I never got to meet Elizabeth Montgomery in person. Back in the early 1990s a person claiming to be Elizabeth Montgomery chatted me up on AOL. She had quietly joined the “Bewitched” discussion group and was surprised there was such an interest in the show. When I showed off my “Bewitched” knowledge, she tapped me in a message and said ‘hello’. We conversed a couple of times a year for the next two or three years. The messages stopped when Elizabeth died. Either the person spoofing me was thorough in their spoof or I was actually chatting with Lizzie. Interestingly, the person I was chatting with told me a couple of behind the scene things about the show… her stand in’s name of “Melody McCord” and a couple of tidbits about working with Paul Lynde (they used to crack up on set and cause everyone to go to lunch early) and Dick Sargent (she adored him); things that came to light later in books from others that wrote on the subject. The vibe of her messages was that she could not believe folks still loved the show in 1993.
Another famous person I have always wanted to meet is Sandy Duncan. Many of my age knew her from her Wheat Thins commercials, but I remembered her from her short lived series “Funny Face” and “The Sandy Duncan Show”. I don’t remember why I remembered these series, but they must have been on TV back when I was a youngster.
Though I always liked Valerie Harper in “Valerie”, when she left and Sandy Duncan was brought in to fill the void on “Valerie’s Family” and finally “The Hogan Family”, I continued to enjoy her. She seemed to be a genuinely nice person. I remember a couple of interviews back in the day of daytime interview shows like Merv Griffin and Sandy Duncan was so bubbly.
In high school I once vehemently defended Sandy Duncan, getting into a shouting match with a classmate who insisted she could take her glass eye out. While she had a brain tumor removed from behind her left eye back in the day and subsequently lost the vision in her left eye, she never lost an eye in the process. She still has both eyes she was born with.
It’s hard to believe Sandy Duncan is in her later 70s. I haven’t seen a recent interview of her but I’m certain she’s just a perky and vivacious as ever.
