"He saw in me something," said Curtis. "I became under contract to him at MCA and he would help me with those early movies. He never missed anything with me. He kept watching me, help me improve and watch me develop as an actor. I had the most important and wonderful people helping me."
Curtis had been in town five years when he landed the role of Harry Houdini. "I started learning magic to play the part in the picture," said Curtis. "What an experience that was. I remember some [of the magic], but I haven't fooled around with it since then."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, June 12, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 25 words Type of Material: Correction
Tony Curtis: In an article in Wednesday's Calendar about actor Tony Curtis, the last name of escape artist Curtis Lovell II was misspelled as Love.
"Houdini" also starred his first wife, Janet Leigh, the mother of actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis.
"We were just married and this was our first picture together," he said, adding that it wasn't easy doing the movie with his spouse.
"But we got through it. We were living in an apartment on Wilshire Boulevard down near UCLA." Curtis paused. "These things come bouncing at me, there are so many memories, so many images," he reflected.
When he first met Wilder about "Some Like It Hot," the Lemmon role was to be played by Frank Sinatra.
"Then a week later, Wilder said, 'I'm going to have to change that because I think Frank would be too much trouble.' Then he called back and said Jack Lemmon would do it. He said to me, 'I want the handsomest man in town and you are that.' And he put me in the movie."
An avid art collector, Wilder was more than a director to Curtis -- he was a great inspiration to him as a painter.
"He encouraged me to maintain myself as a painter," said Curtis. "Here we were working, making this movie, and he was helping me build an art collection and looked at the paintings I was doing. I was blessed."
Wilder, though, was a tough task master. "But in that toughness, he showed me things I wanted to learn and he was there for me always," said Curtis. It was like going to art school."
For more information on "The Magic of Tony Curtis" events go to www.julesverne.org
Elsewhere
Oscar-winning sound designer Ben Burtt (of "Star Wars" and "Wall-E" fame) and Academy Award-winning visual effects artist Craig Barron ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") examine the "1939 state-of-the-art" sound and visual effects of the classic 1939 George Stevens adventure "Gunga Din," Friday evening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Their presentation precedes the screening of the film, which stars Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Victor McLaglen. www.oscars.org
