Q:
Whatever happened to the animatronic
Foster Brooks that was placed in the MGM Grand when it first opened in 1994? It was described as
costing over $150,000, and
took over 825 man-hours to build.
A:
It changed its name to “Oscar Goodman” and ran for mayor of Las Vegas. But seriously, folks …
Foster Brooks (1912-2001), a k a the “Lovable Lush,” was a comedian whose humor wouldn’t pass muster nowadays. He specialized in a “drunk act” and his sozzled manner earned him many a guest spot on late-night television and the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. He even recorded, believe it or not, an album of song interpretations. Its jacket featured a photograph of the marquee of the old Desert Inn.
Back in 1994, Brooks’ humor was still considered sufficiently amusing that somebody at the then-new MGM Grand had the bizarre idea of garnishing the Betty Boop Bar with a robotic replica of Foster Brooks. An anonymous recollection, posted on the Internet on Sept. 26, 2005, described the spectacle as follows: “
Every 5 minutes it would ‘Awake,’ mumble and slur, and wave its arms, then pass out again at the bar.”
The “Black Century” blog even managed to unearth photos of this strange creation, taken by Jack Pendarvis. The latter mused, back on July 8, 2008, on his own blog: “The robot clanked its mouth up and down in a lackadaisical fashion, hardly bothering to match up with the scratchy phonograph recording of a live Foster Brooks show [20 minutes of material, in all]. The robot was sitting at a little table, as if enjoying an aperitif in a cafe. So the laugh track seemed out of place. So did the robot, I guess.”
