Rarified Heir Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode # 220: Susannah Mars (Kenneth Mars) Jan 28, 2025

Show notes

Today on another encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Susannah Mars, daughter of actor and comedian Kenneth Mars. Of course you know Kenneth Mars from his many film roles including Young Frankenstein, What's Up Doc, The Producers, Radio Days & The Parallex View and many more classic films. What you may not know and we learn from talking to Susannah was that her grandfather was a comic and radio personality named Sonny Mars who released one very tidy LP & that later in life, her father became known for voice over work in tons of animated movies and shows, none bigger than that as King Trident in Disney's The Little Mermaid.

Susannah also lets us in on what it was like growing up with her cerebral but wacky father. We hear about his lunches with fellow actors and comedians like The Partridge Family's Dave Madden which then somehow led us to reach out to another guest, Denise Gaultier after hearing about her father's somewhat ribald drawings he made for Susannah at those lunches. We also hear about Susannah's singing career, her documentary film, Mourning Has Broken & how she starred in an ABC after school special with Kristy McNichol & so much more. There is so much love and respect and genuine familial memories about growing up with a father it's hard not to empathize with her years after his passing. He made funny voices, she got to watch her dad on stage in St. louis at the Muny Theater and how the cult comedy show Fernwood 2 Night still connects with her & her dads fans. Please take a listen to the latest episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast and enjoy our chat with Susannah Mars. Everyone has a story.

Episode # 219: Ben Model - Unreleased Ernie Kovacs This Week! (Bonus Episode) Jan 22, 2025

Show notes

Today on bonus edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast we are dropping a special episode in addition to this week's episode with Brendan Wayne.

Our guest today is Ben Model who in addition to being a silent film accompanist, is also the archivist for the estates of Edie Adams and Ernie Kovacs. We spoke to Ben today because (drum doll please) (Add drumroll)*, on Ernie's birthday, Thursday January 23 at 7pm EST, we will be screening the previously lost, final episode of the Ernie Kovacs gameshow Take a Good Look on the YouTube channel of Clown Jewels. And if you tune in, join the live commentary with Ben and host Josh Mills, the son of Edie Adams and grand poo bah of the Ernie Kovacs estate.

The very next day, on Friday January 24, Clown Jewels is releasing a brand new, Ernie Kovacs album of previously unreleased material from his radio show entitled Mayhem in the AM: The Lost Radio Comedy of Ernie Kovacs on all digital outlets.

Both these projects are years in the making and we can't wait to share this with both our podcast fans as well as Ernie

Episode # 218: Brendan Wayne (John Wayne) (Part Two) Jan 21, 2025

Show notes

Today on part two of our interview with Brendan Wayne on the Rarified Heir Podcast, we talk to The Mandalorian (literally) about growing up the grandson of acting giant John Wayne. We also get into Brendan's own acting career in films like Cowboys and Aliens and CSI before he took the lead role of The Mandalorian on the Disney+ hit show. What's it like to get into acting when your grandfather is John Wayne. Take a listen.

We also discuss more of his time growing up around his grandfather, The Duke and some of his most off-beat movies. We hear a terrific story about the film Brannigan which almost got the entire production shut down after an ill-advised explosion on the London dockyards worried authorities that the IRA had planted a bomb. Terrific stuff about the professional and the personal life of a giant of an actor, John Wayne. It's an very up close and personal conversation about Wayne that only a family member could tell. And we hear it, right here, right now on the Rarified Heir Podcast, pilgrim. Another child of a celebrity, interviewed by a child of a celerity. Everyone has a story.

Episode #217: Brendan Wayne (John Wayne) (Part One) Jan 14, 2025

Show notes

Today on part of one of another encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Brendan Wayne, the grandson of none other than John Wayne. While we share many connections (one of which is that Ernie Kovacs and The Duke starred in the film North to Alaska together) there is a deeper one that's existed between Brendan and host for some time now. Turns out that while Brendan is literally The Mandalorian on the Disney+ hit series The Mandalorian, he also happens to be the coach of Josh's daughter's soccer team. It's our 4th year working with Brendan in fact. Better yet, Brendan is a terrific father himself whose girls not only play on the team, one of them co-coaches with him! We totally lucked out with our soccer coaches. Wacky stuff indeed, right?

Well, it's no more wacky than Brendan himself who talks to us about anything and everything on this first episode. We discuss his relationship with The Duke, Wayne's relationship with director John Ford, Brendan hanging with grandpa sans toupee and Brendan's classical acting training. Still, it's hard to wrap our heads around the fact that somehow our soccer coach also happens to be The Mandalorian as well as being the grandson of one of America's most iconic actors. So if Capezio dancewear and the difficulty of dating a girl whose dad only wants to talk about your grandad is something that seems noteworthy, take a listen to this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast. We promise you will dig it. Everyone has a story.

Episode #216: Eric Bonerz (Peter Bonerz) Jan 07, 2025

Show notes

Today on another encore edition of The Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Eric Bonerz, son of actor and director Peter Bonerz. Host Josh Mills goes way back with Eric, who, while slightly older, attended the same Oakwood School that has become somewhat synonymous with this podcast. Like Josh, Oakwood was a Petri dish of children of celebrities and it's partially the impetus for this podcast.

Our conversation with Eric was full of humor, pop culture references, lost LA lore and bizarre interactions with the film, TV, music and the world of animation if you can believe it. Eric recounts his father's career as a comedic actor coming up in theater in San Francisco in the 60s and takes us on a journey through television in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Best known to fans as Jerry the Dentist on The Bob Newhart Show, Peter Bonerz moved behind the camera and became an in-demand television director with more than 350 credits to his name. So while we discuss shows like Wings and Murphy Brown, we also hear about Eric's time on the set of the film Catch-22 as well as an evening spent in the Manson house with Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor. Whoa.

Somehow on this episode we discuss AMC Jeeps, the Beastie Boys, the band Primus, actor Chuck McCann, actor Keir Dullea, the Jerry Lewis film, The Day The Clown Cried and much more. Eric is a touchstone to so many things, it just feels like he's in the DNA of the Rarified Heir Podcast. Listen and find out for yourself, right now.

Episode #215: Deb Scott Studebaker & Stan Warnow (Raymond Scott, Dorothy Collins) Dec 31, 2024

Show notes

Today on an encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to siblings Deb Scott Studebaker & Stan Warnow about their musician/inventor Raymond Scott. Like our good friend Ernie Kovacs, some of you might have heard the name Raymond Scott but don't really know who he was or what he did. Others however, might be salivating knowing that one of the 20thCenturies musical geniuses is the subject of this episode. Either way, both Deb and Stan graciously sat down together to do this interview & wowed us with tales of their complex genius dad.

Vintage cartoon fans might know Scott from his songs "Powerhouse" and "Toy Trumpet," classic television and radio fans may know him and his orchestra from the show "Your Hit Parade" and others may know him as the Godfather of the modern synthesizer & inventor of the Clavinex & Electronium. A performer, a demanding band leader, a composer and the Director of Motown's electronic and research department, Raymond Scott was nothing if not prolific.

In addition, we discuss Deb's mother, entertainer Dorothy Collins who was a Broadway star, a nightclub performer and a television star on shows like The Hollywood Palace. We get the lowdown on a father so driven by his creations he gave up performing for tinkering in his office and being one of the founders of electronic music as well as fax machine – decades before it became a reality. It's positively Looney Tunes on this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast. Everyone has a story.

Episode #214: Kelly Conway (Tim Conway) Dec 24, 2024

Show notes

Today on another encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we speak to guest Kelly Conway daughter of comedy legend Tim Conway. This episode is equal parts fun and funny as well as difficult and heavy as Kelly tells us about the wonderful early years with her father as well as the end-of-life care battle that she had to endure in his later years. It's the stuff you won't soon forget.

We discuss her father's career in comedy, beginning in Cleveland with comedian/voice over actor (and sometimes television horror show host) Ernie Anderson. Moreover, we were blown away to learn that Tim Conway was nominated for a whopping 13 Emmy awards. But through it all, Tim Conway was a fantastic father who made family life a priority with silliness and games and is the focus of Conway's biography, My Dad is Funnier Than Your Dad.

We discuss her father's connections to Carol Burnett, Steve and Eydie, Bob Newhart, Mike Connors, which were both personal as well as professional. Kelly also doesn't shy away from the dark chapter in the Conway story as the elder Conway became less able to take care of himself. We hear stories about how he was cared for by his second wife and her daughter that is one of the most difficult interviews we have ever done. Somehow Kelly is able to guide us on a journey that had us laughing one minute and on the verge of tears the next. Through it all, Kelly is warm, self-effacing and brutally honest about her father, whom she loved dearly. Take a listen to this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast and keep the Kleenex handy.

Episode #213: Lisa Sutton (Lynn Anderson, Glenn Sutton) Dec 17, 2024

Show notes

Today on another encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Lisa Sutton, daughter of singer Lynn Anderson & music producer Glenn Sutton. Lisa grew up in Nashville, home to her parents and their 'Countrypolitan sound' they helped make famous. What's countrypolitan you ask? Good question. It's definitely country music but typically with lush string arrangements, an orchestra and a more stylized sound than what country music is known for prior. It's a sound her Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame father and her mother Lynn made famous with the massive Joe South penned hit "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden."

We also talk to Lisa about her perhaps lesser known but perhaps more influential grandparents Casey Anderson and Liz Anderson whose roots in country music as songwriters, performers and connectors led them to a fortuitus meeting with the poet of the common man, Merle Haggard. He gave them their start. Of course we talk roses – it's a theme in Lisa's life that connects back to her mom's massive hit, horses, the National Enquirer and how her father's songs were recorded by everyone from The Louvin Brothers to Etta James. Fans of country music rejoice, we have a winner on this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast with Lisa Sutten. Take a listen.

Episode #212: Valerie Long (Richard Long, Mara Corday) Dec 10, 2024

Show notes

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast we are talking to Valarie Long, daughter of actors Richard Long and Mara Corday. At times our conversation was breezy, at times difficult and at other times funny, Valerie really took some time with this interview because there was so much to discuss.

From health issues that plagued Richard his whole life to some of those same issues that Valerie herself faced, we hear about how her father was plucked from obscurity as a high school senior at Hollywood High School and within no time was working on films with Orson Welles, Claudette Colbert, Loretta Young and Edward G. Robinson. We also discuss her father's first marriage prior to meeting the pinup girl Playboy model turned actress Mara Corday, to a young ingénue named Suzan Ball who tragically passed away at age 22 when Richard was only 23 whose tragic story is one we had never heard of prior to connecting to Valerie.

Somehow we end up talking to Valerie about people like Clint Eastwood, Peter Marshall, Lee Majors, Barbara Stanwyck, Roddy McDowell, Dan Rowan and Sit John Mills. We also discuss iconic TV shows like The Big Valley, The Twilight Zone, 77 Sunset Strip, Nanny and the Professor and more. We discuss movies like Tarantula, Sudden Impact, Tomorrow is Forever, Ma and Pa Kettle and Make Like a Thiefand others. It's a rollicking conversation that was equal parts funny, heartwarming and poignant and we thank Valerie for shying away from nothing in our conversation.. But that's how things happen on the Rarified Heir Podcast. Everyone has a story. And this one is a keeper.

Episode #211: Carrie Mitchum (Christopher Mitchum, Robert Mitchum) Dec 03, 2024

Show notes

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Carrie Mitchum, daughter of actor Christopher Mitchum, granddaughter to iconic actor Robert Mitchum and mother to actor Grace Van Dien. And while that's a lot of actors in your family, we haven't even mentioned her actor brother, her actor uncle, her great actor or her own acting career! I'm talking actors! That's quite a family business! The Fonda's, the Bridges' and the Douglas's aint got nothing on The Mitchum's. Although maybe the Huston's rival all this. Anyway, I digress….

We jumped around on the latest episode with Carrie because there was frankly so much to talk about. Of course we wanted to know what life was like with Grampa Robert – and we do. But we also heard so much about her own acting career starting with the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful as well as her time growing up in Europe and Asia on movie sets starring her father. Moreover, it's a total trip to know she had cookies on sitting on the lap of one of Europe's most feared dictators as part of that experience.

We also talk to Carrie about her grandfather's film and his recording career, her father's films with John Wayne, growing up at the Green Acres estate with Harold Lloyd and our prior guest Suzanne Lloyd, the poetry of Robert Mitchum, her daughters time on Stranger Things, grampa's favorite food, being on the set of the film, That Championship Season, how no one really knows a family dynamic just by reading a tabloid, what NAR means, The Mitchum Steakhouse, being married to a "sex symbol" and much more. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and everyone has a story.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected