Protecting My Kneecaps
Sunday, June 17th, 2007
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Since today marks the 117th birthday of Stan Laurel, I thought it rather fitting that my posting for the day describes my recent visit with Stan’s daughter, the lovely Lois Laurel Hawes. After Bob had taken off for home to nurse his ailments, I took a short nap at the hotel and waited for Jimmy to pick me up. After stopping off for a quick bite to eat, we headed directly to Northridge to Lois’ place. This was my second visit with her since she had been to this location, the first being in October of ’05. This was one was much longer as we ended up staying for nearly five hours. 
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. 
Saturday, February 16 was the last full day of my California trip. I had been to Vegas, been to Palm Springs, met up with Lisa, met a monkey, met tons of celebrities, ate sushi, scouted Laurel and Hardy locations, been to the Hoover Dam, seen “The Tonight Show” live, visited Jack Hanlon, been to the Nixon Library, scouted some famous graves, toured the Disney Studios, been to the Magic Castle, seen Penn & Teller, seen (some of) “Love,” saw “Phantom,” been to Disneyland, visited Randy Skretvedt, spent money, shopped ’til I dropped, and ate like an out-of-control lumberjack…and now it had come down to this, the last day. 
I was rather excited to meet Kristy McNichol at the Hollywood Collectors Show during the February 2007 show. Not sure why. Mostly because she was such a teen magazine cover star during the days that I picked up every issue of 16 Magazine (mostly for the KISS articles) during the late 1970’s. I thought she was cute in pictures from the film Little Darlings, a flick that to this day I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen. I also never saw her on the TV show Family, which she starred in for four years, but I’m sure I caught her in some ABC Afterschool Specials and I know I saw her in Two Moon Junction.