Rick Springfield

On July 1st I had the amazing opportunity to attend a Rick Springfield sound check and meet the man himself.


I remember being about 14 years old, hanging out in the pool with my girlfriend.  Talking about things that teenage girls talk about including music. She said to me...."have you heard that new song Jessie's girl".  I remember making the connection that they guy who sang Jessie's Girl was also the hot doctor on General Hospital.  Dr. Noah Drake. 


Not long after you could find my room covered in Rick Springfield posters and that February you would find me jumping up and down with excitement when Rick won his first Grammy award for Jessie's Girl.


Rick Springfield was my very first concert I ever attended.  I'll never forget it and to this day every single time he comes to town you will know where to find me. 


When you mention Rick Springfield to the general public they will remember him for Jessie's Girl, they will say...is he still around?


When you mention Rick Springfield to the hard core fan, they will know every word to every song, they will know facts like Sammy Hagar actually wrote "I've Done Everything For You".  They will tell you that he is still making music (in fact one of my most favorite cd's is something he released a few years back called Shock Denial Anger Acceptance). A true hard core fan will tell you what a great guitarist he is and will let you know that he has written two books. 


I have numerous friends and family members that tease me about my Rick Springfield Obsession.  I don't care, I love the man.  He was my first rock star crush.  So I have to admit I was nervous meeting him.  I'm not one to be at a loss for word but when I got face to face with him I was frozen.  I was in such awe.  I had him sign my Working Class Dog album and somehow managed to speak and say that it was the first album I ever bought with my own money. He also signed his memoir and of course the experience would not have been complete without a photo.


Of course it goes without saying that the concert was amazing.  It was in Boston at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion and it was hot, so hot that Rick had to perform shirtless much to the delight of all his fans.  Rick always comes out into the audience to since Human Touch and this amazes me still. 


Yes, you may still remember Rick as the bubble gum pop artist of the 80's or the pretty face on General Hospital, but we have all grown up since then and Rick has grown as an artist.  It's just unfortunate that in this business once you are identified in a certain category you can't get out.  


I may have started out as a crazy teenage fan (and yes I did send him plenty of letters, I believe one even said I was going to marry him) but I have matured into a crazy adult fan.  I love his music, I love his writing, I love his guitar playing.  I will always be a champion of Rick Springfield.


Did you know....
Rick was born in Australia
Rick's last name is actually Springthorpe
There was a real life Jessie's girl
Rick dated Linda Blair (from the Exorcist)
Rick's dog on the cover of Working Class Dog and Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet was named Ron


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH1Om5NmmHc

Joan Rivers

Can we talk?    About Joan Rivers that is.

Joan tells it like it is and makes you laugh while doing it.  The woman never stops, from performing comedy to acting, she's also a jewelry designer and creates cosmetics.  When she's not doing one of those things, she's writing a book.

Joan is everywhere. 

http://www.joan.co/

I sent Joan a photo and on April 28th and received it back (signed and personalized) on June 21st.

Many thanks to such a busy lady!

Priscilla Presley

Before everyone ran home from school to watch the wedding of the century on General Hospital...that would be Luke and Laura.....There Was Elvis and Priscilla.

Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll became smitten with 14 year old Priscilla Beaulieu while serving in the army.  There was a 10 year age difference between the two.  When Elvis returned to the states the two remained in contact and Priscilla's parents agreed to a two week, chaperoned visit.  Well as we all know the rest is history, they were married, and had a daughter, Lisa Marie on February 1, 1968.

We all know how the story with Elvis ended.

Elvis may have brought Priscilla into the spotlight but she stands on her own.  She is an actress.  Perhaps you remember her portrayal of Jenna Wade in Dallas. 

She is a business woman.  She has turned the Presley Estate into a successful organization that includes the Graceland Mansion and  its  worldwide licensing program, merchandising, music publishing and television and video projects.

She is a producer.  She sits on the Board of MGM and is currently producing.

She is a Mother.  Yes mother to one of the most famous celebrity children of all time but as a Mother now myself she did a fantastic job raising Lisa Marie amongst all the obstacles that came along with being the child of the most famous musician of all time.

Priscilla may have been brought into the limelight by Elvis but she truly is a remarkable woman with an interesting story.

I would have been honored to have her autograph in my collection.  I had seen from my collecting buddies that someone has sent her a photo to be signed and it was a wedding photo of her and Elvis.  She had signed it. I have to admit that I felt a little bad asking her to sign the wedding photo. I thought about it carefully.  I wondered, how does she feel when she gets these photos?  Then I figured well, it's part of history, it was part of her life, she did have good moments and after all these years I'm pretty sure she's embraced it for what it is.  I mean she runs Graceland it's not like she's wiped Elvis out of her life. From what I read even after their divorce they still remained close.

So on June 4th I sent the photo and on June 20th I received it back signed and personalized.  I am absolutely tickled to have this as part of my collection.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=242905865918627&set=a.222594707949743.1073741828.222464594629421&type=1&theater

Check out Priscilla's Website to learn more.

http://www.priscillapresley.com/

Terror-con June 2014

As fun as it is to collect autographs by mail, there is nothing like meeting your favorite celebrities in person.

Yesterday, June 7th, I had the opportunity to attend Terror-con at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

http://www.terrorcon.net/

The best part about a convention like this is that you can meet as few or as many of the celebrities there, chat with them, get photos, autographs, as well as visit vendors who are selling there wares and offer many unique items and collectibles.

When I attend these events I'm like a kid in a candy store.  It's just so much fun to chat with some of my favorite celebs and I always leave with a story and unexpected surprise.

Now I've never been to one of these conventions outside of Rhode Island (where I live) so I can't vouch for other sites such as NYC or San Diego which I hear is really out of this world and I can imagine the amounts of people that attend.  I really love our con's here in little RI; you would think that  it would be long lines and almost impossible to get to the Celebs but it's not.  It's very well organized.  Most of them you can walk right up to, there were a few that had actual lines you had to wait in but it moved very quickly and it wasn't the chaos one would think.

Friday night, my cousin brought over a box of Music Trading Cards from the 80's we had a blast going through them and I was delighted to find cards from Twisted Sister, Ratt and Lita Ford as they were all going to be at Terror-Con.  What a perfect way to get these signed.

We started the day by checking out all of the merchandise and people watching. Now, I'm not a horror movie fan so having the likes of Freddy Kruger walking around freaked me out. Nothing freaked me out more than this one guy walking around in a weird dead clown outfit, every time I turned around there he was. It was all in good fun, I just tried to walk on the opposite side of them.

After browsing all the merchandise, (and I have to say there was this one guy there who sold these key chains that were replica's of the old hotel style key chains, you know the ones from back in the day before swipe cards, they each had a different hotel printed on them such as Bates Motel and The Shining - I thought it would be a very clever use of them for party invites) We finally hit celebrity row.

First was Stephen Pearcy, lead singer of the band RATT.  Stephen was pretty cool, we chatted about some of the newer Rock Bands and turns out he likes one of my favorites, Shinedown.  I had Stephen sign my trading cards but I do have to say he has a very scribble like signature.

I did not have far to go to meet Rock Legend Dee Snider from Twisted Sister.  Dee has appeared on Celebrity Apprentice and currently hosts radio show House of Hair.  If Stephen Pearcy was pretty cool then Dee Snider was Ultra Cool (and tall).  He wore about 6 rings on his fingers and had told us that Stephen Pearcy had just given him one today (from one rocker to another).  Pretty cool.  As I walked up to him, I got a Hey there babe!  He signed my trading card, a photo and we took a photo together.  Really nice guy.
When he signed the trading card he said he would sign it small in case I met the other band members.

Next was Lita Ford.  Lita was part of the all girls rock group the Runaways (with Joan Jett), went solo and you actually may remember her duet with Ozzie Osbourne, When you close your eyes.   Sad to say Lita was sitting at her table all by her self, there were 3 guys who were some kind of body guard hanging around talking, one was talking to Lita, I waited patiently, Lita finally had to tell him I was waiting to see her.  I thought there would be a bigger line to meet her but nope, it was just me. She was the only one there who had a sign up on her booth that said "No unauthorized photos".  Meaning, you couldn't even snap a photo from afar, no crowd shot or anything.   We chatted a little bit, I asked her about who her favorite touring partners were and she did said that Def Leppard was one of her favorite, she said they were really great guys to tour with, she also signed my trading card.


Cherie Currie, also from the Runaways was at Terror-Con but not at her table when I was there.

Richie Scarlet, Guitarist, who has played with Ace Frehly (Kiss), Sebastian Bach, and Alice Cooper was there.  I passed him as he was walking in and could tell immediately that he was stoned out of his mind.  I passed on meeting him.  I have no tolerance for that.  Really...you come to a convention where there are people of all ages and  you can't get through the day without a little help.  No thanks. moving on.

Erin Murphy, you know her as Tabitha from Bewitched was an absolute doll!  Very pretty lady with personality to match. We spoke about how things were for her being a child actor and how things are different today. Her thoughts on the matter is the only difference is that now we have social media so everything is out there.



Of course when you attend these events there are always the people who will get my award for being Jerky and the people who will win the surprise personality award.

The Jerk of the day award goes to Pat Priest, best known for playing Marilyn Munster. When planning my visit to Terror-con, I looked over the list and made note of the people I most wanted to meet.  Pat was on this list because I have fond memories of watching the Munsters as a little girl.  Pat was less than enthusiastic to be there.  I tried to start a conversation with her and from a distance I hear someone ask her if she enjoyed her lobster dinner last night.  As she turned to have a discussion with this other person, clearly one whom she knows, my cousin caught the rest of the conversation, "I guess I went too late because all I got was a tail and not a whole lobster".  Allegedly a little miffed.  Well, perhaps if she got the whole lobster she would have been a little happier to meet fans.  If you are going to attend one of these events be happy about it, if you can't enjoy the fact that at 77 years old there are still people willing to meet you, don't come. Stay home.

The surprise of the day award goes to.........John Altamura......  John was at the show to promote Toxic Avengers III, ok, so not my kind of movie, but he had this familiar face.  Me, never for a loss of words and not known to be shy (though I can be a little bit on certain occasions) walked right up to him and said "where do I know you from"....he went through his list of movies and ding ding the words....Chuck Norris.....Yes, that was it, as a big Chuck Norris fan (little known fact about me)  that had to be where it was. We talked for awhile and what a wonderful, nice guy. Very friendly, very charismatic.  Ok and very good looking.  We even played the game that I made up with my son....Who would win Chuck Norris or........  John said back in the day Chuck Norris, but today he could take him.  



That concludes my day at Terror con.   Looking forward to Comic Con in November.

Burt Young

The Rocky movie franchise is one of my all time favorites!  I have such fond memories as a kid when each new Rocky movie came out and my Dad would let me and my two brothers stay home from school so we could be one of the first to see the new movie.

I was delighted this week to receive an autographed photo from Burt Young who played Rocky's best friend and brother in law, Paulie.

I do, of course, have requests out to both Sylvester Stallone and Talia Shire but don't have high hopes to receive from either as Sylvester is probably way to big a star to sign and I hear that Talia rarely ever signs.  But if the day comes when I open my mailbox and find one from either of them I will be tickled pink.

As always I like to provide tidbits of info on the actor because if you walk away after reading my blog learning something new then I've provided a service.  (I personally love useless information, it may come in handy if I ever get on Jeopardy)

Did you know that Burt Young is also a painter?
http://www.burtyoungartandfilm.com/

Mr Young is a published author

He was born Gerald Tommaso DeLouise 

Has been in nearly 100  movies

Margo Seibert

You may look at the title of this post and say Margo who?  Margo Seibert...if you are a fan of Boardwalk Empire you maybe have seen her there but she is currently starring in her Broadway Debut as Adrian in Rocky Broadway.

Margo is adorable and talented with a beautiful voice. She is every bit as good as Adrian as Talia Shire was.   You may not know her now but she is a name to watch.

I had really hoped to meet her after the show  the day I saw Rocky in NYC but she was unable to come out. I sent her a couple of photos and she signed them for me. (She even re-tweeted my tweet on twitter).

Get to know Margo at her website: 

http://margoseibert.wordpress.com/

If you have the chance to see Rocky on Broadway....don't walk run to get a ticket.  It its a heartwarming, uplifting show with lots of talent.  I can't wait to see it again!

Ann B. Davis

Though she has a slew of acting credits, most of us know Ann B. Davis from the Brady Bunch.  She played housekeeper, Alice Nelson.

I loved the character of Alice, didn't we all?  Who wouldn't want an "Alice" of our own?

Brady Bunch helped me in learning how to tell time. I remember being in Kindergarten and the daily routine was lunch, watch Brady Bunch and when it was over it was time to walk to school.

Some facts you may or may not know:

The "B" in Ann B. Davis stands for Bradford

Ann has a twin sister (Harriet)

Ann was planning on studying medicine until she got the acting bug

In 1976 Ann retired from show business and became a born again Christian

Today I received this autographed photo from Ann

Update:  very sad to report that Miss Davis passed away yesterday, June1, 2014

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/01/showbiz/ann-b-davis-dies/