I took the subway several times this weekend, in spite of the terrorist threat that was announced Thursday.
Everything has been fairly normal except for tonight's return trip from Manhattan. I boarded the train at around 9:15 p.m. The car had a fair amount of people in it, but it wasn't crowded. I settled in and after checking my surroundings, I began playing Mummy Maze on my cell phone. At the first stop in Queens - 21st Street/Queensbridge on the F - the train stopped at the platform, opened its doors and then didn't move. We hung out there for about 10 minutes until the conductor told us the train was going back to Brooklyn. Of course, the conductor didn't know whether or not the train was going back empty to Brooklyn, or if we could ride back with it.
So, I followed the crowd, and since I have an unlimited Metro card, I figured I could go upstairs, take a look around, and if I didn't find a bus or a cab or something I'd take a train back to Manhattan and get a cab there.
Luckily, I actually got a cab after only ten minutes of waiting. As usual, it was a wacky cab driver. He said that he had his off duty sign so he could pick and choose his fare. I had a feeling I knew where that conversation was going so I switched the topic to the price of gas and let him riff on that for a while. Then he asked me what I did for a living and as soon as I said "entertainment reporter" -- show prep format manager is too tough to explain -- he launched into a whole monologue about the celebrities he knew from driving cabs and just being a man about town for the last several decades. Lauren Bacall: mean; Lucille Ball: cheap; Paul Newman: nice, can be found doing normal things like shopping for plants with Joan; Kay Ballard: nice, too, but we had a little argument over whether or not she was a Laugh-In regular. According to imdb.com, I was right, she was just a guest twice. I think he got her mixed up with Jo Anne Worley.
Then he mentioned Virginia Graham -- my idol! She was a talk show pioneer who hosted a show called Girl Talk in the 1960s. Here's a fabulous picture of Miss Graham with Joan Crawford. It was the only one I could find of Graham on the Web but at least it shows her trademark can-of-AquaNet hairstyle. Oddly, the cab driver said he met her when he was 18 and working as a hairdresser.
I found an obit of Graham, who died at the age of 86 in 1998, and discovered some cool things about her. She was a cub reporter at the Chicago Tribune when she was still a teenager. Her first byline was on a story about the St. Valentine's Day gangster murders, which happened near her high school. That's why she was one of the first reporters on the scene and was able to give the paper an early account of the massacre. She was a poet and author who published five books. She also was a Red Cross volunteer during World War II and founded the United Cerebral Palsy foundation with 13 other women.
Barbara Walters said in an interview that she created her talk show The View as a cross between Graham's groundbreaking, unscripted Girl Talk and "the round table of This Week with David Brinkley." Even though I was a little girl when I watched it the fact that I remember it must mean that it influenced me, too. I'd love to watch some old episodes and see if I picked up some of her interview techniques.
Well, I made it home to Forest Hills okay. It's funny how a change in my route home took me on a journey of another kind.
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