Russ Reabold asked us to put this on the blog for any of you Southern California residents.
Mt. Sac Track and Field Luncheon Feb. 25, 2023 Details
Have a great time. Knowing that you are very likely to meet a few celebrities, I'd like to share the following discussion of what to say to someone famous if you have never met them.
It started when I saw the notice this week that major league baseball player and announcer Tim McCarver had passed away. It brought up this memory which I shared with a few people.
In the Fall semester (1964) of my senior year at Oklahoma, he came into my management class right after the World Series had just finished. Cards had won, he had caught Bob Gibson. He sat right in front of me in the class. He was flanked by a couple of frat buddies. Teacher beamed. Only reason he came to OU was a girlfriend there. He was from Memphis. I guess he passed the course even though he missed the first six weeks. I never said a word to him. Too shy.
"Hey Tim, can I borrow a pencil?" probably would not have been appropriate. I was a guy with glasses taped together on one hinge. George
George. We distance runners need many years of confidence building to be able to initiate a conversation with famous person we don't know. At the 1966 Kansas Relays, I sat just a few meters away from Glenn Cunningham in the half-empty stands. Can I borrow a pencil, Mr. Cunningham? anything might have worked. The first time I ran in New York, about 1971, I was on an elevator in Madison Square Garden. The door opened and in walked Olympic swimming star and sportscaster Donna de Varona. For a long minute, it was just the two of us, facing each other. She looked at me. I looked at her. Our eyes met. And I could not utter a word. The elevator door opened and she was gone. If that happened today, I would not hesitate to say something cool like: you look well preserved for age 75, Ms de Varona. Do you have an extra pencil on you? Bill Blewett
Just a ,”May I shake your hand?” would have worked. SVM
The line I use is, “ Say, has anybody ever told you you look like (fill in the blank). “That gets a smile and the conversation goes on from there. I used it once with Admiral Bobby Inman at a car wash while we were waiting for our cars to go through the line and it led to a very nice extended conversation. Walt Mizell
Good for you, Walter. I confess I’m conflicted when in the presence of a celebrity. Do they enjoy being recognized or do they want their privacy? I’ve seen it go both ways.
I ran into Diane Keaton some years ago in the lobby of the Plaza. She was using the phone. I gawked. She saw me , smiled and waved. I smiled and waved back. That was all I needed.
Incidentally, “May I shake your hand?” is the line I used on Walt Disney when I ran into him while working in the Park the summer between my junior and senior years.
Is that enough shameless name dropping for you? SVM
This conversation reminded me
of a long forgotten story. One of my army buddies, Bill Murphy, married into a well connected agricultural family in Illinois.
Unbeknownst to him the former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz was coming through the reception line. This was after Butz
had been booted out of Gerald Ford's administration for telling some off color, racist joke. When Bill shook hands with him he
asked Butz, "Have you heard any good jokes lately?"
If you have something to add, don't be shy. Send it in.
I was not next to Mr. McCarver like you, but saw him several times in main library, once when walking up steps to second or third floor right behind him and his girlfriend. She was a Pi Phi I think and my roommate Tom Raley dated, then married a Pi Phi so he may have known him better. Every baseball catcher possesses incredible athletic skills (i.e. how do they do that?), and in MLB, World Series, at highest level. Sheppard Miers
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