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”.
Bruce:
For Father’s day today I decided to watch – not movies about Father’s day – but movies that my father would have loved to watch.
This morning I watched The Great Escape.
This afternoon I watched The Wild Angels.
Tonight I will watch another movie my father would have loved. I have not yet decided what it will be. I have a lot of movies that will work.
One option might be a David Bowie movie that I recorded overnight. One of my happiest memories of my father and I together was at a David Bowie concert in Vancouver days before my 24th birthday.
Hey Flora sounds like a good plan. The Great Escape was one of my dad’s favorites too. I liked The Wild Angels….though I never heard my dad talking about that movie. Cool memory about your dad, you and David Bowie. Here the weekend went super fast. The kids kept me very busy indeed. FYI….got word from Bryan…grandbaby number 2 is due in November and it is a boy.
A boy due in November! Fantastic Bruce. That is great news. I will put that on my calendar right away.
Congratulations Bryan and family!
A reminder to everyone regarding dangerous professions that Bryan Rogers is a member of the military.
Hey Flora….thank you. Looks like the Cogerson family will be headed to Alaska in November!
It has motorcycles and Dad loved motorcycles.
Dad also loved cars, planes and actually worked on all sorts of transportation. He actually made cranes that move railroad cars. My father must have had about 100 different jobs during his 70 years.
That is awesome!
THE GREAT ESCAPE IS ON SILVER SCREEN CLASSICS IN CANADA RIGHT NOW! 🙂
Can’t go wrong watching that one.
I knew your father from St. John’s Church. He was a lovely man, smart and witty. I was so sad when he passed away rather suddenly. My husband and I see his grave every Sunday and see flowers there from Bernice. We have not forgotten him. What a great story about Steve McQueen.
Hey Alice…thanks for the kind words about my father. Glad you liked his encounter with Steve McQueen…..thanks for stopping by and commenting….that makes Bernice very happy.
Hi, Bruce.
I will be commenting on your new director page.
But I want to first pause and say I am thinking of you on this, the five year anniversary of losing your father.
Thanks Flora….it has been a busy but overall good day. Debbie switched cars with a co-worker and today we have been driving BERN1960 around in a Boxster Porsche convertible with the top down….this was something BERN1960 has wanted for a longtime….though she never bought one….so we let her get a taste of driving around in the car.
Then we took the little ones to Finding Dory….which the kids loved…..after dinner we are about to watch Northwest Passage (one of my dad’s Top 5 movies)….and then bed, Pretty much spending the day celebrating his life versus being sad about him not being here.
Thanks for your kind thoughts.
I sent you a private email which I had sent Larry from TCM about a “letter” I made up. It is just me being silly about this Olympics thing. Not to be put on this site. But I think you will find it funny.
What a great way to spend the day!
I’m watching a double feature of Audrey Hepburn on TCM.
Thanks Flora….yep yesterday turned out to be a fun day after all. I will check out your e-mail.
I just read the story about Steve McQueen – wonderful! I know Bob is greatly missed by all who knew him, including me.
Great to hear from someone who actually knew him in person.
Hey Flora….the Terry from the above comment was a lady and friend of my dad from my his church.
Oh, okay. I could not tell about the pronouns. LOL!
Great to hear from someone who knew your dad too.
Does this mean I have to give back my gold medal for Newman? Not going to do that. LOL!
Thanks Terry…it is hard to believe that 5 years has passed already….since he passed. Thanks for checking out his story about him and McQueen.