Meeting Gene Hackman (A Tale of Pink Eye)
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
I had reason to believe that meeting Academy Award winning actor Gene Hackman would be a miserable experience. This has nothing to with good ol’ Gene himself, but more about my personal issues on Monday, June 23, 2008. The day before had been Ashleigh’s graduation party and I had been utterly exhausted by day’s end. I awoke the next morning feeling like I hadn’t gotten enough sleep, but nevertheless headed into northern Kentucky to visit a Kroger store there. Read the rest of this entry »
…into an autograph! Because she was pretty and because I often watched Wheel of Fortune while growing up, I sent off an autograph request to the lovely Vanna White on September 12, 1997. I remember this show from the days not long after my age was adding on a second digit – in the days when contestants would take their winnings and ‘go shopping’, buying such an odd assortment of prizes as a vaccum cleaner, a painting of a smoking dog, a trip for two to Merry Old England, and a bag of licorice. Everything was way overpriced, the licorice probably costing about $25. 
Happy Days has always been one of those shows that I had always enjoyed whenever it happened to be on TV, but that I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch. And still, even as the proud owner of the first three seasons of the series, I generally pop it in when I want some ‘comfort food’ sitcoms to grace my screen. But no one who lived through the late 1970’s can forget the Fonzie phenomenon as he made motorcycles, leather jackets, and greasy hair cool again. 
Charley Chase is an unjustly forgotten comedy star from the 1930’s who worked at the Hal Roach Studios at the same time that Laurel and Hardy and the Our Gang did. In fact, in their day, they might be considered the ‘big three’ comedy short subject stars. Although it is difficult to find Chase comedies in the mainstream world, videos of his films along with ‘real’ 16mm and Super 8 film have long circulated in the collector world. Chase’s films are among some of my favorites. Sadly, Charley Chase himself died quite young in 1940, but I was especially happy to find that my friend Bob had an address for Mrs. June Hargis, Charley’s second and youngest daughter.
If it is true that Sherwood Schwartz was only responsible for making crap on telelvision, then it was crap that has made a huge group of people very happy for a huge number of years. One of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid was Gilligan’s Island, Schwartz’ first successful creation. I have since outgrown this show and now recognize the crap-factor, but it hasn’t stopped me from owning every single solitary episode on DVD.