SMiLE! It’s Brian Wilson
Sunday, November 16th, 2008
I posed this question in the last California posting: who would have thought that a visit to the Playboy Mansion would not be the big story of Monday morning, October 26, 2008? Jimmy had no sooner pulled out through the gates of the Playboy Mansion, that Dick Bann was making a startling exclamation from the front seat of the car: “Look…that’s Brian Wilson!” Now how Dick could pick out Brian freakin’ Wilson as we pulled up behind him as he was taking a walk (away from us) is beyond me. God Only Knows. I still have visions of Dick not spotting him, as Jimmy, Dick, and I obliviously drove past one of the most iconic figures in the history of pop music. Read the rest of this entry »
It was rather difficult to be gung-ho for our last morning and afternoon at Disneyland Paris after the long and treacherous day of walking that we had experienced the day before. Nevertheless, troopers that we were, The Wileys, David, and I all got up early and traipsed over for the morning breakfast buffet bright and early on Tuesday, July 15, 2008. This time it was located in a different banquet area than the previous morning. The food was the same though – and just as delicious. 
Autographs…celebrity encounters…so where did it all begin for me? Sometime during the Summer of 1977, I met my first real celebrity and obtained my first real autograph (discounting two sports autographs that I already owned: the autographed baseball from Hall of Famer Bob Feller that I received when I was born from June Bolin, one of my Dad’s co-workers…and the signed paper photo of Bengal Isaac Curtis that I got when I was about two when he did a personal appearance at a local store). This mystery masked celebrity was none other than Clayton Moore, star of TV’s classic western The Lone Ranger. 
I won’t go so far as to say it was a dream come true to meet William Forsythe, but he had certainly been on my ‘want-list’ for many years. In fact, I sent him an autograph request way back in August of 1997 but I never got a response. As a huge Robert DeNiro fan, I took interest in the performance of William Forsythe when I saw him in the important role of Cockeye (as seen at right) in the Sergio Leone classic Once Upon a Time in America. This sealed him in my mind as a high caliber performer, especially having already enjoyed his role as Evelle Snoats in the Coen Brothers’ amazing film Raising Arizona.