In every incident, it was a young teenage girl. There wasn’t a real idea of how many members there were in each club. When the studio contacted them it turned out the largest had seven girls and the smallest two. That was really good for my ego.
This wasn’t new territory for the studio publicity people. They had radio announcements and newspaper ads about how my fan club was getting a free special showing on a given date. It is surprising how many people of various ages joined the clubs for a free movie.
Hotel reservations were made for me under the company name. I certainly understood why after that debacle in New York. Each city had a map with spots shown that I would like to see such as the Alamo in San Antonio.
Mum looked at the map and went hmm, but didn’t say anything about Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I suspect she put it in the same class as hitchhiking across the country or working as a deckhand. In other words a learning experience.
When Dad looked at it, he just winked at me. I’m not sure what he meant by that and I wasn’t going to ask. I just grinned and got out of there as fast as I could.
I had to be at each theater two hours early to sign autographs. After the movie, there would be a meeting of the original fan club members, There would also be a dozen or so people from the audience, who would be invited as they were exiting by the studio people present.
The combined group would be interviewed on what they thought of the movie. It would be a combination of written and oral questions. They called it a focus group. The results of the questions would give them an idea of the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the movie so they could refine the advertising.
This would normally not be done for most movies but the studio felt like it would be in theaters for an extended run. I wasn’t sure I agreed with them but went along with it, as the movie would make me a ton of money, and if it played enough times the studio would even make a profit.
These meetings would be at a hotel which Sharon would chaperone. They would have refreshments setup. The whole event would be done in two hours. My previous experiences told me that there would be uninvited guests who couldn’t be turned away and that I would be lucky if it was less than four hours.
The receptions, as I thought of them, weren’t at the hotel I was staying at, another lesson learned.
I will say here that Warner Brothers handled me with kid gloves throughout this process. I think they, at least Mr. Monroe, realized they had pushed me too far and that their legal position wasn’t the best.
I was way past being mad about the way I was forced into the movie after I had made my intentions clear but it was too late to change things. One change I made was to have an agreement drawn up with the Shawnee Tribe that half my profits from my movie would go to an educational fund for children of the Tribe.
This was good from a tax point of view and more importantly, helped the people who got the short end of the stick in real life. I was going to do it quietly, but the Shawnee to my surprise wanted to make a big public deal about it.
A stop at the Shawnee reservation was to be made on my way home from my tour. I was told they wanted to do a presentation for my aid to the Tribe and also to publicize their charities. I couldn’t argue that as I was on my own publicity tour.
Saturday morning was hectic around the house. Mary and I had interviews after lunch. All I had to do was to put on clothes, which ones didn’t matter. I kept on my jeans and shirt I put on after my workout and shower. No need to dress up as it was at our home.
The hectic part was Mary. What dress to wear, did these shoes match, should she wear any jewelry, how about make-up. Mum finally had to put her foot down. An at home-type of dress, a small bracelet, and absolutely no make-up.
That set off another round, we had a diva in the making. Dad settled it with a swat across her butt. Just enough to get her attention. That settled that. I can remember those. They never really hurt but they sure did send a message.
Mum had told us of her father taking off his Sam Brown military belt and setting it on the table. He never had to use it. Just the threat was enough. After I saw one in a museum I could understand why.
Mary was calm and right, until lunch that is when she spilled tomato soup on her dress. You would have thought her puppy, parents, and family had died. She and Mum retreated upstairs to select another dress. Mary was sobbing all the way.
About half an hour later she came back down in a nice frock. I noticed she had a hint of color on her lips. I wonder.
The reporter and cameraman for the first interview showed up on time. I have heard the saying attributed to W.C. Fields, “Never appear with kids or pets, as they will upstage you every time.” Those aren’t the exact words but they are so true.
I was asked two questions, did you enjoy working with
