I started working at the Skirvin in July of 2007, and in those ten years I have met a number of famous people, some of whom I have a story about, and some that were just momentary encounters. The first celebrity I met was Martin Landau, who was in town to film a movie up in Guthrie. His limo driver would bring him back to the hotel at about 11:00, just as my shift was beginning, and after a brief visit to his room on the 5th floor, he would come back down to the front sidewalk for a pre-bedtime cigarette.
Oklahoma had had a particularly wet spring that year, and by August we were inundated by mosquitoes. This was the topic of discussion the night I met Mr. Landau on the sidewalk in front of the hotel. I don't remember what was said exactly, but I do recall a feeling of astonishment about how normal it seemed to be standing in downtown Oklahoma City discussing bugs with an Oscar winning movie star, and how silly it seemed that I was surprised to find out that his voice sounded just like it did in the movies.
The next night, he was out again as I was coming back from the garage, and I stopped to talk for a moment. I told him, "I wanted to tell you last night that I loved you in in The Majestic, you were phenomenal in Ed Wood, and North By Northwest is one of my favorites of all time."
"Oh, thank you, thank you," he said in that Martin Landau voice of his.
I said goodnight, and went back inside to the bellstand to work on my paperwork. A couple of minutes later, he walked up to the bellstand, and continued our conversation. I asked him, "So, was there anybody you just hated working with.?"
"Oh, I don't do that," he said, waving his hand at me like he was shooing the question away. His response embarrassed me a bit. I didn't mean anything by it: I was just making conversation. But his reaction influenced the way I've talked to celebrities since. What I should have asked was, "You were only 24 when you made North By Northwest, so your parents got to see you become famous didn't they?" I think that that would have sparked a much more interesting conversation.
He asked me if I'd seen Crimes and Misdemeanors. I had not. He said I would enjoy it, and the way he said that made me feel that this was a movie that he was pretty proud of. I found out much later that this was a movie for which he got an Oscar nomination. It's now in my collection, and yes, I did enjoy it. I wish that I had gotten a chance to meet him again to tell him so.
