Sammy Petrillo
Encyclopedia
Sammy Petrillo was an American
nightclub
and movie comedian
best known as a Jerry Lewis
lookalike.
, New York City
, New York
, to a show-business family in which his mother, Anne Jackowitz Patrello, was Alice Faye
's double, and his father, Abraham Patrello, "was a comic and a hoofer" [dancer] who performed in Catskills Mountains resorts and went by the stage name Skelly Petrillo. By age six, Sammy would sometimes join his father onstage.
Petrillo, who had one younger sibling, brother Marvin, was raised in a housing project at 143rd Street and Morris Avenue, and attended the High School of Performing Arts
, in Manhattan
.
In a 1992 interview, he recalled the genesis of his Jerry Lewis
look:
, then rehearsing at Nova Studios in New York City, Petrillo recalled, Berle sent Petrillo and Berle's agent, Herb Jaffee, to meet with Jerry Lewis at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in Manhattan. Lewis, after overcoming his initial trepidation — "Jerry said a couple of derogatory things to me", Petrillo recalled in the same interview. "He said something to the effect of, 'Don't sign any checks and tell people you're Jerry Lewis!' He wasn't being funny. He was being serious" — hired the 16-year-old Petrillo for a sketch with him on NBC
's Colgate Comedy Hour television series. Petrillo rehearsed "for about a week over at the Mayflower Catering Hall on West 43rd Street", and was paid "about $60" for playing Lewis' baby in a crib, though only at the end of the sketch, in which Petrillo has no lines. The episode ran November 12, 1950.
Petrillo said in a 1991 interview that a favorable writeup in the trade paper Variety
prompted Lewis to have Petrillo sign with Lewis' talent agency, MCA. Despite promises by Lewis, Petrillo found no work. After New York Journal-American entertainment writer Jack O'Brian
remarked that he hoped Lewis had nothing to do with Petrillo's predicament, Petrillo said he and his father realized that Lewis was "keeping me on a shelf because he doesn't want me to work". His father got Petrillo, a minor, released from his MCA contract.
Petrillo went on to perform comedy once more on The Colgate Comedy Hour, in a sketch with host Eddie Cantor
, and also appeared on NBC's Four Star Revue with the comedy team of Olsen and Johnson
; NBC's Texaco Star Theater
, starring Berle; ABC
's Stop the Music
; and several local New York City quiz show
s and variety show
s.
, emcee of the NBC
musical quiz series Name That Tune
. Forming a nightclub
team, the duo played at such major spots as the Paramount Theatre and the Copacabana
in New York, and the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada
, disbanding there.
Petrillo relocated to Los Angeles, California
, where he eventually teamed with singer Duke Mitchell
for a successful nightclub act approximating the popular Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
team. Petrillo in 1992 recalled how he and Mitchell began working together:
In addition to impersonating Martin & Lewis, Petrillo mimicked other film stars and cartoon characters, and Mitchell would sing in the styles of Frankie Laine
, Vaughn Monroe
, and Billy Daniels
, among others. For the climax of the show, they would announce to the audience that they would now do their impression of Martin and Lewis — followed by Petrillo playing Martin and Mitchell playing Lewis, inverting expectations.
In 1952, movie producer Jack Broder, president of Realart Pictures, hired Mitchell and Petrillo to star opposite aged screen legend Bela Lugosi
and the latest incarnation of the Tarzan
film-series chimpanzee
Cheetah
in a low-budget, jungle-themed comedy, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla
(also known as The Boys From Brooklyn).
:
Regardless, Allied Artists film studio offered Mitchell and Petrillo a contract, and the production company Federal Films pitched the two on a TV series. "We were offered things we turned down. We were stupid", Petrillo said in 1991. The duo did play the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, and Hollywood's famed Cocoanut Grove, and made a single TV appearance as a team, on the local L.A.
program The Spade Cooley Show, starring American Western swing
musician and big band
leader Donnell Clyde "Spade" Cooley
. In 1953, Petrillo, solo, guest-starred in a TV pilot, Wings for Hire, starring Lawrence Tierney
and filmed in Florida
. Petrillo would later become head of production for the Network Film Corporation owned by Dick Randall, producer of that pilot and of several films.
Mitchell and Petrillo amicably dissolved their professional relationship in 1954, but reteamed the following year. The duo broke up for good following the highly public, July 25, 1956, breakup of Martin and Lewis.
Holiday in Brussels, mixed NBC footage from the Brussels
World's Fair
, with Petrollo shooting additional of New York City's Central Park
standing in for the Belgian
capital. In 1959, he appeared on the talk show
The Steve Allen Show
, on an edition with fellow guests Don Knotts
and Diana Dors
.
He starred in producer Randall's low-budget Shangri-La (1961), a "nudie cutie" nudist exploitation film
, and after appearing on the set of his director friend Joe Green's The Brain That Wouldn't Die
(1962), played a cheesecake photographer
, earning $90 for the improvised scene. In 1963, Randall released two comedy album
s featuring Petrillo: All About Cleopatra, capitalizing on the Cleopatra craze of the time, and also featuring Will Jordan
, Joel Holt, and Dave Shor; and My Son the Phone Caller, a collection of humorous, real-life crank telephone calls.
Petrillo again starred opposite Lawrence Tierney
, in Randall's uncompleted or unreleased Unholy Alliance, filmed in and around a Catskills Mountains resort. In the late 1960s, Petrillo starred in film buff Bill Gyorfy's uncompleted superhero
-comedy
film Gas Is Best, about a man who gains superpowers by drinking a celery
tonic, and flies via flatulence. Another obscure film Petrillo produced and in which he starred, Off the Wall, reportedly had a brief release in the early 1970s.
Through Gyorfy, Petrillo met exploitation film
legend Doris Wishman
, and did two days of filming on the soft-core sex comedy
Keyholes Are for Peeping (1972), built around extant sex footage. Though Petrillo says Wishman promised a two-picture deal, and that if he would "make the first movie for me cheap, I'll be your partner in the second one", that did not come to pass. Wishman's next film was the cult classic
Deadly Weapons
, starring the stupendously endowed big-bust stripper Chesty Morgan
, who was handled by the same agent as Petrillo.
At an unspecified point, Petrillo said in 1992, he starred in a television series titled The Sammy Petrillo Show, on which ukulele
novelty act Tiny Tim
was a guest star. Afterward Petrillo starred in a children's TV program, Uncle Sammy; and produced and directed "a couple of infomercial
s" with comic actor Al "Grampa" Lewis. He wrote a TV-series treatment, titled "My Daddy Was a Monster", that served as the basis for the 1960s sitcom The Munsters
, and wrote lyrics for the Isley Brothers' song "Angels Cried".
In the late 1970s, Petrillo rekindled his friendship and again worked with Duke Mitchell
in California
, where Petrillo became a distributor for the Transcontinental Film Corporation. The company was in talks to release Mitchell's 1974 movie Massacre Mafia Style, a.k.a. Like Father, Like Son, a.k.a. The Executioner, which finally appeared direct-to-video
on the Video Gems label sometime after Mitchell's death in 1981.
In 1980, Petrillo and standup comic Adam Keith starred in a sketch-comedy film, Out to Lunch, produced by J. G. Tiger and which "played around New York". Also that year, Petrillo dubbed the voice of a seaside CEO, "Mr. Boden", in the New World Pictures horror movie Humanoids from the Deep
.
On the October 5, 1982, edition of the TV morning show Today, host Bryant Gumbel
showed a montage of clips of guest Jerry Lewis
, there promoting his autobiography
Jerry Lewis in Person and the movie The King of Comedy
. The first clip, however, showed not Lewis but Petrillo in a Colgate Comedy Hour sketch with Eddie Cantor
. Lewis remarked on air:
Petrillo recalled in 1991 that he shortly afterward received a call from bookers at the NBC talk show Late Night with David Letterman
, on which Lewis was scheduled to appear; Petrillo said they asked him to make a surprise appearance, and that he turned down the offer.
, where he ran a family-oriented comedy club, The Nut House, and, elsewhere in the city, emceed stage shows starring such porn stars
as Georgina Spelvin
. "I was accepted by people in both things without any tarnishment on my character", Petrillo recalled. He and comedienne girlfriend Suzie Perkovic, a.k.a. Suzie Fiore, became business partners, and performed comedy onstage for over 10 years as Suzie & Sammy. Later in the decade, Petrillo was interviewed for the 1997 documentary Bela Lugosi
: Hollywood's Dracula.
Petrillo died of cancer at age 74, in Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, New York. At the time of his death, he lived in Tuckahoe, New York
. with Suzie and her husband Rocco Fiore and their children. He leaves behind 4 sons,Shawn, Mark, Jeffery and Curt Patrello in Dallas, Tx.
and Dennis Miller
, the latter a native of Petrillo's adopted home, Pittsburgh.
One of Jerry Lewis' sons, Gary, told The New York Times
upon Petrillo's death that, "When Sammy and the other guy played in that gorilla movie
, I remember my dad and Dean [Martin] saying, 'We got to sue these guys — this is no good' ... Whenever there was any mention of Sammy Petrillo, it was a tense moment".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
and movie comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
best known as a Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
lookalike.
Early life
Sammy Petrillo was born Sammy Patrello in The BronxThe Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, to a show-business family in which his mother, Anne Jackowitz Patrello, was Alice Faye
Alice Faye
Alice Faye was an American actress and singer, called by The New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader and comedian...
's double, and his father, Abraham Patrello, "was a comic and a hoofer" [dancer] who performed in Catskills Mountains resorts and went by the stage name Skelly Petrillo. By age six, Sammy would sometimes join his father onstage.
Petrillo, who had one younger sibling, brother Marvin, was raised in a housing project at 143rd Street and Morris Avenue, and attended the High School of Performing Arts
High School of Performing Arts
The High School of Performing Arts, more formally known as The School of Performing Arts: A Division of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, informally known as "PA", was a public alternative high school in New York, New York, USA that existed from 1948 through...
, in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
In a 1992 interview, he recalled the genesis of his Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
look:
Career
After finagling a meeting with famed comic Milton BerleMilton Berle
Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
, then rehearsing at Nova Studios in New York City, Petrillo recalled, Berle sent Petrillo and Berle's agent, Herb Jaffee, to meet with Jerry Lewis at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in Manhattan. Lewis, after overcoming his initial trepidation — "Jerry said a couple of derogatory things to me", Petrillo recalled in the same interview. "He said something to the effect of, 'Don't sign any checks and tell people you're Jerry Lewis!' He wasn't being funny. He was being serious" — hired the 16-year-old Petrillo for a sketch with him on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Colgate Comedy Hour television series. Petrillo rehearsed "for about a week over at the Mayflower Catering Hall on West 43rd Street", and was paid "about $60" for playing Lewis' baby in a crib, though only at the end of the sketch, in which Petrillo has no lines. The episode ran November 12, 1950.
Petrillo said in a 1991 interview that a favorable writeup in the trade paper Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
prompted Lewis to have Petrillo sign with Lewis' talent agency, MCA. Despite promises by Lewis, Petrillo found no work. After New York Journal-American entertainment writer Jack O'Brian
Jack O'Brian
John Dennis Patrick O'Brian was a New York Journal American television critic and supporter of Joseph McCarthy.O'Brian was born in Buffalo, New York...
remarked that he hoped Lewis had nothing to do with Petrillo's predicament, Petrillo said he and his father realized that Lewis was "keeping me on a shelf because he doesn't want me to work". His father got Petrillo, a minor, released from his MCA contract.
Petrillo went on to perform comedy once more on The Colgate Comedy Hour, in a sketch with host Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
, and also appeared on NBC's Four Star Revue with the comedy team of Olsen and Johnson
Olsen and Johnson
John Sigvard "Ole" Olsen and Harold Ogden "Chic" Johnson were zany American comedians of vaudeville, radio, the Broadway stage, motion pictures and television. Their shows were noted for their crazy blackout gags and orchestrated mayhem...
; NBC's Texaco Star Theater
Texaco Star Theater
Texaco Star Theater is an American comedy-variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. It was one of the first successful examples of American television broadcasting, remembered as the show that gave Milton Berle the nickname "Mr...
, starring Berle; ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Stop the Music
Stop the Music (TV series)
Stop the Music is a prime time television game show that aired for an hour on Thursday evenings on ABC from May 5, 1949 to April 24, 1952, and again for a half-hour from September 7, 1954, to June 14, 1956. It had also been broadcast on radio from 1948 to 1949.The series hosts were Bert Parks and...
; and several local New York City quiz show
Quiz Show
Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...
s and variety show
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
s.
Teaming with Duke Mitchell
On one such local show, the seminal late-night television program Seven at Eleven, Petrillo met singer George DeWittGeorge DeWitt
George DeWitt , born George Florentine, was a nationally acclaimed singer and comedian. DeWitt was the star of the 1950s musical quiz television program, Name That Tune. The program featured contestants guessing the name of popular tunes from a limited amount of notes...
, emcee of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
musical quiz series Name That Tune
Name That Tune
Name That Tune is a television game show that put two contestants against each other to test their knowledge of songs. Premiering in the United States on NBC Radio in 1952, the show was created and produced by Harry Salter and his wife Roberta....
. Forming a nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
team, the duo played at such major spots as the Paramount Theatre and the Copacabana
Copacabana (nightclub)
The Copacabana is a famous New York City nightclub. Many entertainers, among them Danny Thomas, Pat Cooper and the comedy team of Martin and Lewis, made their debuts at the Copacabana. The 1978 Barry Manilow song "Copacabana" is named after, and is about the nightclub. Part of the 2003 Yerba...
in New York, and the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, disbanding there.
Petrillo relocated to Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, where he eventually teamed with singer Duke Mitchell
Duke Mitchell
Duke Mitchell was an American film actor, slapstick comedian, crooner and independent film director. Mitchell often performed his nightclub act in and around Palm Springs, California and anointed himself the "King of Palm Springs."-Early life and career:Mitchell was born Dominic Miceli in Farrell,...
for a successful nightclub act approximating the popular Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
Martin and Lewis
Martin and Lewis were an American comedy team, comprising singer Dean Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis as the comedic "foil". The pair first met in 1945; their debut as a duo occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24/25, 1946....
team. Petrillo in 1992 recalled how he and Mitchell began working together:
In addition to impersonating Martin & Lewis, Petrillo mimicked other film stars and cartoon characters, and Mitchell would sing in the styles of Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005...
, Vaughn Monroe
Vaughn Monroe
Vaughn Wilton Monroe was an American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader and actor, most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording and radio.-Biography:...
, and Billy Daniels
Billy Daniels
William Boone Daniels , better known as Billy Daniels, was a singer active in the United States and Europe from the mid-1930s to 1988, notable for his hit recording of "That Old Black Magic" and his pioneering performances on early 1950s television.Daniels was born in Jacksonville, Florida, where...
, among others. For the climax of the show, they would announce to the audience that they would now do their impression of Martin and Lewis — followed by Petrillo playing Martin and Mitchell playing Lewis, inverting expectations.
In 1952, movie producer Jack Broder, president of Realart Pictures, hired Mitchell and Petrillo to star opposite aged screen legend Bela Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
and the latest incarnation of the Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
film-series chimpanzee
Chimpanzee
Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
Cheetah
Cheetah
The cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...
in a low-budget, jungle-themed comedy, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla is a 1952 comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring horror veteran Béla Lugosi and nightclub comedians Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo in roles approximating Martin and Lewis.-Plot:...
(also known as The Boys From Brooklyn).
Through mid-1950s
Mitchell and Petrillo returned to nightclub work but, according to Petrillo, Lewis threatened to boycott anyone who booked them and club owners caved in, not wishing to spoil their chances of someday hiring Martin and Lewis. Petrillo in 1991 recalled an instance after he and Mitchell were booked on the Colgate Comedy Hour, being hosted by the comedy team Abbott and CostelloAbbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
:
Regardless, Allied Artists film studio offered Mitchell and Petrillo a contract, and the production company Federal Films pitched the two on a TV series. "We were offered things we turned down. We were stupid", Petrillo said in 1991. The duo did play the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, and Hollywood's famed Cocoanut Grove, and made a single TV appearance as a team, on the local L.A.
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
program The Spade Cooley Show, starring American Western swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...
musician and big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
leader Donnell Clyde "Spade" Cooley
Spade Cooley
Donnell Clyde Cooley , better known as Spade Cooley, was an American Western swing musician, big band leader, actor, and television personality...
. In 1953, Petrillo, solo, guest-starred in a TV pilot, Wings for Hire, starring Lawrence Tierney
Lawrence Tierney
Lawrence Tierney was an American actor, known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and hardened criminals, which mirrored his own frequent brushes with the law....
and filmed in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. Petrillo would later become head of production for the Network Film Corporation owned by Dick Randall, producer of that pilot and of several films.
Mitchell and Petrillo amicably dissolved their professional relationship in 1954, but reteamed the following year. The duo broke up for good following the highly public, July 25, 1956, breakup of Martin and Lewis.
Later career
For Randall's Network Film Corporation, Petrillo produced and co-wrote the 1958 NBC television specialTelevision special
A television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...
Holiday in Brussels, mixed NBC footage from the Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
World's Fair
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
, with Petrollo shooting additional of New York City's Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
standing in for the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
capital. In 1959, he appeared on the talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
The Steve Allen Show
The Steve Allen Show
The Steve Allen Show is an American variety show hosted by Steve Allen from June 1956 to June 1960 on NBC, from September 1961 to December 1961 on ABC, and in first-run syndication from 1962 to 1964....
, on an edition with fellow guests Don Knotts
Don Knotts
Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards...
and Diana Dors
Diana Dors
Diana Dors was an English actress, born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, Wiltshire. Considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood, Dors described herself as: "The only sex symbol Britain has produced since Lady Godiva."-Early life:Diana Mary Fluck was born in Swindon,...
.
He starred in producer Randall's low-budget Shangri-La (1961), a "nudie cutie" nudist exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
, and after appearing on the set of his director friend Joe Green's The Brain That Wouldn't Die
The Brain That Wouldn't Die
The Brain That Wouldn't Die, also known as The Head That Wouldn't Die, is a 1962 science-fiction/horror film directed by Joseph Green and written by Green and Rex Carlton. The film was completed in 1959 under the title The Black Door, but was not released until May 3, 1962, when it was renamed...
(1962), played a cheesecake photographer
Pin-up girl
A pin-up girl, also known as a pin-up model, is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as popular culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display, e.g. meant to be "pinned-up" on a wall...
, earning $90 for the improvised scene. In 1963, Randall released two comedy album
Comedy album
A comedy album is an audio recording of comedic material from a comedian or group of comedians, usually performed either live or in a studio. Comedy albums may feature skits, humorous songs, and/or live recording of stand-up comedy performances, but the most common type of comedy albums are stand...
s featuring Petrillo: All About Cleopatra, capitalizing on the Cleopatra craze of the time, and also featuring Will Jordan
Will Jordan
Will Jordan is an American character actor who is best known for his resemblance to—and ability to do uncanny impressions of—television host and newspaper columnist Ed Sullivan.-Career:...
, Joel Holt, and Dave Shor; and My Son the Phone Caller, a collection of humorous, real-life crank telephone calls.
Petrillo again starred opposite Lawrence Tierney
Lawrence Tierney
Lawrence Tierney was an American actor, known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and hardened criminals, which mirrored his own frequent brushes with the law....
, in Randall's uncompleted or unreleased Unholy Alliance, filmed in and around a Catskills Mountains resort. In the late 1960s, Petrillo starred in film buff Bill Gyorfy's uncompleted superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
-comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
film Gas Is Best, about a man who gains superpowers by drinking a celery
Celery
Apium graveolens is a plant species in the family Apiaceae commonly known as celery or celeriac , depending on whether the petioles or roots are eaten: celery refers to the former and celeriac to the latter. Apium graveolens grows to 1 m tall...
tonic, and flies via flatulence. Another obscure film Petrillo produced and in which he starred, Off the Wall, reportedly had a brief release in the early 1970s.
Through Gyorfy, Petrillo met exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
legend Doris Wishman
Doris Wishman
Doris Wishman was an American film director, screenwriter and independent film producer....
, and did two days of filming on the soft-core sex comedy
Sex comedy
Sex comedy is a term for comedy movies with sexual content usually referring to those made in the United Kingdom in the mid 1970s. They may range from comic pornographic films like the Confessions series to relatively innocent comedies that include jokes about sex and other sexual related humour,...
Keyholes Are for Peeping (1972), built around extant sex footage. Though Petrillo says Wishman promised a two-picture deal, and that if he would "make the first movie for me cheap, I'll be your partner in the second one", that did not come to pass. Wishman's next film was the cult classic
Cult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...
Deadly Weapons
Deadly Weapons
Deadly Weapons is a 1974 American sexploitation film directed by Doris Wishman, starring striptease performer Chesty Morgan . The film is based on a story conceived by J.J...
, starring the stupendously endowed big-bust stripper Chesty Morgan
Chesty Morgan
Chesty Morgan is a Polish-born Jewish American exotic dancer who starred in two films directed by Doris Wishman.-Biography:An orphan, Morgan was sent from Poland to live in Ein Gev, a kibbutz in the British Mandate of Palestine, at the outbreak of World War II.Morgan married an American and moved...
, who was handled by the same agent as Petrillo.
At an unspecified point, Petrillo said in 1992, he starred in a television series titled The Sammy Petrillo Show, on which ukulele
Ukulele
The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
novelty act Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim (musician)
Tiny Tim , , born in Manhattan, was an American singer and ukulele player. He was most famous for his rendition of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice.-Rise to fame:Born to Lebanese parents in 1932, Khaury displayed musical talent at a very young age...
was a guest star. Afterward Petrillo starred in a children's TV program, Uncle Sammy; and produced and directed "a couple of infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
s" with comic actor Al "Grampa" Lewis. He wrote a TV-series treatment, titled "My Daddy Was a Monster", that served as the basis for the 1960s sitcom The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
, and wrote lyrics for the Isley Brothers' song "Angels Cried".
In the late 1970s, Petrillo rekindled his friendship and again worked with Duke Mitchell
Duke Mitchell
Duke Mitchell was an American film actor, slapstick comedian, crooner and independent film director. Mitchell often performed his nightclub act in and around Palm Springs, California and anointed himself the "King of Palm Springs."-Early life and career:Mitchell was born Dominic Miceli in Farrell,...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where Petrillo became a distributor for the Transcontinental Film Corporation. The company was in talks to release Mitchell's 1974 movie Massacre Mafia Style, a.k.a. Like Father, Like Son, a.k.a. The Executioner, which finally appeared direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
on the Video Gems label sometime after Mitchell's death in 1981.
In 1980, Petrillo and standup comic Adam Keith starred in a sketch-comedy film, Out to Lunch, produced by J. G. Tiger and which "played around New York". Also that year, Petrillo dubbed the voice of a seaside CEO, "Mr. Boden", in the New World Pictures horror movie Humanoids from the Deep
Humanoids from the Deep
Humanoids from the Deep is a 1980 science fiction monster movie, starring Doug McClure, Ann Turkel, and Vic Morrow. Roger Corman served as the film's Executive Producer, and the film was distributed by his New World Pictures. It was directed by Barbara Peeters...
.
On the October 5, 1982, edition of the TV morning show Today, host Bryant Gumbel
Bryant Gumbel
Bryant Charles Gumbel is an American television journalist and sportscaster. He is best known for his 15 years as co-host of NBC's The Today Show. He is the younger brother of sportscaster Greg Gumbel.-Early life:...
showed a montage of clips of guest Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
, there promoting his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
Jerry Lewis in Person and the movie The King of Comedy
The King of Comedy
King of Comedy may refer to:* Mack Sennett was nicknamed the King of Comedy.* The King of Comedy is a 1983 film directed by Martin Scorsese starring Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis....
. The first clip, however, showed not Lewis but Petrillo in a Colgate Comedy Hour sketch with Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
. Lewis remarked on air:
Petrillo recalled in 1991 that he shortly afterward received a call from bookers at the NBC talk show Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
, on which Lewis was scheduled to appear; Petrillo said they asked him to make a surprise appearance, and that he turned down the offer.
Final years and death
By 1991, Petrillo was living in Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, where he ran a family-oriented comedy club, The Nut House, and, elsewhere in the city, emceed stage shows starring such porn stars
Porn Stars
Porn Stars is the second studio album by the band Pretty Boy Floyd. It features re-recordings of five tracks from their debut album Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz, a re-recording of one track from Tonight Belongs To The Young, and a re-recording of one track from their EP A Tale of Sex, Designer...
as Georgina Spelvin
Georgina Spelvin
Georgina Spelvin is the stage name of Michelle Graham, a former American pornographic actress who is best known for her appearance in the classic film The Devil in Miss Jones.-Early life:...
. "I was accepted by people in both things without any tarnishment on my character", Petrillo recalled. He and comedienne girlfriend Suzie Perkovic, a.k.a. Suzie Fiore, became business partners, and performed comedy onstage for over 10 years as Suzie & Sammy. Later in the decade, Petrillo was interviewed for the 1997 documentary Bela Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
: Hollywood's Dracula.
Petrillo died of cancer at age 74, in Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, New York. At the time of his death, he lived in Tuckahoe, New York
Tuckahoe, New York
Tuckahoe is the name of some places in the U.S. state of New York:*Tuckahoe, Suffolk County, New York*Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York...
. with Suzie and her husband Rocco Fiore and their children. He leaves behind 4 sons,Shawn, Mark, Jeffery and Curt Patrello in Dallas, Tx.
Legacy
Petrillo, who remained active performing standup comedy, mentored young comics including Richard PryorRichard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...
and Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, actor, sports commentator, and television and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references...
, the latter a native of Petrillo's adopted home, Pittsburgh.
One of Jerry Lewis' sons, Gary, told The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
upon Petrillo's death that, "When Sammy and the other guy played in that gorilla movie
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla is a 1952 comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring horror veteran Béla Lugosi and nightclub comedians Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo in roles approximating Martin and Lewis.-Plot:...
, I remember my dad and Dean [Martin] saying, 'We got to sue these guys — this is no good' ... Whenever there was any mention of Sammy Petrillo, it was a tense moment".
External links
- HermanCohen.com. "Herrrman, I vant to talk vith yyyooouuu…!" (Herman Cohen interview on making of Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla)
- The New York Times Filmography
- Interview with Sammy Petrillo Part 1