Della Lind at Hollywood ’80
Sunday, June 24th, 2007
Della Lind was the beautiful female lead in Laurel and Hardy’s 1938 musical comedy Swiss Miss. As a true eight-year-old L&H fan, I was certainly aware of the important role she played in this film. These stars were as big as any during those days and I was ecstatic to be meeting them. Hollywood ’80 was the first of two encounters I would have with Della, the second being twelve years later – first in Las Vegas, then at a Way Out West banquet the following week where I ate dinner at her table. Read the rest of this entry »
This one is a quickie. William Sanderson wasn’t even on the guest list for the Winter 2007 Hollywood Collectors Show, but on the afternoon of Friday, February 16 – there he was, a bonus addtion to the celebrities in attendence selling their autographs. If you don’t recognize him without the ski cap, he was the fella that played the bizarre leader of the trio of brothers Larry, Daryl, and Daryl on the tv sit-com Newhart. This was one of my all-time favorite shows – although I thought that L, D & D’s appearances eventually became a distracting interruption to the proceedings. Nevertheless, this was the second of the three that I was thrilled to be able to meet, the first being ‘the other brother Daryl’ in 2005. 
Of course. Of course. My Dad and I always enjoyed the wry sense of humor of Mr. Ed the talking horse. So I was relativley excited to see that Wilbur Post himself, otherwise known as actor Alan Young was in attendence at the 1995 Summer Hollywood Collectors Show. Once again, here is another celebrity whom I met but did not have the intelligence to get my picture taken with. I bought two photos from him – one for me and one for my Dad’s birthday which was coming up on August 22. 
Okay, I’ll admit it – that title was uncalled-for. Especially considering that of all of the celebrities I met that Saturday, February 16, 2007, figure-skating champion Tonya Harding was one of the nicest. But of course, it should come as little surprise that she was also one of the most notorious. In fact, my meeting with her was less than a month before her widely publicized calls to the authorities stating that she was seeing armed intruders who were trying to hide rifles on her property. Apparently, this was a supposed reaction to legitimate, prescription drugs. 
Lassie was one of those shows broadcast on early cable television that our family caught now and again. The plot was always the same and the poor acting job of Hugh Reilly was always the high point. I remember greeting Jon Provost who played the pivotal role of Timmy in the Lassie series at the Summer 1995 Hollywood Collectors Show with little fanfare. I simply shelled out the ten bucks and grabbed the nice (yet flimsy paper) photo that he signed to me. The bright colors and pre-printed paw print appealed to me. Obviously he didn’t mean enough to me to have my picture taken with him – which I now obviously regret.