An Interview with Leonard Maltin
Page 4 of 4
LP: Are there any stars that you had a certain perception of them and after interviewing them your perception changed 180 degrees?
LM: Hmm.. good question. I don’t think so. You know, to be really honest, mostly these folks are on their best behavior when they're doing an interview. We're not really seeing them under pressure or with their hair down. I don't know that I've ever had a chance to change opinions that drastically. I've been pretty lucky. You can call me a Pollyanna, but I have been pretty lucky. Almost all nice and kind.
LP: And the rest you prefer to forget
LM: Yeah, a couple.
LP: Tell me about your new show, The Hot Ticket.
LM: Well we just started, we're in our seventh or eight week. And it's been fun. It's an idea - it's not my idea so I don't have to be modest - the idea seems so obvious you wonder why someone didn't do it before. Politically Incorrect has been doing this for a long time using celebrities of all kinds on a panel to discuss current events. We do it with movies. This weekend we will be talking about Harry Potter and we have three child actors on to talk about it. All sorts of people so the dynamic changes every week depending on the guest and depending on if the film is any good.
(c) Paramount Pictures Corporation
LP: And who's your co-host there?
LM: Todd Newton who people know from E! Entertainment Channel and he also hosts a show on the Game Show Network.
LP: And where can people find it?
LM: If you want to find out where it's playing in your area, you can go to our website which is HotTicketTV.com. It's a weekend show.
LP: And the show's doing well so far?
LM: Yes, I think it's fair to say it's doing very well.
LP: I’ve been told me you're a big fan of movie memorabilia. You have a collection of your own, I presume. What are some of your more prized pieces?
LM: Oh, I don't know. The more offbeat the better. Looking on the wall ahead of me there's a Fatty Arbuckle who started in the first movie version of Brewster’s Millions in about 1920 or 1921. To promote it they sent out a mock dollar bill with his picture on it and I found one of these in a frame - it was wonderful. I have - I’m sitting here looking at a bottle of Hop Along Cassidy Hair Trainer. It’s not that uncommon, a lot of Hoppie fans have those. And I have a golden spike, a goldish spike, that was given out to promote Cecil B. DeMille's Union Pacific which climaxes with the driving of the golden spike.
LP: Do you have any Disney pieces?
LM: Oh yea, sure. The thing about my Disney stuff is it doesn't have to be old. It just has to appeal to me. I'm looking at some PVC pictures I have here. A little one of Donald in a really good pose. Pluto in a really perfect pose. And they make me smile and that's all I ask out of them. And they give me as much pleasure as some rare piece from the 30s that'd be worth a hundred times as much. So I have some old, some new.
LP: Backing up a bit to a question I meant to ask earlier. What is your favorite of the recent animated films?
LM: Hmmm...good question. I don't know. Well I can tell you this, I think Hercules got a bum rap. Hercules is a really entertaining movie. I ended up seeing it three times in the theater and I enjoyed it every time. I think it's a funny, clever, well-made movie and I think it didn't get the accolades it deserved.
Discuss It
Related Links
- Leonard Maltin on Walt Disney from our Walt Thoughts series
- Leonard Maltin Books on Amazon.com
- LaughingPlace.com Toon Talk Reviews of the Walt Disney Treasures
- Hot Ticket Official Site
-- Posted January 11, 2002
-- Interview by Doobie Moseley