Waddaya Think?
Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met? How did you meet? How did it go?
Answer in the comments below or email us at writingaboutourgeneration.com
Jerry Lanson: I've had a chance to 'meet" -- meaning shake hands with -- two presidents. Bill Clinton in 1992 when he came to the San Jose Mercury News for an endorsement before his election and Joe Biden, when he was out of office and
came to Emerson College for an honorary degree. But I think the most exciting meet was in 1966. I was working with the kitchen crew at The Putney School when
Robert Kennedy (the real one, not his son) came walking through, shaking hands.
He was looking at the school for his daughter, who I believe came there the next year, after I'd graduated. I was thrilled.
Chris Harper: Although I have met several presidents and other world leaders, Barbara Walters is my most famous person.
For nearly a decade, I'd see BW almost daily at ABC's 20/20 when it was a serious news magazine. I served as her producer for segments on several occasions, including various interviews with notable individuals.
On one occasion, we did a profile of Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown. BW wasn't in a particularly good mood that day because she'd just come from a meeting with OJ's defense team and couldn't convince them to let her interview him. Before the interview, I had to warm Gordy up because we wanted him to sing some of Motown's more famous tunes, including one he wrote, "Berry's Boogie."
During the session, Gordy and I did a duo of "Money, That's What I Want!" As BW looked on, she was surprised when Gordy complimented my voice.
As a one-time rock 'n' roller, I replied that I wished we had met years before.
Whatever the case, it put BW in a better mood, and the interview went off swimmingly.
Barbara was a serious taskmaster, but she did smile occasionally, even when she wasn't on camera.
Mark Kurlansky: "The one who sticks in my mind, possibly the most famous, was Walter Cronkite. He invited me to his Upper East side apartment and he answered the door himself. In that voice I had heard all my life he said, “Why I know you. You are the leading expander of minutia " (Kurlansky is the author of: Salt, Cod, 1968 and Nonviolence, among other books.
David Mindich: I met Clinton when I was covering the 1992 campaign and I met Anwar Sadat when I was a Jewish teenager on a peace mission to the middle east. Living in Burlington, Vt. from 1996-2016, I met Bernie, Ben and Jerry numerous times. But my favorite celebrity story is this: One day in 1986, when I was working as a busboy at Claire, a restaurant in New York City, the bartender, whom all the gay patrons considered gorgeous, pulled me aside and said, “I want you to bring this drink to Andy Warhol, who is sitting at that table. Tell him it’s on the house, from the bartender.” When I delivered the umbrella-adorned drink and the message, Warhol looked ecstatic and gave the bartender a huge wave. When I came back to the bartender, he said, “You idiot! That guy isn’t Warhol!” I had delivered the drink to the man sitting next to Andy Warhol. Two minutes later, I brought a drink to the real Andy Warhol.
Melinda Moulton 37 minutes ago · 0 Likes
The most famous person I ever met was Michelle Obama at a fundraiser in Burlington, Vermont. My business partner and dear friend Lisa and I were able to spend about 20 minutes with her in a quiet room. The first thing I noticed when Michelle entered was her exquisite beauty. She was tall and shapely and her smile made us feel comfortable and welcomed. We talked about the state of our nation and Vermont and about her life as First Lady. We raved about Obama and his leadership of our country. We asked about her two daughters and her Mom. She asked us a lot of questions too, trying to ascertain what our interests were. She realized climate and reproductive health were important to us. She talked about these issues and how the Obama administration was addressing them. After about twenty minutes, she was summoned to another room to meet up with other folks who paid the extra donation to meet her in person. Before she left, we posed for photographs. She put her arms around our waists and pulled us close to her. Her skin was silky and she smelled like a beautiful spring breeze. She hugged us tight and looked down into our faces (she is so tall) and told us that we mattered and that we should keep our faith in America. As she walked away I could barely keep my balance. I had just met a human spirit like no other - Michelle Obama is an angel on earth. That memory will live forever in the depths of my psyche.
Marty Appel: The most famous person I ever met will make you smile.
Maury Allen. He has since been surpassed, but my very first day working for the Yankees I met Maury (a sportswriter for The New York Post) and Harold Rosenthal (a sportswriter for The New York Herald Tribune). And I thought it doesn’t get better than this!
Neil Offen: The first time I met Muhammad Ali he was already probably the most famous person in the world, even if he hadn’t yet become an international symbol of black pride and hadn’t yet taken part in the Rumble in the Jungle or the Thrilla in Manila. He was just getting ready for the Fight of the Century against Joe Frazier and training in the 5th St. Gym. It was a dowdy little place in south Miami Beach when that was just a rundown part of town and not yet South Beach, the world-class party destination.
In these days of cell phone videos, total surveillance and maximum exposure, it’s hard to imagine a time — although it wasn’t that long ago — when almost anyone could get up close with the most famous person in the world. But I did and so could others. A man was selling tickets — five bucks per person, I think it was — for anyone to go up the rickety outside stairs and watch the once-and-future heavyweight champion work out.
The day I was there, only a few had paid the price to watch Ali. The loudest among them was a heavy-set, red-faced woman with a deep Southern drawl and a booming voice.
When Ali hit the heavy bag, she shouted, “That’s it, Cassius, that’s it, boy,” using the name Ali had rejected as a slave name. When Ali skipped rope, the woman shouted, “That’s good, Cassius. You doin’ well, boy.”
When Ali sparred for a couple of rounds, the woman shouted, “Hit ‘em, boy, hit ‘em. C’mon, Cassius, let’s go now.” She called him “boy” as often as she could.
When Ali finally finished working out and was toweling off, the woman approached him, her recalcitrant husband in tow.
“Cassius, boy, gotta take a picture with you. C’mon, boy, let’s go take a picture.”
Ali stood up, politely said yeah, and the woman handed her Instamatic to her husband. Ali stood next to the woman as her husband backed up a couple of paces to frame the photo correctly.
“OK,” he said now. “Cheese.”
And just as he said it, Ali turned and bent down to the woman and gave her a big, wet, messy kiss right on the lips.
“Now you all take that photo back home to your white friends in Mississippi with you,” he said, a big smile on his face. “You show that kissing a black boy to your good ol’ white friends.”
I saw him a couple of times after that, and he was always equally charming, always incredibly self-aware. I saw him once in Houston, right before Ali and his former sparring partner, Jimmy Ellis, would be fighting in the enormous Astrodome. That was when he gave me—and a few other sportswriters he knew— a Muhammad Ali watch.
His head is where the 12 should be, and Ali — white trunks, white shoes, white socks — and he’s throwing a right hook, his left glove held high, his right foot bent to accentuate his power. I don’t wear the watch anymore, but I’ll always keep it.
Mitchell Stephens: A president in the making: Bill Clinton, during the 1992 primaries — came to speak at a school near us in New Jersey. I took my two oldest kids (11 and 8) and as the candidate — characteristically chatty and warm — made the rounds of a gym, we pushed a piece of paper out toward him, and he, hurriedly, signed. That extraordinary piece of paper became the subject of perhaps our longest running family dispute: Who the heck lost it?
