Invasion of the Picture Snapper
Sunday, March 13th, 2011
I had gotten the signed photo of Kevin McCarthy (seen at right) back in the late 1990’s when my friend Bob picked it up for me at one of the Hollywood Collector Shows. Then I lamented about missing a chance to get a photo with him after he had appeared another Collector Show in 2005. Somehow I was afforded one final opportunity to get my picture taken with this 96-year-old legendary actor who had starred in Invasion of the Body Snatchers and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Death of a Salesman in 1951. Read the rest of this entry »
Edd “Kookie” Byrnes has appeared a several autographs shows that I have attended, and each time I saw him I bypassed him. It’s not that I had anything at all against Mr. Kookie, it’s just that I had never seen his starring detective vehicle 77 Sunset Strip in which he played Gerald Lloyd “Kookie” Kookson III – so I just wasn’t particularly interested. And even though I’ve seen Grease many times, which included his role as dance show host and contest judge Vince Fontaine, that just wasn’t quite enough to tip the scales. 
I first saw Vicki Lewis in the two episodes of Seinfeld in which she portrays George’s secretary Ada. Over the course of her first episode, George has sex with her, promises her a raise, requests one, and then ends up making less than she is. Her character was both charming and funny, puncuated by a playful line in which she tells George proudly “I’m good at what I do”. After I began watching NewsRadio, I appreciated Vicki Lewis even more in her role as Beth. What’s more, she also has a bit of a Disney connection as she is the voice of Deb in Finding Nemo.
Besides seeing Pete Rose on the ballfield when I was a kid, I had only seen the baseball legend known as Charlie Hustle once in person. He was signing autographs in Las Vegas at a sports memorabilia show in 
To die-hard buffs, Billy J. Kramer’s name will be inextricably linked to the Beatles forever. For starters, both the Beatles and Kramer were managed by Brian Epstein. The ‘J” in Kramer’s name was suggested by John Lennon to give him an ‘edgier’ sound. Then when they were assigned to Parlophone Records, they begun working for producer George Martin, who produced nearly the entire Beatles catalog. Then the Beatles gave Kramer a barrage of Lennon/McCartney compositions to launch his career. These include: Do You Want To Know a Secret?, I’ll Be On My Way, I Call Your Name, Bad To Me, I’ll Keep You Satisfied, and From a Window. The latter three of these were among a very small group of Lennon/McCartney songs that the Beatles themselves never released.