A note on a friend’s Facebook page (curator Rita Gonzalez) triggered a memory for me and gave me the inspiration to write down the following list. It is not chronological or geographical and is not meant to imply that I ascribe any importance to celebrity in and of itself.
Celebrity is often more accident than accomplishment and it is good to remember that health care workers, waiters and waitresses, drivers and busboys, grocery store clerks and bag boys of both sexes (are there any left?) janitors (like my dad), auto mechanics, animal care workers, maids and house cleaners (like my mom), receptionists, nail girls and shoe shine boys (and girls), school teachers, and of course the most invisible workforce, without whom we would starve to death, field hands and farm workers and all the other un-acknowledged laborers that work hard to make our lives easier, are and will always be, the real celebrities as far as I am concerned.
Note: The list does not include the famous people I met while driving a limousine since it hardly qualifies as a “spotting” if I am given the address to their home and required to transport them. It also does not include anyone I met while I worked the graveyard shift as an elevator operator at The Beverly-Wilshire Hotel since that was a captive odd-ience, or anyone I met through employment of any kind. My memory is not what it used to be. Often I can’t remember breakfast but I find the distant past sometimes returns for an encore so I may add names as they come to me.
Celebrity Spotting Memories from East L.A. and Beyond
George Segal – Calvary Cemetery
Walter Matthau – Commonwealth or Occidental between 3rd & Beverly
Ray Charles – LAX
Muhammad Ali – LAX
Jack Lemmon – LAX
Tony Roberts – #6 Train NYC
Tony Roberts – Public Theater Lobby
Nathan Lane – Public Theater Lobby
Wallace Shawn – St. Marks Place 1995
Wallace Shawn – NY Post Office 2005
Philip Glass – a local restaurant
Julianne Moore – a local restaurant
Alicia Silverstone – a local restaurant
Pearl Bailey – Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
William H. Macy – Beverly Center
Tony Bennett – Lexington Ave
Sophia Loren – Toluca Lake Post Office
Pierce Brosnan – Cross Creek Shopping Center
Bud Cort – a local market
George Clinton – Santa Monica Blvd near Gower
Frank Sinatra Jr. – driving east Santa Monica Blvd.
Chevy Chase – driving south the PCH
Placido Domingo – Grand Street Downtown LA
Sara Gilbert – El Rey Theater
Sara Gilbert – a local restaurant
Tom Waits – The Black Rider opening night in San Francisco
Chancellor of Austria Franz Vranitzky – Salzburg Festival
Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman – Universal Amphitheater
Mickey Rooney – Santa Anita
Dick van Patten – Hollywood Park
Martin Sheen – Hollywood Park
Smokey Robinson – Burbank Airport
Crispin Glover – A local market
John Houseman – Market in Malibu
Sam Waterston – 3rd Avenue
My all time favorite celebrity spotting was the legendary Udo Kier at the Goodwill on Hollywood Boulevard. He was trying on jackets and looked very dapper indeed. Was he shopping for a role? Was he shopping for himself? It matters none.
To shop at thrift stores is to recycle. To shop at thrift stores is green. To shop at thrift stores is treasure hunting and you never know who you might run into.