Quotes

For years I auditioned for producers and directors who would fall on the floor laughing, but then I'd never hear from them again. Go ask them why I'm not working. Believe me, there's a lot more to working steadily than being a name and delivering the laughs. There's a certain--let's call it kowtowing--that I'm not prepared to do.

Regarding John Hoyt : I remember my brother, Lewis Meltzer, the writer taking me to see John Hoyt--when he was John Hoysrack--in a club. A little club, like cafe society. I was about 16 or 17. My brother said, "This man is very funny and very wonderful." I never drank then, I never drink now, I never will, but I sat and had my root beer, and Hoysrack did his wonderful stand-up act. Very, very intelligent, very intellectual, you know. He'd talk about this friend of his who was [imitating Hoyt] "veddy, veddy, veddy much into gardening. He'd have a lovely garden outside his window. A bed of roses . . . a bed of marijuana . . . a bed of roses . . . ". In Lost Continent (1951) he was excellent, playing the guy everybody thinks is the heavy. Wonderful actor and nice man. He was really a gentleman.

[on Robert L. Lippert to whom he was under contract] Bob Hope wanted me for a part in The Lemon Drop Kid [1951] at Paramount. I had Bob laughin' for nine weeks, talkin' and ad-libbing. Anyway, Paramount [paid Lippert] either $600 or $700 a week [for Melton's services], and Lippert was givin' me my $140 a week. Lippert just gave me my salary and took the rest. Then, come tax time, he was gonna have me pay the tax [on the full amount]! An attorney, Eddie Rose, said, "How dare he do that! We'll go to the IRS!" Eddie Rose was wonderful, he called Lippert and told him, "You think you're gonna have Sid Melton pay the tax on what you made on that deal?" And Lippert immediately backed out.. he said, "No, no, no!". But he never gave me the difference!