question: we have a video of a disney film called "pete's dragon." are you the jim dale playing doc terminus?

jim:  you got it. in the film i was doc terminus, the one who wanted to chop up the dragon into a thousand bits, then sell every little piece as a souvenir. why not? dragons are a dime a dozen in disney films.

question: mom says she saw you fall off a tightrope once in a broadway musical. 

jim:  once?  i fell off it most nights, i hardly ever stayed on it!  
but your  mom is right. it was a musical called "barnum" about the life of p.t.barnum who invented the circus, and i played the man himself. the tightrope was thirty eight feet long and  nine  feet off the ground.  i had to walk it with no pole or umbrella to help keep my balance, and sing a song at the same time. 
  
 
don't try it, i still have the bruises!   

question: my dad is english and says he bought a record of yours when you were a pop singer. is he kidding me?

jim:  so it was him who bought it?  i've often wondered!
i didn't enjoy singing as much as acting though. i tried it for about three years. i had a great recording manager called george martin. later he became the genius responsible for all the hit records of the beatles. i made about a dozen records with him, but i missed the laughter, so i gave up pop singing, and went back to performing comedy in the theater. 

(for more information on this period of jim's life, click on to recordings in jim's biography)

question: when and what was your first big break into show business?

jim:  i was seventeen. 
i auditioned as an impressionist, but tripped over the stage curtain as i was walking on stage and nearly broke my neck.  afterwards they told me the impressions were terrible, but the fall was funny. if i could think up an act quickly, i could be in the show that night. so i took a couple of hours to developed a crazy comedy routine. i went on that night and the audience laughed. i then joined the show for two years as a tumbler. some nights my entrance onto the stage was down a fifteen foot staircase doing two and a half flying somersaults. don't try that either, i still have those scars! 

   at seventeen

question: do audio tapes get reviewed like films and books.

jim:  certainly they do. more and more magazines are realizing the importance of audio books and are giving space for the critics. some harry potter reviews i now pass on to you. click on audio reviews at the bottom of this page.

question: did you do all your own stunts in the various films?

jim:  most of them. here are a few below.

"carry on, follow that camel"  

it's called "the quick camel dismount!" don't try this either. 
camel-bitten-bums take a long time to heal!

"hot lead-cold feet" 


canoe sank going down oregon rapids!  
i ended up as part of a log-jam-sandwich. 

             "carry on cowboy" 
  
the horses stopped - but i didn't!   missed hitting the camera lens by one inch!

"adolph hitler-my part in his downfall"


a real knock out! 
i passed out - was counted out - then carried out. 
man mountain did the same thing again during take 2 and 3.

jim dale home page