Okay this is probably my best story and by putting it out now, most of the other stories I have are going to seem infinitesimally trivial by comparison, at least they are for me. The story is true as is most of the dialogue verbatim, and you'll see why I remember it in such detail........
ET gave me a nice assignment for a pleasant Saturday in 1982. I was to go out to the Beverly Hills Hotel for a City of Hope - a charitable foundation - award ceremony. I have covered several of them.
They use celebrity award ceremonies as fundraising events. The rich and famous needed somewhere to go, occasionally, to show off their jewelry and gowns and be recognized.
The recipient that evening was none other than the Chairman of the Board, the Sultan of Swoon, Ol' Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra.
So I and my crew, which consisted of a cameraman and a sound guy, arrive at an appropriate time at the Beverly Hills Hotel and we make our way to the designated green room. I was to hook up with a gentleman named Lee Solters, a prominent publicist who worked for Sinatra. Solters was right out of Central Casting; Short, stocky, bald.
I introduced myself and the crew. He was gracious and told us to relax and he'd have Sinatra over for an interview as soon as possible. So we found a place to sit and waited a bit. But my mind was already working on the execution of a plan; something else I really needed to do, to take advantage of what could be a once in a lifetime opportunity: To interview an amazing lady with hypnotic, violet eyes whom I noticed when we entered the room. Even before I noticed Sinatra.
So I took a deep breath, instructed my crew to get ready for a possible on-the-fly interview, and slowly walked over to a seated, and alone, Ms. Elizabeth Taylor. Yeah, that Elizabeth Taylor, The famous movie star of so many classic films.
She looked up as I tweaked out a nervous "Excuse me, uh, Ms. Taylor". Those eyes and her amazingly well preserved beautiful face immediately had me wrapped around her finger. I would have done anything... Well almost anything. Those eyes really are exquisite and hypnotic.
"My name is Norm Strassner and I'm here for Entertainment Tonight to get an interview with Mr. Sinatra. I saw you sitting here and I was wondering if I could do a very quick interview with you?"
I have no idea the speed of which I belched that out. But at least I managed to get all of the words out in an order that ultimately made sense. I was a bit intimidated but I was not a complete pool of gelatin.
Now, Elizabeth Taylor is from the Old School. They knew that the press can make you or break you and it was to your advantage to be nice to them. She certainly didn't need any kind of publicity, but she was absolutely used to press coming up to her for an interview. It was pretty much normal behavior for actors of her era to be polite to the press.
She immediately smiled and nodded. Still rather hypnotized, I thanked her and said I was going to get my crew. I quickly returned and I sat down facing her, two chairs away. This was not an over-the-shoulder shot because I was not an on air interviewer. My wonderful crew adjusted for the appropriate shot, we rolled tape and I began an interview that lasted a few minutes. I kept the questions focused on why we were there for Sinatra; whether it was personal to her in some way, etc etc. She was gracious and answered politely, entirely involved in the interview.
When I felt we were done, I thanked her, shook her hand, took my crew back to where we were seated before, and was obviously feeling really good about myself.
I noticed that time was ticking by and I have not heard from Lee Solters. So I walked over to him and let him know that time was moving by and Mr Sinatra is going to have to get on the stage and get his award pretty soon and I needed to get that interview. He said "Relax relax I know I know I'll make it happen not to worry you're good, kid, I'll bring him over".
So I went back and sat down waited a little longer and started to get nervous about not getting my interview before Sinatra had to go on stage. Soon, at a time I thought appropriate, and a time when Sinatra was not speaking to anybody, I went for it.
I walked up to him, stuck my hand out, and blurted out, "Mr Sinatra, my name is Norm Strassner, I'm with Entertainment Tonight..."
The Earth stopped rotating on its axis and the world froze around me.
Before I could say another syllable, Sinatra yanked his hand away from mine, moved up to my face, about 2 inches between our noses, stared into my eyes, and began yelling at me. I don't remember it verbatim, I was obviously quite taken aback, but it was pretty much, "I don't like your damn show, what you said about me was b******* and I'm not doing this." Yes there was saliva. He was pissed!
Yah.
Evidently, I was not privy to any memo, or even rumor, where I would have been informed that we pissed off Frank Sinatra. It would have been nice to know that at the get-go. You know, somewhere in the interview notes?
So Sinatra stomps away and Lee Solters angrily marches up to me and says, "I told you I would get him over to you." Yep there I went pissing off a famous PR guy of a famous celebrity. That should be good for whatever career I was hoping for.
Solters continued. "Now we still got time. I'll fix this. I'll get Sinatra over to you and I'll get you out of here okay?"
"Yes sir", I replied. I realizing I had royally f***** up. I was, of course, scared that I had blown the entire assignment. You don't want to come back with blank tape.
I composed myself and ushered my crew back to where we were sitting. There were about 20 people or more in that green room. I am absolutely sure they were all staring at me as I was walking away. If there was silence in the room for a short period, I wasn't aware of it.
Maybe three minutes go by and Solters comes over and orders me to follow him. We both walk up to Sinatra. Solters introduces me like nothing ever happened, Sinatra shakes my hand. We rolled tape. I asked him the questions I was asked to ask him. He gave me good answers. Kept follow-ups to an absolute minimum. I was not about to go far off script, as you could very well imagine.
I took the tapes, I wrapped the crew, and exited the Beverly Hills Hotel, probably like a Road Runner.
Got home that night and told Bunnie the story. We laughed and I realized that this was something I was going to remember for the rest of my life. I've told it many times.
I don't know if my footage ever got used in any story for any reason. I don't even know if it still exists in their library, since it was shot 4x3 aspect ratio and not in widescreen. Yeah I'm that old. They may have kept it to use in an obit or whatever. Absolutely does not matter to me. I was 32 years old having the time of my life and I got to meet and interview Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth freaking Taylor on the same day.
It was all part of a very exciting time for me. But I'm a small town guy. Los Angeles is an awful place to live. Is it awful place to raise a family. It was a nice career. But I always knew there was a better place to be and a better life to be had. Found it in Boulder, Colorado. The friends I've made, the music I've played.
"Part of the beauty of life is its unpredictability."
-Pianist Arthur Rubinstein