If you read the last blog entry, you know that I was enchanted and inspired by Frank Langella’s memoir, Dropped Names, in which he told stories of the famous people he has encountered, known, or spied upon. One of the caveats he made in his book is that he only chose to speak of the dead, so anyone else whose name he might drop, he only speaks of the departed. He tells of a youthful encounter with a friend when they spent a weekend with Jackie Onassis, dinner with Sir John Gielgud, and the like. As my old friend Dawn Wilbers reminded me, I have had encounters with famous people. Now, none may be as exciting or infamous as Langella (Anne Bancroft does not come off well!) but they have been a fun chain of sightings and encounters in restaurants, theaters, or even rest rooms. I don’t subscribe to Langella’s rule about the departed, many of mine are still living! I also don’t wonder if my name will pop up in any of their memoirs!
Sarah Jessica Parker This is the celebrity I knew the best at one time and whose generosity touched my life as well. Way, way back in my youth I met several members of the Parker family, all whose children went to the Cincinnati version of the “Fame School.”I sat by Toby in the All-City Boy Choir, and then in a Saturday drama program for children at the Conservatory, I met Rachel and Sarah Jessica Parker. Their slightly bohemian mother would drop them off, talk with the other cool, east-side moms, and then pick up her brood after the drama class or rehearsal. Rachel came to rehearsal one day especially excited—Sarah Jessica had chosen been chosen to be one of the orphans in the long-running Broadway hit, Annie!! Someone that I knew was headed to Broadway! Rachel and I spent that summer doing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the Showboat Majestic, dreaming of the work that SJ, and then brother Toby (he had been cast in a show called Runaways) were doing in New York. Sarah Jessica played the Annie role for a long time, established a scholarship in her name at the Conservatory, and that paid for my drama classes for a while. That was quite kind—for a stretch of the early 1980s we exchanged Christmas cards. Then she got a TV show! Someone from my drama class with Kay King had gotten the lead in a TV show! About a decade later, when I was in New York for the Klingenstein Fellowship, I saw Sarah Jessica in a hilarious play, wrote her a letter, reminding her of our childhood connection, thanked her for the scholarship help, and praised her performance. I never heard from her again…but back in the late 70s, we all loved our drama work together.
Julius LaRosa In the last century there have been a number of hot, handsome, young male singers. Over the decades, there have been no shortage of ‘Justin Biebers’ who come and go. One of the hottest, young male singers in the 1950s was Julius LaRosa, a fixture on the Arthur Godfrey show. Mr. LaRosa, or Julie, as he asked me to call him, has been a neighbor for years of my dear friend Anne. I have been out to dinner with Julie and his lovely wife Rory (who used to be Perry Como’s secretary—she could no doubt play this game well!), spent New Years’ Eves with them, called and chatted. But my favorite times have been talking with Julie about the singers he has known and worked with. For those of you who don’t know the score, he was publicly fired on the Godfrey show when the supposedly-genial, but secretly-monstrous Godfrey feared LaRosa’s popularity might eclipse his. But over the decades LaRosa has worked with all the giants, and it has been fun to talk with him about the talents of Sinatra, Clooney, and others. In 2004 he was playing in Las Vegas, opening for Don Rickles, and Anne and I went out to see him perform. As he performed he introduced his neighbor Anne from New York, and a spot light hit our table. The then-74-year old performer knew his way around the American standards, and it was such a treat to hear his stories about the great singers of the mid-century.
Barbara Cook If you do not know the name Barbara Cook, then you probably know the name Shirley Jones. If you know Shirley Jones, well, she starred in all the Hollywood musicals that had starred Barbara Cook on Broadway. Barbara Cook is an icon in the Broadway and cabaret world. She conducts master classes in the most mesmerizing and life-changing ways. She sings like…well, like none other. She understands a song like a play, invests it with every drop of meaning and beauty, and leaves you breathless. For a number of years Barbara Cook’s cabaret performance was my birthday gift from Christy. Well, one evening I am at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and I see Barbara Cook walking toward the exit. I come up beside her, politely say, “Aren’t you Barbara Cook?” She nods, and I say, gushing, “Ohmigosh—I think you are like the best singer—in the world!” She patted my hand, smiled, and said, “And sweetie, you’re under 60! Aren’t you kind?!” About a year later I came upon Ms. Cook at a bus stop! She and I were waiting to go downtown. I complimented her again on her performances, also said that I knew an old friend of hers. We talked about Julie LaRosa, and Ms. Cook praised his phrasing of a lyric, and I said that he had sung her praises many a time. The bus came, and Ms. Cook got on. I actually wasn’t taking the bus—I was walking, but I wasn’t about to waste a chance to talk with Barbara Cook!
Whoopi Goldberg In the winter of 1993 Whoopi was filming a movie in Charlotte, NC and my friend Judy called me up and said we should go and be extras in a movie scene they were filming at the Charlotte Coliseum. Judy and I joined the 15,000 or so others to be in this crowd scene (the film also starred Frank Langella actually, and this is the encounter that spawned their short-lived romance). We got a free box lunch, but spent about four hours as they filmed this one scene. Whoopi had to come out and talk to the crowd, admonishing us that they couldn’t sit there and scream, “Hey, Whoopi, whoop, whoop, Whoopi!” Her character wasn’t‘Whoopi’ in the movie, and none of the takes had worked thus far because people in the crowd (not me! Not Judy!) kept shouting her name!
George Clooney In my childhood Nick Clooney was a local Cincinnati celebrity with a variety show. My mother had a bit of a crush on Nick Clooney. One day that I must have had off from school, my mother took me downtown to be in the studio audience for Nick’s show. I loved watching the whole production of a show—how exciting to see the lights and camera and all the work to present this show. The long-forgotten singer Trini Lopez was a guest (somehow I remember that!) and afterwards my mother made a bee-line to speak to Nick. He knew her name somehow! His family was there—his gorgeous wife Nina, his less attractive daughter Ada, and nice kid, Nick’s son, George, was a couple years older than I. My mother gushed and we six stood and talked for a few minutes.
Fred Astaire Do phone calls count? If so, then I can drop Fred Astaire as a name. When I was in 7th grade I became obsessed with the Academy Awards (I will be watching them tonight, starting at 3:00 AM Monday time in Jordan!) and I did a presentation in my 7th grade class on the history of the Oscars. I wrote a number of letters to Oscar winners—so what if I had very few answers!! But one of the people I wrote—the one and only Fred Astaire—called me so I could interview him for my project. We talked for a while—it was really exciting!! My father groused a bit when the phone bill came the next month—Fred Astaire had reversed the charges on the phone bill!
Olivia deHavilland Speaking of that Oscars project, about four years later, when I was in high school, I came home and saw a letter to me from Paris. The return address looked vaguely familiar, and as I tore it open, I saw it was a letter, a picture, and an apology from the Oscar-winning actress Olivia deHavilland. She apologized she took so long to get back to me! But I had a letter and an apology from an actress from Gone With The Wind(another obsession of mine in the late 70s).
Jean Stapleton This was not an encounter for the ages—well, actually I guess it was in a way. I saw Emmy-winning Stapleton, the celebrated Edith Bunker of TV’s All In the Family, in a Broadway comedy in 1986. I used to always go to the stage door of theaters to get autographs of the stars. As Stapleton came out, I asked for an autograph—she was dressed in a Queen-of- Sheba-like outfit. In the seconds she signed the playbill, she never once acknowledged me, looked at the playbill, and seemed overwhelmed with the ennui of celebrity. After that, I wasn’t interested in autographs anymore. I still loved looking at stars, watching the games as they left a theater, but the enchantment with autographs was sapped after encountering Ms. Stapleton.
Tina Fey For Easter of 2012 I got to be in New York since it overlapped with my spring break here in Jordan. Christy went for Easter Sunday to Advent Lutheran Church, the church we have attended on and off since 1994 (when I am in New York, obviously). So here we are in the crowded church, with all the flowers, beautiful Easter clothes for the children, and I notice that in the pew behind me, I think, yes, I am pretty sure, it is Tina Fey! I casually turn around, confirm, yes, indeed, that is Bossypantsand 30 Rock star right behind me with her daughter. I need to turn around just one more time, because I want to see how Ms. Fey is enjoying the service I turn around, and she is staring right at me (not unlike what William Holden did to Lucy Ricardo in the Hollywood episode of I Love Lucy!) and nodding her head, as if to say, “Yes, it truly is me!” I remained non-plussed, and gushed to her about how cute her daughter is.
Bill Clinton For another spring break, 1993, the same break as the infamous encounter with Sissy Spacek, Casey Brown and I hear that presidential hopeful Bill Clinton is in New York. We brainstorm—where would Bill go that day??? We remembered that pundits had said he should schmooze the Jewish vote while in New York, so we decide to head uptown to the Jewish Museum just in case. We guessed correctly! The crowds are thick on his side of the street, but we realize that no one is across the street, so we cross over, and I yell out in my booming tenor, “Heya, Bill!” And he turns to us and waves.
Hillary Clinton I see Hillary in person about 18 months later when, as First Lady now, she comes to dedicate a new statue to Eleanor Roosevelt on the Upper West Side. I attend that day, and it was interesting to see Hillary in person, working the crowd, her strident voice a little harsher in person, but I enjoyed her speech. At the time she was taking heat for having met with a medium in the White House. The comics all talked about how she was summoning up the ghost of past First Ladies, seeking advice (maybe she was!). In her speech, Hillary joked that she planned to tell Eleanor later that day, when she spoke with her, how nice the dedication was.
Okay, I see that the series will have to continue…until next time when we will meet some of these people: Sigourney Weaver, Glenn Close, Patti Lupone, Kevin Bacon, Regis Philbin, Candice Bergen, Bob Dole and his dog, Gerald Ford, Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, James Baker, Neil Simon and Jane Fonda.
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