My Dad And Steve McQueen

This week is a double whammy for me.  Friday June 17th will mark the 5-year anniversary of my father’s passing…and then on June 19th it will be the 6th Father’s Day without him.  So needless to say, my father has been on my mind recently.   My father is a huge reason why I love movies.  One of my most popular pages on Hub Pages was My Dad’s Top 5 Movies of All-Time…which I wrote in June 2011.  I think that page is still BERN1960’s favorite page that I have ever written.  FYI – This page was written in 2016…so the above numbers are much biggert today.

Recently I was responding to a comment on our Steve McQueen page when I remembered one of my favorite stories my dad used to tell me.  Since it revolves around a famous movie star, and I have a movie website…. I have decided to share it here.  Shockingly there will be no tables of stats on this page…. but don’t worry Flora and Laurent…Michael J. Fox and Josef von Sternberg pages are coming very soon.

I am sure I will get some details wrong about this story…. but give me a break I was not there…. heck….I was still 10 years away from being born.

                                                 The Place And Time

This story takes place in either 1958 or 1959 in Roanoke, Virginia.  Roanoke was having a parade.  Steve McQueen was the Grand Marshall of the Parade.  My dad and his friend were covering the parade for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper.  McQueen was starring in the television show, Wanted Dead or Alive, and was still a couple of years away from superstar status.  I am sure McQueen’s agent thought this would be great publicity.  I can only imagine McQueen’s disbelief when he arrived in a town that closely resembled Andy Griffith‘s Mayberry.  Turned out that McQueen, my dad and his friend were staying in the same hotel.

                                               The First Encounter

My dad and his buddy were standing right outside the front door of the hotel when McQueen drove up in a fancy sports car and with a very good-looking woman.  McQueen jumped out of the car, walked up to my dad and handed him the keys to the sports car…and told him, “Be real careful when you are parking the car.”  My dad handed the keys back to McQueen and said, “Sorry there is no valet service here…. you are going to have to park your car yourself.”  McQueen took back the keys and they went their separate ways.

                                              The Second Encounter

Later that night my dad and his buddy were drinking and talking about how they could not believe that McQueen thought they were valets.   At some point they decided to call McQueen’s room (how they got his room number is unknown, but this was 60 years before the Erin Andrews lawsuit).  So even though it was early in the morning…. they called McQueen’s room.  McQueen answered the phone and my dad said, “We are down in the bar having some drinks and we were wondering if you would like to come down and let us buy you a drink or two”.  McQueen responded, “Well right now I am sleeping so I will have to pass on the offer”.  This is probably why celebrities use fake names these days.

                                       The Third and Final Encounter

So, the next morning……my dad and his buddy are eating breakfast at the hotel restaurant when McQueen and his lady friend sat down at the table across from them.   Feeling a little hungover and feeling a little bad about calling McQueen’s room in the middle of the night…. they walked over to McQueen’s table and said, “We are sorry we woke you up last night when we called your room”.  McQueen said, “Don’t worry about it, normally I would have been down there with you.”  After breakfast they all headed to the parade…and a few hours later they all left Roanoke.  Pretty sure Steve McQueen probably never thought about his encounters with my father…. but sharing this story was one of my father’s favorite stories he liked to tell.  I think in his dealings with my father…. McQueen was indeed “The King of Cool”.