My Good Friend Buck Henry

                      MY GOOD FRIEND BUCK HENRY

                                              

         In 1957 I was doing off-beat publicity in New York City and a Buick agency on Broadway near Columbus Circle hired me to create more auto sales. They had a Piper Cub airplane in their large showroom and New Yorkers paid little attention to it.

     I proposed removing the airplane and substituting a large round table for an alleged TV show in rehearsal, “The Unstable Round Table.”  There would be two teams of six actors , each improvising on “The Role of the Dog in Society.” One team would perform for six hours, and then the other team did a turn. Sleeping quarters were in a hotel across the street.

     Open auditions attracted 80 actors and actresses, from noon until 8 pm. Each person was asked to improvise on any subject for two minutes. By closing time I had twelve actors and two alternates committed. The rental studio was turning out the lights when in walked a diminutive chap in ill fitting clothes, out of breath from running up the stairs.

     “Sorry I’m late,” he said. “Can I please audition for a role? My name is Buck Henry and I’m really clever.” I began to say we were all booked. But my gut feeling was to let him talk. So I asked Mr. Henry to improvise a comment about the role of the dog in society.

     Without missing a beat, he said, “During the Middle Ages long haired dogs wandered among the dinner tables and served as mobile napkins for the greasy Knights’ hands..”

Buck Henry was hired on the spot to lead one of the two teams.

     During the three day promotion in the Buick Agency window, Buck was spectacular. He attracted large crowds outside (the sound was piped through a speaker on the window) and this generated laughter and applause. Also, more cars were sold than during any other three day period!

     Buck would perform faux chemistry experiments and debate an eight-foot giant from the circus, Ed Carmeli. They were both hilarious. One night, Buck woke up to find Carmeli in bed with him….all others were taken. Buck jumped out, ran over to the Buick Agency and shouted at me, “Why is that giant in my bed?”

     My next spoof was a campaign to clothe all naked animals for the sake of decency in 1959. The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, or S.I.N.A., took off like a grass fire. Buck agreed to play the role of G. Clifford Prout, the President of S.I.N.A. And he soon appeared on the TODAY Show with Dave Garroway and TONIGHT with Jack Paar.

     In 1962 I managed to book Mr. Prout on Walter Cronkite’s CBS-TV network news show. Buck played his ukelele and sang the S.I.N.A. Marching Song, as Cronkite kept a straight face. This scenario took the campaign to its highest level. The SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE ran a Page One banner headline, “Nude Animal Campaign In Bay Area.”

     TIME magazine finally brought down the curtain when Prout was revealed to be Buck Henry in 1963. Cronkite was furious over being deceived and carried this chip on his shoulder until he died, according to a CBS news friend who told Buck.

     After “Get Smart” and Buck’s screenplay, “The Graduate,” he was a very hot property as an actor, writer and director too. In 1970 I persuaded him to appear in a low-budget independent movie I was producing and my wife, Jeanne, was directing.

     “Is There Sex After Death” was a satire on sex. Buck improvised his answers to a series of questions I asked him on camera and he was extremely funny. I would say one of his best performances ever.

     The film opened at the Playboy Theater on October 24, 1971 before a soldout audience and the reviews were all positive. THE NEW YORK TIMES said it was “funnier than Woody Allen’s ‘Bananas’” and Vincent Canby devoted a full page story in a Sunday Arts and Leisure section.

     Meantime, Buck’s agent, Mace Neufeld, was threatening to sue me if I didn’t delete his role; i.e. until the magnificent reviews appeared, and I had a cancelled check paying Buck for his services.

     Buck went on to great heights in Hollywood and during his stint with John Belushi on Saturday Night Live. We didn’t connect again until early 2000 over dinner at Keen’s Chop House in New York City. Subsequently, we exchange emails and an occasional phone call remembering “the good old days.”