Original subtitles

man: Rolling on take two.

man 1: Wow, there she is. It's Gilda.

Oh, man, have you ever seen her dance?

- man 2: Yeah. - men: She's bad.[chuckling]

man 1: Man, when they passed out rhythm, that Jewess got it all.

woman: Hey, Gilda, why you come here all the time?

Gilda: 'Cause I just love this disco.

♪ This disco ♪

David Letterman: She was the very first performer

chosen for the cast ofSaturday Night Live.

woman: Radner became a star by creating

such memorable characters as Roseanne Roseannadanna...

A Mr. Richard Fanner...

woman: ...and Emily Litella.

What's all this fuss I keep hearing...

TV anchor: Soon to be the star of her own one woman show

on Broadway.

These days she's making movies.

There it is!

host: Here she is, live, Miss Gilda Radner.

- Gilda Radner! - Gilda Radner!

Gilda Radner!

[crowd cheering]

♪ Yes, darling, I am disco Gilda ♪

♪ When the music changes I don't miss no dancing ♪

♪ I am the baby born between the thighs of disco madness ♪

♪ I can dance for hours if I want ♪

♪ Soul, beat ♪

Gilda: It's the story of my life, you know.

People say, "Okay, you're a star now.

Gilda Radner, what's it like to be a star?"

♪ Disco, disco, disco, disco ♪

♪ Disco Gilda ♪

♪ Disco, disco, disco, disco ♪

♪ Disco Gilda ♪

[crowd cheering]

[applause]

Gilda: This is side one.

If I should talk like this, can they understand?

When I think back on my life...

I always felt that my comedy

was just to make things be all right.

I love the naivety,

that the soul can believe what it wants to believe.

I could be prettier than I was.

I could be people that I really wasn't.

I would use comedy to be in control of my situation.

[music playing]

I can't believe this is her handwriting.

Are these actually her papers? Like, what she...

There's check marks. Oh, it's like we're detectives.

This is a real honor.

Like, seriously, this is huge.

"Gilda smoking. Gilda Radner."

Melissa: "Shopping in supermarkets.

Staring. Restaurants."

Bill: "Elevators. Mail. Aerobics."

"Number 12, toilet, really liked your work."

[chuckles]

Amy: Okay, I'm gonna give it a try.

This is, um...

Gilda Radner, her voice and her writing.

"First and foremost, above everything else,

my main priority is that I am a girl.

I've never wanted to be anything else.

I'm fascinated with boys but I never wanted to be one."

I agree, Gilda.

"To be a girl and be funny means you have to sacrifice

a lot of things because of your loud mouth."

Bill: Being neurotic's the only subject

I didn't have to research." [chuckles]

Yes.

"I can't even begin to imagine how I got famous.

It seemed like I just took the next job

and then it turned out that millions of people

were watching me do it."

Bill: "Maybe you know me and maybe you don't,

or maybe you heard of me but never saw me,

or maybe you used to know me, but don't know me anymore.

But one time in my life I was famous

and it seemed like everyone knew me."

[crowd cheering]

[applause]

Thank you.

Thank you.

This was really always my dream.

When I was a...

when I was a little girl growing up in Detroit,

my dad used to take me

to see shows when they'd come in to town.

And we'd sit in about the third row

and I'd look up on the stage and the people up there

just always looked so happy to be there.

And I thought to myself that that's what I wanted to do.

And that's where I wanted to be.

And I remember when they'd come right down near the foot of the stage

and they'd look out, I always was sure they were looking right at me.

Right at little Gilda Radner.

And now that I'm finally up here, I can't see a thing.

[crowd laughs]

[applause]

Gilda: Nobody says, "Oh, I had a great childhood, everything was perfect."

Nobody says that.

It's the choices you make in dealing with it.

If I ever have my own comedy act this is how I'd open it.

'Cause people wanna know, well, what made you funny?

And I know what made me funny.

[crowd cheering]

[music playing]

From the time I was a kid, I loved to pretend.

And to play and be in plays, and put on costumes.

I was really a child of comedy.

In the tradition of Chaplin and tons of fun.

Oh, they were great!

And Lucille Ball.

Anybody who's willing to risk it.

I would be glued to the television,

then I'd go act out things like it in the backyard.

I'm a child who came in an older marriage.

My dad was in his 50s when I was born.

I think I was just such a joy, such a miracle

that he would have children later in his life.

The world revolved around us

and he was the best audience in the world.

After a hard day's work, he'd sit for hours in his chair

and I could do pantomimes and routines, and anything,

and he'd watch, and he'd laugh.

Humor was a wonderful, unifying thing in our family.

Michael: We were fortunate, we came from...

a family that was relatively affluent.

Our father was in the hotel, apartment business.

And we were in Detroit at the time

when Detroit was one of the great cities in the country.

So things were booming.

[music playing]

Gilda: My mother couldn't take the winters,

so every November, my family would go to Miami Beach,

and live for maybe four months.

And then come back to Detroit.

My parents would take me out of school

and take me to a new school in Florida.

I couldn't get attached anywhere.

I overate constantly.

We had a pantry in the kitchen with tons of food,

she used to call that her room.

She'd sit there on a little step stool and just munch.

Gilda: My weight distressed my mother.

And she took me to a doctor

who put me on Dexedrine diet pills

when I was ten years old.

Judy: Her mother was trying everything to control her weight,

'cause her mother was very beautiful

and I think it was hard for her that Gilda was not as thin

as she would've liked.

[music playing]

Gilda: When I was four months old, Dibby came.

She stayed with us for 18 years.

Michael: My father was at work.

My mother was busy doing whatever she was doing.

But Dibby was the constant.

She was a kind, wonderful person,

and you know, we thought of her as our second mother.

Gilda: Dibby and I became inseparable.

When I would come home crying because someone called me fat at school

she would tell me,

"If they call you fat, just make a joke about it and laugh."

I made them laugh before they hurt me.

Before any kid could go, "Hey, you fat thing."

I would say, "Hey, I'm fat, I can't see my toes, you know."

And then I realized what comedy is.

It's hitting on the truth

before the other guy thinks of it.

When I was 12 years old,

my father went into the hospital

for some routine tests.

He had been having terrible headaches

for a couple of years.

Michael: And they checked him out

and it turned out that it was a brain tumor.

He got sicker and sicker and he went into a coma.

And it was like he was 40 years older.

Gilda: It was too great and sudden a loss of a person whom I adored.

I was 14 when my father died.

I was only a child.

That's like a pivotal age...

when you're going from being a child into a woman,

so I just never went into being a woman. [chuckles]

I started going to an all-girls private school on the east side of Detroit.

There was more emphasis put on being funny

and being involved in activities

like the theater department

than there was on dating. So I was encouraged that way.

And the more comfortable I got, the funnier I got.

In Ann Arbor, I suddenly found that you could major

in putting on makeup and costumes,

that you could get degrees in it.

And so I went into the theater department.

I was in a comedy-satire group called The Eastbound Mound.

And we all just took life to see what was funny about it.

Ann Arbor, the summer of '66.

Little Johnny.

Oh, there's me!

Billy! Must have been a short-term boyfriend.

Bob! Oh, that was another boyfriend, Bob.

Oh, there's Harold.

That was another boyfriend.

Another boyfriend, Jim.

- Michael: This one? - Judy: It's a guy!

It's a naked guy in the shower but I have no idea who it is.

- Yeah, more... - Who do you think it is?

- I don't-- I don't know. - Whose bum is that?

John: Gilda had quite a few boyfriends.

[music playing]

Gilda: My biggest motivation has always been love.

I would see a guy that I would fall in love with,

and then I would just wanna be with him and go wherever he went.

I never graduated from the University of Michigan

because I fell in love with a Canadian sculptor,

and wanted to be his wife and a homemaker.

Judy: She was cooking and keeping their apartment.

He loved having her do that, you know,

like he was being taken care of that way.

Gilda: Jeff couldn't handle if I was ever funny.

And it was very frustrating.

There was just a part of me that wasn't being used.

And I actually reached a point where I felt like I was dying.

One day I went to the theater, and I sat there and I thought,

"Oh, I just felt so good."

You know, that feeling, I felt like I belonged.

Even in the audience.

And so I ended up asking

if I could work in their box office.

Marcus: They came in and she goes and peeks

through the hole, a little cubbyhole

that I handed the tickets, and she says, "You're kinda cute."

Gilda: Eventually they asked me to be in these pantomimes for kids in the school system.

And then they asked me to be in a children's theater production.

Michael: They made a whole industry up for Gilda.

[cheering]

Gilda: Godspell, it was very successful in New York,

and they posted open auditions

in Toronto for the Toronto Company.

And I went cold from the street and auditioned.

Paul: Everybody from that age group,

early 20s I guess, was auditioning for it.

And I went as a pianist who would accompany...

Martin: I remember Gilda got up

and she was dressed in sideway pigtails,

and she sang "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah".

And I remember thinking,

"Oh, that's the saddest thing I've ever seen."

Stephen: She was very quick to tell us

that she was not a singer, which was accurate.

So we were doubtful at first.

Then suddenly, Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak,

and all the creators said, "You're hired!"

I mean, they just-- they loved her.

And I thought, "Hmm, I gotta rethink.

You know, I'm singing "My Funny Valentine", I could be off here."

♪ Well at the outset there Appeared before the master♪

♪ A man that ran Into the millions ♪

- ♪ What? ♪ - ♪ In the millions ♪

Gilda: We all started out together, didn't know what would happen,

we just spent a year jumping up and down.

[piano playing]

♪ I can see a swath Of sinners sitting yonder ♪

♪ And they're acting Like a pack of fools ♪

♪ Gazing into space They let their minds wander ♪

♪ 'Stead of studying The good lord's rules ♪

♪ You better pay attention To your comprehension ♪

♪ There's gonna be a quiz At your ascension ♪

♪ Not to mention Any threat of ♪

♪ You better start To learn your lessons well! ♪

David: Yeah!

[crowd cheering]

[applause]

[David chuckles]

Thank you. I did it!

First professional job I'd ever had,

I don't... I can't speak for Paul.

- Was that the first...? - Same for me, yeah.

Gilda: Okay. Our first job... [chuckles]

And that company of people actually--

- There were some really amazing people in there. - Yeah.

Martin: We called ours the Friday nights.

The Friday night services.

And this was a group of people who gathered religiously

at the rented home that Marty and Eugene were sharing.

The famous 1063 Avenue Road.

Martin: That became the party house.

Two-thirty in the morning,

of all of us doing tapes and laughing,

Paul would play, I'd stand there

I'd stand there with a spoon, like a mic.

Martin: Testing, one, two, three.

woman: Make a premise.

Bob: You have no premise, you just start...

woman: Just start doing it.

Martin: And our first contestant is Miss Mary Quaint.

- [woman laughing] - Gilda: Hello, Bob.

Martin: Why do you feel that you are deserving

of the title Queen for a Day?

Gilda: Because my husband, who was completely ruined...

[all chuckling]

...in an automotive accident.

Martin: He's completely ruined. Is he dead?

Gilda: No, he's home in three beds.

[all laughing]

Paul: They were some form of power couple,

but there was comedy power.

They had figured out, both of them,

at such an early age...

that to laugh is the ultimate panacea,

to the degree that you can control anything.

Martin: I was young enough to think

that if you were as clever as Gilda was,

and therefore, blessed as Gilda was,

then what would ever make you unhappy about anything?

You have family money, everyone adores you,

every guy falls in love with you,

and every girl wants you to be her best friend.

She would walk into the room...

and all the energy would go to her.

And I think that was her comfort zone.

But she would have depressions

and she would have emotional uncertainties.

And at 22 to her 26,

I wasn't sophisticated enough to understand that that was valid.

Especially with creative people.

And we would breakup, get back together,

Breakup, get back together.

And then in July, we broke up.

Again.

That's when she went to Second City.

Paul: When the Second City organization

came to Toronto in those early 70s,

they had raided ourGodspell cast for their nightclub shows.

[crowd chuckling]

They would do sketches...

and then the current set would be just the improv set.

Gilda: It's about the most stressful thing you could ever imagine.

We're just frantic behind stage. You kinda said,

"Will you work with me?" "Will you work with me?"

The guys would wanna work together,

and the girls said, "Okay, let's try to do this idea this way."

Then the guys would realize they needed someone

to serve the coffee in the scene.

Like, I never had the guts to go out by myself.

I used to have to drink a beer and eat a bag of potato chips first.

When it came to improvisation, she sometimes, you know,

maybe wasn't as strong as, say, a Dan Aykroyd or Joe Flaherty.

But she always found a way

to endear herself to the audience.

Gilda: I consider myself a circus performer.

Working without a net, I'm on the tight rope.

And if I'm bombing, you're gonna see it in my face.

And if they're not laughing,

you do something, get louder, you know, do anything.

You're working for the audience.

[applause]

And one day I got a phone call and it was John Belushi.

[grunts]

He said, "You know, this is John Belushi.

Do you wanna be the girl in the show?"

And I say it in those words because that's what he needed,

a girl to be in the show.

- Who's gonna be the girl? - man: This on?

man 2: You be the girl. Okay.

[chuckles]

Gilda: Humor comes out of tension

and there is no better center for tension than New York.

I think it certainly keeps the comic mind active.

I find the more leisurely and pleasant my life is,

the less funny I am.

And now, The National Lampoon Radio Hour, Singles Bar of the Air.

Our male listeners today will now be approached by Ellen Madderson.

A dynamite chick who comes to The National Lampoon Radio Hour

Singles Bar of the Air every week.

Always hoping to find that perfect mate.

Will that perfect mate be you?

Listen to Ellen now, as she says hello to you.

Hiya, fella. I like to ride my bike, take long walks,

frolic on meadows and run hand in hand across moonlit beaches

with my hair blowing behind me.

Janis: These guys loved her.

She didn't argue it. She wasn't a... a feminist saying,

"I insist", 'cause that wasn't her personality.

And they loved when she would pitch stuff 'cause it always funny.

But the guys weren't saying, "Hey, let's think of a way to put Gilda in the sketch."

That was never part of it.

Gilda: I found that in the writing session...

I couldn't always get my ideas in.

I'd have an idea but I wouldn't say it fast enough

and then one of the guys would say it.

So I said, "Why don't I do the typing

while you guys think of the ideas?"

So I put myself in this little control position.

I could get my idea in there faster,

'cause I was kinda running how fast everything would go.

Gilda: Okay, guys, you ready? One, two, three, four.

[music playing]

♪ I'm a woman, I'm a human I'm a sister ♪

♪ I'm a sinner, I'm a person I am me ♪

Belushi was a teacher to me, a mentor.

And mostly, he just made me laugh like you couldn't imagine it.

[music playing]

Everything he did, his comedy, everything was suicidal.

The way he ate, the way he drank, the way he walked.

The way he... he moved.

He was kamikaze comedy.

Because all of us came to New York to do the show,

and he and his wife Judy,

they looked out for us like the mama and papa.

You know, they kinda took care of us.

Janis: The Lampoon Show seemed like a natural extension

because they were having so much fun

doing theRadio Hour.

Some people think we get all our guns

and ammunition free from the Red Chinese.

But that's not true.

They cost money. A lot of money.

And I can't get anymore from my dad, that's for sure.

Anyway, I've given up a life of comfort and wealth,

surely you can send something. A dime, a dollar.

A pair of socks,

some 50 caliber tracer bullets or whatever you can to...

the Symbionese Liberation Army that's the SLA in LA.

Four-eighteen Fishman building, Los Angeles, California.

[jazz music playing]

Gilda: I had learned how to be more forceful and get my ideas out.

And the guys really did support me.

And I feel I was used really well in the show.

Paul: By this time, she was just this underground sensation,

and everybody knew about her, including Lorne Michaels.

Lorne: She was incredibly comfortable on stage.

I knew that she could do almost anything,

and also that she was enormously likable.

So I started with her.

- Take nine. - For what?

Oh. [chuckles]

Gilda: I was a real novice in television starting this job.

man: Gilda Radnay!

Ner.

Ner... Gilda Radner.

Paul: A lot of people were from the theater,

Lorne had hired them anyway,

you know, and it was her first television thing.

Couple of minutes here with the gang from Saturday Night

which premiers here on NBC at 11:30 on the 11th of October.

Lorne Michaels is the producer. How does it work?

Well, we've got eight,

and we're hoping for two to really work.

- [woman chuckles] - So not all of these people

will become stars... Essentially, yes.

Gilda: It was a strange time because we were all very quiet.

We didn't know who should speak

'cause there were so many of us on, you know.

So, we were all polite and waited for someone to speak.

host: NBC'sSaturday Night!

Gilda: In the first show, I think I was on a total of a minute.

- Mister Bee. - Yes?

Congratulations, it's a worker!

We weren't so hot the first couple of shows, you know.

People were reading books in the audience.

But we were allowed to do eight more,

and somewhere about the fifth or sixth show something snapped.

No, New Shimmer is a dessert topping!

- It's a floor wax! - It's a dessert topping!

It's a floor wax, I'm telling you!

It's a dessert topping, you cow!

Hey, hey, hey! Calm down, you two.

New Shimmer is a floor wax and a dessert topping.

[crowd laughs]

Gilda: Monday night we'd come in and have a writer's meeting.

And every idea was discussed.

Then Tuesday night, everyone stayed up all night

'cause there was a read through on Wednesday.

Rosie: Gilda threw her whole self into it.

It was not at all strange to call Gilda and pick her brain about something.

And then her to come in in her pajamas and a coat,

and just come and sit and write with us.

Gilda: And we never sit around here and say,

"Gee, I wonder what the kids are laughing at today."

We make each other laugh. We put it on the show.

Jane: I can't-- I can't.

- [laughing] Anymore. I can't. - man: One more. One more.

- But it strikes me funny, now. - Gilda: Think of your dog dying.

- Think of your dog dying. - Jane: My dog did die.

- Gilda: All right. - Think of your dog dying.

[both laughing]

...on Sunday when you leave him at my house.

[laughing]

- Okay. - Gilda: Oh, God.

Amy: To be a woman on that show was extremely different

than it was when I was there.

There was so much in the world

that had yet to be carved out for women,

in not just comedy.

I love being a fireman...

Gilda: As those years went on and the women's movement changed so many things,

that made me able to reflect that in my comedy.

Now, here are a few choice facial expressions, you know,

for when you're not on a construction site.

[crowd laughs]

Rosie: When Lily was there, Ann and I wrote a sketch called "The Hard Hats".

And Belushi didn't wanna touch it, and Danny didn't want...

they really didn't... It was a switch.

Strut your stuff in front of Gilda.

Rosie: Finally, Lorne twisted Danny's arm to do it. [chuckles]

- Boom ba-ba! Boom ba-ba! - [crowd laughs]

[applause]

Gilda: I suppose being in the thick of it,

I don't even realize what strides we were making.

But that's 'cause women were.

[sighs] That was terrific.

How was it for you?

Okay.

Was it just okay or was it...

really okay, you know.

Well, it was really just okay.

[crowd laughs]

Lorne: She and Chevy were the first two people

that the audience connected with.

Because they were essentially playing a version of themselves.

[applause]

And now a new feature on Saturday Night.

"What Gilda Ate." Gilda.

Thanks, Rob. Okay.

I started the day with one piece of dry toast

and two egg whites scrambled in a no-stick Teflon pan.

Lorne: In the early days of the show,

I would put her out there when there was no time for a sketch.

It was like four minutes and I had two and a half,

I could just put up a slide that said "What Gilda Ate"

and she could talk about it, and be interesting about it.

...but I didn't order dessert, but on the way back to the office

I had a Fig Newton and an almond dry candy bar.

And then, when I got back to the office I told everyone I was going to the bathroom,

but I really went to a coffee shop

and had apple pie à la mode, and I ate the whole thing.

And then on the way after work, um, I went to a drugstore

and bought an M&M peanut munch bar...

Thank you very much, Gilda. That's enough. Thank you.

- I'm not finished yet. - I know,

but we have to go on with the show, I'm sorry.

- I'll just go get a snack. - [crowd laughs]

Hi, I'm Gilda Radner.

And-- Okay, now. [chuckles]

[applause]

[crowd cheering]

I found that my comfort

in live television was laughter.

That I can do almost anything if people are laughing.

That's what hugs me and holds me and gets things out of me.

Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!

[crowd cheering, applause]

Rosie: She loved to be loved.

And she saw that being on the air

was like adrenaline,

and she developed characters quick.

man: You really like that soup, don't you?

Uh-huh.

More than anything in the whole wide world!

Gilda: A lot of my characters

had a lot to do with growing up.

I am so bored!

Because...

my...

room is the boring room of the world!

[crowd laughs]

Judy Miller was the child in me,

no doubt about it, and it was a great freedom.

You cannot tell me! Oh, no! That's the graduation. No!

In a sense, it might be some defiance about growing up,

or fear of it, not wanting to emulate grownups.

[yelling]

woman: Judy, what's going on up there?

[crowd laughs]

Nothing.

host: Where did Emily Litella come from?

Oh, right from a...

a lady who lives in Stoney Creek, Ontario.

Can I say hello? Oh, I will.

Oh, I'm sorry, Lorne. [chuckles]

Hello to Dibby.

She's Mrs. Gillies who raised me

and she's Emily Litella.

She has all those difficulties Emily does.

What's all this fuss I keep hearing

about the 1976 Presidential erection?

[crowd laughs]

Emily is very hard of hearing.

And, um, she's always getting things wrong.

Sorry, that's election.

The editorial was about the Presidential election,

not Presidential erection.

- Election. - Oh.

- That's very different. - Yes.

- Never mind. - [crowd laughs]

Chevy: The crowd just adored her.

I mean, how many people play an old lady,

you know, on a show, when they can be thought of as

young, and sexy and vibrant, you know.

No, Gilda went for it.

And I promise, from now on I will do my best.

See that you do.

Bitch.

[crowd laughs]

Gilda: I was the first one to ever say bitch on television and the censors let me do it,

'cause they said, "Well, it was a nice, sweet, old lady saying it."

[music playing]

I only named those people for television.

And I put outfits on them for television.

But they've always been inside me.

After I'm done being interviewed all day, I go right into Emily Litella.

I can hardly walk, I can't lie down. Everything's stiff.

Or if I have a cold, or whenever I'm sick, I'm Lisa Loopner.

She's the one that I most often will slip into

because she doesn't care what she looks like.

Yeah, I basically stole

pretty much, almost all of my characters from Gilda.

Myself and another writer Emily Spivey, would sit in our office

and just look at old Gilda sketches

and talk about how amazing she was. And then,

just do very weak 2.0 versions of what she did. [chuckles]

Melissa: I think Gilda used every single part of her being.

Depending on what she was playing,

her posture changed, her neck changed. Like, she--

There was a lot of like, head and neck thing she would do.

And sometimes I wonder if it's why I'm so physical,

because I grew up really just watching her so intensely.

Bill: Everything she did, you could tell she was having a lot of fun.

And I just... I just went, God, if I can get to that place,

'cause when I started SNL, I was a nervous wreck for four years.

I was like, "How do I just relax to where I can get to that?"

Gilda: There's always a moment before I go on.

"I'm gonna get out there, I'm gonna fall apart.

I'm gonna fall over and I won't be able to do it."

And then, right before I have to go on,

- I can't wait to go on. - [applause]

♪ La cucaracha, La cucaracha La la la la la♪

It's like every Saturday I've done an opening night

of an under-rehearsed off Broadway show.

You're not too bright, are you, Fern?

I mean...

[chuckles] whatever your name was.

[crowd laughs]

- Lisa. - [chuckles]

As a matter of fact, you're extremely stupid.

Well, you're right, Fern, you know? And I'm proud of it.

[crowd laughs]

You know, we all can't be brainy like Fern here.

[crowd laughs]

Tragedy struck the world of show business this week

when TV personality Howdy Doody committed suicide

on Thursday in his Beverly Hills home.

Few people knew that Doody had a wife.

- Debbie Doody. - [crowd laughs]

I see she's approaching me right now. Howdy, Debbie?

- [chuckling] - Oh, I'm so sorry.

Gilda: No laughs at all. It was quiet in the studio.

...what's in the future for Debbie Doody?

I don't know.

I didn't know what to do and I knew the camera was on both of us,

so I just flung myself on Laraine.

Moment of grief.

Thank you. Thank you.

Back to you, Jane.

[music playing]

Gilda: The harder I tried to do something well,

the funnier it was.

[crowd laughs]

[applause]

We were trying to be the best we could

but because it was the two of us

without all the skills and the training,

it came out funny.

Lorne: She was an athlete,

and she was really gifted, physically.

[crowd laughs]

[man groans]

Candy, baby.

Amy: When she played Candy Slice,

basing her character on Patti Smith,

she just committed really hard.

♪ Ahh ♪

♪ I'm your biggest Fucked up fan ♪

♪ The rock man And roll man ♪

♪ Till I'm sick! ♪

[burps]

[applause]

Gilda: There's a real strong familial affection...

in this group of people.

I mean, we yell at each other and scream at each other,

we make each other cry. Make each other laugh.

We see each other outside of work.

Laraine: We were the unholy three, I suppose.

But also we were the good girls.

The boys were late, the girls were on time.

Chevy: Oh my God, it was so much fun.

We were all family.

Mostly due to John hating me.

He's like a little brother hating his big brother.

Gilda: Part of Lorne's overall plan

was to keep us innocent.

And keep us the underdogs of television.

We were working so hard all the time

that we were very insulated from the success.

Yee-hoo! Live from Mardi Gras, it's Saturday Night.

[crowd cheering]

[music playing]

narrator: NBCSaturday Night.

Anne: We were mobbed in New Orleans.

It became such a thing, they had to reroute the parade

because they were so many people in front of where the TV cameras

were gonna be that they couldn't get through.

Gilda: Hi! Oh, hello.

Hello!

[crowd cheering]

Anne: And Gilda particularly was vulnerable.

I remember some drunken college student like, jumped on her.

And she had to wear a mask

in order to get through the crowds.

So...

you know, at that point,

they realized that they were, like, famous.

[indistinct chatter]

Gilda: We all were miraculously made into celebrities.

All of a sudden, I came back from summer vacation and people knew who I was.

The ratings that had been Carson repeats, turned in from what,

two million into five million Americans now watch

- on a... on a Saturday night. - Thirty, 30 million.

- Thirty million? - [chuckles]

Janis: Gilda knew more people.

She had more friends.

But she was hungry for a relationship.

Gilda came down to New York, dating Brian Doyle-Murray.

And then she started dating Billy Murray.

Oh! This is really beautiful, Todd.

It's a wrist corsage.

Anne: Todd and Lisa uncannily mirrored

the Bill, Gilda relationship,

which was slightly sadomasochistic.

- [screams] - [laughs]

Noogie patrol!

Rosie: We would try to leave it a little loose,

so that there was room for them to play.

[crowd laughs]

Anne: One of the things that was a factor, that was difficult,

was that he had a longtime girlfriend on and off,

and she would show up periodically

and Gilda would fall into a depression.

Gilda used to say it was really hard for her to see Ghostbusters

because every single guy in the movie

had been her boyfriend at one time or another.

Harold, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd,

but not Rick Moranis.

- Oh. - No. No.

Laraine: I remember she was involved with a very good-looking actor.

She called him a "Clit Snipper".

And I went, "What the hell?" And she's like,

"You know, there's like a ball buster,

he was a clit snipper." I was like, "Oh, God. Man!"

Janis: I think that Gilda didn't have an opportunity

to meet the shy guys in the corner.

She never was around them.

And she was very needy.

And I don't know that that was something that guys want.

Or that at least the guys that she went after wanted.

Gilda: I can't tell if guys are looking at me

'cause I'm a girl and maybe just attractive,

or they're just looking at me 'cause they recognize me from the show,

and I'll maybe never know again.

Cecily: "Being funny got me famous, and being famous

is almost as bad for dating as being funny.

First of all, I had to work every Saturday night,

and most guys figure you're too busy for dating,

or already dating someone, or so glamorous you don't even have a phone."

Melissa: One little note card just says,

"You look different in real life."

It's always a strange thing to hear, you're like, I look like me.

You look different. You look so much better.

Or like, has anyone ever told you, you look like a pretty Amy Poehler?

"I'm going to tell you the most embarrassing thing

that's ever happened to me because I think people like to know

that celebrities get embarrassed just like everyone else.

I was leaving dinner in a small restaurant

with a gentleman that I had a huge crush on.

It happened to be the first day of..." [mumbles]

Oh! [chuckles] It's a period! Period story!

Maya: "After I had a physical examination

the lab sent me the results of my blood tests and urine sample,

attached to the reports was a note, saying..."

Mellisa: "Dear Gilda, I'm a big fan, I wanted to take this opportunity to say

that it was an honor analyzing your urine.

Sincerely, Thomas Owen."

Tom.

I'm sure that's not ethically okay.

And I love that she clearly found it hilarious, because she saved it.

Gilda: Success and celebrity-dom doesn't quite go with comedy...

'cause there's something about being an underdog

and a voyeur that makes comedy possible.

And so, how do you keep on looking at what's going on

if suddenly everyone's looking at you, and make that funny?

Next, seven. Come right here. Okay. It'll be a dollar.

Dollar, thank you very much. One dollar, great.

[music playing]

Welcome to my house.

You have just come through my door

and you are now standing in my living room.

I have lived in this apartment for two years.

You will be here approximately five minutes.

Come on, come on, this way. This way. That's right. Let's go, let's go. Move it.

I wanted to invite you to look up here,

where I have the actual Gilda Radner,

buy anything you want section of my home.

And here, a terrific,

reproduction of a poster of Roseanne Roseannadanna.

And that's a steal at 15 dollars.

I think when I first went on television,

I didn't have Roseanne in me.

She came out of living and coping with New York.

We were doing a parody that Rosie Shuster wrote.

And my character was supposed to work in a hamburger joint.

I was fired from my job making burgers

in the back kitchen at Burgerland

because a lot of costumers complained about hair in their burgers.

[crowd laughs]

There was a wig in the back, so I put that wig on

and everybody said, "That wig's too big, the chroma key is making it

go..." You know, it wasn't good.

And everyone's yelling at me. I said, "Yeah, but it's funny. Let me wear this."

There's a lot worse things that could be in burgers.

[crowd laughs]

So then I went into Alan Zweibel,

who's like in charge of update.

Alan: We would go to restaurants with pads and pens

and you know, think of something

and just start writing.

She would call the first draft "The vomit draft",

you just vomit it out and then you start picking out the corn.

Gilda: Why not have somebody come on the news, you know,

a woman come on and just be like gross,

which is very close to my sense of humor.

Gross pig humor.

Alan: She would just act it out in front of me

and then would actually ad-lib or improv things,

that were better than anything I thought of.

[crowd cheering]

A Mr. Richard Fanner from Farlane, New Jersey, writes in and says,

"Dear Roseanne Roseannadanna, last Thursday, I quit smoking.

Now, I'm depressed, I gained weight,

my face broke out, I'm nauseous, I'm constipated,

my feet swelled, my gums are bleeding,

my sinuses are clogged, I got heartburn, I'm cranky and I have gas."

[crowd laughs]

"What should I do?"

Mr. Fanner, you sound like a real attractive guy.

[crowd laughs]

You belong in New Jersey.

[crowd laughs]

Alan: Roseanne Roseannadanna was probably

the most popular thing that came from our brains.

- Gilda Radner. - [crowd cheering]

[applause]

Thank you.

Like, my dressing room at NBC, I share this with...

with Laraine Newman and Jane Curtin.

[music playing]

Laraine: We got our own secretaries to deal with the fan mail.

And you know, some people had management, and they were working for them,

they have something outside of the show.

Rosie: Everybody knew that this funny Camelot

was gonna disband in some way.

People were getting pretty burned out.

woman: John and Dan were off doingThe Blues Brothers.

I think that more demands were made on Gilda,

and so I think she was

under more stress as a result of that.

man: Do you have your own aspirations as where you wanna go,

what directions you wanna move in?

Gilda: That's something I'm having trouble with right now.

To be...

completely honest, I don't know.

There's days when I'm very dissatisfied.

And I think, what's next? And what should I do?

You know, if all of us started thinking about the future

and got ambitious, and all that stuff, then the show would fall apart.

And they keep us so running ragged here

that there's not much time to think about.

Welcome to Woman to Woman.

Hello, Paula baby.

This is Baba Wawa speaking to you live--

[screaming]

man: Colleen Fernville!

[sobbing]

Hi, Susie. I'm sorry I left.

We've been drugged.

Paul: That was stressful for Gilda.

Certainly remember once her saying, "I'm just one person."

[applause]

You want another vodka and tab?

No. I don't... I don't think so. I think that 12 is my limit.

Yeah, well, I think my limit's about a thousand.

Gilda: There was a time in my life onSaturday Night Live

when nothing in our personal lives was sacred.

I read in the National Enquirer...

that the Food and Drug administration

was considering banning saccharin from the market.

I nearly died.

[crowd laughs]

If you could find a joke, so what if your whole world was falling apart?

[applause]

Judy: I think that the pressure for her to be so thin

to be on television was enormous.

She had to be able to eat

because that was a way that she got love,

or, you know, where she needed to fill that emotional void.

And in order to be thin, she'd have to, you know, find some way to handle it.

Janis: She'd be hysterically funny

talking about standing in front of the refrigerator and shoveling food

and how much she ate.

I don't even think we knew the words eating disorder,

or bulimia, or anorexia.

Judy: Although we were worried about her,

I didn't feel like I could broach the subject.

Janis: She never said, "Help me", to anybody I knew.

And I suspect somebody walked her into the hospital.

man: I need Laraine and John please. Laraine and John.

Lorne: Gilda had boundless energy

and she was always looking for something that would hold her interest.

So she found a way to... to take what she was already doing

that was funny and... and take it to another level.

woman: Ladies and gentlemen, the call is now five minutes.

Five minutes, please. Five minutes.

Places, please. Act one. Places, please. Places for Act one.

[applause, crowd cheering]

Gilda: It was the dream of my life to be on Broadway.

[music playing]

To actually tap dance and sing.

[crowd laughs]

Alan: It was a one woman show,

and it was not only her performance but her material.

♪ I love to be unhappy ♪

♪ I live to be in pain ♪

♪ When days Are full of sunshine ♪

♪ I'm looking for the rain ♪

Gilda: I love that my Broadway show is a series of memories.

I remember when I was in high school

at the... at the end of the year

they always had the prom.

But what I learned was it was never the party that was the good part.

It was always after the party.

[music playing]

♪ Honey, touch me With my clothes on ♪

♪ Sweetie, baby Longer than you do ♪

♪ Honey, kiss me With your mouth closed ♪

♪ Just like you love me And I love you ♪

[applause, crowd cheering]

Gilda: I'm proud that I did that show.

But what I learned was,

that wasn't what I wanted to do.

I didn't wanna be Gilda Radner,

a solo performer personality.

I saw what could happen, that you could end up

being just Gilda Radner.

And when you weren't being Gilda Radner,

you had to stay in your room.

And I was lonesome, you know who for?

For myself.

Here's Gilda!

- [applause] - man: Yeah!

[music playing]

Alan: Gilda was gonna be appearing in Yolo Live in Chicago,

the night that we were getting married in the temple.

So we rented out Sammy's Romanian restaurant, Downtown, in New York,

the Sunday night before,

and had all theSNL people there.

[music playing]

[crowd cheering]

SNL was an extension of adolescence.

And so when Robin and I said, well, okay, we're gonna get married,

Gilda screamed.

She just shrieked,

"Oh, God, we... we might have to be grownups pretty soon."

♪ I got no one beside me ♪

♪ To love and to guide me ♪

♪ And who's gonna do My hair after the walk ♪

♪ Now that you're gone♪

♪ Hey, what's happening With this thing ♪

[crowd laughs]

Alan: And shortly after, she got engaged to G.E.

[rock music playing]

Gilda: I married G.E. Smith,

the lead guitarist in the band forGilda Live.

Laraine: I think that was her version of a walk on the wild side

because they were so different.

Janis: I don't know that anybody knew that had been dating,

but I know everybody was surprised.

Tom Snyder: Since the last time we were together on television,

- you've become a married person. - Gilda: That's right.

How is it different

from what you thought it was gonna be, being married?

Any surprises?

That... that it's better.

Right. And wonderful, a wonderful state.

That's all. [chuckles]

- Okay. - Good night...

and goodbye.

[applause, crowd cheering]

Gilda: My contract was up with NBC forSaturday Night live.

I was not going to go back.

I didn't wanna just keep taking one job after another.

And I think that frightened me enough

to turn down some very wonderful jobs,

and look at myself more.

[music playing]

I wanted to know more what my life was, I suppose.

Sometimes I look through the Want ads

and fantasize about having jobs with beginnings and ends.

And I think about being the checkout girl at the grocery store,

or be a shoe salesman and be pretty funny,

and entertain everyone who came in.

And I could go home and be happy

as opposed to doing it for 40 million people.

But I got this script

and the adventure appealed to me.

Stuff like driving a truck through the desert

while people are shooting at you, you know.

When am I gonna get to do that?

[helicopter whirring]

[gunshots]

I thought, "That sounds like the kinda movies

I used to watch when I was a kid."

But the part itself was not really funny.

Here was a girl with no wigs,

was an attractive, well-dressed,

young woman in her 30s.

And I thought that could either be a character for me to portray,

or I might just have to face the fact that,

that's what I am.

[piano playing]

There's lots of things about me you don't know.

Jordan: When Gene met Gilda, he had just gone through

kinda magic period in his career.

- [crowd cheering] - Gene: Thank you.

There wasWilly Wonka, and there wasBlazing Saddles.

[gunshots]

And then a movie that he wrote with Mel Brooks,

and starred in, Young Frankenstein, came out six months later.

Life, do you hear me?

Give my creation...

life!

Jordan: And so at that moment,

Gene became a very big movie star.

[jazz piano playing]

Gene was not a comedian,

he did not make people laugh for a living.

He was an actor that had been in a lot of funny films.

She was in many ways just as famous,

certainly in America.

Gilda: I had been a fan of Gene Wilder's for many years.

But the first time I saw him in person, I was hooked.

It felt like my life went from black and white to technicolor.

Judy: I could tell by the way she was talking about Gene,

that it was something special.

And it wasn't gonna work out very well for G.E.

After a little while they split up and she was with Gene.

man: It's so wonderful to see the two of you here,

joining me together.

This is wonderful to see us here too.

- The two of us here seeing you. - First appearance ever together?

First with touching. [chuckles]

- First one with touching. - With touching! [chuckles]

Where are you cutting this?

Gilda: Gene and I lived together on and off

for the next two and half years.

My new career became getting him to marry me.

Being interested in sports was one of the things Gene wanted in a woman.

So I took tennis lessons in California.

Gene loved France. So I took lessons in French.

[speaking in French]

Ooh la la! [chuckles]

Gene: I think I have always been searching

for some kind of love that was perfect.

And so, of course, it could never work out. And...

she's like a little gnat that's saying,

"It's never gonna be perfect."

I brought imperfection into his life.

- [chuckles] Yes. - [chuckles]

She brought imperfection into my life.

- I taught him how... - Before that, it was perfect.

Jordan: Growing up, I would be with my Uncle Gene,

who was also a second father to me, for a few months of the year.

And when he and Gilda moved in together,

that just sort of continued.

Not just us, but Gene had created out of his friends in Los Angeles,

that were also colleagues, a family atmosphere.

Gilda: Here, at the luxury, rich and famous home of the rich and famous,

very rich and very famous Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder.

It's me, Robin Leach.

Let's make our way quickly down the driveway,

you can see a beautiful tennis court,

an expensive, luxury swing.

Coming along the path is the very, very expensive,

rich and successful dog of the Radner-Wilder's,

Miss Sparkle Radner-Wilder.

I had changed lives.

I left New York.

I stopped hanging out with theSaturday Night Live crowd.

And I'd lost touch with a lot of people.

Paul: I mean, Gene took Gilda away from us.

But we also were aware that she had physical problems,

and we just were aware that he was getting her taken care of.

Jordan: I think the thing that Gene did the best

to help Gilda was getting her to eat,

and enjoy eating.

He made her feel that she deserved to live life nicely,

and to look forward to things, not just on a weekly basis but a daily basis.

woman: I don't know if you are going to wear masterpieces...

in... on the movie,

but you are going to have a masterpiece in real life.

Are we?

- Gene: Gilda! - Hello, honey.

♪ Happy Birthday, dear Ant-man ♪

- ♪ Happy Birthday to... ♪ - ♪ Happy Birthday to you ♪

[chuckles]

Gilda: There was a time when I thought

that all I wanted to do was work.

And now I know that what I really wanna do is live.

I'm growing up, there's no doubt about it, I'll tell you.

And I don't mind.

When I look in the mirror I see lines around my eyes. [chuckles]

I see a woman more.

A young woman, mind you, but I see a woman.

And less a child.

[indistinct chatter]

woman: What about you and Gene, will you have children?

Gilda: We would like to have children.

woman: What would happen to Gilda Radner?

Would you go through a lot of turmoil about that?

Oh, no. I think, um...

No, no more than I go through anyway. [chuckles]

I think it'd be good turmoil.

I think that's what life is about.

I mean, what could be lovelier than having a baby?

The hair alone would make people squeal with delight.

- Do I talk now? - woman: If you want.

Happy Birthday, Lindsay. Happy Birthday, Lindsay.

Boing, boing!

But my career was still very important to me too.

Hello, Ted.

I just wanted to say good morning,

and have a lovely day.

So when Orion Pictures gave Gene the okay onHaunted Honeymoon,

I put off having a baby.

Gene was the writer, director, and the star,

and I was his wife.

[screams]

Just practicing.

After the second shadow,

- there'll be lightning. - man: Yes.

Gilda: I got heavily into the adventure of movie making.

- Ow! This thing's pinching my butt. - Just hang on for a minute.

And I didn't even think to look at my calendar

until I got the first dizzy spell.

My period was late.

I couldn't believe it.

Gene and I were ecstatic.

[music playing]

You believe in the work you do.

You have joy in the work you do,

and then you find the public's not interested in it.

After that,

well, I guess I can call it, the weird lives began.

Pam: Gilda was...

just not quite herself. Her energy level wasn't great.

Jordan: One morning she just said,

"I don't know what's wrong with me.

Something's wrong with me."

Gilda: I wouldn't be able to get out of bed for quite a few days.

Then out of nowhere, I started having weird pelvic cramping.

A series of blood tests showed

absolutely nothing wrong.

And they basically sent me home saying, "Everything's fine."

There was something not right, but there was nothing wrong.

That was when they were saying it was Epstein Barr, or it was just psychological.

Gilda: I've gone to doctors and seen

that they're just looking at Roseanne Roseannadanna, or Emily Litella.

And not really seeing that here's a person who is sick,

who has complaints.

On Monday, October 20th, the phone rang.

It was my internist.

He checked me into the hospital immediately for tests.

He said very calmly...

"We've discovered there is a malignancy."

I had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

After she was diagnosed,

she responded like I think a lot of people respond.

And was absolutely convinced that this was the end of her life.

And she didn't take calls from me, and she didn't calls from Judy.

It was a pretty tough, difficult time.

Gilda: Last night I had the huge, angry, violent breakdown.

Why me? Why me?

I thought I was supposed to be the jester.

I end up somehow being the... the beggar.

I feel like some fighter who keeps getting knocked down to the floor.

Well, this time I'm having a little bit of trouble getting up.

I don't know. I'm getting a little beaten up, the old body.

Trying to find the confidence

to stand up and fight some more.

But it seems like, the gimme, gimme, grabby, grabby, Gilda

doesn't want as much as it used to.

Used to be, "I wanted everything."

Career, husband, baby, travel, stardom, lights, stage.

Well, all this keeping getting knocked back down again makes me go,

"Okay, now, just give me my health.

Just my health.

Okay? Just my health."

In the hospital,

I wanted to watch myself in the reruns ofSaturday Night Live.

'Cause it would always make me laugh.

Young, dancing around.

Here I was, using the show and my own self

to get me through what was happening to me.

And I knew every night I could look forward to it,

to seeing my friends, to seeing myself,

going, "That is me. And it's still me."

The most difficult part of the whole chemotherapy was my hair.

And I remember our friends invited us to a party and I wouldn't go.

Because I couldn't think, how to... who to go as?

Who do you go as with no hair?

What character?

Just like I did onSaturday Night Live,

I tried to think up, who could I be to get through this?

I knew that I couldn't wear a wig.

And I thought I'm gonna be better off with a scarf or a turban.

So I kinda dressed like a harem girl or something,

with this little hat on.

And I found a character...

to come back into the world.

The Oncologist wanted me to see Joanna,

the therapist who had a sharing group

at this place called The Wellness Community.

Gilda said, "No, I'm not that kind of a person. I can't go there.

You know, I don't feel like making people laugh right now. I'm too famous."

And finally Joanna talked her into going

and she came home that night and she said, skipping and dancing,

"You gotta come, you gotta come along.

You won't believe it. It's just wonderful.

I took charge and I told everyone

what was going on inside my mind,

and I started to cry and then they started to cry.

Then I started to laugh, then they started to laugh.

And I want you to come with me."

Gilda: My humor had come back to me.

So it doesn't matter there that I'm Gilda Radner.

It's not my reputation, it's really who I am, and who I've always been.

In the hospital,

I would think up things to make people laugh.

Like, I'd wait till the nurse left the room

and then I'd buzz for her and say into the intercom,

"Nurse", in the most pathetic way possible.

"Nurse."

I always got them laughing that way.

Gene: Okay.

Gilda:

Hello. Hi.

This is my doctor. Doctor, look, he's filming. [chuckles]

Filling out my chart.

- Are you filming now? - Gene: Yes, dear.

Oh. Here, should I show my hair?

Gene: Oh, yeah. Please.

This is...

Wait, it's flaking.

- This is what-- - I love it like that.

[Gene chuckles]

I was panicked this time. I didn't wanna come

for this treatment. I thought if I filmed it, you know,

it would add a dimension to take my mind off of it, you know.

You're gonna take the blood?

Yeah.

So, are you nervous?

No. Doesn't care. God, that's all I need.

Chemotherapy is so much fun.

Alan: Gilda was not gonna take this shit lying down.

There's not a chance in Hell.

Cancer, fuck you.

I'm... I'm gonna go out and play.

Let me figure out how to do this.

♪ I am well, I am wonderful I am cancer free ♪

♪ No little cancer cell Is hiding inside of me ♪

♪ But if some little cancer cell ♪

♪ Is sneakily holding on ♪

♪ I'll bash and beat Its fucking head ♪

♪ And smash it till it's gone ♪

Hello.

Hello, it's a beautiful day in October.

Gil, sit down over here 'cause the friend's got the camera.

- The group is here. - All right.

Hello. So nice to see you again.

I'm Gilda's brother.

woman: You're doing it while I'm sitting.

The voice you're hearing in the background is my mother.

Michael: Mother, look at the camera.

- Gilda: Mom, look up at the camera. - Michael: Look at the camera.

- [inaudible chatter] - [chuckles]

Gilda: My house became a resort for my friends and family.

Who's that out there, Gene Wilder?

Oh, I can't believe it.

[kisses]

I love you and everything that you touch.

- Gene: Thank you. - And I... and I... [chuckles]

Judy: Gilda was in remission.

And we were thrilled about it.

Gilda: How often do we get to know exactly what our battles are?

Or get to find out what we're actually made of? Or how brave we are?

I kept thinking, there must be a purpose to this somewhere.

That a comedian who does, you know, Roseanne Roseannadanna,

and all this stupid stuff, gets the most unfunny thing in the world.

How am I gonna get people to laugh about it,

to be able to speak the words,

to be able to not be afraid to be treated for it?

Alan: She said, "You know something?

My jokes are my only weapon against this fucker."

She said, "Zweibel, can you help me make cancer funny?"

I was starting a new show called

It's Garry Shandling's Show.

And she was nervous at first about doing the show.

We took a walk once and she started to say,

"It's been six or seven years since I've been on TV.

And I'm afraid that when I walk through the door,

the studio audience isn't even gonna remember me."

- Hi, Garry. - Oh, Gilda!

It's Gilda Radner, everybody!

[crowd cheering, applause]

Really. Don't... don't... don't milk the applause like that. It's...

[crowd laughs]

Oh, I'm sorry, Garry. I haven't been on television for a while.

- Oh, that... yeah. What... what was wrong? - Oh, I had cancer.

- What did you have? - [crowd laughs]

I just had a series of bad career moves.

[crowd laughs]

Alan: This was verboten.

You don't make cancer jokes.

You know, Gilda was the first person...

that I ever saw do that publicly.

[crowd laughs]

Are you looking into the camera?

- No. - [crowd laughs]

- No, I didn't. - Don't... don't look into the camera.

- I didn't. - Don't.

- I didn't. - You don't come in here and look in the camera.

I didn't.

I'll bop you.

[crowd laughs]

I will, if I see a tape of this show...

and you're looking into the...

[crowd laughs]

[cheering and applause]

Gilda: The calmness came over me, like I was suddenly home.

Back, making people laugh again.

Alan: She was on a mission when she got sick.

She felt that she could be of help...

by being an example.

And that's exactly what she did.

Gilda: And I thought since I'd always dreamed of being a writer,

romanticized, fantasized about it...

that in this book there's something I could do...

to actually show people that I'm not afraid.

I think that cancer taught me more tools for life than I ever got before.

Pam: There were numerous times that we thought she was in remission.

Her cancer, unfortunately, kept rearing its head.

Judy: I remember once Pam and I were there together,

and they came out and they were talking, and then they got quiet.

I said to Pam later, I said, "What did Gilda say to you?"

'Cause they stopped talking when I came out.

And Pam said, "She said to me,

'For a little while there I thought I was gonna get away with this.'"

I think she finally realized that she wasn't gonna be okay.

Gilda: I had wanted to wrap this up in a neat little package.

About a girl who is a comedian from Detroit,

becomes famous in New York with all the world coming her way,

gets this horrible disease of cancer, then fights it,

and then miraculously,

things neatly tie up and she gets well.

I wanted a perfect ending.

So I sat down to write the book with the ending in place

before there even was an ending.

Now I've learned the hard way.

It's about not knowing.

Having to change.

Taking the moment and making the best of it...

without knowing what's going to happen next.

[music playing]

♪ Honey, touch me With my clothes on ♪

♪ Sweetie, baby Longer than you do ♪

♪ Honey, kiss me With your mouth closed ♪

♪ Just like you love me And I love you ♪

♪ Now whatever happened To Johnny Mathis? ♪

♪ Two moments when your lips Met mine ♪

♪ So in love were we two ♪

♪ We didn't know what to do And chances ♪

♪ Were awfully good that Love could be so fine ♪

♪ And whatever happened ♪

♪ To slow, slow dancin' ♪

♪ And imaginin' How heaven could be? ♪

♪ Falling in love Was wonderful, wonderful ♪

♪ Loving, baby, Was a dream fantasy ♪

♪ Honey, touch me With my clothes on ♪

♪ Sweetie, baby Longer than you do ♪

♪ Honey, kiss me With your mouth closed ♪

♪ Just like you love me And I love you ♪

♪ Seemed so sad ♪

♪ Hurt so bad ♪

♪ Don't be cruel ♪

♪ I'm a fool ♪

♪ Only you ♪

♪ Mr. Blue ♪

♪ Can't you see? ♪

♪ Must I be? ♪

♪ Baby, Baby ♪

[music playing]

♪ Now whatever happened To Johnny Mathis? ♪

♪ Gee Wasn't his vibrato great? ♪

♪ So much love have we two With so little left to do ♪

♪ Too much, too little Too late ♪

♪ Too much, too little Too late ♪

♪ Too much, too little... ♪

"To be famous is more or less a stab at immortality."

"A chance to leave your name, and your work,

and the memory of millions of people."

"Unfortunately, it doesn't help you personally with being dead."

"'Cause once you're dead, it really doesn't matter much to you

about restaurants and what's on television."

[chuckles]

"I was thinking I'd like to be buried

with the television at my feet,

and I'd like to have my tombstone read..."

"Gilda Radner had a great time."

"I just wanna make sure anybody passing by my grave gets a good laugh."

"A good, deep, mortal laugh, even if I don't hear it."

♪ Touch me with my clothes on ♪