Who was the first celebrity you met?

I can think of three I met as a kid, not sure which was first.

Sylvia Earle, probably the most famous female Marine Scientist of her day was a neighbor, or her parents were. She is older than me and had moved out of the house before I knew them, but came to visit sometimes. She was something of an inspiration to me, part of the reason I ended up doing what I did in life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Earle

Hoss Cartwright (Dan Blocker), he was the headline attraction at Six Gun Territory, a pre-disney Florida tourist trap. After his appearance in the big shoot out my friends and I went exploring the woods outside of the main attraction. We found him sitting on a stump smoking. He was very friendly, joked with us. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Blocker

Shock Armstrong (Paul Reynolds), the all America Ghoul. He hosted the low budget black and white late night horror movies on the local TV out of Tampa. He was a friend's next door neighbor. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5505980/
 

Last edited:
1) Frankie Avalon. Some college students (me included) took the same elevator in a hotel in Houston; he was performing there and we were attending a seminar. 1973
2) Tom Selleck and cast, Oahu, Hawaii 1982
3) Prince, San Antonio Airport 1990s
4) Trio Los Panchos 2000s
5) Drew Scott, Property Brothers , McAllen, Tx. 2000s
6) Some of the dancers from "Dancing With The Stars". McAllen, Tx. 2000s
 
Last edited:
I was too young to really appreciate the very first celebrity I met. It was in the early 1950s and my Aunt took me to see the original The King & I on Broadway.
She knew someone, and we got to meet Yul Brynner after the show. He gave me a flower and a lollipop.

In the 90s I went to see the same play starring Lou Diamond Phillips.
 

Georgiagranny said:
@hollydolly The Queen? Did you curtsy? Was she as gracious as she seemed?
Click to expand...
No I didn't curtsy.. I was 12.. she came to our Girl Guide quarters.. she seemed very nice, but she had a lot of people around her, so we didn't really get to see her for long . I'd seen her briefly when I was 10 years old, when her HUGE limo with the top down, came though our town, and we were all lined up at the side of the road to see her. I remember how beautiful she looked dressed in lemon..and to this day I love/d to see her dressed in lemon colours..
 
Last edited:
Alice Cooper. I had a backstage pass to his concert in Berkeley. I'm pretty sure that was in 1972. It was an awesome show!

But way before that, when I was 12 or 13, my grandma took me to the Sacramento airport to shake hands with Richard Nixon. I assume he was campaigning. I don't know if gramma actually liked him, she just thought it would be a good experience for me to touch a president.
 
Last edited:
When I was about 19 I went to a show at a community center in northern virginia to see three unknown acts: Alice Cooper, the Doobie Brothers, and the headliner, Tracy Nelson and Mother Earth. Tracy stayed pretty unknown but the other two...
Murrmurr said:
Alice Cooper. I had a backstage pass to his concert in Berkeley. I'm pretty sure that was in1972. It an awesome show!

But way before that, when I was 12 or 13, my grandma took me to the Sacramento airport to shake hands with Richard Nixon. I assume he was campaigning. I don't know if gramma actually liked him, she just thought it would be a good experience for me to touch a president.
Click to expand...
 
1 Duncan Renaldo (The Cisco Kid)
2 Leo Carillo (Pancho)

3 Hoss Cartwright (Dan Blocker)

4 Tommy James (of the Shondells)

5 John and Yoko (walking down a street in Manhattan)

6 Strother Martin (character actor)
7 Broderick Crawford (character actor)
8 Charles Durning (character actor)
9 Paul Sorvino (character actor)
10 John Travolta
11 Sid Caesar
12 Dick Van Dyke

#1& 2 at a grand opening of a super market in Rochester, NY, during the mid 1950's.
#3 Grand opening of a Chevrolet dealership in Florida.
#4 While performing with his band at the Beacon Theater in NYC, on the Happy Together Tour (1980's). He jumped off the stage & shook hands with some of us in the front row.

The following I saw on a street.
#5 See above
#6 & 7, walking down Hollywood Boulevard, summer of 1972.
#8 Cut in front of me at a newsstand in Manhattan, and knocked me sideways with his fat body.
#9 & 10 on a NYC street, talking with someone. Travolta saw me looking at him and turned away. I guess so I wouldn't talk to him. I had no intention of doing so.
#11 & 12, posing for publicity photos, on a Manhattan street.
 
Kurt Russell, Cher, Meryl Streep. The place I worked was turned into a film scene location in the movie Silkwood.

Last one, also many years ago, I met Barry Corbin,(Uncle Bob) from Urban Cowboy, he was a BIL to a man I worked with.
 
Blessed said:
Kurt Russell, Cher, Meryl Streep. The place I worked was turned into a film scene location in the movie Silkwood.

Last one, also many years ago, I met Barry Corbin,(Uncle Bob) from Urban Cowboy, he was a BIL to a man I worked with.
Click to expand...
Wow meryl streep, is one brilliant actress…
 
John McIntire, a wagon master on the TV series Wagon Train, and his wife, actress Jeannette Nolan, who also had her own more short lived TV series, called Dirty Sally. They also worked together in film on occasion. John and Jeannette lived off grid on an isolated ranch in an already isolated part of Western Montana where my ex and I shared cocktails with them one afternoon. John and Jeanette were wilderness advocates and I was president of a wilderness advocate group in Montana. They spent most of their time in Montana, but also had a home with actual electricity and running water in Malibu. I think they had another home in North Carolina(?), too. But the ranch was their favorite haunt when they weren't acting.
 
Last edited:
Murrmurr said:
Alice Cooper. I had a backstage pass to his concert in Berkeley.
Click to expand...
That jogs my memory. I worked for company that made electronic music synthesizer. We had famous musicians coming in all the time to try out our products. Since I was the design engineer I met with many of them to help come up with better designs. On one occasion the Doobie Brothers invited me to a live concert in Las Vegas to better understand how our product was used. Needless to say being back stage with the crew everybody was stoned & not much got done. It was cool to hear them play & shoot the sh_t with them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top