Not TV but was in a movie. Very interesting Fishhead like story.
The opening split second [if you blink you missed it] of the 1971 movie T. R. Baskin shot on location in Chicago and starring Candice Bergen, Peter Boyle and James Caan showed my left elbow in a blue workshirt outside the driver's side window of my taxi cab. I was the last cab in line at the cab stand of the Excutive House on Wacker Drive in Chicago snoozing off with my Sun Times sports section. Very slow weekday about 10:30 AM. I had driven all night but was in bad need of immeadiate tip money because of a debt that needed to be paid the day before. You all know what I'm sayin'. So I was still out there, though mostly dozing off in cab stands by that time.
Well I notice some commotion and a guy asking the cabs in line to move out which they all did except for me. A film crew was going to film what turned out to be the very first scene of the movie. James Caan would be walking across Wacker Drive from the Chicago River to the Executive House. Well giminy Christmas I always wanted to be in a movie. So I get out and ask this guy who seemed in charge of things if I could just keep my cab in the front of the cab stand. Told him it would be a nice bright yellow prop adding to the composition of the shot and a cab was usually in that spot anyway. I had already studied film in college. Hence I was driving a cab. Was really persuasive though.
Amazingly the guy says OK as long as I let the cab sit there until they were done.
So anyway it takes them three or four takes to get the shot. After the second or third take an extra [they had a bunch of them walking up and down the street] jumps in my cab and says "hey man, mind if I fire up this number here in your cab I'm gettin' tired of walking up and down the street and I need a buzz."
I'm like "Well yeah OK but like there's cops all around and....."
I was trying to tell him that it was still a felony three to five back then. He probably didn't know that. I knew that real well. That's another story though.
Anyway I'm trying to tell him to just be careful. He says "don't worry about it." I also tell him no I absolutely don't need a toke.
So anyway it turns out to be some really dynamite chit, and on top of being extremely sleep deprived and all, man it was now not really cool for me to be out on the street anymore after some of that weed. They finally got their shot and I eventually pick up a guy from that cab stand and take him on a short hop to a hotel in the Loop. So now I'm hoping for one more fare to get me closer to the garage. I get the fare and pull out into downtown traffic.....
Well it could have been worse. Nobody got hurt. I didn't lose my job. Just a minor ticket and minor fender bender damage. Didn't have to drive anymore either as I got towed back to the garage. Had made enough to pay off my debt. Only time I even dented a fender driving a cab. But I had a pretty good cab rap to tell and got reminded of the incident for the next twenty years or so everytime the movie was shown on TV. Finally even WGN and TBS stopped showing it. But it was a 3AM staple, opening with a split second Jones left elbow, for a number of years.
The opening split second [if you blink you missed it] of the 1971 movie T. R. Baskin shot on location in Chicago and starring Candice Bergen, Peter Boyle and James Caan showed my left elbow in a blue workshirt outside the driver's side window of my taxi cab. I was the last cab in line at the cab stand of the Excutive House on Wacker Drive in Chicago snoozing off with my Sun Times sports section. Very slow weekday about 10:30 AM. I had driven all night but was in bad need of immeadiate tip money because of a debt that needed to be paid the day before. You all know what I'm sayin'. So I was still out there, though mostly dozing off in cab stands by that time.
Well I notice some commotion and a guy asking the cabs in line to move out which they all did except for me. A film crew was going to film what turned out to be the very first scene of the movie. James Caan would be walking across Wacker Drive from the Chicago River to the Executive House. Well giminy Christmas I always wanted to be in a movie. So I get out and ask this guy who seemed in charge of things if I could just keep my cab in the front of the cab stand. Told him it would be a nice bright yellow prop adding to the composition of the shot and a cab was usually in that spot anyway. I had already studied film in college. Hence I was driving a cab. Was really persuasive though.
Amazingly the guy says OK as long as I let the cab sit there until they were done.
So anyway it takes them three or four takes to get the shot. After the second or third take an extra [they had a bunch of them walking up and down the street] jumps in my cab and says "hey man, mind if I fire up this number here in your cab I'm gettin' tired of walking up and down the street and I need a buzz."
I'm like "Well yeah OK but like there's cops all around and....."
I was trying to tell him that it was still a felony three to five back then. He probably didn't know that. I knew that real well. That's another story though.
Anyway I'm trying to tell him to just be careful. He says "don't worry about it." I also tell him no I absolutely don't need a toke.
So anyway it turns out to be some really dynamite chit, and on top of being extremely sleep deprived and all, man it was now not really cool for me to be out on the street anymore after some of that weed. They finally got their shot and I eventually pick up a guy from that cab stand and take him on a short hop to a hotel in the Loop. So now I'm hoping for one more fare to get me closer to the garage. I get the fare and pull out into downtown traffic.....
Well it could have been worse. Nobody got hurt. I didn't lose my job. Just a minor ticket and minor fender bender damage. Didn't have to drive anymore either as I got towed back to the garage. Had made enough to pay off my debt. Only time I even dented a fender driving a cab. But I had a pretty good cab rap to tell and got reminded of the incident for the next twenty years or so everytime the movie was shown on TV. Finally even WGN and TBS stopped showing it. But it was a 3AM staple, opening with a split second Jones left elbow, for a number of years.
My friends and I made a sign for the day McGwire tied Maris' record of 61, on Labor Day, 1998. It used the ESPN acronym, and it said Roger Has Company Now. Kinda gay, I know. But it did get us on national tv, and Jon Miller read our sign on the air, just after McGwire hit the homer. A funny story that happened last year about it- My family had a cookout for Memorial Day or the 4th of July or something, and I went into the living room....my brother and dad were watching ESPN Classic, and this game was on, and McGwire was even up to bat. I told them as soon as he hit the homer, "hey watch closely, and you'll see me on tv, here." I'll never forget the look on both of their eyes when I was on the screen on ESPN Classic.
i was in the 1982 Orioles Magic season review video, still have the video...
i was on the local News about ticket scalping during the 1995 playoffs here in Maryland, this was a bad idea in hindsight
several times at college park in the stands behind the Terps bench, most noteably the night Ernest Graham set the school scoring record vs NC State back before the 3point rule...
we had a show called pinbusters (bowling kids show) I was on that at age 13
i was on the local News about ticket scalping during the 1995 playoffs here in Maryland, this was a bad idea in hindsight
several times at college park in the stands behind the Terps bench, most noteably the night Ernest Graham set the school scoring record vs NC State back before the 3point rule...
we had a show called pinbusters (bowling kids show) I was on that at age 13
Journey
My job puts me on TV almost every week. I have done about 1,500 live interviews in my career, including one on WBAL and one on WJZ yesterday.
I was also on the Weakest Link last year (finished 2nd to a lady from PA that won with a Shakepeare question in the final round).
There are a few other posters on here that can attest to seeing me much more than they care to over the past 10 years.
Stoli
My job puts me on TV almost every week. I have done about 1,500 live interviews in my career, including one on WBAL and one on WJZ yesterday.
I was also on the Weakest Link last year (finished 2nd to a lady from PA that won with a Shakepeare question in the final round).
There are a few other posters on here that can attest to seeing me much more than they care to over the past 10 years.
Stoli
trytrytry, did you participate in that DRF Fantasy Stable Contest ? Like I said I won it in the fall of 1994 and should have won it in the spring of 1995 but my wife forgot to tape a horse racing show for me the night before,and I didn't find out about Timber Country being scratched,until it was too late to trade him out of my stable for someone else. I still haven't forgiven her for that along with a few other things !!!
David
David
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