Hollywood and The Blog's Nostalgia (For Real, This Time!)

One of the perks of working in the television industry is that, every now and then The Blog gets to meet people who were, through TV, movies or music, a part of his youth.

Whether a childhood hero like Davy Jones of The Monkees, a prepubescent crush like Maureen (Marsha Brady) McCormick, a rock god like Gene Simmons or a professional influence like Martin Landau (the first person the very young Bloggling ever saw glue pieces of rubber to his face to look like someone else, in "Mission: Impossible.")

Those are the times that make me step back and say to myself, "God I love working in Hollywood!"

One of my first paying showbiz  jobs was a "Grade Z" movie that starred my very first TV hero, Adam West.

 Yesterday was Adam's birthday. I don't know his age and I don't feel like googling it. But, he once made me promise never to tell anyone what my age was when he was my idol. So, I won't now. But, I will tell you that he made me make that promise 28 years ago!

So, Holy Methuselah, Batman!!! Happy Birthday, Adam!

But, that's not the point of this post.
                              _________________________________________________

This is...


Yesterday I ran into this woman at work...

 

Don't recognize her? That's okay. Neither did I, until someone told me who she was.

Maybe you will recognize her here...

                                                                                  And still, maybe not.

Her name is Karla DeVito.

Still doesn't help? Well then, I'm betting that you were never a teenage boy in the late 1970s!

See if this helps...

                                                                           Now you've got it, don't you?


 Karla was the tiny woman with the gigantic voice who, while playing the musical foil to Meatloaf's faux macho braggadocio, was the embodiment of teenage male longing and angst!

I didn't work with her, yesterday. She was there with her husband (we'll get to that) who was a guest on one of the shows that I work on.

But, that I got to tell her how much she meant to me when I was a lad and to see her smile as I recounted the time I saw her perform with Mr. Loaf at Cleveland's Public Auditorium back in 1977...

"I remember every little thing as if it happened only yesterday..."

...that moment was one of life's little gifts to me. I hope that it made her day, too.

Oh yeah. Her husband...

For the past 30 years Karla has been married to actor Robbie Benson.

                                                        A momentary pause to allow my female blogglitts of 
                                                                a certain age to gasp, titter and swoon...

Robbie, for those who don't know, was the star of countless teen tearjerkers on film and television. He was, later on, the voice of The Beast in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast."

It suddenly occurs to your Uncle PC that Robbie was, probably, the distaff version of Karla for a generation of teenage girls.

                                                           And, best of all, they are two really sweet people!

"God I love working in Hollywood!"