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Be careful about meeting your heroes, kids — they might just burp in your face.
Such was the case when Hollywood legend Betty Grable guested onCarol Burnett's famous variety sketch show,The Carol Burnett Show.
"I feel I did have a fairy godmother — Betty Grable was one of my first guests on my show," Burnett toldAmy Poehlerrecently on theGoodHangpodcast. The comedy icon said Grable was every bit as "adorable" and "very funny" as she might have hoped, but she did have one nasty habit.
"Betty was on the show as a guest. And so was Martha Raye, who was one of the funniest women ever, and she was very [physical] and loud, and she and Betty had worked together and they were good friends," Burnett recalled. "So it was for me, my God, I'd grown up watching Betty Grable, watching Martha Raye. I was all [thrilled]. So now we're rehearsing. Now, Betty had a thing about Coca-Cola. She had to drink Coca-Cola all the time. So what would happen was, she would be [burping] constantly."
OnGood Hang, Burnett gave several perfect imitations of the belches, which she described as "really, really loud." Grable "just loved Coca-Cola," she continued. "So, we're in the wings ready and we're doing the show, and Betty and Martha and I are ready for our queue to go out, and Betty took [another sip] and [burped] again and Martha Raye said, 'Oh, for God's sakes, Betty, why don't you just fart and save your teeth?'"
At this, Poehler howled with laughter, much to the delight of Burnett, who said she shared that sentiment at the time. "I thought I was going to die," she said, cracking herself up. "And then we had to go out and do the finale. I was just hysterical."
The gassy tendency aside, Burnett also shared a more sentimental memory she had of Grable.
"I remember we would go to the Grauman's Chinese [Theatre] where they have the courtyard with everybody's handprints and footprints and so forth, and I remember putting my handprints into Betty Grable's handprints," she said. "And just a few months ago, I got my handprints after all these years. And I remember putting my hand in, and I'm wondering will somebody someday put their handprints on mine, you know? Wouldn't that be kind of wild?"
The Carol Burnett Showoriginally ran on CBS from 1967 to 1978, for a whopping 279 episodes. It returned with an additional nine episodes in the fall of 1991. Over its massively successful run, the series won 25 Primetime Emmy Awards.
Elsewhere onGoodHang, Burnett revealed herfavorite letter to climb on the Hollywood sign, and discussed doing sketch comedy with Ray Charles, playing Miss Hannigan inAnnie, and much more.
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