What a fine actor that man was…great in everything he ever did. I'm talking about Joe Bologna, who has left us at the age of 82. I wish I'd met him and that I had a great anecdote about him. Well, I do have a story about him. He just isn't really in it but I'll tell it anyway…
In 2015, I had my right knee replaced. I spent a few days in the hospital and then they moved me to what they call a Skilled Nursing Facility for a few more days. I was wheeled into a room and in this place, they put each patients' name on his or her door. The name of the patient who had just vacated that room a few hours before was still there. It was Joseph Bologna. So for the first day or so, I was laying there in the bed, feeling a great urge to go do the Boss Hijack sketch.
The facility's Social Director came around…a nice lady whose job involved arranging events, mostly in the dining room, to entertain the patients. One source of such events was that she interviewed each patient who was admitted and find out what they did. If it seemed like it would be of interest to other patients, she'd ask them to give a talk some evening and others could come hear them. I told her what I did and she was interested but since I was only going to be in the place for two or three more days, it wouldn't be possible for me to give one of those lectures.
I asked her if she prevailed on the man who was previously in the bed I was occupying. She said, "He was an actor, he told me — but he was evasive. He wouldn't tell me what he had done. I meant to go Google him and find out but I never got around to it before he was discharged. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay with us. You might want to join us for movie night. Actually, every night is movie night here. Every evening at 7 PM, we run a movie in the dining room."
"What do you have for tonight?" I asked.
She said, "I forget. I'll have to go look it up…but I can tell you what we ran last night. Last night, we showed My Favorite Year!"
Sorry that's as close as I can come to a Joe Bologna anecdote. I wish I'd met him because then I might have a much better one and at least, I could have told him how I've always admired his work.