Famous people you've met, and how you met them

[skypigeon]

Saw Mr. Harrington's entry about meeting Walt and Roy Disney in another thread and thought it would be a cool topic...

I met Kurt Vonnegut in 1982. He was speaking at Indiana University my freshman year and had a meet-and-greet at the Union afterwards. I brought my copy of Jailbird for him to autograph--unfortunately, he stopped signing books two people before I got to him. But, I stuck around for the question-and-answer session--in which several people asked what my young, arrogant self thought were incredibly stupid questions to be asking a literary legend within their midst. It didn't help that some of them thought Venus on the Half-Shell, a novel published as by "Kilgore Trout," was one of his books. It's not. He had to repeat that fact, patiently, multiple times.

So I resolved to ask what my young, arrogant self thought was a much more intelligent question: "When you wrote Jailbird, were you aware that there really is a RAMJAC Corporation?" (Read the book; it's fantastic and it'll help the question make sense.)

He looked at me, smiled, and said "Really?"

"Yes," I said, "there is. Somewhere in Illinois."

"I'll be," he said. "Thank you for that." And then he took the next question.

My older, more humble self is most grateful his response was not "Seeing I've been writing for three times as long as you've been alive, yes, I do research my work, you arrogant little pr#ck." The way he handled made me feel like he appreciated someone was actually paying attention.

[Jack Harrington]

Pidge: I too, met Vonnegut, as a Butler student in 1977. Same deal...Lecture...Meet and greet... I stalked him the whole day, and caught him outside the Student Union Building mid-afternoon. he spent about 5 minutes with me, and was very gracious. I talked about Shortridge, where he and my Mom attended. He had this "MAGNETIC" thing about him...His persona just drew you to him...

[ZOOOM]

Drove Dave Brubeck to his hotel after a gig one night, spent the afternoon with Oscar Peterson discussing photography.
Watched my wife get picked up at a bar in Elmhurst Illinois by Robert Conrad...
Other than that it's been a pretty uneventfull life....

ZOOOM

[CrewChief]

Paul Sorvino of GoodFellas, Law & Order, and numerous other rolls in the movies and on TV. He bought the house I grew up in and my dad had custom built from the guy my parents had sold it to. We were back in the area for a car show and a neighbor said he had asked how to get in contact with my dad because he had some questions on where electric and such were run underground to the garages and barns. We left the car show and had to drive right by the house so dad said let's just stop. We roll into the driveway in 3 cars and this very pretty 20 something in a bikini gets out of pool (unfortunately it wasn't his daughter Mira but his girlfriend at the time) she says hello and and asks what we needed, we told her and a few seconds later Pauly comes walking over and introduces himself. Couldn't have been a nicer guy, after talking a few minutes he grabs some lawn chairs and offers some drinks so we ended up sitting around talking to him for probably at least an hour and had a rum and coke with him. Dad was able to answer his questions, we talked about the area and a few other things and were on our way.

[CARTer]

Drove Dave Brubeck to his hotel after a gig one night, spent the afternoon with Oscar Peterson discussing photography.
Watched my wife get picked up at a bar in Elmhurst Illinois by Robert Conrad...
Other than that it's been a pretty uneventfull life....

ZOOOM

Damn! Throw in Stan Kenton and you would have hit my trifecta.

[Chris Paff]

I met President George W. Bush at the White House back in 2008. My ex girlfriend at the time got me a tour of the West Wing from her family friend who worked in the State Department.

In 2006 I met Gene Simmons in Gasoline Alley

This past September I met Patrick Dempsey at the Grand Am event at Miller Motorsports Park. I was one of the finalists to win the Madza RX-8 they were giving away last year. Too bad I did not get the car. Some "race dork" won the car. This guy wore racing shoes and was all decked out. The guy was a friend of some of the Grand Am drivers and did not associate with the rest of us before or after he won the car. I got a all expensives paid trip to Utah which included Air, Hotel, transportation, and pit passes. Good stuff The best part of the trip was I got Patrick to call my girlfriend which she was very happy about. Good brownie points.

[Danny Noonan]

I was around Bob Knight probably a dozen times when he lived in Bloomington. We're family friends of a few people who worked on his staff. Was around him at cookouts and such. Was too timid to have any lengthy conversations with him but he was always very laid back in that atmoshpere.

In staying with the sterotypical Bloomington celebs, I've also been around Mellencamp a few times. One of my friends dated his oldest daughter several years ago so was at his house a few times. One of my friends did some work at his recording studio in Belmont so I've been there a few times as well.

I might have the most random celebrity connection - Tony Dow. I have a friend in CA who got to know him so I've been around "Wally" a few times. I even got him to say "Ward, you were a little hard on the Beaver last night."

[Cant_hit_apex]

I went through a salad bar with Marie Osmond in a hotel restaurant in Connecticut 25 years ago. BTW, she's a picky eater and takes a long time to choose her veggies.

I dare anyone to beat that story!

[CARTer]

I met Roger Daltrey in the lobby of the Fairmont hotel in San Fransisco in 1996 while on my honeymoon. I had my eyes peeled for Pete and John the rest of the time i was there but didn't see them, and my new bride didn't take too kindly when i asked if I could stake out the elevators for a couple of hours.

My father-in-law is friends with a professional golfer named Javier Sanchez. Javi is an occasional player in senior events, and fell just (forefinger and thumb about 1/8 of an inch apart) that close to getting his tour card this year. He is buddies with Fuzzy Zoeller, and was playing in the pro-am as part of Fuzzy's "Wolf Challenge" at Brickyard Crossing last August. His celebrity partner was the choreographer who briefly was married to J Lo. Nice guy, but I can't remember his name. His current wife was wonderful. She was formely the residental property manager for George Lucas' ranches in California. My six-year-old jumped into the cart with her and she was very kind and sweet with him the whole day.

[skypigeon]

This is some really cool stuff, folks! Keep it up!

Two more I didn't meet face-to-face but while answering the phones in my customer service days: Clive Cussler and Dick Dale. Clive Cussler was doing research on a new book and wanted to know if the capabilities of the technology my employer's equipment uses matched up to what he was putting in his book. It didn't. He was underestimating its capabilities greatly. Poor guy seemed kind of bummed, but thanked me. If I'd had my head on straight that day I'd have asked him for a copy of the book...

Dick Dale was a no-holds-barred trip. "King of the Surf Guitar" if you've never heard of him. The opening theme to Pulp Fiction, "Miserlou," is Dick Dale. It was also a minor hit back in the 60's. As is, the moment he realized I recognized him, we spent the next 50 minutes on the phone. I got invited to see his ranch in California (he even gave me directions to get there), said he'd treat the whole staff to his show next time he was in KC, all kinds of stuff. Just for answering a simple question about a unit of ours he had that he didn't understand. Just plain... manic.

[Jag-lover]

I met former President Nixon and his family in Santa Monica CA in 1961. We were staying at the same hotel and his family got on the elevator while my family got off of it. He did smile and wave at me while I just stared at him.

[Mario4ever]

Drove Dave Brubeck to his hotel after a gig one night, spent the afternoon with Oscar Peterson discussing photography.
Watched my wife get picked up at a bar in Elmhurst Illinois by Robert Conrad...
Other than that it's been a pretty uneventfull life....

ZOOOM

Was that before, during, or after she was your wife

[grogg]

Damn! Throw in Stan Kenton and you would have hit my trifecta.

And I met the last name in big band music, namely Sy Zentner.

[grogg]

I also met Hugh O'Brien as a small kid. This was when he played Wyatt Earp. He rode shotgun on a sleigh with wheels when our local shopping center brought Santa in the Friday after Thanksgiving. At my age Hugh didn't impress me that much but Santa sure did.

[3-wide]

I worked in advertising so had opportunity, (if you want to view it that way) to work with a number of celebrities either shooting commercials or print ads, e.g. Bobby Orr, Jay Leno, Sinbad, Greg Norman, Larry Bird, Orson Wells, Diane VonFurstenberg, John Elway, Michael Dukakis, Buddy Rich and a few others that, frankly, I can’t remember. Can’t say anything negative about any of them. All were considerate and easy to work with.

I also won a contest as a kid, first prize being lunch with Gene Autry. (For you young ones, he was an old time cowboy star.)