Carl Reiner, Book Author
For the last five decades Carl Reiner has enjoyed a legendary career in show business that includes acting, directing, producing and writing.
Now, he's written his very first collection of short stories called How Paul Robeson Saved My Life and Other Mostly Happy Stories.
And he shares one of them with CBS News This Morning Co-Anchor Thalia Assuras.
For years Reiner kept TV audiences laughing with his role of egomaniac, toupee-wearing producer Alan Brady on The Dick Van Dyke Show, which he created.
His new book, How Paul Robeson Saved My Life and Other Mostly Happy Stories is his first short-story collection.
In the title story, the only autobiographical tale in the book, Reiner recounts a verbal spar while he was in the Army in 1943.
The sports world and the Army were not integrated back then, Reiner points out. And as he was talking to a black man in the bathroom, a racist sergeant insisted that no black man could be his equal.
He said, "You think a black man is as good as a white man?"
Reiner answered, "This black man is better than me because he's educated and went to college and can beat both of us."
The sergeant asked Reiner to name a single black man better than himself. And Reiner answered Paul Robeson.
At the time Robeson was the preeminent black man in theater and sports, points out Reiner, concluding that it all ended with a debate.
"And this debate became so funny, it's almost word for word in the book as I remembered it with the guy," adds Reiner.
This is one of several stories that he gathered over the years. "I thought it would be great to compile them into one humorous book," he adds.
Reiner is also the winner of 12 Emmys and one Grammy. His Emmy wins were for outstanding writing, acting and producing. In the 1950s he won his first Emmy for Caesar's Hour and in 1995 he won his most recent one for Outstanding Guest Appearance on Mad About You.
He was also the recipient of a 1999 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word/Comedy Album with Mel Brooks for The 2000-Year-Old Man in the Year 2000, The Album.
He has starred in such pictures as The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, and has been featured in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and The Slums of Beverly Hills.
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This past year he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
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