Wally and Eddie
Friday, April 12th, 2013
The first rule of Mayfield is that you never utter the words: “been there, done that.” No sir. When you get a chance to bask in the presence of actors from Leave It to Beaver, you jump on it and you relish it. So even though I had met both Ken Osmond, who played the world’s greatest slimeball friend Eddie Haskell, and Tony Dow, who was the All-American perfect older brother Wally Cleaver, in the past, there was no way on earth that I was going to let an opportunity to meet them again slip by. So when these two television treasures made an appearance at the Hollywood Show on January 12, 2013, I made sure that I was there to greet them. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s hard to process just how small actor Verne Troyer is, until you get the chance to stand beside him. Troyer, best known for his role as Mini-Me in The Spy Who Shagged Me and Goldmember in the Austin Powers series, stands exactly 2 feet 8″ – but conceptualizing that height in your head isn’t anything like being next to him. And let’s face it, that’s the real fascination with Verne Troyer. At least it’s mine. I was never a fan of any of the Austin Powers films, so the fact that he was in it doesn’t mean much to me. Of course with the phrase “Mini-Me” entering common usage, the character that he played has become somewhat iconic. 
I honestly have no idea how the character of Elvira – this mistress of the dark – seeped into the national consciousness. It’s a mystery to me. To date, I can’t recall seeing one thing that she actually did. Not that there aren’t things. Oh, there’s the guest commentary she did for WrestleMania 2 back in 1986, there are TV specials in which she acts as ‘hostess’: VH-1 documentaries, E! True Hollywood Stories, even a Playboy Halloween special. But I really don’t think I ever saw any of it. Well…maybe the wrestling thing. Of course, Elvira is just a character played by Cassandra Peterson, who even outside of the character has starred in some things too: Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie, and even a bit part in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. But’s it’s Elvira that has brought her all the fame. 
It wasn’t long ago that I put up 
I’m not sure exactly how or when it happened, but at some point somehow some way, I got sucked into the whole slasher flick phenomenon, particularly when it came to the three biggest (by my estimation) ‘classic’ franchises: Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween. It’s perhaps the many horror film conventions I’ve attended, which started out as a way of meeting celebrities who had done ‘other’ noteworthy films, that have gotten me hooked. Eventually the urge to collect all of the Jasons and Michael Myers was followed by a tendency to start picking up even the minor stars/victims.