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told you. Told you. Tell

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me what, very, very, very, very, what.

0:35

Camellia Season five,

0:38

Doctor Dante -- Doctor Dante -- -- production of campsite media.

0:41

Doctor Rahul.

0:45

54321,

0:50

happy two thousand.

0:52

When the clock struck midnight on Y2K,

0:55

Ronald Dante was in a prison cell.

0:58

After decades of hopscotching from

1:00

scam to scam, and reinventing himself

1:02

a truly exhausting amount of

1:04

times. Here he was,

1:07

a bona fide old man. Or

1:09

old dude as he preferred to be

1:11

called. Stuck on the inside

1:14

with nothing to keep him warm but

1:16

memories of the neon glow of his

1:18

show business hay day. This

1:21

prison term had all the makings of an

1:23

ending for our anti hero. And

1:26

it's quite possible that prison would

1:28

have been Dante's final act. Had

1:30

he languished in his cell or

1:33

disappeared into obscurity upon

1:35

release his bizarrely complex

1:37

legacy left behind in the twentieth

1:39

century. It probably would have been

1:41

the end if it wasn't for a documentary

1:44

filmmaker in

1:45

Texas. Named Bradley Beasley.

1:48

So was living in Austin, I just finished

1:50

a series called Rora Girls.

1:53

And was about to start a documentary

1:55

for HBO about a prison rodeo in

1:57

Oklahoma.

1:58

Roller derby's prison rodeos, guys

2:01

who catch giant catfish with

2:03

their bare

2:03

hands. These are the scenes

2:05

that Bradley gravitates toward.

2:08

I was constantly on the search for

2:11

stories about misfits and

2:13

outcast. In short, I was looking

2:15

for a character and not just any character,

2:17

but one with complexity and layers.

2:21

So one

2:21

day, Bradley had just wrapped an

2:23

out of town project and was driving

2:25

home on the highway heading

2:27

back to Austin. Listening to NPR

2:29

as you do in two thousand six.

2:31

Our contributor, Jennifer Sharp, brings

2:33

us this story about the charming

2:36

Charlotte, who calls himself Dr.

2:38

Dante. Doctor

2:41

Ronald Dante, look great.

2:42

Thank you so much.

2:44

In a purple silk scarf, gold

2:46

whistle medallion, and rubber blue

2:48

And, yeah, I heard Jennifer's

2:50

voice, which I'd never heard before,

2:53

introducing me to Dante's

2:56

world just taking notes

2:58

as I'm driving like a crazy person

3:00

and you know how this goes by

3:02

now. When you first hear about Dante,

3:04

you're very

3:05

quickly tumbling down a rabbit hole.

3:07

Husband of actress Lana Turner

3:10

opened a cosmetic or from his eighty

3:12

foot Yaw. Eight months in

3:13

prison. He fled to Mexico. And I was

3:15

like, who in the fuck is this guy?

3:18

And when do we start filming? I

3:20

just knew within minutes

3:22

of hearing Jennifer's story about

3:24

Dante that we

3:27

would be making a film about it. Like,

3:29

I knew it was gold.

3:31

I just had to tell this

3:32

story. So as soon as Bradley gets

3:34

home, he goes on the Internet to find the

3:36

NPR reporter, Jennifer art

3:39

and writes her an email

3:40

saying, I'm a documentarian, let's

3:43

make a film about this guy. Some

3:45

filmmakers spend a lifetime

3:47

looking for a character like doctor Dante.

3:50

So I was just beyond thrilled

3:53

when Jennifer Sharp wanted to collaborate

3:55

on this documentary. And within

3:58

two weeks of me hearing this

4:00

story, Jennifer and I were

4:03

knocking on Dante's door and

4:06

being welcomed in by him for

4:08

days. And when

4:10

the Bradley of two thousand six

4:12

entered Dante's orbit, he had

4:15

no idea what he was getting himself

4:17

into. He turned on the charm

4:20

immediately, like Lana and

4:22

the disco or Bobby Gold joining

4:24

the Dante entourage or a Columbia

4:26

state student writing a

4:28

check, Bradley was unwittingly

4:30

stepping on the ride. You can

4:33

see how he persuaded

4:35

so many people into getting

4:38

these fake degrees or going

4:40

to one of his seminars, you know,

4:42

he just had charisma about him.

4:44

And I I feel for that myself.

4:48

Bradley does not know that he's about

4:50

to help Dante write his final

4:52

chapter. And in a life where

4:54

so many chapters ended the same,

4:56

this time, a new kind of

4:58

ending. From

5:01

campsite media and Sony Music

5:03

entered payment. I'm Sam Mullens,

5:05

and this is doctor Dante.

5:13

You're listening to Camuria from campsite

5:15

media.

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I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. We

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6:55

When Bradley first called Jennifer Sharp

6:57

after hearing her story on NPR, he

6:59

was like, How did you find

7:01

this guy.

7:03

So my father had

7:06

this old photo collection

7:09

that was fast. It is

7:11

I don't know what to do with it now that I've inherited

7:13

it all. Jennifer's dad was

7:15

a performance artist and a pioneer

7:18

in the world of recorded pranks.

7:20

He was sort of the ancestor to shows

7:22

like punk or Nathan Fielders

7:25

shows. And in his domestic life,

7:27

he was also known as a compulsive collector

7:29

or hoarder of all things

7:32

strange.

7:34

He couldn't drive past a junk store

7:37

or a garage sale without pulling

7:39

over. And just digging through bins

7:41

of

7:41

photos, he was like an addict. And

7:44

one day at a junk sale, he hit

7:46

the well, at least for him, the

7:48

jackpot. A box of files from

7:50

a defunct talent agency filled

7:52

with headshots and brochures, stuff

7:55

like that from novelty

7:57

act. A lot of ventriloquists and

7:59

magicians or

8:01

diving off of a diving board

8:04

into a tub with no water. Like,

8:06

just really ridiculous acts.

8:08

And, you know, among

8:11

all these like headshots of people,

8:13

this one press kit sort of stood

8:15

out to both me and my father.

8:18

And that was doctor Ronald Dante's

8:20

press kit Jennifer

8:22

and her dad became enamored with his

8:25

press kit together. They'd flip through

8:27

it all the time at

8:28

home. Taking turns, reading it

8:30

aloud to each other. First, it was at

8:32

the Berkeley House. We might have even

8:34

brought it with us on a vacation.

8:39

I remember it was like the centerpiece

8:41

of a dinner party in Cape Cod.

8:44

The press kit is full of letters endorsing

8:46

Dante's Act. The most entertaining

8:49

show to come into Saigon for a

8:51

long time, climaxing with

8:53

a foot

8:54

stomping, cheering, calling for

8:56

encores.

8:57

We should say clearly fake

9:00

endorsements. The the typewriter

9:02

like the c is skipping.

9:04

It's it's like, up higher. And

9:06

I noticed that the d does the same

9:08

thing on on a different letter, so it's

9:10

the same typewriter, but

9:13

using it to write a different letter

9:15

from different person.

9:16

But the real strength of the kit, the thing designed

9:19

to grab your attention, is its photos.

9:21

There's pages and pages of Dante

9:24

hanging out with huge celebrities.

9:27

Like Louie Armstrong or Bob

9:30

Hope, Eric Clapton, George

9:32

Hamilton,

9:34

Sammy Davis junior. You know,

9:36

and it was just one after the other. And

9:38

it wasn't the celebrities that stood out

9:40

to Jennifer. It was Dante. Dante

9:43

always looks more relaxed

9:45

and in control than whoever else he's

9:47

standing

9:48

with. There's like this power that

9:50

he's conveying. In many

9:52

of the photos, the celebrities are

9:54

looking at Dante as Dante looks

9:57

coolly down the barrel of the camera

9:59

lens. So was like, I

10:01

have to have contact with

10:03

this person and it was just a pure

10:05

compulsion. It took a few years,

10:07

but Jennifer tracked Dante down

10:09

and did the interview with him that turned into

10:11

the radio story that had Bradley scribbling

10:14

notes on the side of the highway, outside

10:16

Austin, and calling Jennifer,

10:19

and then the two of them hopped in a car

10:21

to go find Dante in the flesh.

10:24

And where was the great doctor

10:27

Ronald Dante? The man who exuded

10:29

class in style, who'd made millions

10:32

many times over in this life. So

10:38

this isn't what you'd expect a trailer

10:40

park to look like. Is it? Dante

10:43

was living in a trailer park. In

10:45

some ways, it was nicer than your average

10:47

trailer park, but it was also

10:49

a mixed bag. Some of the lots had

10:51

simple prefab homes, some had

10:53

trailers, and some had folks

10:56

just living in tents. So here's

10:58

his place here at the end.

11:02

His trailer was, like, some cookie cutter

11:04

manufactured home for people that don't wanna

11:07

bother decorating. Like Dante

11:09

just showed up one afternoon with a suitcase

11:11

that moved in within a few hours. Which

11:13

was kinda strange to me because he kinda had

11:15

cool taste. Hey.

11:18

How you doing, guys? Oh

11:20

my god. We got a crude here. And,

11:22

Ron, I'm Bradley. Bradley, how he's done

11:24

it? For having this. Oh, that's alright. He

11:26

had this crazy wacky perm

11:29

from the

11:29

eighties. And the crazy, like, windshield

11:32

of bling, rhinestone,

11:35

glasses on.

11:37

Yeah. I love fruit.

11:38

Be encrusted whistle. The Alpaca,

11:41

Hardigan, and the blue Crocs.

11:43

He looked like some bad nineties rapper,

11:45

like he'd go viral today.

11:47

Probably would have done a great rap too, by the

11:49

way. He

11:49

wouldn't even have to come up with a rap name.

11:52

He also had a commanding elegance.

11:54

There was something very respectable, seeming

11:56

about him as

11:57

well. Like deposed royalty. And

11:59

very quickly, it became clear

12:01

that in this place, doctor Dante

12:04

was the king of the trailer

12:06

park.

12:09

Okay.

12:09

I wanna introduce these people. This is Warren.

12:11

Dante brought Bradley and his crew for

12:13

a tour around the park to meet

12:15

some of the locals. Warren is a

12:18

geologist And this this

12:20

is sir Charles. I call him, sir Charles.

12:23

Allen, she'll be out soon. And this

12:25

is our writer and this is our civil

12:27

engineer.

12:28

And he's the most brilliant man around.

12:30

Adoring subjects all around.

12:32

Everything you do is kind of astonishing to

12:35

me.

12:35

Thank you, though.

12:36

Just such an extraordinary photo done say.

12:40

He's so cool. He's so cool.

12:42

He's always going places. He's always

12:44

doing

12:45

something. He just doesn't sit around.

12:47

He invents things.

12:50

She has no idea. He

12:51

said he was the lander earlier's last husband.

12:53

I

12:54

take that back. Maybe she does have an idea.

12:56

Can this book a record? The the biggest

12:58

grossing seminar, the the

13:01

his parents being killed in in the layaway

13:03

where he was and going up on the streets of

13:04

Chicago. He was still playing all his

13:06

greatest hits, and the people loved

13:09

him for it. He was like a

13:10

prophet, and these

13:12

folks were guzzling the

13:14

dante kool Aid. Everywhere

13:17

Dante went with Bradley and Jennifer to

13:20

everyone they met, and I do mean

13:22

everyone. He would make clear

13:24

that one, And I don't know if we've

13:26

mentioned this on the podcast

13:28

yet, but once he

13:30

was married. I was married to a

13:32

very famous lady. Lana Turner,

13:34

a very famous movie star, and

13:36

one of my wife's with a Lana Turner,

13:38

a movie star. I was married to a woman by named

13:40

Alana Turner, a movie star. It was very

13:43

Alana

13:43

Turner. Yeah. We were working by name Alana

13:45

Turner, movie stars. That was very different.

13:47

Like Yeah.

13:48

She never got married after that. After hearing

13:50

the lore about the invincible doctor

13:53

Dante and then spending a few

13:55

days in his world, Bradley couldn't

13:57

quite match the man before him to

13:59

the legend. To me, he was just

14:01

like a nice funny

14:03

grandpa. Life

14:05

had humbled him. He'd lost his

14:07

fortune, his marriage, his notoriety,

14:11

and now he was living off six hundred

14:13

dollars a month in the trailer he could

14:15

only afford because his big brother Marshall

14:17

bought it for

14:18

him. Even Dante's health was

14:20

non solid ground anymore. But for

14:22

the fact is that I have prostate cancer, They

14:24

give me these shots that

14:27

stop you from making testosterone. So

14:30

nothing appeals to me. Pretty girls

14:32

don't appeal to me. Pretty boys

14:34

don't appeal to

14:35

me. Nothing. But

14:38

there was one thing that Dante would

14:40

never lose. His optimism,

14:43

his ability to transcend his

14:45

surroundings. Look

14:46

at the mountain. Look at over there. Look how beautiful

14:48

this is. Look how pretty it is.

14:50

Dante has way about him

14:52

in which he's able to make

14:54

situations

14:56

work for him.

14:57

Whether it was his time in prison I

14:59

didn't really mind it. They were respected me.

15:01

Or the prostate cancer

15:03

shots that had truly stolen

15:05

his libido from him. It's not bad

15:08

because you have more time to do not to

15:10

to do other things.

15:11

And to show Bradley and Jen what he meant

15:13

by other things, he invited

15:15

them inside.

15:17

It was cramped with old junk and

15:20

memorabilia and sparsely decorated.

15:22

It was kind of this real mishmash of

15:25

like stuffed animals from the eighties

15:27

and poorly taped up press

15:29

photos on the wood paneling walls

15:31

with

15:31

some, like, thrift store, lazy boys,

15:33

and a TV, and that was about it.

15:35

As she looked around taking the place

15:37

in, Jennifer's eyes paused on

15:39

a bouquet of flowers on the

15:41

table.

15:42

I make you you you see these flowers I make?

15:44

Wait. Those aren't real flowers? These

15:46

are paper flowers. I learned

15:48

how to make these in prison. These

15:51

are made of toilet paper.

15:53

They really do look real, and they

15:55

were a nice touch in an otherwise lonesome

15:58

seeming place. Dante didn't

16:00

have a wife anymore, and he told Bradley

16:02

that his grown children didn't call

16:04

him for father's

16:05

day. But he was not entirely

16:08

by himself in this place. I always

16:10

have company always because I

16:12

never can I never like being alone?

16:14

Hey, Furby. For

16:17

those who missed Christmas at my house in nineteen

16:20

ninety eight, Furby's were

16:22

a half hour, half mug y

16:24

robotic toy that you could

16:26

talk

16:26

to. Hey, Furby. Tell me a

16:29

joke. Who's

16:32

there? Why

16:35

who?

16:39

If you can't have a wife, he'll play with

16:41

a furbee. If he can't play on a yacht,

16:43

he'll play with a kite just like he

16:45

did on his early first

16:46

day. It's with Lana. Wait.

16:49

Dante, what kind of a kite is that?

16:51

That's just made out of a piece of paper and dental

16:53

floss. That's

16:55

all it is.

16:56

Where'd you learn learn this crap?

16:58

In prison, cost a penny, and

17:00

you can have as much fun as you wanna. We'd

17:03

sell them for, like,

17:05

A couple of bags of tuna. The

17:07

economy inside prison fascinates me.

17:11

As Dante walked them proudly around

17:13

the trailer park pointing at RV's

17:15

intense. You get the sense

17:17

that he's painting a new reality

17:19

for you. Like you're one of his hypnosis

17:22

subjects. You think this is a trailer

17:24

park filled with Methadone addicts, with

17:26

people down on their

17:27

luck, look again. These are

17:29

mountain people. They love living

17:31

outside. They love doing this. They're nomadic.

17:34

They they can move whenever they want

17:36

to. They can they they live the life that people

17:38

dream about.

17:39

Dante's spin on the place was infectious.

17:42

I loved that trailer park.

17:44

I loved going there.

17:46

It's a place where people go

17:48

where they don't wanna be found.

17:50

Exactly. And I It was

17:51

like a place of freedom in

17:53

a way. You're

18:01

listening to Camuria from campsite media.

18:06

Keith Morrison and Josh Mangowitz from Dateline.

18:09

Is that you? Hello. Hello,

18:12

Claire and Joanna. From Netflix

18:14

is get organized with the whole minute

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it

18:16

is, in fact, us.

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We did not know your fans of best

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Of course, we are. Sometimes, as

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19:55

You're listening to Camuria from campsite

19:58

media.

20:03

It would be easy to imagine Dante

20:05

living out the rest of his life in that trailer

20:07

park. Regaling his neighbors with

20:09

his old Hollywood stories around the Camp

20:12

Fire and telling dirty jokes

20:14

with friends at the local sushi place,

20:16

doing magic tricks for the neighborhood

20:18

kids. It looked like

20:21

against all odds. He found

20:23

happiness and had finally

20:25

embraced the simple life. His

20:28

days of scamming, finally

20:30

over. Except.

20:36

The blinking light on his answering machine

20:38

suggested otherwise.

20:40

You have two new messages

20:43

and ten old messages.

20:46

This is sorry about your had

20:49

for sales and speakers in yesterday,

20:51

in in Less than a year

20:53

out of prison, Dante had already

20:56

started doing the thing that he'd always done

20:58

best. The thing he compulsively did

21:00

his entire adult life. He

21:03

placed an ad in the paper.

21:05

After two stints in prison, Dante

21:07

was ready to shake the rust off an old

21:10

hustle of

21:10

his. Hypnotherapy seminars.

21:13

And check out your website right now. It's

21:15

pretty awesome. So

21:17

anyway, give me do you know when you get a chance?

21:20

Dante wrote the man's number down with a

21:22

smirk. And then for Bradley

21:24

and Jennifer's benefit. Well, I suppose

21:26

mostly for his own benefit. Dante

21:28

picked up the phone and started dialing.

21:36

Yeah. Hi. This is doctor Dante Gully. How

21:38

are you?

21:39

I'm good. Thanks. How were you guys conducted?

21:41

How long have you been how long have you been in sales?

21:43

Oh,

21:45

twenty well, over twenty years.

21:47

So you just started. Just

21:51

kidding. Yeah. I've been

21:53

doing it for, like, sixty years as as you can

21:55

tell by my website, I'm sure.

21:58

And I I don't know I don't know if you know a line

22:00

of turn to

22:00

every single time. Are are

22:03

you at all familiar with her? Did you

22:05

know who she is? Oh, okay. Yeah. I was

22:07

married to her. What I what

22:09

I'm looking for, I'm I've turned age and I've

22:11

retired. I'm eighty seven years old. I've

22:13

I've retired.

22:14

And, you

22:15

know, he's not anywhere close to eighty seven.

22:17

Which might be because he wasn't anywhere

22:20

close to eighty seven. He was in fact

22:22

seventy seven. Thank you.

22:24

Thank you. So Dante eventually gives him the

22:26

spiel on how much the seminar will

22:28

cost. How to make ten thousand dollars

22:31

in a weekend. And this was some sort

22:33

of bait and switch tactic

22:35

where he would invite people for

22:38

six hundred dollars to attend this weekend

22:40

seminar where they're actually gonna learn

22:42

how to make ten thousand dollars in a

22:44

weekend.

22:45

You learn the secrets of sixty years

22:47

in one day

22:48

seems to like what he's hearing. And

22:50

then, Dante pulls out his signature

22:52

move. Good news and bad news.

22:55

And the bad news is that the

22:57

classes are all filled up for the next

22:59

five and a

22:59

half, six months.

23:00

Oh, shoot. Sold out.

23:03

Port. The

23:03

only thing I can do is put you on a waiting list.

23:06

Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha.

23:09

That's understood. Yeah. I guess,

23:11

on occasions, I do have people

23:13

who drop out Very

23:15

rarely, though. But on occasions, maybe

23:17

in the next couple of weeks or so, I might have

23:19

somebody drop out. And if I

23:21

do, I can put you on a waiting if you're interested.

23:24

Okay. Well, I mean,

23:26

I guess it doesn't hurt to be put on a wait list.

23:29

The truest statement ever uttered it

23:31

doesn't hurt to be put on a waiting

23:33

list. And if I have something,

23:36

if I have something, I'll let you know sooner

23:40

Okay. Take care. Bye bye now.

23:42

The man even at the fake age

23:44

of eighty seven still had it.

23:47

Not easy at this, but I mean, you know what I mean?

23:53

And the calls kept coming. Was

23:56

up

23:57

to six with you regarding the

24:00

availability in a position.

24:03

No. So you're extraordinarily

24:05

in training and and the good nutrition.

24:08

And I would

24:08

like very much to

24:13

At one point, Dante turns to Jennifer

24:15

and Bradley and gestures to the

24:17

camera.

24:18

This thing is not gonna be shown before November.

24:21

Yeah.

24:22

Okay. Because

24:24

my my parole officer

24:26

my supervised

24:28

release of was very sweet.

24:30

Dante had a very sweet parole officer,

24:33

but they would very much have things to say

24:35

if they found out Dante was running a new

24:37

scheme. Bradley couldn't

24:39

believe what he was watching. It

24:42

just seemed so ballsy he

24:44

was gonna keep running his

24:46

small time cons no

24:48

matter what. As Marty and

24:50

j

24:51

w, the journalist who tracked him down

24:53

said, Once a con man,

24:55

always a con man. Prison,

24:58

poverty, and cancer be damned,

25:00

the man would never

25:02

stop. As his god son, Bobby

25:04

Gold, put it. It's the

25:06

same thing that a a

25:09

gambler still likes to go roll the

25:11

dice. He he he

25:14

knows it's out there.

25:15

He knows it's out there, and Dante

25:18

wanted it. Without sending too

25:20

dramatic about it, do you feel like

25:22

that this is sort of a way to

25:24

once again invent

25:27

yourself after prison like

25:29

you've done many times before.

25:31

Oh, you think that's

25:32

possible? Yeah. Absolutely. Oh, of course.

25:34

I can make millions. Well, I like

25:36

to do it. I would like to make it to show it

25:38

to take care of my brother. He's

25:41

dying and he's in home

25:43

in in

25:45

San Diego. And then my children, I

25:47

wanna get them situated and

25:49

to take care of my

25:50

wife, my ex wife. His ex wife,

25:52

Elizabeth. There

25:54

was one more person who came to visit

25:56

Dante while Bradley and Jennifer were there

25:59

besides

25:59

Furby. Hey

26:00

Furby,

26:02

They've been divorced for several years by

26:05

then, but you wouldn't be able to tell

26:07

that by watching them interact.

26:09

Those are kooporo for you.

26:11

Thank you, sweetie. You're welcome, baby.

26:14

Jesus. You're a beautiful brother.

26:18

How about that? Their chemistry

26:20

was palpable, almost uncomfortably

26:23

so. Bradley and Jennifer went out to

26:26

eat with Dante and Elizabeth And

26:28

when the waitress comes up to take their

26:30

order, Dante turns to the

26:32

table unprompted.

26:34

Last night was one of the greatest nights we've ever

26:36

had.

26:37

It was? Yes. Well, we had the

26:40

the the the what's that stuff called again?

26:42

The the whatever it

26:43

was, it was seven hours

26:45

that it lasted. Anyway, all

26:48

of this is to say that on the phone lines

26:50

and in his personal life, Dante

26:53

was starting a comeback of sorts. And

26:55

with the friendship he developed with Bradley

26:57

on the film, Dante saw the potential

27:00

to take this comeback to another

27:02

level. Hey,

27:04

doctor Dante. It's Bradley Measley.

27:06

Bradley? Hey. Hey.

27:07

How are you doing, buddy? I'm good. I

27:10

I'm gonna be coming out there to the ocean side over

27:13

Christmas to see my I'd invested three

27:15

years into Telendante's story,

27:17

and it was time to wrap things up and

27:19

try to finish the documentary. And I

27:21

wanted share Dante's story with the world.

27:25

But before Bradley could, he and

27:27

Dante were in need of a final

27:30

act, Bradley for his film,

27:32

and Dante for his legacy. So

27:35

one day, Dante came to Bradley with

27:37

an idea. Dante

27:39

wanted to do a comeback show.

27:47

listening to Camuria from campsite

27:49

media.

27:54

You're listening to Camuria from campsite

27:56

media. Daily.

28:00

Dante's comeback show. Dante's

28:03

comeback show was his idea,

28:06

but I personally loved it. Sit

28:08

back. I used to sleep deep breath

28:11

and sleep, wait, Because

28:14

of all the things that Dante had claimed

28:16

to be in his life but wasn't, this

28:19

was the one thing he definitely was.

28:22

A master stage hypnotist, and

28:24

all Bradley had was the archival

28:26

tent. I

28:27

love you all. Did you love these volunteer volunteers within

28:29

outerges? Thank you so much, lovely

28:31

people.

28:33

Bradley wanted to help bring Dante back

28:36

to the place all of this madness began.

28:39

Whereas god given charisma and

28:41

voice shown the brightest on

28:43

the stage. Bradley had already

28:45

invested thousands into filming

28:48

Dante by then. And putting on a show

28:50

like this wasn't gonna be something that Dante

28:52

could fund. So if this

28:54

show was going to happen, it would

28:57

be proudly honing up to pay

28:59

for the travel, accommodations, venue,

29:02

car rentals, and a crew. Putting

29:05

himself in a very precarious financial

29:07

position. I needed the comeback

29:09

show more than Dante. And on top

29:11

of the havoc that Bradley was wreaking

29:13

on this credit card, he wasn't

29:15

even sure that Dante in his late

29:17

seventies would be able to

29:19

get all the way through a show by himself.

29:23

So just in case, being

29:25

very careful not to upset the

29:27

ego of the man, Bradley

29:29

asked onte if perhaps he would

29:31

like to have a wingman on stage. You

29:34

know, just in case his body or mind

29:36

might fault her in the big moment.

29:38

And to Bradley's

29:39

relief, Dante agreed. And

29:42

I asked Dante,

29:43

I said, who do you want your right hand man

29:45

to be? And he said, yeah, Bobby Gold.

29:49

Bobby Gold. As you'll

29:51

remember, Bobby left Dante when

29:53

the heat was getting too hot from the feds

29:56

during the Perma derm years. For a

29:58

time afterward, Bobby went on to do

30:00

his own version of Perma derm, a

30:02

slightly more above board version,

30:05

it seems. But he eventually moved

30:07

on and followed in yet more

30:09

of Dante's footsteps. Bobby

30:11

became a stage hypnotist. He

30:14

was a professional, so he'd be the perfect

30:16

sidekick for a now frail

30:18

Dante. He knew Dante's act

30:20

better than anyone. Because

30:22

he played second fiddle to Dante for

30:25

most of his adult life. If

30:28

there's any human who knew how to

30:30

help Dante

30:31

It was Bobby. So it was a no brainer.

30:33

So Bradley booked a theater, made

30:36

arrangements to get Dante Tuxedo, and

30:38

hired a makeup artist. Bradley

30:41

was calling in considerable favors too.

30:43

He spammed his filmmaking community

30:46

asking everyone to show up for him to

30:48

help fill the seats and to make

30:50

this comeback show feel like

30:52

a real show and a real

30:54

opportunity for both him and

30:57

Dante. The night

30:59

before the show, Dante arrived in

31:01

LA and they all went out for a nice dinner

31:03

together. And Bradley observed him

31:05

come alive in a way that he hadn't

31:07

seen yet. This was after

31:09

all where he had, you know, had

31:12

his glory days as the self proclaimed

31:14

hippopotamus to the

31:15

stars. I just thought, okay, he's

31:17

here. He's in his element. After

31:20

dinner, they checked Dante into his

31:22

hotel room and Bradley headed back

31:24

to his where he went over the itinerary

31:26

for the big

31:27

day. For which everything was

31:29

meticulously planned out, beginning

31:32

with a morning drive with Dante. We

31:34

get him convertible and

31:37

we're gonna go visit some of his

31:39

old hogs on the sunset strip

31:41

in LA where Dante used to perform

31:44

where he lived with Lana Turner,

31:47

everything was ready. So

31:52

we show up in the morning

31:55

the day of the performance to

31:58

get Dante from his hotel. Bradley

32:00

heads up to Dante's hotel room,

32:02

and he knocks on the door.

32:04

But there's no answer. And when he

32:06

listens closely, it doesn't sound

32:08

like there's any movement inside the

32:10

room. Dante wasn't in

32:12

his room. Bradley's like, what

32:15

the hell? And heads down to

32:17

the front desk to ask the clerk if

32:19

they've seen anyone who looks like Dante.

32:21

And the clerk said he

32:23

left a note, and it just

32:25

said, Bradley, I'm

32:28

out. I'm not gonna compete

32:30

with Bobby Gold. I'm not

32:32

gonna compete with

32:34

Bobby Gold. Bradley

32:36

stood looking at the words stunned.

32:40

I mean, how did I think this story was

32:42

gonna happen? My thought

32:44

was

32:45

that motherfucker just called me. Dante

32:48

was indeed in true form,

32:50

making big promises and breaking

32:52

them. Bradley, it seemed

32:55

had completed the dante lube

32:57

that starts with high hopes and investment

33:00

only to be left with nothing.

33:03

He was Lana Turner left in San

33:05

Francisco. He was the feds waiting

33:07

at the courthouse for Adonte who'd already

33:09

fled to Mexico. He was a Columbia

33:12

state student with a worthless degree.

33:15

Welcome to the club Bradley. No

33:17

matter how the story starts, this

33:19

is always how it ends. Except

33:21

this time because while Dante

33:24

was done with Bradley, Bradley

33:26

was not done with him. Next

33:32

time on doctor Dante. Let's

33:35

chase him down and bring his ass back

33:37

to hell hey, I've got too

33:39

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33:40

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is a production of campsite media and

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34:29

Dante was written and hosted by me,

34:31

Sam Mullens. It's produced by Abocar

34:33

O'Don, and edited by Karen

34:36

Duffin. Our associate producer

34:38

is Tenita Rahmani. Original

34:40

music sound design and mixing

34:43

by Garrett Edelman. Additional

34:45

music by APM and blue dot

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sessions. Fact checking by

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34:52

is Bradley

34:52

Beasley. It's been