Riordan Gets Some Laughs With Leno

One night in April 1955, a couple of guys just out of the Navy decided to take a look at Hollywood before heading home to St. Louis.

They stole a sign from Vine Street, and, 41 years later, a high-profile attempt by one of the miscreants to make amends got Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan a gig on NBC’s top-rated “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.

It was the kind of national television exposure that most of America’s mayors can only dream about. And for Riordan, always on the lookout for opportunities to try his hand at comedy, the invitation to share the stage with Leno was just too good to pass up.

So there he was Wednesday night, a supporting player in William T. House’s one minute of fame. House, who had dragged the sign with him when he moved to Huntsville, Ala., recently wrote to Leno’s producers to pitch his idea of returning the sign to the city--before a huge late-night television audience, of course.

Riordan’s appearance was brief but central to the segment that had House clutching the dented but still shiny street sign and telling Leno he wanted to come clean. With a flourish, Leno announced that the mayor was there to pick up the sign, and Riordan strode onstage with a wave and a smile.

“On behalf of the citizens of Los Angeles, I accept this sign that you stole 41 years ago,” the mayor deadpanned before informing House that the statute of limitations for stealing city property lasts 42 years.

“Officers, arrest this man!” was the mayor’s big finish as uniformed actors hauled House away.

Afterward, he joked offstage with House, who said a bus had come along and knocked the sign into the street, and what were a couple of guys on the town to do but wrap it in newspaper and load it into their trunk?

Riordan also kibitzed with a reporter about how he got the show’s writers to let him change a word or two shortly before taping began and suggested an additional line admonishing House about how much his prank had cost taxpayers. “They liked it, but it was too late for them to add anything,” he said.

The mayor also kept an eye on the offstage monitor to catch the contributions of his co-stars--singer and former “Brady Bunch” TV mom Florence Henderson, manic fitness guru Richard Simmons (decked out in a sequined tank top and striped jogging shorts) and an 8-year-old Westchester, Ohio, boy with an astounding knowledge of obscure facts about all the U.S. presidents.

The reporter wanted to know if the mayor liked chatting backstage with Leno before show time. “Oh, sure, but I’ve known him since the 1970s,” Riordan replied.

It turns out the future mayor of the nation’s second-largest city had taken a USC night course in comedy writing, with Leno among the guest lecturers. “He’s terrific,” Riordan said.

Leno’s people returned the compliment. Segment producer Robin Katzman said the mayor was “very friendly and gracious,” as he met with writers and rehearsed his lines in his dressing room.

Not that Riordan is a stranger to these matters. He appeared on Leno rival David Letterman’s show last year and entered a competition to find America’s funniest mayor for a an HBO-televised Comic Relief benefit show. He finished fourth.

Riordan also a did stint on KLOS-FM radio’s popular drive-time “Mark and Brian Show.” The zany pair never asked him to be photographed in a shower with them--a gambit that later helped sink the reelection bid of San Francisco’s Mayor Frank Jordan.