The Simpsons have been as American as apple butter for the last two decades, garnering numerous awards and critical recognition. In 2005, I had the chance to meet Dan Castellaneta, who voices the patriarch of the Simpsons family, Homer Simpson. So I was excited when the opportunity presented itself to get to meet our local Kettering sensation Nancy Cartwright, who has provided the voice of the irrepressible Bart Simpson for some twenty years.
On Thursday, September 17, Nancy Cartwright made an appearance in her old hometown at the Books & Co. in Kettering, Ohio. She was here in town for a much grander purpose: performing with thespian students of her alma mater Fairmont High School in a reading of the L. Ron Hubbard book If I Were You. In fact, it was this particular book on CD that she was there to promote.
Her appearance was at 7:00pm and I got there at 6:00, anticipating line numbers. However, there weren’t any to be given out. I went over to Kroger next door to hang out while I waited, saying hello to my friend Jamie. Also attending the Nancy Cartwright signing was my friend Eric Flinn, who I gave a quick lesson to on how to take my picture with her when the time came.
I had called ahead to see the particulars of the visit and was told that Ms. Cartwright wasn’t signing any other memorabilia than the book, but still I scoured my Simpsons DVDs to come up with the inserted postcards seen in this posting. As you can see, she did sign them after commenting “well, since you bought the CD…”
This and the photo op with her came after she addressed the crowd for a while, telling us how she got into voice work. She also introduced her castmates from Fairmont High School. When she fielded questions, I actually asked one. I mentioned that she had had a small role in an episode of Cheers and wanted to know how her limited live acting compared to her voice over work. She told us some of the live action appearances that she had made, saying that she enjoyed them because they ‘fell into her lap’, but that was not really her calling.
Nancy addessed the modest turnout at Books & Co.
Her fellow castmates from Fairmont High were thrilled to be working with Nancy Cartwright
Me and Bart Simpson
Nancy Cartwright is quite entertaining and very friendly and I was exceptionally glad to finally have the chance to meet this hometown hero.
2009 will continue…
I remember working with her father a few years back. He was a printing salesman at Miami Litho.
Dad
October 11th, 2009
Both of her parents were actually there at Books & Co.
Brad
October 12th, 2009