Happy Days has always been one of those shows that I had always enjoyed whenever it happened to be on TV, but that I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch. And still, even as the proud owner of the first three seasons of the series, I generally pop it in when I want some ‘comfort food’ sitcoms to grace my screen. But no one who lived through the late 1970’s can forget the Fonzie phenomenon as he made motorcycles, leather jackets, and greasy hair cool again.
So even though I had heard that Henry Winkler who portrayed said Fonz was no longer signing autographs through the mail, I still took a chance on purchasing a nice color portrait of him and sending it off around September 9, 1997. I was rather surprised when I picked up a batch of returns from my post office box on October 20 and found that he not only signed the photo, but had sent along a 4″x5″ signed portrait as seen above. I guess he really is cool!
A few years later in the early 2000’s my friend Bob attended a TV Land convention and got the below photo signed for me by both Henry Winkler and Ralph Malph himself, Don Most. This one hangs on my basement wall.
I finally got the opportunity to meet Henry Winkler at the Hollywood Show in Burbank on Saturday, July 18, 2009. He was there signing autographs along with five other cast members from Happy Days. For the most part he was a cool guy, even helping to organize the cast photo of the actors present. But I must say he did disappoint me when I asked him to pose for a picture after I had just paid $20 to have him sign the photo I had of him with Erin Moran (seen here). He told me that that also would be $20. I pretty much had to pay it if I wanted a picture with Fonzie, so I agreed. But taking a lesson from Fonzie’s ‘coolness’, I was icy enough that I never actually gave anyone the money!
Autographs of 1997 will continue…
See the “Happy Days” reunion from 2009 here…
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