Meeting June Lockhart was a long time coming. After having met the bulk of her fellow cast members from the science fiction TV classic Lost in Space (see here), I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get to add her signature to my cast photo. And because of warnings I had heard that she wasn’t all that easy to get along with, I wasn’t sure that I was relishing the idea. As it turns out, our meeting went better than I would have ever imagined when she made an appearance (along with three other cast members of the show) at the Hollywood Show on February 12, 2011.
Her status as a legendary performer is unquestionable. Besides Lost in Space, she is also well-known for her role as Timmy’s mother in Lassie from 1958-1964. Other TV appearances spill into shows such as Petticoat Junction, Bewitched, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and Happy Days. Notable movies include Sergeant York, Meet Me in St. Louis, All This and Heaven Too, and The Yearling. All this, and she’s even won a Tony Award.
Dreading how much she might take me for since my photo already contained four signatures, I was pleasantly surprised that $30 would get me not only the autograph, but a photo with her. In addition, she pulled out a photocopy of the MAD Magazine article Loused Up In Space and gave it to me. This was what had precipitated the cast imitating their caricature counterparts seen in the above photo. According to June, they all loved the parody so much that they posed in the same fashion and then sent the picture into the magazine. All the time that I have had this picture and have been a gigantic fan of MAD Magazine, I never knew this.
The "Mad Magazine" send-up on which the photo above was based
Letter that June wrote to Mad-men Dick DeBartolo and Mort Drucker
It’s so nice to have a pleasant surprise once in a while when meeting celebrities.
Celebrities of the Winter 2010 Hollywood Show will continue…
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