Junior Coghlan
Saturday, November 8th, 2008
Although I had briefly met Frank “Junior” Coghlan twice during visits to California – the first at the Hollywood Collectors Show in 1995, and the second at the Way Out West Tent 30th Anniversary banquet in 1997, I had never really sat down to talk to him or gotten a photo with him. And to tell the truth, I had no intention of trying to look him up during any of my most recent visits. He had only appeared in one Our Gang film, the early silent Giants Vs. Yanks in 1923, and Bob had already gotten me a signed photo. But thankfully, Bob suggested that we stop by and pay him a visit – and as usual, I am all the better for it. Read the rest of this entry »
Since I was on the “Dreams Come True” tour, by Monday, October 6, it was time to start making some of those so-called dreams actually come true. Every since I had found out that my friend Dick Bann had full access to Playboy Mansion West in the Holmby Hills area of Beverly Hills, I had been pestering him to take me there. Although he is a friend of Hugh Hefner and supplies the screening notes for the weekly film showing, there are still rules that he has to follow. And unfortunately he is unable to bring anyone in during one of the fabled wild parties throughout the week…that is, unless you are an exceptionally attractive girl. And I am not. 
How many days of your life can you say that you got to ride the Pinnochio ride at Disney (which features a reproduction of the Mona Lisa) and see the actual Mona Lisa in the same day? By all accounts of my life so far, only one…and it was on Monday, July 14, 2008. After departing Paris Disneyland at about 1pm, The Wileys, David, and I walked back to our room at the Newport Bay Club, and got ready to embark on the second portion of the day’s adventures in Paris. 
By the Fall of 1997, I had really become quite serious with my autograph collecting. Not that I hadn’t been before, but now I had actually purchased a P.O. Box at the post office in Airway shopping center to house the incoming loot. I had become nervous about the barrage of yellow envelopes being left outside my apartment door. I had also begun purchasing – and eventually subscribing to – Autograph Collector magazine. They featured a monthly section about through-the-mail autographs where contributors would share their success stories. One of the first pieces of advice of theirs that I took was to get a letter off to Estelle Getty.