My meeting with Johnny Whitaker had been a long time coming. One of my goals in life is to correct my own stupid action of not getting photos with most of the celebrities whom I met during my first two autograph shows in 1995 and 1997. As I’ve mentioned before, back in those days I concentrated mostly on the autographs, but that passion has become dwarfed by getting photos with the stars. As another fan recently said, “you can buy autographs.” So despite meeting Johnny Whittaker on Saturday, June 28, 1997, I had never had never gotten a photo with him.
Fifteen years later, on August 4, 2012, I was finally able to rectify that. Johnny Whitaker was best known as Jody from the TV series Family Affair. Of course his face can be seen in countless appearances in the late 60’s and early 70’s including Green Acres, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Disneyland, Marcus Welby M.D., and as the photo below indicates Bewitched. In the episode Sam and the Beanstalk, he portrayed Jack. He had had Erin Murphy who played Tabitha pre-sign this photo and he still only charged $10. Too bad I didn’t get to meet her then. She’s still hot these days. I bet she was sizzlin’ in 1997.
Sometimes when I meet celebrities from whom I’d already obtained an autograph, I would try to get a photo with them without purchasing anything. However in this case, I had a request from my friend Peter to get a signed photo from Tom Sawyer. In addition, I had recently bought a nice Family Affair photo from his co-star Kathy Garver, and wanted to add Johnny’s signature as well.
He was an exceptionally nice guy and chatted with my friend Ashleigh and me for a bit, and willingly posed for individual and a group photo with us. I was very pleased to not only complete my quest to get a picture with Johnny Whittaker, but to find him to be such a kind and friendly guy as well.
Celebrity encounters of the Summer 2012 Hollywood Show will continue…
Thank you for the “Tom Sawyer” photo.
Peter
August 13th, 2012