Fame - 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History, Week 20

El Matador Beach, Malibu, CA

Vincent Price at the Magic Castle

I thought that since it's summer and I have more time on my hands, I could take the time and catch up on the 20 weeks of this series that I've missed.

The prompt for week 20 was to chronicle any brushes with fame that you have had. I grew up in southern California with a dad who worked in the television industry, so I first thought about encounters with famous people. Then I re-read the prompt and a few posts on the topic and realized that Amy meant "have you ever appeared in the newspaper or on TV?" I thought about re-imagining my post to reflect Amy's intent, but I decided against it. Almost everyone appears in the newspapers at some time or another, but how many people can include the following in their living family histories?

My home town, South Pasadena, was often described as Hollywood's favorite suburb. It's a small quiet town with a plethora of great houses built in several architectural styles. We even have a column in our local paper detailing what was recently shot in town. Did you ever see the movie One Good Cop with Michael Keaton? I haven't, but one house in the movie, which is supposed to be in New York, was only two blocks from my house. They brought in truckloads of plants to make the property look more "east coast." The house for the drama Family was on the same street as my grandparents, although it was a pretty long street.

My dad got me and my grandparents tickets to see E/R with Eliot Gould; it was one of my favorite programs. Before the taping started, the 1984 men's gold metal Olympic team came in to say "hello" to the audience. They were appearing in an episode of Different Strokes on the sound stage next door.
  
One sunny August day, I went with my dad to help him carry his equipment down the steps from the parking lot to a shoot on El Matador Beach in Malibu. While the crew was setting up, I got to watch the production assistants sweep the beach with big brooms to clear out all the kelp that had washed up on shore. I decided I didn't ever want to be a production assistant! I was also deputized to play stand-in for Alyssa Milano, the talent. I sat facing the rising sun and told everyone doing the set-up, that it was too bright. The crew said, don't worry about it, you're just not used to it, the sun will rise, yadda yadda yadda. The first thing Ms. Milano said when she arrived on set and sat where I had been sitting is, "it's too bright, I can't see." At which point they did all sorts of adjustments to improve the situation for her. If they had only listened to me, they would have saved themselves a whole lot of time and trouble.

I also went with my dad to a shoot at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles. Here the talent was Vincent Price – very cool.

And in a concession to Amy's original intent for this post, my boss and I were interviewed by a local Columbus television station in 1997. Our firm was completing the historic documentation of the Columbus Penitentiary before it was torn down. The demolition crew showed up on the first day we started our work; that was kind of exciting. I prepared answers for questions on the history of prisons and this one in particular. Unfortunately for me, about the only thing the reporter wanted to know about was O.Henry, the only famous person to ever be imprisoned in "the Pen."