Franklin Pierce and Me
April 13th, 2013
If I were ever to achieve the office of the President (which most likely isn’t going to be happening), I’m not sure if I’d rather be thought of as one of the most unknown U.S. Presidents, or one of the worst U.S. Presidents. Franklin Pierce has somehow managed to achieve both. Despite his messy haircut and the fact that he wasn’t even considered a candidate for the Presidency during the election of 1852, he was elected to the highest office in the land and remained so for one term from 1853-1857. A Northerner with Southern sympathies, our 14th President entered the Presidency a thoroughly sad and depressed man, after losing his only surviving child during a train accident weeks after he was elected President. Obviously this disturbing event was enough to take Pierce’s mind off his job running the nation. Pierce was eventually abandoned by his own party and wasn’t nominated by the Democratic Party to run in the next election. Read the rest of this entry »
The first rule of Mayfield is that you never utter the words: “been there, done that.” No sir. When you get a chance to bask in the presence of actors from Leave It to Beaver, you jump on it and you relish it. So even though I had met both Ken Osmond, who played the world’s greatest slimeball friend Eddie Haskell, and Tony Dow, who was the All-American perfect older brother Wally Cleaver, in the past, there was no way on earth that I was going to let an opportunity to meet them again slip by. So when these two television treasures made an appearance at the Hollywood Show on January 12, 2013, I made sure that I was there to greet them. 
It’s hard to process just how small actor Verne Troyer is, until you get the chance to stand beside him. Troyer, best known for his role as Mini-Me in The Spy Who Shagged Me and Goldmember in the Austin Powers series, stands exactly 2 feet 8″ – but conceptualizing that height in your head isn’t anything like being next to him. And let’s face it, that’s the real fascination with Verne Troyer. At least it’s mine. I was never a fan of any of the Austin Powers films, so the fact that he was in it doesn’t mean much to me. Of course with the phrase “Mini-Me” entering common usage, the character that he played has become somewhat iconic. 
I honestly have no idea how the character of Elvira – this mistress of the dark – seeped into the national consciousness. It’s a mystery to me. To date, I can’t recall seeing one thing that she actually did. Not that there aren’t things. Oh, there’s the guest commentary she did for WrestleMania 2 back in 1986, there are TV specials in which she acts as ‘hostess’: VH-1 documentaries, E! True Hollywood Stories, even a Playboy Halloween special. But I really don’t think I ever saw any of it. Well…maybe the wrestling thing. Of course, Elvira is just a character played by Cassandra Peterson, who even outside of the character has starred in some things too: Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie, and even a bit part in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. But’s it’s Elvira that has brought her all the fame.