The Hair Twirler
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
It wasn’t all that long before we got to meet her that Jamie was twirling her hair and asking what film it was that she recalled a girl twirling her hair in the same fashion. It soon dawned on her that it was in fact the character of Linda, who dumped on the hero Robby (portrayed by Adam Sandler) in The Wedding Singer. So when it just so happened that Angela Featherstone, the actress who had played Linda, was going to be appearing at the Chicago Hollywood Celebrities Show on October 1, 2011, I was excited that Jamie would get the chance to meet her. Read the rest of this entry »
I love rewinders. And by ‘rewinders’, I refer to those scenes in movies or television shows that are so funny that you keep rewinding them and watching them over and over again. One of these comes in one of my all-time favorite movies, Back to the Future – and it involves the topic of this posting, Mr. Donald Fullilove. I don’t think describing the scene will do it justice, but there’s this great shot in the film of Michael J. Fox in the soda shop in 1955, and almost un-noticed by the audience is Donald Fullilove as Goldie Wilson – who would eventually become the Mayor of Hill Valley – dancing and gyrating in the background to the 50′s tune that is playing on the jukebox. Trust me, it’s funny. 
I was rather pleased to get the chance to meet Amanda Wyss at the Chiller Theatre show in Parsippany, New Jersey, on April 30, 2012. Afterall, she’d been somewhat of a staple in a smattering of 80′s films – among them Prom Night, Nightmare on Elm Street, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Better Off Dead. She was the first-ever victim of Freddy Krueger, the girl who breaks up with Judge Reinhold, and the vixen who broke the heart of John Cusack. She even had a two-time recurring role on Cheers as Beth Curtis, Woody’s old girlfriend from his hometown of Indiana. 
Jeff Conaway’s presence at the Hollywood Show on February 12, 2011, was a surprise. He hadn’t been on the celebrity schedule, and not knowing who he was, I’d nearly smarted off to him when he interrupted my encounter earlier in the day with Kim Darby by starting a conversation with her. There was another odd circumstance about his appearance too. He was there with a lady named Helen Darras who had authored a book about Butch Patrick called Eddie Munster Aka Butch Patrick: The Untold Story of His Early Hollywood-a, Could-a, Should-a Years. Clearly there was some feud between her (and Mr. Conaway) with Mr. Patrick. But Jeff, being a professed Christian, encouraged her not to bad-mouth him. 
Pat Carroll is a classic. It is a bit ironic that her most famous role came in the 80′s, when her career in television went all the way back to the early 1950′s. Among those early parts, she could be seen in the recurring role of Bunny Halper in 12 episodes of The Danny Thomas Show, as well as parts in The Red Skelton Hour, and appearances in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laverne & Shirley, My Three Sons, Too Close for Comfort, and in voiceover in the 1988 Superman animated series.