Appearances
Bootzin received national exposure in 1955, when he appeared as a contestant on Groucho Marx's network TV show You Bet Your Life. Introduced as "Boots Bootzin," he cheerfully espoused his philosophy of clean living, exercise, and healthy eating. Even though he was over 40, he acted like a gangly, goofy, but polite teenager, causing mildly sensational reactions from the audience. When asked by Groucho to demonstrate how he sold figs, he stepped toward the edge of the stage, shouted an attention-getting sales pitch for a few seconds, and then performed a perfect pratfall (the type where one falls sideways after swinging one leg to knock the other one out from underneath). In the game portion of the show, he correctly whispered the spelling of the word "motif" to his partner, who overruled him and miscorrected it to "motiffe". Groucho, who usually displayed little tolerance for extremists, admired Bootzin's rugged individualism and said so, on camera. He also seemed to appreciate the perfect execution of one of vaudeville's classic bits.
Bootzin made personal appearances with the Spike Jones musical-comedy troupe, speaking about health foods. He was a regular guest on American television talk shows in the 1960s, appearing 25 times on The Steve Allen Show. On the Allen show he would often play up his role as a health advocate by swinging from a vine on stage as a "Nature Boy", and persuade Steve to drink one of "Gypsy Boots"-concocted fruit health drinks. He referred to this drink as a "smoothie", giving credence to Gypsy Boots as one of the originators of the popular style of blended natural fruit health drinks. He also made frequent appearances on George Putnam's Talk Back, which came at the tail end of the popular KTLA George Putnam News in Los Angeles, California.
He released a record album, Unpredictable, on Sidewalk Records in 1968.
Gypsy loved to participate in parades, including the annual, wildly creative and non-commercial Santa Barbara Summer Solstice Parade. Boots appeared at the Annual Calabasas Pumpkin Festival in 1973. Even in his late 80s he would energetically dance, make music, and holler all the way up the parade route for a couple of miles. He would show up for weekly farmers' markets in his wildly-painted van promoting kyolic garlic, and would always be a showman with the gift of gab and giving out free garlic samples.
Bootzin was an avid fan of the USC Trojans football team, where he was known for eccentric clothes and an ever-present cowbell. He also regularly attended Los Angeles Dodgers, Lakers and Raiders games with spirited cheers, noisemakers and streamers. At age 86, he was still able to throw an American football at least 40 yards.
In movies, Bootzin appears sitting in the diner scene in Michael Douglas's film The Game. Other movie appearances include Mondo Hollywood, Swingin' Summer, and Confessions of Tom Harris.
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