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Celebrities: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Dan Rather in 2004 on one of his visits to Sam Houston State in Huntsville. One of the nicest people you could ever meet. He likes to be called Dan instead of "Mr. Rather". Very kind. Even got a picture in with him and got my copy of "The Camera Never Blinks" autographed.
 
Neil Rattigan said:
Clint Holmes came to a telethon we were producing. Good guy.

I have also heard that Clint Holmes is a very nice guy...that is unless someone brings up "Playground In My Mind" then Holmes can be a bit on mean side. Wonder if that is true? It so thats kinda like Patty Duke and her so-called musical career or Max "Jethro" Baer and the subject of his mid 60's girlfriend Sharon Tate...I guess there is something in all of us we wish not for someone else to bring up.
 
How about local celebrities, do they count? If so:

Since I'm in the northeast Ohio area:
John Lanigan, radio personality. When going into broadcasting, he was super nice and helped out by giving some much welcomed advice and also used a bunch of jokes I wrote for him on the air.

The "Real" Bob James. Another radio personality. Another very nice guy. Worked at an amusement park where he was making an appearance and was ditched there by my ride home. So I started walking home [14.5 miles!] and he saw me walking and was kind enough to give me a ride home even though it was out of his way. Told him I was going into radio and he also gave me some pointers. Talked to him on and off over the years till he left the area.

Gib Shanley. Local sports anchor, passed away a while ago. Made national news by burning an Irainian flag on TV during the hostage crisis. Never met, but have heard from more than one person that he was the biggest A-hole around and treated people like dirt. Friends mother worked at a restaurant, he came in and they served him, he complained about the food and then proceeded to dump it all on the floor and poured his coffee over it for good measure. My friend's mom had to clean it up and if looks could kill, he would have been a pile of ashes. He was thrown out and told by the owner to never come back. He then proceeded to pull the old "don't you know who I am?" routine and the owner told him "I don't care if you're God; you set foot in here again I'll have you arrested!"

Ted Henry. Recently retired news anchor from WEWS. Really nice guy, down to earth.

There are others and if I can remember them I'll post them.
 
Met Meteorologist Dick Goddard a couple times-super nice & an animal advocate. Met Big Chuck & 'Lil Jon - both were nice & down to earth to their fans. This was at Dick Goddard's Wooleybear Parade.
"Put-In-Bay" singer Pat Daly is very down to earth & cool. So is Carrot Top. A girl I know got to tour his tour bus & he asked her to go, ahem, make a purchase for him.
Michael Stanley's pretty arrogant.
Sandy Alomar not very friendly.
Disheartening to me, I heard from a friend that Todd Rundgren was a complete jerk. He was touring around 1999 & trying to promote his new album of crap, I mean, new "alternative sounding material" & was screaming obscenities at the audience when they complained about him shrieking & singing about Satan! :eek: Friend said he did some thrash sounding altered version of "We Gotta Get You a Woman" but changed it to "Man".
Met Iron Maiden in a bar & they were very quiet & polite, unlike their stage persona.
 
Neil Rattigan said:
Morton Downey Jr. was nothing like his on-air persona. Very nice to a fellow Irishman.
...I never met Mort but I knew a one-time co-worker of his, the late Don Vogel (WISN Milwaukee, KSTP St. Paul, WGN/WIND/WLUP/WMAQ Chicago). Don did the midday show at WMAQ when Mort was doing the afternoon drive shift, months before Mort's TV show. Don (a die-hard Democrat) loved Mort and couldn't understand what got into him to do some of the tricks he pulled on the WWOR TV show...
 
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