t doesn’t seem possible that it was 17 years ago. The Boss and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary with a weekend at the Canterbury Hotel. It was an anniversary gift for us, arranged by my youngest sister, Robin who was a banquet manager at the hotel. Our anniversary was in August but we selected an October date because of room availability. Little did we realize that the weekend we selected was also the weekend opening of the Heartland Film Festival and that the Canterbury would be chock full of movie stars and other film notables. It would be a dream weekend!
The night before our Canterbury adventure started, we had tickets to see Deathtrap at the Murat Theater. The murder mystery starred Elliott Gould and Mariette Hartley and was delightful. As we left the theater parking lot after the play was over, we saw Ms. Hartley apparently waiting for her limo ride. The wind was starting to pick up and a rain shower was approaching. We drove toward the curb to see if she might need one of our umbrellas, but her car pulled up before we got there and she pulled away. Little did I know that I would see her again.
That Saturday morning saw us registering at our 11 a.m. check-in time. We were getting things in order and my sister was helping us with our luggage when lo and behold, who should walk up beside us but Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss and his close friend, actor Bob Balaban who were also checking in. Mr Dreyfuss was in Indianapolis to pick up an award from the Heartland Festival for his performance in the film Mr. Holland’s Opus which just happened to be the Boss’ favorite movie of 1995. The Boss introduced herself, professed her love for him. In return he smiled, shook her hand, and thanked her. She ran into the lobby holding her hand and saying to my sister and everyone else, “I shook hands with Richard Dreyfuss!”
Mr. Dreyfuss shook my hand and introduced himself. I explained about this being our anniversary and he wished us many happy returns, then moved on. As I moved into the lobby myself I noticed that actor Scott Wilson was walking through the lobby. I remembered him from In the Heat of the Night and In Cold Blood. I realized that he was very tall and slender. I smiled and nodded and he smiled and nodded back. I also looked for Bob Balaban, but to no avail.
Later in the afternoon the Boss and I returned to the Canterbury lobby to decide where to go for lunch and to look for celebrities. I told her about Bob Balaban and while she at first didn’t remember the name she remembered his face from the parts he played. Sure enough, Mr. Balaban came walking through the lobby. We stopped him and introduced ourselves. We listed the movies and TV shows we had seen him in and he seemed genuinely touched that we knew who he was. We talked about films, movie people and projects that he was involved with. He asked us questions about the film festival, Circle Center Mall, and where some good places to listen to music might be. He particularly liked jazz. We told him about the Chatterbox on Mass Ave. All in all we talked about twenty minutes. It was one of the best twenty minutes of my life.
There were more celebrity encounters. We saw Stephanie Zimbalist throw a hissy fit because she broke a nail and the hotel did not have a manicurist on duty at the time (one was located and called in). Later that evening I ran into Elliot Gould coming off an elevator. I told him how much we enjoyed Deathtrap and wished him a successful run. He was very gracious and friendly.
The next morning, again in the lobby we saw Mariette Harley. We told her about seeing the play and our anniversary and she congratulated us and excused herself saying she had to get to the matinee performance. I suppose we could have seen more stars but checkout time was approaching. We had a wonderful anniversary celebration with more stars than there are in the heavens.
P.S. The Boss says in case you don’t know who Bob Balaban is, he was in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (played the scientist in the trailer) and she first remembers him in Midnight Cowboy in 1969 — one of her very favorite movies.