DON AMECHE FINALLY OUT OF HIS ‘COCOON’

Don Ameche came to Hollywood almost exactly 50 years ago: March 1, 1936, a date he remembers well. No one, least of all himself, might have predicted that a half-century later, at the age of 78, he would be basking in a second wave of acclaim, thanks to his dashing, romantic and high-diving role in “Cocoon.”

He has been twice around the world opening the film, been honored at the Deauville Film Festival, met Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth, co-starred in a television film with Bob Hope, found a new generation of fans who may not even know he invented the telephone, and has an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor.

Ameche, who lives in Santa Monica, has never been idle. He starred in a company of “Silk Stockings” for the Civic Light Opera in the mid-’50s, did a revival of “No, No Nanette” with Evelyn Keyes at the Greek Theatre in 1973 and has played in dinner theaters all over the country.

But until John Landis picked him for a supporting role opposite Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy in “Trading Places” in 1983, Ameche’s movie career had been slow.

The “Trading Places” casting was fortuitous. “Ray Milland was set for the part, but then didn’t pass the insurance physical. They sent me the script and I liked it, but my agent, Tom Korman, said they wouldn’t meet the money. I thought, ‘Well, I’ve waited 12 years, why cave in now?’ We held out and they came through.”

The casting in “Cocoon” was also fortuitous. Buddy Ebsen had been set for the role, and then became unavailable, as did at least a couple of other actors. As before, Ameche was a last-minute recruit.

In 1945, Ameche said at lunch a few days ago, “I turned down a new contract at Fox that would have paid $5,500 a week for three to five years. I thought I could do better. But by 1950 everything was drying up, and I never picked a hit picture.”

The movies from the period do not resonate in memory: “Phantom Caravan,” “Picture Mommy Dead,” “The Boatniks.” In 1950 Ameche moved to New York and lived there until 1965. He had, it seemed then, completed the circle. He had been screen-tested by Fox in New York at Christmastime in 1935 and left for Hollywood with a one-picture deal but with options for a five-year contract.

The first film, “Sins of Man” with Jean Hersholt, was a hit, and so began Ameche’s productive Fox years. “Will Rogers, who had been one of Fox’s top stars, had been killed in a plane crash the year before. Shirley Temple was on her last legs as a child star. Janet Gaynor and Warner Baxter were about through. Loretta Young’s contract was up for renewal. Darryl (Zanuck) was having to build a new stable of players.” The principal players were to be Alice Faye, Tyrone Power and Ameche, and for three years, Ameche says, they each did as many as six films a year.

His second role, “Ramona” (1936), was his first major hit, and he says it is still shown frequently around the world. “In Old Chicago” and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (and three other films) all came out in 1938. “The Story of Alexander Graham Bell” (and three other films) came out in 1939. Ameche inventing the telephone somehow caught the fancy of the public (and comedians), and he is still being reminded of it. “They used to say, ‘You’re wanted on the Ameche,’ ” says Ameche, pleased.

Ameche and his late brother, Jim, who was the voice of radio’s Jack Armstrong for many years in the early ‘30s, were both born in Kenosha, Wis. His father, an Italian immigrant who later changed the spelling of the family name from Amici, was working in coal mines in Illinois when he met and married his wife. He was 31 and she was 16.

If he were to write his autobiography, Ameche says, it would be mostly to talk about his father, who became a saloonkeeper (they became speak-easies during Prohibition). He was a man, evidently, of fierce temper and stern principles and lived into his 85th year.

Ameche got interested in theater while studying at the University of Wisconsin. The manager of a stock company had seen him do “The Devil’s Disciple” in a student production. When two stock company actors were injured in a car accident, Al Jackson recruited Ameche on an emergency basis for the stock company.

That was over Thanksgiving, 1928, Ameche remembers. “I memorized what I could and put prompt notes on the backs of chairs,” he says. He stayed with the company until June, 1929, then went to New York to seek his fortune. He found work quickly (including two weeks of a vaudeville tour with Texas Guinan). It was also early days for radio, and he got continuing work on a show sponsored by the Great Northern Railroad and on a pioneer series called “First Nighter,” a job that lasted from 1931 until 1937.

Out of the stage years came the trouper’s skills--sing, dance, act, move--and the Ameche persona: suave, debonair, confident, feisty, romantic, moving easily between comedy and drama.

He and his wife had four sons and adopted two daughters, all now nicely settled in various parts of the country. He disliked the Hollywood social scene, still remembers with horror a birthday party for 4-year-olds, attended by his oldest son, on which the hostess spent $25,000 in 1930s currency. His children were largely educated in the Midwest, and none has opted for show business.

A man, by his own admission, of lively curiosity, Ameche remembers New York most fondly for the hours he spent in the Frick and Metropolitan museums. The real rewards of the acting profession for him, he says modestly, have been the chance to travel and “the exposure to people above my station--doctors, attorneys, philosophers, rich people, poor people, interesting people.”

Ameche has lately been reading theologian Hans Kung’s “Eternal Life? Life After Death as a Medical, Philosophical and Theological Problem” and “The Conspiracy of God” by a Jesuit theologian, John C. Haughey. Neither is easy going, but Ameche at 78 is still, in every sense, a man ready for new adventures.

“As an actor, I seem to be a replacement these days, which is fine with me,” Don Ameche says. It works out nicely.