Radner’s life, comedy celebrated at Castro screening
The Castro’s majestic screen flickered Thursday night with passing images of rock star Candy Slice, variety show host — in her own bedroom — Judy Miller, cockeyed advice specialist Roseanne Roseannadanna, professional nerd Lisa Loop ner, Howdy Doody’s widow (complete with strings) and newscaster Baba Wawa — all indelible characters created by Gilda Radner on “Saturday Night Live.”
The comedian with many faces was the subject of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival’s opening night film “Love, Gilda.” A crowd-pleaser, it took Radner through her five years on “SNL,” affairs with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Martin Short, struggles with bulimia, marriage to Gene Wilder and protracted and painful death from ovarian cancer almost 30 years ago.
“Gilda was really my first friend on the show, and she was
“Gilda was really my first friend on the show.” Laraine Newman, former “Saturday Night Live” cast member
kind enough to introduce me to everyone else and let them all know I was new in town,” said former “SNL” cast member Laraine Newman, who came to the Jewish Film Festival to pay tribute to her pal, for which she was awarded her name on the Castro marquee.
The film’s director, Lisa D’Apolito, walked the red carpet with Newman and filmmaker Jordan Walker-Pearlman, Wilder’s nephew who lived part of the year with the Wilders. He said his uncle was bereft after Radner’s death. “There was a lot of emotion.”
D’Apolito said it took years to put “Love, Gilda” together
because of the difficulty enlisting Radner’s celebrity friends to participate. “They were all very protective of Gilda.”
Her big coup was landing Wilder, who died in 2016. He was quite ill by the time he agreed to talk to her, so there is no footage of his interview. But for a full day, he told D’Apolito wonderful stories about the woman he deeply loved.
She asked him to explain an often-heard story that he married Radner because her dog ate rat poison. “That story never made sense to me, but it turned out to be true.”
Wilder was reluctant to marry Radner because she was so clingy around him. The day they were to leave for France their dog Sparkle, a little Yorkshire terrier, accidentally swallowed rat poison.
“Gilda told Gene, ‘You go on to France. I have to go with Sparkle to the vet.’ She nursed her dog back to health and never made the trip,” D’Apolito said. On Wilder’s return he proposed marriage realizing now that Radner could live without him.
Newman recalled her 35th birthday party at her house, the last gathering of friends that Radner ever attended.
“The party spread by word of mouth, and I ended up having pretty amazing people like Steve Martin and Peter Cook. They came because they heard Gilda was coming,” Newman said.
As Radner prepared to leave, Murray and Aykroyd “threw her over their shoulders and carried her around the house up the stairs and down the stairs. They presented her to everyone and told her to ‘Go ahead and say your goodbyes now because you’re a goner.’ That was the last time I saw her.”
Newman hopes “Love, Gilda” will result in new, younger fans for the comic’s comic. “I think that people who never heard of her will definitely fall in love with her as everybody did. And for people who are in comedy, I think for them to see her process is very exciting. I knew she was brilliant, but this documentary reveals just how brilliant she was.”
What does she think Radner would make of the festival’s tribute to her? “She would be touched and thrilled and flattered.”