Word: lettermans
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...Main Room because they thought it would hurt their Las Vegas draw." Hamilton and another comic, Biff Maynard, suggested that Mitzi instead try to fill the room with a bill of her Comedy Store regulars. So she put together a squad of her best acts - among them David Letterman, Jay Leno, and Robin Williams - and crowds packed the place. Even better, at least for Mitzi, because they were her very own "showcase" comics, who worked for free in the Original Room, she didn't feel the need to pay them. And that's what ticked off Leno and his pals...
...comics formed a quasi-union, the Comedians for Compensation, and held meetings. The first one was mass chaos, says Dreesen, "Everybody's talking at the same time. Gallagher's yelling, 'Why don't we burn the fucking place down!' It was insanity." David Letterman was there, along with his good friend George Miller, who was particularly outraged because his mother used to work as a bookkeeper for Mitzi Shore - and thus knew how much money she was socking away. Leno came too, though Letterman thought he made something of a spectacle of himself. "Jay, bless his heart, couldn...
...serious matter, and the vast majority of the 150 or so who worked at the Comedy Store walked off the job. Some of them had careers outside the club and didn't need the money, but supported the strike nevertheless. In the midst of the walkout, Letterman filled in for Johnny Carson as guest host of The Tonight Show. Immediately after finishing the show he drove to the Comedy Store and joined the picket line. "This was the umbilical cord for a lot of guys, myself included," says Letterman. "Money wasn't necessarily an issue for me, because...
...crushed the night Letterman - one of her favorites, the kid from Indiana whom she took under her wing and, she claimed, had talked into staying when he wanted to go back home - showed up on the picket line. "I watched him in the bay window here," Mitzi would recall years later. "I was taken aback. I was crying. Three and a half years working with him, every night. I called him that night at his apartment. I was totally choked up. And he said, 'Those comedians are my friends. And they'll be my friends for the rest...
...late night, there are votes too--ratings--and the results there were also a bit of a surprise. Letterman and his writers delivered the kind of funny, competent show they had before the strike. But Leno drew 2 million more viewers the first night, while Conan O'Brien, winging a wild, anarchic show without writers, had the biggest percentage ratings bump of anyone...