Okay, the last in the series, the Liza Minnelli story.... Although I was often called upon to call famous people to remind them of fittings, the case of Miss Minnelli was quite different. She was making some kind of "comeback" to Broadway, was starring in a Kander and Ebb musical titled The Rink with Chita Rivera. Miss Rivera had already been in to try on the simple costumes designed by Theoni V. Aldredge (who once ironed a shirt for me as she didn't like the one I was wearing to work.... amazing woman, very Greek and very modest despite her awards for shows such as A Chorus Line and her efforts to make sure that designers got artistic recognition as well as royalties for their original works) and, coming back to Chita, I don't remember much of her visit. Miss Minnelli was a different story. The boss's husband (who was actually my boss, as he "ran" the business part of the costume shop) first lectured me about Miss Minnelli's visit. She was to be greeted with a "Good afternoon, Miss Minnelli" and then ushered into the star dressing room where she was not to be disturbed or talked to again. However, when Miss Minnelli breezed into the shop, she was having nothing to do with being hidden away in some back dressing room, no matter how luxurious it was. My boss was nearly licking her feet as she sat at his antique desk and threw her feet up onto the blotter. "Boy", she shouted from over there (I had direct sight lines to my boss' desk) "bring me a Coke!" This I had to do chop-chop. During the five or ten minutes she waited there (the other boss, the head dresser, made Miss Minnelli wait, I don't think she liked her attitude very much) she must have downed three or four cans of Coke while she laughed loudly and pretended to chat with my boss. When the head dresser found out about the coke, later, she made a snide remark about not being surprised, as the simple jeans that she had prepared for Miss Minnelli had to be made from a special stretch fabric as she kept putting on and losing weight. I must say that Miss Minnelli's visit brought back the original awe I had felt when I first began working at the shop. I had become used to famous people by the time she breezed in-- but just thinking about this woman who had wowed me as a kid in Cabaret, who was the fruit of the womb of Judy Garland with a father like Vincent Minnelli, well, one had to be briefly in awe. I saw the show in previews, not impressed, Miss Minnelli spent most of her time on stage sitting (she had twisted her ankle roller skating for the show) and smoking. The critics didn't like it much either. Miss Minnelli left the show to go into rehab I heard at the time, thought it was just an ugly rumor but the Wikipedia article "confirms" it. So, that brings me to the end of the most notable people I remember from my 15 months in that job. Oh, yes, I met Sigourny Weaver, lovely woman, quite professional, a lot of other ballet people and Broadway people and opera people, designers that most would not know their names (Ann Roth, Richard Horneg, Patricia Ziprod etc....). Just thought it would be fun to share with you all. Where I live presently I've only seen two famous people in the distance: Isabel Pantoja (Spanish ballad singer, presently in jail for tax evasion) and Iñaki Gabilongo (TV news personality). peace, revel.
My wife and I are in Augusta today. She has a podcast interview scheduled with Maine's 1st Lady, the governor's wife right now, and we'll be having breakfast with them in the morning. Neither one of us voted for him either the first time he ran, or the last, and he knows that; in fact, my wife was on the staff of one of his primary opponents the first time he ran. Yet, while I differ with him strongly on some of his policies, which is why I haven't been able to bring myself to vote for him, both he and his wife are quite cordial.
My strangest story was a couple of months ago meeting John Barrowman - anyone who watched Doctor Who or Torchwood recently might know him - he played Captain Jack... and lives in Wales in the UK. Anyway, it was the middle of the day and I stopped in at a Starbucks in a less than ideal part of Los Angeles to grab a coffee, when all of a sudden John Barrowman walked by me... I thought I must be crazy, so asked the barista if that was who I thought it was - the barista said, "Who? I don't know who that is...", so I was forced to take it upon myself to go up and ask the guy if he was John Barrowman. Yep... he was just stopping in to grab a coffee on the way to the airport... So, he took a selfie of us, we talked a couple of minutes and he rushed off to catch his flight... My friends into science fiction were stunned... and I was stunned and happy!
My 'famous' interactions have taken place during golf tournaments. I met former Head Coach of the Denver Broncos, John Fox. He is a very personable man with, in my opinion, high moral values. I have admired him for many years, as a result of watching NFL football.
I met and dated Jackie Mason the comedian, back in the early '60's. We hung out with Woody Allen, Mort Sahl, Oscar Levant, Sammy Davis, Jr., Lenny Bruce among a few others who tagged along. I was living in Chicago as a young 20 year old going to college, and my roommate wanted to go to Second City to see the show one Saturday night. So, we asked two more friends if they wanted to join, and they said 'sure thing'. We got four tickets to the show. I put on my nicest dress... this was going to be a big evening out. We were seated in the middle of the room. Jackie Mason came out and did his shtick. It was hilarious. The audience was going crazy with laughter. Tears were rolling down my cheeks. After his appearance we got up to leave the building and walked to the street. We turned around because someone was yelling "stop, stop!" and pointing at us. We all looked at each other and wondered what had happened. He approached us and looked at me and said "I work for Jackie Mason and Jackie wants to meet you". HUH! He explained that Jackie had noticed me in the audience and wanted to meet me. I was stunned. One thing led to another and I gave him my phone number. All of us were giggling and making silly comments how he would never call, it was all a big joke on me. I surely didn't believe he would call, but the next afternoon the phone rang and it was unmistakably Jackie. He has a unique voice and way of speaking to put it mildly. We talked for a long time -- and he asked me if I wanted to go out with him on a date. I accepted and that night he picked me up in a long black limousine and we went out to dinner. We had a great time and I felt totally at ease with him even though he was quite a bit older than me. I dated him for the three weeks he was in town. We kept in touch for a long time after, but over time we stopped communicating. Many years later, I contacted him just to see how he was doing. He called me back that night and we talked for several hours. I was living in Pittsburgh, PA my home town at the time and he asked me to come to New York to be with him. I declined, of course.
Our current governor and former representative, Asa Hutchinson, was my attorney for a lawsuit I was involved in. ( we won ). He was also the attorney for my parents estate when my mother died but he got elected to congress before it was over so his partner took over. More recently, I supported our current senator, Tom Cotton when he was running for office and went to a fundraiser to kick off his campaign. I met Tom, His parents and his wife Anna. Being a small town, there weren't a lot of people there and I got to talk a good bit with Tom, and even more with Anna since she sat at our table much of the time. I met Jerry Lee Lewis briefly at a nightclub where he was performing. That's about it as for me meeting famous people. Unfortunately for all the others, they haven't had the pleasure of meeting me.
I've been reading through some of the posts on this old thread....Jorge Ruiz sure knew a lot of people!
I don't at all mind old forums being revived -- I rather like it, in fact -- but your post doesn't make sense.
I'm thinking he means his brother is famous...google it. If might be a typo. He could also be someone having some fun with us for whatever reason.
Kevin Mitnick was a famous hacker in the 1990s, and I had assumed that this was who he had in mind when he chose a pseudonym, rather than his own. Given the spelling difference, I hadn't considered an actual relationship.