Hi Friends!
Sometimes you hear a story, confirm its authenticity - and STILL cannot believe it's true! Other times you can accept the implausible due to the personality(yes) involved - but still shake your head in disbelief and say to yourself "How did anyone have the nerve to do that?" In either case, were you to recite the particular story to a third party, you'd almost invariably have to preface your comments with a "TRUE F**G STORY!" Some examples:
1. An excited eight-year-old boy accompanied his father to watch the presidential motorcade pass by. Of course the city was Dallas, the year 1963, and at the exact moment the boy's Dad listed him onto his shoulders to watch the procession and wave to the President of the United States, the shots rang out that killed John F. Kennedy. Momentarily stunned, the young boy cried out in horror as did the people in the rest of the crowd. The name of that youngster? Bill Paxton, later an actor in such films as "Apollo Thirteen" "True Lies" and "Twister" as well as the recent HBO series "Big Love".
2. The late Robin Williams was a relatively unknown comic/actor back in the mid-seventies when he auditioned before "Happy Days" director Garry Marshall for the role of Mork, the alien who visits Milwaukee in the late fifties and interacts with Ritchie Cunningham (Ron Howard) and Arthur Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler). Williams may have been unknown - but he was already an extraordinarily creative and fearless performer. Hence upon arriving at the audition - and having already gathered enough information about the zaniness of the character - he proceeded to climb on top of a chair, stand on his head - and proceeded with the audition for Marshal in that manner! (Williams was hired on the spot.)
3. During World War the late- and legendary comic/actor Redd Foxx - who influenced scorers of comedians who came after him (Jamie Foxx took the surname "Foxx" as a tribute to Redd Foxx) - dodged the draft by eating half a bar of soap before his physical, a trick that resulted in heart palpitations that caused him to be deemed medically unfit to serve in the military.
4. The late sixties rock band Iron Butterfly ("In-A Gadda-Da-Vida" was their biggest hit) was slated to play the Woodstock Festival, which probably would have ensured the group a larger place in rock and roll history. Iron Butterfly - whose name, incidentally, was partially the inspiration for the name ""Led Zeppelin" according to none other than Jimmy Page - would have not only played at the festival but also would have earned a spot on the million-selling soundtrack album - and a place in the movie documentary "Woodstock" as well. Unfortunately, when the group assembled in New York City for the helicopter ride which was supposed to take them to the festival, the helicopter never showed. History is vague as to which day of the festival this occurred - and there's no answer as to the question why the group didn't take alternate transportation up to the festival - but in any event Iron Butterfly is usually categorized as one of those "forgotten" early hard rock/psychedelic groups - a "one-hit wonder" - who broke up not long after Woodstock.
5. In 1969 the animated group "The Archies" - a "group" based upon the popular "Archie" comic book series had one of the biggest singles of the late sixties, the rock and roll "bubblegum" song "Sugar, Sugar". "The Archies" were brainchild of renown rock producer Don Kirshner, who decided that he didn't want to produce any more acts that would question his authority and his musical judgement. You see, several years before Kirshner had also put the television show "The Monkees" together, auditioning a diverse group of aspiring actors, singers and musicians to form an ersatz rock and roll group portraying a fictionalized version of itself on the television series. Although the Monkees sang on all of the songs produced for the series, studio musicians were hired to write and play the instruments. When both the show AND the records of the group took off, the Monkees began to feel as though they were a real group and - after taking advantage of their television success bu going out on the road and performing in front of huge audiences - I suppose they were entitled to this feeling. Unfortunately for Mr. Kirshner, the Monkees also began to demand creative freedom and the right to play the instruments on their own recordings - which ultimately led to the dismissal of Kirschner by the network ("ya have to keep the talent happy".) Thus Don Kirshner came up with the idea for "the Archies"- group whose member couldn't argue with him because they did not exist!
Casey Stengel, the first manager (1962-1965) of the New York Mets was known far and wide as a teller of stories. And whenever someone would question the veracity of a particular story he would respond with the refrain: "Hey! You could look it up!"
Same with with the stories above. All "true f**g stories!
Bye for now- be safe!
Stevenn
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