Dropping

  These next few stories will contain observations about some famous people that I have met over the years.  I survived homelessness in a shelter by telling stories about these famous people, especially movie stars.  You might call it bragging or name dropping.  I call it a fortunate time in my life.  It may also be eye-opening to you, but famous people are famous because of the brand that people put on them.  They don't go around (at least most don't) proclaiming they are famous.  They are just people like you or me that may be recognized more in airports or on the street.  Fame can be hard on some.  It sort of takes away your independence in life.  Some become recluses.  Others go to a lot of parties.  Most of the ones I have known do not let fame define them.  They are just ordinary people with extraordinary jobs.

 Burt Lancaster:  When I had got onto the set of "The Midnight Man" in 1973, I had already gone through an audition process.  Burt was the co-director of the movie.  He lined a bunch of us up in front of the dance floor and picked the ones who would look the best on camera.  I was one of those.  He then went up to me and asked me my name.  When I told him, he recognized my name, because his son had told him that I should be hired.  Burt told me that he wanted me to dance with the female lead, who was Susan Clark.  I confessed to him that I didn't know how to dance, so he spent 45 minutes with me teaching me how to dance.  He taught a slow dance to me that would work in the film.  He brought in Susan Clark to rehearse dancing with me.  It didn't go well.  Susan wanted to dance fast, but I couldn't keep up with her.  Consequently, we were tripping each other up.  She got mad and threatened to walk off of the set.  Burt came to my defense and told her that I was trying my best.  But, he saw that she wouldn't work with me, so I was assigned another dance partner.  In the film, it looks like she is dancing with someone else, but she is really dancing alone.  Burt apologized to me, and he allowed me to use his name as a reference for my future work.  I learned a lesson that day:  the bigger the star, the nicer they are.  That is usually true, but not always.

 Charlton Heston:  I was living in Fort Worth, and he had just written an autobiography.  He was doing a book signing at Walden's in the mall where I worked.  I got off work early to be the first in line to meet him.  I had taken one of my acting books for him to sign.  When I got there to the store, the signing hadn't officially started.  I had to buy one of his books for him to sign it.  After he did, I asked him if he could sign my acting book.  His agent said no, but Heston did.  There was no one else in the store at the time, so we got to talking about acting.  He wanted to know what I had done, and I told him about the plays and two movies.  We talked about my work with Burt Lancaster.  Heston was a nice man, and he told me I could call him "Chuck".  So, I asked Chuck if I could use his name as a reference like Burt had, and he agreed.  Chuck had a good sense of humor, and a strong faith in God.  We had a falling out years later, which is a story in my blog about the TV movie "Chiefs".  I would rather remember him for the nice encounter.  I gave his autographed book to my Mother for Christmas.  She was a big fan of his.  I still have my acting book that he signed to me.