You Don’t Know Me, But You Love Me: The Lives of Dick Miller

394 Pages·2018·9.05 MB·English

by  Caelum Vatnsdal

Copyright © 2018 Caelum Vatnsdal ARP Books (Arbeiter Ring Publishing)
205-70 Arthur Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Treaty 1 Territory and Historic Métis Nation Homeland Canada R3B 1G7
arpbooks.org
Cover and interior design and layout by Relish New Brand Experience.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
This book is fully protected under the copyright laws of Canada and all other countries of the Copyright
Union and is subject to royalty.
ARP Books acknowledges the generous support of the Manitoba Arts Council and the Canada Council for
the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada
through the Canada Book Fund and the Province of Manitoba through the Book Publishing Tax Credit and
the Book Publisher Marketing Assistance Program of Manitoba Culture, Heritage, and Tourism.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Vatnsdal, Caelum, author You don’t know me, but you love me : the lives of Dick Miller / Caelum
Vatnsdal.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-927886-14-4 (hardcover).--ISBN 978-1-927886-18-2 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-927886-15-1
(ebook)
1. Miller, Dick, 1928-. 2. Motion picture actors and actresses--United States--Biography. I. Title.
PN2287.M637V38 2018 791.4302’8092C2018-903876-4

C2018-903877-2
C2018-903877-2
This book is dedicated to Dick and Lainie,
and it was written for Alicia and Leander.
Acknowledgements
learly the first individual to thank when writing a life story is the person
who lived it. My permanent and unabashed gratitude goes to Dick Miller
C
for letting me tell his tale, and equally to Lainie Miller, without whom
there would hardly be a Dick, never mind a book about him. Their generosity
was utter and their support unbounded. On top of that, they were extremely
pleasant people to be around.
Joe Dante was of immense and invaluable aid to this project. Not only did he
submit to interviews and repeated follow-up questions, he helped make several
important connections and provided some vital copyediting.
I am eager to thank the many other people who gave their time to speak or
write to me, including Max Apple, Allan Arkush, Belinda Balaski, Ira Behr,
Roger Corman, Frank De Palma, Ernest Dickerson, Jon Davison, Mike Finnell,
Mike Gingold, Zach Galligan, Jack Nicholson, Bill Levy, Bob Martin, Harry
Northup (whose Miller reminiscences came in the form of a posted letter), Tony
Randel, Scatman Jack Silverman, Scott Wheeler, and the late Eugene Miller. I’d
like also to acknowledge friendly, helpful gatekeepers like Mark Alan at
Renfield Productions and Cynthia Brown at New Horizons. The lovely people at
the Margaret Herrick Library may simply have been doing their jobs, but they
deserve thanks along with their paycheques.
Some may not know how much they helped, like Brad Caslor, who kindly
gifted me a stash of movie magazines that turned out to contain many articles
germane to my subject; and Tasha Robinson, then of The Onion AV Club, who
thought publishing an interview with Dick Miller was a good idea, and thus
provided the author an extra excuse (if one were needed) to go visit him. I owe a
debt, and perhaps must shake a playful fist too, at David Everitt and Fangoria
magazine, who lit the fuse.
Many thanks also go to Elijah Drenner, who made a dandy movie, That Guy
Dick Miller, and was nothing less than utterly helpful when I asked something of
him in the course of my own project. Dave Barber, Dave DeCoteau, Kier-la
Janisse, Joe Ziemba, Gary and Penny Vatnsdal and Bob and Leslie Smith, Todd
Scarth and John Samson were all as fulsome in their support as I am in my
gratitude to them. I am particularly grateful to Todd Besant and Irene Bindi at
ARP, and to Pat Sanders for superlative editing.
The Manitoba Arts Council and the Winnipeg Arts Council provided some
of the funding needed to complete this book, and I am grateful not only for their
support, but for their existence.
Most of all I thank Alicia Smith and Leander Vatnsdal, both of whom I
dearly love.
Contents
Preface
1 As sure as I’m sitting here, I’m a prince
2 There are certain things you want to put out of your mind
3 Fun Inc.
4 I’ll never forget that flying through the air
5 The pigeons are free
6 Big change in my life
7 How do you start this thing?
8 I always liked Roger
9 You’re gonna be a star
10 We shook hands and that was it
11 This is what I would do if I was a little nuts
12 No man could have lived through it
13 I got older, but I didn’t get any taller
14 Went up, probably coming down
15 You mean I gotta touch those?
16 He had to be a fan
17 I can’t do this, I’m an actor!
18 It was all brand new to me
19 I came in, I did the job, I got out
20 Fade in, fade out
Afterword
Sources
Index