money, but we went to see The Jolson Story, and, and I stayed in the theater and watched it four times.
Four times.
And I got off the streetcar that night up here at the corner of Matilda and Penn Avenue, way down on the levee.
You know, a lot of that just started to sing, just started to sing like Jolson.
He came down the street and he was so happy about it.
And he he came up to me, shook my hand, and he says, I did The Jolson Story.
I says, Good God, I says, I'm glad for you.
I shook his hand and he went up the street.
And the guy he he he was happy as a lark.
Yeah.
I went to visit my my relatives in Milwaukee, and I saw the champion with Kirk Douglas.
And then I started doing Kirk Douglas.
And that's when I found myself doing, you know, I started to do a lot of these people.
And then I fully realized after a couple of years that, I really liked at all, you know, acting, singing and showbusiness.
And I went into the army and I was in special services, you know.
Hi kid.
Oh, yeah.
How are you?
Nice to see you.
Gee, it's nice to see you.
Where do you live?
Where do you live?
I'm still here.
Remember?
Beth, No.
Oh, man.
Francais Spanbar, you remember him?
Yes.
They lived over there.
They.
Then there was a kid.
There was a Bob McMasters who lived up the street here.
Yeah.
Then there was a boy that lived at this house with the white awnings there.
Yeah.
But if I could go back.
If I could come back to all this.
I wonder if I go the same way.
I guess I would.
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