Dwight is realy Dwayne Feely, Keith.
Semper Fi, Eric! You sound ike me talking and I know the guy who skipped on the payment of his Brown Derby bills (We ate thre once when I was a little kid and even then they were talking about tearing it down. What's in that exact location now?) .... I won't say his name unless you agree and offer confirmation but his initials were VP and he only played in one good movie as far as I was concerned (The Baron of Arizona).
I also feel the same about the stars of the past. There's a notable difference there that I can't quite place my finger on. I also met Jimmy Stewart while he was filming Vertigo in San Francisco and Kim too (She liked me, she realy really liked me!), but Alfred Hitchkock was having lunch in his private trailer.
Interesting to hear that your grandfather was a Marine Sniper. Some of my troops were snipers just out of Vietnam and Life Magazine came on base to do a story about their training and in-country, combat experience and I ended up being the OIC during that short "indoctrination" around a small campfire on one hell of a cold night at CP. These reporters felt that all snipers should be put through a re-indoctrination program upon returning to states so that they would not continue to "snipe-out" the entire west coast. They felt that many of the snipers returning from Nam were overly excited about their combat experiences and could possibly be a threat on US Shores. I don't know what ever became of that story or even if it was ever published as intended. Did your GF ever tell you combat stories?
As the old saying goes, "I could tell ya a few - but then I'd have to kill ya!"
I never did meet Buck Owens and the others you mentioned but I did meet Burl Ives a number of time and he was always wiing to pull out a guitar and sing a few of his better songs. Rita Hayworth was my one shot baby sitter for an hour or so while she danced in a chorus line in San Francisco.
And I knew Mae West when she wasn't Mae West but just a sweet old lady, but within a matter of seconds she could switch personas and become another person entirely. That kind of "switch" is amazing to see in person. And Pee Wee Herman/Paul Rubens does it best of all. See it in person and you'll just about shit in your knickers.
It's a strong possibility that I was on your great grandfather's ranch at one time or another as I used to go over to San Fernando (before it grew up) and work the stunt horses with my stuntman buddies. I do recall an old swayback horse on one ranch who had appeared as a constant "guest" in one of those old Walt Disney TV shorts....... Could that have been the Spin and Marty series? That o horse had made its owner lots of money and once the TV series was over, he put him out to pasture to enjoy the rest of his living days.
We'd go out to those old San Fernando ranches and train the horses for some damn great movies, 'How the West was Won" is the main one that comes to mind and I can tel you a few interesting things about the dangers of fiiming a film like that.... especially the fight on the train carrying all those logs. (Later story).
You recall a movie with Gary Cooper adn Ruth Roman (mid 50's) called Dallas? The third star in that flick was Gil Donaldson (a family member). He played the part of Ruth Roman's brother if I recall right and all the movie magazines of the day were doing stories on him claiming that he was the next best thing in the movie business. But for some unrecalled reason, he got out of the movie business and played the part of the doctor in the old Lassie TV series. And since then, we've lost contact.
Bringing back a lot of old memories here, Eric. Old days of sneaking on movie sets claiming to be the star in the big movie shooting on the ajacent soundstage, walking onto hot sets with a message for Mr Sinatra, touring the backlots looking for Lassie (we even carried a leash and collar to convince one and all that we really were looking for a lost dog), and getting evicted a couple of times too when we were much too young to be on our own in Hollywood. On those few occasions the guy who did the evictions always did so with a smile on his face). Later on those same guys would offer a hearty "Good morning, Mr _____!" and that was a very good feeling the first few times.
Semper Fi, Erik. First Force here.
