I just received the following note from Shannon Gordon, the proprietor of Gordon’s Five and Dime in Ypsilanti:
On (Shadow Art Fair/ElvisFest) weekend, I’ll have a special guest in my store: Kathy Garver (Cissy from Family Affair). Since you are an accomplished interviewer, as acknowledged by Peter Falk, I wanted to find out if you’d be interested in meeting Kathy, and asking her (a few questions)…
To be honest, I’ve never given much thought to interviewing her. I thought that she was cute on “Family Affair,” but I never really focused my OCD powers of obsession on her. Not to be mean, but in the whole hierarchy of young boy lust, she was probably a rung or two below Marilyn from “The Munsters”. With that said, however, it might still be fun to chat with her for a while and post a transcript here on the site. Her career did, after all, span all the way from Cecil B. DeMille to “Matlock.” And she was in “Night of the Hunter,” one of my favorite movies of all times. I’m going to be really busy with the Shadow Art Fair, but I’d love to find the time to watch the movie with her and ask about the rumors I’ve heard that Robert Mitchum bullied Charles Laughton throughout the production. As she was a child at the time, I doubt she would have taken much notice, but I’d still like to ask… And, then, I suppose I should also ask for her whereabouts on June 5, 1968.
[This last reference will make absolutely no sense to those of you that 1) can’t see the photo of Kathy attached to this post, and 2) aren’t aware of the conversation that we’ve been having with a reader named Robert in the comments section about a certain woman in the polkadot dress seen just before Robert Kennedy was assassinated.]
And, for the record, I think it’s very cool that Shannon is building on the momentum of the Shadow Art Fair and ElvisFest. I wish every store owner in Ypsi would show that much initiative.
10 Comments
Hurry, Mark! Get that picture of Cissy over to Mel Ayton at the History News Network! This is urgent! It looks like more solid evidence that Sirhan acted alone. Many people who thought they saw a woman in a polka dot dress running from the scene at the Ambassador Hotel may have just been confused at that moment and remembering an episode of Family Affair they had seen earlier.
If I knew how to use Photoshop, I’d be adding Mr. French into the background of RFK assassination photos right now.
I’d ask her about abortion, religion, and race.
I’d ask her what the hell that TV show was supposed to be about. I still don’t get it. She was cute and everything, but I could never figure out how such an incomplete idea for a series could get right into production. My theory is that the original concept called for the Uncle Bill character to be a total womanizing playboy and drunk, but the censors watered all that down to where there really was no point to any of it at all. I have the same theory about The Courtship of Eddie’s Father.
I really don’t give a rat’s ass about Cissy. As kids, my brother and I would sneer at those kids through the TV screen. Whiney rich kids with a snobby butler, a drunk, absent father, and a dopey sister who seemed to spend a lot of time brushing her hair.
However, Cissy has just earned a little cred with me.
I never knew she was in Night of The Hunter~ which is one of my top 3 favorite movies of all time. Saw it when I was 13 and fell in love with Robert Mitchum for about 4 years. He somehow reminded me of Joe Strummer. I love the fight (the hand fight) with “good brother love against bad brother hate”.
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1094/Mptv/1094/9421_0013.jpg.html?hint=tt0048424
That movie is creepy in the best of ways!
I’d of never guessed I’d be charmed by a store full of rock sugar nostalgia, but I’m sure glad the Gordons are the people in the neighborhood.
With all the other stuff, just be sure to ask Cissy her favorite flavor of liquorice.
Perhaps it’s in bad taste, but you could ask about Buffy.
http://www.franksreelreviews.com/shorttakes/anissajones.htm
If you’re at all interested in this stuff about the woman in the polkadot dress, you might want to check out the comments in this thread. It’s starting to heat up.
I just got an e-mail from Kathy. She said she’ll bring some photos from Night of the Hunter.
OEC- she’s not a big licorice fan, but she likes the wax lips and bubble gum cigars.
Shannon, send me an email and let me know her schedule on Friday night. If she’s got some time, and if I can break away from Shadow Art Fair planning for a little while, I’d love to talk with her.