A.C. and Me..

(web photo)

This is a dear, dear man that I was privileged to meet on several occasions and speak with on the phone as well.  His name.. is A.C. Lyles, and he has a birthday coming up this Sunday May 17th.  His Birth year was 1918.

I met A.C. at a Creation Convention.  They were honoring my friend DeForest Kelley and the person they got to be M.C. for this special event was DeForest's good friend A.C. Lyles.  (many years later it would be A.C. who honored DeForest at Paramount when De passed away)

My first view of him was on stage making jokes about De.  Right away he made me laugh.. and made De laugh too.  After the show was over and I was mulling around the convention I saw A.C. talking to some people and decided to go and introduce myself.  I mean.. really.. I didn't know this man was important, past the fact that he was a good friend of De's.

Boy was I wrong!

This man has worked for Paramount Studios for over 50 years!  He began very lowly and worked his way up until he was a producer to B Westerns.  It was during his Western time that he met DeForest and put him to work in many of his westerns as one of the bad guys.

(over the years De died so many times in those westerns, that when he took the part in Star Trek he figured they hired him because he was going to die off in that too!)

(leave it to me to go on the Paramount lots looking like an idiot.  I often did things like that to make De and Carolyn laugh but not too often going on a movie lot like that!.. but A.C. was worth it!)

Once you meet A.C. Lyles you never forget him.  He is the consummate gentleman, always dressed to the 9's in suit and tie.   But the very best part of A.C. Lyles is that when you are with him, you become the most important person there is to him... bar none.  He's incredible.  I was in his office one time and Buddy Ebsen called him.. he talked to him very briefly and then told him that he had some beautiful woman in his office with him and he'd call him back later. 

Hello?

He shrugged off Buddy Ebsen?!! 

But that's how important you became when you had his attention.  He shared you with no one.

I have to say I've heard the same thing told by many people who have met A.C. he has this way about him of making anyone feel very special. 

I've lost touch with A.C. over the years when I left California and began taking care of my brother.  But he's never left my heart or my mind, and so when I ran across a blog called Dear Old Hollywood with a post all about A.C. and then an old Radio show with the complete interview of A.C., well.. the memories came flooding back.

(If you click the Radio Show link know this: it takes a bit to load, but it's well worth the wait to hear the sort of long interview)

Everything made me a bit melancholy and so I wrote A.C. a Birthday note and mailed it to him, just so he knows he's far from forgotten.

He's an absolutely fascinating man and I am so upset he's never written a book.. this man knows or knew every star there was!  Trust me on this one and if you want to hear about a few of them listen to that radio show!!  On the show he speaks of his very dear friend James Cagney and how he helped A.C. get started as a producer.

If you have an interest in Hollywood.. this is a man you should read about.