The Last American Veteran of the Great War
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
Do you have any idea what you might say if you were to meet the very last American survivor of World War 1? Well, I can tell you exactly what I said during my face-to-face encounter with him – and I can tell you that it wasn’t a heck of a lot. Mostly I just sat there and stared in wide-eyed wonderment, basking in the unparalleled honor of meeting Frank Buckles, a 108-year old veteran of the First World War. In the entire world – at this particular time – only five men who had served in this war still survived; and Frank Buckles was the only survivor who served the United States. Mr. Buckles is and will always be the last American doughboy. Read the rest of this entry »
Beverly Washburn is a former child actress who is most noted for her role as Lisbeth Searcy in the 1957 Walt Disney classic Old Yeller (as seen at right). Outside of that film, she had numerous appearances in a wide array of over 50 TV shows and films over a span of nearly twenty years. Among them the initial Superman film Superman and the Mole-Men, Father Knows Best, Leave It To Beaver, Dragnet, The Patty Duke Show, and Star Trek. Her acting work these days is limited but her face still turns up now and then. 
As I was weaving through the hallways of the Hilton Parsippany during the Chiller Theatre Expo on April 18, 2009 – on my way to meet up with Peter Criss, the original drummer of KISS – I noticed a room full of signed KISS art. I barely gave it a second thought, thinking that it was just what it sounded like, artists who had drawn or painted KISS. This didn’t excite me that much, but after I met 
The title of this posting quotes the reply given by Jason Bateman, starring as Matthew Burton, in an episode of the greatest sitcom of all time It’s Your Move. The response is spoken when Stacey Hall, object of Matt’s affection who is annoyed by his frequent advances, asks him point blank “What do you want??” In a typical bold move on my part, this has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of this posting, save for the fact that it mentions The Blue Lagoon, the starring vehicle for the final celebrity in the long stream of postings highlighting the celebrities whom I met at the October 2008 Hollywood Collectors Show in Burbank, California. 
I had already pretty much resigned myself to flying to New York to attend the April 18, 2009, Chiller Theatre show based on the celebrity guestlist – but if I had need a kicker to put me over the edge, it came late in the game when it was announced that KISS’ original drummer Peter Criss would be attending. Obviously anyone who knows me realized that I have been a huge KISS fan since the first grade (see my soapbox on my