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Minor Brushes with fame


mstar1
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There has been abunch of these threads over the years but I cant find them..so heres part 10

This morning I was at my regular breakfast place and sat at my regular table. It had a newspaper on it, a NY Times, so I started to read it.

About 30 seconds later I heard a voice say "I left my paper here" so I looked up and it was Dan Lauria, the Dad from "The Wonder Years". For about a half a second as he looked at me I felt just like 12 year old Kevin Arnold in the show who had been caught by his Dad doing something mischievous. :biglaugh:

I was a regular watcher for awhile after I left TWI and had my weeknights open in the 80's and didnt know what to do with my time... I just smiled, mumbled something and gave him his paper--an odd way to start the day

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I thought he was dead, until I recalled that it was the character he played on 'Wonder Years' -Kevin says he died 2 years later on the last episode.

Working in a major movie studio, it's common to see 'stars'. I don't care to make a list, but I did feel like I was in the presence of greatness the day Dick Van Dyke was in the building.

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Im really not much of a stargazer, Ive seen other well known people, much better known people than Dan Lauria, around town and they are just...other people. There is something about the minor everyday characters to me that somehow had a small piece of my life for a shortwhile and are buried , mostly forgotten deep in the back of my mind that makes them somehow interesting to unexpectedly see.... I definitely could see Dick Van Dyke being in that category, he's done a thousand things but to me he is and always will be Rob Petrie, a regular part of my day when I was 10-12 years old.

Edited by mstar1
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Minor brushes with fame.

Back in the day, I saw The James Gang play a party gig on the front porch of a frat house.

Glenn Schwartz had already left to join PG&E. Joe Walsh had replaced him.

They were a fairly new band and it was at a time when the music industry was still pretty high on soul music, so the newer sounds hadn't quite caught on. There were maybe 5 or 6 people, at best, who stopped to check them out. When the band finished a song (don't remember which song) one of the people who had stopped, offered up a slow sarcastic applause. Joe Walsh instantly threw it right back and said (with all the sarcasm he could muster) "Thank you, thank you soooo much-------for the clap." Oh, I suppose he might have picked the retort up from someone who went before him or maybe he had used it before. Still, it's pretty funny looking back how no one there realized they were "standing in a moment".

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i love these kinds of threads. they are so cool

i've participated in the past and mstar you have coolest

who was the baby girl in alaska ? please do tell because i forget

--

i do recall how rude Thurman Munson (god rest his soul) was to me when i tried to get his autograph for my little brother

i also remember being escorted off stage in college when i wanted to dance up there (lol) with a pretty much unknown named billy joel

my sister was in love in high school with a drummer who turned down an offer to join from the boss in his band

(i know i've told these before, sowwy)

who else

my great grandparents were chemists and dyed an elephant for p.t. barnum. we have a statue from him and a letter, but i think my mom gave it to the museum

many high school friends of bon jovi (he's a bit younger than i)

i'll keep thinking

but i really like stories.... they are so much fun

thank you m, for starting the thread

do tell more.... you have so many good ones

and waysider, that was so cool

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i was on the sandy becker show for my 7th birthday

I wanna see the videos of that!

who was the baby girl in alaska ? please do tell because i forget

The baby girl I held naked in my arms was Jewel. I knew her parents when I lived in Alaska when I was about 18...she was a newborn at the time...and i was the hippie kid neighbor living in the log cabin out in the backwoods.....she turned out to be quite a beauty.

I met the coroner from the Wizard of Oz about 15-20 years ago. :biglaugh: That was one of those unexpected encounters that had me smiling (long long story) He was all decked out in all coroner regalia and even rode in my car for a bit...

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Well, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away....

I was on the high school newspaper staff and a friend and I got to go to some department store shindig and interview Sandra Dee soon after her marriage to Bobby Darrin.

She always had that kind of chubby-cheeked look in her studio portraits, but truth was, she was painfully thin, about 5'5" and 90 pounds. Her manager or whatever ordered her around. There was no spontaneity. She seemed tired. Gave a little speech about hair and makeup and took questions. Then we all walked down to another room for something or other.

My friend snapped photos that were to be used in the newspaper. When I asked for the film, she had sent it off to another state to be developed. We never got the pictures back but I did get to write a nice article with a by-line for it.

WG

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awwww i love her. how dare her manager

I think she is dead now. She was beautiful. . . .when I was a kid they played that movie "Tammy" on television. I have wanted to live on a houseboat ever since.

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I was on a date in Santa Monica at the movies with my then girlfriend. We went to the early Sunday matinee, less people. There was a couple in front of us. The lady got up, she was very pregnant. It was Kim Bassinger. But the guy that was with her had this very strange hair.

After the movie, my girlfriend went to the ladies room as did Kim. I was looking at the upcoming movie posters and just across from me is the guy with the bad hair and he was wearing glasses. As I stared, I realized it was Alec Baldwin wearing a wig and fake glasses.

Kim came out of the bathroom and he grabbed her arm and they ran out of the theatre.

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Weatherman Willard Scott was ahead of me going through airport security - and for some reason they put him through the ringer. That surprised me - I thought I looked more like a terrorist than he did. :biglaugh:

Tonto & I were at a Blue Man Group show in Las Vegas - sitting behind Tom Petty & his wife - who they singled out of the audience to get her involved in some of their schtick on stage.

On another vacation, Tonto & I were on line waiting to get into Conan O'Brien's Late Night show a few years ago [in same building as SNL studio]. Right behind us were some ladies talking excitedly about all the celebrities they've spotted on their trip to NY so far. While they're talking Colin Quinn from SNL comes walking down the hall, being friendly to the folks in line for Conan. He engages these ladies - and it sounded like they've been big fans of his for years - got someone to take a picture of him with them. As he continues on - I overhear one of the ladies say to the other "Who was that?" to which the other lady replied "I don't know." ....which brings me to my great claim to a brush with fame - during the warm up of Late Night, Conan came up into the audience - I was sitting on an end chair of an aisle - he turned to me and shook my hand thanking me for coming to the show.

Edited by T-Bone
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This is my friend Ed

100_3065.jpg

Hes a really good down to earth small town guy--like amillion other people....I like him a lot.

I just found out a month or so ago that when he was a kid he was one of Norman Rockwell's models.

I dont know if you know his stuff or not but my grandmother loved him and I clearly remember being 3, 4 or 5 and having my grandmother show me pictures of Rockwell paintings and Saturday Evening Post covers and explaining the stories in them that stuck in my memory.

Im still looking for 'stories' in art..Its my profession now....

Anyway--It was pretty cool when I found out that my friend Ed was this kid...

rockwell-norman-the-runaway-2105387.jpg

from one of my oldest memories...

and also this kid..another one I remember from 50 years ago...

norman-rockwell--before-the-shot.jpg

One of Ed's joking nicknames is 'the most famous a$$ in the world"

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I've got a poster in my kitchen of Rockwell Post covers, so I'm looking at young Ed all the time.

I can't imagine anyone not being familiar with Rockwell, but there's a lot I'm naive about.

What do you mean-looking for stories in art is your profession now ?

Maybe I should relate some celeb encounters. I knew I was in a different world after I got into animation. In my first couple of weeks, I saw Stan Freberg in the elevator, Richard Moll(Bull on 'Night Court') at lunch, and I looked up from my drawing board to find myself eye to eye with Dr Ruth (she was standing, I was sitting). She was doing voices for our cartoon, and wanted to meet the artists. As they love to say out here, I knew I wasn't 'in Kansas' anymore.

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What do you mean-looking for stories in art is your profession now ?

Well you know I do church windows for a living. Most of the time they are packed with symbols, scenes or something or other pointing toward or depicting some specific story, moral, or event.

Many times the meaning has been lost or forgotten -especially in churches with older windows and generations have gone by without many people thinking about it. Church symbolism is a coupla thousand years old and pretty specific, has its own language but its not something most people are driven towards or understand very well

Just being around them for so long I have learned how to 'read' them and make connections like some read a book or the stories in a Rockwell painting.

I just finished installing a window in Atlanta that was along the theme of "Peace, Justice and Social Activism" ---whether anyone knows that in 100 years or not---I dunno--they'll probably think its just a bunch of people standing around :biglaugh:

Odd timing--I just now finished responding to an email from a church in Rhode Island that wants me to come down there just to tell them what their windows represent and are 'saying'--no real work at all just interpret all the symbols and connect them for them.....anyways I hope thats clear as thats what I meant-

I suppose I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my grandmother for starting me on this "reading art' bidness through Rockwell when I was a toddler

Edited by mstar1
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That's way cool about your friend Ed & Norman Rockwell. I like his stuff a lot. And it sounds like you have a very interesting career. Ages ago, I was in a four year fine arts program - but dropped out after 2 years when I had this thought no one is going to pay me to make them a painting. Oh well...young, stupid, no ambition... guess I'll go join a cult.

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Zero education and the artistic ability of a slug here ...and I too joined a cult...

I really dont know how Ive made my living doing this for 30 years without having to get a real job. Incredible luck, the grace of God. something in between, or they've all been confusing me with someone else for a very long time. Any which way i dunno but--I'll take it--beisbol stained glass ben berry berry good to me

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I sold Gavin MacLeod (played Capt. Stubing on The Love Boat) a pair of Bass shoes once when I was working at the local Bass Outlet in Wells, Maine... Also met Englebert Humperdink at that same place but couldn't stop giggling over his name (I was 16... what can I say?)

Stood in line behind Sully from Godsmack as he got icecream in Alton Bay, NH... (just a few years ago...)

Ran into two of the Gatling Bros in a mall in Nashville, TN when I lived there (I was also working at that mall)....

Parked next to Wynonna Judd once in a parking lot when I was picking up something at a PR firm's office on Music Row in Nashville, TN... I don't think she was pleased to be mixing with us common folk.

Got introduced to Toby Keith because I did some work for him when he first hit the scene.... (Toby WHO?)

Use to wait on two of the members from Sawyer Brown when I worked at Shoney's in Nashville because their office was on the next floor of the building.... I remember one was a "regular" and the shyest person I ever met - very sweet guy. He turned out to be their keyboard player, Hobie. There's isn't a nicer person on the planet!

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