Daily Archives: March 14, 2009
Rain, rain, go away…
Well, the rainy weather finally caught up with us for the first time since we left Dickinson Bayou on March 1st.
With apparently more to come for the next 4 or 5 days. Oh, well. Paradise needs rain too.
And now for the rest of the story…
(Read yesterday’s post first and this will make more sense)
Fanny Flag has had a long and varied career in the limelight.
Fanny Flagg
She started out as a writer and then co-host with Allen Funt on ‘Candid Camera’ in the 1960’s.
She’s appeared in a large number of well-known movies, such as ‘Five Easy Pieces’ with Jack Nicholson and Karen Black, ‘Grease‘, with John Travolta, and ‘Stay Hungry’ with Jeff Bridges, Sally Field, and Arnold Schwartzenegger.
She was a regular as Dick Van Dyke’s sister on “The New Dick Van Dyke Show” and recorded two very funny and very successful comedy albums.
One little known fact is that she was first runner-up to Miss Alabama in the Miss America pageant.
More recently she is known as a writer of best-selling novels. Although her most famous book is “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe“, she has written 5 other novels, starting with “Coming Attractions” in 1981. “Coming Attractions” was later reissued as “Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man”.
“Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe“, of course, became the hit movie “Fried Green Tomatoes“, for which Fanny received an Oscar nomination for writing the screenplay.
“Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man“, although it was set on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, was based on her family’s amusement park here in Gulf Shores. She also named many of her characters after people who actually lived here in Gulf Shores, including myself. I was a bratty little kid in the book. Jan said it was typecasting!
I had not seen Fanny since I was about 7 or 8 years old, but my parents had kept in touch with her parents, Bill and Marion, when both families were living in Birmingham, AL during the 70’s and 80’s. My mother and younger sister went to see Fanny several times when she came to Birmingham with Broadway touring companies, and were always welcomed backstage after the performance.
In 2002, I saw that Fanny was coming to Houston for a book signing promoting her latest book “Standing in the Rainbow”, so Jan and I, and Jan’s mother, Trudy, went down to see Fanny.
We bought two books to have her sign, and stood in a long line. When finally our turn came, I handed her the first copy and ask her to make it out to my mother, Frances White.
I could see her hesitate a second and then she started writing. As she was signing her name, I said “You know, we kind of know each other. But the last time I saw you, you were my babysitter and I called you Patsy.”
With a squeal that turned heads and brought the store manager running, Fanny, putting this together with my mother’s name, yelled out “Greg!” and pulled me across the table in a big hug.
Fanny and Me
We spent about 10 minutes talking over old times, while other customers waited somewhat impatiently. Finally we said goodbye and let her get back to her book signing.
So that’s my brush with celebrity. Well, one of them.
Maybe next time, I can tell you about meeting Eleanor Roosevelt, Col. Sanders, and getting drunk with Sean Connery.
Not at the same time, of course. That would be weird.
And to answer the your probably unasked question, Fanny has never told anyone how or why she came up with the name “Fanny Flagg”.
