Met Him Once, Felt Stupid, My Fault

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

Actually, my encounter with David Ogden Stiers, the actor best known for playing Major Charles Winchester III on “M*A*S*H” for 7 seasons, and who passed away Saturday, was one of the more sane moments of the early-1980 evening where our paths crossed.

In 1979, San Francisco’s cabaret scene was vibrant enough that a group of entrepreneurs formed the San Francisco Council of Entertainment, and decided to have an awards ceremony celebrating the singers, actors, and comedians that were popular in local clubs. Only a year before, BAM, the Bay Area’s music magazine, had begun staging their own awards show saluting prominent local musicians, called the Bammie Awards, and in that first ceremony, Rick & Ruby were enlisted to present the award for best saxophonist (huh?). But the show itself was quite successful, with close to 1500 people attending, and The Bammies would be an annual event until BAM magazine itself ceased publication in 1999.

While the Bammies covered the Rock scene, there was nothing to cover the less heralded but equally viable cabaret scene from which most notably Whoopi Goldberg came out of (amazingly, despite running in the same circles for several years, we never met her). Enter The Bay Area Cabaret Awards, and the first year, Rick & Ruby were nominated for Best Comedy Group, alongside two other acts we knew and had worked with, Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre and Brown & Coffey. While none of us became household names, members of both of those other groups have had moments in the spotlight via TV and film. We were unable to attend the first ceremony, as we were in New York that week, opening for Robin Williams (name drop time!). The other two groups did attend, and apparently smashed it, but we wound up winning the award anyway.

Moving up a year, and the situation had changed a bit for us, in that much of the optimism and opportunity 1979 had offered was already fading. Still, at the 2nd annual Cabaret Awards ceremony, held at Bimbo’s 365 Club, a legendary SF venue, we were nominated again in the same category, against the same two groups. This time, we were the only comedy group nominee that performed, and we did quite well if my memory serves me. Big asterisk around that last phrase, as I started rehearsing thank you speeches in my own mind when it came time to announce the winner. The presenter then said the winner was Ducks Breath, and thus began a couple hours of drowning my sorrows and making a big twat out of myself. It didn’t help that there was an open bar, and I readily took advantage. Our manager said a few days later he was hoping I’d pass out so they’d have the perfect reason to get me out of there. I surely wasn’t going to just lose graciously.

One of the guest presenters for the ceremony was David Ogden Stiers, who recognised me back stage and told me how much he enjoyed our segment. At that moment I realised I had to behave myself, as this was a very tall, sophisticated, successful man who was relishing praise upon drunken me. I held up my end of the conversation fairly well, and he asked when we’d be in LA, and said he’d love to see us. At about that time, Ruby walked by and joined the conversation, though she didn’t recall who he was. I said, “Why, Ruby, don’t you recognise him from ‘M*A*S*H?’ This is David Ogden Steers!” Almost instantaneously, David corrected me, “It’s STIRES!” I’m sure he’d dealt with that many times before, and I managed an apology, but the conversation didn’t last long after that, as other people came up to chat with him. Except for that awkward moment, I can say in retrospect he was a lovely man.

I wasn’t so lovely though. My alcohol consumption made me braver than I should have been, and I walked up to Dick Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers comedy team and one of the other celebrity presenters, and did some mock tears. “We lost,” I blubbered. Fortunately, he knew I was being facetious, plus, like Mr. “Steers,” he really enjoyed our part of the show, which was a relief. I must have at one point said we had won it the previous year, as I remember him saying, “Look, me and Tommy have been in show biz over 20 years, we’ve never won any fucking awards.” That was actually quite inspiring, and I would run into both him and his brother several times over the years, though thankfully, Dick didn’t remember that first encounter.

In 1981, Rick & Ruby left San Francisco for LA, but our keyboardist Raoul stayed up north, and is still there 37 years later. The Bay Area Cabaret Awards continued for a few years, but what was a bit crazy was we won the award the next two years in a row. Didn’t really make sense, since we weren’t living there, and hardly working there either. Raoul attended the ceremonies and had to give a thank you speech on our behalf, not something he was comfortable with. Having won the award three times meant two things: A) We each had an award we could keep, and I still have one in my place in London; and B) The SF Entertainment Council designated us for the Cabaret Hall of Fame, though I don’t think it was actually called that. It also meant that we wouldn’t be nominated again, but then the cabaret scene faded enough over the years that by the 1990’s, the awards ceremony was history.

With David Ogden Stiers’ passing, I was reminded of that silly evening, and of what gentlemen both he and Mr. Smothers were, given who they were dealing with. There are indeed nice people in show business, though that night I’m not sure I was one of them.

March 5th, 2018



Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.