I eat lunch pretty much every day at Subway. When you go in there, they now have a full sized cardboard cutout of "Jared," the guy who is their spokesman. Remember him? Jared lost something like 200 lbs. eating nothing but Subway sandwiches. He apparently wrote to them to tell them his story, they became interested and gave him a "zillion dollar contract" to become their national symbol.
A few years ago, I went to a series of meetings in Washington D. C. During our free time, we liked to seek out the local (and sometimes famous) restaurants, especially for our evening meal. One of the popular places for "celebrity sightings - mostly political" was the Capitol Grill and Bar, which was downtown. It was only about three blocks from our hotel so a group of us decided to venture over there. As expected, there was a "waiting" period to get inside. While we were standing in the "waiting area," I noticed another group of attendees from Kentucky eating at a table just inside front of the restaurant, so I meandered over there to say "hello." In the course of our conversation, one of them told me that there was a celebrity in the restaurant. "Who is it?" I asked. "It's Jared, the Subway guy....he's sitting just over there at the bar." I looked over toward the bar and sure enough there he sat with a couple of buddies. Several other patrons of the restaurant had also spotted him and many of them were over there getting his autograph and posing for pictures with him. He seemed to be enjoying it himself.
I decided I'd go over and meet him, and one of the others in our group had his daughter with him and she wanted a picture with Jared. We drifted over to where he was sitting and introduced ourselves to him. He was very accomodating and friendly and was more than happy to let my friend's daughter have her picture made with him. I couldn't help but notice he was eating one of the Capitol Grill's "Lardburgers" (about a 3/4 lb. hamburger, 4 inches thick), and drinking a pitcher of beer (he was actually sharing the beer with his two buddies that accompanied him).
At any rate, we visited with him for about five minutes or so and he was very pleasant to be around. Two days later, we had a meeting with Sen. Bunning in the Capital Building and when we were getting on the elevator, Jared was getting off. To our surprise, he remembered us and we once again exchanged pleasantries. He was there filming a commercial for Subway in which he played himself, testifying to a Senate Committee as to the wholesomness of Subway sandwiches. I sorta thought it was neat.
I was relaying this story to my lunch buddies (a group of us eat there every day) and that brought up our topic for the day....what celebrities we had actually met (not just seen) and the story about how we met them. It doesn't matter who you are, when you think hard about it, you've probably actually met a celebrity at one time or another. We all have. I've had occasion to meet several over the years due to my involvement in the Everly Brothers Homecoming Festivals we had for so many years here. Most were interesting, some weren't. I found pretty much all of them to be nice for the most part. I've read these stories where people were treated badly by celebrities but all of them I've met were genuinely nice people.
One day I was having one of my daily department head meetings when I was Mayor. Someone knocked on the door to my office (which nobody hardly ever did...most people came through the City Administrator's office which was next door and simply walked in). The ones who knocked were usually salesmen. "Someone get the door" I requested and David Higgs got up and opened the door. As it came open, James Best (Roscoe P. Coltrain of Dukes of Hazzard fame) walked through the door in "full character." He walked in like he owned the place and went around the room introducing himself to everyone in there. He gave each of us an 8"x10" photo of himself with "Flash" his "Wonder Dog" and wrote a personal message on all of them. He stayed with us approximately forty-five minutes and it was a lot of fun. He told us stories of working with James Stewart and Bob Hope and Burt Reynolds and it was fascinating to say the least. Turns out he had come to town to re-discover his "roots," as he was born in Powderly. He stayed in town about three or four days and spent a lot of time at the City Building. He was also one of Ted Everly's cousins.
One of the most genuinely nice people you would meet who's famous is John Prine. He comes to Muhlenberg County at least once a year and has a lot of family here. Most of the time he rents the entire Shady Cliff Inn and they have family reunions up there. He loves Lake Malone.
One day a group of us were riding a pontoon on the lake when one of the women complained they had to "relieve" themselves. Shady Cliff Restaurant had an outdoor public restroom adjacent to the restaurant. We pulled up to the dock and everyone on the boat decided to go at the same time. There was a line in both restrooms and while I was waiting my turn, someone "pushed" me in the back and said "Hello, Mayor."
I turned around and it was John Prine. He and a group of his friends were also riding in a pontoon and they came up to "take a break" just like we did. It was funny because most of the others in line didn't know who he was. That's why he liked coming up there.
Being a huge NASCAR fan, no one was more excited than I was when Clarence Brewer, Jr. started a Busch Series team here in town. Through them, I got the opportunity to meet many "heroes" that I have watched race over the years. It was neat to build a new home for Jamie McMurray, one of today's stars, here in our subdivision. We managed to go to about three or four races a year and were fortunate enough to get pit passes for many of them, giving me the opportunity to meet stars of that sport such as Larry McReynolds, Mark Martin, Jack Roush, Richard Childress, Dale Jarrett and many others. The most pleasant surprise, however, came at Gateway Raceway, just outside of St. Louis.
We were in the pits for a race and during the driver introductions, I was standing beside an older gentleman that looked very familiar. We carried on with some small talk and I extended my hand and introduced myself. "Glad to meet you, Hugh," he said, "I'm Stan Musial." He was absolutely one of the nicest people you could meet. Casey Atwood, who drove Clarence's car that year was standing there with us. "Who's Stan Musial?" he asked us. Of course "Stan, the Man" had retired from the game many years before Casey was even born.
Clarence Brewer, Sr., one of the "dinner buddies," told us he goes to Nashville several times a year to relax. He and Brenda, his wife, heard of a fund-raising dinner at one of Nashville's premier hotels and went down there. The cost was $1,000 a plate and it was full of celebrities. There was going to be a celebrity auction that evening and Clarence knew the auctioneer, who happened to be Malcolm West from here in Central City. Malcolm spotted them and invited them in. They didn't eat (they had already eaten earlier at a cost of a lot less than $1,000 a plate) but they were seated at a table with Mike Curb (owner of Curb Records) and Naomi Judd and her husband. He said she was a lot of fun and seemed as common as any one you would meet. Of course through Star Records (his company) and Brewco Motorsports Inc. (his son's company), he's met several celebrities throughout the years.
Many years ago, I owned a Printing and Office Supply Company across from the Central City Post Office. A gentleman and two women entered and purchased some envelopes. When I looked at him, I asked "Are you who I think you are?" "I'm Porter Wagoner," came the reply as he extended his hand for a friendly handshake. He was in town making an album at Wee Brown's recording studio and had been eating over at Sug's Restaurant (Colonel's Grill). He needed some envelopes so he stopped in and purchased some. I remember having a marquis sign in front of the store. When he left, I grabbed some letters and a stepladder and put up the slogan "Where the Stars Shop" just under the store name.
The first year a group of us went to Nashville to the University Plaza Hotel to meet with the Everly Brothers about the then proposed Music Festival, Ted (Everly) and I were standing together in the lobby, near the main door. A limousine pulled up in front with "blackened" windows where you couldn't see inside it. I told Ted that we were going to see a celebrity. The limo stopped at the door, the driver got out and went around to open the passenger door. When he did, "Tiny Tim," the folk singer ("Tiptoe Through the Tulips") got out and was "hustled" through the lobby to his room, ukele and all. He was wearing a suit that looked like he slept in it and of course I don't have to describe his hair.
We were eating dinner one evening at "Cock of the Walk," an excellent catfish restaurant on Music Valley Drive a few years ago. It was crowded as usual and we were standing out front in the lobby when Mike Snider (Hee-Haw) and Strother Martin ("What we have heah is failure to communicate of Cool Hand Luke fame) came through. Again, I didn't meet them but they stood beside us for a few minutes while the staff prepared them a table. They got preferential treatment because they were appearing on the Saturday Night edition of Grand Ole Opry in about an hour. None of us minded and were more than happy to accomodate them by letting them in front of the line. We've eaten at Cock of the Walk about six or seven times and you can pretty much count on seeing somebody famous in there. Last time it was William Lee Golden, the Oak Ridge Boy with the long hair and breard. I noticed he had a piece of fish breading stuck about middle ways in his beard.
Many times you meet a celebrity before they actually become one or maybe they're famous locally but not nationally yet. Such was the case of Lloyd Lindsay Young, a weather man over at Channel 14 in Evansville. He was of the same caliber as Marcia Yockey (talk about a famous local celebrity) in that he still did a comical version of the weather. He coined phrases such as "It's three degrees below zero in Fargo, North Dakota....Now my friends, THAT'S THREE DEGREES LESS THAN NOTHING!!!" He learned his craft before most of the electronic maps and things weathermen use today. In those days, most of them actually "drew" weather systems on their maps and used "pointers" to show different happenings in the country. Lloyd Lindsay Young became famous using "guest pointers." This would be objects sent to him by viewers promoting various fairs and festivals such as advertising yardsticks or pencils. One night he actually used a spotted bird dog (pointer). He held it under his left arm and actually used it's tail to point out the various weather systems and temperatures. He left Evansville and went on to New York City where he became the #1 weatherman in the New York City area (beating out Al Roker) and he's still there today. He is a regular guest on Howard Stern's radio program and has been on Imus in the Morning several times.
I'll never forget one year that Kentucky State College had an Alumni Dinner here in Central City. It was held at the National Guard Armory and was a pretty big event. It was formal, requiring tuxedos and evening gowns. The guest speaker? A little known newscaster out of Nashville named Oprah Winfrey. She was the first African-American anchorperson and first Female anchorperson in the Nashville Market (and one of the first in the U. S.). I often wonder if she remembers that evening.
Several years ago I attended a finance and insurance school in Chicago. The school lasted a couple of weeks so they put us up in the Executive House Hotel on Wacker Avenue (across from the Chicago Sun-Times building). Several of the rooms there were "dormitory" style, where they would have two bunks. My roommate was from Parsippany, New Jersey. We were staying on the 28th floor (out of about 40) and got on the elevator for the ride down and dinner. It stopped again on the 25th floor and several men got on. As we rode down (practically non-stop), everyone was for the most part quiet and staring straight ahead at the elevator doors. When we arrived at the lobby and the elevator emptied, my roommate nearly went into a convulsion. "Did you see who we just rode the elevator down with?" he asked. "Naw," I said, "who was it?" He went on to tell me excitedly it was Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Ken Griffey and several more of the "Red Dynasty" that played at Cincinnati that year. I just remember they wore a lot of strong shaving lotion. I can't say I really saw them in person, just their reflection on the inside of the elevator doors. Oh well, I guess I blew that one.
I was in Nashville once and pulled up behind a Land Rover with the personalized license plate, "Possum" on it. I managed to pull alongside it in the inside lane at the next stop light and sure enough, there he was "Ol' George Jones" himself! He smiled and waved then got drunk and wrecked the same Land Rover two weeks later (it was on the news).
A friend of mine once told me he had the honor of using the adjacent urinal at the Nashville Airport with Johnny Cash. I never got to get that "up close and personal" with any of the celebrities I've encountered and really, I suppose that's for the best. Somehow, we view these famous people as "bigger than life" and people like that just don't have to use the bathroom.
At least that's what I used to think.
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