# I must drop a letter to dear Livvy De Havilland (my name-dropping thread) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 6, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947 "2005-04-06T00:31:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/101 "2005-04-13T20:35:01Z")
By “Fiji,” I meant the fraternity, of course. I didn’t mean to inadvertently slam Fijians. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/102 "2005-04-13T21:31:51Z")
My mom went to prom with **Dick Butkus** but fortunately never married him, turns out he was a dickhead. My dad, who was a managing teller at Bank of America in California, had **Johnny Mercer** as a regular customer, and went out for drinks a few times. I met **Morgan Freeman** and **Keanu Reeves** on the set of Chain Reaction (I was working security at the place where some of the scenes were filmed) Mrs. Jockey went to high school with \*\*[Craig Titley](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0864471/) and was hit on by **Dan Marino** back in his playin’ days, only (thankfully) didn’t know who he was. One of my scout leaders was a stand in for **John Candy** in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. In my younger days, I used to hang out, play guitar and smoke weed with \*\*Don Knotts{/b] ok, not really, but how cool would that have been ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/103 "2005-04-13T21:32:15Z")
My mom went to prom with **Dick Butkus** but fortunately never married him, turns out he was a dickhead. My dad, who was a managing teller at Bank of America in California, had **Johnny Mercer** as a regular customer, and went out for drinks a few times. I met **Morgan Freeman** and **Keanu Reeves** on the set of Chain Reaction (I was working security at the place where some of the scenes were filmed) Mrs. Jockey went to high school with \*\*[Craig Titley](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0864471/) and was hit on by **Dan Marino** back in his playin’ days, only (thankfully) didn’t know who he was. One of my scout leaders was a stand in for **John Candy** in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. In my younger days, I used to hang out, play guitar and smoke weed with **Don Knotts** ok, not really, but how cool would that have been ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/104 "2005-04-13T21:38:20Z")
[stewie] BLAST! [/stewie] ---
**Author:** ![Merhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Merhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/105 "2005-04-13T22:00:34Z")
> [@buttonjockey308](#): > > My mom went to prom with **Dick Butkus** OK, I really need to get my eyes checked. What I saw when I read that was that your mom went to **PORN** with him :smack: ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/106 "2005-04-13T23:09:50Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > By “Fiji,” I meant the fraternity, of course. I didn’t mean to inadvertently slam Fijians. You had better not. That Vijay Singh is a pretty big guy and has money enough to hunt you down. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/107 "2005-04-14T02:10:23Z")
My dad yesterday showed me his picture taken with **Sparky Anderson** , the only baseball manager to win World Series rings in both leagues. He told Sparky, “My nephew is going to flip when he sees this.” (Cousin is a huge Cincinatti Reds fan.) So he shows cousin the picture, and cousin says, “Oh, you got a picture with Sparky Anderson? I see him about once a week when he comes in to buy golf balls.” Cousin works at a Wal-Mart. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/108 "2005-04-14T02:22:34Z")
> [@buttonjockey308](#): > > In my younger days, I used to hang out, play guitar and smoke weed with **Don Knotts** > > ok, not really, but how cool would that have been My father-in-law golfed with him once. Dad had a threesome (not THAT kind of threesome) ready to hit the links and the golf pro came out and said he had a single player looking for a group to play with and would Dad and his friends mind? He said Knotts was a sweet, kindly gentleman who was interrupted by other golfers all day who kept coming up and saying, “Hey Barney, got your bullet?” and “Citizen’s arrest!” After they played, Dad took him to lunch. He asked Knotts, “Doesn’t that bother you when people approach you all the time?” Knotts replied, “Not a bit. If it weren’t for all of them I wouldn’t be anyone interesting at all.” ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/109 "2005-04-14T02:59:44Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > My big moment, however, was calling Cary Grant’s house to tell his wife her maid’s car was ready, and HE answered the phone: “'Ello” he said, and I totally forgot what I was supposed to say! (which wife was it?) And I hate you. You got to talk to CARY GRANT? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/110 "2005-04-14T03:56:37Z")
This isn’t really impressive so much as strange- I have \*\*George W. Bush’s \*\* autograph. We used to go to Texas Ranger’s games all the time when I was a kid, and often got there early so my brother and I could get autographs, and one time my dad saw someone in the stands and sent me to get his autograph. A few years later when Bush was running for President, my dad reminded me of the autograph that I have somewhere. I really should find it. Also, not only have I met and talked to the animator **Bill Plympton** , but I have a drawing that he made. He attended the 2004 [Texas Film Festival](http://www.txfilmfest.org) that I was an assistant director at, and he held a workshop on animation. One of the things he did was draw how not to draw someone, and then drew an average looking guy. After the workshop, I stole the picture of the average looking guy. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/111 "2005-04-14T05:01:54Z")
One of the thrills of my mother’s life was meeting Mae West. My mother’s cousin worked backstage at the theater in Montgomery AL where Mae’s play (I’m not sure which one it was) had a one night engagement. My mother said she apologized to her for undressing and taking off make-up while she talked to her, offered her a Coke, and couldn’t have been more gracious. She was struck by how tiny she was and how different (almost unrecognizable) she looked when she took off her wig and make-up. The whole thing lasted about fifteen minutes and my mother kept the autograph for forty years (it was lost many moves ago- maybe it’ll show up again sometime). My father was run off the road by Harry S Truman in the 1960s. He wasn’t hurt, but the old man was driving fast and not particularly looking where he was going while his tagalong secret service men followed. When he shared the story at a diner he was told that everybody in Kansas City, Independence and St. Louis had a story about the old man driving- he was a menace to the road, but it’s hard to tell an ex-president what to do. (I wonder if Clinton, Bush Sr. and Carter ever drive their own vehicles.) I’ve met Jimmy Carter several times but never anything beyond a “How are ya?” handshake. He visited the library where I worked (which was named for his father) and pushed his own buggy through WalMart (though he was surrounded by service agents). I met Ronald Reagan as a kid when he gave a campaign speech in Alabama but I didn’t have the slightest idea who he was and basically only remember remembering it. Everybody in Alabama between 1960 and the mid 1990s met or saw George Wallace at some point (if they were lucky it wasn’t in a restaurant- the man’s love of ketchup could make even fried chicken and turnip greens look like a massacre). I mentioned my recent meeting with Alice Walker in a thread here. I got preferential treatment by David Sedaris because I’m a smoker (so did eveyr other smoker present- he made the book signing folks split into two lines and sent the non-smokers to the back as payback for smokers having to stand in the rain or go on 12 hour plane rides without a cigarette- it majorly pissed off a couple of non-smokers but the rest complied.) I’ve never met Michael Stipe but I’ve been to his house in Athens, GA. It’s an odd place, actually less a house than a compound formed of several houses on a block with a huge joined backyard. There’s an enormous indoor pool with jungle vines over the top. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/112 "2005-04-14T05:12:38Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > My father was run off the road by Harry S Truman in the 1960s. He wasn’t hurt, but the old man was driving fast and not particularly looking where he was going while his tagalong secret service men followed. When he shared the story at a diner he was told that everybody in Kansas City, Independence and St. Louis had a story about the old man driving- he was a menace to the road, but it’s hard to tell an ex-president what to do. (I wonder if Clinton, Bush Sr. and Carter ever drive their own vehicles.) Funny you should mention Truman’s driving. In the biography of him by David McCullough, it mentions that Truman tried to take a cross country trip in his car, but had such a time with people stopping him, or honking and waving at him that he never tried it again. There’s two possibilites: 1.) They were actually waving at Truman with only one finger because of his driving. 2.) Truman was so sick of people fawning over him, that he adopted the driving habit of not looking at other cars and driving like a bat out of hell. Knowing Truman, I’d say the second was the most likely possibility. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/113 "2005-04-14T09:27:34Z")
If it wasn’t for **Brandon Tartikoff** I wouldn’t be alive. Brandon, you may recall, was President and Head of Programming for NBC for most of the 80’s and early 90’s, and was responsible for, among many others, \*Hill Street Blues, Cheers, The Cosby Show, The A-Team, Miami Vice, Thirtysomething, Law&Order \* and _Sienfeld_. For nearly a decade he was perhaps the most powerful man in American television. A young, chraismatic guy, he ocasionally cameoed on his shows, hosted SNL, and was generally as famous as a TV exec has ever been. He and my Dad were very close friends in college, and it was he who set my father up with my Mom on a blind date in 1969; naturally, they made him Best Man at the wedding. He remained a close friend of the family up until his death in 1997, even flying over to Israel once for my bar mitzva. A really sweet, humble, super-smart guy, with a life that ricocheted between meteoric success and awful personal tragedies. (Incidentally - I spent a week with him in LA, summer 1992, back when he was briefly Studio Chief for Paramount. I got to hang out on the Paramount lot, sitting in on the shooting of _Indecent Proposal_ and an episode of _Star Trek - TNG_. Two things I remember the most: 1. Patrick Steward was a very friendly guy. He was also _very_ short - I could see my face reflected on the top of his head. 2. Demi Moore had quite the pair of gazongas). ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/114 "2005-04-14T16:56:41Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > blah blah blah I got to hang out on the Paramount lot, sitting in on the shooting of blah blah and an episode of _Star Trek - TNG_. I hate you. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947/115 "2005-04-14T17:26:46Z")
Another few of interest to Canadians (especially **matt\_mcl** for the first one). When I was a kid, my mother worked in the elections, helping out on **Ed Broadbent** ’s campaign in Oshawa. (I got to help screen-paint NDP lawn signs. Fluorescent orange and black. Yay!) She got to know him fairly well, and one summer we went to Ottawa and had dinner at their apartment. This is where I discovered a) Asterix comics, and b) that I don’t like French onion soup. I once failed to recognise **Ben Wicks** in an elevator. (I’d just been swimming at my friend’s GF’s posh condo on Bloor Street, and my contact lenses were out. I coulsn’t _see_ him.) And one afternoon in 1990, an acquaintance from school and I went and spent the afternoon at musician **Nash the Slash** ’s apartment. He always performed with his face wrapped in bandages; in real life he looked so completely unremarkable that I don’t actually remember what he looked like. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-drop-a-letter-to-dear-livvy-de-havilland-my-name-dropping-thread/297947.md?page=5)