Shout to the dead

[Matt Paust]

[I wrote this Friday night but the snowstorm blocked our satellite server.]

My anal retentive, passive aggressive, narcissistic, atheistic dad would get this. He always said everybody's a little nuts. It went without saying he meant except him. Haven't missed him much until this moment. I just now realized the actor we met on the set of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in December 1959 was “I didn't set no fires.” All the years since, until this morning, I'd thought the actor was James Gregory. He was playing Zelda's father. During a break in the action he walked over to where we were standing and greeted us warmly. My dad said, “I feel like I know you, but I don't know your name.” The actor, Dabbs Greer, laughed and said he heard that a lot.

Several times in recent years for no particular reason I tried to find Gregory in the Gillis series, checking all of the segments to its end in '63.  No Gregory.  I checked Gregory's credits.  No Gillis.  This morning, after reading something about Bob Denver, I again went through the series and decided  the man we met must have been Greer, who played the father in only two segments. Both aired in early 1960. Googling some photos, I saw a resemblance to Gregory. Mystery solved, yet something else about Greer's face nagged me. A search of his credits turned up a role in the cop show Code 3 called “Ashes Will Happen”, about a series of arsons. Greer played the arsonist. In the climactic scene, under police questioning, he repeatedly insisted, “I didn't set no fires,” while setting a fire in the waste basket next to his feet. My dad and I laughed insanely at this. For years afterward “I didn't set no fires” became an occasional vocal reminder of how we'd bonded that night.

When my dad shook hands with Greer he didn't recognize our favorite fire bug. Neither did I. Lloyd, dammit, read this! You shook hands with “I didn't set no fires!”

Gregory  

Greer

[koshersalaami]

I oddly get this

[Matt Paust]

You must be one of us nuts, Kosh. 

[Jonathan Wolfman]

Oh, I get this, too. I am fascinated with collective-memory and how it shreds over time and them almost, but not quite, can heal itself. Honestly, it makes me think of religious literature where many people have what they see in their minds as specific memories and true ones abt revered  figures and, of course, they conflict w one another. The synoptic gospels are like that (Mark, Matthew, Luke).

And I adored Bob Denver.

[JMac1949 Memories]

Like hundreds of character actors Gregory Greer was an unheralded everyman... excellent post. R&L ;-)

[Matt Paust]

Thanks, guys.  When we arrived at the building where the Gillis sets were located, Denver rode up on a bicycle and greeted us, warm and friendly.  He parked his bike next to the door and escorted us to the set.  There were several of them in the huge hangar-like building.  Over the next four years the series ran our family watched most if not all of the segments.  Oddly, tho, I don't recall watching more than one or two of the Gilligan segments.  Denver has always been Maynard to me. 

[Jeanne Sathre]

What a nice "full circle" story.

[James Mark Emmerling]

I too am fascinated with memory, both personal and collective. Luckily with our high fallutin technology today we kinda have infinite memory banks at our disposal, in order to answer these vexing problems, like that fine actor James Gregory's work we might have maybe seen. I know damn well he was in my favorite comedy 'Barney Miller'.

Jon has , predictably, raised the discussion to heights We Media-addicts could never reach. Those Synoptic Gospels ! I can never remember the one where Jesus said, "Father why hast thou forsaken me?" . Or the one where he washed Mary's feet, or was it Mary that washed his feet with,uh, her hair?

[Matt Paust]

Thanks, Jeanne.  Very enlightening to me and very satisfying.

Jimbo, I wonder if Google is helping keep our brains young? 

[Chicago Guy]

My father in law is a character actor, so I really get this.

I wonder if character actors are like ghost writers, they do the work even though they are not "known"--- the REAL reward of the character actor comes with a story like yours. They prompt an important connection. The point us towards something unique---that matters.

[L in the Southeast]

I had to read this twice to understand what you said.  These kinds of things happen to me once in awhile.  Something triggers a kind of composite memory of not one person or event but a collection of people and events.  Seldom, however, do I solve a mystery.  Good work, Lloyd's kid!