Back in 1972, I started working at Logos of Westwood, a Christian bookstore in the heart of Westwood Village near UCLA. I worked there for nine years as the card buyer and I was also the go to girl for anyone who needed to order wedding invitations, napkins, and other printed stuff. At that time the possible choices were displayed in big albums and the customer would look through them and decide what they wanted and I would write up the order, have them check it, and get the prepayment.
One day a man came in and told me he needed to send out "Thank you for your expression of sympathy" cards. I took the order, as usual, but because I'd gotten talking to him, I forgot to get the prepayment. The prepay was usually a deposit of half the price so that we could recover our costs if the customer changed his mind or never picked up the order. This was a common practice everywhere.
So, I called the customer. A woman answered, and when I explained what I needed she said something to the effect that she was Mr. Cooke's secretary and there would be not problem getting the money and just to put the order through. She convinced me to trust in this case, but I did tell my boss about it. When I told the rest of the staff, mostly male, what had occurred, they all looked at me like I was crazy to have called. My boss, who was very celebrity conscious and would make a big deal of it and personally help Pat and Shirley Boone or Hal Lindsay whenever they came in, said, "Don't you know who he is? Of course he's good for the money. Jack Kent Cooke owns the Los Angeles Lakers." How was I supposed to know? I didn't follow professional sports.
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Comments: 23
I once went to a conference my company put on in the late 80's. I was there in the morning to hand out the paperwork for the day for the attendees. We were in a very nice resort on the beach on Hilton Head Island. It was great... my husband was with me, we worked for the same company... and although I worked in marketing and he was in the programming department, we drove a Mac Midliner truck down with supplies down to the resort. It seemed a large truck until we pulled in a truck stop and was surrounded by tractor trailer trucks... (I had only driven a u-haul before and all my co-workers were impressed. When I drove it from the main building to the warehouse when we off-loaded it one of my friends asked me to drive down the street her mother lived on, so she could come out and see the truck...so I did.)
We worked on the set up and I helped organizing and preparing the items being handed out to the attendees each day as they walking in to attend the days activities. We were even included in all the meals which included a bbq between the hotel and the beach on night.
When the celebirty motivational speaker showed up one morning I smiled and said "hello" like with all the attendees......He came over and talked to me. Many of the attendees did talk for a few minutes, others said nothing. He very tall and was a very nice person and I was happy to to talk to him... He asked me questions and even mentioned how his wife was impressed with the room they were in and how nice the hotel was. We talked about the all kinds of things... I mentioned I was there with my husband an although we both were working the trip how nice it was... I told him I had three children.... He didn't treat me different, and I didn't treat him different... but I noticed his eyes were sparkling to look at the expressions on the other women's faces around us while we were having this conversation... they were giving me odd looks...
Then my boss who walked in the area as she finally realized the "celebrity" had arrived and walked over to do the meet and greet the celebrity routine. :) She shot me the funniest look.. and basically tried to lead him away.
Someone one else might have just left... but he turned to me and shook my hand and told me how nice it was to meet me and made her wait. He seemed annoyed with her doing that... was not going to be rude to me, and I was so impressed. It was nice meeting Fran Tarkenton and he really was a very nice person. He then signed three papers from the conference for my three children... and the other women started asking for him to give autographs. I think he was having fun..because I didn't appear to know he was "famous"...and I spoke to him like I would anyone. It meant a lot to me because it was like he felt I was worth talking to... yea even the woman handing out the papers... to people. :)
I also wonder what Mr. Cooke thought when, as I was filling out his order, I didn't ask him if he was THE Jack Kent Cooke or show some other sign of recognition. I wondered how he felt being treated like I'd treat any other customer. Of course, I treated them all with courtesy, and it would have made no difference had I known who he was, except I would probably not have called about the missing deposit.
She had some interesting things she observed about the people she knew.. and was friends with Ruth Gordon... and Helen Hayes. I like reading autobiographies and I would give her ones I read. She was delighted to find she was mentioned in Ruth Gordon's book.
She was so beloved by Bergdorf's she was given a small replica of the store that was clear plastic or glass for her 100th birthday. She was so surprised.
She pointed out that we may put celebrities on pedestals but they are the same as anyone else. I got an interesting view of a lot of famous people from her... as well learned a lot about dealing with people.
Thank you for posting to ~50~Views~R~US~