I had an absolutely wonderful time yesterday at The Hollywood Show out in Burbank. For those of you who've never attended one of these, let me describe what these are. There's a huge ballroom full of tables. At some of the tables are dealers selling movie memorabilia — posters, photos, books, toys, etc. They are not the show and I don't think anyone comes to buy from them. What they sell they sell to folks who come to meet the folks behind the other tables.
Behind the other tables are stars — some big, some small, some current, some very much a part of the past. One of those present yesterday was Carla Laemmle, whose uncle founded Universal Pictures. She reportedly made her first movie in 1925…a small role as a dancer in the original Lon Chaney version of The Phantom of the Opera. If you want to talk movie history, it doesn't get any more historical than that these days. Later this month, Ms. Laemmle will celebrate her 102nd birthday but I actually met her when she was a much younger woman. She was 98 at the time and we talked about her later work…in the 1931 Dracula with Bela Lugosi.
There were other people in the room with more recent credits. All were available to sell you photos of themselves and/or sign autographs and/or pose for photos for a small fee…usually $20, though a few like Adam West charge more. I'm not a big collector of autographs but there were an unusually high number of celebs there I'd either worked with or had some reason to want to meet so I made the rounds. To limit the dosage of Name Dropping, I'm going to serialize my report over the next few days. I will mention here and now though that it's a two-day show and the second day is today. So if you're reading this Sunday morning in the Los Angeles area, you might want to stop reading and scurry on out there. Among those signing today are…well, here's the list. There's probably someone on there you always wanted to meet.
One of the people I met yesterday there was Sivi Aberg. Ms. Aberg is a former Miss Sweden and during the late sixties and seventies, any time a movie or TV show needed a stunning blonde who if she had lines would deliver them in a Swedish accent, they'd try to hire her. I thought she was about as good-looking as human beings got. Here's photographic proof…
I rest my case. Around 1978 or so, she was living next door to two comedian friends of mine, Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall. Charlie and Mitzi were hosting a daily radio show on KFI here in Los Angeles and they'd asked our mutual pal Larry Hovis (remember him on Laugh-In and Hogan's Heroes?) to help with material. Occasionally, they'd ask me to sit in. Charlie or Mitzi would call and say, "Larry's here and we're writing jokes. Wanna come by and give us a hand?"
I'd say, "Gee, I'd love to but I have a killer deadline on this comic book I'm writing. There is no earthly way I can stop working on this and come over to your house to write jokes all day. Im-possible."
Charlie or Mitzi — whichever one was calling — would say, "Too bad. We're having trouble getting work done here because Sivi is sunbathing nude in her back yard and we're in our dining room which looks right into her yard and…"
"I'll be right over," I'd say.
And I would be right over, each time arriving just in time to hear them say, "Aw, too bad. Sivi just went inside…" But don't think I'm stupid. I only fell for this about twenty times. Anyway, yesterday at the show I got to meet Sivi Aberg and tell her that story. She thought it was a lot funnier than I ever did. Stay tuned to this weblog for more Tales From the Hollywood Show.