It was exciting when I met Paul Michael Glaser back in October of 2011. He was of course the former half of the 70’s TV copy show Starsky & Hutch. Naturally I thought it would be beyond cool if I were ever to get the opportunity to meet the other half, David Soul. I had my doubts that this would ever happen as I had never heard of him doing any appearances, and the fact that he lived in England. Glaser however must have had all of the confidence in the world. We didn’t mention it, but he left a very nice area on the photo that seemed like the prime location fo have Soul sign if the chance should ever arise.
Needless to say – it did, or else I would be doing this posting, eh? The date was February 11, 2012. The location was the Hollywood Show in Burbank, California. And the event was a Starsky & Hutch reunion. This not only included Glaser and Soul, but Antonio Fargas – “Huggy Bear” – as well….plus the Gran Torino that they drove in the show.
I was mostly excited about seeing David Soul. Not only had I enjoyed him in Starsky & Hutch, but he was also in a fabulous TV movie that my Dad and I had enjoyed called In the Line of Duty: The FBI Murders opposite Michael Gross. He also made guest appearances in shows like Star Trek, I Dream of Jeannie, and All in the Family. And he had a song that hit #1 on the Billboard charts called Don’t Give Up on Us Baby, which I quite like.
Given the fact that I needed an autograph and photo with him badly, I was afraid that he might back me into a corner on the price. When I went through the line I was distraught to see that he was sitting behind a very long table with his co-stars that made access nearly impossible to even get next to him for a photo. Plus his handler said he wasn’t doing them. It got even worse when after giving him his $25 for the autograph and asking him to add his character name, he added Soul instead of Hutch. This is something that he apparently always does when asked to add Hutch. He says “well that’s my name.” He may find it amusing, but I do not find it funny in the slightest.
In order to get the photo with him, I really had no choice: I had to purchase the group shot from the professional photographer. It was a cheaper to do the Starsky & Hutch duo, but for a grand total of $100, I could get one with all three of the cast members…so I figured if I was already spending this much, I might as well get the even-more-interesting combo.
After the photo op was over, there was one thing left to get: an autograph of Antonio Fargas, who had played the supporting character Huggy Bear in the series. His autograph was a bit more reasonable at $20. We had an amusing exchange after I bought the photo. I asked him if I could get a photo with him, and he reluctantly agreed. As we were getting ready to take it, he said that I should probably give him $20 for the photo so that we could “make it official.” I laughed and told him that I had already paid to get the professional photo op with all three, but I wanted a photo just with him since he was so great. Apparently this ego stroke was all it took, as we got a nice picture together.
And yes, since it was there, I got a picture with the Gran Torino that was used in the show, which was parked out front. I think there were paid photo ops to sit inside it, but I didn’t need that.
It was pretty fun to get the Starsky & Hutch photo ops and autographs under my belt…and put in the past so I could move on to bigger and better celebrity encounters.
Celebrity encounters from the Winter 2012 Hollywood Show will conclude in the next posting…
I would have had everyone re-sign a photo if Sould had added “Soul”…what a jerk.
Lorne
December 9th, 2014