Today’s article reminded me of the time I delivered groceries to B.F. Skinner. I was working for a small, upscale grocer in Harvard Square. My first day out, the driver training me asked if I knew who he was. I said I did, that I studied him, limitedly, in high school psych class. When we got there and unloaded, my trainer mentioned that I had studied psych. BF’s face lit up. I clarified that it was just plain old high school study. He looked crestfallen. Kind of an awkward situation. We got paid, then left.
What other brushes with greatness have people had?
I’ve also sold Steven King trumpet music for his son. Also piano music (a Grieg concerto IIRC) to Greg Hawkes, at the time, keyboardist for The Cars.
In the early-80s, one of the former Iranian hostages (I believe he was the senior military officer among them) lived on my paper route.
[sub]The story actually goes back a bit further than that. He had served at the same base as my father in the 70s before being posted to the embassy. And I guess he liked the area enough that he moved back there after he retired.[/sub]
I was in Moscow doing support work for the 1988 Reagan summit. Embassy staff were invited to a tea after the summit, where rappin’ Ronnie gave an incoherent speech. The highlight for me was to walk into the room and see Dave Brubeck and band on the stage jammin’ away. After the pres got done, everyone crowded forward to shake hands with George Shultz and the other cheesy pols, but I slipped out the back and intercepted Dave and had a nice chat with him about his old quartet. He was gracious and pleasant.
My family used to take long driving vacations in the western U.S. One year we visited Crater Lake. There was a fairly young kid next to us, badly behaved and bitching loudly about not being allowed to use the family’s movie camera (this was pre-video-cam days). And that young man was…Johnny Whittaker from “Family Affair”. What a thrill.
I used to work a a motorcycle dealership in Cleveland. One of my co-workers was a guy named Tommy Monahan (I know where you think this is going - no, I don’t mean the Domino’s guy). We used to hang out at his parent’s house playing Trivial Pursuit. One evening, I noticed a picture on their wall of a young man who looked very familiar. I asked who it was, and Tommy said, “Oh, that’s my brother Danny. He’s an actor.” PeeWee from the “Porky’s” movies.
Oh, and I spent one New Year’s Eve partying with Bob Golic and his brothers (former Cleveland Browns player).
I’ve run into a bunch of celebs, growing up in a resort town. The most memorable was when Phyliss Diller’s Rolls Royce got stuck in a snowbank and she used our phone and hung out in the living room waiting for another car to come get her. She was cool. Funny thing was what she was wearing: Skin divers hat, full length fur coat and Converse High-tops!
I made Wayne Newton a sandwich. He was a good tipper. I served Chuck Berry a late-night breakfast. He looked like he had died some years earlier. I did Willie Nelson’s laundry, and talked to him (maybe) in the bar later that night.
I had a conversation with Coach Joe B. Hall (former Kentucky basketball coach, won NCAA championship in '78) in the lobby of a Chinese restaurant on Monday.
I was on a plane with the Boston Celtics of the Larry Bird era once. I saw Dr. Ruth in the Oklahoma City airport. When I was in high school I delivered a message to someone who used to be Controller of NYC, and who ran for Mayor (and lost.)
But the closest was that I did my BS thesis at MIT in a lab across the hall from the office of Claude Shannon. Alas, he never came.
If you don’t know who Claude Shannon is, you should. For his MS thesis in 1938 he proposed that relays could be used to implement boolean logic, basically inventing all of digital logic. He then went to Bell Labs where he discovered information theory. When I took it, 25 years later, my professor said that all of information theory work since Shannon was in refining his proofs. He also kind of invented AI, by being the first person to describe how a computer could play chess.
I worked at the Coronet movie theater when Episoide I came out. Lucas held the ILM/Lucasfilm employee screening there. I saw Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and Robin Williams, who went to the bathroom three times and wore bright green shoes. I saluted him, he did the same.
I saw Kameelah from Real World Boston crossing Van Ness and Market a few years after that season. I think I may have taken a Muni bus with RW San Francisco’s Puck, before his season.
I made a sandwich for LarisaOleynick* at Cala. Of course, I couldn’t remember her name beyond “Alex Mack,” and not wanting to be a schmuck, I kept my mouth shut. I consider it to be one of the great Missed Opportunities of my life.
I got invited to a poker game with Daryl Kile and his Celebrity(well Denver Celebrity at least) Buddies, but I declined figuring I couldn’t keep up with the likely stakes.
I was at a comic book signing with Elementals creator Bill Willingham once. About two weeks later I saw him in the audience of Late Night with David Letterman, wearing the same shirt he wore at the signing (Batman logo), telling Dave about…his Brush With Greatness.
Ted Koppel (ABC News)
James Brown (Fox Sports)
Patrick Ewing (NBA)
Calbert Cheney (NBA)
Linda Grey (Wonder Woman)
Tom Penders (College Basketball Coach)
Michael Jordan waved at me and my friend when he was leaving his house in his Aston Martin DB-7. (He lives a mile or two from me)
I was in the beginning of the movie “Rookie of the Year” (pretty crappy movie). I was just an extra in the intro but I was the subject of the shot. It was at Wrigley Field. I was 7 or 8 years old.
I was in a segment on Oprah. The story was about my mom and sister, but the guy who does the special liked my piano playing so he asked me to play something. I played Chopin’s Nocturne in E flat major and they used it as the theme for the story. They showed me playing for a few seconds as well.
I picked up a drunk teenage hitchhiker and delivered her to the back door of Tammy Wynette’s house. There were a bunch of other teenagers having a party there, but I didn’t see Tammy or anybody else famous. So, except for being on her property, I guess that doesn’t really count.
I worked on a movie (of sorts) as an assistant to the guy who did props. Got to see Mother Maybelle Carter, Del Reeves and some other C&W stars as they did whatever the movie needed for them to do.
For a while I lived across the street from Hal Bynum, who wrote Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town, and he’d come over and sit on my porch and drink beer and talk bullshit.
I sold some stereo equipment to Floyd Cramer and Grady Martin and installed it in their office. Rude and snobbish people. Not near as hot as they thought they were.
I was in a play with Sondra Locke before she went on to be Clint Eastwood’s bedmate and costar in those monkey movies.
I went to school with Jody Bergsma. Junior year, she was vice president of our class and I was secretary. Due to our friendship, she also became a patient in our office. (I work for a dentist.)
I’m not even sure how famous she is, so you may not know the name. All I know for sure is that she has outlets for her art all over the country…and appears to be doing QUITE well.
I also met Richard Chamberlin once. In seventh grade, I went to a play (Richard III) in Seattle with my honors English class. I was so completely impressed by Chamberlin’s performance…he is one AWESOME actor. So, after the play, I had to use the restroom and wandered down the wrong aisle. I was looking around, trying to find what I was looking for, and I bumped right into someone. I looked up and there he was…he is SO gorgeous! I said “Uh…Uh…Ummmm…” (TOTALLY incoherently starstruck) and he said…“Hi…can I help you?” I pulled myself together enough to utter…“bathroom?” and he pointed the way.
I am SUCH a dweeb.
Gotta say, when he recently wrote a book and said he is gay, I actually experienced a twinge. Heh…like I ever had a chance ANYWAY? Again…
Oh, and I met Steve Martini (mystery writer) through one of my best friends, Cindy. Cindy and her husband are good friends with Steve and his wife. I have to tell you, they are the most down-to-earth, WONDERFUL people. From what Cindy tells me, money hasn’t changed their essential selves ONE BIT. They are loving and giving and REAL.
I also shook Lyndon Johnson’s hand at a celebration at the Peace Arch when I was a very young child.