My mom’s been telling me lots of stories lately. One of the big adventures of her life was traveling to New York City with a couple of girlfriends when she was in her early twenties. She wanted to go see the The King and I but ended up at Pal Joey.
But, she says, in a way it worked out. A friend of one of the girls was in a show and they were waiting for her at the stage door when along comes Yul Brynner. He stops to chat. Where are they from, he wants to know. New Hampshire. Where in New Hampshire? They tell him they’re from Concord.
Ma says, “We didn’t tell him we were from Danbury. We didn’t want him to think we was total hicks.”
I asked if she got his autograph. “Oh, no.” she says. “I didn’t want to bother him.”
Here’s a picture of my mom, Jean Stewart, at that age. I don’t think he’d have been much bothered.
