Famous People You've Met ...

In my travels, I often kill time asking people who deal with the public who famous have they met and of them who did they like and who was disappointing.

I've heard reports of many of the same celebrities. I'll post them later. I'm interested to hear other's experiences.

Helen Thomas. She was fantastic.

I met Michael and Jane Stern this past Friday evening. They were both super.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I'm sure I'll miss some...after 11 years working backstage they tend to blur.

Maurice Hines
Jerry Lewis
Brian Setzer
Sally Struthers
Paige O'Hara
Jamie Farr
Jennifer Granholm (Michigan's current governor)
Carl Levin (one of Michigan's senators)
Debbie Stabenow (Michigan's other senator)
Tommy Short (President of my international union)
Mark Gaffney (President of the Michigan AFL-CIO)
Charlie Mercer (President of the national AFL-CIO Union Label & Service Trades Department)
Noel Harris
Alan Ruck
JoAnne Worley
Ann-Margaret
Pete Townshend
Tim McGraw
Faith Hill
Slayer (I have no idea what their individual names are, but I drove the whole band to a venue)
Slipknot (again...whoever they are)
Julie Andrews
Gene Simmons

Meh...I'm missing a bunch. It's weird, too, because usually we don't get to meet them, they're just near us because we have to be there to do our jobs.

Kurt Russell...In Marathon, Fl when Goldie was filming a flick back in 1990. Very quiet, and asked to be seated away from everyone.. was wearing sunglasses.. was with another man I didnt recognize. Very polite, and was gracious about signing a menu for me.
(someone stole the menu from my house. Pissed me off)

Katie Couric.. had dinner in Islamorada with her daughters and the nanny. Very quiet, but certainly loved watching her daughters dance to the band that was playing during dinner time. She didnt mingle.

Carl Hiassen... great person.. He lives part time in Islamorada...Funny as can be...... regular fixture when I lived there.

Maury Povich... Was in town for my old boss, Davey Johnson's (Baseball) wedding. He was a hoot. The area was roped off for the wedding guests. Many celebrities, but he wanted to sit at the bar with the "common folk", and watch the golf match. Gave autographs graciously and was smiling and laughing the whole time.

Davey Johnson of Baseball fame was a partner at the Lorelei in Islamorada when I worked there. (Its changed hands since then)--But he was a regular fixture there when able to and knew most of the employees by name.
(This is when he was a manager and not a player.. early - mid 1990's.)

Did meet(waited on) Duff from Guns N Roses (1989)--In Islamorada.. Just another scatter brained rocker that thought he stuff didnt stink.

Lon Chaney Jr: He and my Dad used to drink together.

Broderick Crawford: As above. My Dad was quite the drinker.

Cecil B. Demille: Client of my dad who used to come over to the house in Inglewood.

"Pea Soup" Andersen: As above.

Frank Hemingway: Famous to old L.A. radio fans. "I'll be KAB-Ceeing you" Another client of the old man.

Maury Wills: He gave me batting instruction one day at the firehouse.

Michael Berryman: He's the bald guy with the strangely shaped head who always stars in horror pictures. I met him in the Lucerne Valley Market a few times shortly after he filmed the original "The Hills Have Eyes". He was working in the produce department. He's still making films, the rascal.

As you can see, it's been awhile since I met anyone famous. I'm a vintage famous meeting....er.

Alot of these people wont be known to other than music lovers but.....


The late Marc Bolan ( Crazy little guy)

Leon Russell ( very nice )

David Cousins from the band " Strawbs " ( extremely nice )

John Prine ( Played him a game of pool in the 80's and lost )

Folksinger Greg Brown ( 2 weeks ago in Seattle, nice guy )

John Mellencamp ( several times )

The late Chris Whitley ( Very nice )

Roger McGuinn from the Byrds ( Nice man, very kind to my daughter )

Tom Waits ( Ok guy )

Too many bluesman to mention including Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker

Also

Dave Kingman ( baseball player,nice guy )

Joe Pepitone ( baseball player and a jerk )

Mike Tyson ( Surprisingly soft spoken )

Edit : almost forgot my favorite,the late Ronnie Lane when he lived in Austin. What a great guy.

Back in 1990 I met Carol Burnett when she spoke to my class when I was in college in Denver ( her duaghter went there at the time ).

Two things I remember about her..

1. she HATED Mama's family, or I should say the second version of that show ( the one with the Iola and Bubba characters ). Yes she did appear on that show but again that was the first version of the series.

2. she used some rather salty language ( but then again 80% of the public does too so why not her? )

But I have to admit she was overall very friendly.

Ronald Reagan & Nancy when they visited Neshoba County Fair, Philadelphia, MS

And the Sterns, of course.

Quite a few but to me the most famous imo was Elvis Costello. Surprisingly, a super nice guy.

How could I forget Richard Nixon? I met him on his first official visit to his new home in San Clemente. They bussed the entire class of 69 over to the helipad at the new Western White House. He and Pat shook my hand and exchanged presidential pleasantries with me.

Then years later I met him again when my Grandmother called me down to the WWH to get her car started. She was working for him at the time and he came walking by and inquired as to how I was coming along. I was acutely aware of two things during those minutes:

1. I had a heavy steel tool in my hand when he walked up, which I slowly and carefully laid down out of respect to him and especially number 2.......
2. That there were at least one or two unseen high powered rifles trained on my head the whole time he was near me.

Cool stories! I met Robert Kennedy, Jr. at a democratic rally at my high school back in 92 I think it was; and once saw David Robinson of the Spurs at Wal-mart about 8 years ago. I just left him alone because he already had like 5 fans around him.

My husband saw Matthew McConnahey (man, i can't spell his last name so it's phonetic) shopping with his nephew at a supermarket in Uvalde, tx about 10 years ago.

Oh! and one of the guys from ZZTop when I worked at a restaurant in San Marcos, Tx.

Well, lets see............Over the years I've met and had dealings with two or three handfuls of entertainers as well as other high profile figures. Will say most seemed to be decent people. Then, I did try to pick and choose my company.......... Theres Roy Dow here in Carrizozo. Just for the love of it Roy keeps open the historic Payden Drugstore here in town. Works from behind an honest to goodness original soda fountain. You can watch him MAKE from scratch a Coca Cola, put together an ice cream cone, sundae or a banana split. This mild mannered gentleman is a WWII Veteran and fellow American Legion member.... I'm gonna go with Roy as my symbol of famous......... Friends,my none to subtle message is, when we look for people to brag about that we've met, more than likely the best are ordinary folks who live amongst us.
Ole Rouxdog

I once met the mayor of El Cajon Pass!

Cajon Pass Mark, no El.

quote:

Originally posted by rouxdog

........ Friends,my none to subtle message is, when we look for people to brag about that we've met, more than likely the best are ordinary folks who live amongst us.
Ole Rouxdog

Jeez, that was certainly over the top. Nobody is bragging about anything that I can see, and the people I listed are just regular people who have simply managed to achieve a certain amount of fame. For the most part they were nice folks, and in many cases quite interesting to talk to. Do you have a problem with that ?

Perhaps you should take a closer look at things before indulging us with your high moral standards.

quote:

Originally posted by rouxdog
Friends,my none to subtle message is, when we look for people to brag about that we've met, more than likely the best are ordinary folks who live amongst us.
Ole Rouxdog

Here's my none too subtle message Ole Rouxdog: Can the threadcrapping.

quote:

Originally posted by enginecapt

Cajon Pass Mark, no El.

I never could get that right...

Very late, so I will edit it onto Bushie's comment... IT is CAJON PASS.....no Mark, NoEl, No Nothing (including people anymore!!) It is frequently (on the News) listed as El Cajon Pass, but that is by folks who don't live there.

AL (Tuesday evening playing catch-up)

An avid autograph hunter:

Personally met:

Moe Howard of The 3 Stooges
Kevin Bacon..................Actor/Singer
Chef Martin Yan..............................Quite crazy
Alan Alda...................................................Quite quiet
Zoya Denure................................................................Iditarod Musher
Rich Little................................................Didn't know who I was talking to....
Katey Sagel...........................................Lovely lady.................................
Jim Davis...............Creator of Garfield............Nice man.....Spent 3 hours with him
Mort Walker.............Creator of Beetle Bailey........In a Hurry.....


There are more.... some good and some not....

Bushie, was the Mayor of El Cajon Pass assessing you a speeding ticket fine?
In my youth, traveling through Mississippi I was stopped in the middle of the night for speeding through a town. The good Officer had me follow him to the Mayor's home.The astute Mayor, dressed in his pajamas, quickly ascertained how much cash I had, how much gas I would need to get home and my fine took all my money except for gas. I couldn't even afford a Milky Way canndy bar! I didn't look back to see what the name of the town was!

Andy Warhol, Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Jackie Mason, Jane Fonda, Nick Nolte, Dick Cavett, Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, Sen. Frank Lautenberg.
The Bear

Continuing the task of getting this thread back on track, my " meeting Ronnie Lane " story from my above post.

For those of you who do not know about Ronnie Lane, he was a British musician who played in The Small Faces with Steve Marriot, and The Faces with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood. He also made some wonderful music as a solo artist before becoming debilitated with Multiple Sclerosis.Ronnie moved to Austin from England to try and get better care for his MS. My wife, who also suffers from MS, and myself were always huge fans of Ronnies music.

We found ourselves in a bar in Austin ( long story ) in the early nineties and noticed a small man, dressed to the hilt sitting at a table in the back corner, but thought nothing of it. My wife, who at the time already had a slight MS wobble to her walk, walked by the table to use the restroom. After she finished, and was walking by again returning to our table Mr Lane quietly said to her as she passed " hey, looks like you got what I got ". To make a long story short Ronnie invited us to sit with him and some of his Austin buddies, and proceeded to tell us about his struggles with MS, his music, his family, and his life in Austin. He offered advice to my wife about what had helped some with his MS, and was just the nicest, most down to earth human being you would ever be lucky enough to meet, despite being in really bad shape , and in alot of pain from his MS. We talked for over an hour, and to this day my wife is brought to tears at the mention of his name. He was so kind to her ( and me for that matter ) The meeting was certainly fate of some sort,and continues to lift my wifes spirits to this day. RIP Ronnie.

Ole Jack

quote:

Originally posted by flyseye



Perhaps you should take a closer look at things before indulging us with your high moral standards.

I don't think rouxdog was trying to get on any high horse or indulge us with his moral standards. I think he was just saying that the true "celebrities" or "heroes" or whatever you want to call them are those "ordinary" folks who make a real difference in our towns and our lives.

I agree with him.

To those who seem offended by my statement, I never intended to be offensive. As you did, I simply expressed my opinion regarding the folks I admire and feel to be worthy of being called famous. Simple as that. Don't believe I said anything negative about anyone. I respect your opinion, consider respecting mine. Frankly, several of the high profile types I'm acquainted with and consider friends would applaud my original comment.
Hope we're back on the same page.
Ole Rouxdog

quote:

Originally posted by Bushie

quote:

Originally posted by flyseye



Perhaps you should take a closer look at things before indulging us with your high moral standards.

I don't think rouxdog was trying to get on any high horse or indulge us with his moral standards. I think he was just saying that the true "celebrities" or "heroes" or whatever you want to call them are those "ordinary" folks who make a real difference in our towns and our lives.

I agree with him.

And my point is we all know that already, but this thread is about celebrities, and there is nothing wrong with talking about the ones we have met.

I was highly involved in music and theater during high school with the following classmates before they made the big time:

Carol Imhof-Playboy Centerfold 12/70
Nick Fortuna-Original member of the Buckinghams
Jay Levine-Chicago ABC Channel 7 News
John Klemmer-Sax Player
Paul Libman-www.libmanmusic.com Paul wrote 1000's of songs for commercials

I also went to high school and college with Jim Hart from the NFL.

CSD

Sundancer, you're laying way to low! Come rescue this train wreck of a so called discussion!!!! I'm envious, you were with Jane and Michael Stern a few days ago? Those folks qualify as FAMOUS along with Roy Dow, here in Carrizozo, in my opinion. Hope you were able to fanagle a free book from them. If you were able to get two, please send me the extra one.

Haven't actually met anyone famous, but we almost accidentally ran over Walter Matthau in Hollywood once.

motherrobyn, I'm glad you pulled off a "near miss",(thats air traffic control talk).
Guess your encounter counts as a "famous person you ALMOST met". I'm gonna
put a chalk mark by your name, give you credit so to speak.
Ole Rouxdog

Jim McKay and Howard Cosell--back in their Wide World of Sports days on ABC

Jack Nicklaus & Julius Boros--at the US Open Golf Championship in...1968(?)

3 Governors of NJ--Tom Kean, Jim Florio, Jim McGreevy

1 Congressman (who later went to prison)--Cornelius Gallagher

Gene Shallat (before he became so truly bizarre-looking)

Ben Stiller, Amy Stiller, and their mother--Anne Meara (Ben and Amy were toddlers at the time, circa 1973)

Gilda Radner--a truly gracious and friendly woman who died far too young