My Brush with Fame

I really can't say that I've ever met anyone famous, but this is about as close as I've come so far.

Last October, a movie theater in the area (the same one Shirley Jones was at) hosted a Hitchock festival. I was pretty excited, of course. The first night they showed Vertigo and Hitchcock's daughter was there to answer questions and whatnot before the movie. She also was signing autographs, if you really wanted Alfred Hitchcock's daughter's autograph.

Anyway, the second night was a bit more eventful; they showed The Birds, and Tippi Hedren was there, along with Veronica Cartwright who played the little girl in the movie. They were out in the lobby signing autographs and doing their thing before the movie started.

We sat down in the theater and I went to the ladies' room before the movie started. It was pretty empty in the rest room, except for one other person in a stall. When I came out to wash my hands, standing at the sink next to me was none other than Veronica Cartwright! Here's a transcript of our conversation:

Veronica Cartwright: Hi
Me: Hi
(washing hands)
(I try to get the stupid automatic paper towel dispenser to work, to no avail)
Veronica Cartwright: This one works.(referring to the automatic paper towel dispenser on her side)
Me: Thanks, these things never work right.

Yes, it was that exciting. I later realized she was the sister of the girl who played Brigitta in The Sound of Music, Angela Cartwright (I knew she looked familiar!), which kind of made it more exciting. But not really.

Her and Tippi both seemed very nice and pleasant and had lots of interesting things to say about Hitchcock and movies in general.

I Love Cary Grant

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine, much to my surprise, suggested starting a monthly old movie night. Of course I jumped at the chance and I hosted the first one last night. We watched Charade and it was a huge success. Way more people showed up than I ever thought would...we actually ran out of room.

What I learned from watching a 60's movie in a room of about 20 people my age is that I'm completely detached from my generation. I'm really ok with this...my generation is kind of lame. The mildly disturbing thing is, I don't know what's normal to them. They made fun of certain parts of the movie and I really couldn't see what was so funny. It seemed perfectly normal to me! I think everyone really enjoyed it though. They got pretty into it and there were definitely some big laughs. I'm looking forward to the next old movie night.

Meanwhile, Charade is a fabulous movie. I had never seen it, but it's been recommended to me many times and I always meant to rent it. It was perfect for mixed company...action, comedy, romance, everything we could ever want. Also Cary Grant. He's pretty amazing.

There were some great lines and enough action to keep the guys entertained. I feel like I need to watch it over again because naturally, with 20 people in the living room, I don't think I caught everything. After a particularly amusing scene involving fruit and a lot of borderline inappropriate touching, we all decided a trip to Paris must be added to our to do lists.

Did I mention I love Cary Grant?

The Music Man - Shirley Jones Day 1

Went to see The Music Man last night on the big screen. It was excellent. I love that movie and it's even better in the theater! I almost broke out into song a couple of times, but luckily I was able to control myself.

I wanted to go to the matinee show to save a little money and I arrived a half hour early, but it was sold out! I was disappointed, but I bought tickets for the later show. I'm glad it was sold out though, at least people have an interest in these movies. The show I went to as not as well attended, but the theater was more than half full.

Shirley Jones was there in the lobby before the show started, signing autographs and such, but you had to pay $20 for an autograph! Even if you brought something of your own for her to sign! So forget that, I say. I'm thinking about at least getting a picture with her tonight when I go back for Oklahoma.

Shirley also introduced the movie and answered audience questions which was the best part. She seems very nice and everything she said was interesting, although some of the questions asked were just dumb. Seriously, people, ask intelligent questions. Anyway, she talked a bit about her career. She mentioned that one of her granddaughters is playing Amaryllis in her school production and Shirley was very proud. She also talked about working with Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda in The Cheyenne Social Club. She said Jimmy Stewart is just wonderful and a completely natural actor, but Henry Fonda was not so friendly.

So I'll be viewing Oklahoma tonight and I'm pretty sure it's going to be amazing. More on that later, plus pictures.

Meet Me In St. Louis - A workplace tale

It's rare that my love for classic films and my life at work collide, but one fateful day, they did.

To make a long story short, I couldn't keep my mouth shut, and now we may be going to see Meet Me In St. Louis on stage for our company Christmas party.

For the last couple Christmas parties, (since I've been working there) we've gone to a nice hotel for dinner, followed by a musical guest and some fun work related skits. They've been enjoyable, but I was always jealous when I heard that prior to that, many of the parties had been at one of my favorite dinner theaters, for dinner and a show.

A few weeks ago, the vice president of our department took an informal poll, asking if we prefer the hotel, or the dinner theater. There were some mixed opinions, but I, of course, picked the theater. He couldn't remember the name of the show that would be playing there in December, and I couldn't stand such mystery, so I looked it up. I was elated to find that it would be Meet Me In St. Louis and I had to march into his office to tell him how great it was. So I did. And now my coworkers think I'm weird. Not so out of the everyday, I guess. They had to find out sometime.