- Sondra Locke to Clint Eastwood in Bronco Billy
What do Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke and Bronco Billy all have in common with me, a kid from the projects of north Denver? Stick around and I'll explain.
I never imaged that I would end up as a professional fundraiser. It's not that raising money to find a cure for cancer or diabetes isn't worthwhile - it is. Or that pitching coffee mugs and concert tickets to help keep the likes of Barney, Big Bird and Lawrence Welk on the air wasn't an honorable profession - it was. It paid the rent and didn't keep me up nights. I believed then and still do today, that I was doing something good for children and their grandmothers alike.
But I started out as a disc jockey, DJ, announcer, record spinner -- ahem -- radio broadcaster and I never intended to help raise money for charitable causes. Ever since I could remember I had listened to the jocks on the classic AM radio stations broadcasting in Denver and dreamed of being one of them.
There was 85 KOA with the perennial Bob Martin calling the play-by-play of the Denver Broncos long before anyone had ever heard the name John Elway. Back in those days the Bronco's were coached by Lou Saban, were dismal at best and the only bright and shining light was running back Floyd Little. The overnight host at KOA was Alan Berg. Alan was an attorney and former clothing store owner who would make national headlines after he was was shot 13 times and killed by members of the white supremacist group "The Order." In 1988, Olive Stone directed the film "Talk Radio" which was based on Berg's death. I had the pleasure of meeting Alan and while he could raise the ire of his listeners with the simplest topic discussion, like which way the toilet paper roll should go -- over or under -- I never imagined that someone would murder him as brutally as they did. Sitting in his studio while he interviewed a friend of mine, a local up and coming singer, I knew I wanted to be in radio.
Over at 630 KHOW was Hal & Charlie and a young John Lanigan before he made the trek east and became an institution in Cleveland radio. You can hear Hal & Charlie in the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film "The Shining" as one of the characters listens to their show while navigating his way up the mountain road during a blizzard.
Every morning my radio alarm would wake me up for school just in time for me to hear Harry Smith signing off from his all night show. Harry would always sign off with the last few lines from the Beatles song "The End." "... and in the end the love you take, is equal to the love you make..." Harry would later go on to be a program host on A&E and a news anchor and morning show host at CBS television.
BUT - the Mother of 'em all, the Queen of Denver radio was off the shores of Sloans Lake in Denver ... 95 KIMN AM! K-I-M-N was THEE radio station in Denver in those days. It was how I imagined radio was in Philly, Detroit, Cleveland and New York. It was "personality" radio with names like Danny Davis, Robert E. Lee, Pogo Pog, Paxton Mills, Gary Owens (who later became the announcer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) and the Denver radio giant, Jay Mack.
All those announcers became my inspiration for wanting to be on-air and so when I had the chance, I did. For eight glorious years I spun records (no Cd's until my last year) did remote broadcasts, read the news, put President Jimmy Carter on hold more than once (read the blog I Am the Morning DJ for that tidbit) gave away stuff and had the time of my life.
All that changed one day when a flyer was mailed to the station. The local PBS station was looking for "celebrities" to work their televised auction. So I volunteered.
The next thing I know, I'm being asked to come back and do more auctions and pledge drives, then I'm interning, then I'm helping to produce and then I'm hired on as an Associate Producer (or Ass. Prod. as it showed up on my check stubs) and that's how my fundraising career began. from talking on the radio to talking on TV.
TALK TALK TALK TALK TALK TALK TALK!
I learned that I had the gift of gab and could sometimes manage to put two sentences together so as to make a compelling presentation as to why you should support my career non-profit du jour.
I was soon courted away from Denver's PBS to the one in Dallas and then to Cleveland where on my very first night there I met the future Mrs. JT aka my wife. Then one day American Heart Association in Nashville Tennessee came calling and off I went again -- packing my belongings into yet another U-Haul and headin' off to another adventure.
Nashville, Music City USA, Home of the Grand Ol' Opry, the Ryman Auditorium and Music Row. All of that tied together with my love of music had me in heaven. You never knew who you would run into while walking around town. I ran head first into Vince Gill at the local pancake house, sat back-to-back to country legend Eddy Arnold while eating lunch and while shoppping at the local record store looked up and there was Emmylou Harris standing across from me, seperated only by a row of Waylon and Willie records. At the Nashville airport one day, I picked up my suitcase, spun around without looking and knocked singer Kathy Mattea over her guitar case and flat on her backside.
I learned to speak "Southern," ate at some terrific local BYOB cafes and met country music legend Brenda Lee at the Bell Buckle RC Cola & Moon Pie Festival. As Burt Reynolds said in "Smokey and the Bandit" she was a spinner. The people were great, my co-workers terrific and the volunteers were generous and giving beyond belief ... some of the best I've ever had the pleasure of working with.
There was one volunteer in particular named Dwight, or if you spoke "Southern," DEE-wight. DEE-wight would go with me on sponsorship calls to local businesses like Jack Daniels, yes thee Jack Daniels, the makers of smooooth sipping whiskey in Lynchburg, TN and then take me to lunch at a local restaurant in Shelbyville. At one time Shelbyville or "The Pencil City," was known for being the center of the pencil making industry but was now better known for the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration that has taken place there since 1938. For 11 days every year people from around the world gather to name World Champions.
One day DEE-wight and I were in the diner seated at "The Table." Every small town has their version of "The Table"... it's the one table located in that one restaurant that everyone goes to for lunch. "The Table" is usually reserved for the dignitaries like the Mayor, the Bank President and on that day, me, since I was a guest of DEE-wight.
But I digress ... so we're sitting having lunch at "The Table" and I feel pretty proud of myself. DEE-wight and I had just secured a major sponsorship from Jack Daniels, the event was on track to hit it's goal, the sun was bright and shining and I was at -- "The Table" -- when a man walks over dressed in clean but worn green workers pants and green denim shirt with a matching green ball cap, sort of like the garb a gardener might wear.
The guy waves at DEE-wight, sits down next to me, says "Hello" and pushes his beat up ball cap back on his head.
Now I learned along time ago that you never judge a person's wealth or stature in the community by his clothes. I had met many high end donors who at first glance resembled something out of the painting "American Gothic, " the famous 1930 Grant Wood painting of an elderly couple on the farm with the farmer holding a pitchfork. So when this guy sat down next to me at "The Table" I didn't give it a second thought
As the waitress poured him a cup of coffee, DEE-wight says to me "Have you ever heard of Sondra Locke?" Hey, my biggest love, next to music was TV and movies and movie and TV trivia. I had played on a team at the University of Colorado's TRIVIA BOWL. The Trivia Bowl is the annual gathering and competition that pitted teams against each other to see who was had the best trivia knowledge in the ENTIRE WORLD!
My head is like the big warehouse scene at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark." With each one of those crates filled with useless knowledge about who starred in this movie, what line was said by whom, what was this actors real name. My wife gets annoyed because I speak the dialogue to movies before they actors in the movies do.
So when DEE-wight asked me about Sondra Locke, phffffft, that was easy... a snap ... child splay.
"Sondra Locke!" I said "Sondra Locke, the actress?"
"The one who lived with Clint Eastwood for years and then ended up being his stalker?"
"The one who was in a ton of his movies, like Bronco Billy?"
"I read that when he had broken up with her he had to change all the locks on his house and get a restraining order to keep her away."
"Then she took him to court several times for palimony and breach of contract and sued the movie studio too!"
"Sondra Locke, the one who directed one of the worst movies ever -- RAT BOY!"
"The story around Hollywood is that she's difficult, overbearing, hard to work with and just plain crazy!"
I felt like I had just scored triple-points at the Trivia Bowl.
Feeling proud of myself and trying not to dislocate my shoulder by patting myself on the back, I said "That Sondra Locke?"
"Why ..... ?"
"Well ... " DEE-wight slowly drawled, placing his hand on my arm, this BIG grin slowly making it's way across his face ... trying hard not to laugh.
"What ...?" I said, puzzled.
Bursting out he says "That's her brother sitting next to you! AHHHH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"
Shocked! Afraid to move, afraid to turn and face the man seated to my left, my eyes slowly turned as far as they could in their sockets so that I see his reaction without moving any part of my body. Looking down at the table I saw the cap he had been wearing that was now next to his coffee mug and emblazoned on the cap above the brim were the words Locke Heating & Cooling.
"AHHH Haaaaa haaa haaaa haaaa haaaaa" continued DEE-wight! Other customers now turned to see what was sooooooo funny.
Slowly turning in my seat, I came face-to-face with Mr. Don Locke, lifelong resident of Shelbyville, TN, owner of Locke Heating & Cooling and brother of the previously mentioned "crazy" actress Sondra Locke.
"Mr Locke, please forgive me, Sir please accept my apology, I am soooooo sorry Sir!" The words just fell all over themselves trying to escape my mouth. All the while roars of laughter came from DEE-wight while his huge left hand slapped me on the back! His feet now stomping the floor as he nearly feel out of his chair.
I watched and waited for the tirade to come from this southern gentleman who's sister I had slighted, who's family name I had made fun of ... it never came.
Picking his cap up off of the table and putting it slowly back on his head, Mr. Locke leaned forward towards me, looked me sternly in the eye ... winked ... and said "She is crazy!"
I've learned several important key points as a fundraiser, always ask for more than you want, never leave any money on the table, always order more port-o-potties than you need, never judge a person's giving capacity by what they're wearing ... and ALWAYS read the logos on their cap and shirt.
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