Jeannie Out Of The Bottle

    I was amused and bemused that someone named Tiffany M. did a blog posting about The Nostalgic Rambler. I guess that means I'm famous now. Cool.  The blog entry featured a pic of a young Elvis. Perry Como would have been more appropriate but that's ok. Elvis looks like the sex symbol I could only hope to be. Tiffany M. psychoanalyzed me which was great fun to read about. She said I have a "Ubiquitous voice." Is that a good thing? According to my Webster's,  ubiquitous means "everywhere at the same time." Sounds like a world of clones to me. Well, as long as they are interested in what I'm interested in, we'll get along. To quote Miss Tiffany (as she writes about me) my "idea of a Golden Era is crippling him and his life in the present day." Actually Tiffany, it's the other way around. Life in my "Golden Era" is fun, it's the rest of the world that is (to quote my dearly departed grandpa) "nutty as a fruitcake." Anyhow Tiffany thanks so much for your blog. You made my day. Sorry it took me four months to discover it, but I'm so glad you enjoy my non pedantic eloquence. As Morticia Addams of the "Addams Family" would say "Isn't that sweet?!"

 

 

And now on to another Nostalgic Rambler rambling......

I have discovered the fun of listening to audio books of some of the great stars of the past. Bob Barker reading his biography about his fascinating career was excellent. After watching him for years on "Truth or Consequences" or "The Price Is Right," it was like spending several hours with an old friend telling us about his life.  The most recent audio bio I've listened to is one by another friend we spent hours of television viewing with, "Jeannie" aka Barbara Eden.

 Barbara still seems to be "our kind of people." She is truly down to earth despite her Jeannie counterpart that was out of this one. As always life isn't fair and her share of sadness was doled out in dollops. She shares her ups and downs in her book and hearing her tell the story really makes it all the more personal. You almost shed a tear when she tells about her loser husbands and losing her beloved son to drugs.

 Her on the set memories of "I Dream of Jeannie" were a riot. Larry Hagman who became a big star with "Dallas" always played second fiddle to Barbara and his on set shenanigans were hard to believe and amusing at the same time. Can you imagine peeing on the set or throwing up on if you didn't get your own way? The actor who played Dr. Bellows apparently was the only one who could control Larry.


Barbara also shed some light on her guest appearance with Lucy and Desi on "I Love Lucy." Lucy was a generous memorable woman. Desi on the other hand made Barbara run for the dressing room whenever she saw him. He was memorable for the wrong reasons. 


Barbara does a lot of "Jeannie Blinks" as she calls them in the book, going from one various memory to another. It works so well I wonder if The Nostalgic Rambler could do a "Jeannie Blink." We'd blink Barbara over for lunch. I'm sure she'd be great fun to meet in person.