The Terrible Catsafterme

I was initially interested at the prospect of getting a signed photo of Stella Stevens because she was the January 1960 Playboy Playmate of the Month. So during my Playboy fixation of the late 1990’s, I had Bob snag me the signed photo seen below from one of the Hollywood Collectors Shows. Of course, this did not show her as she looked in those days, but oh well. Later I realized that Ms. Stevens also had a rather lucrative career starring in such gems as Girls, Girls, Girls opposite Elvis Presley, The Poseidon Adventure, and most memorably in the pivotal role as Stella Purdy in Jerry Lewis’ The Nutty Professor. Therefore, I asked Bob to pick me an additional shot of Stella (as seen above) from that particular film – which was also signed by Miss Purdy’s classmate Julie Parrish. Read the rest of this entry »

Every once in a while, I came up with a swell idea. Here’s one of them: I had purchased a half-dozen Three Stooges comic books that were distributed by Gold Key in the mid-to-late 1960’s. I’m not sure where exactly I picked them up, but if I had to guess, I’d say I found them at a memorabilia show at the Dayton Mall.  So I decided to marry my comic book fascination with my autograph collecting habit and thereby shipped off four of these colorful Three Stooges comic books to Curly-Joe DeRita, one of only two of the then-surviving members of the classic comedy team. Read the rest of this entry »

Our fifth American President James Monroe served the country from 1817 to 1825. A good friend and student of Thomas Jefferson, Monroe had also served as Secretary of War and Secretary of State during the War of 1812. He is the author of the famous Monroe Doctrine, in which he forbid European powers from interfering with the affairs of the United States. My association with President Monroe was confined to the week I spent touring Virginia with my friend Bob. Here we saw several historical sites from the life of James Monroe. Read the rest of this entry »

After leaving Plains, the ride to Kissimmee was uneventful. Mom, Bob, Ashleigh, and I had stayed longer in Plains than Denise, Aaron, and Adam, so they were quite a ways ahead of us. We arrived at the Pop Century Resort in the early evening. We were glad to be there even though there was (naturally) some confusion about room keys, tickets, and the like. Disney has become technologically advanced enough to print each guests name on their room card keys, apply the park ticket to the card keys, and apply charging rights to each card key. Read the rest of this entry »