Blame it on Shelly!

Utoh.. I know I promised no more DeForest, but Shelly had a few comments that made my mind wander..

First she mentioned that she hadn't noticed his "sexy lower lip" and would watch closer now ..heh. (he had this way of pulling his lips together sort of like a pucker and push that lower lip out)

I have to tell you how that all came about. You see before I ever met De I had joined his fan club out of California, which was run by Sue Keenan; later to become a very good friend.

Though I did not meet De "through the club", but rather on my own on a Trek Cruise, the club became important to me. I met others in the club who became friends, Annie mostly, she's probably the only person I know that genuinely cares about me. Who would have known I'd meet someone like that through a fan club?!

Sue would have "parties" at conventions that De was at. She'd hold auctions to raise money for De's Charities, and it allowed fellow fans to meet. It was at these gatherings that I would hear over and over about De's "finer attributes"...in other words, what made him so "sexy" to the fans. The lip came out on top time and time again.

That bit of knowledge eventually led to my "award". (a much nicer award then the pachyderm poop plaque! But I wrote about that already)

De's club was a blast to be in. Sue was great and put together a "newsletter", consisting of several pages every other month for all to read. It would update everyone on what De was doing, (if anything! He always credited himself with being the laziest actor in Hollywood) and be filled with stories that the fans had written about seeing him on stage for the first time or writing to him for an autograph, and of course I had to put my 2 cents in with con reports that I went to where we played pranks on Sue. Many would write to Sue anxiously awaitingto see what happened to her next! The Pranks we did on Sue were just as much for De and Carolyn as the club. They loved reading what we'd do to Sue! And there was always a cartoon Sue created of Myrtle.

De liked his club and often when we'd be having the auctions at a convention he and Carolyn would show up to say hello to everyone... can we say "shock and heart palpitations ?"! For many of his club members that was the first time they ever got to meet De close up and personal. I don't know of any other actor that did something like that with their fan club.

I remember once, there was this 18-20 year old gal that came all the way from Germany to one of the cons, "just to see her favorite actor..De". She had joined the club and wrote to Sue and we knew she was coming. We got with De and told him of her. He shook his head and said something about how he couldn't believe someone so young would give a hoot about and old man. He asked her name and told us he would talk to her from the stage.

But he did more.. he called her up on stage and hugged her and told the whole audience how she had traveled all the way from Germany just to see "him"! The poor girl was visibly shaking in her shoes while she stood there with De and his arm around her!

When she came down from the stage she headed right to Sue and I and was crying! We hugged on her while she kept saying how nice De was. We certainly agreed with her!

There were times De would call on me from stage, referring to me as his personal photographer since I was always front row and taking pics at every convention, to take a picture of him with someone from the audience. Then I would find that person and get their address and mail them the photo.

But I am getting away from Shelly and her comments..

She also mentioned seeing De on tv a bit more than usual lately. I'm guessing some of the westerns he was in are showing up again. He was always a bad guy in them. So very unlike the man himself.

Ok, I guess I've rambled on too much here... (we'll try this again..) Till the Next Time!