06/06/2007
I'm on vacation for a week Pt. 1: Selma Diamond
Selma Diamond is a woman you may recall from various character acting parts in the movies and on TV; gravel voiced, not exactly gorgeous, and extremely funny. If you saw the excellent film All Of Me, with Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin, Ms. Diamond was Steve Martin's secretary. If I'm not mistaken, she was a regular on Night Court as well. She died in 1985.
Before her acting career, Diamond was a highly respected comedy writer, starting in the days of radio and hitting her stride with various TV shows in the 50's and early 60's.
She became a late-night TV talk show regular on The Jack Paar Show, the predecessor to the Carson-era Tonight show. She had a funny voice, she said funny things, and she graced Paar's set for many an evening.
I have an album of her collected appearances on Paar, called Selma Diamond talks... and talks... and talks . Due to some legal problems, I imagine, Paar's parts of the conversations are edited out almost entirely, and Diamond's stories are cut together in a moderately sloppy fashion. Nonetheless, her strong, funny personality and expert delivery always shine.
Here she's talking about visiting the old neighborhood on King's Highway in BK after years of working in Hollywood.