When We Were Young

[spacecadet]

4 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

I lived in Trastevere, not really that dangerous. But I was a PJ in Vietnam with that ID. 

Well, the VC might have taken that stare of contempt rather personally, but that is definitely what "Garbo" should have looked like..........

[Ed Rooney]

43 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Well, the VC might have taken that stare of contempt rather personally, but that is definitely what "Garbo" should have looked like..........

 

Mark, I was looking in the window of a shop on the Eastside of Manhattan when a woman came up to look in the window too. It was Garbo.

[spacecadet]

3 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Mark, I was looking in the window of a shop on the Eastside of Manhattan when a woman came up to look in the window too. It was Garbo.

I meant the WW2 double agent, but I really should have known that Ed would have actually met the actual Garbo.😍

Chapeau, Ed.

 

Edited March 8, 2023 by spacecadet

[Ed Rooney]

 

I didn't actually meet her. When I turned to go, I gave her a tiny smile and a nod. She didn't respond. She still looked great though.

[NYCat]

I gave a tiny smile to Yoko Ono when I saw her in a gallery and she fled as quickly as she could.

 

Paulette

[Marianne]

5 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Mark, I was looking in the window of a shop on the Eastside of Manhattan when a woman came up to look in the window too. It was Garbo.

 

So funny. Those earrings I'm wearing in my wedding photo are a shared family heirloom with a connection to Greta Garbo. After emigrating from Italy, my grandfather was a jeweler in Manhattan and Garbo was one of his clients. According to family legend, he designed some exclusive jewelry for her and sometimes, as in the case of the earrings, made a second pair for my grandmother.  All the women in my family have been loaned them to wear on their wedding day. 

[Betty LaRue]

Nobody so famous as Greta Garbo. But I was at a pro golf tournament (maybe the Open) in Tulsa, Oklahoma watching a group tee off. I stood behind the rope just behind the tee box when Arnold Palmer, awaiting his turn, turned around and smiled at the crowd. He met my eyes & held them for a few seconds. If we had both reached out, we could have touched fingers. 

It was then I realized how Arnie’s Army came about. He was the only golfer who acknowledged the gallery. He cared about people, and people loved him back. It seemed his fame never went to his head. That’s why I always was a fan even before that day. Jack Nickolas was very aloof & seemingly self-important. 

[Ed Rooney]

 

Palmer was a good guy. 

 

My area of Lower Manhattan was dripping with celebs in the past 25 years. Don't know how things have gone since Covid and all the other issues since I left. 

 

And, Mark -- I was slow on the pickup that you were referring to the Spanish spy who had the code name Garbo. 

Edited March 9, 2023 by Ed Rooney

[Allan Bell]

5 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Nobody so famous as Greta Garbo. But I was at a pro golf tournament (maybe the Open) in Tulsa, Oklahoma watching a group tee off. I stood behind the rope just behind the tee box when Arnold Palmer, awaiting his turn, turned around and smiled at the crowd. He met my eyes & held them for a few seconds. If we had both reached out, we could have touched fingers. 

It was then I realized how Arnie’s Army came about. He was the only golfer who acknowledged the gallery. He cared about people, and people loved him back. It seemed his fame never went to his head. That’s why I always was a fan even before that day. Jack Nickolas was very aloof & seemingly self-important. 

 

I once went to a golf tournament and was tee'd off.

 

Allan

 

[Betty LaRue]

3 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

I once went to a golf tournament and was tee'd off.

 

Allan

 

I only played in one tournament, but I, too, generally was teed off after playing. My drives tended to be worm- burners more often than I liked. The tournament (all women) I played in I won “longest drive” & a couple of other things. I played above my usual game that day and shortly after, developed a slice.

[Allan Bell]

25 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I only played in one tournament, but I, too, generally was teed off after playing. My drives tended to be worm- burners more often than I liked. The tournament (all women) I played in I won “longest drive” & a couple of other things. I played above my usual game that day and shortly after, developed a slice.

 

Over on this side of the pond we have a custard slice. What flavour was yours?

 

Allan

 

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Over on this side of the pond we have a custard slice. What flavour was yours?

 

Allan

 

Of course, apple.

[Rebecca Ore]

21 hours ago, spacecadet said:

Well, the VC might have taken that stare of contempt rather personally, but that is definitely what "Garbo" should have looked like..........

As long as the press pass wasn't in French or English or Korean, the VC weren't going to worry about it. 

[Ed Rooney]

 

My Italian press card was what let me apply for the two press cards PJs needed in the Nam -- a card from the South Vietnam government and the MACV US military ID, known as a walk-on-water ID.

[Inchiquin]

On 08/03/2023 at 19:24, NYCat said:

 

I gave a tiny smile to Yoko Ono when I saw her in a gallery and she fled as quickly as she could.

 

 

Geoffrey Boycott just glared at me.

 

Alan

[Steve Hyde]

I actually got to meet one of my heroes in a surreal moment. I was working at the Glastonbury Music Festival, during my police days, covering the backstage area. There was a gate linking the artists hospitality field to the stage area and leaning on that gate was Peter Gabriel (he was headlining that night). I wasn’t to far away and he began talking to me. I’d always been a big Genesis fan, especially the early albums when he was still in the band. He was a really nice guy and we spent a good 20 mins or so passing the time of day.  
 

The pic below was me as a cop, in my early 20’s, somewhere, a long way from home, in North Yorkshire during the 1984 Miners Dispute. 
 

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by Steve Hyde

[Michael Ventura]

Over the years, I have had the fortune (or misfortune at times) to photograph many well known, mostly U.S. politicians, over the years but my two favorite close encounters with real big celebs are these two guys.  I was coming back from a work trip and was in baggage claim at Dulles Airport and who should come right up next to me, to collect his bag, is Sir Richard Branson.  He was not on my flight but his flight from NY was using the same carousel.  I was gobsmacked that he was (1) traveling alone, (2) he was collecting his own bag and (3) he was travelling on a regular commercial flight.  A nice airport security officer came up with his service dog and asked Branson if he needed any help.  He just smiled and said he was all good.   

 

My other chance encounter was when I was married and the kids were little, I was offered a free stay at this luxury hotel in Anguilla called Cap Juluca (a stunning place).  I had shot there on a couple of previous visits and they were so thrilled that I got them so much coverage in magazines, that they wanted to thank me with having my family come down, we just had to pay for air.   Well my wife nearly fainted when the family next to our villa was Michael J Fox with his wife and two kids.   For the next three days, my kids played with his kids and I had a couple of very nice chats with him.  I chose not to take any photos of him and his family and pretty much left them be unless he spoke first.  I do respect that celebs have a right to a peaceful holiday.

 

This was the restaurant at Cap Juluca (such a beautiful place)

 

 

And the beach with the villas

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by Michael Ventura

[spacecadet]

16 minutes ago, Michael Ventura said:

we just had to pay for air. 

Sounds pretty dystopian, like in "Total Recall"😍

[Michael Ventura]

18 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Sounds pretty dystopian, like in "Total Recall"😍

 

Haha.  Meant for the flights of course.  But yes, it does sound dystopian, the way I worded it😅

[Rebecca Ore]

5 hours ago, Inchiquin said:

 

Geoffrey Boycott just glared at me.

 

Alan

 

I was walking home from a friend's in NYC when I saw a man carrying a guitar case.  I recognized him as Bob Dylan, beamed, and he flinched.  Didn't say anything, felt embarrassed. 

 

Gregory Corso, one of the Beat Poets, was wonderful at a party, though.   We started by talking about boots for snow. 

Edited March 10, 2023 by Rebecca Ore

[StokeCreative]

My two "celebs" couldnt me much further apart, Prince Philip when he opened one of our buildings, and (as a small child) Jimmy saville game me a prize at a village fete! (No that's not a euphesim!) Probably lost on those across the pond...

On second thoughts maybe they 're not too far apart...

[spacecadet]

4 minutes ago, StokeCreative said:

not too far apart...

Very, very far.

[Bryan]

I can't compete with all of these world famous folk, my only modest claim in this area was being sat next to David Blunkett, once Home Secretary, at a wedding reception.  He seemed a really nice guy. 

 

The Mrs, now, she once met the recently deceased queen, in connection with her work.

 

I'm not into film and celebrity, so if I bumped into a movie star in the street I probably wouldn't recognise them !  

Edited March 10, 2023 by Bryan

[John Mitchell]

Vancouver has been dubbed "Hollywood North" as a lot of movies and TV shows are filmed here. As a result I've had quite a few celebrity sightings over the years. One of the most memorable was seeing the late Anthony Quinn (loved him in Zorba the Greek) standing outside a downtown store. He looked very bored and grumpy. I think he must have been waiting for his wife who was doing some shopping. I smiled and nodded hello, but he just scowled at me and turned away. Not long ago, part of my street was disguised as a NYC crime scene, complete with fake police cruisers.

 

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by John Mitchell

[Marianne]

I was walking down the street in Manhattan one day on the way to meet friends to see a movie, circa 1985, and I heard a familiar voice, looking around to see who it was, well, it wasn't actually someone I knew, it was Cher! Smiled, she smiled back. No cell phones with cameras back then so no flinching. 

 

When I was a kid, around age 10, I got to meet Fred Gwynne, who played Herman Munster in the tv show "The Munsters."  He was in a remake of the movie "Arsenic and Old Lace," released in 1969 with Bob Crane of "Hogan's Heroes" fame (didn't see him).  They were filming for a couple of days at a house next to our church, near my grammar school, so we kids got to watch the filming before and after school. It was very exciting and I got his autograph. My mom told me later that when I was telling her about it, I mentioned that some adults got the autograph of the two "old ladies," who I didn't recognize. Dumb kid. They were Lillian Gish and Helen Hayes! 

 

I also saw my all-time favorite actress Katherine Hepburn as toddler when my mom took me along in my stroller to watch the filming of "Long Day's Journey Into Night" near our house. I've always felt kind of wistful about it since I was too young to remember. 

 

The two political celebrities who I've met on various occasions are the Clintons, who've lived three roads down from me for over 20 years. Photographing Hillary Clinton for the cover of a local magazine back in 2006 helped launch my photography career as it got me a fair amount of local commercial and editorial work. I attended a press conference at the White House for college Editors when I was 19 and Jimmy Carter was president, and stood with Vietnam War protesters outside my school as Nixon went by when he was running for reelection, but didn't meet either of them. (Took a high school trip to Europe with John Mitchell's daughter the summer of Watergate. When her dad got indicted we did our best to keep the international papers away from her but no luck. She was a sweet kid and one of the smartest people I've ever met.) 

 

Having lived in Manhattan and California, I've seen various celebs, including Bill Murray filming "Ghostbusters" (and that wild ambulance), but the only well known actor I've actually met was "Herman Munster," and as a kid it was a thrill. 

Edited March 10, 2023 by Marianne