Ever wonder what it was like to be in Studio 8H on opening night in 1975 on the very first episodes of Saturday Night Live?
Director Jason Reitman’s new film, “Saturday Night,” is a recreation of the hours leading up to airtime on that historic night. Somebody who was there, however, is my guest this week on brioux.tv: the podcast: Lorraine Santoli.
No, she was never one of the “Not Ready from Prime Time Players.” Lorraine was part of the NBC technical crew pulling cables for the camera operators during the broadcast.
In the years that followed, Lorraine went on to a spectacular career in entertainment. When we met 40 years ago in California, she ran publicity at Disneyland. Thanks to her, I had a backstage pass to a time when it was still possible to interview Roy Disney, animators Ward Kimball, Ken Anderson and Bill Justice and voice artists such as Jimmy Macdonald.
Meanwhile, Lorraine became close friends with original Mouseketeers Annette Funicello and Bobby Burgess, among others. She wrote The Official Mickey Mouse Club Book. She later climbed the corporate ladder becoming Head of Corporate Synergy at Disney, leading up to 60 companies during the Michael Eisner era. She wrote another book, Inside the Disney Marketing Machine, about become an expert in that.
And wait till you hear her story about the time she saved the life of badass action star Pam Grier! Spend an hour with my friend Lorraine Santoli, this week at brioux.tv: the podcast.
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To listen to the episode, simply click on the white arrow in the blue dot, above.
