Toni Holt Kramer is a special guest on The Paul Leslie Hour.
We’ve got a great show for you today with special guest Toni Holt Kramer. She’s a woman who has had a remarkable experience. I think one word that does a great job of explaining her? Communicator. She’s a great communicator and a lot of fun to talk to. She’s rubbed shoulders with just about everybody, and when you hear her in conversation with Paul E. Leslie, you’ll understand why Toni Holt Kramer makes for a perfect guest on this show!
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Now, let’s not keep a lady like Toni Holt Kramer waiting. I just know Paul is chomping at the bit for you to hear this interview, so let’s all enjoy.
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The Official Transcript
Paul Leslie
Hey, how are you?
Toni Holt Kramer
I’m fine. Thank you. How are you?
Paul Leslie
I’m just fine. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m really delighted by this opportunity to interview a woman with tons of versatility and connections. Toni Holt Kramer is an author and philanthropist. She’s been called a “woman of major versatility.” Her path has included working as a model, television personality, on-air columnist for the news, magazine columnist. And this is astonishing to me: Toni Holt Kramer has interviewed upwards of 3,000 people. So thank you on behalf of our listeners, from all over for being our special guest.
Toni Holt Kramer
It makes it sound like I never slept. But it’s true. But of course, that spans over 30 plus years, almost 40 years. From the time I started, right, straight through, but of course, you left out one thing. Also, I would say, seven years, I’ve become a political activist as well.
So, before I was just friends with all the all the people and you know. I think I was the last person. My husband and I were the last civilians so to speak, as we say in showbiz, right? The last civilians that were received, in the Red Room at the White House the last night, that President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton were on duty.
And then then, shortly, I think that and then I was the last person to shake hands because everybody was leaving, I was late to a very special party for George W. Bush at the Library of Congress. Which I had to go directly from the Clinton’s White House to George W. Bush, who was going to be inaugurated the next day. And guess what? I think it’s Guinness Book of Records stuff, I never got to wash my hands. So, I shook hands with two presidents within 45 minutes, or an hour.
Paul Leslie
Now, that is something. Very impressive.
Toni Holt Kramer
And then I got very involved with President Trump in 2015. And I started a group called the Trumpettes, that wound up not only being in America, and having members from all over. As you can see, I I’m really a libertarian, in the sense that I go for who I like and who I believe will do the best for the country. And so consequently, then we started a chapter, we were so successful, and started a chapter in Australia. We have members all over the world, Europe, Asia, you name it. So that’s a long way from my first gig working at the Copacabana.
Paul Leslie
It’s a fascinating story. Now, just a moment ago, you were mentioning your husband, congratulations are in order on your 30th anniversary. So
Toni Holt Kramer
I’ll say. The fact that he could put up with me that many years makes him superhuman. I mean, living with me is not easy, because I’m one of these people. That’s “Okay. Don’t you think it would be time for us to get to Washington because I’m kind of bored doing Hollywood every day? And he goes “Great idea.” You know, so anyone who, who can, I’m so grateful to him. He’s made my life so beautiful. I have the best marriage. Thank you, God. And he’s been an absolute gem. And thank God, he’s still continuing to be healthy and fine. And I’m very grateful to him.
Paul Leslie
What do you think makes you and Robert such a good fit?
Toni Holt Kramer
Well, I think we’re completely opposite. You know, I’m the extrovert and he’s quiet and reserved. So it’s kind of like, you know, one of us is out there, you know, carrying on and the other one is the, you know, really sensible factor.. You know, let’s let’s just, you know, think about this for a minute. And he’s a good sport. He has great love for my mother, because my mother and I were inseparable. And I don’t have sisters or brothers. And so having my mother was: I would always say if I met someone and they wanted to take me out, I’d go” “Oh, I come as a package deal. Take me out. Take my mother with me. And actually Bobby and my mother became so close that one day she said: “it’s a good thing you met him first because I would have married.” Very blessed.
Paul Leslie
Well, what advice would you give to those married people out there who are listening?
Toni Holt Kramer
Oh, God. You know, you can’t give advice to anybody in this world today. I mean, there’s no such word as if anybody listens, number one. And that anybody is enough of a guru to give advice. I mean, we have people that are in strong positions in countries all over the world. And you wonder, do they have any brains? You know, I certainly will never see myself as someone to give advice. I think the only thing I can say is: “Love is wonderful, but you have to like each other a lot. And you have to respect each other. And you have to care about each other. And that’s the only thing I can say. If you don’t have those things going for you, you really have nothing else. Because there’s nothing that’s gonna give you any foundation.
Paul Leslie
No, as we were saying at the top, you’ve interviewed more people than most in journalism, and I just want to name some of the people. Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Tom Cruise, Merv Griffin, George Clooney, Clint Eastwood, Johnny Carson, John Travolta: I mean, it really just the cream of the cream. Maybe only Larry King has interviewed more people. What has speaking to so many people taught you?
Toni Holt Kramer
That’s you have to listen. You know, I, I’ve never, ever, ever, I guess it’s a gift. Something that I was, God gave me as my talent. I never could work with a script. I never prepare questions. I tell everyone: If I go on somebody’s show like yours, I say, “please do me a favor. Do not tell me what you’re going to talk about before we get on air.” Whether it’s television or radio, or newspaper or anywhere else, magazines. I don’t want to know. I want to talk to you from what I believe my heart, my head. And I think that with all the people that I’ve met, I’ve learned so much. I really have. I was greatly honored to be invited as a friend, as someone they liked, to so many private parties of these celebrities.
I remember when Gosh, I’ll go back in time when Glenn Ford was getting married, probably must have been probably 30 years ago, just perform me, maybe 31 or 32 years ago. And he was having a wedding and it was 11 o’clock in the morning at his house just behind the Beverly Hills Hotel. And if any of your listeners don’t know who Glenn Ford is, I suggest strongly you go to Turner Classic Movies. Or you go on Google and you’ll see that you know, he made that famous,he’s made so many great films in his life. Of course, he’s gone now. But I remember getting to, I was invited to the wedding. And it was the who’s who of Hollywood. I wish we had cell phones then. And I didn’t have that certainly didn’t bring a camera. But it was everybody from Frank Sinatra to John Wayne. You name it. I mean, the royalty of Hollywood was there 11 o’clock in the morning.
And when I got there, there was press from all over the world lined up outside the house. And I drove up in my car and I gave it to the parking attendant. And I started to walk towards the front door of the house and everybody’s yelling, Hey, Toni, because I had just been in Hollywood a short time then. You know, not that many years. And you can’t go in there. You know, you stand here with us and I go “Hey, guys, I’m invited.” And I spent the day, I spent the wedding there. I had my lunch there. I got home. I had a couple of glasses of champagne. And I remember going home in the afternoon and falling fast asleep and getting a phone call around six o’clock at night from Glenn saying “Toni, can you come back here right away?” And I said “why what’s the matter?” and he said: “Well, we have so much food left. And you know, I thought if you could come for dinner and I said, but this is your wedding night! He said “no, I’m inviting you in Victoria.” (That’s another friend) over and we’ll just sit around and talk. You know, we talked till two o’clock in the morning?
So I mean, that’s the kind of I had great relationships with wonderful people. Thank you to Frank Sinatra for I don’t think I would have had a career without Rock Hudson. He really turned out to be one of my best, and dearest, and most loving and loyal friends. And Frank Sinatra who gave me every help in the world and helped open some doors for me. And, you know, I’ve been very, very blessed to have wonderful people step up to the plate and say, “You know, we think you’re great.” I never was mean. I broke a lot of stories. As I say, I always tried to inject some humor in them. And I never went after anybody with with a dagger. You know what I mean?
And I remember when Dean Martin had a fight with his wife, I guess at the time. that was after his lovely wife Jeanne. He was married to another girl for a couple of years. And I remember there was some, I got a call from somebody in Malibu and said, “Hey, you know, there was a gunshot at Dean Martin’s house. And I said, “really what happened?” Well, I got on the phone, made a few phone calls to track down that his wife, his then wife was leaving for Hawaii that night, and he had been sent to a hospital, he went to some hospital in Century City. And he had a, I think, a small wound to his hand. And so I called his manager the next day, because it was like an air day, you know, Mondays. And on the news for me that the early evening news and the late and the late night news. And I said, you know, what can you tell me? And he told me” “nothing to say, nothing to say.” So what I did was I just said, “I heard, you were up for a midnight snack? I said the next time you decide you’re going to have a sandwich. I think you should use a knife instead of a gun.”
Well, I thought that was you know, and I don’t know who shot the gun. Or what, but there was no nobody was hurt really badly or anything like that. But I guess it was just like, you know. Well, that as you would have it, that next night, I go to dinner. There was a club called Phipps. And Phipps was the place everybody went there for dinner and played backgammon. Backgammon was the rage. And I go to walk in between shows with some friends and who’s sitting at the bar alone? But Dean Martin, and I thought, “Oh, I’m out of here.” I turned around, I’m going in, I’m not going in. I don’t know how he’s going to feel. And he sees me and he says: “Toni, Toni, come over here.” And he started slapping his knee. And he says, “that was hysterical. That was the funniest thing I ever heard.” I loved his sense of humor. So you know, I’ve had great stories, great friends. Great, Arnold Schwarzenegger loved him. Sharon Stone, all these wonderful, wonderful, wonderful people that I always said “the bigger they are, the nicer they are.” It’s the ones that take themselves seriously who really aren’t that important that are a pain in the you know where.
Paul Leslie
Goodness. That is so, so true. That has been my experience.
Toni Holt Kramer
People can be awfully wonderful and I think so many of them appreciate that. The people that have made them so famous, rich, important, whatever you want to call it, but they try to entertain and give back and you know, I’m very, very grateful to all the people I’ve interviewed. We’re thinking because my co-host with this my partner on television through a number of shows. We did a series “Talk of the Town” and we’re thinking about taking it because we have, goodness we have a whole show of every astronaut that ever was alive. I mean it’s you name it, you name it, it was done. And we have you know not just movie stars but I have politicians and people that were saying.
Governor Schwarzenegger when he was governor. You know people like that of California and we’re thinking of taking it and kind of putting in a little clip time you know out of a 30 minute show you know maybe take seven or eight minutes where we upgrade of redo the show but we talked about where all these people are or what they’re doing now. You know, or if they’re not still sucking in oxygen, you know, I mean, there’s so many stories that we can talk and bring people up to date. People love that. You know, they love to know what’s happening.
Paul Leslie
Well, this might be a tough one, but who has been the best person to talk, to the most enjoyable?
Toni Holt Kramer
I wouldn’t even attempt, because everybody. It’s like saying who is the most beautiful woman in the world? You know, it’s your personal, at that moment. You know, it’s this one. It’s that one, it’s the other one. I think I’ve enjoyed every one of them. Maybe that’s what made it so wonderful for me. Out of everybody, almost everybody. I could say that I’ve interviewed. I’ve come away thinking, this was really special.
Paul Leslie
Was there anyone you wanted to speak to, but you just didn’t get the chance to?
Toni Holt Kramer
Hmmm. Let me think Off the top of my head. Off the top of my head, I would say Sophia Loren. I never did get to meet her in person. We had a lot of mutual friends. But she was always one of my favorites. Adored her and loved her. There was something about her. Of course, it used to be that Phyllis Diller used to call me the blondes Sophia Loren. And so maybe I was prejudiced. But nevertheless. I would have loved to have met her and interviewed her. I’ve seen her in person on stage, but never did meet her in person.
Paul Leslie
When you were mentioning Frank Sinatra earlier, did you find that he had an electricity about him? A kind of aura?
Toni Holt Kramer
Oh, he was magic. I don’t know. What’s you would put to it. He was magic in so many ways. He was kind to people. He was thoughtful. He was the most talented. I mean, needless to say, he could also you know, he, he had, he was so nice. I always say, you know, I remember my mom and I used to go to a restaurant before I was even working in television or anything. And I remember how he treated all of the waitresses. We all used to go there on Friday night it was in Palm Springs. And we all used to go there on Friday night because they’d fly lobsters in from Boston. And it was special night.
And Frank was there usually every Friday night, that he was in town with a small group, a small entourage. And my mom and I would be there sometimes. Not all the time. But sometimes. He was so kind to all the waitresses and everybody. And he just he was magic. He was like talented, brilliant. Great. You know, just, they don’t make those kind of people anymore. They don’t make those kind of stars anymore.
I mean, when you think about it, you can watch an old Frank Sinatra movie on Turner or any of those old stations. And you’re as caught up in it as you could ever be. And yet, I mean, name me more than I mean, who could you say today? At least I can’t who has that kind of special talent and charisma that you really you really just think: Wow. You know, I wouldn’t miss their movie. You know? Yeah, Tom Cruise still has it. He has a certain something special.
I don’t know, I guess. I guess maybe because my career was so much more focused in the stars that I really appreciated when I was a little girl. I mean, I covered my bedroom walls with pictures I tore out of magazines. And my mother would write to the studios and you know, and say please send me an autographed, signed picture.
And then I had a great opportunity. When I was in Hollywood, I got a call. They wanted to screen test me at Columbia. And they told me that I wouldn’t work, I was very young. I wouldn’t work for three years. They would train me, school me. I’d become whatever. And but I’d be on salary. And that eventually they thought I would get to have the penthouse that Rita Hayworth had had and Kim Novack was in and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And my mom said: “You’re too young. You’re not doing that.” But that’s what I wanted all my life and she said: “Fine. You’ll go back when you’re older.” I said “they won’t want me when I’m older.” So being a good girl, I didn’t do it.
Paul Leslie
Well, I will tell you one of the things that I almost thought of it as a sign. I was thinking I would like To do an interview with this Toni Holt Kramer. And then, I was picking a movie to watch at night and I ended up on a Woody Allen film
Toni Holt Kramer
Yeah, “Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex, but Were Afraid to Ask.”
Paul Leslie
Right. And there you were.
Toni Holt Kramer
That was my first. Probably next to my last. I hated working as an actress. But I didn’t. I was a panelist. I had just come to Hollywood, I was maybe working a year or two. A year, maybe a year, it was probably in the 70s, early 70s, or something, because that’s when I really started. And he said, and I remember it was some kind of a panel. And I remember you have, you know, like, you gotta rehearse you had to redo things I love. I don’t, I never want to ever have to use a script in my life. I have no talent for that. I have to be me. I have to just talk and I would never make it I realized. You probably could have taught me how to react to that. But I feel my emotion goes to just interviews and talking to people.
Paul Leslie
Well, there’s somebody who has a showbiz background and a political background. And I think it’s kind of interesting that you and President Donald J. Trump have both appeared in a Woody Allen film. And I’m hoping you can tell us: it’s an interesting little connection. But tell us about the first time you met in the flesh, in person, President Donald Trump.
Toni Holt Kramer
Well. First of all, I have to tell you that we’re both Geminis. We’re two days apart. He’s the 14th. I’m the 16th. The first time I met him, was New Year’s Eve. My husband and I had gone to Palm Beach, and we were with some friends who were members of Mar-a-Lago. And it was 2011, going in midnight, 2012 or 2010, going into 2011. I don’t remember. And I was introduced to him for the first time. And Bobby and I got to talk to him. And he asked , you know, did we live there? And we said, we were there. We had just bought a house there.
We had decided that we’d like to divide time because I have family there.. So he said: “Well, you must join the Club.” And I said: “Well, you know, as soon as we get our bearings and get ourselves organized, maybe we will.” And we did a few months later. And we really didn’t because they close, usually Mother’s Day, but day after Mother’s Day, so we really didn’t have too much time, the first year. And then we started to go.
And I was at that time just starting to get interested. I mean, I always liked Washington and I always wanted to be a Washington columnist and this and that. So, you know, not always. First I wanted Hollywood then I wanted Washington. But I have to say as I got to know him and see the efficiency, that he had trained all of his people, obviously, because you know, success.
You run a good business. It starts with the owner, with the top guy, with the top woman. It doesn’t start at the bottom generally. And everything about the way the staff at Mar-a-Lago were, they would remember your name, they would remember what you like, oh, you know what you like to eat what you like to drink. I was so impressed with the way the club was run. And I said to Bobby. I think President Obama was in office. I believe Obama came in, in 2008.
Paul Leslie
I believe so.
Toni Holt Kramer
So he was in office and I, I just didn’t like the way I thought the country was going. And I said, I started saying to my husband all the time, “You know, I’ll bet you if Donald Trump was president, he would do a great job. And Bobby would say: “Well, yeah, why don’t you tell him?” I said, well, so instead of telling him, he used to come down every weekend. He would leave on usually Sunday night or Monday morning, fly back to New York, and then he would come back on Thursday night or Friday and spend the weekend and instead of saying it to him, I would pick out articles because I love, I’m very involved in in my head. And I like to track the economy. I like to track politics and I don’t think you can do one without the othe. You have to understand both in order to be good at either one or at least somewhat informative. I started taking special things. And I would read about this happening and the financial world or this happening in Europe or this happening somewhere else. And I’d write to him. And it was so funny. I just dropped this little note. “Dear Mr. President,” this was 2013 now.
And it became like a running gag. I mean, every weekend, I brought another article, and of course, we became friendly. And he liked Bobby so much, and he was always wonderful. Melania is fabulous. She has a great sense of humor. Anyway, we just became friends. And then I would say to him, “you know, you’ve got to run, you just gotta run, You’re the only one that can save this country. And you’re the only one that can straighten and get this thing really going, make America better, greater. And we weren’t in the crap, we’re in now, with this high inflation. And I feel so sad for so many people.
A girlfriend of mine was telling me she just came to Brentwood with this morning. And she said she couldn’t believe how many people were homeless on the street. Then she had gone yesterday, at the Beverly Center, she said you wouldn’t believe all the tents on the street. And I said, come on. She said, “Well, haven’t you gone and looked?” And I said, “No.” I said, “You know, when I’m in LA, I really don’t think. And she said “well, you need to.” And I went, “Okay. I will.” And I was so I was so taken aghast by that because I didn’t realize, you know, I knew it had been bad, but I didn’t realize it had moved in that close. So, it was so different.
You know, when Trump was in office, and I don’t care, I mean, Trump, Trump was, is I believe in my heart. I mean, he’s a Republican, in a sense, but he’s really he’s really a humanitarian. I mean, he really cares. I think the greatest love of his life is this country. It has nothing to do with whether you’re a Democrat, a Demo-rat, a Republican, a libertarian, whatever you want to be. It doesn’t matter. You want to be one thing, you want to be safe. You want to go to a restaurant, you want to have dinner, get on it. You don’t want to have somebody put a gun. My girlfriend was sitting in a restaurant last year, and someone got shot. They came in the afternoon at lunch in Beverly Hills, to rob some guy of his watch.
And so, I mean, look at, look at the difference. Oil was $2 and change. The eggs and bacon and things, staples for people were half the price they are today. I think we all question the health of the President. I think we all question. The God-forbid, I would say reality that the vice president who seems to be a master at word salad. You know, could be wind up being president. I mean, it’s, it’s kind of scary.
So I’ve decided I said, “Well, Hells Bells?” You know, I mean, I was retired, hoping that everything would now be fun. And I’m going to take up golf. And all of the sudden I’m going, I can’t do that. I’m hearing. I guess I’ve got to get back with the Trumpettes again. And I’m not and believe it or not, we have so many Trumpettes. Because there’s no rule. You don’t have to be a Republican, you don’t have to be. You can be a Democrat. You can be a liberal, you can be whatever you want.
It’s about really saving our country and the people. I’m so afraid that the middle class will vanish. I’m so afraid that people, that so many more people will be forced and homeless. You know, I think people that never thought they would be.
So yeah. And I have great confidence in him. I’m very saddened by what happened to Ivana. I think it’s, it’s hard to believe that anybody could die such a difficult death. I mean, you can only imagine somebody falling. And being God knows being there alone. And maybe your imagination can take you a lot of places with that said, the pain and everything else.
But the reality is, is that the kids are great. And everybody’s kids are great. You know, we all want all the kids to be great. We want all the kids to have a fair chance. We want everybody to have an opportunity to be successful. Go to school, learn. Teach what you want to teach in school, but teach two sides. Don’t teach one side because it’s not fair. Kids have to learn You can’t educate kids with one direction, and then expect them to grow up and be fair-minded. Let people make up their own mind about what they care about.
And if any of your listeners want to join me, it’s Trumpettes go to the go on the internet trumpettesusa.com Just put in. You don’t have to disclose anything other than the fact that you love America. And that’s it.
