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Do you have an offbeat but true story about a favorite performer?

I'm looking for stories about out-of-the-ordinary
doings of your favorite TV people, national or local.
I'll get it started with one that I may have told
before but always gives me a laugh (and
my classes, too, when I show a video narrated by this
man and I tell this story to introduce him):

Source: TV Guide, May 20, 1961:

In the fall of 1960 Don Morrow, about to become host
of a new ABC game show, "Camouflage," was living with
his mother and daughter at their homeplace in Danbury, CT
(Morrow was divorced, but had remarried by the time this
article appeared). One day his mother brought home a six-
week-old male fawn that had been struck and stunned by
a neighbor mowing a field. Don decided to keep him, and his
nine-year-old daughter Donna named him Snowflake, changing
it to Romper when the white flecks disappeared.

Now it gets interesting. Snowflake/Romper was given the
run of the house (he was housebroken) but normally slept
outside except in bad weather, when it nudged Donna's dog
Patsy off the foot of Donna's bed. Romper liked dog biscuits
for a treat, even though his main meal consisted of a corn/oats/
wheat mixture.

Too bad I didn't live anywhere near the Morrows; I'd have given
anything to see this. And when I tell that story before a Morrow-
narrated video, my students always respond with a mixture of
laughter and disbelief.

What odd stories do you have?
 
When it comes to odd stories, nobody was better than the late Ernie Anderson ,who worked at WJW-TV 8 in Cleveland from 1961-66. For a time, when Ernie was doing his immensely popular "Ghoulardi" Show, he had a black Mynah bird, named Oxnard..(Remember...Oxnard..was one of his many catch phrases)

Well, the bird escaped, and perched high above Jim Doney's "Adventure Road" Studio..Adventure Road was done live, so you'd see Doney glance upward once in awhile, wondering if the bird would "bomb" him from above. The bird spent about a week in Doney's studio before Channel 8 employees could coax him down..

From Tom Feran and R.D. Heldenfels, "Ghoulardi" book from Gray and Co., Cleveland, Ohio Pages 85-86

Incidentally, the same publishers just brought out "Big Chuck!" written by Chuck Schodowski and Tom Feran...Covering not only the Ghoulardi years but Chuck's life before and after Ghoulardi as WJW-TV Producer/Director, and late night movie host..a total of 47 years in Cleveland TV..Lots of great stories and pictures. A recent review of the book on my blog:


http://clevelandclassicmedia.blogspot.com/2008/10/big-chuck-book-review.html
 
Not really "offbeat" but true. 1996 was in NYC for a friends wedding. After it was over and they were off on the honeyman, a few friends and I decided we'd go exploring the city. We hopped on the subway and surprisingly it wasn't crowded at all. My friends were chattering away and I was just looking around the subway car and noticed a guy with a ball cap pulled down sitting down not too far from me. I didn't think too much of it till he looked up at me and he looked familiar. I mouthed the words "Ethan Hawke"?, he just smiled and put a finger up to his lips, as in like "shhhhh" and then he just looked back down. A couple of stops later he got up and left and looked back at me and smiled and gave a wave. None of my friends noticed him at all!
 
This fits the true story part rather than the offbeat or favorite performer parts.

Back around 1997 or 1998, I was sitting in a waiting area at Logan Airport (Boston). I was heading to Martha's Vineyard for the weekend. Waiting area was pretty much empty and I was reading a book and not paying much attention to the few people who had just disembarked from the most recent flight and were now walking through.

I was vaguely aware of a young family walking by (man, woman, little girl about 8ish) and the woman said something to the man and he said something to her. Something about his voice made me look up at him and I immediately recognized actor Jim Belushi. He was wearing a hat and sunglasses and had a moustache and goatee. But it was definitely him. I think I may have made very brief eye contact with him (through the sunglasses maybe? ;D ) but I don't think I gave any indication that I recognized him. I probably should have smiled or something just to see what he would have done or said. Obviously, he was "dressed" to avoid people recognizing him on vacation. And if I hadn't heard and recognized his voice, I would never have noticed him in the first place.
 
Back in the late 1970's my mother and myself were visitng my grandmother who was at Baltimore's John Hopkins Hospital. Back then smoking was allowed in the elevators and my mother didn't have a cigarette. The elevator stops on the 3rd floor and in comes this woman. My mother askes her if she had a cigarette and this woman says "sure". She pulls out of her purse a pack of Virginia Slims. However the woman smoked menthol. My mom didn't so she "..thanks but I don't smoke menthol". The woman says "no problem" and puts the pack of cigs back into her purse and then a few moments later steps off the elevator. Then my mom looks at me and says "..wait a minute..that is thw woman on channel 13 ! ! !". It was Oprah Winfrey who at the time was with Baltimore's WJZ channel 13.

My mother for YEARS told me the story about the time she and her friends who hit the bars in West Virginia back in the 50's and one night in comes in country great Patsy Cline. Not only did Patsy buy my mother a bottle of Fallstaff Beer but actually paid for everyone's beer at the bar that night. However the evening kinda ended on a sour note for Patsy as some drunk got up , walked over the Patsy and asks if she would buy him another beer. Patsy said "hell no honey".

The man ended up throwing up...on Patsy Cline. Well Patsy did leave right then and there and it was after midnight so I guess we could say Patsy Cline really was "Walking After Midnight" to get to her car on such a "Crazy" evening.
 
mleach said:
My mother for YEARS told me the story about the time she and her friends who hit the bars in West Virginia back in the 50's and one night in comes in country great Patsy Cline. Not only did Patsy buy my mother a bottle of Fallstaff Beer but actually paid for everyone's beer at the bar that night. However the evening kinda ended on a sour note for Patsy as some drunk got up , walked over the Patsy and asks if she would buy him another beer. Patsy said "hell no honey".

The man ended up throwing up...on Patsy Cline. Well Patsy did leave right then and there and it was after midnight so I guess we could say Patsy Cline really was "Walking After Midnight" to get to her car on such a "Crazy" evening.

To this day, Patsy Cline remains one of my musical sacred cows. If I had been there that night, I would have belted that drunk SOB. :mad:
 
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