I've been thinking about this post for a while, because I have, on occasion, seen celebrities in public, and I have a few opinions about them.
Unlike most parents, my parents had a strict "DO NOT BOTHER people!" policy, when it came to celebrities. I think this stemmed from the fact that my grandfather was a minor celebrity, a professional baseball player, and all her life Mother had to deal with people bothering him in public. He was always gracious about signing autographs and chatting with fans, but it annoyed the heck out of mom because it took his attention away from the family, and whatever they needed to be doing.
My first "celebrity" encounter came when I was about 6 and was on the Trooper Terry show in Augusta. It was a local kids' show. I remember being stunned that Trooper Terry was a tiny little man.
When I was around 13 or 14 years old and I saw my idol, Billie Jean King, eating breakfast in a Florida restaurant, I almost peed my pants with excitement. "MOM!!! Look! It's Billie Jean King! She's drinking coffee and reading the newspaper!" I squealed. Mother looked where I was pointing and hissed at me, sotto voce, "You are NOT going to bother her. She is trying to read the paper in peace."
"MOM!! Can't I get her autograph?!" I said, dismayed.
"No. Leave her alone."
End of discussion. I never argued with Mother once her voice took that tone. It was useless.
I once saw Burt Reynolds and Dinah Shore at a Tennessee football game in the early 70's when I was living in Knoxville. They were sitting there watching the game, not making a fuss. I wasn't close enough to see them well. There was a bimbo-ish woman right in front of us who turned around in her seat and stared at Burt the entire game, thru binoculars. I thought that was idiotic.
Every time I've ever gone to a concert, I've thought, why did I pay all this money to see this guy live? I'd be so much more comfortable sitting in my room in my pajamas listening to this song on the stereo. Rarely have I really enjoyed concerts, which is why I don't go any more. The two exceptions I can think of are Janet Jackson and Harry Connick, Jr. Janet puts on an amazing show. Harry does too, and he's funny. I saw him from the third row in the Knoxville Auditorium and he was just amazing.
My dad was on a plane once and saw Dolly Parton, flying without her wig and makeup and everything. She looked just like an ordinary person. He didn't bother her. He knew her manager, though.
I was in an elevator in Nashville once and Minnie Pearl got on. She didn't have on the funny hat. In fact, she was wearing a velour jogging suit and looked really ordinary. Her normal voice is quite different than her stage voice, too, much lower. Even in the jogging suit she looked classy. I think she had an earned masters or doctorate, someone told me.
When I was working at the Knoxville Journal I interviewed Dick Van Dyke when he was in town with a road show of Damn Yankees. He is SKINNY. Wow. Incredibly gracious and nice man, though.
I was eating lunch once at a Houston's, which is a nice restaurant but not fancy, and Evander Holyfield was sitting about 6 feet away. I got up to go to the restroom and he was going that way too so I got a good look at him. He is really short, and of course he had on clothes so you couldn't see his muscles. He was with a big party of people but they weren't rowdy or anything. He was quiet.
A few years later when I was trying to learn Russian before I got Alesia home, one of the language teachers said she taught Evander's son. Evander's wife was insisting his 5 year old learn 3 different foreign languages, including Russian. I think another one was Japanese. Talk about a lot of pressure on the poor kid.
I interviewed Eddie Mekka, of Laverne and Shirley fame, and he was a total jerk. Tiny, too - maybe 5'3? I stared him in the eye and he was wearing shoes with heels. I got his manager on the phone and asked him to send me a press kit on Eddie, and the guy was foreign and couldn't understand my accent. I couldn't understand him either. I finally got a package addressed to "Dee Fahnsen."
When I was working my first paralegal job, we had a new receptionist who was a total ditz. She didn't know that Victor Ashe, the mayor of Knoxville, was a friend of one of the attorneys. Victor popped in and out of the office all the time and just headed back to Arthur's office. So one day he comes in and sees this bimbo receptionist and didn't want to frteak her out, so he said in his soft southern accent, "Please tell Arthus that Victor Ashe is here to see him." She buzzed Arthur and he didn't answer. So she got on the intercom that went all over the office and said "ARTHUR, A DICK TRASH IS HERE TO SEE YOU!!"
She didn't come back to work the next day. Go figure.
