The Terrible Catsafterme

Those were the words that I was hoping not to hear when I approached Frank Vincent at the Chicago Hollywood Celebrities Show on Saturday, September 25, 2010. Because this might mean that I was about to be whacked for even thinking about asking for a deal. Vincent’s  looks and voice just ooze quintessential gangster in such films as Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino – all classic Martin Scorsese films starring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. In two out of the three, Mr. Pesci makes mince meat out of Frank Vincent, but in the third one, the tables are turned and Vincent destroys Pesci with a baseball bat. I had just one question to ask: did the two of them get along in real life? Read the rest of this entry »

By the time The Mod Squad ended its five-season run, I was just about ready to turn two years old. So I never got to watch it during its first run, nor did it ever seem to air in reruns in my area, and I’ve never checked out the DVDs. I’m sure that its hip, mod, whatever-you-call-it style would seem wildly antiquated these days, so I will probably never choose to explore it. But as a kid, I liked the title (which sounded like my favorite Saturday Morning program The Monster Squad), I liked the MAD Magazine parodies of it, and I was familiar with it gracing the cover of TV Guide, which I collected for a short time. Read the rest of this entry »

It was a most lucrative visit to Culver City the morning of Saturday, October 9, 2010 – what with finding all of the new Little Rascals locations and all – but I was in a hurry to get to the Hollywood Show at the Burbank Mariott Hotel and Convention Center. This was to be my eighth collector show in Burbank, sixth at this venue, and second of the year. This was the reason for my whirlwind California trip; I was happy to be here but also in a bit of a rush to get signatures from and photographs with a lengthy list of celebrities before we had to move on to the next activity of the day. Read the rest of this entry »

When I met Sherman Hemsley back in 2005, I had already missed my opportunities to meet Isabel Sanford (Weezy) and Roxie Roker (Helen Willis). Isabel had passed away in 2004 and Roxie had died in 1995. But since that meeting, a good portion of the cast of The Jeffersons also left us: Mike Evans (the original Lionel), Franklin Cover (Tom Willis), and Paul Benedict (Bentley). Keeping this in mine, I was thrilled that I was able pick up meetings and photos with two more cast members at the Hollywood Show on Saturday, April 24, 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

I really need to watch more James Bond films. So many of the hot Bond girls from these films regularly frequent the autograph shows that I attend and I’d like to have more of an appreciation for them. Lana Wood is one such gal. She portrayed the large-busted Plenty O’Toole in the 1971 Bond flick Diamonds Are Forever. This role came hot on the heels of her appearance in Playboy, a career move of which her older sister Natalie Wood disapproved. Natalie had worked to foster Lana’s career when Lana was a young girl. Read the rest of this entry »