The tragic deaths of Debbie Reynolds and her daughter, Carrie Fisher, reminded me that those of us living in Southern California are bound to see celebrities from time to time, because a lot of celebrities live here. Celebrities live their lives in glass houses, and we can learn lessons from watching them—lessons about persistence and other things.
I heard Mike Todd, one of Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands, give a talk at UCLA a few weeks before he was killed in a plane crash in March 1958. Eddie Fisher, who was married to Debbie Reynolds at the time, deserted her and married Elizabeth after Mike’s death. I have seen Debbie Reynolds twice, once when she was playing in the musical, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” and more recently when she gave a performance at the Norris Theater in Palos Verdes. She said she had lost 80 million dollars by marrying the wrong men. More specifically, she said she had married the wrong singer—Eddie Fisher instead of Frank Sinatra, who, in addition to his other qualities, was also a good kisser.
Debbie showed clips from her movies, including “Singin’ in the Rain,” with Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor. She noted that the three never looked down when they were dancing up and down stairs, something that would be unthinkable for us seniors. Her career lasted over 60 years, a great example of persistence. Another lesson to be learned from her is to be very careful who you marry.
Speaking of persistence, Ray Bradbury spoke to Southwest Manuscripters, the writers’ group of the Los Angeles South Bay, almost every year for 60 years, and I heard him many times. Once, when I gave him a poem I wrote about him he asked whether he could show it to his wife. He was a fantastic motivational speaker. Among his favorite sayings are: “Jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down,” and “Write about what you’re passionate about.” Of course, when you do that it helps if you have your wife supporting you, as he did when he was young.
One of the stories he told was how he had been terrified of flying on airplanes. He was afraid he would go running down the aisle screaming. Then one day he was caught in a situation where flying was the only way he could get to where he needed to go. He found out that flying wasn’t so bad after all. I remembered that story when I was on the same plane as Ray flying to Phoenix where he was giving a speech to Xerox employees. My wife, Bonny, worked for Xerox, and we both attended his speech.
Steve Allen spoke at a couple of our Manuscripters meetings. I asked him whether song lyrics were poetry, since he’d written several thousand of them. He said they weren’t, but I think some song lyrics have poetic qualities. Here’s an example from his song, “This Could Be the Start of Something Big:” “There’s no controlling the unrolling of your fate, my friend; Who knows what’s written in the magic book? But when a lover you discover at the gate, my friend, Invite her in without a second look.”
I was lucky enough to have a short story published in an anthology, Ice Cold: Tales of Intrigue from the Cold War, along with a number of well-known writers. I met several of them at a book signing in New York, including the editors, Jeffery Deaver (for the second time), and Raymond Benson, the only Americans who have written James Bond novels. Sometimes ordinary people get to hobnob with the stars. They’ve both had long careers.
I’ve seen Sue Grafton, author of the alphabet mysteries, several times. She once inscribed one of her books I purchased for Bonny: “Your husband is a really great guy.” She wrote me a nice letter complaining about how difficult it is to think up a plot for a new book when I sent her a limerick I’d written for her. So even best-selling authors have plot problems. That’s reassuring.
I saw Tony Bennett perform in the sixties, and much more recently he and I were about the only people waiting for our luggage at the same carousel in the Los Angeles Airport. If there was any doubt about his continuing popularity, people kept coming up to him and shaking his hand. The old memories are sometimes the best.
I saw a young Carol Burnett perform on Broadway in “Once Upon a Mattress” in 1959 and Gwen Verdon in “Can Can” in 1955. Carol is still acting. I met Hedy Lamarr in the sixties when she was in her fifties. She was wearing dark glasses so, unfortunately, I couldn’t see her eyes. She was an inventor as well as a movie star, and was still trying to make deals.
Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton sat not far from Bonny and me at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games during the women’s gymnastics finals. Both Bill and Hillary have had long careers. It will be interesting to see what happens to Hillary now that she’s lost the election. It’s fun to see celebrities from time to time, and we can learn about persistence and other things from them, but like the story of the purple cow, “I’d rather see than be one.”
Like you, serendipity has put me in touch with some celebrities and a couple of them, like Herbert Morrison of Hindenburg fame, very closely. All these encounters have taught me much about the human character and writing about it.
I had a dream last night about Hillary and the Russians. So I'm off to write a story… Jumping off that cliff… A bit unsure exactly how I will land. Fame and fortune for writing it are not in the cards. But the fun of expression is what I really seek. Like getting to shake the hand of Henry Aaron without asking him for an autograph.
Kalikiano has seemed to use your article as a bully pulpit for his opinion of whether or not celebrities should voice their opinion. From their absence from the Inaugural festivities, celebrities have made a strong statement about where they stand. I don't see anything wrong with what Meryl Streep said. As a disabled person who has been mocked and not given a bully pulpit, I admire her for doing it for me. Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump used their celebrity to become political leaders. My younger brother was sold when he met Reagan as a bus boy at one of his thousand dollar a plate dinners.
Ron
Today, however, as the entertainment media continues to spin off into a broader (and more commonised) arena of public 'media' consumption, and as the public have grown to unconsciously embrace the portrayals of 'reality' as it exists in more marketing-related genres (and 'reality shows' in particular) as real life, the more recent generation of Hollywood 'celebrities' have concurrently adopted a pronounced 'pro-active' stance in terms of freely sharing their socio-political views that is to me quite disturbing. Given that 'celebrity' and 'actor' are realistically two entirely separate entities (not necessarily congruent or identical), we must not fall into the habit of accepting 'celebrity' opinions without subjecting them to hard, exacting and intellectually balanced critical analysis. Just because one is a highly gifted actor doesn't necessarily mean that he/she is an equally astute social critic.
All too often we find the more widely popularised 'celebrities' being given entirely too much credibility in terms of the cogency of their socio-political views. Distinguished actress Meryl Streep's recent tirade is a good example of what is, in my opinion, inappropriate seizure of the bully pulpit to share her personal opinions, but so are those of that absolute cretin Kanye West and many others like him who seem to have been endowed with more tongue than brain matter.
With all due respect to the all-time great actors & actresses of the Hollywood of old, my opinion is that the appropriate 'job' of contemporary celebrities (if you will) is to entertain...not to preach what they regard as 'right-minded' social norms and attitudes, or to influence the more often than not half-baked (un)mindfulness of their sycophantic fans.
Sadly, in today's media-driven society, with its superficial levels of critical thought and deficit intellectual discernment, too many 'celebrities' who have been given that status for questionable reasons are universally regarded as socially omniscient role models...despite the fact that few care to actively question the analytical veracity of their outlooks and attitudes (and often without careful consideration of the broader issues implicit).
Today, I still watch many of the 'old school' actors and actresses with profound respect for their acting skills, but 'acting' or playing roles in productions (written by others with perhaps strong underlying ulterior social intents) should never be elevated to the same heights as those who are truly intelligent and philosophically qualified social critics and more fully equipped and prepared to make intelligent sense out of our lives in an increasingly imbalanced and complex socio-political American culture.
Thanks for a most enjoyable commentary on the talented entertainers whom we all (still) appreciate (at least) for their excellent acting qualities.