7/26 Larry Manetti Talks with Comedian Tom Dreesan

In September 1969, Tom Dreesen went on stage for the first time. According to Tom, “All of my dreams have come true and as the song goes, “The Best Is Yet to Come”.

A consistent performer in all the main showrooms in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Reno and Atlantic City, for 13 years Tom toured the nation as the opening act for Frank Sinatra. When not in those venues he’s in constant demand from corporations throughout America either as a headliner or working with acts from Bon Jovi to Elton John.

Tom has made over 500 appearances on national television as a standup comedian, including 61 appearances on the Tonight Show. He’s a frequent and favorite guest of David Letterman and even hosted the show during David’s absence. He’s also hosted The Late, Late Show that follows Letterman.

He has written and performs a one-man show titled “An Evening of Laughter and Memories of Sinatra”, a retrospective of his life as a stand-up comedian, and memories of his touring with Frank Sinatra that opens with him as a young boy shining shoes in a bar while Sinatra is singing on the jukebox, and ends with him many years later as a pallbearer at Frank’s funeral.

Growing up in a suburb on the South side of Chicago, Tom has never forgotten his early, less affluent days. He has come a along way from his hometown of Harvey, Illinois where as a lad he shined shoes and sold newspapers on the corner. That suburb has since honored him by naming the street after Tom.

Dreesen gives generously of his time helping struggling comics devoting a great deal of time to charities and benefits. He founded a “Day for Darlene”, to benefit Multiple Sclerosis research. The occasion is named for his late sister who was afflicted with the disease. An ex GI, Tom performs on military bases all over the world and recently performed for our troops on bases throughout Iraq. On May 15, 2005 he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor Award for his humanitarian services to his country.

7/19 Larry Manetti Talks with Entrepreneur and Shark Tank Panelist Kevin Harrington

Kevin Harrington, chairman and founder of TVGoods, Inc., is a pioneer and principal architect of the infomercial industry. But we've come to know him as the sharp-looking shark seated at the left end of the tank.

In 1984, Kevin produced one of the industry's first 30-minute infomercials. Since then he has been involved with over 500 product launches that resulted in sales of over $4 billion worldwide, with 20 products that reached individual sales of over $100 million. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Kevin founded Quantum International, Ltd. in the mid-1980s, which merged into National Media Corporation in 1991. Under his leadership as President, National Media reached $500 million in annual sales, distributing in over 100 countries and 20 languages. This company's success has been chronicled in a case study at Harvard/MIT for over a decade.

Kevin was also CEO of several other entrepreneurial companies, including HSN Direct, a joint venture with Home Shopping Network in 1994 and Reliant International Media in 1997. Throughout his career, Kevin helped to establish two of the most important and recognized global networking associations, the Entrepreneur's Organization, or EO (formally known as the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization), and the Electronic Retailing Association, or ERA.

Today, the EO has 113 chapters in 38 countries and more than 924,000 members. The ERA represents the $125 billion electronic retailing industry and is comprised of over 450 member companies and subsidiaries that use the power of electronic retailing to sell directly to consumers via television, radio, Internet and wireless media in over 100 countries worldwide.

Kevin recently released a book entitled Act Now: How I Turn Ideas into Million-Dollar Productsthat chronicles his life and experiences in the DRTV industry. As you can see, Kevin is a fairly busy guy. But there's always time to make a few bucks gobbling up a good idea in the Shark Tank!

7/12 Larry Manetti Talks with Barbara Marx Sinatra

Thirty years after she first heard his voice singing on the jukebox at her local drive-in, Barbara Ann Blakely heard Frank Sinatra take the wedding vows that began his fourth, final, and most enduring marriage.

Her new book, Lady Blue Eyes, is Barbara Sinatra’s first public love letter to the husband she adored, she celebrates the sensational singer, possessive mate, sexy heartthrob, and devoted friend that she found in Frank. For more than two decades, Barbara was always by his side, traveling the globe and hosting glittering events for their famous friends, including presidents, kings, queens, Hollywood royalty, and musical legends. Among them were Sammy Davis, Jr., Princess Grace of Monaco, Bob Dylan, and Ronald Reagan. Each night, as Frank publicly wooed his bride with love songs from a concert stage, she’d fall in love with him all over again.

From her own humble beginnings in a small town in Missouri to her time as a fashion model and her marriage to Zeppo Marx, Barbara Sinatra reveals a life lived with passion, conviction, and grace. A founder of the Miss Universe pageant and a onetime Vegas showgirl, she raised her only son almost single-handedly in often dire circumstances until, after five years of tempestuous courtship, she and Frank committed to each other wholeheartedly. In stories that leap off the page, she takes us behind the scenes of her iconic husband’s legendary career and paints an intimate portrait of a man who was variously generous, jealous, witty, and wicked. Coupled with revealing insights about many of Frank’s celebrated songs, this is much more than the story of a showbiz marriage.

It is a story of passion and of a deep and lifelong love.

BARBARA ANN SINATRA was Frank Sinatra's wife and steadfast companion for more than twenty years. A proud mother and grandmother, Barbara lives in California.

Some Interesting Trivia About Barbara Marx. Sinatra:

Started out as a Las Vegas showgirl.

One-time sister-in-law of Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Gummo Marx, and Groucho Marx.

One-time daughter-in-law of Sam Marx.

Stepmother of Nancy Sinatra, Tina Sinatra and Frank Sinatra Jr.

Founder of the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center in Rancho Mirage, California in 1986, with her husband Frank Sinatra. The center is next door to the Betty Ford Center on the campus of Eisenhower Medical Center. The not-for-profit facility provides individual and group therapy for young victims of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.

Was portrayed by Melanie Griffith in The Night We Called It a Day (2003).

7/5 Larry Manetti Talks with Robert Conrad!

American actor Robert Conrad was a graduate of Northwestern University, spending his first few years out of school supporting himself and his family by driving a milk truck and singing in a Chicago cabaret. Conrad befriended up-and-coming actor Nick Adams during this period, and it was Adams who helped Conrad get his first Hollywood work in 1957. A few movie bit parts later, Conrad was signed by Warner Bros. studios, and in 1959 was cast as detective Tom Lopaka on the weekly adventure series Hawaiian Eye.

Upon the 1963 cancellation of this series, Conrad made a handful of Spanish and American films and toured with a nightclub act in Australia and Mexico City.

Cast as frontier secret agent James West in The Wild Wild West in 1965, Conrad brought home $5000 a week during the series' first season and enjoyed increasing remunerations as West remained on the air until 1969. There are those who insist that Wild Wild West would have been colorless without the co-starring presence of Ross Martin, an opinion with which Conrad has always agreed. The actor's bid to star in a 1970 series based on the venerable Nick Carter pulp stories got no further than a pilot episode, while the Jack Webb-produced 1971 Robert Conrad series The D.A. was cancelled after 13 episodes. When Roy Scheider pulled out of the 1972 adventure weekly Assignment: Vienna, Conrad stepped in--and was out, along with the rest of Assignment: Vienna, by June of 1973.

Conrad had success with 1976's Baa Baa Black Sheep, aka Black Sheep Squadron, a popular series based on the World War II exploits of Major "Pappy" Boyington.

In 1989's Jesse Hawkes, Conrad co-starred with his sons Christian and Shane.

Conrad has enjoyed success as a commercial spokesman and in the role of G. Gordon Liddy (whom the actor admired) in the 1982 TV movie Will, G. Gordon Liddy.

As can be gathered from the Liddy assignment, Conrad's politics veered towards conservatism; in 1981, he and Charlton Heston were instrumental in toppling Ed Asner and his liberal contingent from power in the Screen Actors Guild.

As virile and athletic as ever in the 1990s, Robert Conrad has continued to appear in action roles both on TV and in films; he has also maintained strong ties with his hometown of Chicago, and can be counted upon to show up at a moment's notice as a guest on the various all-night programs of Chicago radio personality Eddie Schwartz.