Dick Van Dyke
The guest of this week’s WTF podcast is Dick Van Dyke. After World War Two, Mr. Van Dyke was recruited by Phil Erickson to form a comedy duo, the Merry Mutes. In 1949, they got a long term engagement at the Henry Grady Hotel, and moved to Atlanta.
Mr. Van Dyke enjoyed Atlanta so much that he bought a house here. Two of his children were born in Atlanta. Neighborhood legend says that the house was on Ashford Road.
After parting ways with Mr. Van Dyke, Phil Erickson opened the Wit’s End nightclub, with the Wit’s End Players. The performances were in a bar building on Fifth Street, next to the expressway. The club had a large sign in front, with an asterisk next to the words Wits End. The asterisk stood for “bring money”.
Dick Van Dyke has performed with, and gotten to know, many famous people. He looked up Stan Laurel in the phone book, and invited himself for a visit. (Oliver Hardy was from Harlem GA.)
One person the Mr. Van Dyke did not work with was Spencer Tracy. Mr. Tracy said there were two rules for acting … know your lines, and don’t trip over the props. Dick Van Dyke knew the first one.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Chamblee54 
Where’s DVD?
The interview was in Malbu CA. Apparently DVD lives there.
Dick van Dyke I believe had contacted Stan Laurel to research an episode of the DVD show in which he (as Rob Petrie) played Laurel. They became friends and DVD was a paul-bearer for Laurel’s funeral.
What a weird, oddly hostile entry.
its a nice post, but it would be better without the irrelevant and confusing images.