Family meeting celebrities?

[tylerevansokay]

Has anyone else had family that's met a celebrity of the 30's, 40's, or 50's?
If so, please, tell the story and share pictures if you've got'em!
I'll share mine once this gets rolling...

 

[AmateisGal]

Goodness, I don't even know. But I'm headed home to my grandparents this weekend and I will definitely ask.

I'm curious to hear your story, though!

 

[glamour-girl]

i met tony curtis when i was fifteen on a movie set in jerusalem, it was super hot outside and he wasn't feeling well, but he actually took the time to talk to me. he was so nice, a very carismatic man. he gave me his autograph, but my mom threw it away because she thought it was rubbish

 

[Joie DeVive]

Not me, but I go to church with a fellow who was flown in a plane piloted by Jimmy Stewart! It was during WW2. The plane's crew kept trying to get this fellow to go up and meet the pilot, but he wasn't really interested. Boy was he surprised when they talked him into it and he saw who it was! lol

 

[donCarlos]

It´s a bit later than you wanted, but my grandfather personally met Fidel Castro in 1967. He said that he will have his right hand gilt after the meeting (Grandpa, not Fidel )

 

[nobodyspecial]

Does Bing Crosby's widow count?

 

[RondoHatton]

I remember meeting Johnny Weismuller at the New York World's Fair 1964. Also seem to remember being told one of my babysitters was Tuesday Weld?

 

[Smuterella]

oh, my mum dated Bill Wyman, Keith Moon and donovan and was the first Miss Selfridge model

so she says

 

[Miss 1929]

I sat on Sammy Cahn's lap...

 

[Retro Rob]

My Dad saw Patton a couple of times. He took me to See JFK at a Rally in Lockport, NY when I was two.

 

[Mojito]

Dad started his career as a journalist in the 1950s in Oz, worked in London in that decade, and also to the US. He went on to join the diplomatic corps, so he's met, interviewed or worked with everyone from Elvis Presley to Richard Nixon. Among political figures, he interviewed Robert Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, met Reagan, and worked with Australian Prime Ministers from McMahon through to Hawke (he also spent a evening showing Paul Keating the NY nightlife back in the early 80s). We thought it was unutterably cool in the early 80s when he worked with Billy Joel's team on an Oz related project, and he was able to bring home a signed LP for us.

But for figures from the earlier decades, his first by-line was for an interview with Gene Krupa (he still speaks with awe of watching him perform here in Australia). Later he also interviewed Benny Goodman. Just this past weekend at my brother's birthday he shared a story about his interview with Eartha Kitt. Arriving at her hotel room at the designated time, she opened the door - wearing a purple or mauve short, semi-transparent negligee. He reckons it took him about 20 minutes to stutter out his first question.

I grew up with a famous figure appearing on TV and Dad casually mentioning (he's not a name-dropper) "oh...I interviewed them back in XX". I was greatly impressed at the age of eleven when I found he'd met one of the Doctors from Doctor Who (Jon Pertree, I think, but I'd have to check). I was even more awed when I was older and fell in love with Kenneth Slessor's poem "Five Bells", and when I mentioned this he told me he'd interviewed Slessor.

 

[DecoDahlia]

Shirley Temple!

My mother grew up in Hawaii, so when Shirley Temple was there with her first husband, John Agar, my mother got to meet her at a party that my mother's relatives threw in honor of Shirley Temple. I think Shirley Temple may have been honeymooning with John Agar when my mother met her, so my mother was about 10 years old in 1945. My grandmother bought my mother a Shirley Temple doll, and they had Shirley Temple autograph the box it was in during the aforementioned party held in Shirley Temple's honor. How I wish we still had the doll and its box! My mother should have never let her younger sister (who was like a proverbial, bull in a china shop) play with this doll, as, I'm sure she shredded the box, and probably also dismembered the doll!

 

[JohnnyGringo]

I had the pleasure of meeting Count Basie after a performance in the Fall of 1977, he was a very kind gentleman.

 

[CherryRed]

My Mom met Lillian Gish in the 1960's and got her autograph. Lillian also signed Dorothy's (he sister) name since she had already passed away. My Mom always thought this was kind of funny.
Unfortunately the autograph was lost.

I met Farley Granger back in September at a film festival.

 

[tylerevansokay]

Time to reveal my story...
My grandfather met Marilyn Monroe during the Korean War... she visited his troop and he made her a cake. I'll supply pictures a little later. It's quite the sight!

 

[skyvue]

I had the pleasure of meeting Count Basie after a performance in the Fall of 1977, he was a very kind gentleman.

My mom once danced with Bob Wills (he cut in while she was dancing with my father).

My parents met John Wayne once and got an autograph for me.

I got to interview Esther Williams, Gloria Stuart, and Don Knotts.

And I too got to meet Count Basie -- and it might well have been in 1977. Right around then, anyway.

I also met Sonny Rollins and Chet Baker.

I got to chat briefly with Kitty Carlisle Hart and Dickie Moore.

I attended events honoring Richard Widmark and Farley Granger and stood right next to both of them, but didn't meet them.

Fay Wray once said, "Bless you" to me.

 

[EwaMarine]

Tyrone Powers in Hawaii

A girl I was dating's dad was driving a 1937 Ford Stationwagon (a woody) along Kaneohe Bay Drive towards Kaneohe town. In 1944, that road was a dirt road....lol..
As he passed the Kokokahi USO club on the right... (what is now Camp Kokokahi YMCA) He was flagged down by the sentry at the USO rest camp.

The Sentry asked him if he could give a Marine Lt a ride into Kaneohe town so he could catch a bus into Waikiki, which, back in ww2, meant a long drive over the mountains and down into Waikiki.

Mr Takebayashi was 16 years old back then.

He said SURE! to the sentry and waved the Marine Lt over and reached across and opened the door for him.
The Marine climbed in and thanked the sentry after returning the sentry's salute.

As they were driving, He remembers looking over and thinking how familiar this Marine looked....
As they were shooting the shit on the way to Kaneohe town it dawned on him....That he was giving a ride to movie star Tyrone Powers!!
So He said..."Wait a minute! You are Tyrone Powers!!!

Powers responded while chuckling....."Yes I am... and you are saving my Marine ass by giving me a lift to Kaneohe! If I am late ill miss that bus, and I dont want to wait another three hours to get to Honolulu!!" Mr Takebayashi was stoked as he was driving and this guy was back then as famous as Harrison Ford or Brad Pitt. A few minutes later he dropped of Lt Powers and they both went on thier ways...

Mr Takebayshi still lives in the same house on Kaneohe Bay Drive till this day..
Four years earlier he witnessed the Dec 7 attack from the driveway of his Dads house on Kaneohe Bay NAS and remembers the USN PBY's out at anchor off of the seaplane ramps and how the Japanese aircraft strafed them and how they burned where they were and sank....

But thats another story.

 

[Foofoogal]

I met Art Linkletter once as a teen. [huh]
My church was visiting a halfway type house and he was speaking. Our church supported it and his daughter died from drugs.

 

[Wally_Hood]

Met Captain Kangaroo, and got his autograph, but lost it in one of several moves.

Shook the hand of Keye Luke when he appeared at a revival of some Charlie Chan films.

Met Marian McPartland and ex-husband Jimmy McPartland backstage at a UCLA concert.

Does this count?: Used to date the daughter of noted jazz guitarist Mary Osborne, so met her and former big band trumpeter husband Ralph.

 

[Foofoogal]

Met Captain Kangaroo, and got his autograph

aww pooh..I was enthralled as a young child with Captain Kangaroo. My mom said I would sit in front of the tv waiting for him to come on saying capin kangroo over and over forever. This was before VCRs and all the gadgets to record. lol

now I will be thinking of my mom all day.
http://sandysfancypants.blogspot.com