By the time you read this, two major sporting events of 2022 will be in the books.
The first would be the Super Bowl, won by the LA Rams, which proved to be one of the better Super Bowls of all time.
It looked as if Cincinnati was on the way to victory up until the last minute and a half. After the Rams scored it seemed that the Bengals were on their way to force overtime, but the stout Ram defense rose to the occasion and closed out the scoring.
Rams receiver Cooper Kupp was rightfully declared the MVP of the contest.
Because the ball game was in LA, it was a given that Hollywood would be involved in much of the pre-game activities and in the spectacular halftime show.
As of last Friday the Olympics had three days left and the USA was in third place, with Germany in second and Norway in first.
Just as Simone Biles got most of the ink in the previous Olympiad this time the Russian skater, Kamila Valieva, survived a doping scandal to compete, but failed to medal.
Of course, watching the winter Olympics always reminds me of when the winter Olympics were held at Squaw Valley, USA in 1960. I was handling the PR & Publicity for the Mapes Hotel and we secured the rights for the International Olympic Press Club to be housed in the Sky Room at the hotel.
I made it a practice of going up to Squaw Valley and each day I would usually take celebrities such as Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Barbara Rush, Sammy Davis Jr. and Mickey Rooney as well as a couple of Mapes Hotel staff. While the celebs were watching the Games, I would visit Walter Cronkite who was covering the event, for it was the first time the Olympics had ever been telecast.
On one occasion, Charles Mapes and I watched the hockey match between the USA and Russia. The USA won and it was a big upset because most of our guys were young amateurs playing a bunch of older professional Ruskies. After the match I guided Mapes to the rear entrance to the Russian dressing room which had been revealed to me by one Gordon Butterfield, and an Olympic publicity guy. Once inside we were at first not welcome, but when Mapes began handing out small binoculars to members of the team the mood changed.
Another celebrity I interfaced with at the ’60 winter Olympics was Art Linkletter, who was big on TV at that time. When Walt Disney was put in charge of the opening and closing ceremonies and the nightly entertainment for the athletes, he immediately chose Linkletter as his right hand man.
Consequently, Art came up numerous times prior to the Games and always stayed at the Mapes. I had the pleasure of showing him around Reno and visiting with him about show business. I stayed in touch with him for some 25 years after 1960.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE. The Russian threat may have intensified or diminished by this time. Interesting development last week must have had Putin shaking in his boots because President Biden had sent V.P. Harris to Germany to assess the situation. Based on her success in handling our southern border crisis she seems to be the perfect emissary.
CELEBRITY CORNER. Watching old Fred Astaire movies on the TCM channel reminds me of the time, during the mid-1960s, that I was standing in front of the display window at one of Beverly Hills top men’s store, Carroll & Co., looking at the selection of fine neckties the store boasted. After a few minutes, I heard a soft-spoken, “Which ones do you like?” come from behind me.
I turned, glanced downward at a very tiny figure of a man who was nattily dressed and wearing a porkpie hat. As he raised his head, the unmistakable features of the world’s greatest male dancer came into view. “I prefer those regimental striped ones,” I replied. “Excellent choice,” he muttered as he turned and walked briskly away even though he was slightly bent over in stature.
During his heady days in Hollywood, he was the perennial winner of the best-dressed movie star award, and rightly so. In the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, that accolade was applied to Clifton Webb, who spent several weeks here on the University of Nevada campus while filming, “Belvedere goes to College”. Webb wore the sartorial crown nicely, particularly when he got “duded up” for the nightly banquets in the Sky Room of the Mapes Hotel.
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